The current issues impacting the Eurozone countries harkens back to the problems with the gold standard in the 1930s. Many believe the U.S. depression in the 1930s was worsened by the fact the U.S. and many other countries were on the gold standard. With the gold standard exchange rates were fixed i.e., depreciating ones currency was not an option. The gold standard did not create the depression; ...

Consuelo Mack interviews Tom Gallagher on this week's WealthTrack. Tom was formally with ISI Group until retiring recently and is now a principal at The Scowcroft Group. While at the ISI Group, Tom was voted the #1 analyst on Washington matters by Institutional Investor from 2001-2010. In the interview, Tom notes government policies have rarely been this important or influential in the economy and...

One index measure investors review to gauge the level of fear in the market is the VIX Index. Currently, the VIX is trading at 31.78, down a little over 1 point today. High levels in the VIX translate into a fearful market and can be indicative of a short term market bottoms. In the early part of 2010, the market's first encounter with the Euro crisis, the VIX hit 48. The S&P 500 Index bottomed s...