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Welcome to the 72nd installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be delving into Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT)'s decision earlier this year to jettison many hundreds of magazines from its shelves in order to thin out its reading offerings inside its stores. But, more importantly, what's going on regarding magazines in its Asda division in the UK? Is Wal-Mart trying to extend its reach just a bit too far? It tried similar tactics back in January -- so why again in August?

Wal-Mart's influence has grown immensely powerful

Ever since the 1990s, Wal-Mart has been a powerful force in American retailing as the Supercenter concept starting taking root in metro areas throughout the U.S. As the retailer became the dominant discounter, it brushed aside the competition just dirt under a rug.

Of course, along with powerful growth comes powerful opposition. I like to draw comparisons to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), when it comes to Wal-Mart. Microsoft has its operating system that has standardized a complete personal computer industry under one umbrella and became the de-facto standard that, more than anything, revolutionized the computer industry. For Wal-Mart, its relentless pursuit of finding lower prices and passing those savings on to the consumer made it become the largest retailer in the world.

This is the part of a series of columns called "The Naked Truth," by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions, in the comments box, and he will answer as many as he can.

Your broker talks. You listen. At least that is the way it is for most investors. You assume (and she definitely assumes!) she has an expertise that will help you maximize your returns. Sometimes, you almost feel like you should be taking notes.

Based on my experience, this is often not the case. Brokers are not required to have any background in finance or economics and their training is focused primarily on sales.

I thought it might be interesting to turn the tables. Here are some questions you should ask them.

Question #1: What is the most important factor that will affect my returns?

Answer: Your asset allocation, which is the amount of your investments allocated to stocks, bonds and cash. Not stock picking; not mutual fund selection and not market timing. If your broker gets this wrong, get a new broker.

Welcome to the 71st installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be taking a peek at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and a recent meeting the retailer held with its managers and department heads from across the U.S. The gist is this: If a Democrat (Barack Obama) is elected this November, federal law will most likely be changed to make it easier to unionize companies. This will, of course, include Wal-Mart.

Are unions better or worse for American workers? That question has been central in debate for decades on end. Wal-Mart management was heard stating to its store managers that if its stores become unionized, Wal-Mart workers will have to pay hefty dues while receiving nothing in return. Agree or disagree? Read on.

Carlton Delfeld reveals his latest global ETF picks and warns of leveraged funds.

Q. Carlton, in your last newsletter, you commented on the low valuations of several global markets, including Ireland, Singapore, UK, and Sweden, among others. Have you since added any ETFs from these regions to your portfolios?

A. Yes, I have added iShares MSCI South Africa Index (NYSEArca: EZA), iShares MSCI Singapore Index (NYSEArca: EWS), and the iShares MSCI United Kingdom (NYSEArca: EWU). South Africa is in part a currency and commodity play. The United Kingdom is very much predicated on global financial recovery, and Singapore will likely be a core holding.

Q. Each of these regions seems to have its own stress points right now. Do you think that South Africa is particularly vulnerable to a global slowdown? Hasn't Singapore been hit hard by the bear market in China? And isn't the UK just moving into a housing decline that may rival that of the US?

A. South Africa, China and the UK are all trading at attractive valuations. They all have challenges. The South Africa Rand has been a strong currency and will come back with higher gold prices, the UK is already moving through the housing issue and its financial-oriented market has already been hammered. Lastly, Singapore is a very high-quality China play.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM)'s record-setting quarterly profits last week prompted renewed calls for a windfall profits tax against the oil industry. The problem I have with these theory is that people usually do not explain what they mean by a "windfall."

"How does it differ from your everyday, run of the mill profit?" The Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial today. "Is it some absolute number, a matter of return on equity or sales -- or does it merely depend on who earns it?"

Also, is the government going to figure out how much Exxon deserved to earn and what gives the government the right to single out the oil companies for such treatment. Why not subject Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) or Warren Buffett's Berskshire Hathawy Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A) to a windfall profits tax too? They make lots of money, right?

Well, the reason why we don't penalize companies just because they make a lot of money is because that would be insane. As the Journal notes, it's hard to make the case that Exxon's profitability is excessive. In 2007, its profit margins were 10%, in-line with the industry average. The oil company's margins were worse than firms in the chemicals industry, pharmaceuticals, beverages and tobacco, the paper said.

Exxon Mobil is a pretty easy company to dislike. Its politics are reactionary, particularly on global warming. Its attitude toward alternative energy is skeptical. Wall Street already gave a thumbs down to its latest earnings report which is a far more effective punishment than a windfall profits tax.

Putting the squeeze on the oil industry may feel good, but it won't bring back $2 gas prices. Those days are gone forever.

Welcome to the 70th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'm pitting Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) against Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) in terms of one nice and profitable category of product: consumer electronics. Although many would argue that consumer electronics have a slender profit margin, the fact is that consumers can't get enough gadgets.

They keep buying and buying and buying. Flat-panel televisions, iPods, cellphones, PCs -- you name it. With the insatiable appetite U.S. consumers have for these products, Wal-Mart has really upped the product presentation game recently within stores I've seen in my area. My guess is that it will only get more intense as Wal-Mart tries to strike at the heart of Best Buy.

This is part of a series of columns by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions in the comments box and he will answer as many as he can.

Is this a good time to invest, or should you sit on the sidelines until the market has "bottomed out"? This is the most common question I am asked.

It would be great if there was a way to tell when the market had reached its low. If you could do this, you would be able to buy stocks when the markets were taking off and retreat to risk-free investments, like cash and Treasury bills, in down markets.

