Two Business Days After the Sequester Kicks In: Dow Smashes Through Record; Sees Highest Close Since Halloween, 2007 -- Qualitative Easing vs Quantitative Easing: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

Updates

Later, 8:36 pm: so much for all those scares that the sequester would destroy the economy. The Washington Examiner is reporting:

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney declined to weigh in on the Dow hitting an all-time high on Tuesday, a development clashing with President Obama’s assertion that across-the-board spending cuts would imperil the economy

“I don’t comment on markets,” Carney insisted on Tuesday.

Just two months ago, however, Carney cited the stock market as proof that Republicans were harming the economy. [Правда.]

“I would remind you of the damage caused to our economy by the approach that House Republicans took on this matter just in the summer of 2011,” Carney said in January when asked about fiscal negotiations between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. 

“As a result of their flirtation with default, the stock market plummeted. The Dow fell 7 percent, or almost 900 points, in late July and early August of 2011. The United States was downgraded and the Dow fell another 10 percent ...."

Carney: "I don't comment on markets." [Except when it's useful to do so.] I can't make this stuff up....

Later, 7:01 pm: this is why I don't post some "anonymous" comments. I don't want to embarrass "anonymous." Smile.

I corrected my "quantitative easing" to "qualitative easing" in the original post, but it appears it is not as simple as that.

From the "Economist's View": Qualitative Easing: How it Works and Why it Matters. And then from Mahifx: Quantitative vs. Qualitative Easing: How Two Little Letters Make All the Difference.

And from the Ludwig von Mises Institute: Qualitative Easing.

But this one might be the best: Is the Fed Engaged in Quantitative or Qualitative Easing? And the author says: "As I define it, qualitative easing." Wow.

I'm not going to parse the distinctions, but it's never as simple as some folks would like to make it. So, let's end with this, from wiki:

Because of the song, tomayto, tomahto has come to be used as an expression meaning “unimportant difference.” 

And that, for me, sums it up. [But, yes, Mr Bernanke refers to it as 'quantitative easing.' Others call it printing money which is not exactly accurate "ee-ther" (or "eye-ther").

You Say 'Tomayto,' I Say 'Tomahto'; Let's Call The Whole Thing Off, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers

Original Post 

I don't recall the three reasons the CNBC talking head gave this morning for the surging stock market but two were a) the housing turnaround; b) low interest rates; and, as noted, I forget (c) but it was something similar to "housing turnaround."

It has nothing to do with any of that, of course. It has everything to do with the Fed's qualitative easing (which, of course, is related to (b) low interest rates, but the CNBC talking head did now want to be so clear).

And so it goes. Last week Mr Bernanke said quantitative easing would last "forever" for all practical purposes ("forever" in my investing lifetime).

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. ["Anonymous" corrected my 'qualitative' easing -- now you know why this is not an investment site. Smile.]