Kass: My Recession Checklist

This blog post originally appeared on RealMoney Silver on Jan. 22 at 7:49 a.m. EST.

Notwithstanding the attempts by many to marginalize the role of the U.S. economy on worldwide economic growth, most of the world's economies will soon feel our pain.

That bullish cabal (especially of a Ben Stein kind) will recognize the existence of the downturn only after the fall in equity values (and after digesting the conclusive economic evidence that is forthcoming) -- in other words, after it is too late to prepare investors.

Note: I am hard on the permabulls because they were hard on me over the last 12 months. I will continue to take the high road, however, by not mentioning any of the names of that dogmatic constituency -- with the exception of the Bens, Stein and Bernanke -- whose economic heads and market "wisdom" have been firmly implanted in sand. ...