Chart courtesy Bloomberg.

So how does this rally compare with the 1930s? From Chart of the Day.

Many investors continue to look to the early 1930s for some insight into the current economic/stock market environment. While there are significant differences (global economy, credit default swaps, TARP, FDIC, etc.) between the current environment and that what occurred in the early 1930s, there are also many similarities (bank failures, bankruptcies, severe market declines, etc.). For some perspective on the current stock market rally that began on March 9th, today's chart illustrates duration (calendar days) and magnitude (percent gain) of all significant Dow rallies that occurred during the 1929-1932 bear market (solid blue dots). For example, the bear market rally that began in November 1929 lasted 155 calendar days and resulted in a gain of 48%. As today's chart illustrates, the current Dow rally (hollow blue dot labeled you are here) is above average in both duration and magnitude relative to the average 1929-1932 bear market rally (hollow red dot). Compared to the current rally, only one 1929-1932 bear market rally was greater in both magnitude and duration and that was the first 1929-1932 bear market rally that began in November 1929.

The Great American Bubble Machine: This long 12-page piece in the present issue of Rolling Stone by a really good financial writer, Matt Taibbi, is causing consternation (for Goldman Sachs) and great mirth (for others) on Wall Street.

The piece concludes:

It's not always easy to accept the reality of what we routinely allow these people to get away with; there's a kind of collective denial that kicks in when a country goes through what America has gone through lately, when a people lose as much prestige and status as we have in the past few years. You can't really register the fact that you're no longer a citizen of a thriving first-world democracy; that you're no longer above getting robbed in broad daylight, because like an amputee, you can still sort of feel things that are no longer there.

But this is it. This is the world we live in now. And in this world, some of us have to play by the rules, while others get a note from the principal excusing them from homework till the end of time, plus 10 billion free dollars in a paper bag to buy lunch. It's a gangster state, running on gangster economics, and ever prices can't be trusted anymore; there are hidden taxes in every buck you pay. And maybe we can't stop it, but we should at least know where it's all going.

You can read the entire piece. Click here.

Finally an industry that can't be outsourced to China. West 33rd Street in Manhattan is the capital of this apparently thriving domestic industry.

It's graduation time in the town: They came to town last night to celebrate. It was charming. Life moves on.

Proud father and son.

He's now off to John Jay College to study computer science. His graduation presents -- one each hand:

The family was proudly wearing buttons.

Wimbledon 2009 Tennis TV Schedule. Everything is live, except on The Tennis Channel, which shows repeats. I think I finally got it right.

Proud Mothers.
Three mothers are sitting on a park bench in Miami Beach talking about (what else?) how much their sons love them.

Sadie says, "You know the Chagall painting hanging in my living room? My son, Arnold, bought that for me for my 75th birthday. What a good boy he is, and how much he loves his mother."

Minnie says, "You call that love? You know the Eldorado Cadillac I just got for Mother's Day? That's from my son Bernie. What a doll."

Shirley says, "That's nothing. You know my son Stanley? He's in analysis with a psychoanalyst on Park Avenue, no less. Five sessions a week- $200 an hour, and what does he talk about?
Me!"

This column is about my personal search for the perfect investment. I don't give investment advice. For that you have to be registered with regulatory authorities, which I am not. I am a reporter and an investor. I make my daily column -- Monday through Friday -- freely available for three reasons: Writing is good for sorting things out in my brain. Second, the column is research for a book I'm writing called "In Search of the Perfect Investment." Third, I encourage my readers to send me their ideas, concerns and experiences. That way we can all learn together. My email address is . You can't click on my email address. You have to re-type it . This protects me from software scanning the Internet for email addresses to spam. I have no role in choosing the Google ads on this site. Thus I cannot endorse, though some look interesting. If you click on a link, Google may send me money. Please note I'm not suggesting you do. That money, if there is any, may help pay Michael's business school tuition. Read more about Google AdSense, click here and here.