By Dan Ferris in the S&A Digest:

Question: I'm getting a little concerned with the repeated discussions of disaster preparation. One would gather from the suggested precautions that complete anarchy is imminent. All this while, you continue to make stock recommendations.

I am having trouble rectifying the two as they would seem to be mutually exclusive, or at least moderately incompatible. Won't anarchy and blood in the streets result in poor market performance and returns? Why are you recommending both?

And please don't default to the standard – 'better to be prepared.' – subscriber S.B.

Dan Ferris response: [Last week] at the Grant's conference, the venerable Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital Management reminded us that, if you're not confused, you don't understand what's going on.

You can't tell me not to fall back on "better to be prepared." That's the best you, me, or anyone else can do. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring. The future can only be seen as through a glass and darkly, and even then, the real future will always be different than whatever you think you see there.

There are no easy answers to your question, but it sounds like you're taking the proper perspective, refusing to swallow unquestioned what you hear.

Finally, have you ever heard the adage, "the time to buy is when blood is running in the streets"? Though I don't wish for rioting and blood running in the streets, as a committed lifetime buyer of equities, I would still take advantage of it.

Other things being equal, I'm generally going to seize upon a crisis as a buying opportunity, and I'm usually going to refrain from buying during times when stocks are fairly valued or overvalued (like right now). I would encourage anyone to behave the same way.

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