Rosie Debunks Jim Grant Rosyness
by ilene - September 21st, 2009 11:47 pm
In case you missed it, David Rosenberg offered thoughts about James Grant’s seemingly odd switch from his generally bearish positioning to cautiously bullish over the weekend. Here’s what David has to say, courtesy of Tyler at Zero Hedge.
Rosie Debunks Jim Grant Rosyness
Much has been made of Jim Grant’s piece in the WSJ over the weekend in which he implicitly professes his conversion from a bear to a bull. Some have already voiced their argument for why Grant, usually a very in depth analyst of historical and prevailing themes, may have otherwise cut some corners in his explanation of the ongoing seemingly unstoppable 6 month long market move. In his Breakfast with Dave, Rosenberg shares his two cents on why Jim’s evaluation is not quite up to snuff. One hopes that Grant’s Interest Rate Observer subscriptions do not suffer as a result of what could become a bear war (or alternatively, that a subscription "issue" was not one that caused the rather dramatic shift in perception).
IS JIM GRANT THE LATEST TO BE DRINKING THE KOOL-AID?
The Weekend Journal ran with an article by James Grant, which admittedly took us by surprise (he is a true giant in the industry, as an aside) — From Bear to Bull and in the article, he relies mostly on the thought process from two economic think-tanks — Michael Darda from MKM Partners and the folks over at the Economic Cycle Research Institute.
We highly recommend this article for everyone to read to understand the other side of the debate. But we have some major problems with the points being made.
1. Mr. Grant starts off by saying that “as if they really knew, leading economists predict that recovery from our Great Recession will be plodding, gray and jobless.” Well, frankly, it doesn’t really matter what “leading economists” are saying because Mr. Market has already moved to the bullish side of the debate having expanded valuation metrics to a point that is consistent with 4% real GDP growth and a doubling in earnings, to $83 EPS, which even the consensus does not expect to see until we are into 2012. We are more than fully priced as it is for mid-cycle earnings.
2. Nowhere in Mr. Grant’s synopsis do the words “deleveraging” or “credit contraction” show up. Yet, this is the cornerstone of the bearish viewpoint. Attitudes
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Philip R. Davis is a founder Phil's Stock World, a stock and options trading site that teaches the art of options trading to newcomers and devises advanced strategies for expert traders...
Ilene is editor and affiliate program
coordinator for PSW.