This week we look at two very intriguing studies, one from James Montier where, safely perched in England, he forecasts future real returns on the US stock market. Then we give you Master Trader Dennis Gartman's 22 Rules of Trading, many of which you can apply to all sorts of life situations, as well as the markets.

I really need to thank these two gentlemen for letting me use their work almost verbatim, as I am finishing the last (!) chapter of my book this weekend and really need every hour I can get (see more below). In any case, readers will be well served by these two short epistles.

Over the past few months, I have commented about how large corporations are using their company pension funds to bolster their corporate earnings. Under accounting rules, if a pension fund has "excess" funding, the excess can go to the bottom line of the corporation. Nothing particularly wrong with that, except the meaning of the word "excess" is as loose as Bill Clinton's definition of "is." Today we will visit an amazing statistic that clearly shows just how deceitful, large and widespread this practice is.