The purpose of the blog is not to give financial advice to readers, but I can’t help commenting on a few things going on my experience tells me are signs of very difficult times ahead and the need to be cautious in all our financial dealings. These things include the depressed real estate market caused by the financial institutions issuing loans at virtually no cost — the so-called sub-prime problem. The price of oil is vacillating around $100, making transportation costs much higher. The dollar seems to be falling while the Euro and Asian currencies seem to be rising. The NYSE and NASDAQ have their ups and downs, but haven’t changed all that much. People vary on the practicality of the Green Economy. Most of us hope that it will pan out, but it may take quite a while for us to become less dependent on coal and oil. Plus there’s the large expense of the War in Iraq, in addition to the politics that will accompany the upcoming presidential election. Some pundits feel that the combination of all these events will lead to a recession. I’m not experienced enough to know the answer, but I would recommend extreme caution in investing until we see a light at the end of the tunnel.
As I promised, we have posted a copy of my keynote presentation (PDF file) at the recent ESOP conference in Las Vegas on the fed.org site.
I hope you and your families had a Happy Thanksgiving.
— Bob