There is no place to hide financially

As Hoard's Dairyman editors, we have the opportunity to provide leadership to various dairy-related organizations. This week, one such organization held a conference call to discuss the best places to invest money. It is the same question everyone is asking given the current economic climate.

Market investments have been tracked in the U.S. since 1825. During that time, only two years have faired more poorly than 2008's performance . . . 1931 and 1937. Both of those years were during the Great Depression.

There were only two basic places to invest last year where people didn't lose wealth — cash and CDs. Everything else was a loser. Today’s historic low interest rates are no accident. We have reached the point where the government is basically telling people, "Pull your money out of the bank and invest it in something because we want money to move and get the economy flowing."

These historically low interest rates are great news for borrowers. One person on the conference call reported locking in a 15-year mortgage at 4.375 percent last Friday. Those were previously unheard-of rates.

One major mortgage house told us that the wait on mortgage phone lines was 1-1/2 hours. That's the good news. The bad news is 80 percent of the people on the line were interested in refinancing, while only 20 percent were new home loans. At least it is a start. Many market analysts predict the economy will continue to spiral down until home prices stabilize and the market excess is sold off. Unfortunately, it may be 2010 before we reach that point, analysts predict.