Recap of the Ira Sohn Research Conference

Bloomberg does a good recap here of what David Sokol-- of MidAmerican Energy Holdings--and David Einhorn--of Greenlight Capital--had to say at the most recent Ira Sohn Research Conference.

Sokol said, talking about the economy, that "we are not seeing any green sprouts" and that the "shadow backlog" of home foreclosures will last until 2011.

Einhorn said that the Obama administration is just like the Bush administration--it is trying to take us back to 2006 and get everyone to lever up again.

The banks don't need to lever up. In fact, according to Einhorn, they still need to write down their assets. Quoting directly: "For the economy to recover, these underwater entities [i.e., banks] need to restructure their balance sheets."