Not quite sure we're truly climbing out of the big recession - but I am sure that in about 12 short months, things will be back to the swing of things in terms of consumer activity, spending and the like.

If the above holds true, there will be lots of demand for - of all things - consumer credit. Yes - indeed, people will be back to over-leveraging themselves and using their homes as ATM machines.

I personally see a lot of opportunity in the financial services sector - especially for big cash-rich companies that deal with the consumer directly. This includes the likes of e-bay, amazon, apple, microsoft, facebook, google - those types of Internet blue-chips. Why?

Ultimately, they cater to the consumer daily within their business model. Their exposure to this consumer is relatively cheap. The profit from financial services - either brokering loans, offering credit, etc. - is high and will remain high as cash will always be king.

Utilizing both cash positions - as well as exposure to the consumer - is a win-win for these Internet blue-chips. They ultimately provide the disintermediation to pull the small, unregulated, players out of the game. This is not a bad thing.

eBay's Bill Me Later Sends Direct-Mail Offers
http://letters.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2010/2/1266092338.html

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