“The bold effort the present bank had made to control the Government, the distress it had wantonly produced … arc but premonitions of the fate that awaits the American people should they be deluded into a perpetuation of this institution, or the establishment of another like it.” - Andrew Jackson, referring to the Second Bank of the United States

“Congress Demands Answers from Fed, Bear Stearns” reads one headline on Reuters, while another from the Wall Street Journal online states “SEC Role is Scrutinized In Light of Bear Woes”. It appears that our dutifully elected politicians will hold a hearing next week to examine the details of the J.P. Morgan Chase & Co’s (JPM) bailout of Bear Stearns (BSC) and the role that the Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Department played in helping.

Why would Congress want a hearing for answers they should already know? Are they that ignorant or is it because it is an election year and they want to make it appear that they are working for the public good? Maybe the protesters in Bear Stearns’ lobby demonstrating against government bailouts of big banks while homeowners are abandoned had something to do with it. No, our lawmakers are just ignorant.

Gold prices have hit an all time high; as a result, many investors are starting to take notice of silver and its low trailing price as compared to gold. Depending on the source of data, it is hard not to get excited after reading articles by experts giving out historical price data of how silver at one point reached a high of $50USD in 1980. Compared to today’s price of $16.89/oz, silver is just plain cheap if adjusted for inflation, but before you start loading up silver, let’s take a step back in time.

There is one piece of information that many of these writers seem to leave out when they talk about the highest price ever of silver that was touched briefly in 1980. The real story behind it will also explain the quick tumble soon after.

It is a known fact that franchise owners usually have a better chance of success as a business operator than an independent start up owner. The likelihood of success can be attributed to a proven and tested business model, existing market brand, support and training from the franchisor. The question is, are there advantages to investing in the public stocks of franchises?

Comparing the actual ownership and operation of a franchise to owning the stocks is like comparing apples to oranges. In terms of just an investment hypothetical, there are some clear advantages. We will take McDonald’s Corporation (NYSE:MCD) as an example.

Investing in a Direct Participating Program [DPP] like oil/gas drilling is out of reach for most small investors based on the accredited investor requirements. The rules and regulations imposed by the government may appear to favor wealthy investors over the less funded investors. Fortunately, there is a way for individuals to invest in partnerships similar to a DPP, but without having to be an accredited investor.

“Publicly traded partnerships [PTPs], often known as master limited partnerships [MLPs], are limited partnerships which are traded on public exchanges. A share in a PTP is called a “unit,” and PTP shareholders are known as “unitholders.” PTPs can be found on the New York, American, and NASDAQ exchanges, as well as many regional exchanges.” – National Association of Publicly Traded Partnerships

If you have never heard of the "currency sandwich" strategy before, you are probably not alone, but believe me it does exist. Investors in the know have been using this “distortion” in the world’s currency market to make some high returns for decades. A word of caution: this strategy is not for the faint of heart, but for those that can risk big losses for its substantial rewards.

In simple terms, the currency sandwich is a strategy where one borrows a low interest currency and then investing the loan in multiple currencies with higher returns than the cost of the loan. This difference in interests has returned many investors profits in the double to triple digits range, however, this strategy is highly speculative and is not without risks.

It is not a matter of “if” the demise of the U.S. dollar is going to happen, but a matter of “when”. We have seen signs of its weakening in the last couple of years and it does not look like it will recover any time soon. The actions of a number of other countries are adding fuel to the fire and can only confirm that the best U.S. dollar hedge is gold.

The central banks of the world may have followed the U.S. in getting off the gold standard, in addition to having pegged their currencies with the USD, but not for much longer. They all know that a weak USD will affect their own financial systems if they are holding large reserves of the greenbacks. The only hedge is to dispose the USD and add real value into their monetary system by holding large reserves of the gold metal.

The Banking sector has taken a beating this year because of the subprime mortgage fiasco. More share price decline is to come as bigger banks continue to write off billions of losses from bad mortgages. Smaller public community banks that do not even have subprime mortgages on their books are being punished as well.

The market is sometime quite “irrational” when it makes no distinction in pummeling a good stock from a deservingly bad one because of guilt by association. If history repeats itself, now would be a good time to pick up cheap shares in these smaller banks to see double to triple digit returns in the next two to four years. Similar situations have happened at least three times in the Banking sector as small banks were dragged down because of issues with bigger banks and an irrational market sentiment.

Few people know about a class of Canadian public companies that trade on the stock market called Royalty Trusts. They trade like normal stocks; however, Royalty Trusts is a special business entity in Canada which receives special tax breaks from the Canadian government. In exchange for these tax breaks, they are required by law to pay out at least 90% of all earnings to shareholders.

Canadian Royalty Trusts are created so that the dividends are taxed as personal income and the corporation is not taxed at the corporate level, therefore avoiding double taxation. This is a great income generator for investors as many of the Royalty Trusts are paying double digit dividends annually just by holding these stocks, whether the stock goes up or down.

If you had invested $5000 in Wal-Mart (WMT) back in 1971, today that investment would be worth over $10 Million. They say hindsight is 20/20, but knowing what you know today about Wal-Mart would you pass up the opportunity to invest in the world’s largest retailer in the world for less than $4 dollars a share? Let me explain how lightning might be striking twice again for some investors of Wal-Mart.

Today, Wal-Mart is trading at around $43 per share, giving it a market cap of about 175 Billion. Most investors know that Wal-Mart has stores all over the world, but what few investors know is that one of it’s subsidiary, Wal-Mart de Mexico SA (WMMVF.PK) is publicly traded on the stock exchange.

Before you dismiss the idea of trading stocks on the over the counter market or pink sheets take this into consideration. Most investors do not invest on the OTC because of the belief that it is risky and unregulated. While that may be somewhat true, what they fail to realized that a large number of big name international companies and ADRs trades on the OTC.