Buyers paused yesterday, presumably to sniff the air for any lingering trace of the fear that permeated Wall Street just a week ago. What a difference a day makes! Recall that as March drew to a close, the death-watch list had come to include not only Lehman Brothers and some other banking stalwarts, but the indomitable Goldman Sachs. Now, though, as every sentient investor probably knows, Lehman has gotten an infusion of cash, a commendation from the regulators, and fawning support from the Wall Street Journal, which apparently has turned friendly toward bailouts as long as they benefit banks rather than manufacturers. We note as well that Thornburg Mortgage, apparently having avoided bankruptcy, expects to start making loans again any day. How did the firm achieve its death-defying escape? Our guess is that it simply occurred as a result of our ceasing to believe, if only temporarily, that Thornburg was a dead duck. This might be called the Peter Pan Principle: 'Sprinkle a little fairy dust, think lovely thoughts, an u-u-u-p we go!' But be sure to hold your very loveliest thoughts in reserve, since the housing market is going to need them at full strength, and soon. Concerning Goldman, we can be sure the firm has shaken off all of those nasty rumors because we received an e-mail yesterday from some bucket shop that goes by the name of Market Intelligence Center (MIC) exhorting us to Buy! Buy! Buy! Goldman shares hand-over-fist. 'If you are going to make one single trade today, this is it. GS (Goldman Sacks [sic] Period. Experience the Patent-Pending OSR System that selected this trade among thousands of possibilities.' We note that Goldman finished 25 cents higher on the day, so the opportunity touted by MIC is still there, waiting to be plundered by the
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