Two Views of the Economy

There is the New York Times view:

"Wall St. Starts to See Signs of a Turnaround"

"Main Street may be struggling, but Wall Street is on a bit of a roll.

Despite a drumbeat of bad economic news, the stock market is up — almost 11 percent in the last few weeks. Junk bonds, those risky corporate I.O.U.’s, are rallying. The value of financial shares, bank loans, tricky credit derivatives — up, up, up.

Many on Wall Street, the epicenter of the credit mess, seem to think that the worst is over. For the first time in months, analysts and executives sound upbeat again. Many of them see a broad, sustained recovery in both the economy and the financial markets coming in the second half of this year, a prediction some market strategists call hopeful at best.

For now, policy makers are echoing the mood on Wall Street....

It is a remarkable reversal in attitudes from just a few months ago, when the broader economy seemed relatively healthy but Wall Street was traumatized by billions of dollars in mortgage-related losses.

Yes, Wall Street was 'traumatized!"

How are you doing, readers?

Where is your bailout?

Now, bankers and investors appear ready to look past the crisis to more profitable times, while consumers find themselves in a more precarious position as the job market weakens and banks make it harder to borrow money.

It is, of course, not uncommon for Wall Street to run ahead of the broader economy. Investors, after all, make money by anticipating the future. The job market, by contrast, improves more slowly than other aspects of the economy.

But specialists say the two sides will eventually converge. Either the markets will give up their recent gains or, if the optimists are right, the broader economy will show greater strength as tax rebate checks and lower interest rates stimulate the economy.

There have been false dawns before. Last spring, after several mortgage companies collapsed, Mr. Paulson and the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, said the problems appeared to be “contained.” In early October, just two months after credit markets froze up, the stock market climbed to an all-time high.

The optimists believe it is different this time. The catalyst for the change, they say, was the Fed-arranged deal that sold a troubled investment bank, Bear Stearns, to JPMorgan Chase in mid-March. The central bank further restored order in the markets by lending directly to investment banks, assuring that big securities firms could not be undone by a crisis of confidence...."

Do you get sick of the shit-shovel like me, readers?

And then there is the reality:

"Investors see recession, Wall Street depression"

"The U.S. economy may be in a funk, but that's nothing compared with the pall hanging over Wall Street.

Some of the biggest U.S. investors said on Tuesday they expected the nation's economy to get worse, but then work its way toward recovery later this year.

On Wall Street, however, the road back to health will take much longer.

"It is the Great Depression on Wall Street. It sure isn't on Main Street," Ken Griffin, chief executive of hedge fund Citadel Investment Group LLC, said during a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California.

According to Griffin and other top U.S. investors at the conference, the credit and housing crises that led to hundreds of billions of dollars in losses for Wall Street firms will take those investment banks years to claw back from.

"Until you see Wall Street put on their party hats again and get on the tables and start dancing is going to be years," said Ken Moelis, a former UBS banker who now runs his own investment firm, Moelis & Company. "It will be a long time for Wall Street to come back to where it was."

Leon Black, billionaire investor and founding partner of hedge fund Apollo Advisors, said the banking system has been "broken" since last summer and has fostered a credit crisis "the likes of which I've never seen in the 30 years I've been in the business."

Not like the New York Times hurts America or you by LYING TO YOU, readers.

And if they LIE about THIS, then they LIE ABOUT EVERYTHING!

I've seen too much proof (Iraq, 9/11, etc)!

I, for one American, am SICK of the NEVER-ENDING AGENDA-PUSHING!!!