On Monday, $24.8 billion worth of takeovers were announced. It was the third busiest Merger Monday on record in 2009. Yet most investors remain unimpressed…. They’re convinced it’s nothing more than a short-lived Darwinian event. Weak and unfit companies, exposed by a nasty recession, are simply being forced into the arms of the strong.

Speaking at his annual press conference Friday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced more than $200 billion of new spending to bolster the nation’s flagging economy. However, Wen also voiced concern about China’s financing of U.S. debt – which U.S. President Barack Obama is counting on to fund this country’s massive stimulus plan. 

How many times have you looked at a stock chart and thought, If only I had bought shares five years ago? If we all had time machines, we would be millionaires. But we have not had the luxury of playing Monday morning quarterback with our investments. Until now, that is…

The media have dubbed it “the new age of epidemics.” From SARS to cancer, diabetes to the flu, we live in a world of increasingly powerful germs and diseases.