This is a guest contribution by Damien Hoffman, editor of the very popular Wall St Cheat Sheet blog.

This may sound like common sense to investors and traders, but most people - including policy makers - do not readily accept the flawed nature of economic models.

Thank goodness we have professor David Colander testifying to Congress in order to enlighten an otherwise dim room. Colander’s work at Middlebury College focuses on the incentives and work-product of economists. His work has become increasingly more important as economists have heavily influenced policy making in recent years.

In addition to exposing a few absurd underlying economic presuppositions such as “individuals behave with rational self-interest,” Colander is helping shift incentives for professional economists away from publishing toward engaging in more useful studies.

This is a guest contribution by Damien Hoffman, editor of the very popular Wall St Cheat Sheet blog.

This may sound like common sense to investors and traders, but most people - including policy makers - do not readily accept the flawed nature of economic models.

Thank goodness we have professor David Colander testifying to Congress in order to enlighten an otherwise dim room. Colander’s work at Middlebury College focuses on the incentives and work-product of economists. His work has become increasingly more important as economists have heavily influenced policy making in recent years.

In addition to exposing a few absurd underlying economic presuppositions such as “individuals behave with rational self-interest,” Colander is helping shift incentives for professional economists away from publishing toward engaging in more useful studies.

This is a guest contribution by Damien Hoffman, editor-in-chief of the very popular Wall St Cheat Sheet blog. Make sure to put this site on your must-read list.

Josh Rosner is the inaugural recipient of our first annual Medal of Honor for Excellent Service Award. Like a Navy Seal who does the most elite work yet receives the least public spotlight, Rosner has for years consistently been one of the best analysts on Wall Street. Most importantly, while other false prophets had undeservedly taken credit for nailing the crisis (for the wrong reasons), Rosner and a small handful of other hard working analysts saw and called everything for the right reasons in real-time.

For this reason, Rosner

With investors trying to figure out the most likely direction of stock markets, the US dollar, government bonds, commodities and gold attracted a fair bit of attention - also from the producers of this week’s video footage.

Commentators in the selection below include Josh Rosner, Byron Wein, Stephen Jennings, Paul McCulley, Ed Yardini, Doug Kass and David Rosenberg.

The compilation kicks off with Congressman Alan Grayson uttering some harsh words at The Big Picture Conference - Capitalism After Crisis & Recession, and concludes with a fun ditty - a Wild Life Boogie, AKA The Economy Song.

Yahoo Finance, Tech Ticker: Cost of Fed expansion of balance sheet is $30K per American

“Those were just some of the harsh words Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida had this morning regarding Washington’s handling of the financial crisis so far. His remarks were part of The Big Picture Conference - Capitalism After Crisis &

The video clips below come via my hotel room at Dana Point, California, where I am attending a conference hosted by Rob Arnott’s Research Affiliates. Also present are financial luminaries such as Peter Bernstein, Burton Malkiel, Harry Markowitz and Jack Treynor. It will be fascinating to hear whether these gentlemen see any signs of the economy starting to bottom, and how they are investing at this juncture.

On the video front, the IMF upped its forecast of total global credit crisis-related losses to $4.1 trillion by the end of 2010 and the Congressional Oversight Panel on Tarp conducted a hearing on Capitol Hill, whereas a host of commentators - including Martin Feldstein, Joseph Stiglitz, Nouriel Roubini, Frederic Mishkin, Paul McCulley and John Mauldin - weighed in with a combination of gloomy and “bottom-in-sight” economic forecasts, as well as comments on the imminent results of the

Why you should invest in pipeline companies… Wither Geither’s stress test results? Congress vs the Treasury… Check out of USA Inc with these four BRIC EFTs… How to survive the “Great Money Famine of 2009”… Three questions for Barney Frank… Congressional panel: Liquidate banks, fire top execs… PPIP FLOP… Geithner’s latest Orwellian manoeuvre… And more!

*** We’ve added a new section to Notes. It’s called “Must Reads” and it’s basically a list of the day’s must read articles on money-making and the markets. It’s at the very bottom of the issue. Tell us what you think: info@contrarianprofits.com. Don’t be shy. We’ve got thick skins.

*** We love DailyWealth. It’s quite possibly the single best free source of contrarian money-making ideas out there (apart from Notes, of course).