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If you are not equipped with the right tools, it can be a tough time to be an individual investor. Since the beginning of 2008, the S&P 500 stock index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average are both down by over 14 percent. Further, a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll released on July 7, 2008 showed that 75 percent of Americans feel the economy is in a recession. The bear market, combined with these strong recession fears, has caused many investors to abandon the markets to protect their portfolios.

Much attention has focused lately on the run up in the production of agricultural commodities and its effect on food prices. Additionally, key crop input prices are also rising and show no sign of slowing, according to a new Rabobank report, "U.S. Crop Inputs."

The American public is not buying the arguments of President Bush and the oil industry that new drilling will lower gas prices, a new poll finds.