Monthly Archives: December 2006

As we enter 2007, remember that this is the beginning of the “Time of Troubles” when an antichrist will rise up and World War III will begin. So said Nostradamus, the 16th century astrologer, who regularly violated the First Law of Successful Forecasting: Never Give Them Both A Prediction and A Date. I’m going to violate the same law today, because that is what you pay me to do. But I must say that I’m glad I only have to look ahead 12 months instead of four or five hundred years. Though I don’t see worldwide pandemonium in the cards,...

Read More »

As the old year passes, it’s time to look forward to what will be happening in all of our MegaShifts in 2007. So, I want to discuss that topic in both this week and next week’s issues. This week, I want to first set the stage by talking about the major technology trends that will impact the economic and market environment for the next year or two before taking a look at a couple of our MegaShifts. My economic forecast is pretty simple: sub-par GDP growth in the first two quarters of 2007, followed by accelerating growth for the last...

Read More »

While stocks marked time going into what should be a small end-of-year rally that started today, some individual situations are getting interesting. Readers who were Technology Investing subscribers may remember Cree (CREE), the company that has the best chance of replacing all incandescent and fluorescent lights with white light-emitting diodes (LEDs), first in offices and later in homes. We bought CREE at $20.58 in March 2004 and sold it for a 38% gain in September 2004 at $28.50. The stock has been up and down since then, mostly down, and I’ve been tracking it closely since it went under $20...

Read More »

Christmas time is here, by golly Disapproval would be folly Deck the halls with hunks of holly Fill the cup and don’t say when. Relations sparing no expense will Send some useless old utensil Or a matching pen and pencil Just the thing I need — how nice. Tom Lehrer, the author of the above anti-Christmas carol, was an associate professor of mathematics at Harvard when I was there and when he released his first album with this tune. For the past few years, I’ve dedicated one issue to explaining popular technology gifts and alerting subscribers to unknown advancements. Since...

Read More »