I see that the administration has come to some roughly similar conclusions as me, in regards to reducing incentives to willy-nilly securitize crappy loans. Have they achieved the appropriate balance between efficiency of capital, and systemic risk reduction and system redundancy?

The last time I wrote, it seemed like the global economy generally, and the American economy in particular, was in for a serious bout of greacession.

Much has been said and made about Warren Buffett's (BRK.A) $5 Billion purchase into Goldman Sachs (GS).

There's no doubt that Mr. Buffett is a very cagey investor, having waited until Goldman was (effectively) permitted to turn itself into a commercial bank. This lowered the risk of Goldman Sachs measurably, since they can now step up to the Fed and secure further funding, making the risk of failure fade considerably.

A recent blog posting over at Morningstar sniped at Professor Jeremy Seigel of Wisdom Tree, indicating that his firm's stock selection methodology and retention of assets depended on his call that a market bottom had been hit.

The post compared the performance of several Wisdom Tree ETFs to various total market benchmarks, showing relative YTD performance is lagging for Wisdom Tree dividend selection process. While true, it ignores the beating that all value benchmarks have taken since the credit crisis began in the summer of 2007.

Recently, some members of the investment business have suggested that emerging markets offer unusually good value. This, of course, offers me another opportunity to explore one of my favorite topics.

According to one recent article, despite the growth of emerging markets, which currently represents 13% of the world stock market capitalization, British investors have only 1.6% of assets in those markets. Presumably, American and Canadian investors are in the same boat. This is even more alarming given that these markets are widely forecast to achieve 50% of the world economy in 20-30 years time. That means that most investors aren't playing the largest visible theme of our times.

I recently profiled an eight stock basket chosen from the 30 stock Dow Jones Industrial Average [DJIA] that I felt would, over the next 2-3 years, outperform the DJIA.

It was essentially chosen using a Dogs of Dow strategy, wherein I used the dividend yield to provide clues to potential mispricings. With one exception (Procter & Gamble (PG)), all had yields in the top half of the DJIA.

Many academic studies have shown that dividend-paying stocks outperform their non-paying brethren by leaps and bounds over time.

Further to that, I took a look at the current constituents of the Dow Jones Industrials Index, and the current yields available there, with the idea that, based on today's share prices, some of the companies are better situated to outperform the index over the next while. Here are the recent stock prices and the most recent dividends payable for each company (sorted by dividend yield):

"It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." - Yogi Berra

Just like a trying to see a lighthouse on a foggy day, trying to clearly envision the future can be tough. However, making out the likely shape and dimensions of those things you are trying to avoid, or aim towards, will likely speed you safely on your journey.