Looking at the yields on junk bonds today, I’m reminded of a Joanie Mitchell lyric many years ago: “Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till its gone.” In October 2008, the dividend yields for speculative-grade (junk) bonds were averaging 2,182 basis points above… Read More

The stock market may seem chaotic and unpredictable — but there is some order, if you know where to look. Some things, history tells us, tend to repeat. One such instance happens every time the S&P 500 Index… Read More

Twenty million dollars’ worth of poker chips sat on the table.  I watched as bets went into the pot — $100,000 at a time. A single hand could cost upward of a $1 million.     The game was winner-take-all, and it had already gone on… Read More

We all watched in anguish as the S&P 500 dropped -40% from October 2008 to March 2009. Even the most diversified portfolios weren’t immune. For all the talk about foreign economies being “decoupled” from the U.S. economy, foreign stocks tumbled in lock step… Read More

When Ray Davis applied for his loan, he expected the application to be a 200-page document that might take weeks to fill out. It turned out it was only two pages long. Davis was shocked. The two pages had a lot of white space. Americans have heard about some banks’… Read More

More federal spending will mean higher taxes. It has to. Tax-rate increases for people earning more than $250,000 are already on the table. But tax increases are unlikely to stop there. That’s the bad news. The good news is a rule change can give taxpayers the chance… Read More

“Advertising is totally unnecessary. Unless you hope to make money.” – Jef I. Richards What’s true for companies is also true for investors. Advertising spending can be a leading indicator, one that provides valuable information on future stock-market leaders and laggards. Read More

When Enron’s accounting fraud came to light and the company went bankrupt, Enron employees not only lost their jobs, they lost an estimated $850 million on the Enron stock held in their retirement accounts. Bear Sterns… Read More

When it comes to mutual funds, you could be looking for love in all the wrong places according to the renowned bond fund manager, Bill Gross. In his August 2009 Investment Outlook, Gross compared his own industry to Madame Rue, the gold-toothed gypsy in… Read More

On July 18th, Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (NYSE: VALE) said it was not interested in acquiring more fertilizer companies. The statement was made after a Sao Paulo newspaper reported the Brazilian mining company was considering a $25 billion buyout of the Minnesota-based… Read More