For the last 20 years plus I’ve been amazed by the vast conflicts of interest that exist on Wall Street and in the financial industry. My first wake-up call was watching my first investment firm implode because of its own internal conflicts and mismanagement of an IPO of a mortgage derivatives fund,

“May you live in interesting times” … Ancient Chinese Curse That’s right. This famous Chinese proverb was actually written as a curse, and I’d say that it totally and completely sums up this past year. 2008 just became the worst investment year since the Great Depression, with losses of 35-40% for most major indices.

When the news broke about the $50 billion Ponzi Scheme that Bernie Madoff engineered over a twenty to thirty year period, I knew the story rang a bell. I went back through my records and found the original Barron’s article in 2001, and written by Erin Arvedlund.

The bear market rally continued today, this time thanks to never before seen moves by the US Federal Reserve. They not only dropped the Fed Funds rate by .50%, but also made it very clear in their forward looking comments that they would provide record amounts of liquidity to the markets going forward …

It’s snowing here as I write this…actual flurries. We rarely get snow in Houston, so this is a fun time for us. The last time we had snow was Christmas eve, 2004. Prior to that it had been at least 10 years, so I’ll have to ask all of you that live in colder climates to bear with my reaction to the white stuff.

As I forecast yesterday, the market had a fairly tough day today, ending down over 240 points. If the auto bailout does not take place…as the market is expecting…we could see a 500-1000 point drop in no time at all. I continue to believe …

It's probably the last thing anyone wants to hear so soon after news of the 533,000 lost jobs lost month (announced on Friday) -- but if history is a guide, it's only going to get worse from here. Details to follow…

This is the scariest market I have ever seen. How can anyone be expected to trust their investments when the market can drop 300 points in less than 30 minutes? Day after day after day this is happening, and if you’re wondering what the heck is going on…

One of the best trades possible is shorting the market whenever Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke make TV appearances. So, it should be no surprise that the market dropped 670 points (8%) on Monday as BOTH decided to grace us with their presence. The markets message is clear; more government interference is NOT what we need.

Since my latest update (GD 2), I've had several readers comment that it was "too depressing" and asked if things can really get that bad again. Well, for one thing, you've got to remember that the numbers we are getting from the government now cannot be trusted.

Great Depression 2I'm writing this from the beautiful Marco Island, Florida, as we prepare for the 7th WMI m2 Wealth Conference. Outside its gorgeous, but inside...watching the stock market...isa totally different environment.

Last Thursday I called for a bear market rally when the Dow was down over 300 points. A huge rally began within 30 minutes and we closed up 550 points for the day. An 850 point move in less than 3 hours….amazing. These kinds of moves used to take several days or even weeks to happen, …

For those that are brave enough to trade this market, hopefully you’ve been using the advice I’ve provided with both SDS and SSO on my newsletter at www.vraletter.com. When I put out the update “What to Buy for a Bear Market Rally” at about 11 AM the market was down 300 points …

Fire Hank Paulson Now The Wall Street Journal says that the original $700 billion bailout will not be enough (surprise surprise) which makes it likely that Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson will be forced to go back before Congress and ask for still more money. Just amazing. Congress has a chance to do the right thing …

We bail out AIG, Fannie, Freddie and the banks to save our system from collapse...they are just too big to fail. Now we have to bail out GM, Ford and Chrysler ( I mean Cerebus, the super secretive private equity firm that owns Chrysler) for the same reason. Trust me, it won't end there....and it won't stop with us bailing out just US co's.

Following the Richard Nixon disgrace of a Presidency, a little known Georgia Govenor became the 39th U.S. President. Out of nowhere, Jimmy Carter came to power in 1976 with a mandate to reform and restore the country's reputation, and hope was seemingly restored.

This now famous line was attributed to George H Bush's mishandling of his re-election bid, when Bill Clinton's victory turned Bush into a one term President. The economy was in the dumps in the year leading up to the election and Bush seemed oblivious to the recession that the country was entering.

At the risk of some personal embarrassment, I'll be shocked if Obama loses today. Every poll that I respect has him winning in a landslide, so it looks like we will have a democrat in the office for at least the next 4 years. In my opinion, this is not so much a vote for Obama …

Its common knowledge of course that the US no longer makes anything...not really anyway.We import all of that "stuff" now. Soon, we will have the Big 2 instead of the Big 3, and you can pretty much write-off anything that is manufacturing related...

This bear market has lots of people scratching their heads, especially the so-called gurus of capitalism and self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe (by the way, this is a great time to go back and read Tom Wolf's classic from the 1980's,