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With the U.S. facing a recession, according to a growing chorus of economists, the government is getting set to launch a $150 billion stimulus plan. The debate now is whether the plan is loaded with gimmicks, acting as one congressman put it like a temporary vitamin B12 shot, or serious fiscal restructuring should take place. Here are some thoughts to consider: 1. The deficit hawks are getting ... read more

Ok now on to cleaning up the housing mess on Wall Street: 1. More mortgage cops: To be sure, we can’t afford to spend taxpayer money on having a Federal Reserve sheriff sitting in the lap of every mortgage broker. What with Moody’s threatening to downgrade the entire United States of America due to our oceanliner of debt (and if a downgrade happens, you can forget about national health ... read more

With the unremitting negative headlines, it sure sounds like we should all be slamming our doors shut and getting out the nail guns. Here though are some points to ponder as we move from what economists call the Great Moderation (a period of low inflation) to the Great Unwind (the housing meltdown). 1. Learn from history: To get a read for how long we may be stuck wandering around in this ... read more

The bears are red in the claw and they are having their day. The Dow hasn’t closed below 12000 since November 3, 2006, Fox Business’s stats pro Charles Brady informs us, and it hasn’t fallen below 12000 since March 14, 2007 on an intraday basis. Some armchair cranks now claim they saw it coming. They say they saw the weakness move from the homebuilders in 2005 to the community and ... read more

I heard a top-notch market analyst say recently that she is a big believer in not trying to anticipate the end of the world. I am in that camp. The markets are pretty cheap now. The 1,953 stocks in the MSCI World index are now valued at 14 times profits, the lowest since at least 1995, according to a data review by Bloomberg. Europe's Stoxx 600 has a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.7, the ... read more