Bill Gross, the $747 billion bond man, declares the death of equities

[sweeps]

Stocks are dead for the rest of your life. That's the gist of my exclusive interview with the head of PIMCO Total Return -- the biggest bond fund you've never heard of. But you should know PIMCO because its chief, Bill Gross, is one of the world's most powerful bond investors....

In Gross's view, the current economic contraction is killing the animal spirits that drive risk taking and that's contributing to the death of equity capitalism as we've come to know it.

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[Joan.of.the.Arch]

"He attributes it to too much borrowing, weak regulation and greed."

[Broken Arrow]

.... Were it anybody else proclaiming this, I would have dismissed it. Perhaps even with a dismissive scoff.

But because it's coming from Bill Gross... the "Guru of Bonds"... it warrants at least a serious consideration.

But within that consideration, I think it's also worth keeping in mind that he is a Bond Guy.

On a related note, Warren Buffett has recently shaved off a substantial portion of his stocks as well. It's quite the talk elsewhere, but I argue that perhaps it could be because many of the Blue Chips he was shaving were at their "market high", not necessarily because he lost confidence in these companies. In other words, he could be performing a form of rebalancing so he can "swing big" elsewhere.

With that in mind, Buffett is buying up a lot of debts lately. High interest debts from quality companies that he knows will survive this economic turmoil. Even on a main street level, I've noticed a lot of great deals out there for corporate bonds. For example, not too long ago, I saw Wal-Mart bonds paying as much as 6.8% interest!

So, in terms of relative risk/benefit, it does seem as though perhaps certain bonds are where it's at right now....