Pulled Apart or Pushed Ahead?

There may be things to worry about, but there’s also good news.
In my view, the global economy is not being pulled apart in 2015.
Low energy prices, interest rates and inflation could push the world ahead.

At the beginning of 2015, the worry machines of the world are working full time. We hear that China is a bubble, Japan cannot be fixed, Europe is a mess again and the United States is showing signs of slowing.

There may be some truth in all this, but there are other truths that we should also consider.

Fearing the Fed

Now the talk is that by doing less, the Fed could trigger a market collapse.
I suspect there are limits to how high US rates will go when the Fed is on the sidelines.
The US economy’s forward momentum should also continue to support the stock market.

The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, is the subject of criticism, no matter what it does. It has been roundly criticized for making money too easy and creating bubbles everywhere — in short, that its actions aren’t working. If its actions are working, then the talk is that this artificial support will have to be removed, and the Fed will trigger a market collapse by doing less.

I suspect, however, that the easy money accusation against the Fed — and the implication that stock prices have to fall without its efforts to keep rates low — may be erroneous. Here are my reasons: