plus 4, The Motley Fool's Weekly Editors' Picks - MSNBC

The Motley Fool's Weekly Editors' Picks - MSNBC
Videos From the Web: Car Videos - San Francisco Chronicle
COMMONGROUND: Election victory teaches us not to disrespect pickup ... - Star-Press
At Witz' End - Detroit 2010: Detroit recovers, Lutz pontificates - autoblog
Kennedy successor drives a pickup into office Voter uprising in Mass. - Hattiesburg American

The Motley Fool's Weekly Editors' Picks - MSNBC

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:54 AM PST

Is your stock one of the worst? Will the next big drop find you unprepared? Did Ford's chief financial officer really say, "You can't cost-reduce yourself to prosperity"? Read on to find out.

The Worst Stocks for 2010
It's time for Fools to pick the "Worst Stock for 2010." But first, let's talk about last year's list of 10. Even though picks like Citigroup (NYSE: C) lost a lot of ground even in a strong year, you might think the Fool particularly goofed by putting Sirius XM Radio and Ford (NYSE: F) on the 2009 list, since both more than quintupled in price over the year.

But Fool editor and writer Jim Mueller points out that the economy isn't exactly zinging along. "Moreover, despite some amazing returns over the past year, many of last year's worst-stock picks are still in some pretty bad circumstances," he writes, singling out Ford's long-term debt, Sirius' competition and super-low stock price, and the "garbage" still on Bank of America's (NYSE: BAC) balance sheet.

Fool writer Anders Bylund boldly proposes Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) as the worst stock for 2010. It's bold because Apple was just chosen by Fools as the best stock of 2010. What's Anders' rationale? Find out by clicking through to his story, and click on the headline above to see Jim's article and all the stock selections. And don't forget to vote.

3 Ways to Prepare for the Next Big Drop
Pessimists, realists, contrarians ... gather 'round.

"If those big gains make you nervous, you're not alone," writes Fool editor and writer Dan Caplinger. "If you think it's time for these roller-coaster markets to start another downswing and don't want to go along for the ride, then here are three things to think about for various parts of your portfolio."

Here's Dan's advice in a nutshell:

With stocks, think quality.
With bonds, think duration.
With alternative investments, be wary.

Click the headline above to get the full scoop, and you may find that Dan can lift your spirits as well as your portfolio. Many stocks have bounded higher, of course, but Dan points out that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ), Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG), and AT&T (NYSE: T) are among the big-name companies that haven't seen anything close to the gains of the S&P 500.

Is Ford Back? We Asked CFO Lewis Booth
It's nice to talk to someone on the inside. Matthew Argersinger interviewed Ford Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth at the North American International Auto Show earlier this month, where Ford swept honors for top car and truck of the year. The interview covered the international picture, the financial picture, the philosophical picture, and more.

Here are some of Booth's thoughts on Ford's philosophy:

"We want to be best in class, not just average. In every market, we want to have the best in class vehicle ... We want to be great in quality, great in safety, great in fuel economy, great in technology, all together in a package that normal people can afford -- a good value."

For more about the practical side of running this car company, click the headline above to get to Matthew's exclusive interview.

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Videos From the Web: Car Videos - San Francisco Chronicle

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 07:44 AM PST

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Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

COMMONGROUND: Election victory teaches us not to disrespect pickup ... - Star-Press

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:26 AM PST

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The audience's responsive chant -- "Yes, we can" -- must have seemed larcenous to Obama supporters.

Yes, there were loudmouths and people carrying Nazi signs at some August town halls. Yes, much of the public's anger is directed at anyone in power -- and that anger didn't begin with Barack Obama. But a vast majority of the millions who have cast ballots since November can't be fairly labeled extremists of any sort, and their votes in three consecutive statewide elections should wake up any Democrat.

That includes the president.

"Forget the truck," Obama said during his visit for Coakley, "Everybody can buy a truck."

Well, not really. Not if you don't have a job, not in this economy. When Obama quipped that he wouldn't get in Brown's truck for fear it would take him backwards to the ways of his predecessor, George W. Bush, he took another wrong turn.

Most Americans don't see the future that way. To them, the future is about forks in the road, not U-turns. They disapprove of congressional Republicans as much as they disapprove of Democrats, and Brown wasn't sent to Washington to become a member of the U-turn caucus. So Democrats are right about one thing: The country's anger isn't directed just at them.

But Americans also are further along in the blame game than Obama and his allies. Many who voted for Brown on Tuesday probably agree with Obama that Bush left a mess behind. What the pickup-truck class wants now, more than anything, is more middle-road solutions. Obama, who from time to time has said impolitic things about economic class, won't advance anything through dismissals, including dismissals of the pickup truck.

"When he started to criticize my truck, that's where I drew the line," Brown joked on election night. When Obama called him with congratulations, Brown said he offered to "drive the truck down to Washington so (Obama) can see it."

Not a bad idea. Obama brought a black professor and a white policeman from Massachusetts together to talk about racial divisions after a mistaken arrest, and he's tried to rationalize the Democrats' embarrassing defeat by saying the same anti-Washington impulses that brought him to power swept Brown in, too.

But now, Obama is Washington and Brown is the new guy. The Secret Service wouldn't like it, but maybe a Brown-Obama ride in a pickup truck is exactly what Massachusetts ordered on Tuesday.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

At Witz' End - Detroit 2010: Detroit recovers, Lutz pontificates - autoblog

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 06:33 AM PST

At Witz' End - Detroit 2010: Detroit recovers, Lutz pontificates

Attending the 2003 Detroit Auto Show, my first as a journalist in 15 years, I was stunned by the excitement and optimism of the people involved and the depth and breadth of the product on display. "This is the Golden Age of the Automobile," I thought. That atmosphere prevailed until 2009, when the economy, the auto market and (many feared) the entire U.S. industry seemed to be crashing down around everyone's ears. The product was there, but the trappings were sparse and the aura decidedly glum. Now we've seen the 2010 Detroit show, which ... Read more →

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Kennedy successor drives a pickup into office Voter uprising in Mass. - Hattiesburg American

Posted: 23 Jan 2010 04:53 AM PST

(2 of 2)

"When there is trouble in Massachusetts, there is trouble everywhere, and they know it," Brown said. "We can do better."

The audience's responsive chant - "Yes, we can" - must have seemed larcenous to Obama supporters.

Yes, there were loudmouths and people carrying Nazi signs at some August town halls. Yes, much of the public's anger is directed at anyone in power - and that anger didn't begin with Barack Obama. But a vast majority of the millions who have cast ballots since November can't be fairly labeled extremists of any sort, and their votes in three consecutive statewide elections should wake up any Democrat.

That includes the president.

"Forget the truck," Obama said during his visit for Coakley, "Everybody can buy a truck."

But now, Obama is Washington and Brown is the new guy. The Secret Service wouldn't like it, but maybe a Brown-Obama ride in a pickup truck is exactly what Massachusetts ordered on Tuesday.

Chuck Raasch writes from Washington for Gannett. Contact him at craasch@gannett.com, follow him at http://twitter.com/craasch or join in the conversation at www.facebook .com/raaschcolumn.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.