Ravengate
Partners - Stock market, economic and political commentary by Patricia Chadwick

There are ‘stock’ people and there are ‘bond’ people. I am a stock person and have been all my life. It suits my personality because stock people are optimists. We see the glass as half full. We like to buy and hold stocks for the long term because most of the time things are going well and we make money. We are different from bond people who tend to be cautious and are much more likely to be pessimists. They usually see the glass as half empty.

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There’s no use trying to pretend now. The economic news that poured out last week is ample evidence that the US economy is in a recession. The headline news on the job losses told the story loud and clear and what will follow will be a steep decline in corporate profits which will really be serious losses for many companies and industries, not just the beleaguered automobile sector of the economy.

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This past Saturday, walking down “Main Street” in my town, I popped into the local bookstore (okay it was only Borders, rather than Diane’s, the best bookstore in the country) hoping to support the local economy just a little bit. I had a book in mind – it was Peggy Noonan’s newest publication, entitled, “Patriotic Grace”. I was in no particular hurry to own the book, as it was to be a present for my mother when she turns 80 in three weeks. I paid $21.15 and walked out.

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