In the last issue of the Powerfund Portfolios we explained why treasury bonds may start being less of a sure thing, and might even surprise investors by their lousy returns as rates go back up sometime in the future (how's that for a prediction that can't go wrong?). This month we want to get back to the issue on everyone's mind: stocks. Namely, are stocks cheap, and can investors expect to make any money in them anytime soon?

How hot are "safe" US government bonds? They were up around 4% in August, after a big run in July amidst the market chaos. In fact, long-term government bonds, the kind the government recently decided they didn't need to issue anymore, are up over 12% this year so far. That's a lot of money to make in a safe investment.

We feel the current yield on beaten down utilities stocks of just under 5% is too tempting to pass up. Since money market funds yield less than 2% across the board, often closer to 1%, this should benefit the portfolios over the long term.

Tabloid news headlines aside, the real trouble - as it's been for some years now - is valuations. Stocks were priced for perfection when anything but became the market environment. More troubling, stocks were richly valued assuming the numbers (earnings and revenues) were "on the level", which, sadly, they were not.