SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, the Dow and S&P500 hit new highs. But the rally’s hiding huge risks: “GDP turns negative as U.S. economic recovery stalls,” screams one headline. Another hears a “Ticking Time Bomb.”
World’s central bankers at Davos warn cheap money’s blowing a new asset
bubble. Dr. Doom, Marc Faber, “loves the high odds of a ‘big-time’
market crash.” Another, Nouriel Roubini, says “prepare for a perfect
storm,” while Bond King Bill Gross sees a “credit supernova” dead ahead.
Rally? Bubble? Crash? Global? Is the economy “peaking?” Are we on a
long, slow-growth downhill slide to a 1% GDP? Is our banking system
infested with a soul-sickness virus? Is Adam Smith’s capitalist ideal
turning against our markets and economy, accelerating the odds of more
brutal competitive wars over an ever-shrinking, low-margin profits pool?
The answers became obvious in a disturbing new comment from Seth Godin,
best-selling author of “Unleashing the Idea Virus” and one of America’s
leading minds: “If, 70 years ago, you asked Henry Luce, ‘What is Time
magazine for?’ he’d probably talk about setting society’s agenda,
capturing the attention of the educated and powerful and most of all,
delivering the best weekly news package he could. Today, the answer is
clear. The purpose of the magazine is to make as much money as possible.
Everything else is in service of that goal. It used to be that the
profit enabled the magazine to reach its goals. Today, the goal is to
reach the profit.”