Obama's March advice proves dead-on

From the Globe and Mail no less.

If Barack Obama ever gets tired of being President, he might have a future in the investing game.

In March, as share prices plumbed new lows and the economic malaise seemed impossible to shake, Mr. Obama was one of the few to call the bottom for the stock markets. At those levels, with U.S. stocks down by half from their 2007 peak, he said that “buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you've got a long-term perspective on it.”

About the only thing the forecaster-in-chief got wrong was the time frame. Nine months later, stocks have staged a recovery that is nothing short of incredible. Around the world almost every major market finished the year up about 20 per cent or more – much more in the case of Brazil, at 83 per cent.

(snip)

Anyone who took Mr. Obama's advice to buy in March had a very good year indeed. However, many investors had trouble ginning up the nerve to dive back into the markets after their punishing fall.

U.S. consumer confidence up for first time since 2007

Not bad, not at all. And if you throw in the 388k jobs saved or created, we could be in okay condition next year.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Global consumer confidence is rebounding, and in the United States has risen for the first time since 2007, amid signs the world economy is picking up although spending is still restrained, a survey showed on Wednesday.

(snip)

In the United States and Europe, high unemployment continued to discourage spending on big-ticket items although confidence had improved as the worst appeared to be over for those economies, New York-based Nielsen said.

In the United States -- the world's biggest consumer market -- consumer sentiment rose from three months ago for the first time since early 2007.

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