“The first wealth is health.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson “Man needs difficulties. They are necessary for health.” – Carl Jung Decisions, decisions. Many Americans will have to make a big one in the next 60 days or so. How you decide will affect both your health and your wallet. Hospital management and doctors are seeing…
One striking fact that is evident from the Global Financial Crisis is that no ruling political party has the answer to how to restore their economic fortunes quickly. Across the globe, left and right leaning administrations have grappled with low business confidence, high unemployment, poor output, weak investment and anaemic growth and been unable to…
It is in years like 2015 that the spotlight falls on the hedged global investing strategy. The world economy is presently mulling over two starkly different policy tools. While the biggest economy, the U.S., is planning for a tightening, other developed nations are turning their loose policies to ultra-loose. Agreed, the recent soft job data…
The latest BAC credit and debit card spending data is out and it is not pretty, and not just for the mid-level consumer who, as documented previously, has been tapping out ever since April as the following Gallup consumer spending chart shows… … but also for the high-end. While the data revealed a modest improvement…
There is a sense that the markets are at crossroads. Many suspect there has been a trend change. The reason for many to buy the dollar was the Fed was going to raise interest rates. Lift-off may not be simply postponed until December, as was the decision to begin tapering, but a growing number of participants…
EUR/USD The EUR/USD pair broke higher during the course of the week, forming a fairly positive candle. With that being said, the market is overall in an ascending triangle, so I believe that once we get above the 1.15 level things could get very interesting. In the meantime though, expect a lot of volatility in…
The ETF world has grown by an incredible amount over the last few years. There are close to 1,750 products in the market while assets under management has cleared $2 trillion in the U.S. But while ETFs have grown immensely in popularity, it is still amazing to hear how many misconceptions I hear or read…
Are central bankers nuts? It’s kind of a zany question, and I hadn’t entertained it until recently. But the fact is, recent actions by the world’s central bankers – as well as some ideas that are still being contemplated – seem completely crazy. It all stems from the fact that quantitative easing (QE) and…
At first glance, it seems that GameStop ($GME), which grew rich and famous selling video games, is likely to wither and die as its customers migrate from store-bought disc-based games to on-line play and downloads. But a funny thing seems to be happening on the way to oblivion. Unlike blockbuster before it, GameStop is embracing…
As the evidence, that the US economy is either in or near a recession, mounts (confirmed by a new cycle high in inventories-to-sales just today), it appears even the most ardent optimists are admitting the odds of a US recession are on the rise. As Bloomberg reports, for the first time in 14 months, economists…
