So just to summarize, we face forceful secular headwinds, which obviously are going to be increasingly powerful in their impact in 2011. So I think it is time for a more constructive but continued balanced view.
HOLLAND: When you look at all of the headlines that the listeners are confronted with every day, they get uglier and uglier, - whether its what the politicians around the world are proposing and doing, the regulators are proposing or doing, the various crazy things that are happening in the headlines, - when people tell you that this is so crazy, that Europe is going to take us down, that its Spain, Portugal, Hungary and so on and so on, do you opine that these are pretty much reflected in prices today and therefore one has to become more constructive?
KASS: Yes, I think that the pessimists are getting hyperbolic, even though stocks have begun to discount the consequences over the last cycle and the actions that were required to get us out of that cycle.
To me, Mikey, every one has become an instant currency expert. I have friends that are afraid to leave Long Island, who all of a sudden have become experts in everything from the Botswana pula to the Hungarian forint, and, as you know, that is always a red flag that the problems have been discounted and we should ignore those fears.
So the other things is that we have seen a de-risking - that is everyone's favorite word of both retail investors, who have avoided investing in domestic equity inflows for some time.
HOLLAND: Which you just wrote about in your most recent blog.
KASS: Right, right. And hedge funds are de-risking dramatically. So I think we might have a set up with the next few fundamental data points permitting for a vicious short term rally just when few anticipated.
HOLLAND: We are set up, aren't we, -
KASS: Yes.
HOLLAND: - because the hedge fund people I talk to who are very smart, very successful people, have said all of the things you've said and more importantly have done what you've said.
KASS: Yes.
HOLLAND: And so they are - you know, they sold -
KASS: Right.
HOLLAND: - and they are short.
KASS: I find that everyone is wearing -
HOLLAND: You can't sell twice.
KASS: Right. Everyone is wearing their technical analyst and currency suits these days, and the trees - you know, the tumult in the euro and the hyperbole regarding secondary credit spreads widening and the fiscal status of tertiary countries like Hungary and Portugal are obscuring the forest, which is an improving chance for a self sustaining albeit relatively shallow economic cycle.
HOLLAND: Let me change courses here a little bit. You were an early and ardent support of our current administration and President Obama. What do you think his record is so far and what do you think its impact is on the financial markets.
