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John Bogle, founder of Vanguard, is one of the few smart people in the investment world. He always tells it like it is, even when he strikes close to home. In an interview recently, Bogle pointed his finger at mutual fund managers, retirement account managers, pension managers, money market managers, institutional money managers and the like -- people who charge or make large fees for their work and who together control some 70% of the shares of large public companies today.

Geithner is a very hard guy to understand. He may also be clinically disabled. It is made far more difficult to understand him by his most unusual speaking mannerisms. He speaks with his hands; his words just interpret the motions of his hands. It is unlike anything I have ever seen.

Harvard is leading the pack again, as it always does. This time it's very bad news. It's huge endowment, which it depends on for a major part of its annual operating expenses, has lost a whole lot of billions. And, while President of Harvard, Summers played a very active role overseeing and steering the university's investments. And, he did a terrible job. By any count, Harvard's endowment has lost somewhere between 30% to 45%, and the latter is more likely.

If we were smart, we would fully discount what the Gurus are saying. They are about as clueless as the paper boy, but far more irritating. They continue to pretend they know what they are talking about, even when they change their projections weekly if not daily.

I just got this quiz. It is very funny.

My wife and I both have 12 month CDs with Corus. They both come due in about a month. My wife just got a really nice box of candies from Corus. I didn't.

It is wonderful to watch the non-profits, with Harvard at the head, mimic the for-profits and pay huge sums to people who have blown their money and lost millions of dollars in elaborate and reckless investments. Who in their right minds would donate money to a non-profit these days, given their total disregard for the obligations they have to their donors.

The argument in almost all sectors, especially the financial, has always been that if you do not give highly-valued employees bonuses these same people will go elsewhere and productivity will drop measurably. Today, bonuses are the accepted currency for highly paid and valued employees. No one challenges the assumptions underlying them. But, they have always been a joke, and they are much more so today.

The price of Oil has dropped from $140+ to the mid $30s in a matter of months. It was too high at $140 and it is far too low at $30, even if one factors in a serious decline in global economic activity. Even in these bad times, these investment will pay off and pay off big time. It is a slam dunk.

Sure, it is pretty impressive that America has elected its first black president. Sure, we are a country at the brink of a major depression and need to celebrate something. Sure, someone has to feed the media's insatiable appetite for glitz. But at the very precipice of financial disaster, to see our new leader turn a blind and unfeeling eye on the financial woes of millions of Americans is disconcerting at the very least.

A native Chicagoan believes that the best outcome for the city is for another city to host the 2016 Olympics.

Tiananmen Square was a big event, but it didn't change the world.

Irving Picard, the Madoff trustee, is taking a very aggressive approach vis-a-vis Madoff investors. Since he believes that the entire fund was a fraud, he has ruled that each investor is only entitled to a return of their basis.

And, in case you missed it, here is a very brief summary of what has transpired in the meantime.

Keeping your credit score up or repairing bad credit is more important than ever in a bad economic environment.