Monday, August 31, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

TED KENNEDY'S SENATE SEAT
NBC’s Steve Handlesman reports.

EYE ON WASHINGTON
Double-digit Dem losses ahead?

Panel:

*Charlie Cook, Editor & Publisher Cook Political Report
*Scott Rasmussen, Rasmussen Reports Founder & President

NY FED CHIEF COMMENTS
Dudley on the Fed exit strategy & targeting unemployment

CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Liesman reports.

BARNEY FRANK: AUDIT THE FED COMMENTS
CNBC’s Hampton Pearson reports.

BANK BAILOUTS GOOD INVESTMENT FOR U.S.?

*Tony Fratto, CNBC Contributor, Fmr. White House Deputy Press Secretary
*Jerry Bowyer, CNBC Contributor; Syndicated Columnist

DISNEY BUYING MARVEL
CNBC’s Julia Boorstin reports.

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC Bertha Coombs reports.

HAS THE MARKET RALLY TOPPED?

*Doug Kass, Seabreeze Partners Management Inc.
*Alison Deans, Deans Wealth Management Founder; Fmr. Neuberger Berman Private Asset Management CIO

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Friday, August 28, 2009

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

Kennedy Farewells with NBC's Steve Handlesman

Kennedy Healthcare?
*Julie Roginsky, CNBC contributor and Democratic Strategist
*Betsy McCaughey, former NY Lieutenant Governor

Krugman Says Deficits are Saving the World?
*Michael Linden, Center for American Progress
*James Pethokoukis, Reuters Money & Politics Columnist

Lobster Industry with CNBC's Janet Shamlian

"Tax Them, Not Me" Congressman Rangel:
*Julian Epstein, CEO of LMG and former Democratic Chief Counsel
*Steve Moore, Senior Economics Writer for the WSJ

Market Drilldown with CNBC's Bob Pisani

Layaway Makes a Comeback with CNBC's Jane Wells

Market Bull/Bear Debate
*Bill Smead, Smead Capital Management CEO
*Jim LaCamp, Senior VP, Macroportfolio Advisors

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

SEN. KENNEDY FUNERAL PLANS
Plus … Are Democrats rallying around "Kennedy-Care?"

CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood reports.

SPENDING SPREE DEBATE

*Sen. Tom Coburn, (R) Oklahoma
*TBA

THE FDIC’S BANK REPORT CARD
CNBC’s Hampton Pearson has a report.

FDIC INSURANCE FUND SHRINKS
Is your money safe?

*Bill Issac, Fmr. FDIC Chairman; Chairman of The Secura Group of LECG
*Chris Mayer, Senior Vice Dean or Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School

J. CREW: MICHELLE OBAMA’S FASHION EFFECT
CNBC’s Jane Wells reports.

DELL'S EARNINGS
CNBC’s Jim Goldman reports.

RISKY BUSINESS?
An eye on Citi/Fannie/Freddie/AIG

CNBC’s Bob Pisani reports.

GURUS ON THE NEW BULL MARKET

*Ken Heebner, Capital Growth Management Portfolio Manager
*Stephen Auth, chief investment officer for global equity at Federated Investors

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Yergin on Oil's Future

My old friend Dan Yergin joined me on last night's Kudlow Report to offer his take on what the oil future may hold. Dan is an energy expert and chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, as well as the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power.



Cartoonifying Kudlow...


Hat tip to my friend Mark Perry over at Carpe Diem.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

STRONG GAINS IN NEW HOME SALES
CNBC housing reporter Diana Olick has the story.

V-SHAPED RECOVERY? IS THE ECONOMY COMING ON FASTER & STRONGER THAN MANY THOUGHT?
And could that actually hurt stocks?

*Joe Battipaglia, Stifel Nicolaus Market Strategist
*Brian Wesbury, First Trust Advisors Chief Economist

WHOLE FOODS THRIVING
CNBC’s Rebecca Jarvis reports.

DECADE OF DEBT & DOUBTS ON THE DOLLAR

*David Walker, Fmr. U.S. Comptroller General President and CEO of Peter G. Peterson Foundation
*Adam Boyton, currency specialist with Deutsche Bank

THE FINAL TALLY ON CASH FOR CLUNKERS
CNBC’s Phil LeBeau reports.

EYE ON OIL
Oil's changing, whole industry's changing

*Daniel Yergin, Chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates and CNBC Global Energy Expert offers his perspective.

