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Taking Stock of Bonds

By Aleksandrs Rozens, IDD Magazine

September 28, 2009

Will The Real Dr. Doom Please Stand Up?

These days it appears there are several Dr. Dooms running about.

Most talk of economic swoon and never much about an economic boon. But for some of us Dr. Doom first entered popular vernacular when we read comic books; he was the cloaked evil foil with magical powers who battled The Fantastic Four.

In the 1970s, long after the comic strip was born, Dr. Henry Kaufman earned the sobriquet when as an economist for Salomon Brothers he was known for his bearish outlook on bonds. He is still, by the way, not too sunny in his outlook. The economy troubles him and he is unsettled by how the Fed is handling the situation.

NYU economist Noriel Roubini – who supposedly predicted the latest credit crisis in 2006 – is also referred to as Dr. Doom by news agencies. According to recent reports, though, Roubini is not so gloom and doom and believes there may soon be an end to the bad times.

You may be doomed, though, if you think it's entirely safe to go out.

Now, there is Marc Faber, an economist, who has been referred to as Dr. Doom in a recent report.

Faber, a former managing director at Drexel Burnham Lambert, is based in Hong Kong and runs his own fund management firm, Marc Faber Ltd. Faber's monthly publication? Its called Gloom Boom & Doom.

Roubini, Faber and Kaufman all have PhD's. So they can technically be addressed as doctors. Wikipedia tells us that Marvel's Dr. Doom also had a higher education, from something called Empire State University in addition to mystical arts from Gypsies.

The question now is how to break out of this heavy gloom when so many around you go by the name of Dr. Doom.

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Aleksandrs Rozens

Aleksandrs Rozens has 17 years of experience as a financial journalist. He started his career at Dow Jones, and he has worked at Knight Ridder's business news wire where he wrote about mortgage bonds and real estate as well as interest rate swaps. He also edited Private Equity Week and IPO Reporter, and was a reporter for National Mortgage News and helped start the mortgage backed and asset backed coverage at Reuters news agency. Rozens also worked briefly at the AP where he covered real estate, mergers and corporate bankruptcies. Prior to joining IDD he was editor of Bankruptcy Insider. Rozens graduated from Fordham University where he studied English Literature and Russian Studies.

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