I think it's important to start this article off with a disclaimer: I am not an expert on the stock market. Taking advice from me doesn't make any more sense than takings advice from the buffoons on CNBC. I'm only writing about what I'm doing and what makes sense to me.During this Bush Recession I've been looking for big name stocks that are at historically low prices. My thinking is that eventually when the economy gets back on track thanks to the policies of the Obama administration that these stocks will return their previous high levels.For example Citigroup has recently been below one dollar (as of the writing of this article it's at $2.42) but it's peak price over the past five years was over $55. You don't have to be a mathematician to know that buying a stock at $1 that then climbs to $55 is going to bring you a ridiculously high return on your investment.To give an idea of what I'm talking about let me use my own example. I bought into C at $1.62 (sadly for me I didn't buy in when I first had the idea.) I bought approximately $1000 worth of stock at that price. If the stock returns to $55 then that will be an increase of about 33 times which means my $1000 worth of stock would then be worth $33,000.Does that mean this is necessarily going to happen? Of course not. Anything can happen. And investing in stocks (particularly in the stocks of a company with as many problems as Citigroup) is always risky. I have enough money that I can risk $1000 on it. If I lose that $1000 (and that is possible) then that's a bummer. But for me the reward outweighs the risk.I believe it is quite possible that the economy will get back on track and that C's stock price will return to it's previous highs. I look at it like a calculated risk. I am risking $1000 to make $33000.Is Citigroup the only big name company available for small prices? No. There are actually a lot of companies like this around right now. Another one that I've invested in is GM. In some ways I think GM is a bit riskier than Citigroup and for that reason I invested less money into it.I bought 300 stocks of GM at $1.90 and it's now at $2.42, clearly I'm happy with the gain it's made so far but what I'm really excited about is the possibility that GM will return to it's previous levels. It wasn't long ago that GM was at $49.Like with Citigroup, the potential for a huge profit is definitely there. If it returns to it's previous levels, I will make about 25X my investment. In other words my $570 investment would be worth $14,250.But of course the risk is there that GM will go bankrupt and I will lose my entire investment. I consider this to be a "calculated risk" just like the risk I am taking by investing in Citigroup.And when it comes down to it, I believe in the Obama administration's efforts to turn this country around. I believe they will be successful. Without a doubt it could be years before the market returns to 2007 levels as President Bush left behind a true economic disaster. But I look at these hard times as an opportunity for those of us with enough cash around to invest in stock market at bargain prices.