A Popular Meme, that Remains as Wrong as When it Was First Conceived A recent article in the Guardian mocks JC Juncker’s latest scheme to produce some €300 billion in “investment” with a magical money multiplication scheme. Naturally, we agree that Juncker’s plan is deeply flawed, to put it as politely as possible. We have pointed this out…
With Ukraine, according to President Poroshenko, on the verge of World War III, it appears the people of the divided nation face another all too familiar war… on their living standards. As Hyrvnia continues to collapse to record-er lows, Ukraine’s Central Bank warns of further stress and FX (think USDollar or EUR) demand because the “population is…
Kimberly-Clark (KMB) manufactures and markets disposable consumer products. The company owns five brands that do over $1 billion per year in sales: Kleenex, Kotex, Huggies, Pull-Ups, and Scotts. The company sells its products in over 175 countries and has grown to a market cap of over $42 billion. Approximately 25% of the world’s population uses Kimberly-Clark…
Look for what you will get when you sacrifice a piece and make sure it’s worthwhile. Sometimes taking a big loss can actually help you make a big gain. Tax-loss harvesting is a similar tactic in investing. Listen to this podcast to learn what tax-loss harvesting is and why it may be helpful. Audio Length:…
Blue Line 4 Week Average The market was expecting the weekly initial unemployment claims at 278,000 to 295,000 (consensus 286,000) vs the 313,000 reported. The more important (because of the volatility in the weekly reported claims and seasonality errors in adjusting the data) 4 week moving average moved from 287,750 (reported last week as 287,500) to…
Buying and holding dividend stocks, over long periods of time, beats the market. Research proves it. First, dividend stocks as a group, outperform in bull and bear markets and beat the S&P 500, by 1.6% on average according to Ned Davis Research. But you can do even better (than a 1.6% beat) by focusing your…
Technology companies can make our lives easier and even change the world. But just as often they can mess up. Spectacularly. And 2014 delivered ample proof that even smart people do stupid things. It was a year of extreme bad-boy behavior, from former RadiumOne CEO Gurbaksh Chahal being charged with battering his girlfriend to anonymous…
According to the latest figures from Eurostat, a shade over 10% of the European workforce is idle. The figure for the 18 nations which use the Euro is slightly higher, standing at 11.5% (both figures from September 2014). This equates to 24.5 million European citizens are currently out of work. For comparison, a low of…
Defense major Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT – Analyst Report) received three contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense worth nearly $626.3 million. The largest among the three contracts is worth $492 million, awarded by the U.S. Navy to provide non-air vehicle spares, support equipment, Autonomic Logistics Information System hardware and software upgrades, supply chain management, full mission simulators and non-recurring…
The last ten years’ progress in biotechnology and medicine has outpaced the previous ten years significantly. The same thing is true of the ten years prior to that ten years. The next ten years, it’s safe to say, will see greater progress than any other period in history. Powered by exponential advances in the biological…
