Teh Recession is Over! BofA Merril Lynch Say so

[IllTestYourGirls]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/mone...y-doubt-w.html

Clients of Bank of America Merrill Lynch (yes, that mouthful is the brokerage's official name now) can't say the firm is waffling on its economic outlook.

"The recession is over" Merrill declared in a report Tuesday authored by Michael Hartnett, chief global equity strategist.

The brokerage?s famed horned mascot is snorting again: "We are bullish on global equities," Hartnett says in the report.

Merrillbull That might not sound like a surprising call for a major Wall Street player with securities to sell, but Merrill?s outlook on things in recent years had been extraordinarily dour (as it turned out, correctly so) under two of its long-time strategists: Richard Bernstein and David Rosenberg.

Bernstein, who was chief investment strategist, left in April; Rosenberg, the firm?s chief North American economist, quit in May.

Hartnett had been Merrill?s point man on emerging markets before becoming chief global equity strategist this spring.

His report on Tuesday says the economy has begun a "fragile recovery," but he sees the glass as half-full rather than half-empty: "This means fiscal, monetary and financial policies are likely to remain supportive of asset prices. For example, we forecast the Fed to keep the target [short-term] interest rate close to zero until 2011."

Investors sitting with loads of cash on the sidelines should be moving that money into stocks, Hartnett advises.

"An inflection point in the global economy should encourage investors to rebalance their portfolios to reduce cash and to look for opportunities to increase equity exposure while staying with high-quality bonds," he wrote.

His favorite investment themes include "growth" stocks in emerging markets and "value" stocks in developed markets; the largest U.S. export-oriented companies; "high-quality" technology firms; and investment-grade corporate bonds.

[96ukssob]

bs, they are just saying that to get people to think its a good time to buy houses now and apply for mortgages they would normally not need.

i got a canned email from a real estate agent that showed me houses over a year ago saying now is the perfect time to buy a house because the recession will be over in the next two months and if you wait till then, housing prices will go up by 20%

anything for a sale

[Scott McD]

Prices for food, gas, electricity, everything basically is still up.

And the people still lucky enough to even have a job aren't making any more cash than they were before. So how the hell can they come out with this shit??

[Davy]

And they did not learn one bit...
The next recession will be even harder...

[intellichat]

Originally Posted by Scott McD

Prices for food, gas, electricity, everything basically is still up.

And the people still lucky enough to even have a job aren't making any more cash than they were before. So how the hell can they come out with this shit??

I second that...

[kenny]

The recession would be over for me too.. if I got bailed out with hundreds of millions of dollars

[PornoStar69]

recession is like 9/11 - bloody inside job.

illuminati must be loving this, still don't think they will get that New World Order.

Mark my words though they will attack Iran.