Ill defer to your higher Northeast wisdom and hope, make that pray, you are correct.
Well, that is my good scenario...
My nightmare scenario harkens back to the crash of 2008. Remember what kicked that off???? Not many do.
Yes, the housing market was in a bubble. There were banks that were unstable and companies like AIG were screwing us left and right. But it was not destined for a hard crash.
That is until a certain Senator... Charles "Chuck" Schumer wrote a letter to the Banking Committee saying that banks were unstable and that there were some that were about to have runs on them... like 1929 runs. And instead of just sending it to the banking committee, he made it public... and probably orchestrated all his tame media to promote stories around it... and the instability in the market and that the banks were going to come crashing down.
I remember exactly where I was when I heard it.... lying in bed about 6AM with NPR on the radio (I listened to those ass-pirates then) and I heard the gist of the letter... and said to myself "What idiot makes that sentiment public? Does he want to create a panic?
Well, he did. And I was doubly sensitive to it, because I was getting ready to do a motorcycle trip down Route 66, so had been reading all about the Depression and the events leading up to it... bubbles, margins, unstable banks, panics, etc.
My theory is that Schumer wanted to upset the housing/financial applecart enough to yank the rug out of under Bush and, by extension, McCain. He wanted to topple the boom and create a panic a-la 1929 that elected Roosevelt... and help catapult Obama -- his boy -- into the White House.
Fast forward to today. The stock market is in a total bubble. It is setting daily records. Trump is claiming some credit (due to the belief that Wall St. is reacting positively to his business-friendly policies and deregulation mindset... fair enough). But the reality is that there are no fundamentals right now to support this bubble Bull Market.
So let's fast forward another 12 months... it's Summer 2018. Mid-Term elections are coming up.
Wall St., which is in the complete pocket of Democrats (600K speeches for Hillary? Huge contributions to Democrat candidates? Massive Progressive ideology of "I've got mine, but I want to keep you from getting yours..." mindset. And you have Chuck "I pulled it off once, I can do it again" Schumer pulling financial strings.
My nightmare scenario... Is that in summer 2018, the bubble bursts. Because it is popped, intentionally, by a financial community that wants Trump gone, the Swamp in place, the 'system' to remain rigged... and their little paper-trading casino to go on like it has for 100 years. Feeding off the actual economy of turning raw materials into finished goods... like leeches on a vein.
The bubble bursts (sorry... is intentionally bursted by the likes of Schumer) right in time to torpedo the Republican chances in the Mid-Term election. Pelosi and Schumer have a great song and dance lined up to blame the evil Republicans for tanking the economy. Trump is the devil. He caused the market melt-down. Middle Americans, your saviors are us wonderful Roosevelt Democrats... Look how Obama saved you last time... geez, you can't trust Trump.
And we do get a bloodbath in the house and Senate.
There follows the 'soft coup' of impeachment or otherwise driving the Republicans out of the White House and we're back where we were in, say, 2008. But with even more radical demagogues running the show. The Coup D'Etat is run, as usual, by the monied interests.
So I think that my original prediction will be the right one. But there is a reason Obama got elected and why Americans lost their shirts, savings and homes in 2008. And it was a carefully-orchestrated crash, just before the election, run by a guy who is now more powerful than ever. Chuck Schumer. Think he'll try it twice? Well, he never got caught the first time.
You know, someone could win a Pulitzer if they ever did a book on this...
Cheers,
Sirhr
