Leading academics and index experts examine how investors should handle the falling dollar.

The Death Of The Dollar?, the November/December 2009 issue of the Journal Of Indexes, focuses on currency and related strategies, with contributions from Invesco PowerShares' Bruce Bond, the International Securities Exchange's Steve Meizinger and Marc Chandler and Jeffrey McCarthy of Brown Brothers Harriman, not to mention a currency primer by Index Publications' own Dave Nadig, Matt Hougan and Lara Crigger.

Other articles in the publication include a look at how EMH weathered the financial crisis of 2008 by David Blitzer, the first installment of a three-part series on improving fund evaluation techniques by Gary Gastineau and a study from David Blanchett on how to figure out the "passive" portion of an actively managed portfolio. And let's not forget the ETF crossword puzzle on the back page!

You can view the entire issue

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on a sec… there’s a problem with these headlines. Here’s what you need to know about

The Real Estate Market: Don’t Celebrate Housing’s Recent Uptick Yet

by Martin Denholm, Contributing Editor

Recently, my colleague Marc Lichtenfeld and I took a collective pop at some lazy journalists and other media cheerleaders. Their crime? Whipping the investment community into false optimism through misleading headlines regarding earnings announcements.

They’re at it again.

This time, the flashy headline writers grabbed onto the latest report from the National Association of Realtors, which stated that existing home sales climbed for the third straight month, and at a faster pace than economists expected.

And they were out in force again when the Commerce Department said new U.S. home sales saw an 11% bounce in June. On an annualized basis, that equated to 384,000 homes - 9% higher than estimates.

Collectively, new and existing home sales hit the highest level in eight months in June.

Sweet! Hand me some champagne - let’s celebrate. Or maybe we should hang on

Break out the tissues, folks… Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner can’t sell his house.

Frustrated at not being able to sell his $1.6 million New York mansion after three-and-a-half months on the market, Geithner has yanked down the “For Sale” sign. And that’s after he and his wife lowered the price to below what they paid for it in 2004. Having taken out a $1.25 million mortgage at the time, they’re now apparently renting the home at a loss.

Doesn’t Tim read the papers? He didn’t seriously expect to sell Fort Geithner in such a short time in a market like this, did he? It’s tough out there, mate. First, you have to persuade buyers that it’s worth shelling out $1 million-plus for a house. Then you have to convince them that it’s not made of cards - you know, like some of his economic theory.

But wait… haven’t we just seen some

China turns it up another notch… now “concerned about the security” of U.S. investments… Chris Mayer tells the “story of today’s economy”… Mainstream celebrates latest home price index… our perceptive on the housing “recovery”… Three market sectors currently detached from reality… The truth emerges… why Ben Bernanke really bailed out Wall Street…

Here it comes, slowly but surely: “We sincerely hope the U.S. fiscal deficit will be reduced, year after year,” China’s Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said overnight after talks with Treasury Secretary Geithner. Could he lay it out any more clearly than this? “The Chinese government is a responsible government, and first and foremost our responsibility is the Chinese people, so of course we are concerned about the security of the Chinese assets.”

The Chinese now own over $801 billion in U.S. debt, nearly double their holdings at the start of 2007 and by far the world’s largest

In the currency market, the dollar was higher against the euro. Late Tuesday, the euro was trading at $1.4032 vs. $1.4078 on Monday. The dollar posted its modest gain on not much, as the data of the day was decidedly mixed.

First, the Case-Shiller home price index in 20 selected cities fell 0.6% in April. But that was taken as a positive by the it-coulda-been-worse crowd, since it compared favorably with compared with the 2.2% decline in March. David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee, turned the upbeat knob, saying that, “Thirteen of the 20 metro areas also saw improvement in their annual return compared to that of March. Furthermore, every metro area, except for Charlotte, recorded an improvement in monthly returns … While one month’s data cannot determine if a turnaround has begun; it seems that some stabilization may be appearing in some of the regions.”

Next, manufacturing activity

While investors’ attention was focused on global government bond yields marching higher, the holiday-shortened week produced a surprisingly small number of video clips.

Some quality footage was nevertheless produced, featuring the likes of David Rosenberg, now in his new role as chief economist and strategist of Gluskin Sheff, Mohamed El-Erian, Barry Ritholtz, Puru Saxena and Mario Gabelli.

And then there is “out of the box” analyst Marc Faber arguing that the US economy will enter “hyperinflation” approaching the levels in Zimbabwe. “I am 100% sure that the US will go into hyperinflation,” Faber said in an interview with Bloomberg. “The problem with government debt growing so much is that when the time comes and the Fed should increase interest rates, they will be very reluctant to do so and so inflation will start to accelerate.”

The selection kicks off with a humorous take by Emmy

In the currency market, the dollar arrested its freefall against the euro. Late Tuesday, the euro was trading at $1.3909 vs. $1.4051 on Friday. Analysts said that anxiety after North Korea’s nuclear test seemed to fuel a desire for the relative security of U.S. currency and bonds. In addition to its underground nuclear test Monday, North Korea also reportedly test-fired two short-range missiles yesterday, defying warnings from the international community.

But the day’s most influential submission was from the Conference Board, which reported that its consumer confidence index surged to 54.9 in May from an upwardly revised 40.8 in April. The gain was the fourth-largest in the 32-year history of the survey, and the index hit its highest level in eight months, contrary to economists’ expectations for a rise only to 43.

The confidence number overrode more hard economic data that remains dismal. The national Case-Shiller home price index, released

While not sterling, the latest readings of indexes tracking U.S. home prices showed signs of improvement in February.

Although the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price indexes kept dropping in February, some good signs did appear.

For the first time in 16 months, the benchmarks' fall didn't set new records, according to the latest monthly results released on Tuesday. That was seen as at least some sign of progress for the heavily depleted housing market.

Nearly all of the major metro areas followed by the index, which benchmarks existing single-family home prices across the country, showed improvement from January.

"We will certainly need a few more months of data before we can determine if home prices are finally turning around," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, in a statement.

All 20 metro areas covered by the indexing series produced a monthly decline in February. However, some 16 of the 20 metro

While not sterling, the latest readings of indexes tracking U.S. home prices showed signs of improvement in February.

Although the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Prices indexes kept dropping in February, some good signs did appear.

For the first time in 16 months, the benchmarks' fall didn't set new records, according to the latest monthly results released on Tuesday. That was seen as at least some sign of progress for the heavily depleted housing market.

Nearly all of the major metro areas followed by the index, which benchmarks existing single-family home prices across the country, showed improvement from January.

"We will certainly need a few more months of data before we can determine if home prices are finally turning around," said David Blitzer, chairman of S&P's index committee, in a statement.

All 20 metro areas covered by the indexing series produced a monthly decline in February. However, some 16 of the 20 metro