âName That Tune?!â
by Jeffrey Saut, Chief Investment Strategist, Raymond James
July 25, 2011
âL.A. proved too much for the man,â to steal a lyric from Gladys Knight, for after not having as much as a hangnail for nearly 12 years, I contracted a head cold in L.A. about two weeks before I left for Europe. While I thought I was rid of that cold, apparently it wasnât meant to be. Actually, I didnât feel all that bad during my 2½ weeks in Europe, except for being exhausted given the hectic schedule (a city a day seeing accounts), but evidently that was not really the case either. When I returned to Florida I still didnât feel bad, again except for being exhausted, so after a dayâs rest I left for Raymond Jamesâ National Conference to give a keynote speech and visit with our financial advisors. Even in that endeavor I felt pretty well. However, when I returned to St. Petersburg late Friday (7/15/11) I didnât feel so good and decided to take my temperature. Sure enough it was 102° and I was off to bed after taking two aspirin. The next morning it was still 102°, so I walked down the street to see one of my doctors (itâs really nice when your docs are neighbors). After about 20 minutes of examination Steve told me I had bronchitis that was on the verge of pneumonia. He continued, âYou can either take this Cipro, along with the Mucinex I am going to give you, and stay in bed for a week, or I am putting you in the hospital!â Enough said, easy choice . . .
After sleeping for nearly three days, by Tuesday I was bored enough to try and catch up with the world. Therefore, I turned on the tube only to find there was nothing on about business or the stock market; I sang to myself, âBaby Iâm amazed!â Amazed because given the threat of a U.S. default, and subsequent sovereign debt rating downgrade, the media was replete with News Corporationâs phone hacking scandal. Indeed, ten of my business channels (Fox Business, CNBC World, CSPAN 3 and 2, CRNTV, Bloomberg, CNBC, MSNBC, Fox, and CNN) carried the Murdochsâ testimony before Parliament, and televised it for hours. The rest of the âso calledâ business channels were following the release of Casey Anthony, pondering when it would happen and where she was going. With the Knackâs song âFrustratedâ playing in the background, I turned to the only station somewhat ânewsy.â That station was CSPAN, which was broadcasting our Congressional leadersâ discussions about the debt ceiling; and boy, was that a mistake. If I thought my temperature was high as I started to watch the charade, it had to risen to 110° about an hour later. To be sure, I urge you to spend a few hours watching our Congress at âworkâ and if the word âdysfunctionalâ doesnât come to mind I would be very surprised.
Now âDysfunctionalâ is a song by Tech N9ne with the opening line, âDon't you bring me nothing stupid if you don't want me to lose it.â And, I just about âlost itâ watching Congress. Now, before I get a thousand emails, I took the test to determine whether I am a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian; the result was Libertarian, although the gentleman running under the Libertarian Party Banner certainly doesnât represent my views, nor does he understand the way economies work. Unfortunately, neither do most members of Congress. Take the Republicans, I know the mantra of a Federal Balanced Budget Amendment sounds great, but it would cripple the Federal governmentâs ability to conduct fiscal policy. Consider this; in the 2008/2009 âfinancial fiascoâ if we had a Balanced Budget Amendment âthe powers that beâ would not have been able to institute the various âbailout programsâ that prevented our economy from spiraling into a depression with a concurrent 20%+ unemployment rate. So much for the Cut, Cap and Balance Bill, although without the Balanced Budget Amendment said Bill does make some sense. That said, while the bill in its entirety would have been bad for our country, Americans should still be outraged by the un-American way Senator Harry Reid âkilledâ that bill without any discussion or debate.
