FSX Friday Update

Whoo-hoo!  We got a taper!  This week the Federal Reserve announced its long-awaited decision to reduce monthly bond purchases from $85 billion all the way down to…$75 billion.

Wait, that’s it?

That’s it.

The idea, of course, is that continued improvement in the labor market (for butlers and shoeshine boys, I guess) will allow the Fed to further reduce purchases and to eventually stop grossly manipulating market interest rates altogether, forcing bond issuers (corporations) to once again fairly compensate bond investors for credit and interest rate risk. Something else that will eventually happen is that the sun will exhaust its supply of hydrogen and begin fusing helium atoms, becoming a red giant star and, in the process, expanding to incinerate Mercury, Venus and Earth.  So stock up on SPF 1,000,000 sunscreen now, because there’s only 5 billion years’ worth of hydrogen left.  And sell stocks, too, because the Fed is tapering!

So why did stocks storm higher after the taper announcement Wednesday, with the major indices breaking out of their recent doldrums to set new all-time highs?  Could it be that the market knows that all the Fed is doing is slightly reducing the rate at which the size of its bond portfolio will continue to increase?  We’ll have Soviet-style central planning of the cost of capital for corporate America for years to come, folks.  But it’s all worth it, because this is what is necessary to provide job growth and revive the American middle class, right?

Baloney.

This brief article summarizes a report CNBC aired highlighting the unprecedented reallocation of wealth the Fed has made possible through its quantitative easing (QE) program.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101283037

(Definitely don’t watch the video because these dudes are even more annoying than they look in the still shot)

The title is a question—QE: The greatest subsidy to the rich ever?  The answer is an unequivocal yes.  The article notes that 95% of the income growth in the U.S. between 2009 and 2012 was captured by the top 1% of the population.  It uncritically quotes a billionaire hedge fund manager’s description of QE as “the biggest redistribution of wealth from the middle class and the poor to the rich ever.”  It just straight defenestrates the notion that rich people and corporations faired better during the Bush years than they have under Obama.

Damn, CNBC.  I never knew you had it in you.

I highly recommend everyone read the outrageous, galling statistical and anectodal evidence of the staggering injustice on which our ‘economic recovery’ has been built.  You might want to hurry, though—the richies won’t allow this kind of thing coming from their media mouthpiece but for so long.

The Family Stock Index had a decent five days—up 2.3% to 16,899—but we trail the broader market for the week, the month, the quarter, and now, even the year.  What happened?  Well, our laggards (ZAGG, LEI, LULU) continued to lag into November and December, they somehow enticed several of our leaders (RJET, REGN, SCI) to join them, and, well, that’s all it takes.  The FSX is still up 25% with a little over a week left in 2013, but that’s not good enough in the midst of a stock bubble.

Advancers

• Zero (ZAGG) +5.2%.  What the hell?  Zero had a stranglehold on the FSX Bizarro #1 position for like the tenth year in a row, and now he’s let Lucas back into the race with a just few low-volume, whipsaw sessions left to go.  First Charlotte has a league-best 11-5 Week 15 in the picks and now this?  Maybe it’s just reverse-reverse-psychology, Bizarro-style.  Me do not want to not lose Bizarro race!
• Ruby (RJET) +8.4%.  This one’s more straightforward: Ruby doesn’t want to lose to a dog, and that’s what’s going to happen if she doesn’t make up a lot of ground on Zondro in not a lot of time.
• Nicole M. (COLM) +6.7%.  Nicole is the best-performing FSX component of the quarter so far (narrowly edging out Charlotte).  It’s all about timing: Nicole will hit the worst of the pregnancy hella-swell at the optimum time of the year, weather-wise, whereas Jodi Ann (-15% YTD) is probably never going to be able to wear her pre-pregnancy shoes again.
• Katie (CATY) +4.7%.  Katie’s stock is up 35% for the year and pricing in a significant acquisition premium at these levels.  When investors discover she’ll accept a pat on the back and a ‘good job’ in lieu of a premium of any kind, CATY could give back the 2013 gains plus some.
• Lee (TGI) +3.7%.  Dammit, if the publishing industry won’t open the door, I’ll kick it down.  And if I can’t kick down the door (if it’s a nice door, like mahogany or something), I will definitely break all my toes on the door.  And when the publishing industry opens the door to see what’s up with the ambulance siren and the agonized groans, I will definitely look through the door and shout some rudenesses before the paramedics get me sedated.  That’s what this has all been about, after all: shouting rudenesses.
• Mario the Younger (MAR) +3.4%.  If you have to replace all the shoes but you have a healthy, happy baby, you’d be crazy to complain.  But if you don’t have to replace all the shoes and you have a healthy, happy baby, you’d be crazy to replace the shoes anyway.  Ladies’ shoes are expensive.

Decliners

• Justin (SCI -1.2%) and Icarus (FAST -1.3%).  What if that Duck Dynasty dude finds out about Justin’s dog-kissing proclivities?  He might send his army of ducks to cover Long Island in feathers and poop.  Unless that show isn’t about ruling a kingdom of militarized ducks, in which case there’s probably nothing to worry about.
• Wilson (WILC) -1.8%.  There’s always something to worry about.
• Marcus (MCS) -2.4%.  Don’t even suggest replacing all the shoes with flip-flops.  You think you’re being practical and even a little whimsical, but you’re wrong.

Name	Ticker	12/20/2013	Change
Brinkley	BCO	$33.22	+1.04
Charlotte	ICE	$224.46	+4.02
Dustin	DST	$90.37	+0.75
Icarus	FAST	$45.62	-0.62
Jenny	JNY	$14.87	+0.22
Jodi Ann	JOY	$54.45	+0.92
Justin	SCI	$17.39	-0.22
Katie	CATY	$26.42	+1.19
Lee	TGI	$74.98	+2.71
Lisa	LNCE	$28.02	+0.92
Lucas	LEI	$0.97	-0.01
Lulu	LULU	$58.80	-0.40
Marcus	MCS	$13.27	-0.32
Mario T.E.	MGEE	$57.07	+2.00
Mario T.Y.	MAR	$48.15	+1.58
Namilita	NL	$10.20	-0.27
Nicole E.	NICE	$40.47	+0.80
Nicole M.	COLM	$75.33	+4.72
Reagan	REGN	$278.69	+9.10
Ruby	RJET	$10.54	+0.82
Wilson	WILC	$7.96	-0.15
Winston	ED	$54.77	+0.44
Zero	ZAGG	$4.01	+0.20
Zondro	ZQK	$8.63	+0.35