How to Hedge Against the Gloom-and-Doomers

By MARY HUNT

When people ask me where they should be investing, I tell them my two favorite sectors are canned food and ammunition. Of course, I'm looking to get a laugh, but truth be told, I am serious -- at least about the food. I've been quietly growing an investment of nonperishable food for some time.

I will admit to having stayed up late at night watching the National Geographic Channel, learning the many ways the world as we know it may soon end -- from a global economic collapse to unfathomable horrors from outer space.

Dear Readers, this is nothing new. There have always been gloom-and-doomers. When I was a kid, the doom du jour was communism. That led families to construct underground bomb shelters stocked with food and water. Then there was the Cuban missile crisis (oh, great, now I'm really dating myself), which I was certain we would not survive.

There have been untold numbers of "doomful" predictions having to do with bird flu, swine flu, HIV/AIDS, tsunamis, meteors, recessions, climate change, economic plunder and all manner of fearful things that surely would