Lakshman Achuthan is a smart guy. He is the managing director of Economic Cycle Research Institute (ECRI). His job is to predict recessions and economic cycle. He thinks that there is no downturn in economy anytime soon. See his interview here. I agree with him because I am an optimistic person! I know, I know, optimism alone is not going to make me profits. However, it’s nice to see someone, an expert in predicting recessions, is optimistic about economy recovery.

Today, we got the mixture of good news and bad news. Whenever someone asks me “do you want to hear good news first, bad news first?”, I always opt to hear bad news first. The reason is that I get rid of the bad news first and take the good news to compensate for weird feeling associated with bad news.

Here is the bad news. Actually couple of them.

Bad News #1. Economy Fell off a Cliff

Mr. Buffett delivered the bad news “Economy fell off a cliff”. Most of us already feel it. But, when we hear the confirmation from people like Warren Buffett, it doesn’t sound good. He also cautioned that unemployment rate may still climb up. More about this here.

Bad News #2. Stock Market could go much lower

Mr. Roubini delivered his gloomy prediction in RGE Monitor.

Bad News #3: Social Unrest?

Barton M. Biggs, managing partner at Traxis Partners (hedge fund), said he thinks it’s “50-50” as to whether the economy begins to recover over the next year or “whether we are going into a depression and a deflation,” which could conceivably be as painful as the 1930s. “If we’re going into the 1930s,” he said, “it’ll be survivalism, and we’ll have very substantial social unrest.”

Now, for some good news…

Good News #1: Some Companies are hiring

It’s a fact that crisis presents huge opportunities for some industries. Healthcare Industry is one of them. AP reports that even some banks are hiring in technology arena. More on this here.

Good News #2: Peter Lynch’s Optimism

Peter Lynch, Fidelity’s legendary stock-picker, said “I can’t tell you anything about where the market will be in the next six months or 12 months or two years. But at some point in the future, I think you’ll look back and see that we’ve gotten through this and that stocks turned out to be the best bet.” More on this here.

So… how do you feel? Optimistic or Pessimistic?

Although it’s expected that everyone is going to be affected by the economic crisis, many wouldn’t have thought about how it would affect college aid for students. Many colleges and universities depend on endowments and investments in the market. Universities like Harvard invest big time in the market; they also invest in hedge funds and venture capital funds. When the market goes south, all the universities that made big bets in the market suffer. Ultimately, they can’t give the financial aid for the students that really need it.

There is no sign of end to the current crisis. Clouds may clear for the students in 2010. Just a hope…

Related Link: Colleges Struggle to Preserve Financial Aid