At the height of the US housing boom, my colleague Yiannis Mostrous made one of the more prescient investment calls I’ve seen. Writing in the advisory he co-wrote at the time, Wall Street Winners, he recommended a short sale of giant, government-backed mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.

The father of modern economics, John Maynard Keynes, was once asked in a debate how he justified changing his mind on certain key issues of his day. Keynes replied “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?”

We’re still far off recent highs, and plenty of risk remains, but the Asian rally is still running strong.

Expedition officials compared the act to Neil Armstrong’s planting of the American flag on the moon, and the US Geological Survey determined, to a degree that should satisfy United Nations Convention on the Land of the Sea requirements (should the US eventually ratify it), that there’s not much ground for resource disputes in the area.

The circumstances are always different, but the emotions are the same in bear markets: Despondency, despair and fear that the worst is yet to come. The good news is it’s never as bad you think. But navigating your way through bear markets is as much a part of successful investing as making the most of bull markets.

Predicting the price of oil next week, next month or next year is about as Quixotic a venture as can be undertaken by even the most diligent expert. And engaging in such forecasts is even more counterproductive for individual investors focused on the long term; you don’t enjoy the romance of headline-grabbing statements or electric cable TV shout-fest appearances, and, most important, it’s an impractical exercise.

If there’s one factor that’s catalyzed the recent selloff in crude oil prices, it’s declining oil consumption from developed-market economies.

We’ve had a choppy week on Wall Street as traders continue to seek some direction from both positive and negative news. All three of the major indexes are relatively flat this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 0.4 percent, the Nasdaq Composite ended the week flat and the S&P 500 tacked on 0.2 percent.

Plenty of supposed smart-money players have ignored China’s instructive trends.

The raw numbers are impressive: A report by the US Geological Survey (USGS) found that 25 areas inside the Arctic Circle contain about a fifth of the world’s undiscovered but recoverable oil and natural gas reserves.