From Dan Denning in St. Kilda:

--We're knocking on the door of September and already it sounds like there's a party going on inside. Crunching the numbers this morning from St. Kilda in our new offices, we find the S&P ASX 200 has rallied 42.7% from the March 6th low. That's a bit less than benchmark indexes in the States. But it is a nice, juicy, tradeable bounce.

--So how much more bounce is there left in this market? That's the question we grapple with today. If you're into rhetorical fallacies, you might say we're begging the question. You only assume it's a bounce if you reckon the rally is not based on an improved long-term earnings out-look.

--There are plenty of analysts and investors - many of whom are now filling up our inbox with snarky notes - that contend the worst of everything is over. It's a recovery. And even if America is stuffed, Australia has its cosy China relationship to power commodities and the currency higher.

--Maybe so, put probably not. We reckon it is a bounce in the image of the post 1929 stock market crash. You don't liquidate a decade's worth of speculation and leverage in 18 months. It takes years. They started the process in Japan in 1989...and it's still going on.

--But the stock market is not a television show or a graphic novel. It does not have a tidy beginning, an enthralling middle, and a miraculous end. Attention spans are short these days. People expect instant resolution. But the unwinding of a credit boom doesn't work that way, especially when you have central banks and governments fighting it every step of the way with measures to prevent the needed liquidation.

--Consider this our warning then: this rally is on borrowed time. We don't know when. We don't know why. But we do know what. And the what is that stocks are going to price in much lower earnings and investors are going to pay less for those earnings. Expect a lot of spring volatility.

--Unlike late 2008, though, this is a great opportunity for traders, mainly because you can short financial stocks. The S&P ASX 200 Financial index is actually up 63.5% since the March six lows. We've been working with Swarm Trader Gabriel Andre to add short recommendations to his service. It's ready to roll now, and Gabriel says the financials make inviting targets.

--Energy investors ought to take heed as well. Lately there's been a nice correlation between the oil price and stocks. The better the economy, the better it is for oil and earnings. Both have gone up.

--We're still bullish on energy for a lot of reasons. But if the party ends sometime in September/October/November, you can expect lower oil and energy prices. That means if you have gains in energy stocks, you'd want to think about trailing stops and profit taking. In fact look for profit taking on the share market as a precursor to a new move lower.

--It certainly does make for a tricky investment strategy. Energy stocks are some of the few stock we'd really want to own for the next ten years. But stocks are stocks. And in a bear market, most stocks go down. So what do you do?

--A more active management strategy is probably what's called for. But this violates one of those old axioms of institutional investors: do not try and time the markets. The buy-and-hold strategy works when you're in secular bull market. It also works to the extent that most investors take control of their investments in moments of extreme uncertainty. People end up selling at the bottom and buying at the top as a result.

--So why become active when being passive is so much easier? Because your money - and perhaps your retirement - is what's at stake. You can go along with the media and pretend the last two years haven't happened, or that they did but everything is better. But remember, these are the people who didn't see the whole thing coming in the first place. Does trusting them sound like a good game plan?

--Of course most of the time, trusting the conventional wisdom/do nothing approach works. Most of the time the world's financial system doesn't totter on the brink of a cliff. Most of the time you wouldn't have to bother reading about outliers, black swans, and worst-case scenarios - the subjects it is our full-time job to explore here in the Daily Reckoning.

--But we reckon now IS one of those times. In fact, it's been that way since the Fed took interest rates to zero in 2003 and kicked off a global liquidity boom in all asset markets. You live and invest in an era of global fiat money. How that era ends is a dead certainty. But when is another question altogether. More on that tomorrow.

And now over to Bill Bonner in Ouzilly, France:

Our story continues...

According to the popular version, Ben Bernanke, our flawed hero, has averted a Second Great Depression. When the crisis came in '07-'08, he calmly took out the text he had written himself: "Dummies' Guide to Avoiding a Japan-style Deflation"...or something like that.

