Swamponomics: Exit Dot-Com Bubble, Enter Jerome Powell Bubble

Dot-Com Ain’t Got Nothin’ on JP

Do financial markets have no heart? Millions are out of work, tens of thousands have died from the Coronavirus, and America is burning. And yet, the S&P 500 is enjoying its best 50-day stretch in history, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average is retracing its gains. Nasdaq 100 is closing in on 10,000 as the tech-heavy index, which has all the sexy stock stickers, has rallied more than 39% since hitting bottom on March 23. Is it time to party like it is 2000 all over again? Someone blast the latest Limp Bizkit CD,  pass the Tab soda cans, and feel the euphoria of the dot-com bubble!

This is what you get when you have a Federal Reserve pumping an unlimited amount of money into the financial system and suppressing interest rates to historic lows. The Powell Putsch is firing on all cylinders, and it would be shocking if the money-printing blitzkrieg did not elicit such results. With the money supply growing $3 trillion in three months – and counting! – you better have a huge rally.

Just take a look at this M2 money supply chart, courtesy of the Fed Bank of St. Louis:

What is even more impressive is how much everyone is waking up to the central bank’s influence in the stock market. A recent Bank of Montreal survey sent to traders found that 73% believe the Fed is the inspiration behind the huge spike in some of Corporate America's biggest names. Forget earnings optimism or even fiscal stimulus – it is all about Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s bubblemania.

It is morning on the New York Stock Exchange again. You can smell the aroma of freshly printed Federal Reserve Notes throughout Wall Street as the Eccles Building bails out the corridors of financial power. Indeed, this is the mighty powerful Powell’s world, and we are mere mortals trading in it. We’re not worthy! We’re not worthy!

Looney for George Clooney

George Clooney, the overrated thespian but decent director, is “surprised and saddened” to have discovered that Nespresso is facing child labor allegations. The paid promoter of the coffee giant promised that the overall company has work to do if claims of young children working long “grueling” shifts to pick beans in Guatemala are accurate.

But Clooney should be commending the company that is paying him $40 million. Nespresso is doing the right thing by employing these children, many of whom would beg on the streets or even turn to prostitution to put food on the table. For these kids, picking beans is the only realistic and safe option. No parent would want to see their child work ten-hour days doing manual labor; preventing boys and girls in impoverished nations from doing so only worsens their situation.

As Liberty Nation reported in 2017:

“Most children who work in poor countries are employed in agriculture or household services, which often involve backbreaking labor, such as loading bricks onto trucks or cultivating farmland. Many others, especially girls, are forced into the sex trade. And none of us ever wants this to happen to any boy or girl.

Let’s say a company opens a new factory in a particular part of the country. In doing so, it provides a new employment opportunity for residents – including children. Sewing underwear, working ten hours a day, and earning a dime an hour is a reasonable and welcomed alternative for the minuscule minority. It’s also a relief from arduous labor or sexual enslavement.”

What happens if Nespresso stops employing children? Where will they work? How will they eat? Surely, Clooney will not house these families in his multi-million-dollar villa in Lake Como. He might want to end child poverty, but when you have no other alternative but to pick beans so you have a meal, you do what you can to survive. It is like when Clooney starred in One Fine Day or Batman and Robin – Clooney appeared in these films out of acting sustenance. They were abominations to the cinema, but they helped him achieve Hollywood stardom.

Those Lousy Bats!

How much has the COVID-19 pandemic cost the global economy? The most recent Bloomberg estimate is $2.7 trillion in lost output. However, this figure is probably a lot higher when you consider not only lost productivity, but government spending, consumer debt, investment wipeouts, interest, and a myriad of other factors. It is going to take years before the U.S. and others recover from what has largely been a nursing-home epidemic.

What should grind your gears, however, is the establishment tergiversating on the subject in just a week. For months, we have been told to “stay home, save lives” and that you are a selfish ingrate who wants to kill your grandmother because you want to get a haircut. The mainstream media and Democratic politicians are now confused: What pandemic?

MSNBC personality Ali Velshi hilariously stood in front of a burning building and told viewers at home, “This is mostly a protest. It is not, generally speaking, unruly ...” It was something out of Naked Gun. A CNN journalist reported that everyone had been calm and orderly before being attacked with a glass bottle and foul language. But not a word about the lack of social distancing and face masks.

Clips of frontline workers standing outside hospitals and applauding the huge crowds of protesters marching the streets have made the rounds on social media. These are the same folks who cried about risking their lives and denounced people who wanted to reopen the economy. Does anyone remember the group of nurses who stood on the road to prevent demonstrations against lockdowns?

Sure, there have been some allusion to Coronavirus concerns among health authorities, but the Fourth Estate has been mostly quiet. They were more outraged by peaceful protesters who just wanted to make a living than by hooligans rioting and looting and violating social distancing guidelines. Is there any wonder why the fake news industrial complex is often accused of being the enemy of the people?

Liberty Nation’s Joe Schaeffer recently said it best:

“Don’t expect to hear these same people decrying George Floyd protesters as selfish ingrates whose actions may kill innocent people. But it will be interesting to see how long bullying Democrat governors and mayors will attempt to continue to crack down on little old ladies going to church amid the ashes of their riot-scarred fiefdoms.”

All it took were national riots to get the doomers to change their tune on lockdowns and house arrests. Unfortunately, their insistence on doomsday being nigh cost Americans their jobs, their businesses, and their savings.

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Read more from Andrew Moran.