Shortly after the introduction of Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) long anticipated iPad tablet computer I was quite surprised to receive an email from one of our more astute readers boldly stating "Game, set and match. See you at $300"

My immediate reaction was that this overly zealous stock trader and Apple enthusiast had let all reason escape his cranium. For me it reinforced how irrational investors are and how little they understand numbers. Apple stock will not reach $300 this year.

One aspect of American life that has to change is the scattershot quality of the U.S.'s infrastructure.

New York Times (NYT) Columnist Thomas Friedman has written and spoken about it often, and he offers many illuminating observations on conditions in Western Europe and in Asia, given his many travels.

Friedman has written about how the U.S. -- despite being the strongest, most dynamic, and technologically advanced economy in the world -- nevertheless has managed to tolerate sub-standard infrastructure conditions (such as too small airports), compared to our Asian and European neighbors. Anyone who has flown into New York's John F. Kennedy or La Guardia airports (as I frequently do) can attest to the need to upgrade these transportation facilities, and many others.

What would you call the previous decade? "The '00s" or "the Aughts"? Concerning the latter, that's what the 1900s were called. (True, it's hardly a phrase that rolls off one's lips. Maybe, given the rise of mobile technology, we should call the 00s "the Apps"?)

Of course, factors other than economics play a role in a decade's short-hand identifier, but in the modern era "the economic" dimension has carried the day more than a few times.

Where as my fist pick, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) is a large cap diversified conglomerate, my second, Grubb & Ellis Co. (GBE), is a micro-cap stock of $90 million.

GBE is a network of nearly 130 owned and affiliated offices, providing commercial real estate services to property owners, institutional investors, and tenants. Its 1,800 brokers and some 6,000 affiliated real estate professionals offer advisory and brokerage, property management, construction consultation, and other services.

The company has been devastated by the bursting of the residential real estate market bubble, lost equity value, illiquid capital markets and the still impending concern over the commercial real estate market facing rising vacancies as hundreds of billions of dollars in loans must be rolled over.

The solar energy movement, so promising, has hit a speed bump. Just as solar's cost per kilowatt hour starts to become attractive, from a U.S. residential use standpoint, sure enough another roadblock has appeared.

The problem? Environmental concern about destroyed or altered vistas -- essentially sight pollution -- but also pollution that physically harms the environment.

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein's, D-California, stated opposition to building in the Mojave Desert has effectively ended 13 big solar energy plants and wind projects there, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reports that the FBI is looking into a potential computer-security breach that resulted in the theft of tens of millions of dollars from Citibank by computer hackers.

These hackers appear to be linked to a Russian cyber gang who targeted Citigroup's (C) Citibank subsidiary, including its North American retail bank and other businesses. This attack was detected over the summer, but there is a chance that it could have happened as much as a year earlier.

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) issued its statement indicating again that interest rates will remain low for an extended period of time. The decision was unanimous.

The Fed continues to avoid any potential language which could disrupt the financial markets. Chairman Bernanke, a student of the Great Depression, does not want to do anything to damage the current stabilization in the economy.

In an almost unprecedented case of federal bureaucratic meddling in what should be business decisions, GM and Chrysler have agreed to set up an "appeals" process to give dumped dealerships a chance to plead their case for retaining their franchises.

GM and Chrysler came under intense pressure from Congress when they announced plans to close dealerships, largely because the National Automobile Dealers Association is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in the country.

Yes I am picking Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) over Apple Inc. (AAPL) in 2010.

Last week I suggested in two separate posts that Apple investors potential gains going forward in 2010 would be far less rewarding than in 2009. The issue first came up in Chasing Value: Ten stocks for 2010 -- Part 9 + Apple where I was simply reviewing Apple for inclusion in the ten but some of the faithful (sometimes over zealous) took exception to this.

The stock having reached an all time high last month was part of what lead me to write, "Sure it is possible that Apple comes out with another winning product but that rampant speculation is among the things that have driven the stock price to where it is. I think the downside outweighs the upside by a large margin so I will pass on this one."

Some of the comments I received only made my case stronger.

The Copenhagen Summit sometimes gives observers the impression that elaborate formulas and systems are needed to reduce greenhouse gases.

And, to be sure, a cap-and-trade system (or an equivalent) at the national level, and then coordinated at the international level, will be needed to ensure that nations are reforming their climate changing ways.

However, the above does not mean substantive greenhouse gas reductions cannot occur outside of the Copenhagen framework. They can, and one obvious way is: reduce the weight of vehicles.

In the wee morning hours just prior to the market opening I had given some thought to shorting AOL Inc. (AOL) on its first day as a newly independent company. Yes, that same company that owns Bloggingstocks.com and a multitude of other interesting Internet "content" icons (and some not yet so). However, I did not do it because it would have been too impulsive and that is rarely a good investment strategy.

I was stunned that we changed our logo. And we changed it to what seems like a team of logos instead of one. That seems bizarre to me if you're trying to build a brand. It is also ironic since we are planning on making money on advertising, and we will be muddling our own brand.

We started this review with 25 stocks of companies noted for their quality of management and how successful they have been at nurturing new leaders as presented in Fortune magazine. After running them through a serious screening process using universally agreed upon key metrics, the list has been reduced to six candidates for potential investment.

I will reiterate that there is no imperative to invest in any of them even if they might be among the best opportunities from a select list. While I think all of the original companies listed and stocks screened are well regarded that does not mean now is the right time to invest.

Regardless of the outcome of this process, and since price and timing are critical, it would be smart to create a stock watch-list with the inclusion of all six of these companies.

Are economies of scale starting to make themselves felt in the hybrid vehicle sector?

Well, they might start, if the hybrid truck trend gains momentum, as expected. The City of New York is testing a series of hybrid garbage trucks -- those big diesel-spewing vehicles that haul away garbage -- with the hope of lowering long-term fuel and maintenance costs, The New York Times reported.

While teaching college students, one point I try to impress upon them is the the sheer size of the U.S. population, and its relationship to economics, markets, politics and public policy.

In a nutshell, the United States is an enormous, duty-free, standardized market, and there's perhaps no better example of just how big the nation is than cable TV.

Case in point, Sean Hannity's show on Fox News, weeknights at 9 p.m. EST. Hannity, a conservative commentator, can draw more than four million viewers nightly, and on a recent show he actually outdrew his colleague on Fox News, Bill O'Reilly, host of The O'Reilly Factor, the perennial ratings leader among cable TV commentary shows.

The worldwide insurance industry may be worth more than you think. Industry analysts believe that reporting isn't as consistent as it could be, and that improvements to insurance financial reporting would pump up those stock prices.

PricewaterhouseCoopers interviewed more than 40 investment professionals from the U.S., Asia and Europe, finding that dissatisfaction with insurance financial reporting was widespread. They'd like to see the International Accounting Standards Board and Financial Accounting Standards Board build a better mousetrap for the industry.