Unfortunately, the data on timing the markets is very dismal.

One large study looked at more than 15,000 predictions by 237 market timing newsletters over a 12-year period. At the end of the period studied, 94.5% of the newsletters went bust. Not very impressive.

The financial media likes to hype stories suggesting that the markets are tanking or are poised for a rebound. These predictions are usually inaccurate and generally unreliable.

Here's a better question for you to consider: Should you be in the markets at all?

Welcome to the 69th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be taking a look labor relations inside Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT). Specifically, reports that the world's largest retailer has recent given its general employees in its Chinese locations raises while not doing the same for its American employees.

Now, all of this is not out of the goodness of the retailer's heart, but more because of the negotiations with the union representation of Wal-Mart's China workers. Can we compare Wal-Mart's stance on living wage increases to another country's workers?

Welcome to the 68th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be taking a look at the most recent financial results from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT). The retailer continues to state the the federal tax economic stimulus checks being used by customers in its stores have buoyed it results.

Overall, this is good news. When the tax stimulus checks run out, though, will Wal-Mart continue to post such great sales figures like it did in June 2008? Remember June 2007?

Last summer, Wal-Mart also easily defeated analyst calls and toasted the expected same-store sales growth. Is seasonality more a part of the picture than tax checks? How about gas pricing stamping out multiple shopping trips by many families? All of this contributes, I would posit.

Welcome to the 67th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be taking a look at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) entry into the world of locally grown produce and fresh food. The world's largest retailer has already conquered mass-produced food and produce (and fresh meat products), so why not enter the domain of locally grown food to find growth?

Finding ways to support local growers is never a bad way to ingratiate oneself into a community and find more avid fans of your operation. Wal-Mart has never shied away from strategies geared to grow its user base, and with the retailer in good fortunes now with the U.S. economy in a slump, it's never been a better time to find unique ways to grow. Can it succeed, though?

TheStreet.com's Jim Cramer says both oil futures and equity futures can move these hot issues.

Will the futures pull down the oil and gas stocks today? No, I don't mean the oil futures, I mean the equity futur

Last week when oil exploded, we caught two days of trading that dropped the stocks hard. We caught a bit of a bid in the nat gases like Chesapeake (NYSE:CHK) and Devon (NYSE:DVN) but at the end of the day, but the stocks were truly overwhelmed by the simple fact that they are in the indices.

This pattern has really held down the integrateds: last week Conoco (NYSE:COP) should have exploded, but it couldn't because it is such a big part of the S&P. Chevron (NYSE:CVX) and Exxon (NYSE: XOM) are no different.

The natural gas stocks are not as big a factor, but they can be rocked down without a problem.

I am not saying to avoid looking at the oil futures. They can control the stocks. I am saying that the equity futures tide can take down anything, even when the oil futures spike hard.

Welcome to the 66th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be examining Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and the reputation the world's largest retailer has. Wal-Mart's roots from the backyard of a small Arkansas town into the world's largest company in less then five decades is nothing short of amazing -- like it or not.

But, with such rapid growth, how has the company's reputation fared during this journey? Harris Interactive's latest "Reputations of the Most Visible Companies" (PDF download) sheds a little light on this area. Although Wal-Mart is currently experiencing a decent period of sales and profit (due to customers flocking to low prices), the company still has a tarnished image in much of the world. Is it deserved? You be that judge.

This is the part of a new series of columns called "The Naked Truth," by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions, in the comments box, and he will answer as many as he can.

Proposed legislation introduced by Senators Lieberman and Collins would ban large pension plans from investing in the commodities markets. It would be difficult to conceive of more wrong-headed regulation.

Pension funds are already subject to regulation that requires all investments to be prudent. There may be valid reasons why investing in commodities is entirely prudent for a small part of a pension portfolio, including the need to hedge against inflation. There is little evidence that the relatively small allocation of pension portfolios to the commodities sector has had any meaningful impact on the run up of oil prices.

Of far more importance to employees--and worthy of congressional intervention--is the shameful 401(k) and 403(b) system, which affects the retirement plans of 70 million Americans.

Welcome to the 65th installment of The Wal-Mart Weekly, a column dedicated to bringing you insight, wit, facts, results, opinions, and just a bit of everything else when it comes to a very hot topic these days: Wal-Mart.

This week, I'll be taking a look at product quality in relation to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT. As you may have read by now, Adidas AG, the second-largest maker of sporting goods globally, has said that a house brand of shoes sold at Wal-Mart may injure those that wear them. Now that's quite a statement about product quality, yes?

Adidas specifically said that Wal-Mart's Athletic Works shoes should not be worn or used by runners, as they may cause injury. I've never heard of a shoe or sporting goods manufacturer state that a particular type of show would injure a runner, but there you have it. These Athletic Works shows are "not suitable to run in," according to Adidas. How was this claim determined -- and what about other Wal-Mart products that may have inferior quality? Read on.

This is the part of a new series of columns called "The Naked Truth," by retirement expert Dan Solin. Please bring him your questions, in the comments box, and he will answer as many as he can.

Question: I want to move my 401(k). My company was recently bought out and I don't feel secure. What options to I have?

Answer: As a general rule, you cannot rollover a 401(k) while you are still employed. There is a narrow exception to this rule. Check with your plan administrator to see if your plan permits an "in-service, non-hardship withdrawal distribution election." The rules permitting this distribution usually have certain requirements that must be met, like length of service or reaching a certain minimum age.