Five for the Weekend #10

Looks like a panic, folks. So I guess the Panic of 2008 will be listed with those of 1907, 1893 and so on. This is NOT a time to sell. That is, if you've been sensible. I saw that Jim Cramer said to sell all stocks if you'll need the money in the next five years. I think you shouldn't have ANY money in stocks that you've been planning on using within that time frame. And I've posted that here several times since starting this blog in 2005. With that, lets bring on five items you might check out this weekend.

• Jim Grant's next book, Mr. Market Miscalculates: The Bubble Years and Beyond, will be out soon. Todd Sullivan of Value Plays reviews it on the GuruFocus site. Plenty of talking heads are speculating who the presidential candidates would nominate for Treasury secretary. The heck with the names put forth to this point. Any candidate promising to put up Jim Grant gets my vote. ;-)

• Carmi Levy, a telecom analyst in Canada, says BCE (BCE/NYSE) faces being broken up if the deal doesn't go through. Levy argues it is the only way Bell Canada can remain competitive.

• David Stevenson writes in the Financial Times about his guilty secret: he's started buying shares this week. Here's a bit: "My colleague Merryn Somerset Webb might think that the markets are still going to hell in a handcart and I don’t disagree with her on a macro level – I think we’ll be testing 4000 for the FTSE, bank rescue or not! But, in some sectors and in some investment spaces, value is abundant – with a huge margin of safety – and getting more abundant by the day." He's probably a bit too early, but that shouldn't matter in the long run (if he's right).

• Scott Black, a money manager I'm familiar with somewhat because he participates in the Barron's Roundtables, was interviewed on Bloomberg TV today (scroll down, just below the one with Jim Rogers). Black says he doesn't think the market will go to zero, and there are bargains around, but suggests people with cash stay on the sidelines for now.

• In his new Bloomberg column, Michael Sesit laments the lack of a unified European response to the financial meltdown, writing "the longer Europe resists a universal approach to the credit crisis, the greater the odds it will be confronted with corporate bankruptcies and demands for bailouts."

Have a great weekend -- turn off the TV and do something fun, relaxing or both. The world can do a good enough going to hell in a hand basket with you and me. :-)