Stehen Roach of Morgan Stanley points out that over-spent consumers now will mean a longer recession and a slower recovery this cycle.
People will be spending less, but as I have said many times, in the end this shift in habits will be a postive trend for more sustainable, sane habits down the road.

Watch his interview with Bloomberg here: Stephen Roach, Morgan Stanley    more »

Many different opinions floating around today. For whatever its worth, WB's guess is more trouble ahead:

Billionaire Warren Buffett castigated investment bankers, home lenders and regulators for letting the financial system spin out of control and causing a run on Bear Stearns Cos. that almost brought down more of the biggest banks.

``Wall Street is going to go where the money is and not worry about consequences,'' Buffett said during a news conference yesterday, a day after his Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s annual meeting. ``You've got a lot of leeway in running a bank to not tell the truth for quite a while.''

Buffett and investing partner Charlie Munger also lambasted credit raters, bond insurers and policymakers for two days as a record 31,000 attended the annual affair in Omaha, Nebraska. In between scoldings, Buffett told investors more damage lay ahead and dropped hints about where Berkshire is looking for purchases abroad as the dollar falls.

``There's going to be more pain,'' said Buffett, who repeated that the U.S. is in a recession. Even after the Federal Reserve arranged JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s $2.4 billion rescue of Bear Stearns in March, ``that doesn't mean the losses are over by a long shot.''

See Bloomberg May 5: Buffett Castigates Wall Street, Bankers on Blunders (Update2)   more »