Private equity returns are down 27.6% year-over-year for the 12-month period ending July 30, 2009, according to a Preqin report received by BloggingStocks. The London-based research house notes, however, that the global private equity industry's dry powder (i.e., uncommitted assets) continues to exceed $1 trillion, suggesting that there is still plenty of capital waiting for a rainy day.

Returns for the past 12 months reflect all the nastiness we've seen and lived -- bailouts, company collapses, equity and credit market mayhem and unemployment rates dangerously close to double-digits. But, the money is still coming in. Preqin puts the rate by which contributions outpaced distributions at 235% for buyout funds in 2008. This category raised $148 billion while distributing only $63 billion, making last year the most imbalanced for these two measures in history.

"While not many will agree with me, I believe U.S. real estate prices have bottomed and are on the rise," says Larry Edelson. In Uncommon Wisdom, he eye an ETF to play the sector.

"Mind you, my forecast doesn't mean property prices in every town in the US have hit bottom. Nor does it mean you should run out to blindly buy property and expect to get rich on it overnight.

"But all the evidence I see tells me real estate prices in the U.S. are now a bargain ... that we're at the bottom ... and that there will be a recovery in property prices, albeit slowly, over the next several years.