A Couple Economic Suggestions...

John Hussman's Letter to US Congress
http://www.hussmanfunds.com/wmc/wmc080922.htm

Barry L. Ritholtz's 30/20/10 Proposal
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/09/fixing-housing.html

Morningstar To Take Over MSCI Hedge Fund Indexes

MSCI will now have Morningstar calculate and distribute their hedge fund indexes. The indexes will still utilize the MSCI Barra methodology.

Many Hedge Fund Indexes have not fared much better than the market and many are down for the year. On the other hand, The Absolute Investor portfolios have been able to do what the indexes haven't; hedge the market.

New PowerShares Commodity ETFs

4 New Commodity ETFs from PowerShares

PowerShares Global Agriculture (PAGG)
PowerShares Global Gold and Precious Metals (PSAU)
PowerShares Global Coal (PKOL)
PowerShares Global Steel (PSTL)

Black Monday-Free Issue

Wow. Not a great day in the markets today. That's an understatement.

This is the great time to learn how to add hedge fund strategies to your portfolio. For a limited time, we are offering a free copy of this month's The Absolute Trader: ETF Edition.

Please sign up here: http://www.theabsoluteinvestor.com/Free_Sample.html

What Happens With Lehman ETNs?

As some of you may know, An exchange traded note (ETN) works differently then an exchange traded fund (ETF). If you buy an ETF, you are owning shares of a physical asset, whereas if you buy an ETN, you are purchasing a debt note; therefore making you suseptiple to credit risk. Now that Lehman has filed for bankruptcy, what happens to investors that have purchased any of the Lehman Opta ETNs? If these notes are included in the bankruptcy, investors will most likely lose out unless a buyer purchases that unit. There was a good article on indexuniverse.com about this.

Buffet Throws Out The 1st Pitch

Did anyone else catch Warren Buffet throw out the first pitch tonight at Fenway? His buddy & fellow Red Sox fan Jack Welch caught.

As you may recall, Jordan's furniture, an affiliate of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) last year offered money back to all customers who bought furniture during the Red Sox World Series promotion.

Look a Japanese REIT Fund?

For investors looking to invest in the Japanese Real Estate Market, Northern Trust just launched the NETS Tokyo Stock Exchange REIT Index Fund (NYSEArca: JRE).