DO MONEY MARKET MUTUAL FUNDS NEED REGULATING?
And what would that mean for your money?

*Anthony Carfang, Treasury Strategies Inc.
*Peter Morici ; Univ of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Prof; U.S. International Trade Commission Fmr. Chief Economist

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Did Obama Make the Right Choice in Re-nominating Ben Bernanke as Fed Chairman?

We posed this question to our eclectic Kudlow Caucus panel of 12 notables including economist Art Laffer, stock market seer Dougie Kass, and The New Republic's Noam Scheiber.

Here are the results.

Gurus Talk Bernanke and What Lies Ahead in the New Bull Market

Famed investor Byron Wien, incoming vice chairman at Blackstone Advisory Services and Peter Grandich, chief market commentator at Agoracom.com, joined me last night to discuss their latest investment insight and perspective.



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

HELICOPTER BEN VS. KING DOLLAR BEN
Did Obama make the right choice?

*Larry Lindsey, The Lindsey Group, President & CEO; Former National Economic Council Director
*John Tamny, RealClearMarkets.com Editor
*Noam Scheiber, Sr. Editor, The New Republic

ARMAGEDDON DEFICITS
White House projects bigger deficits, bigger debt

CNBC’s Hampton Pearson reports.

Also...David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General, President and CEO of Peter G. Peterson Foundation will offer his perspective.

BIG BAD DEFICIT DEBATE

*Robert Reich, former Clinton Labor Secretary; Author, "Supercapitalism"; Univ. of CA., Berkeley, Prof. of Public Policy
*Steve Moore, Senior Economics Writer for the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board; "The End of Prosperity" Co-Author

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Scott Wapner reports.

HOUSING / CASE-SHILLER
CNBC’s Diana Olick has today’s housing story.

THE NEW BULL MARKET
What do you buy on Bernanke?

*Byron Wein, former Pequot Capital Chief Investment Strategist; Blackstone Advisory Services Incoming Vice Chairman
*Peter Grandich, Grandich Publications Editor

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Helicopter Ben or King Dollar?

It’s no surprise that President Obama re-nominated Fed head Ben Bernanke to a second term as chair of the central bank. It was the path of least resistance. Essentially, the president argued that Bernanke was the guy who kept us out of a second Great Depression. Okay, fine. But now we must ask: Is Bernanke the right guy to craft and pilot an exit strategy that avoids new inflationary bubbles?

In short, will he be Helicopter Ben or King Dollar?

It’s a tough question that markets are puzzling over. Interestingly, there was very little change in stock and bond trading today. So the guessing game will continue. If Mr. Bernanke repeats his role as Alan Greenspan’s bubbled-over, easy-money copilot between 2002 and 2005, we’re in for trouble.

Stanford economist John Taylor wrote this up in his great short book, Getting Off Track. The dollar plunged while hard-asset prices (like housing, commodities, energy, and gold) soared. And then came the tightening that moved us from boom to bust. Is this movie gonna play all over again? Nobody knows.

On the other hand, if Mr. Bernanke adopted a financial-and-commodity-market price rule — using inflation-sensitive, real-world price indicators like gold, commodities, bonds, and so forth — the so-called exit-strategy outcome from the easy-money rescue of the banking system over the past year might have a much happier ending.

But looking at Bernanke’s record and numerous speeches, he really seems more like a Republican Phillips-curve advocate who targets the unemployment rate in a false trade-off with inflation. This means he will likely overstay the Fed’s easy-money welcome, and that future inflation and interest rates are going up.

I have never heard Mr. Bernanke proselytize for a stable-dollar currency value of money. Never. Of course, like any central banker, he says he’s for price stability. But the question remains how to get there and what model to use. Supply-siders like myself strongly support a price-rule model, where markets tell government what to do. But all too often it seems like Mr. Bernanke — who has been out there buying Treasury and mortgage bonds in a futile attempt to control their yields — prefers the model where the government tells markets what to do. This is a loser, as we have painfully learned in the past.

Paul Volcker watched gold in the ’80s. So did Alan Greenspan for most of the ’90s. But I don’t think Mr. Bernanke watches gold at all. And I don’t think he worries much about the fate of the dollar.

Let me not pre-judge Bernanke’s second term. The Fed chair has done a good job over the past year in moving the financial system towards recovery. But I think the ultimate question remains: Helicopter Ben or King Dollar?

