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I’ve discussed the tumult plaguing the newspaper industry several times recently and after today, I’ll let the topic rest unless something noteworthy happens. But first, I want to share a few more of your letters because they express some ideas that haven’t been voiced here before. Thanks to everyone for writing in, I appreciate you taking the time to share your insights with me and your fellow readers. To read all of the past issues I’ve written about the newspaper industry and see how others responded, go to our Web site archives. If you haven’t shared your view yet, you can do so by sending me an email or commenting on our blog.

In my last issue, I touched on a couple of blast-off indicators, including one that likely triggered a green light a couple of weeks ago when 90% of all NYSE stocks rose above their 10-week moving averages. In addition, the Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence survey came out at 55 this month, a big improvement over 41 last month. But the real story is that the lows in confidence usually occur near major bear market lows. Now, I’m not the type of guy to sit here and call for the Dow to hit such-and-such a level by the end of the year; I just take it one day and one week at a time. But the 90% blast-off indicator, along with the truly historic pessimism among investors and individuals, tells me to expect higher (probably much higher) stock prices in the months and years ahead.

Back on Monday, I tackled the big challenge of our healthcare system once again, beginning with a few personal stories--including the $840 bill for my wife’s sliced thumb--and finishing with a prediction that the big pharmaceutical companies were in for tough sledding once Washington begins a serious effort to reduce costs. The responses to the column were numerous and excellent, and I share the best with you here.

There is something sadly ironic about a newspaper reporting on its own demise. Certainly it’s important for readers to know what’s going on behind the scenes and for many employees, the decisions being made at their newspapers are the biggest news of the day. But it still shocks me a bit to see headlines in The Boston Globe proclaiming that its largest union rejected $10 million in wage and benefit cuts. In what seems like a “punishment,” union members will now endure 23% pay cuts. It’s almost guaranteed that the very people who wrote, edited and laid out the story will be part of that salary slash.

We recently received a very interesting proposal from a Cabot Wealth Advisory reader who suggested an essay contest with a subscription to a Cabot newsletter as the prize for the best entry. We have never done such a contest, but the reader had obviously thought through the details, and made a very persuasive case. And we liked the idea so much that we’ve decided to hold the contest! We love competitions and we like the idea of asking Cabot Wealth Advisory readers to share their stories and we think others will enjoy reading them. The entries will give us an opportunity to get to know you better, dear reader. And the winner will have a chance to get back into the market with our best advice because the prize is a FREE one-year subscription to a Cabot newsletter!

Has every ship run aground? Have all the oceans frozen over? You might think so if you’ve followed the dramatic tumble of the Baltic Dry Index. The index tracks the price to ship dry goods--everything from corn to cement--and unless the world suddenly stops eating and building, the odds are this index is ripe for a stunning rebound ... that looks already underway. Today, we’re featuring an article from our friends at StreetAuthority. StreetAuthority Editor Amy Calistri explains why these shipping stocks have a bright future ahead of them while providing some monstrous yields--one shipper in particular paying a 23.2% yield.

Today I want to start off with a word about a certain technical indicator you’ve probably heard a lot about this week. It’s a prediction that gets made every year by Punxsutawney Phil, who sticks his head out of the ground to predict whether or not winter is here to stay. As a child, I believed in the power of the groundhog to forecast the weather. But soon I realized that it would probably be winter here for at least six more weeks. In any event, I’m not putting much stock in old Phil to forecast the seasons or anything else. We don’t do predictions here at Cabot, we watch the market and use our disciplined market timing indicators to stay on the right side of the trends.

The cynic might say that if the IRS just took a close look at the last 10 years’ tax returns of everybody in the Federal government it would scare up enough revenue to close the budget deficit by a few percentage points. Me, I’ll just repeat and elaborate on my main point. The tax laws are too complicated. Every new program, gained by earnest lobbying, that aims to fine-tune the system to benefit or penalize specific groups, only serves to make the whole process more complicated, and thus less efficient, for both the taxpayers and the overseers. And that helps nobody but the people employed in the tax industry.

First of all, I want to thank everyone who took the time to fill out the survey last weekend. We’ll try to write about many of the investment topics that you requested, so in that vein, today I’m pulling an article out of the archives that answers a question that was asked several times on the survey: How do you invest during a recession? Timothy Lutts wrote an excellent piece about this last January, yes a whole 13 months ago (long before anyone officially declared that we are in a recession), and I dug it out to share with you again here.

