Remember ethanol, a form of alcohol that was supposed to be the answer to diminishing fossil fuels and make a lot of people rich, even as alarmists cried that it would create a food shortage? Well, there are cycles in everything. The ethanol dream has turned into a nightmare. Among the big losers? One of the richest men in the world: Bill Gates.

Six of the biggest publicly traded companies...

We have made three changes, downgrading one stock to B and adding two stocks to the A grade

Gainers
None of the stocks could make it to the A grade last fortnight. Of the B-graded stocks 39 were in the positive. In the previous fortnight, Bhagwati Banquets was at the bottom of the list having declined 39%. It topped the list last fortnight, with a 36% rise. Bombay Rayon, a well-integrated...

One of the few people who made tonnes of money during the recent crash was a hedge fund manager called Kyle Bass, managing partner of Hayman Advisors. Way back in August 2006 he put together a fund that would bet on the housing market meltdown.

Within six months, Bass was proved right. Home loans started turning bad, especially those made to people with a poor credit record. With that, prices...