“Communism creates shortages, capitalism creates surpluses.”
-FORBES COLUMNIST AND NOTED ECONOMIST, GARY SHILLING

APRIL 6TH, EVA

Is risk-off back on?  It’s that time of the month many EVA readers look forward to—an issue that I don’t actually write!  This week’s “guest” EVA fulfills a commitment I made a few weeks ago to run an essay from either John Mauldin or Simon Hunt.

“On balance, an assessment of a broad range of indicators suggests that a substantial portion of the decline in the unemployment rate does reflect genuine improvement in labor market conditions.” 
-BEN BERNANKE

POINTS TO PONDER

1. Wall Street seems to have at best mixed feelings toward the Obama administration despite the fact that stock prices during its first term have had their  fifth highest return compared to any president since 1913. 

“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
-JOHN F. KENNEDY

Special message:  In the March 15th EVA, I emphasized that insider selling was running at an extreme rate.  While this is true, the day after that edition went out, the Wall Street Journal ran an article quoting an insider trading expert who believes the present high reading is distorted by the new definition of insiders that includes large institutional shareholders.

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.”
-PHILIP K. DICK, AMERICAN NOVELIST (BLADE RUNNER, TOTAL RECALL, MINORITY REPORT)

POINTS TO PONDER

Send your checks or money orders now. Stocks are not alone in climbing lofty peaks lately.  Last week, I spent a couple of days skiing with one of Evergreen’s best clients,

“We live in what most business commentators call a volatile world.  I would argue that when the environment is continuously unstable, it is no longer volatile.  Rather, we have entered into a new economic era.  It could remain this way for a long time.”
-GE CEO, JEFF IMMELT

POINTS TO PONDER

1.