What a difference five months can make. Back in January, McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) was trading at $102, thanks to 2011’s strong 34% rally, and more and more investors were excited to step into what looked like a well-established ride up.  Looks can be deceiving…  Not only did the rally not… Read More

He’s one of America’s greatest success stories. But despite being the world’s richest man during his time, J. Paul Getty is almost forgotten today. The wealth Getty amassed is almost unimaginable. At one time, his estimated worth was roughly 1/900th of the entire U.S. Read More

The Federal Reserve is gearing up for its once-every-six-week policy move on Wednesday afternoon, June 20. All eyes will be on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. Investors are increasingly expecting the Fed to provide more juice to the economy,… Read More

Around this time last summer, I emphasized the rare opportunity to lock in safe, handsome dividend yields ahead of rising interest rates.  Around this same time last year, the benchmark 10-year Treasury was paying a sky-high 3.0%. Today, it yields around 1.6%. This means,… Read More

In the summer of 2009, it was easy to find solid international companies yielding 10% or higher. During the vicious bear market and global recession of 2007-2009, even high-quality companies were caught up in the general… Read More

International expansion has been the top goal of hundreds of U.S. blue-chip stocks. Tapping foreign markets has been an easy way to keep sales and profits growing, usually with little risk. Until now… #-ad_banner-#Even as Greek voters chose to stay on the path of… Read More

Royalty trusts are arguably the most successful high-yield stocks to ever hit the market. I’d venture more fortunes have been made with these securities than just about any other income investment out there. I’ve found some royalty trusts that have returned nearly 3,000% in… Read More

During the past 12 years, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and other giants have seen their sales and profits rise by 150% –or more. Yet you would have been wise to sell these stocks before the growth took place.  That’s because their stock prices are actually… Read More

One of the biggest tech companies on the planet could pay an enormous dividend.  Right now, this company holds more than $48 billion in cash on its books. To put this into perspective, that’s enough money to pay every person in America $153. Read More