Last week, in the middle of the worst stock market meltdown since the 1930's, U.S. Secretary Henry Paulson called on some of the banking industry's leading lights to figure a way out of this mess. Paulsen, with Lloyd Blankfein (Goldman Sachs), John Mack (Morgan Stanley), Vikram Pandit (Citigroup), Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan), and Ken Lewis (Bank of America); came up with a series of steps to fix the U.S.e conomy, both in the short- and long-term. Let's summarize what the group decided to do . . .
Immediate Goals:
> International coordination and cooperation by financial regulators
> Establish fair value accounting
> Regulate (or at least mediate) market manipulation
> Have the Inter-bank lending and the
President's working group
stick together on policy
Near Term:
> Establish new public capital
> Establish new private capital
> "Open bank" assistance and depositor confidence
> Public purchases of MBS
> Ensure public insurance for assets
> Strengthen financial institutions
> Emphasize foreclosure prevention
> Enhance liquidity at the Federal Home Loan Banks
> Expansion of money market guarantee program
Intermediate Term:
> Build a stimulus plan for housing
> Expansion of FDIC failure resolution procedures
> Establish an office of insurance information
> Fix credit default swap mess
> Engage in systemic regulatory reform
These are the steps that the United States' leading economic minds are planning on taking to fix the ailing global economy. That's the plan and expect Paulsen and company to stick to it.
Just thought you should know.
In the meantime, in the aftermath of yesterday's 930-point uptick in the stock market, some observers are actually seeing opportunity in tech stocks. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, certainly does. “Technology is not going away, it’s only going to have a stronger position in the market over time.” he tells CNBC this morning.
Bajarin particularly loves Apple because its market share has doubled over the last three years. “While some of their products are perceived as being a bit too pricey,” Bajarin said, “the reality is they are starting to gain more and more consumer interest. We still think Apple right now is priced pretty low. We think it has the potential of growing.”
Another pick is Dell, which Bajarin likes because it's holding a lot of cash and is in good position to absorb a recessionary quarter or two. “Plus, they have very exciting new products they just introduced.” He's also bullish on Hewlett-Packard, for much the same reasons.
One other safe haven that I like is General Electric, with stability once again the key. You might not know it but GE, which does a lot of work hand-in-hand with the tech sector, has $170 billion worth of back orders to fill - even in a recession.
That's an insurance policy that I like.