Issue #585: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 by Martin Denholm, Managing Editor, Smart Profits Report Last Christmas, my brother bought me a shirt. Join discussion...

The stock market seems to have entered “holiday mode.” And after one of the most frenetic and stressful years on record for investors, it comes as blessed relief. Join discussion...

Congratulations… you’ve almost survived the most volatile stock market of our generation. Join discussion...

Bernanke & Co. did as everyone expected them to do and slashed U.S. interest rates. But it was the size of the cut - from 1% to a record low of 0.25% that caught some folks off guard. Join discussion...

Since the sub-prime mortgage crisis clobbered the market last summer - the trigger point for dragging the U.S. into what could be the worst economic recession since the Great Depression - investors have struggled to find many decent, safe opportunities. Join discussion...

In my last column on December 1, the price of crude oil had just slid under the $50 a barrel level - and over the past couple of weeks, the action has continued to be anything but boring. Join discussion...

While the Treasury Department’s noble investment of more than $250 billion in U.S. financial institutions has been billed as a strategy that will bolster the health of the banking system, the real story shows that the “recapitalization” has actually had a very different result. Join discussion...

Pack your bags, folks - “There’s no more Wall Street.” That’s the damning verdict from Alan Greenberg, former CEO of Bear Stearns. Speaking on Bloomberg’s “Money and Politics” show on Monday, Greenberg declared that the existing Wall Street investment banking model is dead. Join discussion...

Marc has been spending the past two weeks intently trying to make sense of the dramatic shifts in our financial markets, the U.S. economy, and even our societal mood. Join discussion...

It was no surprise to see last Friday’s newscasts feature the rather desperate, “running of the bulls” scenes, as herds of bargain-hungry consumers bulldozed into stores in search of hot deals. Join discussion...