All sorts of investors are look towards Obama to boost their portfolio. Unfortunately, the folks that have not done their homework will get burned. Investors across nearly every industry are looking towards President-elect Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus for a near-immediate boost to their portfolio. Many of them are going to be severely disappointed in the next few months.

If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

The fact that after over 30 years of consistent mismanagement and decline, there is still any discussion on whether or not we should allow the now significantly smaller “Big Three” automakers to fail is clear evidence that Washington has lost all common sense.

If there’s a proverb that captures the outlook for the U.S. economy in the New Year, it’s the one that says: “It’s always darkest before the dawn.”

There are a lot of forces impacting the gold market, yet prices are barely moving. Demand is soaring, but prices are dropping. What gives?

Rick Pendergraft says we won’t see an economic recovery before one of the housing, auto or labour markets stabilize. Friday’s nasty unemployment data and earnings reports from GM (NYSE:GM), Ford (NYSE:F ) suggest that our hopes are resting on real estate.

Like a boxer who has a habit of dropping his hands, America finally caught one on the chin. The U.S. economy is flat on its back, and the financial markets are leaning down into its face yelling out a 10-count. But the U.S. economy isn’t “out for the count” yet. It will struggle back to its feet. But if the economy hopes to stay on its feet, it will have to devise new tactics. The old, sloppy tactics of credit-financed consumption won’t work anymore.

New home sales rose by 2.7% in September, according to the Commerce Department. Andrew Snyder says this is an important sign of a rebound in the property market. And that means adjusting your portfolio to include real estate investment trusts (REITs) like Post Properties (NYSE:PPS) and American Campus Associates (NYSE:ACC).

As I was contemplating how my blood got suddenly colder, I was taking a long pull from a bottle of really cheap tequila to try and calm my ragged nerves about this lack of additional TFC thing.

“Here’s Your 5-Step Checklist to Know It’s Over Before Even CNBC Does.”

“I’ve already called this credit crunch, ‘the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression’…and unfortunately, we’re not through it yet” says Eric Roseman.

It’s true the worst of this credit storm has probably passed. But banks, companies and individual investors are still facing funding pressures. That tells me the absolute bottom of this crisis has yet to arrive.