You ask about Photoshop Elements and get answers from a bunch who have never used it… That is for sure, it shows in their answers. Elements is a powerful program that will do everything that you list and more. How well it does it, just as with the professional PS at 6 times the price, depends completely on how skilled you are and how well you know or learn the program.

Photoshop Elements 7 is being released this month, perhaps already on store shelves. With it you will get features that you should find very useful. An Organizer for keeping track of your photos and special feature for creation of both printable and displayable albums.

Other than the best, you should consider generic so that you can work, show-off, etc. pretty much everywhere.

If you agree with the criteria above, i think photoshop will do. And Gimp (free and portable!) is gaining popularity.

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is pretty much the standard, but there are a lot of other graphics packages that can do impressive things too.