Where are we exactly in the stock-market cycle? Are we in the throes of a final-stage euphoria, or is it just the beginning of another leg up? An objective look at stock-market valuations, and the economy that might or might not justify these valuations, is certainly warranted at this point in market history.
Crush the Street prefers to seek out the truth from experts who opt out of conventional “wisdom,” so we turned to British-American investor, banker, and writer Mitchell Feierstein, who is well known as the author of the 2012 book Planet Ponzi: How the World Got Into This Mess, What Happens Next, How to Save Yourself as well as the highly informative website PlanetPonzi.com. Mr. Feierstein appears regularly as a financial commentator on SKY, BBC, and RT’s Keiser Report, among other platforms.
Having worked as a columnist for the Daily Mail, Mitchell Feierstein is currently a columnist for The Independent and The Huffington Post. A graduate of Vassar College, Mr. Feierstein worked for several broker-dealers and banks on Wall Street in the 1980s and was a pioneer in liquidity of interest-rate derivative products in the 1990s
In addition to his prowess as an author and commentator, Mitchell Feierstein is a highly successful hedge-fund manager and CEO of the Glacier Environmental Fund Limited. Prior to his role at Glacier, Mitchell was Senior Portfolio Manager of the Cheyne Carbon Fund, part of one of the largest and best-respected hedge-fund groups operating in Europe.
Courtesy of everyinvestor.co.uk
As the author of the website Planet Ponzi website, Mitchell Feierstein blogs about the power of the individual, accountability, transparency, and truth. The website provides an alternative to the corporate owned-media, lobbyists, politicians, and economy-wrecking bankers.
Crush the Street had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Feierstein regarding. According to Mitchell Feierstein, the key issue in the markets today is valuation: what we have in the equities, bond, credit, and property markets is extreme valuations, which have been caused by the massive influx of liquidity.
Unfortunately, according to Mitchell Feierstein, we have a situation where stocks are more expensive on a value basis than they’ve ever been in the history of the global markets. The U.S. market is now at a higher valuation than it’s ever been, even including the peak of the dot-com bubble as well as the 1929 market bubble.
These market valuations are not sustainable, according to Mitchell Feierstein. When we look at what has happened since the 1980s, when interest rates had peaked in the United States, we’ve seen real inflation-adjusted wages go flat or lower. Housing prices are hundreds of percentage points higher, and tuition prices have increased around 2,000% since the 1980s.
Courtesy of Renegade Inc.
The result, according to Mitchell Feierstein, is that we’re seeing many students leaving college with massive debt; we’ve got too much debt chasing too few goods now – again, not sustainable. Altogether, there are just too many risks involved to be speculating in the markets right now: investors must minimize their risk now in the face of a potential recession.
Mr. Feierstein cautions retail investors, including the many millennial investors entering the markets, against pouring their capital into high-valuation stocks while institutions are dumping their shares. Instead, according to Mitchell Feierstein, investors should avoid crowded trades (where we’re essentially in the ninth inning) and look to places where other people aren’t looking.
Looking where others aren’t looking is one of Crush the Street’s best moneymaking strategies, and we’re definitely in agreement with Mitchell Feierstein’s stance on the current market environment. We suggest that you listen to our full interview and check out Mr. Feierstein’s book, Planet Ponzi: How the World Got Into This Mess, What Happens Next, How to Save Yourself, as well as his website, PlanetPonzi.com.
We also encourage you to take advantage of Crush the Street’s broad selection of exclusive reports, which include our top three steps you can take to protect yourself from the death of the U.S. dollar, our Forever Income report with secure lifetime cash-flow stream strategies, plus Crush the Street’s report on the coming artificial intelligence revolution and what you need to do to protect yourself.