In 2004, when hedge fund manager Ed Lampert created Sears Holdings (SHLD) by lashing together Sears and K-Mart, he set out to revive two storied but faded retail franchises. Investors had high hopes, since Sears Holdings offered them the opportunity to, in effect, invest alongside a legendary hedge fund manager. But in a world of e-commerce, big box retailers and new consumption and shopping patterns, Sears and K-Mart have struggled to keep up. The publicity-shy Lampert seems to be admitting that it's just not working out. As a tough piece by Kit Roane on Fortune.com notes, Lampert recently offered something of a mea culpa: "In many of our businesses, even in a tougher environment, we ought to be doing a lot better." The stock has fallen recently in part due to disappointing results. "These results point to the increasingly dire prospects for Sears," said Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter.

Over the years, investors and analysts hoped that Lampert, a genius stockpicker and corporate fix-it man, would breathe new life into old retail formats, or figure out a strategy to liberate the value of its vast real estate holdings, or use the cash flow that Sears and K-Mart generate to buy other companies, or stocks of other companies. Or something. While Sears itself hasn't turned into a hedge fund, Sears Holding has spent a ton of money over the years on one particular stock: Sears Holdings. And a glance at the company's share repurchases offers a cautionary tale on how a shareholder friendly maneuver can backfire.

Another week and another.... Well, to be candid, it's almost impossible to summarize in one word a market that has been aggressively sideways since February. That being the case, who better for Breakout to talk to than Vitaliy Katsenelson, a professional investor and author of The Little Book of Sideways Markets?

With the uncharacteristically emotional commodity trading finally starting to setting in terms of volatility, albeit in a downward direction, we asked the worldly Katsenelson what on earth was happening. He was quick to offer the idea that it's impossible to understand commodities without considering China, which he thinks is the biggest bubble "of this century" (an oddly strong statement considering we're only 11 years in). Katseneson says China is consuming an enormous amount of resources building "ghost towns," a problem the native of Soviet Russia attributes to central planning.

To Vitaliy, Chinese inflation data just may be the prick that eventually pops the China