Is the recession really over? Almost two years have passed since we first got wind of the potential financial crisis due to the housing brouhaha and the drastic and perhaps innovative measures taken by the Federal Reserve Bank led by Ben Bernake and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to successfully stave off a global depression and despite the initial skepticism from some critics, it seems to have worked. Domestic spending from the traditional thanksgiving to the post Christmas season seems to indicate that people are really spending. Unemployment rates have gone down and there seems to be some confidence in the stock market. Stock Market Prices have shown some significant volumes as more people are getting back to investing their money in Wall Street.

There are lessons to be learned over what has happened over the past two years. The derivatives market which may be the indirect cause of all this has to be regulated. The need and pressure for fund managers and investment bankers to make more money for their clients may have forced them to take unnecessary risks, perhaps taking too many shortcuts in their due diligence in investing. What irked a lot of the main investors, those who had taken their life saving and entrusted them to fund managers, was the huge bonuses and golden parachutes given to the CEO's even in the midst when those same investment firms were in duress or headed for bankruptcy. Just recently, the Secretary of the Treasury strongly criticized new bonuses given to such CEO's at the start of 2010. It almost felt like these CEO's took for granted all the TARP funds given to them.

So what are the good investments to take? Trust your own intuition and gut feel but do the research. The internet has enabled a lot of people to understand how the stock markets work and they get to trade their own money, taking their own risks and reaping their own rewards. Learning the fundamentals of the stock market is simple: buy stocks when they are low and sell them when they are high. With the numerous companies publicly listed, you can settle to companies you already are familiar with or if more daring, take a chance at some new ones breaking grown.

You can also do direct investing. There are a lot of houses that have lost their value and perhaps purchasing them at discounted prices and waiting or the market to go on the upswing is another way of investing your money. You can even go into your own business if you feel the urge to try your hand being your own boss. Whatever you decide, the lessons of the past two years have enriched us to be more knowledgeable about what investments to make through the available data. Be informed.

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