Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal was just on CNBC live for an interview with Maria Bartoromo and it proved to be a very interesting conversation. The Prince has increased his stake in Citigroup to 5% and is supportive of the US Government’s increased lending to the bank. I think this additional governmental bailout of Citigroup is still just the beginning and we will continue to see more banks fail and struggle without government aid.

Prince Al-Waleed also talked about oil prices and hoped for a steady price increase from the current $50/barrel back up to a more profitable level. But he was very passionate about the increase in price not being speculative in nature like the previous run up to $148. This is inline with my own prediction for the price of oil through the rest of 2008 and 2009 and has resulted in investments in Can Roys and related oil investments.

I don’t think this is the last of the bailouts in the financial sector and I see a full-blown recession emerging in 2009. Experts are predicting a very soft holiday shopping season because of the lack of a “must-have toy” this year. I am moving more and more in that direction and have been moving money into industry specific Ultra Short ETF’s, particularly Financials, Real Estate and Consumer Goods.

[tags]ultra short etf, financials, real estate, consumer goods, shaun carter, prince al-waleed, can roys, crude oil, citigroup, maria bartoromo, cnbc[/tags]