In this week's Off the Cuff podcast, Chris and Charles discuss:
- Have We Seen the Market Top?
- Stocks & bonds: meet reality
- Why Central Banks Are out of Options
- No more magic left, just depserate measures
- Japan's Growing Nightmare
- A preview of coming attractions for developed economies
Last week's Off the Cuff, titled Turbulence Ahead, was very well timed. Since then, world markets have shown a weakness we have not seen in well over a year. The big question now is: Have we seen the highs? Is it downhill from here?
Chris and Charles believe so. Both technically and fundamentally, there are no credible reasons to support today's asset prices. Technically, prices have been very stretched, and recent action is bringing them down to key support levels that, if breached, could fall much farther in a hurry.
Japan is giving the world a preview of the swift and ruthless correction markets experience when artificially inflated beyond reason by reckless monetary policy. The retracement for the entire Nikkei index has now hit 20% (and still falling) in just 2 weeks. That's $trillions in paper wealth that just vaporized.
Unfortunately, the other world central banks are so far down the same path Japan has blazed that there's virtually no chance for them to avoid the same fate.
by keithm1116 
