Yikes

I don't know whether is the cacophony of "Heils"or perfectly synchronized goose stepping that color my perception, but something makes me uncomfortable when there appears to be near universal agreement on most any topic.

Yes. Starving children in Africa is bad. No argument there. Everyone can agree on that point. Even Malthusians, deep down, probably fret about the tragedies that befall the most vulnerable, despite believing in the necessity of those tragedies.  And yes, the repeated elections of Saddam Hussein represented the will of the people, but otherwise, too many people being on the same page develops a level of comfort that tend to overlook what should be obvious.

For me, that level of comfort begets discomfort. It's that point at which irrational exuberance becomes over-heated frothy exuberance, almost as if it had been left overnight on top of a new iPad.

This morning Goldman Sachs came out with what could only be described as an extraordinarily bullish call, at that point that we're now about 7% below the 2007 highs. They pronounced bonds as being "dead," which has no impact on me, since I never understood bonds, nor ever planned on being old enough to fall into the trap of asset allocation. Not to be overly exaggerating the opportunity, they reportedly said that "stocks offer the best opportunity of a lifetime."

But where were they and everyone else 6,000 points ago?

The answer comes when you read the fine print and learn that Goldman Sachs data indicated that the average life span of a Muppet is less than 4 years and their short term memory may be even less.

The on-air comments this morning included the suggestion that U.S. banks are so strong at this point that they could buy European banks and put them out of their misery. Additional comments took a variation of the risk on - risk off theme and applied it to China and the U.S.

More amazingly, there was discussion relating to holding accountable the talking heads that had been bearish over the past few thousand points on the Dow.

Now that's got to be a boldly bullish perspective when you're willing to call your mainstays out on the carpet, other than for the fact that there's an endless source of people clamoring to be a talking head and willing to say whatever it takes to get attention and notoriety.

Click to read more ...