By Inya Ivkovic, MA — The Financial World According to Inya column First, they were the three Titans. One financial meltdown later, they are the three Lilliputians, in three hot seats before one bipartisan commission assembled in Washington to probe how on earth one obscure market such as…

— "Ahead of the Street" Column, by Mitchell Clark, B. Comm. There's a lot of uninspiring news floating around and it's tough not to get caught up in it. As published by the World Trade Organization, global trade fell about 12% in 2009, the sharpest drop since 1945.…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column by Inya Ivkovic, MA The strategy of beautifying European governments' balance sheets with complex derivatives is creating quite a furor among investors, with all fingers pointing at Wall Street and irresponsible governments around the world. Actually, at the heart of…

— "Ahead of the Street" Column, by Mitchell Clark, B. Comm. There's a very important report from the independent watchdog at the Treasury Department about the entire bailout process and the enormous TARP spending that's been taking place. The special inspector general for the TARP program painted a…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MA I watched a good Sunday movie, "The City of Ember." Sci-fi movies are not usually my cup of tea, but I liked it for a number of reasons, one among them for giving me an angle…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MA Far as today's economy and markets are concerned, things can clearly be viewed, and cases made, for both the bulls and the bears. Why? For starters, investors are on edge. After what was most likely a…

— "Profit Confidential" Column, by Michael Lombardi, CFP, MBA As an avid student of economics and the stock market, sometimes I can only sit back, look at the past few years and feel anger for those in "power" who let this situation happen. Alan Greenspan, I've long felt,…

— "Ahead of the Street" Column, by Mitchell Clark, B. Comm. If I had to chose one asset class on which to bet right now, I'd probably chose commodities. The fundamentals are really shaping up well for a number of important raw materials. And it doesn't really matter…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MA   Back in May, the Obama administration forced 19 of the largest banks to undergo the "stress test." Ten out of 19 failed to pass it at the time and were given six months to raise…

— "Ahead of the Street" Column, by Mitchell Clark, B. Comm. There are a lot of standout companies that have recovered tremendously well on the stock market. They've done so since the most recent financial crisis, but also since the stock market bubble burst in 2000. A lot…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MA This past year and a half has been trying, indeed. As far as most investors are concerned, things have gone well beyond any conceivable worse-case scenario. As a result, so much has to be re-thought and…

— "Ahead of the Street" Column, by Mitchell Clark, B. Comm. There is a significant disparity between Wall Street expectations and Main Street's reality. In an economy where the consumer is king, the future is murky at best. This is why investment risk is so high right now…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MA It appears that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the mandate of which is to preserve and promote public confidence in U.S. financial institutions by insuring deposits for up to $250,000  (through December 31, 2013), is…

— "The Financial World According to Inya" Column, by Inya Ivkovic, MAWho, if anyone, can say "I told you so" a year after the fall of Lehman Brothers? There is actually one person, believe it or not: Nassim Taleb, author of "Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan:…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA Banks around the world have gone through probably the worst banking crisis in the past eight decades or so. Some have navigated their way through the crisis successfully, some not so much; the determining factors being business acumen, susceptibility to greed, and degree…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA Honestly, nothing could have prepared me for what the White House forecasted on Tuesday concerning the federal deficit. I congratulate them on their honesty, but if there ever was a time I would have preferred being lied to, it was on Tuesday, when…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA World governments are struggling under serious mountains of debt, which, along with the still weak and disappointing U.S. home sales, is putting a serious damper on the optimism among economists and investors alike that orders of durable goods and other economic data have…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA There is such a thing as too much optimism, particularly when it is unfounded. True, there are signs, albeit weak ones, that the rate at which the global economy is retracting is actually slowing down. However, weak signs of recovery should not be…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA The first 100 or so days into Barack Obama's presidency, and already it feels as if the worst of the financial and credit crisis is behind us. The culture of innovation and amazing resilience of free enterprise appear to have resurrected hope in…

— by Inya Ivkovic, MA After trillions of dollars worldwide have flooded global financial systems in an effort to jumpstart the global economy, policymakers now have become obsessed with how to clean up after themselves. In other words, the liquidity conundrum must be taken care of, unless central…