There is no question that we are currently in the most severe financial crisis since the Great Depression and the greatest economic catastrophe of our generation.

As "too-big-to-fail" financial institutions collapsed and the global banking system experienced immense scrutiny, investors' confidence plummeted and the global economy was pulled into an economic slowdown.

As a result, global stock markets sold off hard this year with everything from real estate to corporate bonds to international stocks losing value. With the exception of low-yielding Treasury securities, no stock market or asset class was spared from the collapse. 

To ease the pain and combat the financial crisis, governments here and across the pond made historic efforts: Interest rate cuts, bailout plans of colossal proportions — you name it, it's been put into action.

But still, these efforts didn't squash the next round of bad news about the domestic and global economy — job losses, companies filing for bankruptcy, retail sales plunging, and stock markets continuing to spiral out of control.

It seems like with every step forward, there are two steps back.

So it's no wonder that all of these events combined have investors on the edge of their seats, waiting to see what's in store for 2009.

There's no denying that this is going to be a tough investment and economic environment for investors and consumers around the globe next year. In this type of environment, it's hard to believe that there will be profitable investment opportunities in the New Year. But the reality is…