Only four more trad­ing ses­sions remain before we close the door on 2008 – and none too soon, many investors would say. But mov­ing from ’08 to ’09 will unfor­tu­nately not dim the lights on the nature of the invest­ment debate. Come Thurs­day next week, investors will not only be hung over from 2008’s mar­ket rout (and pos­si­bly the pre­vi­ous night’s fes­tiv­i­ties), but also still be grap­pling with the ram­i­fi­ca­tions of the credit cri­sis for the global econ­omy and finan­cial mar­kets, and in par­tic­u­lar with the ques­tion of where to invest dur­ing 2009.

And this seems to be the theme of the video clips that have attracted my atten­tion dur­ing the past few days (between Yule-tide activ­i­ties), mak­ing up this “Video-o-rama” compilation.

The selec­tion includes items vary­ing from Scott Pet­tersen lament­ing “Where’s MY bailout?” (first one up) to the three ver­sions of “Hal­lelu­jah” cur­rently on the sin­gles charts (at the end of com­pi­la­tion). But it is not all about song – the likes of Don­ald Coxe, Marc Faber, Mohamed El-Erian, Gary Schilling, Paul Krug­man, Mark Mobius and Byron Wien give us sub­stan­tial food for thought as we wave the old year goodbye.

YouTube: Where’s MY bailout?

Source: Scott Pet­tersen, YouTube, Decem­ber 22, 2008.

BNN: Con­ver­sa­tion with BMO’s strate­gist Don Coxe

Source: BNN, Decem­ber 23, 2008.

CNBC: Dr Doom – find value in first half “disaster”

Click here for the article.

Source: CNBC, Decem­ber 23, 2008.

CNBC: Pimco’s El-Erian – back to basics for investors in 2009

Click here for the article.

Source: CNBC, Decem­ber 22, 2008.

Barron’s: Have we seen the worst of this bear mar­ket?
“Have we seen the worst of this bear mar­ket? Top strate­gists and chief invest­ment offi­cers com­ment on whether the mar­ket has hit bot­tom yet.”

Source: Barron’s, Decem­ber 20, 2008.

Bloomberg: Mark Mobius sees “begin­ning of next bull phase” in 2009
“Mark Mobius, exec­u­tive chair­man of Tem­ple­ton Asset Man­age­ment, talks with Bloomberg’s Francine Lac­qua about the out­look for emerg­ing mar­kets in 2009.”

Source: Bloomberg (via Blinkx.com), Decem­ber 19, 2008.

Tech Ticker: Get ready to scrimp and save, says econ­o­mist Shilling
“Hop­ing for a quick return to the con­sumer spend­ing habits of past quarter-century, when ‘finan­cial dis­ci­pline’ meant remem­ber­ing to with­draw enough home equity to get a new SUV every two years? For­get about it, says Gary Shilling.”

Source: Henry Blod­get, Tech Ticker, Decem­ber 19, 2008.

Big Think: Paul Krug­man on the return of depres­sion eco­nom­ics
First of a multi-part con­ver­sa­tion with Paul Krug­man, Nobel Prize win­ner, author, econ­o­mist, and Prince­ton pro­fes­sor, who is prob­a­bly best known for his op-ed columns in the New York Times.

Source: Big Think, Decem­ber 17, 2008.

Bloomberg: Fis­cher says worst of “real” reces­sion “yet to come”
“Bank of Israel Gov­er­nor Stan­ley Fis­cher talks with Bloomberg in Tel Aviv about the reces­sion in the US and the response of the Fed­eral Reserve. Fis­cher, 65, for­mer first deputy man­ag­ing direc­tor of the Inter­na­tional Mon­e­tary Fund, also talks about the out­look for the Israeli econ­omy and the IMF’s role in resolv­ing the global finan­cial crisis.”

Source: Bloomberg (via YouTube), Decem­ber 21, 2008.

Mar­ket­place: Quan­ti­ta­tive eas­ing
“Now the Fed­eral Reserve has effec­tively cut the tar­get lend­ing rate to zero, it only has one more weapon in its arse­nal. Quan­ti­ta­tive eas­ing. Senior edi­tor Paddy Hirsch explains what this ‘nuclear option’ is, and what the Fed hopes it’ll do.”

Source: Mar­ket­place, Decem­ber 2008.

CNBC: Byron Wien – falling oil prices
“Thoughts on energy prices, with Byron Wien, Pequot Cap­i­tal chief invest­ment strategist.”

Source: CNBC, Decem­ber 23, 2008.

Reuters: “Hal­lelu­jah” tops Christ­mas chart
“The top two spots in the Christ­mas sin­gles chart were taken by cov­ers of Leonard Cohen’s 1984 song ‘Hal­lelu­jah’, with ‘X Fac­tor’ tal­ent show win­ner Alexan­dra Burke’s new ver­sion beat­ing Jeff Buckley’s 1994 cover on Sunday.

“Burke won this year’s series of the pop tal­ent show that is one of ITV’s biggest rat­ings suc­cesses, and she is the fourth suc­ces­sive ‘X Fac­tor’ win­ner to take the Christ­mas sin­gles title.

“Cohen’s orig­i­nal ver­sion of ‘Hal­lelu­jah’ entered the chart at num­ber 36, while the suc­cess of Buckley’s ver­sion was partly due to a cam­paign on social net­work­ing web­site Face­book among music fans upset at what they saw as the man­u­fac­tured nature of Burke’s career.

“Buck­ley drowned in 1997, and achieved only mod­est sales though sig­nif­i­cant crit­i­cal acclaim dur­ing his lifetime.”

First up is Jeff Buckley.

Next, Alexan­dra Burke.

Lastly, Leonard Cohen:

Source: David Mil­liken, Reuters, Decem­ber 21, 2008.

Dr. Prieur du Plessis is an investment professional with 26 years' experience in investment research and portfolio management. More than 1,200 of his articles on investment-related topics have been published in various regular newspaper, journal and Internet columns, including his blog, Investment Postcards from Cape Town. He has also published a book, Financial Basics: Investment. Prieur is Chairman and principal shareholder of South African-based Plexus Asset Management, which he founded in 1995. The group conducts investment management, investment consulting, private equity and real estate activities in South Africa and a number of foreign countries. He also serves as Honorary Consul of Slovenia for South Africa, actively developing economic, cultural and scientific relations between Slovenia and South Africa. Prieur is 54 years old and live with his wife, television producer and presenter Isabel Verwey, and two children in Cape Town, South Africa. His leisure activities include long-distance running, traveling, reading, motor-cycling and scripophily. Read more from the author/contributor here.

Comments

One Response to “Video-Rama: Will Markets Bail You Out in '09?”

1. Donna Aniskowicz Says:
   December 31st, 2008 at 12:14 am

   Bravo. Good dig­ging for well rounded cov­er­age. Hal­leluh­jah. You got talent.