We're already in a new recession.

It may be hard to believe, but the bull market is turning four years old. And from the looks of things, it isn't going to make it to its fifth birthday.
That's because, despite the nice little Santa Claus rally Wall Street's been enjoying over the last few weeks and rising hopes of a "fiscal cliff" deal in Washington, some serious warning signs for both the market and the economy are emerging. In fact, one of the most respected economic forecasters in the business believes we're already in a new recession.
If true, now's no time for aggressive optimism. Instead, it's time to move to cash and batten down the hatches for what looks to be a rough 2013.
I'll explain why in a moment, but first, let's review how we got here.

Does the fiscal cliff mean recession?

Following the Fed

Just as a wintry chill was setting in, between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2008, the economy faced an imploding housing market and financial-system meltdown. At the Federal Reserve, desperate policymakers decided to start using freshly created dollars to buy mortgage securities. This drive, which came to be known as "quantitative easing" or QE1, was expanded in early 2009 to include Treasury bonds.
Corporate bonds, which have been an area of focus for the average investor this cycle, responded right away. Stocks, initially disappointed by President Barack Obama's election, found their footing in the spring, and the bull market was on. The economy didn't respond until the summer, while the job market took a full year to begin turning around.

Anthony Mirhaydari

The year that followed was promising until a government bond crisis in Dubai revealed that developed governments were overextended. Then, the impact of U.S. stimulus spending faded. That was followed by Greece kicking off the ongoing eurozone woes. Central banks kept the economic ball rolling with an alphabet soup of programs that all amounted to the same thing: more cheap money.
Things slowed, job growth leveled off, and stocks have pretty much been sliding sideways since the Fed ended its second round of quantitative easing, known as QE2, in mid-2011. Investors have pulled out since then. The U.S. economy is barely moving forward.
So while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index ($INX +0.41%) climbed more than 120% from its March 2009 low to its September 2012 high, there is evidence that the current bull market has run its course.

And now, the drag

With rich-world governments collectively set to tighten their budgets by 1% of combined gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund (1.3% here at home, worth nearly $180 billion next year) more weakness lies ahead.



Ty Laffoon

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