by Ida Kubiszewski “At present, we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP.” — Paul Hawken Imagine if a corporation used Gross Domestic Product (GDP) accounting to do its books: it would be adding all its income and expenses together to get a final number. Nobody would think that’s a very…
The tug of war continues between pension plan participants and outside creditors. As a result, doing business with troubled municipalities may end up costing creditors time, money and headaches. Just a few days ago, Judge Christopher Klein with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of California ruled against Franklin Templeton Investments. By doing so, this asset manager will…
The bottom line for the vast majority of us is that there is an extremely high price to be paid for independence from fealty to the State or Corporate America. It’s jolly good fun to discuss alternatives to the doomed status quo, but what choice do most of us have to participating in the current…
Asian shares slipped to nine-month lows on Monday as oil prices sank to fresh 5-1/2 year lows on concerns about a supply glut and slower global growth, hitting stocks of energy and commodity producers and exporters. Investors were nervous after U.S. shares posted their biggest weekly fall in 2-1/2-years last week on losses led by energy…
Federal Reserve policymakers meet Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss when to raise interest rates and how they will communicate those intentions without upsetting financial markets or the economic recovery. Unfortunately, the Fed is constrained by its own past missteps, and its credibility is at stake. Short term rates have been near zero since 2008, and…
Top scoring weekly returns: Buy and Hold 1 Year The average score across our entire 1,600 stock universe is 65.16 this week. The best scoring sector is financials. Healthcare is the second highest scoring sector, followed by utilities. Consumer, industrials, services, and technology all post average scores higher than the average stock in our universe….
Source Some interesting news has reached us from Australia lately, as the Treasury department of Australia has released a big working paper investigating whether or not the capital ratios of its banks are sufficient. This 320 page paper is the outcome of an investigation ordered by Australia’s conservative government which was commissioned to generate potential…
If you mention oil or gas stocks to energy investors, you’re apt to get a big eye roll. Prices for commodities are plunging, and it takes a brave soul to venture out looking for bargains. With that said, there are several opportunities for you to consider right now – ones that many investors are overlooking…
Is this the start of the next major financial crisis? The nightmarish collapse of the price of oil is creating panic in financial markets all over the planet. On June 16th, U.S. oil was trading at a price of $107.52. Since then, it has fallen by almost 50 dollars in less than 6 months. This…
“I learned more about the economy from one South Dakota dust storm that I did in all my years of college.” – Hubert H. Humphrey About a month after the end of Quantitative Easing 1 in 2010, Treasuries began outperforming the stock market. By the time that leadership was over a few short months later,…
