Avoiding the Curse of the New President: Recession

As we get closer to the end of 2000, I can sense investors starting to worry about 2001. Next year can't be as bad as this one has been, can it? Technology stocks will do better in 2001, right? The Dow Jones Industrials and the S&P 500 will both finish solidly in the black. Please?

I do think 2001 will be better. Honestly. By the middle of the year or so, I'm almost certain that we will have wrung out all of the excess in stock prices -- and then some. Companies that stumbled in the second or third quarters of 2000 will start going up against easier earnings and revenue comparisons. Growth worries in the PC, wireless phone and telecommunications gear markets will be over, at least to the extent that we'll know how much of a slowdown these sectors will see and can start anticipating the next up-tick in demand.

So, yes, I think 2001 will be an OK year, and after the punishment that many of us have absorbed in 2000, OK will seem just fine. ...