Monday, August 24, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

EYE ON BANKS
Is Dick Bove right? Is a wave of bank failures coming?

CNBC’s Hampton Pearson has a report.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST BANKS
A look at what bank closings mean for you, the system, and the stock market.

*Robert Albertson, Sandler O'Neill, Principal & Chief Strategist
*Bill Isaac, former FDIC Chairman, Chairman of The Secura Group of LECG
*Vince Reinhart, AEI Resident Scholar; former director of the Fed's Division of Monetary Affairs

DOES BERNIE MADOFF HAVE CANCER?
Andrew Kirtzman, author of the New York Times bestselling, "BETRAYAL: The Life and Lies of Bernie Madoff" will join us.

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Rebecca Jarvis reports.

THE NEW BULL MARKET
Will markets continue to rally?

*Bob Doll, Vice Chairman & Global CIO of Equities at BlackRock
*Richard Hoey, Chief Economist For Bank of New York Mellon; Chief Investment Strategist for Dreyfus Corporation

BEYOND CASH FOR CLUNKERS
CNBC auto reporter Phil LeBeau reports.

WHAT DOES A $9 TRILLION DEFICIT MEAN FOR THE ECONOMY?
And what does it mean for stocks?

On to debate:

*Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former CBO director & top economic advisor to McCain's Senior Economic Advisor
*Christian Weller, senior fellow at Center For American Progress

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Bob Novak, R.I.P.

Faith, freedom, and free-enterprise.

Now we say good-bye to Robert Novak, who passed away early Tuesday morning at the age of 78. Yet another conservative icon has left us. He was a good friend, and an amazing reporter. In fact, I believe he was the best reporter of his generation, which spans all the way back to the Eisenhower years.

Bob had a lot of opinions -- conservative opinions; Reaganesque opinions. But his pursuit of journalistic detail, facts, scoops, and stories that no one else got was remarkable. He was “old school” in this respect, which is why he was so esteemed by political allies and critics alike.

Shoe leather is a term that comes to mind, and doggedness, and very hard work. Bob had a deep distrust of government. But even during the Reagan years, when I confess to being a source, Bob would write tough stories about the administration he supported. That was the thing about Bob: He was both a conservative icon in terms of his unswerving political beliefs, and a journalistic icon in terms of his unyielding tradecraft.

His last book, The Prince of Darkness, is a phenomenal account of Washington over the last 50-some-odd years. And it is a brilliant account of politics by a guy who refused to trust politicians, even the ones he favored. I can’t think of anybody today who writes the way Bob Novak wrote.

I knew him well, from tons of television work. We actually had a show together for a year back in 1990. It was called Money Politics. It was produced by Neal Freeman and it ran every Sunday until the deep recession turned it off.

Down through the years I had many an encounter with Bob on CNN’s Crossfire. Even though we agreed on most issues, he’d still come after me for one thing or another. You had to be on guard. Bob was a hoot.

He also was an anti-communist hawk on foreign policy and a supply-sider on the economy. In The Prince of Darkness he wrote that Jude Wanniski’s The Way the World Works was the most influential book he ever read.

Down through the years Bob proselytized the work of Wanniski, Art Laffer, Bob Mundell, Jack Kemp, and many of us lesser lights in the movement. He believed in low tax rates to grow the economy and a gold-backed dollar to keep prices stable. Sounds almost quaint today, in Obama’s very-big-government Washington. But it really was the heart of the successful Reagan economic revolution.

Back in July 2007, after the publication of The Prince of Darkness, I interviewed Bob once again on CNBC. He was as sharp as a tack and remarkably conversant on everything. We had him on for almost the whole show. It was a real treat.

One of the great things about Bob was how he stood by his friends through thick and thin. I know this from personal experience. Though I first met him in the late 1970s, our friendship became much closer after I crashed and burned over alcohol and drug abuse in the mid-1990s. He congratulated me for moving on, and he exhorted and encouraged me in my new full-time career in broadcast journalism and column-writing. I loved him for that. Bob was a tough guy, but not with his friends. He was loyal. So am I.

Over the past twelve years Bob became a strong and devout traditional Catholic. He converted at the age of 66 as he came to grips with faith and embraced Jesus Christ. He did so on very personal terms, without any drama, but his belief was strong and deep. He came to believe that Christ died for us and our sins and for our salvation. As he looked back on his own life, and his several brushes with death, he came to understand that Jesus saved him and had a purpose for him.

