Economic outlook for the next 12 -24 months

[uselesseater]

This should be something very important to us all so I thought there should be a thread dedicated to it.

I'm hearing lots of bad things from truth circles but not in much detail. I, like others have a vested interest in what might be going down in the near future and would greatly appreciate the views of people from this forum.

I've been paying a little more attention to the financial pages and have noticed lots of companies buying back their stockk, what does this mean for the future? Is this the same as consolidation, something which there is also a lot of going on?

[brian]

uselesseater, a number of interpretations can be put on a buy back of stock. One is that the money used to buy back stock is money that could or would normally be used for investment. This may imply the company sees an economic slowdown ahead and no justification for investment.

Another reason may be it can bring an increase in earnings for executives (large shareholders)

See - The Buy-Back Strategy -

http://www.financialsense.com/series1/earnings.htm

[uselesseater]

Thanks Brian, most informative.