David Rosenberg
April 08, 2015
Chief Economist & Strategist, Gluskin Sheff + Associates Inc.

Financial Post: David Rosenberg reveals his most important investing lesson: A little history can go a long way

"I started my career as a Bay Street economist on Oct. 19, 1987 — Black Monday, the very day of the crash. A 23% slide in one single day, building on a downtrend that had been in place since the end of August. That was my first day as the financial markets economist at the Bank of Nova Scotia.

I had just finished a three-year stint as a housing economist at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. As I wandered through the trading floor — the first time I had ever seen a trading floor — I am sure I would have grabbed a return bus ticket back to my cushy civil service job in the nation’s capital had it been offered.

As it turned out, I followed the chief economist (Bill Mackness) and assistant chief economist (Warren Jestin, who is the chief today, and a long-time mentor) around all day as they met with the bank’s senior brass and, boy, were they cool cucumbers (then again, they had no P&L).

Amid the pandemonium, they kept their heads as many others lost theirs, and showed chart after chart to support their view that we had a liquidity event on our hands, not a fundamental event, and that the dust would settle within weeks into a great buying opportunity.

And they say economists can’t call the markets."  Click link to read on:     http://hvst.co/1aK1Hvu 

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