As a Catholic convert myself, I often spoke with Bob as he neared his final decision. I had been received into the Church a few years earlier, and Bob would call me not so much for advice, but to talk about my decision. I always told him to follow his heart and his instincts. He did, with enormous grace.

In the past year and a half, conservative giants Bill Buckley, Jack Kemp, and now Robert Novak have departed. These were very different people, but they were all phenomenal leaders. They dedicated their lives to faith, freedom, and free-enterprise. I was blessed to know all three men very well. They had an immeasurable influence on my life.

But for today I am saddened by the passing of my friend Bob Novak. May he rest in peace.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Eight Reasons Why Big Government Hurts Economic Growth

Here's Dan Mitchell's latest mini-documentary explaining how and why excessive government spending undermines economic growth.

Incidentally, a new poll out today reveals that 57 percent of Americans say the stimulus package is having no impact on the economy or making it worse. Moreover, 60 percent doubt the stimulus plan will help the economy in the years ahead.

Friday, August 14, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

OBAMA TAKES ON HIS CRITICS IN MONTANA
NBC’s Steve Handelsman reports.

IS OBAMA-CARE IN INTENSIVE CARE?

*Deroy Murdock, conservative syndicated columnist
*Jerry Bowyer, economist; CNBC Contributor, Syndicated Columnist
*Keith Boykin, CNBC Contributor; Former Clinton White House Aide

STOCK MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Scott Cohn reports.

SPEED TRADERS: IS THIS JUST A SHORT-TERM PULLBACK?

*Dan Nathan, "Options Action" Contributor
*Mike Khouh, "Options Action" Contributor

THE NEW BULL MARKET: IS THIS JUST A SHORT-TERM PULLBACK?

*Ronald Kruszewski, Stifel, Nicolaus Chairman & CEO
*Richard Hoey, Chief Economist For Bank of New York Mellon, Chief Investment Strategist for Dreyfus Corporation

MADOFF'S MISTRESS

*Vicky Ward, Vanity Fair Writer, CNBC Contributor
*Pat Brosnan, Brosnan Risk Consultants Founder & President

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

One-on-One with Elaine Garzarelli

Famed market analyst Elaine Garzarelli, president of Garzarelli Research, offered her stock market and economic perspective on last night's Kudlow Report.

Interview begins at the 2:30 mark.



Thursday, August 13, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION DEBATE
Should there be guaranteed bonuses?

*Bob Reich, former Labor Secretary and author of "Supercapitalism"
*Steve Moore, Sr. Economics Writer, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board; "The End of Prosperity" Co-Author

EYE ON FASB: RETHINKING MARK-TO-MARKET?
CNBC’s Mary Thompson has a report.

Would mark-to-market destroy the stock rally?
Frank Sorrentino, North Jersey Community Bank Chairman & CEO will join us to discuss.

TOWNHALLS GONE WILD...

On to debate:

*Ann Coulter, Syndicated Columnist; "Guilty" author
*Mark Walsh, "Left Jab" Host; Fmr. Sr. V.P. at America Online; Fmr. Vertical Net CEO; Founding CEO at Air America; Fmr. DNC Advisor

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Sharon Epperson reports.

THE NEW BULL MARKET
Buy or Sell?

Elaine Garzarelli president of Garzarelli Capital will offer her perspective.

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Have We Seen This Fed Movie Before?

The bull market snapped back yesterday and prospects for modest economic recovery still look good. But I want to issue a warning or two about the latest policy statement from Bernanke & Company. I am not thrilled about it.

The Federal Reserve is keeping its fed funds target rate down near zero and is talking about adding another $1.5 trillion to its balance sheet through the purchase of mortgage bonds and Treasuries. Now, I don’t care whether those purchases come sooner or later. They represent massive new dollar creation and potential inflation. The Fed is targeting unemployment, not price stability or King Dollar.

Here’s my question: Is the Fed repeating the very same easy-money mistake it made between 2002 and 2005, when it totally bubbled-up and inflated housing, energy, and financial markets, all of which led to a 6 percent inflation rate down the road? Of course, all of that also led to a very deep recession. So color me worried.

Distinguished monetary historian and Fed expert Alan Meltzer from Carnegie Mellon says the Fed needs to wind down the printing of excess cash and balance-sheet expansion in order to stop future inflation. He’s absolutely right.