Then, he followed his own theory...coolly...confidently...cutting Fed rates down to nearly zero, pushing Congress to pass a huge 'stimulus' bill, and even forcing Bank of America to take over Merrill Lynch. In this last event, he is accused of deliberately hiding Merrill's enormous losses and then threatening the BofA board with dismissal if they refused.

Because of Bernanke's swift and assertive action, the nation's banking system held together during those critical weeks of late 2008. And because of his monetary (and fiscal) policies, all the worlds' economies are now in some stage of recovery. Stocks are rising. House sales are increasing. All the indicators point to a better world.

In recognition of the fact that he saved the world, Ben Bernanke was given the nation's highest honor; Obama picked him to continue as head of America's central bank, the Federal Reserve...even though his predecessor, a Republican, appointed him.

Everyone needs a story. It's the way we understand things. Data is just data. Numbers are just numbers. Facts are just facts. Without the framework of a good tale to hold them together, they are worthless.

That's why, here at The Daily Reckoning, we are suspicious of facts, data and numbers. As for the numbers, they are wrong before they get to us...often intentionally. Then, when they are later straightened out, they sometimes tell a completely different story. Even the 'facts' often turn out to be not facts at all...but distorted data, information has been twisted to fit into a storyline.

The more precise the data, meanwhile, the more they lie. Give us a CPI rate of 6.24% and we will give you back two numbers that are total fictions...and another one that turns out to be wrong later. As for the GDP growth rate...don't even bother to give us a number at all. Whatever the digits say, it's a lie.

This week came news that the GDP is falling at a 1% rate. This number surprised economists. They thought it was falling at a 1.5% rate. This better-than-expected number encouraged investors to buy stocks; the Dow rose 37 points yesterday. Oil and gold remained more or less where they were.

Economists are frequently surprised. In a study of GDP forecasts, a researcher found that economists did nothing more than extrapolate current trends into the future. If the GDP was growing at 2%...they projected that it would grow at 2.3% the following year. Or maybe 1.9%. These projections were mostly correct. Generally, one year is a lot like the year before. But whenever the direction changed dramatically, economists missed it completely. In other words, they're not really capable of telling us what the economy will do - unless it does nothing different.

We've discussed the emptiness of the GDP figures many times. Just because the GDP is growing doesn't mean people are really any better off. In fact, GDP growth during the Bubble Epoque was really a measure of how fast people were ruining themselves. Seventy percent of the GDP was consumer spending; as consumer spending went up so did debt. The result was a paradox and a shame - at the end of one of the longest periods of uninterrupted GDP growth in history, the typical householder was poorer than he was than when it began.

That's why we are skeptical of numbers...especially precise numbers. They lie through their decimals.

What matters is the story...and our story now centers on the role of one man: Ben Bernanke. But the story that most people hear...and believe...is false. It is like GDP growth in the Bubble Era...it may sound right on the surface, but the real story is opposite to what is commonly believed.

Bernanke 'wrote the book' on avoiding deflation, 'tis true. But he doesn't really have a clue what he is doing. He didn't really avoid a Second Great Depression. There isn't really a genuine recovery underway. And the world is not becoming a better place as a result of Ben Bernanke's exertions.

Au contraire...he's making a natural mess into an unnatural one. He's turning a depression into a Great Depression. He's making a bad situation worse.

At least, that is OUR plotline. But we'll let the story tell itself...day by day...and see where it leads us. If we are wrong about the plot...we'll find out...

The pound is in trouble. Our currency man, Bill Jenkins, sheds some light on the situation:

"Reason #1: Inflation is falling, which generally means no forecast for a rise in rates. No rising rates means no attraction for investors. Inflation has been falling since October '08: 5.2%, 4.5%, 4.1%, 3.1%, 3.0%, 3.2%, 2.9%, 2.3%, 2.2%, 1.8%.

