Around this time every year, everyone rolls out their list of winners and losers for the last 12 months. There are lists everywhere but the best I've seen is from the Houston Chronicle's Loren Steffy.

Not surprisingly, Steffy nominates Wall Street as the biggest loser. Not far behind that come Yahoo investors, Bernard Madoff's clients, the incompetent Securities and Exchange Commission, the Chicago School of Economics which for long had peddled the line about free markets so perfect that there was no need for government regulation and the general public which has been hammered badly.

On Steffy's list of winners are those discount retailers, including Wal-Mart, failed executives rewarded handsomely for destroying shareholder value, short sellers who made the right call that stocks would crash, alternative energy and, one of my favorite cities, Houston.

It's a good start but let's add a few more. And some are problematic. Would you, for example, call JP Morgan Chase and its CEO Jamie Dimon winners after they acquired Bear Stearns for a fraction of its value in a Government engineered deal? Only time will tell.

Others look better. Like, for example, investors who have brought into gold which is now nudging close to $900 and it looks set to continue for several reasons. First, and the most obvious, is that investors might start getting worried about the soaring bond prices which smells and feels like a bubble. Secondly, geopolitical tensions with Israel attacking Gaza and India and Pakistan struggling to sort out their differences should boost the price in 2009.

The Australian economy in my own back yard too might end up a winner, but again, that remains to be seen. China's in deep trouble, resources prices are sliding and people are losing jobs. Still, most economists are predicting some positive growth, albeit at the slowest pace since 1991. Still, compared to recessionary economies of the US, the eurozone and New Zealand, Australia is in decent shape. Relatively speaking.

And the losers? The two most obvious are the US automakers and the US taxpayer who has had to keep forking out to protect the banks, automakers and the insurance giant AIG from their own incompetence.

One thing for sure: the 2009 list in 12 months time should be an absolute corker.