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Ever since the financial crisis in 2008, the stock market has been moving often based more on global macroeconomic and political news and concerns than on individual company fundamentals. The market has, in general, not been rewarding good micro-analytic stock-picking skills, since most stocks rise and fall in lockstep with the market.

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Remember last year when the pundits on the various financial market programs were telling individual investors they were “crazy” and “irresponsible” to be putting their hard-earned savings into bonds? Guess what? While the stock market is down almost 10 percent year-to-date – as of Sept. 23, 2011 – according to the S&P 500 Index, the total return from owning a long-term (over 10 years) U.S. Treasury bond so far this year is about 28 percent.

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In my May 31 Investors’ Corner column, “Immigration Will Keep U.S. Young” I discussed the economic ramifications of the coming age-wave in Europe, Japan, China and, to some degree, the U.S. after 2020. Investors need to be aware of the long-term implications of that serious issue.

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The recent revisions to quarterly GDP numbers show that the Great Recession was even “greater” than originally thought and that the recovery has been weaker. To add still more to investor anxiety, the global economy is slowing, especially in the U.S. and Europe, and the health of the banking system in Europe is in question. The stock market decline is finally reflecting this new reality. That has me feeling more bullish long-term.

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Next year I will be celebrating my 30th year in the investment management profession. When I got into this business my daughter was three years old and my son was less than one. I am now a grandfather. Yikes! Getting older in many occupations turns from being an asset to being a liability because of our society’s obsession with youth, and it usually happens in our fifties.

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If it seems like there is something strangely familiar with what has been recently happening in the economy, it is because we have seen it before. Most of the concerns that have caused the current decline in the stock market and interest rates are almost exactly what investors were worried about a year ago when the market fell about 16 percent from its April high. As Yogi Berra once said, “This is like déjà vu all over again.”

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As the political silly season heats up in the United States this summer and the Republican Party presidential candidates become known to us, I am truly hoping that one issue will finally be dropped from the conservative platform... immigration.