Hot Global Investments for 2009

Though the U.S. stock market may still be the best insulated from worldwide shocks like the financial crisis, foreign markets are looking hot in 2009, the Wall Street Journal reminds us today. The Journal even lists some bargain basement stocks that suggest potentially explosive value over the long term.

Investors did get squirrely as markets went south last year and pulled $3 billion in funds from overseas investment markets on 2008. But that was subtracted from the more than $40 billion that went abroad in 2006 and 2007. International Value Advisers reports the US is “the one country where we’ve found the least value” with their total allocation of worldwide funds hovering around 7%. And the threat of a cascading dollar only strengthens the appeal of companies like Vanguard International Explorer and Dreyfus Emerging Markets who hold a strong niche in promising overseas economies like India and Brazil.

Here’s David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group on how to go about overseas investing.