Finance

The Economy Is Great (But It’s Not)

CNBC spoke with Chicago Fed President Charles Evans this morning about the Federal Reserve’s schedule for raising interest rates above zero percent. While Evans confirmed the official narrative that the United States economy is getting better and better, he still doesn’t think the Fed will raise rates until 2016. Even the CNBC anchors seem to be…

How To Pick The Right Robo Advisor

I gave my thoughts on Robo-Advisors to Joanne Cleaver, writing for U.S. News and World Reports: “Robo-advisors are to investment advisors what TurboTax is to tax preparers,” says Charles Sizemore, founder of Sizemore Capital Management LLC in Dallas. “If you have a complex situation, TurboTax won’t help you. If you have a complex situation, the more…

Nonfarm Payrolls +252K; Unemployment 5.6%; Employed +111,000 (Hou

Initial Reaction  The big surprise in this month’s report was a decline in average hourly earnings. Details below. For the second straight month there has been a huge discrepancy between the household survey employment and the establishment jobs survey. Swings in household survey employment and the labor force have been wild lately.  Last month household…

Will Cheap Oil Dethrone Natural Gas?

From heating homes to fueling vehicles, natural gas has been making strong inroads over the past decade. In fact, when oil prices were high, the cost of operating a truck on diesel fuel was as much as 60% more than the cost of operating the same vehicle on natural gas! Clean Energy Fuels (CLNE) jumped on…

Companies Benefitting Society

A new bank is only going to lend to companies that benefit society, I read in a magazine article. The article’s theme was how bold! How wonderful! I jumped out of my chair and shouted “Ho hum. No big deal.” What companies benefit society? I outlined this article on an airplane flying across the country….

What Will 2015 Bring For Google?

For Google investors 2015 could not have come fast enough. 2014, namely, was not the best year in Google history on the stock market as the company’s share price dropped by 5%. What can investors expect this year? One of the biggest concerns around Google is that the budget of advertisers might be flowing towards…

EC Interview O

The National Bureau of Statistics released today CPI and PPI data for December 2014. People’s Dailysummarizes the CPI data, which came in pretty close to market expectations: China’s consumer prices grew 2 percent in 2014 from one year earlier, well below the government’s 3.5 percent target set for the year, official data showed on Friday. The increase…