Best Columns: Eyeing inflation, Investing in optimism

Betting against hope

The economy is heading “in an ominous direction,” says Fred W. Frailey in Kiplinger.com. We’re looking at a “huge burst of inflation” on the horizon, as booming economies like China, India, and Brazil are scooping up “prodigious amounts of raw materials” to essentially “live as we do in the U.S.” And it isn’t a commodities “bubble,” as some argue. It is the reality of more people bidding for increasingly “scarce resources.” This “rumbling” of inflation could explode “like a vocano” and wipe out your retirement savings. What to do? Well, “if commodities are fueling inflation, invest in them.”

Betting on hope

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True, “the economy is in trouble,” says Money’s Michael Sivy in CNNMoney.com, and the news from Wall Street is “unsettling in the extreme.” But there are reasons for optimism. Despite well-publicized prognostications from the “predictors of doom,” most forecasters are relatively upbeat about the future. If you agree with this “reasonable, though by no means surefire” optimism, you should invest before the market rebounds. Many investors like commodity stocks and “foreign blue-chip mutual funds,” but “following the crowd only leaves you poorer.” Better to “pick up bargains among the strongest U.S. stocks,” especially those that earn much of their money overseas.