It looks like Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A) CEO Warren Buffett needs another bite of the big apple. Bloomberg News reports that last night Buffett bought a stake in The Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS). Let's hope he has better luck with this investment than the last time he ventured into New York to buy an investment bank -- his 1987 buy of a stake in bond trader, Salomon Brothers. Back then, Buffett doubled his money in a decade -- and went through nine months of misery cleaning it up after a bond trading scandal.

But let's get back to the present -- what exactly did Buffet do with Goldman? He bought "$5 billion of perpetual preferred stock with a 10 percent dividend. Berkshire also gets warrants to buy $5 billion of common stock at $115 a share at any time in the next five years," according to Bloomberg. Goldman can buy Berkshire's preferred stock in Goldman "at any time at a 10 percent premium" and it yields a "10 percent dividend," according to Bloomberg.

Will this work out better for Buffett than his ill-fated Salomon Brothers deal? in September 1987, 21 years ago, Buffett bought "$700 million of Salomon convertible preferred stock -- pay[ing] 9% and convertible after three years into Salomon common stock at $38 a share--against the $30 for which the stock had been selling. This equated to a 12% stake in the company," according to Carol Loomis.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Citigroup (NYSE: C) is the favorite conservative idea for 2007 from Dr. Mark Skousen, editor of Forecasts & Strategies and the host of the annual FreedomFest investor think tank.

"Citigroup is the most dominant banking institution in the history of the world. As the world's largest bank, it has over 200 million customers, and branches in over 100 countries. During the 1980s and 1990s, Japanese banks dominated the world. But Citibank has returned to its glory.

"What about the Citigroup, the stock? In addition to Citibank, Citigroup owns Salomon Brothers, Smith Barney, Traveler's, Primerica, and other financial services.

"And business is good. Profit margins at Citigroup are an outstanding 29%, and the bank has had a policy of paying a rising dividend for years, with a current quarterly dividend of 49 cents, or a 3.5% yield, one of the highest among Dow stocks.

"The stock is up 12% for the year, but continues to languish behind other financial institutions, such as Goldman Sachs, which has doubled in the past year. According to the technicals, Citigroup is in a clear investment uptrend. And despite being downgraded by several Wall Street analysts lately, Citigroup appears poised to move higher."

To see Mark's speculative favorite for 2007, click here.