We would be remiss if we did not recognize Monday's 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, on November 9, 1989.

Dignitaries from around the world, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev, gathered Monday for ceremonies recognizing the event that marked the beginning of end of the Cold War, and the start of the reunification of Germany. The end of the Cold War became official with the dissolution of the Soviet Union on December 25, 1991, a day that also marked the start of the Russian Federation.

The biggest impact of the end of the Cold War on investors? Certainly the emergence of market economies in former communist states in Eastern Europe, and the added industrial, and buying power that a unified Germany offers, have to rank at the top. Closely behind those would have to be the emergence of both the euro-zone and the European Union as a regional economic power: Europe, no longer having to fear the expansion of communism, could more-thoroughly concentrate on the development of the continent's economy.