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The Cost of Managerial Myopia
It’s curious that despite robust bottom lines, a recovering global economy and the support of central bankers, corporate America recently has grown more cautious about putting those earnings to...
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Where to Find Answers to Estate-Planning Questions
For many investors in stocks and bonds, estate planning is about as exciting as watching paint dry — and as enjoyable as a root canal. And that’s before you get the bill. But what’s all that better...
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Is Equity Crowdfund Surfing for the Careful Investor?
Apparently, desperate times do call for desperate measures. Or at least creative ones. That might explain the lure of equity crowdfunding, a new means of capital formation intended to augment...
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Disposable You: Nearly Half of U.S. Jobs Vulnerable to Computerization
Are your employment skills redundant? Are you absolutely sure that what you do for a living can’t also be done by a computer? Don’t be. A growing number of economists and academics are asserting that...
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Planning for Life’s Back Nine: When to Take Social Security Benefits
For most workaday Americans in their 40s or 50s, there usually isn’t much to decide regarding retirement. Unless you’ve come into serious money, calling it quits before hitting the Big 6-0 often isn’t...
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The Riddle of Long-Term Joblessness
In her still-brief tenure as head of the Federal Reserve Board, Janet Yellen has revealed an unusually keen sensitivity to the plight of the unemployed, especially those who have been seeking work for...
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Corporate Directors Try to Get By on $900/Hour
In a demand-driven, market-based economy, it’s widely assumed that consumers and businesses ultimately get what they pay for. But as any shareholder in a company whose fortunes have been undermined by...
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Sales: The Straw That Stirs the Drink
It turns out that the bottom line isn’t the only line that matters. Much of the credit for the now 6-year-old bull market in U.S. stocks is justifiably given to cost-conscious company managers...
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Secular Stagnation or Debt Supercycle?
With economic growth continuing to disappoint six years into a recovery, the noted economist and president emeritus of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, has suggested that advanced economies are...
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Fears of Demographic-Induced Deflation in the U.S. Appear Misplaced
To anyone who lived through the inflation-wracked 1970s, the question might seem surreal: Could the United States experience falling consumer prices and the corresponding drop in stock prices that...
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Taking Diversification to a Higher Level
Ideally, a portfolio of say, roughly 10 to 20 stocks, would be diversified beyond comprising a few different asset classes. Better still is constructing a portfolio of individual securities and asset...
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Understanding Your Emotions Is Key to Successful Investing
As the legendary money manager Benjamin Graham once observed, “The investor’s chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.” You may feel the urge to buy or sell a stock or bond in...
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The Great Gold Rush of 2016
Over the first half of the year, precious metals such as gold and silver, as well as the shares of companies that dig them out of the earth, were clearly the star performers. At one point, an...
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Educated Financial Consumers Experience Less Late-Life Stress
As most investors learned from the school of hard knocks, financial markets loathe uncertainty. Better to know than to wonder. Of course, markets don’t take a shine to unpleasant reality either, but at...
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Rising Rates Don’t Have to Upend the Bull Market in Stocks
If the 35-year pattern of ever-lower interest rates is over, investors might ask themselves what higher yields could mean for stocks, and which sectors typically lead the equity market as borrowing...
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After Years of Steady Gains, Stocks Expensive but not Bubbly
The recent push by U.S. stocks into record territory reignited concerns that prices have outstripped fundamentals. And by most traditional yardsticks, American equities are expensive. But how much does...
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Understanding a Border Tax
The border adjustment tax under consideration in Washington would have major implications for the U.S. economy and create an unusually wide set of corporate winners and losers. Investors should pay...
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Ignore the October Effect
The days are getting shorter, and for investors, that typically means financial markets are getting jumpier. Historically, that agitation — perhaps linked to the reduced daylight that triggers mood...
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Companies Head Toward Buybacks After Tax Cuts
If you’re both an investor and a wage earner, you might find yourself conflicted about how businesses should use the financial windfall from the recent $1.5 trillion tax cut, most of which will accrue...
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Stocks Remain the Best Hedge Against Inflation
Research shows that people react more to stories than to numbers. But numbers can spin meaningful yarns as well. What follows is a numerical tale that should piqué the interest of investors unsettled...
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