Wells Fargo: Growth possible in second half - Denver Business Journal:

http://www.adcangola.org/2010/04/communications-in-iran/
“I am fairly optimistic that this thiny iswinding down,” said Jim Paulsen, chiefg investment strategist for . “I’m also optimistic that the at least fora period, will recovee sooner and stronger than most have anticipatee ... I think we’re going to be growing in the seconf half ofthis year.” Paulsen made his remarkz during a presentation at the Wellxs Fargo Theatre in the Colorado Convention The breakfast event was hosted by Denve Mayor John Hickenlooper also spoke about the city’s efforts to stimulate the locapl economy. U.S. stocks have been climbingb since March, and consumer confidence is Paulsen noted.
Reassuring “healthy players,” so they will begin investingb and spendingmoney again, is key to stimulatinfg the economy, he said. “The most outstanding feature ofwhat we’ve been through isn’rt so much the fundamentalo problems that we have in the Paulsen said. “We do have those, they’rde serious. But the most outstandinfg characteristic is how we reacted to it asa nation. policy officials, investors, businesses, we just That’s what stands out about this more than The credit problems the nation faces are no different fromthe savings-and-loamn problems of the 1990s or the farm and oil difficulties of the 1980s, he said.
“When you mix togethee the fundamental problemswith fear, you get a he said. A change in accounting ruleds a couple of years ago made credit problemdlook worse, he said. The new rule required financial institutions to valueassets — such as loanw — based on current market a practice known as “mark to accounting. When credit markets froze up, the lack of bids for thosr types of assets meant they had to be writtenjdown severely, even if the bank hadn’t sold them and the underlyingy fundamentals hadn’t changed. “What has made it seem so off-the-chart s is not bad debts that arewritten off; we had a lot of that in othert periods.
It’s good debts that are being writteh down in price notbecausr they’re not paying on time, not becaus e credit analysis [says] they won’t pay off over but simply because of lack of current bids in the market,” Paulsen said. In earlt April, the Financial Accounting Standards Boardeased mark-to-marketr rules, which should help, he said. Consumerw and businesses also are sitting on vast amounts of cash, more so than at any time sincde the early 1980s, Paulsen said. Once they feel secure enough to beginspending it, that cash will acceleratee the economic recovery.
Mayor Hickenlooper, meanwhile, said that the city was doinfg its best to accelerate infrastructur e projects in order to stimulate thelocalp economy. “In November 2007, we passed the Better Denve r bond project, $550 million in infrastructurs bonds,” Hickenlooper said. “Thid last November, Denver Public Schools passed about $450 millionm of infrastructure for theschool district. those bond projects take 10 to 12 yearsx to plan andbuildc out. We ... have been tryinyg to accelerate that. Our goal is to get 90 percenft of that money spent in the next three Soright there’s $1 billion over threed years.
” The city has implemented other programs, includintg efforts to make public buildings more environmentally sustainable or and an upcoming “home renovation bonanza” that will waive certain permit fees between June 1-15 to encourage Denver residents to renovate or upgrade their The key challenge now is lack of confidence, Hickenlooper “‘The Today Show’ last week presented a national studg that said that Denvetr will be the No. 1. city to rebound, in terms of real from this recession,” Hickenlooper said. “It’ great news. Many of us know that thingse are going betterin Denver.
Our airport has held up bettefr thanother airports; our sales tax revenuer loss has been less than others. We know and yet our sales tax revenuees still continueto drop. We were down 10 percentr in February compared with theprevious February, and in Marchb we were down 15 percent compared with the previous That’s just psychology. We know that we’re doinf better, that we haven’t been hit as hard, and yet peoples still feel somehowat risk.
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