“This is about as serious and difficult an environment as I have experienced in my career…At times like this, it is more important to survive than to get rich.”
-BILLIONAIRE INVESTOR GEORGE SOROS.

“I have never been as scared as I am now.”  
-DONALD TSANG, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF HONG KONG.

“In short, the Fed’s actions, rather than helping, are having the perverse effect of destroying the confidence of businesses and individuals and the willingness of banks to loan to anyone but those whose credit is so strong they don’t need loans.”
– CHARLES SCHWAB

POINTS TO PONDER

1. 

“I never give them hell.  I just tell them the truth and they think it’s hell.”
– HARRY S. TRUMAN, 33RD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

A Midwinter Night’s Dream. It’s easy to be a dreamer in Hawaii.  Between the leisurely pace and the paradise-found scenery, life’s cares simply drift away.

“Given the scale of the problems faced by many of the eurozone countries, it is hard to believe they won’t face further periods of extreme stress over the next couple of years.” 
– ARIF HUSSEIN, DIRECTOR OF ALLIANCE BERNSTEIN’S EUROPEAN FIXED INCOME RESEARCH

POINTS TO PONDER

1.  While most observers seem to believe the US economy is accelerating,

“When all the experts and forecasts agree, something else is going happen.”
-ACCLAIMED MARKET TECHNICIAN, BOB FARRELL

Where have all the risks gone?   In the far distant past, like around last Thanksgiving, the world’s sundry problems were weighing heavily on investors’ minds.  Now, some two months later, all seems forgiven if not quite forgotten   For many,