For investors under the age of 40, much of their adult life has been occupied by accelerated boom and bust cycles in the world of finance, peppered liberally with doses of scandal and market turmoil. A lack of growth in the Dow Industrials and S&P 500 over the past 10 years (don’t ask about the NASDAQ) has led to the this period being referred to as a “lost decade.”

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How often do you come across a situation where a business and one of its key employees have become so closely identified with one another that they are almost considered one and the same? Steve Jobs and Apple, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, Simon Cowell and American idol. When this happens, brand performance becomes tied to the iconic employee – for better or for worse.

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I was born in 1975 and raised a Yankees fan, so George Steinbrenner made it an interesting time to grow up. I was a little young to remember the late-70s championship teams, but I have some vague memories of the 1981 World Series loss to the Dodgers. For some reason, though, they center around Goose Gossage beaming Ron Cey and a beyond awkward post-victory performance on “Solid Gold” (Of course I’ve also blocked out most of the 2001 and 2003 World Series’ too, so maybe age wasn’t the issue).

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So it’s World Cup time again. This means that, in addition to the games themselves, I’m treated to my quadrennial browbeating from my UK friends who remain perplexed that I am not ready to put life on hold for a month’s worth of “football”.

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Society today is blessed with the ability to get news updates from the widest variety of sources in human history. Not too long ago, most news traveled by word of mouth (along with any unfortunate distortions that cropped up along the way). Today, we can receive breaking news updates from anywhere in the world in nearly real time through such media as TV, radio, RSS feeds and the Internet.

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March 24thNews Flash: The Congressional Budget Office issues some sobering news – payments from the Social Security system will exceed contributions into the system this year – six years earlier than their most recent forecasts had suggested. We are now facing a $29billion shortfall.

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This week’s highlights feature news from the private equity sector, findings from Morningstar’s 2010 Target-Date Industry Survey as well as a few items to be on the lookout for that may potentially impact the U.S. markets.

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The Internet has greatly improved the availability of all sorts of information and advice, including an abundance of personal finance resources. That’s the good news.

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While the holiday season is behind us there is one more annual tradition to prepare for: the game of musical chairs in the finance industry. Most Wall Street firms pay annual bonuses to employees either at or shortly after the end of the year. Anticipation of these payments, which may account for the majority of total compensation, tends to cause employees to time their job hunts to minimize the amount of bonus money they leave behind with a former employer.

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Where, oh where, have the analysts gone….oh where, oh where can they be?

Over lunch last week, a sell-side research analyst noted that few of his former colleagues continue to work in sell-side research. While the role of the sell-side analyst has not disappeared, it evolved into something very different over the past decade. No longer is an analyst widely considered to be an “ax” in his or her universe of coverage. Stocks rarely move solely based on word of a ratings upgrade or downgrade on CNBC.

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