You Can’t Spell “Exotic” without “Toxic” and Other Themes to Watch in 2009

This is traditionally the time of year when all the pundits come out and give us opinions, forecasts, analysis, and speculation.

Woody Heller and Will Silverman from Studley are two successful industry peers who I highly respect and regard as class acts. Will sent me a note today, and with his permission I am posting it here. It is insightful, smart, and refreshingly intuitive.

“The earth has thankfully cycled through the last of its 365.25 rotations of 2008. As we look ahead, we’d like to offer our view on the emerging themes in 2009. This letter is not meant to be a market overview referencing charts, economic data or historical metrics. Our view of specific predictions is that they are conjecture in good times and dangerous in bad. The only certainty about the future is that it will be governed by presently unforeseen events. Therefore, we focus on themes that appear relevant at present to the business climate in 2009. (more…)