I don't see a recession. The decline of the dollar has made American industry quite competitive in the world, and ordinary manufacturing will help the economy. I've always been a low P/E investor, because low P/E gives you the benefit of a decent company's growth, plus the chance to move the P/E up. That's how I ran Windsor fund successfully for over 31 years.
In late January I started buying new stocks. I bought ConocoPhillips (COP), which I had sold at about $85 to $89, when it was suddenly below $70. I bought more shares of Seagate (STX), which I already owned. It got unduly pummeled, in part because it's a tech company, and it got down to seven times earnings. It's the only tech stock I've owned in the past 12 years, and I wouldn't buy it if it was 13 times earnings. I also bought a small-cap company, Georgia Gulf (GGC). It's a decent chemical company. It's overleveraged right now because it made an acquisition and used debt, and the stock got down to $3.50. So I bought in. The following week the stock was at $5.90. Not a bad percentage gain.
Last updated February 06 2008: 10:16 AM ET
