Yet another uproar broke this week after it was revealed Citigroup (C) was set to take delivery of a $50 million private jet, even as the company was burning through $45 billion in taxpayer-funded TARP funds.

Under intense public pressure and direct intervention from the Obama administration, the company later canceled the purchase. As usual, pundits decried the excesses and greed on Wall Street.

I m of the mind that a large multinational bank like Citigroup needs a private jet. They should have a private jet. But taxpayers shouldn t be paying for it for any of it.

And that s the problem here. A company must be run by its shareholders, not public opinion. Yet now that the government has become the unlikely majority shareholder in a host of large Wall Street institutions, it is wielding considerable power as to how those firms are run. Just Wednesday the company disclosed a new regulatory agreement, crafted by the Treasury Department, which will further govern how the company is managed.

In essence, we ve witnessed a coup: Large corporations are now being micromanaged by political bureaucrats who, unlike shareholders, do not have an ownership interest on the line. The same scenario played out back in October when AIG (AIG) held its now infamous spa retreat.

Whether it s CEO pay, a private plane or Super Bowl ad, companies in which the government holds an ownership stake will forever be hounded about every dollar they spend or move they make. Note that this doesn t happen in private companies, only publicly owned ones. We re now involuntary investors in property in which we can neither use nor dispose of.

The textbook definition of capitalism is an economic system by which the means of producing wealth is privately owned. The only way to fix this is to reverse the trend of further government ownership of the economy. A free market owned and controlled by Uncle Sam simply won t work.

Northern NETS Fall Through the Crack

I was sorry to see that Northern Trust was shuttering its NETS Exchange-Traded-Fund unit, which was unable to garner significant assets despite some unique products, including the Japan-focused REIT fund I highlighted last November.

While not yet in a legitimate bull market, investors interested in achieving a similar exposure to Japanese real estate might consider RMR Asia Real Estate Fund (RAF), which holds 49% of its assets in Japanese REITs and trades at a substantial 30% discount to its underlying NAV. IShares FTSE EPRA/NAREIT Asia Index Fund (IFAS) also holds Japanese real estate and offers an unlevered dividend yield of around 7%.

The adventurous might consider shares of the few Japanese REITs that trade in the U.S. as ADRs, including Mitsubishi Estate (MITEY), Tokyu Land Corporation and Daibiru, which owns and leases more than 20 properties in Tokyo and Osaka.

Your Pad in the Far East

Japan Real Estate ADRs: DIBUY, TOLAY, MITEY 6 month
Source: BigCharts.com

Soft Commodity Prices Firm

Have you noticed the soft commodities lately? While oil and natural gas struggle to hold above recent lows, the price of cocoa, cotton, sugar and coffee have quietly gotten a bid. And thanks to the iPath ETNs, investors can trade these markets just as easy as buying GE (GE) .

Commodities: The Softer Side

iPath ETNS: BAL (Cotton), JO (Coffee), NIB (Cocoa), SGG (Sugar) - 3 months
Source: BigCharts.com

The only problem with these products is that, like the forthcoming VIX ETNs we highlighted last week, they are not actually funds, but unsecured obligations issued by Barclays. While these lesser-followed markets present a unique opportunity, they don t accurately compensate you for the credit risk inherent in this severely weakened institution. Until a better mousetrap is born, futures might be a better bet.

Pound Foolish

David and Tom Gardner are the well-known duo behind the Motley Fool, the investment-advice web site and publishing company they founded back in 1993. The pair have just released The Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio, their first book five years.

While I respect the Gardners' achievements in helping educate thousands of investors, I was somewhat surprised by this quip from founder Tom Gardner, who, when asked by Bloomberg as to the size of his own net worth, replied that, I really have no idea. I don t sit around counting my net worth. I think a better thing to focus on in our lives is how much you re giving back than what you have accumulated.

For a guy who has written 12 books about investing, not to know his own net worth seems, well... almost unbelievable. Even on the most basic level, how can he consider how to properly allocate assets across a portfolio when he doesn't even know how big that portfolio is?

Gardner's other comment, that it's better to focus on how much you're giving back [more than] what you have accumulated, is a sad comment on the self-hatred now exhibited by successful businessmen.

The education Gardner s company has imparted over the years has bettered the returns of thousands of investors and created vast amounts of wealth. Yet in today s culture, we never celebrate people's ability to make money, only to give it away. In reality, Gardner s profit-seeking job has benefited mankind much more than any check he might write to the United Way. For that he should be proud.