Most of the stuff we hear on the news is a bunch of BULL. I’m not talking “Fake News”, there certainly is a bunch of that, but the news doesn’t seem like news anymore. Let’s say you used to be a person that watched the soap operas, perhaps you still do. Today, folks watch cooking shows and reality shows. Both offer mindless entertainment, are less expensive to produce, and they don’t require a writing staff or retakes. Back “then”, Walter Cronkite and the McNeal Lehrer news hour was a thing. Something we all looked forward to every day. It was an event. Remember, there were only three networks plus PBS. The news was published in papers and delivered in the morning. Sometimes there was a special edition if the news was especially interesting. Today we have non-journalists that have opinion shows, but it sure looks like a news broadcast.
Back to the bear and the bull. The stock market bear and bull. David and I had the good fortune to visit Wall Street last month. We had a conversation, on behalf of all our current and future clients, with the bull. We suggested to the bull that he was doing a good job for us and we wanted him to continue to do so. He was very quiet. I guess he was not used to a couple of “Davids” tag teaming him. Nonetheless, he listened. We explained to him that the rates for bonds were going to continue to go up and his job would become increasingly more difficult. He remained quiet. David Edge shared with the bull that he was responsible for hundreds of our clients that are hedged against inflation. David shared a story with the bull about the nice lady that was not going to be able to retire, but because of the bull’s 9-year run, she was able to save enough for a comfortable retirement.
My conversations with the bull were a little different. I wanted to know how he was going to deal with all of the corporate stock repurchases, the amount of folks now withdrawing funds from the market for income, and how he was going to continue to run like he has for so long. He remained silent.
David and I hopped a quick cab over to the New York Stock Exchange for a quick picture, before the bell that morning. We grabbed a muffin from the street vendor and marveled at the institution that has funded enterprise in America for so long. Then back to the bull for a last-ditch attempt to get some answers.
He remained silent.