End of recession near?

A survey of economists revealed that the majority of them expect the current recession to end sometime this year.  As Mark Twain once said, if you are going to make predictions, be sure you make plenty of them.  Now to be fair, economists do not usually go out on a limb.  They pour over statistics and data and do not make comments until they are almost certain of the outcome.  You may remember that the current recession that started in December of 2007 was not announced until last summer!  Read the whole article here:

Economic growth will rebound in the 2nd half of 2009

Of course only time will tell, but one thing is for sure.  This current economic cycle will eventually end and a new one will begin.  Same goes for the stock markets.  Bear markets end and new bull markets begin.  The only question is when and for how long.  We have certainly seen a good run in the stock markets over the past 10 or 11 weeks.  For most people, however, these recent events should not have changed your overall strategy, which is to save for retirement or other long term goals like college education.  If anything, the recent gains in the markets hopefully made you feel better about keeping your money invested.  Here's an idea for the summer, turn off CNBC and get outside and enjoy the outdoors!  You can thank me later...