John Cohn

Stock prices and retirement funds might be fizzling, but the dating scene is hotter than ever. These days you can’t switch on your television or cruise the internet without being bombarded with ads for online matching and dating services. The possibilities seem to be endless. You can find your ideal match by mutual interests, religion, race or odd proclivity.

With the economy starting to bounce off the bottom, the leading topic for almost every pundit, guru and psychic is predicting when we will get back to where we were before this mess began.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard the good news.

The worst recession in a generation is no mas. Kaput. History.

Break out the bubbly.

Throw on a black armband.

Away from the clamor of taxis, And the white noise of ambition; You hear their silenced voices, Surging above the din.

It’s brilliant.

It’s diabolical.

It’s both.

The projected end point for the Great Recession of 2008-2009 has gotten a lot of ink.

The stock market is posting steady gains. Commodity prices are surging, and the housing sector has displayed growing evidence of stabilization.

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year.

On Sept. 7, 2008, James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, FHFA, better known as Fannie Mae, stepped in front of the cameras and announced that Fannie Mae and its companion lender, Freddie Mac, were being placed into a government conservatorship.

Like religious devotees, acolytes of market finance are in constant pursuit of the next guru.

To stock traders, Warren Buffet is market messiah.

Nobody is truly safe.

Just ask Fed Chair Ben Bernanke.