Do you know what the National Academy of Engineering named as the world’s greatest engineering feat? It wasn’t the pyramids. It wasn’t Hoover Dam. It wasn’t the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building at 2,717 feet, either. It was the United States’ electrical grid. Read More

If I had to pick a stock that offered indefinite growth potential, I’d bet big on a fungus. My choice for “The Best Growth Stock to Hold Forever” is a biotech pioneer called Dyadic International (OTC: DYAI). Most people have never heard of this little Florida-based gem, but in the coming years, I think it will rise to prominence as one of the nation’s leading bio-industrial concern, supplying several key sectors of the economy with vital tools to carry out a host of manufacturing tasks. This maker of specialty enzymes has this lock… Read More

If I had to pick a stock that offered indefinite growth potential, I’d bet big on a fungus. My choice for “The Best Growth Stock to Hold Forever” is a biotech pioneer called Dyadic International (OTC: DYAI). Most people have never heard of this little Florida-based gem, but in the coming years, I think it will rise to prominence as one of the nation’s leading bio-industrial concern, supplying several key sectors of the economy with vital tools to carry out a host of manufacturing tasks. This maker of specialty enzymes has this lock on the future because it owns a special fungus called C-1. In the hands of genetic engineers — Dyadic CEO Mark Emalfarb calls them “gene jockeys,” C-1 can be programmed to generate vast quantities of enzymes. One of the key areas that will be effected is the pharmaceutical industry. Many of today’s leading drugs are the result not simply of a certain chemical formula — made by mixing those chemicals together and stamping out pills — but of certain biological processes. That is, the medicine you take, one way or another, is the result of a process… Read More

Talk about timely. Several colleagues of mine were recently discussing what investors should do when that stock you love seems like it already left the station. We ended up covering the topic on our sister site, InvestingAnswers.com. [See: “What to do When You’ve Missed the White… Read More

Although most of us are too young to remember, imagine what it must have been like during the Great Depression or the Second World War. Shortages at those times had most everyone scrapping for basics like sugar, butter or coffee. Such things may seem unfathomable… Read More

Perhaps the biggest domestic market opportunity for investors is the U.S. health care system. The industry already consumes roughly 16% of gross domestic product and that’s likely to reach 19.5% by 2017. Of the total spending, about half goes to hospital care and physician services. But with such large amounts, it is inevitable that there will be wasteful spending and lots of inefficiencies. A report from the Annals of Family Medicine shows that primary care physicians spend about half their work day on activities outside the exam room. Of course, this involves documentation, reporting, billing and so… Read More

Perhaps the biggest domestic market opportunity for investors is the U.S. health care system. The industry already consumes roughly 16% of gross domestic product and that’s likely to reach 19.5% by 2017. Of the total spending, about half goes to hospital care and physician services. But with such large amounts, it is inevitable that there will be wasteful spending and lots of inefficiencies. A report from the Annals of Family Medicine shows that primary care physicians spend about half their work day on activities outside the exam room. Of course, this involves documentation, reporting, billing and so on. Then again, the workflows for physicians are often problematic. They may rely on assistants who are often overwhelmed with records, regulations and rules. And the consequences can be severe. To deal with this, Congress has taken action to help reform the system. Roughly $38 billion in subsidies will be committed to aiding the speedy adoption, and improvement, of electronic medical records by 2016. This is actually part of the 2009 recovery legislation, which created the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH). Basically, the law prods physicians to adopt information… Read More

The IPO market has been fairly quiet in 2010, with less than 100 deals coming through the transom. In the boom years, we’d routinely greet 300 or 400 new companies into the public market sphere. In fact, many more companies had hoped to… Read More

After a relatively quiet period when the largest banks in the United States stayed out of the press and were allowed to refocus on running their operations, new allegations arose to suggest that many in the industry were negligent in handling the process for foreclosing on residential houses. Read More

Two things happened you should know about: food got cheap and work got easy. Sounds simple when put like that, but it was enough to change the world. Consider a personal example… On my family’s farm in Kansas, my grandfather’s wheat crop was considered… Read More

The economic slowdown of 2008 and 2009 was especially unkind to stocks of smaller companies. Their shares were the first to be sold off when investors panicked, and many of them remain out of favor while economic concerns persist. Indeed many small caps may… Read More

Recent healthcare reforms will add an estimated 30 million new patients into the system within the next few years. That means more office visits, medical procedures — and lab tests. Lab tests impact a very high proportion of healthcare decisions and will also become increasingly important as… Read More