And even if government health-care control doesn’t pass, it’s bad enough that Uncle Sam is borrowing too much and spending too much. This will slow future prosperity and bias the system toward inflation.

In the short run, excess liquidity from the Fed may be good for stocks. In the longer term, it is not good for stocks, the economy, or your pocketbook.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Rebecca Jarvis reports.

SPEED TRADER: THE NEW BULL MARKET!

*Brian Stutland, Stutland Equities President & Trader; Options Action Contributor
*Jim Iourio, Options Action Contributor; Director, TJM Institutional Services

THE FED STATEMENT
CNBC’s Hampton Pearson reports.

FED SPEAK & THE NEW BULL MARKET
Should Bernanke stay or go?

*Michelle Girard, RBS Greenwich Capital Senior Economist
*Michelle Meyer, U.S. Economist, Barclays Capital

TOLL BROTHERS CEO EXCLUSIVE
CNBC’s Diana Olick reports.

ALL-STARS DISCUSS THE NEW BULL MARKET

*Laszlo Birinyi Jr., Birinyi Associates President
*Ed Yardeni, Yardeni Research President

UBS-US-SWISS COMPLETE TAX-EVASION SETTLEMENT
Is this the end of Swiss bank accounts?

*Joe DiGenova, Former U.S. Attorney
*Dan Mitchell, CATO Institute

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Obama’s Hoof-in-Mouth Disease

Does the inner Obama secretly favor private health care?

It’s hard to know why President Obama said what he said at Tuesday’s health-care town hall in New Hampshire. He actually stated, “If you think about it, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”

Oops. Freudian slip? Subliminally speaking, was the president implying that private health insurers are doing just fine?

Government insurance is what’s in trouble today. Medicare is in the hole by about $40 trillion on a discounted present-value basis over the next 40 or 50 years. And if we’re going to equate government care to government mail, according to Steve Hayes of The Weekly Standard, the U.S. Postal Service is going bankrupt with a $7 billion net loss this year. With 633,000 career employees, the Post Office won’t be able to make $5.4 billion in retiree health-benefit payments. How many of these federal employees will populate the new government-backed insurance plan if it passes?

So it’s something of a mystery why the president went down the FedEx/UPS/Post Office turnpike. Perhaps the inner Obama is a free-enterprise guy. Maybe in the heat of battle his private-sector FedEx/UPS endorsement kind of, well, slipped out unconsciously.

Some will be skeptical of this reasoning. But having once, along with other conservative pundits, had dinner with the man, and knowing how carefully he parses his words, I find it hard to understand how he let this free-market blessing slip out. Perhaps he’s secretly competing with Joe Biden to win the hoof-in-mouth-disease contest.

Obama’s health-care gaffes are mounting. At a press conference a few weeks back, the president let fly with an attack on doctors who remove tonsils instead of handing out allergy pills. Since doctors are very popular in America, and many Obamacare protesters are opposed to putting government central planners between doctors and patients, this was a big mistake. Worth noting, at that same presser, Obama also put his foot in it by attacking the Cambridge police officer at the center of the Henry Louis Gates affair. More hoof-in-mouth.

Obama’s response in New Hampshire to the so-called death-board issue also was revealing. Some say these boards are tantamount to euthanasia for the elderly. Placards outside the meeting read: “Obamacare, Down the Chute Granny.” (Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin is spearheading this protest.)

Obama’s response? He says reform “would not basically pull the plug on grandma because we decided that it’s too expensive to let her live anymore.” But the bill provides for end-of-life counseling in the context of a broad effort to “bend the cost curve.” And as policy students know, it’s not always the precise wording of legislation that counts, but the regulatory interpretations of laws that are made by federal and state officials.

So, in a sense, Obama’s denial was a non-denial denial. He should have unequivocally demanded that the death-board language be removed from any bill. But he didn’t — perhaps because he agrees with it. In interviews earlier this year, the president said that while he would have fought for his own grandmother’s hip replacement, clinically he can see how these expensive decisions should not be made.

Grandma may indeed represent Obama’s biggest political problem right now. As Team Obama attempts to placate concerns at the CBO that health reform is a budget-buster, seniors are rightly worried that the Medicare program on which they depend will be ravaged by cost cuts.

Rasmussen now reports that elderly folks over 65 are against Obamacare by 56 to 39 percent. That’s a bad number for Democrats who rely on seniors to maintain their governing coalition. Incidentally, polls also show that about 75 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health-care services.

