Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) reported very strong numbers last night, and actually raised guidance for '08. "Revenue of over $16 billion this quarter exceeds our previous record by $2 billion," said Chris Liddell, chief financial officer at Microsoft. "We are extremely pleased by the broad based strength of our business performance and field execution. Throughout the first half of our fiscal year, all of our businesses met or beat our expectations."

In a conference call with analysts, Liddell said that the earnings were the result of "demand from enterprise customers, combined with healthy holiday consumer spending."

"They were good results," said McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Sid Parakh told MarketWatch. Moreover, the software giant "still thinks the business-spending environment is pretty healthy, which is good from an overall tech-spending perspective," the analyst said.

By listening to the media and the banks complaining how bad everything is, I would have thought that we are in the midst of a really bad recession. How could it be that Microsoft see things differently? Could it be that the media has some kind of political agenda, and the banks want us to pay for their lousy investments? Could it be that things are not so bad?

Aaron Katsman is the lead Portfolio Manager and Managing Director of America Israel Investment Associates, LLC. and Senior Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com. DISCLOSURE: Writer has no position in any stock mentioned as of 1/25/08