using reits to counter inflation

Common Stock in itself is a good counter to inflation. REITs should be included in a well diversified portfolio however they don't typically fair well in rising interest rates either.

What are some of your favorite REITs?

Barclays published a paper six or seven years ago titled something like "Are hedging properties overinflated?". They looked at the ability of a bunch of asset classes to hedge inflation: equities, nominal bonds, gold, commodities, real estate, and TIPS. Their conclusion was that real estate really wasn't an effective hedge and commodities was the most efficient, with a beta to inflation of something like 20. So using a diversified commodities index fund can give you some inflation protection. There are several commodities benchmarks and one thing I remember is that the Goldman Commodities index is energy heavy and thus may not be the best hedge. Anyway, take it FWIW.