"Reason #2: U.K. exports have hit the skids for the period going back to November. Check out these numbers year-over-year: November: $36,260 billion; December: $35,190 billion; January: $34,412 billion; February: $33,046 billion, March: $32,765 billion; April: $32,264 billion; May: $32,239 billion; June: $31,888 billion; July: $32,208 billion. In spite of the flattening out over the last couple reporting periods, there is no recovery here.

"Reason #3: Industrial production in the United Kingdom has maintained double-digit losses since January: -12.1%; February: -12.7%; March: - 12.6%; April: -12.4%; May: -11.9%; June: -11.1%. Without production, nothing sells. No sales.. no income. No income... no jobs.

"Reason #4: Thus the unemployment rate has been rising every month since January: 6.3%, 6.5%, 6.7%, 7.1%, 7.2%, 7.6% and 7.8%. Unemployment is still on the rise. Nearly one in five households are living on government benefits, with nearly 2 million children living in homes where no adult is working.

"Finally, in the oddity column...

"Reason #5: Business confidence and consumer confidence have been on the rise (although I am not sure why). I have mentioned to you before that sentiment figures are not really fundamental indicators. However, you can view them in a contrarian light when the real numbers are falling and the sentiment numbers are rising. Everybody wants things to be better but, as St. Paul writes, 'He that deceiveth himself is not wise.' And when we do ignore the 'facts,' they always come back to bite us!

"This is the foundation of a sucker's rally. People are drawn out of the woods and back into the mainstream, only to be blindsided by another whack from the recession paddle."

"Forget properties or shares," writes a dear reader. Here's how to make real money:

From the Bristol Evening Post:

"Outside Bristol Zoo is the car park, with spaces for 150 cars and 8 coaches. It has been manned 6 days a week for 23 years by the same charming and very polite car park attendant with the ticket machine. The charges are £1. per car and £5. per coach.

"On Monday 1 June, he did not turn up for work. Bristol Zoo management phoned Bristol City Council to ask them to send a replacement parking attendant.

"The Council said, 'That car park is your responsibility.' The Zoo said, 'The attendant was employed by the City Council...wasn't he?' The Council said, 'What attendant?'

"Gone missing from his home is a man who has been taking daily the car park fees amounting to about £400. per day for the last 23 years...!

"Total sum just short £2.9 million."

You won't believe how straight forward this is. In fact whatever your level of education or knowledge this will work for you... Just like it did for former sales representative Janet Fry who made £83,600 pure profits!

But there is one catch: we only had 100 places available to start with. Now 41 slots have been snapped up: we have only 59 places remaining.

The Daily Reckoning Presents: Ben Bernanke has saved the world from a Second Great Depression - or has he? In the essay below, Bill Bonner argues that Bernanke does what his predecessors at the Fed did in the '30s...and what the Japanese did in the '90s. Read on...

Bernanke to Stays Put
by Bill Bonner

Damned if he does; damned if he doesn't

This week, Ben Bernanke got the nod for another stint as head of the world's most important central bank. Yes, he completely misunderstood the implications of the hugely negative US trade balance, believing that America did the world a favor by spending its "global saving glut." And, yes, he missed the approach of the biggest financial disaster in three generations. Then, when it arrived, he mistook it for a routine recession, until finally, panicked by the collapse of Lehman Bros., he insisted that Congress pass a $750 billion spending bill - or "we may not have an economy on Monday."

But except for things that really matter, he's been a pretty good Fed chief. Besides, he has the right credentials. He was a professor of economics at Princeton and holds a Ph.D. from MIT - just like the most recent Nobel Prize winner in economics, Paul Krugman.

The United States has just averted the Second Great Depression, say the papers. "What saved us?" asks Krugman in a recent New York Times editorial. "Big government," is his answer. Specifically, the big government of Ben Bernanke.

