Maven: Calls and Catcalls for 2007

It seems a surreal prediction and is certainly one that can be made only in the current age: There might be so many takeovers and buyouts in the first part of 2007 that the business media write about nothing else.

Then there will come the day -- perhaps in June 2007 -- when there are no public companies left to write about anymore, because they all will have gobbled each other up, except for the newspaper companies, those orphans everyone spoke about buying but no one, in the end, ever did.

The newspaper companies will be left covering nothing but newspaper companies, and that will be how the story of American capitalism ends.

This is a joke, of course. Or an overstatement. Or maybe some sort of predictive, playful metaphor.

As you know, I have been bullish for the last half of 2006 after being bearish for quite some time. I see more of the same (bullishness) for 2007. I don't necessarily believe the major indices will fly, but it will be -- as it has been -- a good market for stock-pickers. That's all an investor can ask for.

Good stocks rise. Bad stocks fall. Inflation is corralled at a low level, and growth is on the perfect slow simmer -- warm enough to allow the good operators to grow profits, but not too hot -- where inflation and speculation become problems.