Hello to lots of nice people I met this weekend in Vancouver.

I promised that I would post on-going thoughts as this market downturn plays out over the coming weeks and months in order to give readers a sense of what we see next coming down the road.

After almost relentless down days in the first three weeks of 2008, more than half of the world's biggest stock markets have now fallen into a bear market, see Stock Tumble drives 43 Benchmarks into Bear Market (Bloomberg Jan 22, 2008). So much for “de-coupling”! Economists can argue all day about whether the world economy can de-couple from a US led recession in North America, but one thing we can tell for sure--world stock markets are not de-coupling. This stock market meltdown is truly global. All those financial advisors who tell everyone to just spread equity holdings around the world for diversity benefit? Well… you be the judge.   more »