As an aside, I recently went to the FPA conference on the Gold Coast (I am not a FP but have some involvment in the industry). I was struck by the give-aways and excess of the event. Make no mistake about it - like investment bankers the excesses have to stop. This will be lead by generational change in the industry.
My 2c on the equities market - they are bottoming. As the liquidity crunch eases over the next few quarters, the 'flight for safety' will be reversed and equities will be the first to benefit. I mean Uncle Ben is doing his utmost to steer people away from cash and into riskier assets and equities will also lead us out of the recession (which will be bottoming too over the first quarter as cheap debt and fiscal stimulus starts to filter through to the real economy).
Blue chip financials and miners will by the leaders of the pack and that is good news for the ASX-200 which is dominated by the Big $ banks plus RIO/BHP.
Long-run I worry about another bubble and the continuation of 'disaster capitalism' as the all out fight against deflation sows the seeds for the next asset boom. The bond bubble will aslo be popping soon so check what any fixed-income funds are holding.
geez there you go .... better get back to work