Internet Explorer 8.0 is in beta. Here's what's known. IE 8 looks nearly identical to its predecessor — IE 7, but internally it handles page rendering differently. It's the most standards based browser that Microsoft has ever shipped. IE 8 is in full compliance with CSS 2.1 and HTML 4.01, as well as taking steps towards implementing HTML 5. IE 7 had quite a bit of non-standard code to it so IE 8 is not totally compatible with it. Microsoft had to make a decision on whether to default to the rendering engine that supports Microsofts non-standard code, or to have the default rendering engine support only the standards based code. Fortunately, they went the standards route. But, to make sure those sites that use the non-standard old code in IE7, an Emulate IE7 option is available for sites coded to that browser. The beta browser also includes a couple of intriguing new conveniences.

Be warned that Internet Explorer versions 7 and 8 can't work side by side. If you install the developer preview beta 1, this becomes your primary browser.

Two of the most prominent are Activities and WebSlices. Both are designed to add functionality from third-party services without requiring you to leave the page you're viewing. Activities brings up information from activity providers (e.g. Facebook, Windows Live, etc.) which you can choose. Slices allows you to incorporate portions of other sites onto your page. In addition, IE 8 has integrated developer tools, accessible from that small arrow icon up on the right side of the toolbar. This brings up a window showing the site's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a visual debugging environment. The tool gives developers more than the typical browser's "View Source Code" choice.

When will the final version be released? It's only Beta 1 and it's pretty unstable so it probably won't ship until the second half of the year.

In January's newsletter I talked about the tendency of many real estate investors to rely on "rules of thumb" for valuation and the attendent problems that go with it. So, I was surprised to hear a fund manager (while watching CNBC) talk about his use of the "PEG RATIO" for valuing stock prices. Even more astonishing was how widely used the ratio is — even by well regarded money managers such as Peter Lynch, the former manager of the wildly successful Fidelity Magellan Fund.

The Peg Ratio is a relationship of a company's Price Earnings Ratio to it's expected growth rate. Specifically, it's defined as:

(Stock Price/Earnings) / percent growth in earnings
which is simply: PE ratio / percentage growth in earnings

A lower ratio is "better" (cheaper) and a higher ratio is "worse" (expensive). A ratio of 1 is said to be fairly priced.

The PEG ratio is strictly a rule of thumb and has no accepted underlying mathematical basis. In fact you can see the units of the ratio don't make any sense. In addition, you can see the how the ratio breaks down at the extremes. For example, as a company's growth in earnings approach 0, its fair price also approaches zero, which is of course nonsense. For this reason, the ratio is generally only applied to so-called growth companies (those growing earnings significantly faster than the market).

Call me silly, but I just don't get it. But then again, Peter Lynch is a gazillionaire — and I'm not!

The average price of a home decreased by 2% in March. Also, inventories of unsold homes increased by 40,000. That's almost 10 months of inventory. Is there any good news? Yes! The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) regularly calculates an index that measures the factors affecting the affordability of buying a home. It's called The Housing Affordability Index and it's at a 58 month high. People can afford homes and the credit is easing a bit so they can finance it.

Investment property looks especially good. Vacancies are down, credit is easing and for the smart investor, valuations are attractive. This may be the best time to get in the market and find the best deals.

In the third quarter of 2007, the real GDP gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States --increased a robust 4.9 percent. The Real GDP increased at an annual rate of 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to final estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. And now we have the first quarter of 2008 which also grew at .6 percent. So techniclly, we aren't in a recession which requires two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. But the distinction is not much use. GDP figures required much fiddling and adjustments. And .6% growth in two quarters could have easily been to negative for both periods. It certainly feels like a recession.

Nevertheless, some people are saying the stock market has reached a bottom. And we know that the stock market looks forward for 6 to 18 months. So, things may be looking up.

What's the Fed (Federal Reserve Board of which Ben Bernanke is the Chairman) going to do with regard to interest rates? My bet is either nothing (because of inflation fears) or a 25 basis point reduction at the most. Here's the current Federal Funds Rate.