I tend to think in analogies and metaphors (hyenas, vienna sausages, and so forth), so let me articulate my view on the rally in one I thought up while awakening this morning.
Imagine a romance between two young lovers. Let's have the girl represent the investing public and the boy represent the stock market.
Now these two have had a budding romance for a long time, and they were deeply in love. But he did something wrong to her. Let's say he did many things wrong to her. Let's make this really bad………….OK, he (a) threw her car over a cliff; (b) cut up all her favorite dresses; (c) started an illicit affair with her dad.
So things are really bad, and he doesn't want to lose his relationship, so he decides to pull out all the stops. He has bouquets of flowers delivered to her every single day. They go out for elegant candlelit meals every night. He writes her love poems. He buys her a new car. He tells her dad, "let's just be friends." He does everything in his power to patch things up again, and money (more accurately, his bulging credit card bill) is no object.
So things get better. And they seem to be on the mend.
The question you, as an outside observer, must ask is this: is it sustainable? Will our young suitor be able to keep this up day after day, week after week, month after month, until these two are riding his 'n' her electric scooters together in their old age? Ask again……….is………….it………….sustainable?
And ponder something even more important. Is the basis of their relationship built on something real? Sure, in the early days, it was pure love, and it flourished. But isn't there something artificial and desperate about what our young couple is going through now? Their friends think they're doing great (the Friends Confidence Index is clearly moving upward, at last).
The flowers are being delivered. The dinners are being paid for. And the young man is managing to pay the minimum balance on his Visa each month.
But the clock is ticking, and our young hero merits close observation.
