Is your 2008 going out with a bang, or slouching toward the exits? Here's a chart for those who like a golden end to the year ...brA href=http://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=$GOLDp=Damp;st=2008-01-01amp;id=p71883825505amp;listNum=10amp;a=157883026img style=WIDTH: 480px alt= src=http://local.content.compendiumblog.com/uploads/user/7e88b461-578b-47f3-88ec-038e212ad053/aa0ff38d-9bb9-44a5-bba5-8be30d8f6977/commodityandbonds.png _width=75 _height=75/AbrThis compares gold (green line) to silver (blue line), the Samp;P 500 (black line), oil (red line) and the TLT bond fund (pink line). Obviously, bonds got the better of 2008. But what will happen in 2009? That's the real question.brbrHere, in my latest web-cast, I try to answer some of those questions in A href=http://www.moneyandmarkets.com/MAM-TV/mam-tv.htmlstrongmy latest broadcast for MaM-TV/strong/A. Those are my answers. What are your answers? There are plenty of answers around, but the trick is asking the right questions.brbrHere are some other things to think about.brbrFirst of all, the A href=http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSTRE4BT55Y20081231strongFed is going to buy $500 million in mortgage-backed securities /strong/Aby the middle of 2009. Will that finally unstick the frozen mortgage markets?brbrMoney is ...

El Dorado … Cibola … Quivira … these are all fabled “lost cities of gold” that fired up the imaginations of explorers who pursued their dreams to the four corners of the Earth. These cities only existed in the fevered imaginations of storytellers. But there was a real city of gold … or at least, a city richly associated with gold. Its discovery by European explorers is the story of unlocking mysterious Africa … a tale that rings down through the ages … and holds lessons for investors today. Timbuktu’s distance and fabled wealth fired the imaginations of early explorers. The ...