deleveraging

On Thursday night, venture capitalist and DailyFinance columnist Peter Cohan went on CNBC's The Kudlow Report to debate whether the banking industry is at the start of a period of recovery, as Goldman Sachs claimed this week. Here's why he argued that Goldman was dead wrong.

Noted economist Gary Shilling just released a new book, The Age of Deleveraging, in which he explains why inflation isn't what investors should be fearing, but rather deflation. He also recommends 10 investments investors should now make. [Video]

ING Investment Management forecasts that stock markets will rise between 8% and 12% in 2011, thanks to a low-inflation, low-interest environment supported by the Fed, despite weak GDP growth. And for those looking for to increase their investment yields, they have a few suggestions.

Officially underway since June 2009, the recovery has been tepid at best. The balance sheet of the average household is still straining under considerable debt, while incomes have barely risen, suggesting that the recovery has a shaky foundation.

Investors often seek insight from the latest news, the most recent weekly and monthly data updates. But the underlying status of the economy is better reflected in long-term trends, and many of those show serious headwinds to future U.S. growth.

Behind the good news of Americans paying down their massive debt is the bad news of having far less home equity and other financial assets available to support consumer spending. All told, homeowner net worth is down $10 trillion since 2007. That won't return anytime soon.