Bill Cara on Financial Armageddon

Bill Cara, long-time financial industry veteran and publisher of the popular business and finance blog, Bill Cara: Capital Markets & Social Equity, discusses Financial Armageddon:

There are people in the boardrooms of HB&B today and in Washington who I suspect know where the highest probability of financial accident is likely to happen. Like you, I’m out of the loop.

But I do believe in the notion of Financial Armageddon as put forth by my friend Michael Panzner, partly on my own account, and partly because I know that Panzner approaches his daily work from the objective base of analysis, rather than synthesis. He has no axe to grind. He’s a long-time Wall Streeter who simply doesn’t like what he sees happening in the world today and, unlike most of his colleagues who fear the loss of their employment, he has no fear in speaking out.

There are some people you just want to sit down and chat with over a few beers and Michael and I have done that. Not being particularly inclined to marketing, there are other “personalities” I have such little regard for that I would hope never to meet them.

On April 2, with Dow=12,382 flashing on the screen, Michael Panzner did speak out on the Kudlow Show, put up against the views of Don Luskin. A long time ago we put the clown suit on both Kudlow and Luskin. But Luskin, besides being a comic, has few peers among the least competent on Wall Street as I see it. But don’t get me started. Spend your time watching this video and making up your own mind.

At the end of the day, it is up to each of us in the trading community to filter out the noise and the story-telling, and to listen to those independent and objective thinkers who put the needs of society (meaning yours and mine) ahead of the attraction of immediate personal gain (meaning theirs).

Panzner is a person I believe you ought to listen to. His message, this year, is a difficult one to stomach because the broad market averages are screaming out weekly records, while, far from view, the risks are not so obvious.

But the risks are there and credible analysts are telling you that.

A couple months ago, I decided to drop CNBC-TV. I found myself too often shaking my head at the clowns they put on stage, and saying, “Bank another CNBC retainer buddy. You put the definition of the word analyst to shame.”

Being retired, and blogging from home, my wife would say to me constantly, “Please stop complaining about these ('personalities’) you watch on TV. Your readers are interested in what you, not them, have to say.”

Ah, maybe that’s why a spouse is called the better half?

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