UNNECESSARY
Who needs information anyway?
BY DOUG WAKEFIELD

Last month was one for history. After years of reporting the M3 to the public on a weekly basis, our beloved boys at the Federal Reserve decided that it is no longer necessary to publish these numbers weekly. Besides, why would an increase of $430 billion in the last 5 months be of interest to anyone anyway.

With the markets up strong in the last few weeks, and yet still below the March 2005 high, I think this quote in Roger Lowenstein's book, Origin of the Crash, is certainly appropriate today.

"Investors love numbers [performance that is] when stocks are going up; it is only when they are falling that people turn to the business, the Oreo behind the stock."

There was a great article in USA Today on Nov. 14. While the CEOs of American government are crowing about the strong economy based almost solely on "low CORE inflation" and a "strong market" (actually it is still lowered today than February 19, 2004), one of the chief number crunchers doesn't see the same picture. 

Check out the CATO Institute report on Government Pork (here). When you go crazy printing money, guess who are the first in line to spend it?

One final bit of trivia that I found. What would you think of a mutual fund company that owned 15 million shares of a stock that the President just unloaded 1.6 million shares in the last 90 days, leaving him only 231,000 shares? If you want to learn more, check out the Yahoo financial site on any company for major stock holders and insider transactions. You could be very surprised. When prices scream "buy," there are always some players who are doing some major selling.

Doug Wakefield is president of Texas-based Best Minds Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor, whose objective is to educate investors on what the “best minds” in the world of finance are saying and doing. To sign up for Best Minds Inc.’s free newsletter, visit www.bestmindsinc.com.