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FT.com / Columnists / Wolfgang Munchau - Countdown to the next crisis is already under way
On the surface, this looks like 2003 and 2004 when the previous housing, credit, commodity and equity bubbles started to inflate, helped by low nominal interest rates and a lack of inflation. There is one big difference, though. This bubble will burst sooner.
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In mid-September both measures concluded that the US stock market was overvalued by some 35 to 40 per cent. The markets have since gone up a lot more than the moving average of earnings. You can do the maths.
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We could be in for a period of extreme price instability, in both directions, as central banks lose control.

This is exactly what the economist Hyman Minsky predicted in his financial instability hypothesis.** He postulated that a world with a large financial sector and an excessive emphasis on the production of investment goods creates instability both in terms of output and prices.
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Our present situation can give rise to two scenarios - or some combination of the two. The first is that central banks start exiting at some point in 2010, triggering another fall in the prices of risky assets. In the UK, for example, any return to a normal monetary policy will almost inevitably imply another fall in the housing market, which is currently propped up by ultra-cheap mortgages.

Alternatively, central banks might prioritise financial stability over price stability and keep the monetary floodgates open for as long as possible. This, I believe, would cause the mother of all financial market crises - a bond market crash - to be followed by depression and deflation.



"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Mon Oct 19th, 2009 at 08:25:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Wondering how to calculate the Feigenbaum number for the US dollar preying on US stocks.

:-)

(At least one person will get the joke.)

by ATinNM on Tue Oct 20th, 2009 at 02:13:01 AM EST
[ Parent ]
How is that different from Elliot waves and golden ratios?

En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Tue Oct 20th, 2009 at 03:46:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The golden ratio is the current market price of gold divided by the current market price of silver.  Roughly 62.35 at the present.

A picture is worth a thousand words to describe Elliot Waves:

ET.  "Giving math to the millions!"

by ATinNM on Tue Oct 20th, 2009 at 11:15:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
ET - preparing for the aftermath

You can't be me, I'm taken
by Sven Triloqvist on Tue Oct 20th, 2009 at 11:23:27 AM EST
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That's why I come here and recommend ET to others.

In the end, might makes right. Nothing has changed since the caveman.
by THE Twank (yatta blah blah @ blah.com) on Tue Oct 20th, 2009 at 01:22:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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