[Boomer]

Originally Posted by manaboutown

OK, I just watched Consuelo Mack's interview with Robert Kessler. I agree with his viewpoint while bearing in mind he is a bond guy. Although he did not mention The Shiller Index he did refer to P/E ratios being very, very high. The Shiller Index closed Friday at 33.15, still about double its median and mean. He also mentioned that when stocks dive it usually is about 50%. It could be even more under present valuations IMHO. His offhand remarks about financials advisors caused me to chuckle as they were right on the mark.

Looks like he is about my age and enormously wealthy. Repo Man Robert Kessler used the repo market to help his clients earn 24% returns last year on Treasury bonds. What does he know that others don't? - September 15, 2003

Hey, manaboutown, thanks for watching that interview, for the conversation at-hand. I also got a laugh out of Kessler's remark about financial advisors.

Ironically, the first response to my original post was in favor of taking advice from only those truly in-the-know -- ya know, like a VP of ML??? HAH! BOA acquired ML, now known as just plain Merrill, because the giant bank wanted an advisory. BOA gets a piece of the Merrill action. BOA's first loyalty is to the stockholders and the Big Wheels.

When thinking about sources of information, it is always a good idea to read between the lines, look for the agenda. Those Merrill advisors are getting paid whether you do or not -- just not getting paid quite as much, but the money still rolls in from AUM, etc. And soooo, the stockholders still get paid, too. But if others feel like a huge bank is looking out for them, well, alrighty then. I am just not a fan of huge banks and their underling advisors.

Btw, I was trying to figure out how old Kessler is, but I was in a hurry this morning when I threw this conversation onto TOTV and did not have time to track down his age. His main point was about his age and how long it will take for these fevered promises to ever come true. We know somebody like Kessler is not going to go broke, but I thought his reasoning for abandoning the market was interesting.....

But, for some people, there will always be the thrill of the chase and/or there can never be enough money. A friend of mine grew up in her father's funeral business. She said her dad used to say, "There are no saddlebags on coffins." Kessler was basically saying to take the profit and run, once you reach an age where if things go really bad, you might not ever recover.

I liked the second interview for reasons I included in my original post.

Boomer