He fairly described himself as the “token bull” in a conference dominated by bears, but he has also been described a “perma-bull” because he is almost always optimistic.  Fortunately, the economic history of the United States seems to justify such long-term optimism.  He just follows the facts, as he sees them.

His speech followed his latest book, Stocks For The Long Run.  Unquestionably, stocks have out-performed bonds and cash over most time periods – by large margins.  Rational investors should therefore over-invest in stocks and under-invest in bonds and cash.  His sound economic arguments strongly support the traditional “buy-and-hold” approach of Warren Buffet.  But, Dr. Siegel’s “blind-spot” is behaviorial finance, which are the emotional gyrations investors need help managing, both going-up and going-down.

He made no particular predictions yesterday, probably because the bears would have laughed him out of the lecture hall.  But, he didn’t need to . . . we already know he thinks capitalism is a blessing . . . in the long run!