Thoughts from the Frontline Archive - John Mauldin

Thoughts from the Frontline Archive, January 2007

January 26, 2007

A New Definition of Rich

I am in South Africa as this week's letter is being sent out; so it is with some irony that the letter is focused on a topic that generally concerns only US-based investors, although what the SEC does has an effect on regulatory bodies abroad. This is a letter you may want to forward to your friends and associates.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has posted a new proposed rule that would raise the minimum net-worth requirement needed to invest in private funds from...

January 19, 2007

Capital Keeps Falling on My Head

Are we overbought and overvalued? Maybe. Is inflation coming under control? Maybe not. Did housing construction rebound last month? No. The only rebound was in the statistics. (I know readers will be shocked to learn that some statistics just may not actually be what the headline says.) We look at all this and more as we ponder a world awash in liquidity.

One of the more interesting reads I get each week is a column from Dow Jones columnist Spencer Jakab. He has a knack for finding the...

January 12, 2007

Should Oil Be $40 or $70?

I got a lot of mail as usual from readers about my annual forecast. It was about evenly divided between those who think I am too much of an optimist and those who think the economy will avoid a recession. There are a number of readers who think we have already seen the bottom, and that 2007 will be a banner growth year.

Let me be clear about one thing. My call for a mild recession/slowdown stems almost entirely from my thought that housing is going to be a real problem in the coming...

January 5, 2007

Forecast 2007: The Goldilocks Recession

How has another year come and gone so quickly? It seems like someone hit the fast forward button. And once again, all too soon, it is time for me to demonstrate my masochistic nature and write a forecast issue. Rather than going into details on every topic, I will try and stick to the big picture and leave the fine points for later letters.

Each year as I do this forecast, I look for a theme. What will be the driving factor which will set the stage for the economy? In 2001 it was the coming...