tfmarketadvisors.com / By Peter Tchir / December 28, 2012 Land of the Free, Home of the Brave?
That seems more like a fairytale than reality. I cannot believe that I am sitting here the second last trading day of the year and having to guess what Washington will do. What will the senate pass? What will congress do with it? I’m not even sure I have the terms right, because frankly, it rarely matters that much to the market. I just can’t believe we have come to this. We are waiting for a Sunday night session to determine the fate of America, or at least the fate of America until whatever can kicking compromise they come up with is reached.
The U.S. is Not [insert other country here]
For at least the past two years the U.S. has happily said who they aren’t. It actually started before that. First we weren’t Japan, and yet 4 years later we look a lot like Japan did after the initial Nikkei crash. Then we weren’t Greece or we weren’t Spain. Yes, nothing like 4 am press conferences to announce some hastily thrashed out deal to kick the can without solving anything. At least we have the dignity to do it on a Sunday night? In the context of what has gone on over the past 2 years, it is simply shocking Europe has accomplished anything. Think about what they have done, and there they have 17 different countries, different languages, different economies, different philosophies, and are used to battling it out for football supremacy and Eurovision song contests. In the light of what has gone on in Europe, we should be even more ashamed at what our politicians have done. Maybe it isn’t a co-incidence that the economy that is doing best with the least amount of support from politicians or central banks is Germany and they are run by someone trained in hard science (rather than politics) and may not be at the high end of the photogenic spectrum. Maybe a country of photogenic lawyers who need to work a couple of years to get pensions for life, while finger pointing at the “graft” in Greece is exactly what we deserve.
