Right now, the carmaker is struggling. "The reason GM is in trouble is because its cars aren't that good," commented a friend of mine. I replied: "GM's problems go deeper than its cars. GM's problems begin with how it is managed."

One of the reasons so many people get burned in the market is because they start buying as they see prices going up. Most of us remember the insanity of the dot-com bubble in the late 1990s. From 2000 and 2005, it was the real estate bubble. Today as I write, it's oil, gas, gold, and silver.

How many of you are old enough to have been working in 1973? If so, you would've had the kind of economic experience I did at that time. But if you were in school or missed the period of the oil crisis, get ready because those times could return with a vengeance.

"Is there a real estate bubble?" That's the question I'm asked repeatedly. When I reply honestly -- "I hope so" -- my questioners' fear occasionally turns into anger.

As retirement nears, millions of Baby Boomers are scrambling for deck chairs on the Titanic. For about 30 years now I have been watching a major financial disaster developing. Its contributing factors include the shaky financial foundations of Social Security and Medicare, compounded by most Americans' lack of financial education and entitlement mentality.