Richard Bernstein
Richard Bernstein
Richard Bernsteinis an American journalist, columnist, and author. He writes the Letter from America column for The International Herald Tribune. He was a book critic at The New York Times and a foreign correspondent for both Time magazine and The New York Times in Europe and Asia...
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth5 May 1944
investors late private
Private investors are usually late to the party.
build building equity high house levels people prefer price speculate using wealth
People used to build wealth through building equity in their homes. Today, people prefer to speculate on the price of their house by using historically high levels of leverage.
closely companies executives held people trying
People say these companies are closely held and that the executives are trying to diversify, but why now?
confidence consumer consumers currently few generators indicate people perceived relatively situation tend trust
The more generators sold, the more consumer confidence has been hurt, as this would tend to indicate that people do not trust the infrastructure currently in place. If, however, consumers shrug off the ... situation and relatively few generators are sold, then this would be perceived as a positive.
among disliked good news perform quite stocks
The big telecoms still have to be among the most disliked stocks in the world. They are so under-owned that if we see a continuation of more good news than bad, the stocks will perform quite well.
earnings poorest quality
The quality of earnings is the poorest in my career.
commented equity improving line market stepped thin
We have commented that there is a thin line between a liquidity-driven market that anticipates improving fundamentals and a bubble. The equity market may have stepped over that line.
commodity continues currently dollar earnings exposure fall foreign help investors likely prices remain stocks stronger support
Stocks with significant foreign exposure should help to support stocks. If the dollar continues to fall and commodity prices remain strong, then earnings are likely to be stronger than investors currently expect.
rate slow slower
At the rate it's going right now, profitability will accelerate, but at a very, very slow pace, ... much slower than what's implied by valuation in the market.
economic fed indeed perhaps slowing weather
It will be interesting to see if these companies' misfortunes are indeed attributable to weather and temporary, or perhaps better attributable to the Fed and slowing economic growth.
They could have diversified their holdings 2, 5 or even 10 years ago.
companies earnings half history market might producing reward second tax
The market might reward some companies during the second half of 2004 for producing better-than-expected earnings because of the tax windfall, ... but history suggests that the market will penalize those same companies if their earnings decelerate in 2005 from 2004's tax-induced growth.
equity focus highest largest quality
If you're in the equity market, you want to focus on the largest cap, highest quality companies,
believe continue focus investors
We continue to believe that longer-term investors should focus on yield.