Borders Ousts CEO; Front Page Ads in New York Times; Steve Jobs Speaks, Apple Soars; U.K. Short Selling Ban Ending; Whitman’s Future; Oil Rises on MidEast Violence; Russia Cuts Gas Supplies to Europe

Borders Group, Inc. (BGP) ousted its Chief Executive George Jones and replaced him with outsider Ron Marshall, a Wildridge Capital Management executive whose primary experience is turning around ailing companies, Reuters reported. George had been Borders’ CEO for the past three years. The New York Times Co. (NYT) opened its front page to advertisers, a controversial move within journalism circles but also one that follows ...

As President-elect Obama toots his green-energy horn, the smart money in Silicon Valley is reversing its position on the moneymaking potential of wind, solar and geothermal power sources.

The pullback by Silicon Valley’s venture-capital elite is part of a complete overhaul of its investment criteria. The big surprise is that green investments are on the hit list along with other high-tech innovations — a reversal of the save-the-planet culture that has emerged in this Mecca of libertarian funding.

An article in today’s New York Times revealed that Silicon Valley VCs are now turning to shorter term opportunities versus the long-term returns that exemplify a healthy investment climate.

Alternative energy will get more critical assessment along with the Web 2.0 hype (think social networking), cell-phone advertising, massive enterprise software development and other long-term, big-ticket products.

Silicon Valley’s turn-around on green infrastructure comes at a time when the incoming Obama administration is pushing alternative energy as

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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 ...

Surprisingly enough, considering Blagojevich’s latest scandal, the political environment surrounding Obama as he prepares to enter the White House is rather calm. Leaders in the Republican party cite a “Honeymoon Phase” in which everyone would like to see Barack Obama succeed in his job has president. The seriousness of the country’s economic state seems to be kicking in, as shown in this New York Times article. Let’s hope that after a while this won’t merely be a honeymoon, but a continued spirit of responsible cooperation.

Elliott Wave International (EWI), the world’s largest market forecasting firm, has just released a free 15-page report featuring 5 chapters from Bob Prechter’s New York Times bestseller, Conquer the Crash: You Can Survive and Prosper in a Deflationary Depression.

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About the …

ur “Obama Rally” forecast… will things “get worse before they get better” or vice versa?… Print in the doghouse… Tribune Co., New York Times and McClatchy looking desperate… Still no bottom in sight for housing… foreclosure, refi and pending home sales data all down… Anecdotal evidence of tough times to come… Wiggin house, office burglarized… Chris Mayer with a sector sell-off that’s gone too far Enjoy the rally… for now. “Things are going to get worse before they get better,” the president-elect’s been saying all week. We suspect he’s right. But the Obama Rally is likely to have some legs first.

The Dow surged 3.5% yesterday after an equally notable gain Friday. Just about every stock got a boost, but materials, energy and infrastructure players led the way… half because of President-elect Obama’s audacious infrastructure plans, half because these stocks can’t go much lower anyway.

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Investing Like Warren Buffett: Take Your Cue From the World’s Best Investor

by Alexander Green, Chairman, Investment U Investment Director, The Oxford Club Monday, December 8, 2008: Issue #897

Not long ago I excerpted a recent New York Times column by Warren Buffett explaining his take on the recent market sell-off.

Despite the dour economic outlook, Buffett expects U.S. companies to report record profits within five years. He is getting fully invested in stocks in his own personal account. Since Warren Buffett’s column originally ran on October 14th, however, the S&P 500 has dropped 13%.

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get emails telling me that Buffett “blew it.” He was “too early.” Or he “failed to call the bottom.”

I beg to differ …

Warren Buffett’s Economic Outlook

For the record, here is part of

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With the U.S. “Big Three” of General Motors Corp. (GM), Ford Motor Co. (F), and Chrysler Corp. seeking as much as $34 billion in bailout money, there’s a lot at stake for the American auto industry. There would also be quite a bit at stake for Congress, given the personal stakes that elected officials own in the automakers, FoxBusiness.com reports.

According to published reports, 25 members of the U.S. Congress have reported on their financial disclosure forms that they own stock in – or have other capital interests in – the Big Three, based on data compiled from the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C., research group that tracks money in U.S. politics. [Editor’s Note: Fox News senior information specialist James Farrell pulled the data displayed in the accompanying

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