Most of the time, we’re no fans of Wall Street analysts. They’re often behind-the curve, biased, and flat out wrong.

Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) last Thursday charmed investors when it revealed its Cliq smartphone, which will compete head on with Apple Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone and Research in Motion Ltd.’s Blackberry.

First, a historical note…US equities have just come off their best July since 1989. Overall, the market is up over 8% for the year. But if we look backward (after all, hindsight is 20/20), March 1989 also saw a huge run up. It was followed by an even stronger rally in July, during which volume dried up. It appears the same is happening now. What came next in 1989 was a big sell-off in September, followed by an even greater one in October.

Has the massive Obama stimulus plan put us on a collision course with virulent inflation? It sure looks that way. Let me explain …

All Three Markets Rise on Earnings Beats; Government Now Citi’s Biggest Shareholder; Jobless Claims Up but Subsiding; Crude Surges More Than 5%; Motorola Surprises; Recession Takes a Toll on House of Mouse; Ballmer Defends Yahoo Partnership; Southwest Makes Bid for Frontier

As recently as February, General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) had hopes of maintaining its dividend payout.  “We’ve got the cash flow to pay the dividend,” GE Chief Executive Officer Jeffery Immelt said in a Feb. 5 interview with The Wall Street Journal.

As the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression continues to worsen, decades of deregulation and the growing independence at the state level are being reversed as a deteriorating national economy forces the federal government to increasingly take on responsibilities that no other institution has the power or resources to handle.

The U.S. unemployment rate, currently at a level of 6.5%, could rise to 8% next year. But it could also find a ceiling sooner than expected, as more companies implement unpaid vacations and four-day workweeks to preserve jobs.

Credit Crisis Claims $1 Trillion; Dollar Falls Hard; Gold and Silver Rally; Honda Slashes Profit Outlook; Motorola Cuts Costs; Valeo Cuts 5,000 Jobs; Woolworths Closing Its 807 Stores in Jan.; E-Trade Growing and Shrinking

Come Wednesday morning – after the presidential election tomorrow (Tuesday) – the United States will have a new commander-in-chief. The president-elect will face some significant challenges: A weak economy (okay, a recession, given last week’s gross domestic product (GDP) report, which confirmed just how dire the country’s economic situation had become).