A global Dow for a global central bank?

From Globaldow.com:

The Global Dow is a 150-stock index of the most innovative, vibrant and influential corporations from around the world. Only leading blue-chip stocks are included in the index. Its components, like those of The Dow, are selected by editors of Dow Jones.

This is certainly a useful index that I will follow (it stands at 1444, from base of 1000 as of 1.1.2000), but the timing of its creation, a few months after Mr. Murdock acquired Dow Jones and with talk of a global central bank in the air, is suspicious. It is with moves like this that perceptions are slowly changed, so that when soveignty is lost, few notice or care.

That said, I suspect that it will be very difficult for bankers to succeed in such an effort, because rough times like these breed nationalism and heighten differences.

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PS — I have been relocating and traveling these past two weeks, hence the lack of posts.

P/E’s are Nil on Dow and Russell 2000

Click image for sharper view. Source: Wall Street Journal Online

Earnings have gone negative. How’s that for value? Remember, most bear markets end with P/Es below 12, sometimes 7. Even the value play in the group, the S&P 500, will have to fall by more than half to get there, without any further contraction in earnings.

And what kind of fools see value in equity yields under 3%, when earnings have grown above trend for years? Stocks are all risk with no reward. You can get these yields on 1-5 year treasuries right now.