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Written by Elaine Chan
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Google (GOOG - $312.08) stock has lost over 40 percent since July. In the last earnings call, the search engine company's management expressed optimism on coming advertising revenue, but that message did not support the stock price. Not even its partnership with NBC Universal helped to convince investors.
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Written by Jeanne Roberts
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In an effort to control one alien invader, the Brits now want to import another.
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Written by Cathryn Barmon
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Reports out of Washington indicate that the Bush administration is about to give the American people a parting, one-finger salute by rewriting a wide range of federal rules in an effort to block product-safety lawsuits.
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Written by Michelle Haimoff
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In 1956, a mathematician by the name of George A. Miller came up with the magical number seven. Plus or minus two digits, seven numbers are about the most humans are capable of processing. Perhaps this is why phone numbers are seven digits long.
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Written by Gregory Wendt
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Written by Jeanne Roberts
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Did you know that the pain arthritis sufferers experience can actually make arthritis spread to other joints?
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Written by Michelle Haimoff
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Yields on tax-exempt money market funds have shot up in the last two weeks due to massive withdrawals from tax-exempt municipal market funds. At an average seven-day annualized yield of 5%, these money market funds are offering the highest yielding short investments since the 1980’s.
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Written by Jeanne Roberts
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Photo: law_keven, Creative Commons, Flickr
There was enough money to bail out negligent bankers and Wall Street, but another program – to protect Americans from pharmaceutical, environmental and pesticide contaminants in meat, milk, dairy and eggs – was discontinued recently due to lack of funding. |
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Written by Deborah Evans
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When Mercury, the planetary energy of communication and movement turns retrograde* for three weeks usually three times a year, financial markets tend to act unpredictably as choppy and volatile conditions prevail. |
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Written by Michelle Haimoff
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It's one thing to hate on the bailout plan and quite another to come up with an alternative, but following are five attempts at a better way forward:
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Written by Michelle Haimoff
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Whenever I get into a conversation about socially responsible investing, the other person usually says, "Do people really care about socially responsible stocks? Don’t people just care about making money?"
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Written by Miranda Marquit
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Buying bad assets: Who is going to buy them from the government? |
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Written by Deborah Evans
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Photo: Brenda Anderson, Creative Commons, Flickr
If you want your vote to count, dont vote on Election Day. Why? The Moon. |
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Written by Eben Esterhuizen
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Despite all the doom and gloom seen over the last year, the S&P 500 index is still looking expensive. At Friday's close the benchmark index traded at a Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 24.30, much higher than the 17.17 ratio seen a year ago when the downturn started. FYI - the long term average P/E ratio for the S&P 500 is around 15. With some commentators proclaiming that we are facing the greatest crisis since the Great Depression, why do stocks remain expensive?
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Written by Cathryn Barmon
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We also discovered a culture of abuse and promiscuity in the RIK program. Several staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters. Alcohol abuse appears to have been a problem when RIK staff socialized with industry. Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length.
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Written by Mark Bershatsky
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Photo: djprybyl, Creative Commons, Flickr
If we go back in time to pre-Civil War era United States, we would see a country that is a 180 degrees different than the United States in 2008. The powerful, upper crust of society was dominated by the large plantation owners and slavery was a legal and accepted practice. Wealth was mostly created in agriculture and Wall Street was largely unregulated and but a pittance of what it is today. Leading up to the outset of the Civil War, our country became as divided as it would ever be. The war itself forever altered how U.S. policy is formulated. The Union Army was victorious, slavery was abolished, and America took a huge step forward.
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Written by Eben Esterhuizen
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Photo: z_everson, Creative Commons, Flickr
"Housing finance in the U.S. has long depended on the GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," writes Stephanie H. Giroux, TD Ameritrade's Chief Investment Strategist. "These mortgage lending giants were created by Congress in 1938 and 1970 to support the housing market, and currently hold $5.4 trillion of the roughly $12 trillion U.S. mortgage market. Over the past four quarters, Fannie and Freddie have posted losses totaling roughly $14 billion, as mortgage foreclosure rates continue to climb in the U.S.
The government’s intervention will result in the largest federal bailout in U.S. history, which is intended “to meet the objectives of market stability, mortgage availability and taxpayer protection," said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson."
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Written by Eben Esterhuizen
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Even though he is a right wing cheerleader who is always eager to politicize every stock market jitter, while wearing his pinstripe suit and pinkie ring, I have to take my hat off to CNBC's Larry Kudlow. He has always had the guts to take a contrarian stance. Lately though, he seems to have lost his marbles. "I don't want to do a Lehman analysis on this program," said Larry, eager to skip the bad news and move on to the miracle of Sarah Palin. "It's too darn boring!" With all due respect to Larry, Lehman's demise might be the biggest story yet.
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Written by Eben Esterhuizen
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Photo: Jamais Cascio, Creative Commons, Flickr
Wall Street hides behind complexity, casing too many suckers to buy complex assets that they don't understand. The sub-prime fiasco offers an excellent example: Very few people understood the instruments they were trading, but no one wanted to look stupid while the good times kept rolling. Now they do after $500 billion in credit write downs, with more to come. Similarly, Freddie and Fannie had exceedingly complicated business models, and both shares now trade below $1.
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Written by Jeanne Roberts
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With water, or the lack thereof, becoming the hottest new topic since global warming, the nearly waterless washing machine by Xeros Ltd (a private company out of Leeds, England) looks to take the appliance industry by storm. |
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Written by Miranda Marquit
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With green investing becoming more popular, many people are looking for ways to diversify into green holdings -- and even diversify within their green holdings. One way to do this is with green funds and indexes. And a green fund that is doing fairly well, considering the stock market performance over the past year, is the Green Century Balanced Fund (GCBLX). GCBLX chooses from stocks and bonds from environmentally companies, according to the fund's objective.
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Written by Deborah Evans
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I cannot find a single convincing argument that tells me that astrologers won’t do better than economists.
– Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Written by Deborah Evans
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Photo: Rhubarble, Creative Commons, Flickr
James Grant wrote an article in Saturday’s Wall Street Journal wondering “Why No Outrage?” from the public concerning Wall Street’s reckless behavior during the credit boom and the assistance they’ve received from their government enablers. |
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Written by Eben Esterhuizen
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Photo: Petrick2008, Creative Commons, Flickr
Since coming back from my holiday last week I've made a point of walking past the New York Stock Exchange on my way to work. I sat on a bench and looked at the traders as they exited the building after the close, and every now and again I eavesdropped on their conversations.
Something is wrong.
I keep telling myself that it's all going to be OK, I keep telling myself that things are never as bad as the fear mongers proclaim, but I can't shake off the feeling that the situation is about to take a turn for the worse...
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