Thursday, January 24, 2008

What a Difference a Day Makes - Huffpost Part Three

What an amazing honor it has been to have three opeds appear on the front page business section of the Huffingtonpost in just one week! Please see the latest one via the link -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-siegel-and-jacki-zehner/what-a-difference-a-day-m_b_83103.html

When I said at the beginning of the year I was committed to writing, little did I realize it would be as an oped writer musing on our governments fiscal and monetary policies. Big thanks to Deborah Sieglel ( www.girlwithpen.blogspot.com) to helping me unleash my voice. I am now PursePundit and loving it.

Needless to say it has been a wild week to be talking about the markets. I believe it only came to light today that a big reason for the overseas sell-off was because of some rogue trader at SOCGEN. Love that headline " Random Rogue Trader Causes leads to Unprecedented Move by the Fed." I could not have made that one up if I tried.

So what have we learned this past week? For one, the FED is clearly going step in if the markets start going down again. With fed funds at 3.5% they still have some bullets in the gun. The problem with that is obviously inflation, and oh, yes, the US dollar. Look at the price action of GOLD this week to validate both those concerns. What about US stocks? Are they cheap? Well I have called some of the smartest equity folks I know, and they say yes. Even in a recession scenerio I ask? They still say yes. International equities? I think the answer is, selectively. What do I think is going to happen in the next little bit? I think the stock market in general could go fine as long as we don't have any major negative news. With the FED put on the market, and possibly great value to be found, why not? I worry about the monoline insurers being the next big problem, and the unfolding credit derivative mess. Watch for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to have issues as well.

Thanks for reading!

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