It’s still tough to know whether this behemoth government takeover of health care will actually pass. But two key markets are betting against it. First, over at the Intrade pay-to-play online-betting parlor, the bid for the U.S. government health-plan contract is only 38 cents. That’s down from 50 cents in late July. Second, the share prices of big private health insurers have rallied in recent weeks. UnitedHealthcare is up 13 percent, Humana is up 12.4 percent, and Aetna is up almost 10 percent. These firms will be decimated if the government insurance plan passes. But investors are now predicting it won’t.

For the sake of economic freedom, liberty, and fiscal sanity, let’s hope the markets are right.

Bove Talks Banks

Rochdale Securities bank analyst Dick Bove offered his bearish outlook for the sector on last night's show along with the more bullish Danielle Hughes from Divine Capital.












Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Washington's Fiscal Nymphomania

Joining me last night to debate Paul Krugman's assertion that the U.S. needs a second round of stimulus was University of Chicago economics professor Casey Mulligan and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich.












Market-Driven Optimism

There’s a lot of talk right now about big government saving America, either from a second Great Depression (according to economist Paul Krugman) or from a health-care meltdown (according to President Obama). Well, I don’t think big government saves us from anything. At the end of the day, it is economic freedom, market competition, and free enterprise that remain the great engines of American growth.

The greatest source of stimulus for both the new bull market and the new economic recovery is profits. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, business, and the economy. And if the positive-profits story continues its steady march higher, as I believe it will, investors are going to be just fine with stocks. And American consumers and workers are going to be just fine with economic recovery.

Of course, the Fed has played a big role in cushioning the banking system. I applaud that. But ultimately the self-correcting actions of American businesses and families are what always drive this economy, as long as we permit them to drive it.

Now, I’m not an optimist because we are spending and borrowing trillions of dollars. I’m not even an optimist because the Fed has front-loaded so much new cash into the financial system. I’m an optimist because — right now — we remain a market-driven economy. And if we protect that precious mission, and allow these great engines of growth and prosperity to do what they do best, then we will be just fine.

Monday, August 10, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN
CNBC’s Scott Wapner reports.

SPEED TRADER
ThinkorSwim Chief Derivatives Strategist Joe Kinahan will offer his perspective.

IS KRUGMAN RIGHT? MORE STIMULUS?

On to debate:

*Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary; "Supercapitalism" author; public policy professor
*Casey Mulligan, Professor of Economics University of Chicago

THE NEW BULL MARKET
Where to put your money now.

*Don Luskin, Trend Macro Chief Investment Officer
*Jeff Kleintop, LPL Financial Chief Market Strategist

THE BIG WINNERS IN THE SUMMER RALLY
CNBC’s Matt Nesto reports.

HEALTHCARE HIJACKING AT TOWNHALLS?
Fringe Americans or concerned Americans?

CNBC chief Washington correspondent John Harwood reports.

FISCAL NYMPHOMANIA
A look at government gone wild protests.

*Mark Walsh, "Left Jab" Host (Sirius show); Fmr. Sr. Vice President at America Online; Fmr. Vertical Net CEO; Founding CEO at Air America
*Amanda Carpenter, Townhall National Political Reporter

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Friday, August 07, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN with CNBC's Bob Pisani

SPEED TRADERS
*Warren Meyers, CEO, Walter J. Dowd
*Jim Iuorio, Director, TJM Institutional Services

THE NEW BULL MARKET: JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
*Bob Reich, former Labor Secretary, UCAL Berkeley Professor
*Joe LaVorgna, Chief U.S. Economist, Deutsche Bank

THE NEW BULL MARKET: CAN OBAMA TAKE CREDIT?
*Bob Reich, former Labor Secretary, UCAL Berkeley Professor
*Tony Fratto, former White House Deputy Press Secretary

THE NEW BULL MARKET: BANKING ON STOCKS
*Ronald Kruszewski, CEO, Stifel Nicolaus
*Richard Hoey, CIS, Dreyfus Corp. and Chief Economist Bank of New York Mellon

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN & EARNINGS with CNBC's Rebecca Jarvis

SPEED TRADE
Panel:
*Jack Bouroudjian, CEO, IndexFuturesGroup.com
*Mike Khouw, Cantor Fitzgerald Director, Derivatives Trading

THE NEW BULL MARKET: JOBS! JOBS! JOBS!
Panel:
*Rick Santelli, CNBC Chicago
*Joe LaVorgna, Chief U.S. Economist, Deutsche Bank
*along with Jack Bouroudjian and Mike Khouw

A BULL/BEAR DEBATE:
*Stefan Abrams, Bryden-Abrams Managing Partner
*Neil Weinberg, Forbes Executive Editor

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

A Vote for the Clunkers


As a free-market capitalist who does not believe in artificial spending and pump-priming from Uncle Sam, I’m going to eat a little crow with the following statement: At this moment in history, if we’re going to use fiscal stimulus as Washington insists, I favor extending the cash-for-clunkers car-rebate program.

