MarketWatch: Ten Clues that tell us a new Wall Street bubble is inflating

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PAUL B. FARRELL
10 clues: A new bubble is blowing
Bet on Wall Street hyping a recovery, big earnings, new bull in 2009

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch


ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- No bottom yet? No problem! Wall Street needs another bull, is already secretly blowing a newer, bigger bubble. How do we know? Simple. They're bubble-blowers by nature. It's locked in their DNA, controls their brain waves. It's the divine spark that guides their destiny and America's too.

Remember Aesop's Fable, "The Scorpion and Turtle:" The deadly scorpion can't swim, asks the turtle for a ride across the river. The turtle's skeptical, but gullible: "You'll sting me." Of course scorpions will say anything to get over to the promised land. He always wants one more shot. He crashed on this side. Over there he just knows he'll win big.

"That's irrational! If I sting you, we both sink, both drown." So the naïve turtle buys into the scam one more time. Then, halfway across the river, the scorpion's DNA suddenly triggers an irresistible urge in his brain. He stings the poor turtle. They sink amid the bubbles. "Why?" asks the naïve turtle. "Because I am a scorpion, it's in my nature."

Yes, the turtle's just a metaphor: For investors and taxpayers. The scorpion's also a metaphor: For Wall Street and the armies of lobbyists controlling Washington from the shadows. It's "in the nature" of all those scorpions to be greedy, to blow bubbles, to self-destruct.

So think metaphorically as you sift through the following 10 clues: Learn why the new bubble's already blowing, even before the economy and the market hit bottom -- clues masked by the press's relentless breaking-news hype about short-term solutions. Notice the desperate searching for new ways to "the other side."

1. Subprime wolves kept alive by Washington incompetence

A BusinessWeek cover story, "The Subprime Wolves are Back," warns: "Thousands of subprime mortgage lenders and brokers -- many of them the very sorts of firms that helped create the current financial crisis -- are going strong." Who are they? "The same people who propelled us toward the housing market calamity are now seeking to profit by exploiting billions in federally insured mortgages."

Worse yet, "FHA officials seem oblivious to what's happening -- or incapable of stopping it. They're giving mortgage firms licenses to dole out 100% insured loans despite lender records blotted by state sanctions, bankruptcy filings, civil lawsuits and even criminal convictions."

How bad? "Over the next five years fresh loans backed by the FHA that go sour will cost taxpayers $100 billion or more" -- on top of the $700 billion in bailouts.

2. Washington is an out-of-control money-printing machine

Neither party can control the economy and market. Capitalism is now a self-destructive scorpion. The Fed refuses to disclose trillions in loans. Congress has zero oversight. Now scorpions are destroying the $700 billion TARP from inside says a new government report. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ten-clues-tell-us-new/story.aspx?guid=%7B46BEE66B%2D29D6%2D4799%2D88F8%2DC6FBAD94AFAB%7D&dist=msr_4