Last week I caused a bit of a controversy on Fox News when I suggested that Bernie Madoff might do more good than harm in the long run – there are some good investing lessons for everyone to note.

In 1961, the great free-market economist Milton Friedman wrote a paper called “The Lag in Effect of Monetary Policy,” wherein he discovered a six- to nine-month delay in how long it would take for a change in monetary policy to be felt in the economy and the stock market.

While the rest of the global banking system falls apart, Canadian banks are receiving the highest rankings as healthy, competitive stocks. Mark Skousen of Investment U says that superior bank stocks will soar when the markets recover. 

“Keynesian” economics has been given a bad name by unprecendeted government bailouts this year. But John Maynard Keynes was also a great investor says Dr. Mark Skousen. His strategy was to buy preferred stocks of quality, high-dividend companies when everyone else was selling. Mark says today’s investors can follow this advice for big long-term gains with the John Hancock Preferred Income Fund (NYSE:HPI).

Dr. Mark Skousen says stock indexed annuities are a great “peace of mind” investment. They have the same downside protection as a fixed annuity or money markets. But as they are linked to stocks, they also reap the benefits of a market recovery.