The news is saturated with Hank Paulson’s $700 bailout plan. This is diverting attention away from the increasingly bleak outlook for the wider economy.

Rick Pendergraft says no bailout can immediately solve the problems in the housing market. And all indicators suggest these will run well into 2009 at least.

Rick says your portfolio should be all about playing safe for now. He recommends eight inverse ETF plays to hedge against this downside risk.

Wall Street is on its knees, and the taxpayer is on the hook for well over a trillion dollars to prop up the financial system.

Meanwhile, the wider US economy is sliding into a recession.

William Patalon III says there are four solid ways to protect your portfolio from these forces: 1) Buy dividend-paying stocks; 2) Buy gold; 3) Buy companies focused on overseas market; and 4) Don’t panic…

Are ETFs a lazy man’s investment?

Not so, says Dan Denning in The Daily Recknoning Australia. Although investing in ETFs often means ‘passively’ tracking an index rather then picking a good stock, ETFs carry a number of distinct advantages.

Dan says they are an example of a new product offering from Wall Street that is actually aligned with your interests. They give you more tools to easily trade and own different currencies, markets and asset classes - without excessive management fees…

Investing in stock markets in a growing economy like India will generally give you better long term returns than investing in bank accounts. The logic is that, when an economy is growing, it means that the various businesses that make up the entire economy are - in total - growing.

Corn is in trouble because of the wet spring that has drenched the Midwest. Yesterday, the USDA said in a report that American corn output will be down significantly from last year’s estimate.