But the ghost of Milton Friedman haunts the central bank. Bernanke borrowed a phrase from Friedman, saying he'd even "drop money from helicopters,' if necessary, to prevent deflation. This led to one of the surest trades of the Bubble Era was the so-called on the 'Bernanke Put.' Investors thought they could count on him. Buy stocks. If they went down, Ben Bernanke would make sure you didn't lose. He'd add liquidity until the market bounced back. But the Bernanke Put trade went bad in '07. The market fell. Ben Bernanke added liquidity. But so far, stocks have yet to regain 50% of what they lost. Meanwhile, consumer prices are falling. And yet, he does not drop money from helicopters. Why not?

Few people would have more authority on the subject than the group gathered at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles earlier this year. Michael Milken, the Junk Bond King, gathered them thither and picked up the tab for Gary Becker, Myron Scholes, and Roger Myerson...each of their names is preceded by 'Nobel Prize winner.' With that kind of brainpower on hand, you'd think you could come up with a good explanation. But the best they could do was a simple analogy. Gary Becker (Nobel awarded '92) took the Friedman line; he argued that by putting out the little forest fires, the recessions of the '90s and the early '00s, the feds inadvertently created the conditions for an even greater conflagration. Instead of burning off the underbrush, the tinder built up until a huge blaze was inevitable. And in a speech honoring Friedman, Bernanke accepted Friedman's criticism of the Fed in the '30s. Yes, Bernanke admitted, the Fed made mistakes; but we won't do it again, he said. The burden of today's rumination is that he was wrong; he will do it again.

"Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon," said Friedman. But deflation doesn't seem to be a monetary phenomenon at all. Despite huge inputs of new money from the Fed, prices are still going down. The Fed's balance sheet more than doubled in the last 18 months. It will probably double again - to $4 trillion - before Bernanke's next term is over.

Friedman won a Nobel Prize for his work. And he drew around him a community of scholars that won so many Nobel Prizes they ran out of room in the University of Chicago trophy cabinet. But it only makes you wonder about the Nobel committee. Friedman's acolytes won their prizes for elaborating a series of mathematical proofs for things that were either self-evident or self-evidently absurd. Most of them were later shown to be wrong, irrelevant or misleading. Modern Portfolio Theory, Black-Scholes Option Pricing Model, Dynamic Hedging - the farther afield the scholars went, the more they lost touch with home. The more scientific their work became, the more it resembled alchemy or phrenology.

Friedman's work itself was flawed in the same way. The general principle was correct - that the government that governs the markets least governs best. But when he got into the mechanics of 'monetarism,' he got lost. He believed that if the Fed kept its eye on the money supply; the free market would take care of everything else. But the free market didn't take of everything, at least not as people hoped. Economist Murray Rothbard explained why in 1971. You cannot expect the free market to function perfectly if you leave in the hands of the government the power to control money. Either markets are free or they aren't, was Rothbard's point. If they're not free, you can't blame freedom when they fail.

But free market economists are now blamed for everything. The free- market Chicago boys are out. The MIT crowd is in. And investors are buying the Bernanke Put again, confident that the Fed chief will keep pushing money into the system and stocks will continue rising. But Ben Bernanke, for all his bluster, is a victim of the trade. Everyone knows what he is up to. They can't help but look ahead and see where it leads.

As soon as Bernanke starts his helicopter engines, bond buyers get out their missiles; the Chinese - the biggest single customer for US debt - have warned that they will shoot him down. What can Bernanke do? He is damned if he doesn't. But even more damned if he does. He can't guarantee increases in either CPI or stocks. All he guarantees is that Big Government will play a larger role in the economy...and that Milton Friedman's history of the Great Depression will turn out to be prophecy:

"The Fed was largely responsible for converting what might have been a garden-variety recession... into a major catastrophe..."

Ultimately, Bernanke does what his predecessors at the Fed did in the '30s...and what the Japanese did in the '90s. He hesitates. He makes mistakes.

And he wonders why he took the damned job in the first place.

Until next time,

Bill Bonner