Robert A. Weigand

5 Dividend Stocks for Those that Missed the Rally

I would enjoy an explanation of how indicators like an average market P/E based on 1-year earnings of 53 and P/E based on 10-year average earnings (the Graham & Dodd and/or Shiller P/E) of 20+ imply a "fairly valued" stock market. Please provide your readers with greater specifics, because to fundamentalist, it's 2003 all over again -- the start of another "faux" bull market beginning from super-high P/E ratios, where it will take years for the average market P/E ratio to compress back to average, and immediately thereafter half a decade worth of gains will be erased in the blink of an eye. Enlighten us, please.

No One Saw This Economic Crisis Coming?

For the record, I attended a talk given by UCLA's Ed Leamer (www.anderson.ucla.edu/.../) in Spring 2007, and Professor Leamer laid out the impending economic crisis on a silver platter to an audience of approximately 200 top money managers. Ed explained why macroeconomic conditions were unsustainable, and how the unwinding would proceed. He really nailed it. Ed is the director of the UCLA Anderson Forecast. You might want to bookmark the link, it's updated regularly and has been accurate for quite a while (uclaforecast.com/). In my opinion, it's a good "smart money" resource.

Stocks for the Long Run? Stop Smoking Green Shoots

Siegel's doubling down, going "all in" to try to save his reputation. Just like Glassman (Dow 36,000), Siegel timed the first edition of Stocks for the Long Run to coincide with the tech stock bubble. He made a lot of money on that book as investors bought it in search of the temporary peace of mind only cognitive consonance can bring. Siegel's dividend-weighted index funds have done poorly as well, so he's making one last stand with this prediction -- if he's right, and the market rallies, he'll be one of the few "smart money" pundits who saw it coming. If he's wrong . . . well, there's no more downside, is there? History has proven him as deeply wrong as it gets.