Other than exploiting other countries for fun and profit, they really don't know a fucking thing about the rest of the world.
Instead of blowing smoke up our asses about 'decoupling', maybe they could have opened their eyes long enough to look at a chart. Far from being decoupled, Emerging Markets LED the S&P lower in 2008 prior to Lehman...Only the exact opposite of what we are now being told:
EM stocks are at the same level as Lehman, sporting the exact same double top pattern...
"There is no dissent in the group on the market’s direction: upward."
As we learned during Lehman, all global markets are 100% synched to the downside. As of now, all markets have peaked and the dispersion of returns is at the narrowest since the bottom in 2009...
"A clique of optimists"
Groupthink aka. "Assets Under Management" x 2 and 20
"...is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Group members try to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation of alternative viewpoints, by actively suppressing dissenting viewpoints, and by isolating themselves from outside influences. Loyalty to the group requires individuals to avoid raising controversial issues or alternative solutions, and there is loss of individual creativity, uniqueness and independent thinking. The dysfunctional group dynamics of the "ingroup" produces an "illusion of invulnerability".
What happens when the market does the exact opposite of what everyone is expecting it to do?
Big fucking bang.