With the greatest respect for my conservative friends and colleagues who totally disagree with me, here’s why.

In virtually no time, the clunker program has become a national pastime. It has captured the public’s imagination in a way that no other federal stimulus has. Everyone is talking about it. And I truly believe that consumer spirits have been buoyed by the prospect of going out and buying a new car -- even with federal assistance, and even under the duress of federal mileage standards.

After a very dreary year or two, people might just have fun trading in their clunkers and buying something new.

Even today, as unfashionable as it sounds, and given Washington’s attack on horsepower, Americans are still in love with automobiles. They still like going to showrooms, checking out the new models, inhaling the great new-car smell, and yes, kicking the tires and making a buy. Cars may no longer be the heart of our economy -- that’s all techie, information gadgets now. But folks still love the car thing.

Now, I wouldn’t want the government to pass out free money for everything. But in this particular case, the cash-for-clunkers rebate program is working. It’s working so well that it’s running way ahead of the computers that are administering it at the Transportation Department and Citibank.

Well, sure. That’s government for you. But unlike most of the rest of the fiscal-stimulus plan, this program actually works because the federal cash rebate actually contributes to a consumer purchase. It’s not just another welfare-type transfer program.

Incidentally, with all those people rushing into the car-dealer showrooms, the ones who cannot afford new cars are buying used cars. Used car prices are up substantially this year, a healthy sign for the entire auto business.

And carmakers are going to have to ramp-up production in order to meet the clunker trade-in demand, which could well mean better employment -- something we desperately need. Plus, in addition to fueling better job creation and higher incomes, this process may generate rising tax revenues from the sale of the cars.

And the price tag of the program is a mere $2 billion compared with the trillions of dollars Washington has been wasting. So, for once in our lives, Washington spending is giving us a good bang for the buck.

The biggest trade out there seems to be selling the Ford Explorer and buying the Ford Focus. Of the top-five-purchased higher-mileage cars that qualify, Toyota has three, the Corolla, Prius, and Camry. The Prius is made overseas, but the other two are manufactured mostly in the United States. The number-three trade, the Honda Civic, is made in Indiana, while the Dodge Caliber and Chevrolet Cobalt rank in the top ten.

Yes, as for the Chevy, it is a little bizarre that the government that owns General Motors is in effect paying itself. So it goes. It ain’t perfect.

And yes, it’s quite possible that government rebates today will steal car sales from next year. But let’s cross that bridge next year when the bull market recovery will hopefully be stronger.

Right about now you’re probably saying, “Well, why not just spend another $100 billion and give consumers checks for everything?” Or, “Why not spend another trillion?” Well, I don’t want to go there. Just this one cash-for-clunker program -- that’s all I want. Fund it again for a couple of billion dollars more.

I mean, look, if I had my way, that trillion-dollar stimulus plan from President Obama would have gone to a six- or twelve-month tax holiday for everyone. But alas, that’s not how the political ball bounced. At least for the clunkers, there’s a plan that has caught the public’s imagination and makes for a reasonable amount of economic success.

So I invite my Republican friends in the Senate and my conservative friends everywhere to push for the clunkers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.” So I acknowledge that I am not being consistent. But I do actually believe that the new bull market in stocks and the onset of economic recovery will both be helped by improved consumer spirits, better car sales, and maybe even a new job or two for the American workforce.

And now I will try to regroup and go back to being a pure free-market-capitalist supply-sider.

