The death the the US investment bank is greatly exaggerated, says Lynn Carpenter in Investor’s Daily Edge. Raymond James (NYSE:RFJ), Piper Jaffray (NYSE:PJC), Canaccord Adams are still in business. Some of the others didn’t really disappear. They’re either now paired with a commercial bank, like Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) or have turned themselves over the the Fed for regulation, like Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS). This, says Lynn is no bad thing…

Quality leaves a trail of accomplishment. Somehow– we must believe — it’s possible to tell companies that will do well and fly right from those that won’t. That’s the only rational reason to choose stocks. So smart investors look for key information—the bits that predict where to find the winners.

You know things have gone badly wrong when the Fed floods the global financial system with $247bn to bolster liquidity. But Lynn Carpenter says contrarian investors thrive in this kind of fearful environment. Once the nervous money is shaken out of the system the calm money can roll in and buy heavily at bargain prices…

Earnings season is crawling toward us again. There’s little reason to expect cheering news this quarter. But US companies may be looking at much better numbers fairly soon. The consensus is there’s more trouble to come. But Lynn Carpenter says we can expect a turnaround mid-2009.

Somewhere around the 1980s, people got the notion that lifelong learning was a trend. Adult education classes, which had been around for a hundred years, suddenly bloomed beyond GED tutoring, typing and prenatal parenting classes. Community colleges began to sprout non-traditional student bodies that outnumbered traditional full-time day students by three to one.

Financial news on the economy speeds toward us with black and white sureness. No subtleties, no grays or maybes come with the sharp, short announcements in the popular press: initial unemployment claims rose precisely so much last week. Producer prices fell exactly a certain percent last quarter.

It’s post Labor Day and I’m still feeling a nice languor. I happily fiddled around and attempted to organize some old files Monday—nothing too strenuous.  You always hope that past thoughts don’t look too flimsy years later, but I came across one that seems to hold up and look downright timely.

Want to have some fun with the latest news? Go to the government’s housing price databank and get a much clearer picture of the situation than the headlines will give you. Today’s headlines are blaring that home prices just recorded their biggest drop ever—minus 4.8% this past quarter. Oh woe, oh woe. In the gloom, reports barely mention that a few states are showing some mild improvements in prices.

When stocks are beaten down, many investors are tempted to bottom fish for bargains. There is nothing wrong with this. There are major profits to be made in bear markets.

But Lynn Carpenter in Investor’s Daily Edge cautions investors against confusing a low stock price with a bargain: “Potential, not price, is the metric to follow when you’re tempted to bottom fish.”

That’s why insurer American International Group (NYSE:AIG) is a potential bargain and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) is not…