Top Stocks For 2011, Best Stock Investments For 2011, Hot Stocks For 2011

Editor Zach Scheidt is sitting in today for Adam Lass, who's on vacation. Adam will be back on Thursday. But in the meantime, please check out Zach's look into today's "Global Cash War" and what it means to your portfolio.

In the current global cash war, many less-than-savvy investors are likely to see the true value of their hard-earned capital diminish. Unfortunately, most will never know the difference because the nominal value of their investment accounts may remain stable.

But in the end, the true value of a nest egg lies in the purchasing power of that capital. What if your investment account grows in dollars but fails to grow in value? Does your investment strategy include a plan to grow the real value of your retirement dollars even while the global cash war diminishes the purchasing power of paper currencies?

The Problem With Paper Currencies

If you've been following any of the commentary from our editors over the past several months, you know that a number of us are concerned with the prospects for paper currencies (including not only the U.S. dollar but a number of other global currencies as well).

The United States experienced another interesting first on Wednesday. For the first time in the history of our union, the Securities and Exchange Commission brought charges against a State. The powers that be in New Jersey had been deceiving and misleading investors in regards to the fiscal well-being of the Garden State, and the SEC busted 'em. Bravo.

That's where the good news ends.

But first, the Cliff's Notes to this mess, according to the SEC's allegations:

In 2001, New Jersey increased pension benefits for state employees without having the funds to cover new benefit expenses. For the next six years, at least, the state continued to underfund the pension system - but hid that information from municipal bond investors. On 79 separate occasions the state sold a total of $26 billion in bonds while "withholding and misrepresenting pertinent information about its financial situation," said SEC director of enforcement Robert Khuzami.

It's always a little tricky to know exactly what an economic recovery looks like. But it's usually pretty easy to know what it doesn't look like...and it doesn't look anything like the chart below:

An economic recovery doesn't look anything like this either:

If Henry David Thoreau was right when he wrote, “That government is best which governs least,” then Australia got itself the best government in the world on Saturday.

Of course technically speaking, Australia didn’t elect a government. And that government which is not a government cannot govern at all. Thus, “not at all” being less than “least”, the unelected government not elected on Saturday is best!

Okay. Enough of the japery. Let us put our dour and serious face on and see what Saturday’s election means for markets...

On second thought, let’s not be serious. After all, this is a great result, is it not? That would be the unconventional take on things. The conventional take is that markets hate uncertainty. What they got on Saturday was an extra portion of uncertainty with a dollop of extra time. But to paraphrase Gordon Gecko, “Gridlock is good.”

What's the score from yesterday? Dow down 144. Gold plus 4.

The stock market looks like it wants to roll over. Whether it will or not, we don't know. We'll just have to wait to find out.

In the meantime...

"Dad... I guess I should be back in LA working..." said Maria, after we reviewed her finances.

She earns her living as a model and actress. But it is not a great living. Her chosen career is like that of a professional athlete. A few of them make big money. Most struggle to make ends meet.