There’s a bright light at the end of the tunnel— finally. Most of the really well respected, long term investors are advising their audiences to hang in there, to stop the panic selling, and to look for the great companies that have withstood the economic downturns of the past.

Buffet, Bogle, Gross, Schwab, and company offer sound advice— don’t run and hide, it’s time to hit the Wall Street Mall and go shopping! They’ve seen the indicators; they’ve been there before. So have many of you. Clearly, it’s time for action.

With IGV stock prices down 50% or more, and income securities as low or lower, Chuck Jaffe points out in MarketWatch that the case for loading up on managed Closed End Funds (CEFs) is a strong one. The great companies are in garage sale mode, and managed CEFs are selling at …

It's a busy day on the global markets front. So let's get right to the news ...* U.S. dollar LIBOR rates generally rose again, with 3-month LIBOR up 3 basis points to 4.32%. That is just shy of last Friday's cycle high of 4.33%. Overnight LIBOR jumped to 3.94% from 2.37%, though that is still below the cycle peak of 6.88% on 9/30. 6-month LIBOR, for its part, dipped to 4.02% from 4.05%. The TED spread, another indicator of credit market stress, is slightly below its recent peak -- 3.72% as I write versus a 10/3 high of 3.87%. Two-year swap spreads are down to 136 bps or so, versus a recent peak of 167 on 10/2.* In the overseas markets, Australia's central bank lopped a full percentage point off its benchmark short-term interest rate. The Reserve Bank of Australia's cash rate target dropped to

In the last week there has been a rather big flap about LIBOR rates. It is a very serious matter. The Wall Street Journal pointed out a week ago that these rates might be misleading. There have been various stories following up on this and noting the defects in the method of calculation and the implications for US markets.

We believe that the stories capture neither the significance of the implications, nor all of the possible reasons for the problem.

Four months ago we worked on this issue. While we urge readers to revisit the entire article, here were some of the key points:

Readers need to know the following:

Much of the popular discussion of LIBOR moves relates to other currencies, not dollars.
The relevant discussion of LIBOR rates in US dollars pertains to so-called “eurodollars.” These are dollar deposits held outside the US (not necessarily …