Fourth Quarter 2024
Flip-Flop
We survived yet another election year. I don’t know about you, but I am glad not to see any more political advertisements, at least for a while. Politics is a full-contact sport and not for the faint of heart; mud-slinging both ways comes with the territory. Many sins no longer seem to even raise an eyebrow when in my youth they would have ended a politician’s career, but there is one political sin that still seems to stick: If you are interested in politics, then you best not get caught flip-flopping.
I’m not talking about my personal preference for footwear. I grew up in South Florida; who wants to wear shoes when it is always hot? No, I am talking about flip-flopping of political positions to go along with the preference of the day. The examples are too numerous to count, so much so that the “he was for it until he was against it” phrase is now a political cliché.
Politics is not the only place where flip-flopping takes place. The market has been flip-flopping for a while now, and while most seem not to notice, I am really getting tired of it. If one pays attention only to the S&P 500 index, then it may not seem like there is any inconsistency. This index, which many use as that proxy for the market, just keeps going up quarter after quarter, or at least it has over the last couple years. However, as I have said more times than I can count, it is what happens underneath the surface that really tells an investor what is happening.
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