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN/EARNINGS with CNBC's Matt Nesto and Jim Goldman

SPEED TRADE ~ PULLBACKS ARE HEALTHY! BUY ON THE DIP!
*Brian Stutland, President of Stutland Equities
*Scott Nations, CIO, Nations Shares

THE NEW BULL MARKET
Panel:
*Ken Langone, Former NYSE Director & Home Depot co-founder
*Neil Hennessy, Portfolio Manager, Hennessy Funds

OBAMA'S HARD SELL ON THE ECONOMY with CNBC's John Harwood

IS CASH FOR CLUNKERS BULLISH?
Panel:
*Steve Moore, WSJ Editorial Board
*John Ryding, Chief Economist, RDQ Economics

WHY IS GOVERNMENT VILIFYING WEALTH AND BONUSES?
debate with Ken Langone and Neil Hennessy


Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

MARKET DRILLDOWN with CNBC's Rebecca Jarvis

FLASH TRADE with CNBC's Mary Thompson

TRADING THE NEW BULL MARKET:
Panel:
*Kevin Ferry, CNBC Market Analyst and Cronus Futures Management
*Jim Luorio, Options Action Contributor and TJM Institutional Services

OBAMA'S CASH FOR CLUNKERS MEETING with CNBC's Hampton Pearson

SENATOR TOM COBURN weighs in on Cash for Clunkers

NEW BULL MARKET -- MONEY-MAKING SECTORS
Panel:
*Wendell Perkins, Optique Capital
*Jim LaCamp, Macroportfolio Advisors
*Jack Gage, Forbes

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

Monday, August 03, 2009

On Tonight's Kudlow Report

On tonight's show at 7pm ET on CNBC:

EARNINGS CENTRAL CNBC’s Brian Shactman will report all the latest earnings news.

OVERVIEW OF THE SUMMER RALLY CNBC's Bob Pisani and Market Analyst Steve Grasso will report on the 50 percent rise from the March lows

THE NEW BULL MARKET
Panel:
*Art Laffer, CIO, Laffer Investments
*Jack Ablin, CIO, Harris Private Bank

TAX ATTACK AND CASH FOR CLUNKERS UPDATE with CNBC's John Harwood

THE NEW BULL MARKET & $100 OIL
Panel:
*Bob Crandall, former AMR Chairman and CEO
*James Hackett, President & CEO of Anadarko

Please join us. The Kudlow Report. 7pm ET. CNBC.

This New Bull Market Is No Clunker

The new bull market continues to rally today, with stocks surging across-the-board.

The Dow is up over 100 points at this writing, moving toward 9,300. The NASDAQ has pushed through the 2,000 level and the broad-based S&P 500 has run past the 1,000 mark with a 1.5 percent gain. This powerful summer rally adds to the early March rally, and it provides powerful new proof that we are in a genuine new bull market.

My thesis remains that free-market capitalism is more resilient and flexible than its detractors think. What’s more, the business sector has undergone tremendous cost corrections in the aftermath of the financial meltdown. This is where the new economic strength is coming from as the economy pushes ahead from recession to recovery in the third quarter. Market forces are pushing back against Obamanomics and the long-term spending-borrowing-taxing-and-regulating threats to our long-run prosperity.

This is predominantly a cyclical move in stocks and the economy. Today’s ISM manufacturing report tells the story. The overall index moved up to 48.9 in July from 44.8 in June, a much bigger-than-expected jump that signals 3 percent economic growth. (The first-quarter average for the ISM was only 35.9.) Inside the index, new orders have surged to over 55 while production has jumped to nearly 58. Order backlogs hit 50. Rising orders are a key leading indicator of better businesses, and that means stronger consumers.

Incidentally, banks are surging today in the market, another indicator of the recovery power of a zero short rate and a steep, upward-sloping Treasury curve.

Carmakers, meanwhile, are reporting better sales on the shoulders of the silly cash-for-clunkers program. The Wall Street Journal correctly calls it “crackpot economics.” Not surprisingly, numerous automakers appeared on CNBC today to tout the greatness of the clunker program. I asked the sales head of Ford if the company was really going to ramp up production in response to this temporary government giveaway. He wouldn’t answer. But he and his colleagues are all touting the program. You have to love it, the stupidity of it all.

Of course, clunker sales today will borrow from next year’s expected sales. But no one is thinking in those terms, and the Senate will surely put another couple billion of dollars into the program.

On the other hand, the new bull market is not a clunker. Nor is the gradual move towards business health. We’ll see if there’s any improvement when we get the jobs report on Friday. Optimistic as I am in the short-run, I acknowledge that declining jobs, hours worked, flat wages, and rising unemployment make up the Achilles’ heel of my bull-market thesis. Let’s wait and see.

Right now Wall Street is celebrating. We’ve waited a long while for good news. I like good news.