Barry Ritholtz is sort of the "godfather" of financial blogs – very much an early adopter and runs one of the most popular sites: The Big Picture. It was a site I used to read very often, when I had more time … obviously once you do your own blog, you don’t have the same hours in the day left over. I still try to get over there once every few weeks to see what he is up to.
Barry is back on Yahoo Tech Ticker, after making a nice call mid March [Mar 13, 2009: Jon Najarian, Todd Harrison, Barry Ritholtz all Bullish (for now)] for a quite huge rally. Considering we were an unprecedented 40% below the 200 day moving average the previous week that was not too much of an outlier call – but the duration of this move has certainly taken many aback. Ritholtz is not ready to say it’s over yet. I like what Barry has to say because much like I do, he casts a cynical eye to much of what is happening but as I repeat often, to be an investment manager you have to compartmentalize everything and be able to adjust to whatever the lemmings are doing. He does a good job of that so always a worthwhile listen.
(I) The Recession is Over! Or is it?
Forget the unemployment rate remains north of 9% and foreclosures are near all-time highs; the recession is over!
The Conference Board said Thursday that its index of leading indicators rose 0.6% in July – its fourth consecutive gain – suggesting the economy has bottomed and the recession will end this summer, if it hasn’t already.
That’s right, the recession may already be over. Ken Goldstein, the Conference Board’s economist, says gross domestic product may be positive this quarter.
Barry Ritholtz, CEO of FusionIQ and author of Bailout Nation, believes things have improved but he’s not ready say we’re healed. "After hell, purgatory isn’t so bad," he jokes.
Ritholtz says