Earnings growth is slowing across many industries. Companies are struggling since there aren’t many costs left to cut, and the clear headwinds of a still-weak economy persist. Yet for a select group of companies, business is booming. These companies are on track to… Read More

As the second quarter winds down, a number of stocks are licking their wounds — perhaps none more than the solar stocks, many of which have been handed an outright drubbing. It happens in this volatile sector once every few years. And each time investors sour in the industry’s prospects … Read More

Gold, gold, gold… it seems everyone wants to talk about gold, and for good reason. Since 1999, the price of an ounce of gold is up more than 600%, from about $250 to more than $1,500. Many investors, me included, wish we’d have purchased more gold at lower prices back… Read More

Oil and gas drillers have really perked up in the year or so since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill sloshed about 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf of Mexico. As a group, these stocks have returned nearly 45% in the past 12 months and are up almost 6%… Read More

#-ad_banner-#I have a chart I have to show you. Every once and a while, an opportunity like this appears. There’s no way to predict when it will happen. You simply have to be vigilant. The good news is that vigilance usually pays off. Read More

In the fall of 2008, the global economy headed into freefall, helping to push the stock market down to such an extent that a second Great Depression appeared quite possible. Few would have guessed the global economy would be on the… Read More

In Scarcity & Real Wealth last month, I urged readers to be mindful of China’s ongoing fight to contain inflation. If I were forced to pick a single barometer that could predict the weather for all types of real assets, it would be China’s… Read More

George Soros is a world-renowned former billionaire hedge-fund manager and philanthropist. He co-founded the Quantum Fund in the 1970s with Jim Rogers, another world-famous investor. Soros’ fame grew in 1992 when he made $1 billion by short-selling the pound sterling, speculating that the British government would be forced to devalue the currency. He became known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England.” Unlike his former partner Jim Rogers, who is credited with anticipating the commodity boom that started in… Read More

George Soros is a world-renowned former billionaire hedge-fund manager and philanthropist. He co-founded the Quantum Fund in the 1970s with Jim Rogers, another world-famous investor. Soros’ fame grew in 1992 when he made $1 billion by short-selling the pound sterling, speculating that the British government would be forced to devalue the currency. He became known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England.” Unlike his former partner Jim Rogers, who is credited with anticipating the commodity boom that started in the late 1990s and who is keeping his gold, Soros has been selling a lot of gold. The moves speak volumes. He believes gold is in a bubble and he’d rather sell before everybody else catches on. #-ad_banner-#In September of 2010 Soros said “Gold is the ultimate bubble, it is certainly not safe.” In the first quarter of 2011, he sold nearly $800 million worth of gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and stocks. After that sale, his company, Soros Fund Management, owned less than 50,000 shares of the SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE:… Read More

There is a current raging debate about the merits of government support for Big Oil compared with support for clean-energy technologies such as wind and solar power. The clean-energy crowd is adjusting to a world of fewer government subsidies, but these “green” advocates insist that wind, solar and other technologies… Read More

“If you grow it, biofuel will come,” isn’t much of a slogan. So let me be blunt: Biofuel is important because we need it. My current prediction: Oil prices will hold fast and end 2011 above $100, and this will keep biofuel an important ongoing business and… Read More