Others, encumbered by brats whose faces are covered with flies and snot, cluster desperately around the fruit vendors, interrupting their singsong litanies only to lunge for the occasional rotten tomato or onion that an alert customer may discover at the bottom of his basket.

NPR: 'The Swallows of Kabul' Book Excerpt

Since the market bottom in October of 2002, this basket of utilities has appreciated 105%, and that return figure does not take into account the dividends investors have collected along the way.

FORBES

The bottom line is they found no relationship between debt and economic growth for the basket of observations below 90% but a strong relationship above it.

FORBES: Growing Federal Debt Threatens To Strangle Recovery

Choosing March 31, 2009 as a rough bottom, even Citigroup ( C) and Bank of America ( BAC), which remain relative basket cases to this day, would have brought you a roughly 50% gain.

FORBES: Connect