Some speculate that the next leg to fall in a massive global de-leveraging will be the credit card business. Given that the crisis started with bad debts in the mortgage market, it makes sense for many to believe that our obsession with plastic will end and end badly.

For the wary investor seeking investments which are more secure and less volatile than investment in the equity markets, fixed income corporate bonds can offer a high rate of return and a relatively stable market value.

The company announced that it will be closing 155 stores as a result of unprecedented economic crisis and spending retrenchment. In addition to announcing store closings, the company stated that vendors are tightening the noose with some demanding payment in advance of delivery and others reducing credit lines.

So how's that index fund doing for you now? With stocks essentially treading water with levels seen many years ago, those that invested in index funds have essentially lost money if you take into account inflation.

Very few industries are immune to the market carnage. We know now that failure can strike anywhere. What industry is next? One sector that may be vulnerable is the casino space. 

Is $14.83 billion in profits all that you can produce? Come on Exxon Mobil (XOM), you can do better than that! In a period of huge oil price gains I would have expected profits double that rate.

By identifying some of the largest positions held by the hedge funds prior to the market's move down, profits will follow. In theory, the stocks sold due to forced selling do not reflect true value. Instead, these stocks are now inefficiently priced in a very disjointed market. And buying and holding them for the long term should result in significant out-performance. Get the names of six stocks here.

Crisis tends to bring out the best in people, but it also brings out the worst. The same is true with any industry. When times are tough you see the best and worst that industry has to offer.

Over the weekend I had a chance to watch some professional football. With my team not playing, I took the opportunity to view a game featuring one of the most storied franchises in sports history, the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Corporations have multiple options to fund themselves. Depending on availability there is a hierarchy of choices that range from the cheap to the expensive.

One thing that we can say with a high degree of certainty is that nobody really knows when we will hit bottom. The end will only present itself after the fact. When that time comes, the market could very well be in the midst of a V shaped rally.

In about a week or so, the longest presidential campaign in election history will finally come to a close. A winner will be named and we can finally go about the business of solving the many issues that lay before us.

We are well into the current earnings release season. Many companies have already reported and the news has been mostly negative. Although results have been mixed, guidance is the one constant.

If you have a long-term horizon, there really are some interesting stocks to buy in this market environment. One sector that looks particularly attractive is the chemical space.

No country in the world has been spared from the wrath of the global financial crisis. Stock markets have sold off. Economic growth has slowed. And confidence has plunged. But China is actually less vulnerable to the financial storm and may fare the crisis relatively unscathed. Let me explain why.

There is simply too much risk for more downside corrections in the current market. Are there companies that you must own irrespective of the operating environment? I would say there is one: Apple, Inc. (AAPL).

Yahoo's (YHOO) failure to consummate a deal with Microsoft (MSFT) will go down as one of the most obvious destructions of value seen in a long time.

I can appreciate that people are upset about losses in the stock market, but I can't say I didn't tell you so. You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink comes to mind.

Texas Instruments (TXN), one of the bellwether tech firms, released it quarterly earnings report this week and the news was not pretty.