Beyond the pail: Where to invest in a post-bailout world

by Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Wall Street is bound to get its bailout, in one form or another. The government’s rescue package will be costly to taxpayers, politically controversial — and quite possibly not the last. It will also dramatically change the landscape for U.S. stock investors.

The bailout has a singular task: to grease the locked wheels of the financial system and get credit moving again. What investors need to remember is that even if this plan works, the deep problems plaguing homeowners, consumers and the broader economy won’t magically disappear. The Troubled Asset Relief Plan isn’t called TARP for no reason. It is intended to avert a flood of Depression-era size, but the ground around us will still be soaked. […]