What Recession?

Every month I get a long list of return numbers from the investment boutique Aronson+Johnson+Ortiz. The latest rows of figures are all positive. Here are there comments:

Stocks up sharply in September, everything and everywhere

Large beat small and growth beat value, during the month and the quarter

International stocks remain hot; emerging markets are on fire

Markets near highs; year looks strong. August seems a distant memory, hmmm….

Now, giant financial institutions like Citigroup and UBS are writing off their subprime/credit crunch mistakes. I’ll also bet they’re taking advantage of this moment to get rid of little black mark on the books. It’s clean-up time. The credit squeeze is still on; but the credit crunch is fading.