Asia

Authored Doug Kass of Seabreeze Partners Management,

"The missing step in the standard Keynesian theory [is] the explicit consideration of capitalist finance within a cyclical and speculative context . . . finance sets the pace for the economy. As recovery approaches full employment . . . soothsayers will proclaim that the business cycle has been banished [and] debts can be taken on . . . But in truth neither the boom, nor the debt deflation... and certainly not a recovery can go on forever. Each state nurtures forces that lead to its own destruction. "

As stocks do things they have never done before (in terms of gains and complacency), despite the "inexplicable" collapse in the yield curve (and slump in earnigs expectations), some, like former fund manager Richard Breslow, are growing frustrated with the farce.

2017 is on track to be the first 'perfect year' with 12 consecutive monthly total return gains for the S&P 500

But the yield curve is collapsing?

And so have earnings expectations...

Yesterday we joked that with the US House of Representatives set to vote for the GOP tax bill on Tuesday, markets would "price in" the same tax legislation they have been pricing in every day for the past year, all over again...

Get ready for US markets to price in tax reform all over again in just a few short hours

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 19, 2017

Here we go again...

One of the traditional push backs against attempts to predict "black swan" events is that they are by default unpredictable, rendering the entire exercise moot. However, for the second year in a row, Nomura's Bilal Hafeez has found a loophole, or rather loop-animal: the grey swan.