For those who are not familiar with the "Outside the Box" , and the "frontline thoughts" FREE e-letters put out by John Mauldin, I would strongly suggest that you have a look at them.  You shoud visit www.JohnMauldin.com to become acquainted and can sign up there if you care to.  These sources are not trash, quite the contrary, they are extremely informative, high level.  John usually has a high level anayst guest writer do the "Outside the Box" so you get exposed to some very formidable economists making a presentation.  The last one I read was the April 30th, with Gary Shilling's economic analysis which I found to be more than important to read.  It was 18 pages of graphs and presentation covering from the importance of US consumer spending and the unemployment rate, to actions of the Fed, to business cost cutting and productivity, to housing crisis and household debt, to state and local government fiscal issues, to US exports - etc. 

 

I have read John for several years.  Very worthwhile.  When thinking about buying MLP's or any other investment, having some economic analysis is often a help as to how wise buying right now may be!  I found in the last issue I cited, the 4/30 issu, extremely important views and information.  In his Overall Indicators section, Shillings indicates "I believe the economy is likely to weaken as the year progresses, led by renewed consumer retrenchment.  A number of overall economic indicators point in that direction.  The Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECR) index remains in recession territory.  The ratio of coincident to lagging economic indicators, often a better leading indicator than the leading indicator index itself, is declining.  Electricity generation, although influenced by the warm winter, is falling rapidly.   and it goes on .... If you read that issue, and read nothing else from it, I suggest you read the conclusions starting with the Overall Indicators section.

 

Certainly there have to be members and visitors of this board who are familiar with John, he has over a million readers.  I present his free e-letters oonly as something that some of you may wish to avail yourself to.

 

Grumpy