With the New Year just around the corner I figured it apropos to proffer the idea of discussing personal points of view and 'expert' opinions regarding the relative performance of various asset classes, markets, and sectors in the investment universe.

I happened to catch a video presentation where I gleened one 2013 outlook in particular which going from memory I'll paraphrase below:

Regarding the economy there are some positives including rising manufacturing new orders, improving home sales resulting in stabilization or even rising prices, and continued uptick in automobile sales which are a critical component of the manufacturing industry. Negatives include the spectre of higher taxation and increased regulation (both of which are a drag on economic capacity regardless of your political stance), reduced marginal effectiveness of additional rounds of QE, and a stronger dollar is leading to reduced exports.