Doomsaying is a tricky business. In the late 1970s, when commodities were king, technical analyst Bob Prechter correctly predicted the implosion of the commodity bull market and a “‘super cycle’” bull market in equities. His eerily on-target prediction made him an investing superstar. Unfortunately, he then predicted the 1990s would be a severe bear market for stocks. I’ll admit, there is something tempting about subscribing to bleak predictions when times are tough. But there are four reasons I believe most of this dommsaying is wrong.

Today’s first topic is Steve Jobs, Apple and AAPL. Steve Jobs, of course, is the man at the head of the company. Apple is the company itself. And AAPL is the stock. They are three separate entities. But investors often make the mistake of confusing them, and that can be dangerous. The media have focused on Steve Jobs and his health and worried about the effect on the company should Steve’s health problems force him to step down. But I’m not making the mistake of thinking that if Steve returns to good health AAPL will continue to be a fine investment.

Last year, I wrote about my former life as a newspaper employee and what I think about the hurting business. A lot has changed since then, with several newspapers shutting down operations (or threatening to), including the Rocky Mountain News and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and others laying off even more employees as revenues continue to plummet. But the question remains: Can newspapers be saved?

Why doesn’t economic news affect my market outlook? The reason for that can be explained in my favorite quote, which is carved on the mantel above the fireplace at Cabot: “Markets are never wrong; opinions are.” The infamous trader Jesse Livermore is responsible for this gem. Far too many investors fail to leave their egos and opinions at the door and this is the #1 reason most investors lose money, or at best produce lackluster returns.

Today I’m bringing you a Q&A with Cabot Benjamin Graham Value Letter Editor J. Royden Ward. You haven’t heard from him in a while, so I wanted to bring you up to speed on his latest thinking about what happened in 2008 and where he sees the stock market and value stocks headed in 2009 and beyond.

Last year, I started writing a series explaining our investment advisories in an effort to help answer one of the most common questions we get from investors, “Which Cabot publication is right for me?” Also last year, we expanded the Cabot family by purchasing Dick Davis Digest and Income Digest. This is what Timothy Lutts wrote at the time: “Now, it’s our honor to be the steward of these well-respected publications. Our goal is to honor the past reputation of these Digests, while improving the newsletters so they serve subscribers better in this Internet age. I’ll be telling you much more about these Digests in the future.”

Get familiar with charts (there are many free charting programs online) and take five minutes to look at some of the major indexes every day or two. On the chart, you want to plot the index itself (say, the S&P 500), and you also want to plot its 50-day moving average. If most indexes are above their 50-day line, you should be constructive toward stocks. If most are below, you should be defensive. It sounds simple ... and it is.

Note from Cabot Wealth Advisory Editor Elyse Andrews: It was greeted as “an oddball security from Canada” when it debuted in December 2003. But investors have been warming up to this special type of security in difficult times. Today, we’re featuring this income-investing article from our friends at StreetAuthority. StreetAuthority editor Carla Pasternak explains how to capture a 16% yield from a special Canadian security. After all, Carla reports that it pays five times the average yield delivered by the S&P 500 Index--while offering the safety of a bond with the upside of an equity.

I recently brought you an issue of Cabot Wealth Advisory that reviewed some of our most important investing lessons from the year written by three of our editors. Today, I’m going to bring you something from the rest, Timothy Lutts, Cabot publisher and editor of Cabot Stock of the Month, Paul Goodwin, editor of Cabot China & Emerging Markets Report and Michael Cintolo, editor of Cabot Top Ten Report and Cabot Market Letter. I hope this helps you tackle your next investing challenge.

A few years ago, (January 2006, actually) during my annual physical exam, my doctor gave me a stock tip. I knew that he was aware of what I do for a living, but we hadn’t ever talked about stocks or investing or anything other than how to get my cholesterol down. I was so surprised that I think my blood pressure actually spiked! But there my very own Primary Care Physician was, telling me about how a drug rep for a big company had dropped a name on him during a sales call.

This is a dangerous time for investors, but it’s only partly because of what the bear market is doing to your portfolio. In my experience, these are the times when investors tend to stray far outside the bounds of any normal, prudent system; they do exactly the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time. And that’s what really kills them.