Interesting article:
The Big Picture:
Resist the urge to jump into this sick market. Anyone looking at 2008's near 40% decline will feel tempted to jump in at these bargain-basement levels. If you reference the year 1930, (one year after the start of The Great Depression) you may think twice. Despite all the fiscal and monetary stimulus being thrown at our economic mess, the US, and the world economies will look a lot like they did in 2008.
Political and Economic Predictions:
- Oil falls into a range of $20-$30 where it settles for a short period. Be on the lookout for a complete collapse of Russian and Venezuelan economies as they cannot exist on such a low oil price. Expect military conflicts to ensue around the world, which will raise the price of oil somewhere between $45 and $85 by year end (depending on severity of conflicts).
- Eastern Europe's massive debt loads and Western Europe's over consumption, and economic infighting cause massive upheaval within the EU. Expect European banks to rapidly erode, followed by the fall of the Euro, and maybe some major EU partners pulling out of the EU, or at least pulling out of the Euro.
- Global recession continues. Talk of resisting isolationism is overcome by reality. Isolationism and protectionism accelerate global recession, causing commodities to continue the path of deflation. Talk of hyperinflation will be prevalent in 2009, but will not be seen until 2010 or later.
- Hedge fund industry (with massive amounts of cash on hand, ready to move back into the market) cannot save the economy. Calls for new regulation, and inability to make profits under the current "2-and-20" high watermark standard leads to massive hedge fund closings. We have only seen the tip of the iceberg on this one.
- Gold ultimately trades higher. I expect gold to waffle around its current price in the near-term, with a possible trend to the downside (due to commodity deflation), followed by a year-end rally (flight to safety) that closes out above $1000/oz.
- 2007 was the subprime crisis, 2008 was the credit crisis, 2009 will be the consumer crisis. Unemployment will hit double digits (maybe not until 2010), housing markets will continue to fall, consumer defaults on mortgages, credit cards, and student loans will explode. Expect retail, and automakers to continue to struggle. China's economy will continue to falter (at a more rapid pace) due to the falling US consumer demand. Tech stocks finally take a long-overdue beating.
- Despite attempts to lower mortgage rates to 4%, the move will fail to kick start the housing market. Refinancing will balloon, leading to a further split between the "haves and the have-nots."
Nine Ways to Profit from 2009
http://themonthlystock.blogspot.com/2009/01/nine-ways-to-profit-from-2009.html