“The Stock Market Is Quiet. Too Quiet!” The battle-tested headline in The Economist. Pops up often, in CNBC, Yahoo, Seeking Alpha, Zero Hedge, BlackRock, Wall Street Journal, The Fiscal Times, Schwab.com, New York magazine, etc
Yes, “The Stock Market Is Quiet. Too Quiet!” has been a big favorite scary headline the past year. Before the elections. After. Today. Tomorrow. Yes, a perennial favorite. Same warning. Wall Street’s pundits just keep running with that same 6-letter headline, warning of the coming crash. Each adding some verbiage about the “Fear Index,” CBOE Volatility Index VIX, P/E ratios, contrasting GDP growth globally and other snappy financial data to induce fear, greed, drive markets. Then quiet. Then more noise. But no crash … yet, just talk and action. Remember, Wall Street doesn’t care which way the market goes, up or down. They make money on “the action,” either way.
My version: “Next Crash? Sorry, You’ll Never Hear It Coming.” That was my version of “The Stock Market Is Quiet. Too Quiet!” Posted on DowJones-MarketWatch.com March 20, 2000 as the dot.com peaked. The market did crash, But Wall Street was in denial for many months dismissing reality … as the markets and economy slipped into a thirty-month recession, and a 43% dive and $8 trillion loss. Repeated the same headline in 2008. Another 40% plus and a $10 trillion loss.
