folo

duckweedpond has been reading Wolcott:

Like many of you, I suspect, my mood today could delicately be described as bittersweet, bordering on hysteria.

It is not a pleasant sensation watching a sizable portion of one’s stock holdings get atomized in a blink, vanishing into the twinkling void of “Money Heaven,” to quote Richard Russell’s fanciful phrase. Only a few months ago I was a retirement millionaire on paper. Now–not. According to fund manager John P. Hussman, never one to lose his analytical cool, the recent carnage is on the verge of creating investment value (“Stocks are certainly not “cheap” or undervalued overall, but they are no longer priced to deliver unacceptably poor long-term returns”), which may be small consolation, but at least isn’t the end of the world. To James Howard Kunstler, never one to holster his analytical heat, it may not be the end of the world, but the transfiguration has begun: “We’ve entered the realm of phase change, where everything is slipping and nothing has settled. The final result, when the dust settles — and that may not be for weeks to come — will certainly be a poorer western world.” Kunstler does offer one short-term sure bet: “The candidates’ debate Tuesday night should be interesting. I don’t expect too much give-and-take on the subject of East Ossetia this time around.” …

With the Dow down another 255, and NYT’s lede hed reading, Saying Outlook Has Worsened, Bernanke Hints at Cut, you see the bitter. Go on over to Wolcott’s for the very sweeeeet.