For those who wait by their mailbox for each issue of Perspectives, you’ll notice we’re a little late. It’s not for a lack of trying, but the events of the past eight weeks or so have been unfolding at such a dizzying pace that the conclusions to be drawn are changing with each day’s headlines. Although the stock market quickly recovered from the August lows, the increasingly alarming stream of damage reports from the credit market turmoil provides more reason for careful thought and reflection. As believers in the benefits of owning equities and skeptics of market timing tactics, we’re certainly pleased by higher stock prices. Yet, we wonder whether recent actions by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department are an indication of policymakers’ unspoken concerns. In this light, the stock market’s rapid recovery and the retrenchment of credit spreads may have been prematurely sanguine.

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