The End of the Ends Of The World.
There is a pretty funny Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) account called 3:30 Ramp Capital, LLC. Plunge Protection Team rumors have been around since the beginning of time, but six years of stocks going straight up have given rise to all kinds of other theories. (For the record, the Fed fully acknowledges its interventions in the bond market, but it has never admitted to trading stocks.)
And it’s true that “the authorities” want the price of financial assets (stocks, bonds) to go up, and the price of hard assets (commodities) to go down… which is exactly what has happened.
So do governments and central banks ever lose?
In the old days, they lost all the time. In one extreme example, an individual hedge fund took out the entire Bank of England. But central banks are currently on a massive winning streak.
So to answer the question, “Will we ever have a crisis,” you need to answer the question, “Will we ever be allowed to have one?”
A good, astute friend of mine always reminds me that “you can’t beat the fed”. And I counter that that is true. Until it isn’t. One day the fed will be beat – or more accurately won’t be able to move markets by their actions – at least not in the direction they desire. And that ’emperor-has-no-clothes’ moment will be catastrophic. It is just impossible to know when that moment will come.
The 1980’s we had Reagan Johnny Cash and Bob Hope were still alive Now in 2015 we have Obama No Cash and No Hope