Topsy-Turvy World Economy

Alan Abelson ('Up & Down Wall Street') writes in the 12/25/06 issue of Barrons...

"...perhaps there's something a bit topsy-turvy in the world economy when..."

'the 173,000 employees of the 5 largest U.S. brokerage firms earn a bonus of $36 billion, which is larger than half of Vietnam's GDP with 84 million people.'

'Excess liquidity has created large imbalances & economic distortions that one day will have to be corrected, and I am afraid not in a pleasant way.'

---quotes attributed to Marc Faber (Contributor to Barron's Roundtable & proprietor of the famed "Gloom, Boom & Doom Report")