We’ve seen the headlines, we’ve read the news…wealth has gone extinct. With $11 trillion seemingly vanishing from the economy, and the savings of Americans, we can’t do much but ask “Where did all the wealth go?” Read more…
Bond investors have been all over the new Build America Bonds as created by the 2009 economic stimulus package, and it should be no surprise that American cities are as well. The new bonds allow for the Federal Government to subsidize the interest expense on new projects funded with debt, and cities are sure to grab as much of the subsidies as they can. Read more…
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time you should know by now that I appreciate Ford, both for standing up and saying “nay” to a bailout just as Henry Ford would have, and for being generally well managed. Its new concept car, the Ford Start, is another great product that I believe will lead Ford in the right direction. Read more…
Ignoring the fact that a Value Added Tax will allow the government to tax again post-tax savings, there is one more element often overlooked by politicians and economists alike. The VAT will stir vertical integration from top to bottom. Read more…
The SEC case against Goldman Sachs is lining up to be both a political and economic showdown as the Wall Street regulator looks to take on what is often considered on of America’s dirtiest investment banks. The SEC alleges that Goldman committed fraud by selling securities as a solid investment, even when the counter-party was betting against them. Read more…
Recently, President Obama signed into law another extension of unemployment benefits, pushing the number of weeks of benefits the unemployed receive to 99 weeks, nearly a full year. (204 weeks) I expect that this trend will only continue, not for economic reasons, but political reasons. Read more…
Everywhere I looked today I just couldn’t avoid the topic of marijuana. From my morning news, to my RSS news feeds and political websites, there was pot, everywhere. Ahead of the all important holiday to stoners (420), I thought it appropriate to discuss the economics of pot. Read more…
There’s no way around it, Netflix (NFLX) is dominating in the new movie rental space. The company, which started as a rental service via mail, is now working its way into downloadable and streaming content, something that only improves upon the current business model. Read more…
I’ve always wondered, what is the true value, in marketing, of listing a company to go public? Between full page write-ups, segments on TV, and ringing the opening bell, there has to be some kind of marketing benefit to taking a company public. Read more…
Bond investors know it too well. Overleveraged fixed income traders fear it. And the shorts love it. The bond maturity wall is coming up, and quickly, to the tune of $1.2 trillion. Read more…
Dave Ramsey, a popular personal finance radio talk show host, has a method for reducing debt: the debt snowball. This simple strategy to get out of debt will aid in reducing your debt and making it manageable, but the system is more psychological than it is mathematical. Read more…
Stock options are for the big boys. Some use them to hedge, some use them for exotic bets, and some just use stock options as a way to rev up their portfolio’s performance. But no matter how stock options are used, you better take notice. There is possibly no better indicator than that of stock options activity. Read more…
The economic recovery remains young, as its only been a few months where the GDP has settled in positive territory. But as the rest of the world livens up, and trade begins again, higher oil prices could be the rain to our economic parade. Read more…
As 10-year treasury bonds cross the important 4% yield, high yield debt is still in vogue. Ford, perhaps one of the riskiest borrowers of them all, dumped $1.75 billion in 5 year debt. And believe it or not, the company earned the lowest interest rate yet at 7%. Read more…
US stimulus programs totaling in the billions of dollars may be better for Canada and Mexico than they are for the United States. The three interconnected NAFTA countries’ currencies are booming in tandem to each other, with each rallying to nearly the same degree. Read more…
It was just a few hours ago that I rebalanced my sister’s 401k after not taking another glance at it since 2006. Luckily, together we averted most of the fallout from the recession, avoiding real estate, small caps, and having only a tiny portion in bonds. However, as I relooked her 401k it was time to make a big switch, a really big switch, she needed more small cap stocks. Read more…
