– “Market Is Hyper Overpriced” Warns Retiring Fed President; “Significiant Correction” Coming (ZeroHedge, March 20, 2015):
Fresh from a well-publicized dollar dispute with Goldman’s Gary Cohn, recently retired Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher made an appearance on CNBC Friday and spoke with Rick Santelli. There were quite a number of notable exchanges including the following zingers..
Santelli: “If you had to rate the US economy 0-10 where would you peg it?”
Fisher: “We’re #1., we’re a 10. We’re the epicenter of growth and in the sweet spot.”
Santelli: “Do you think any part of the stock market being high has anything to do with the committee you just left and if you didn’t grade the economy on a curve would you still give it a 10?”
Fisher: “Well, what worries me is how totally lazy investors have gotten, totally dependent on the Federal Reserve and I find this to be a precarious situation.”
Fisher: “Are we vulnerable in my personal opinion to a significant equity market correction? I believe we are.”
Then Santelli pulls out a Pavlov reference suggesting that the Fed has in fact conditioned retail investors to be lazy prompting Fisher to point out the irony in the fact that global financial markets are depending on a “diminutive woman” (Yellen) to play Atlas. “What worries me is that the people that watch this show are completely dependent on the Fed — look at the volatility. I could see a correction taking place of substantial magnitude.”
Of course this is all the market’s fault and not the Fed’s for ballooning their balance sheet into the trillions and effectively daring investors not to chase a central bank-underwritten rally in risk assets and so ultimately, Fisher thinks the “people who watch” CNBC need to stop being so complacent.
View the entire clip here: