It’s amazing what a simple metric can tell you about a company. Especially an unflappably accurate metric. This yardstick cuts to the chase and tells you exactly how well a company performs. It’s in every company’s SEC filings. It’s on nearly… 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

When everyone agrees on something, it’s much more likely that everyone is wrong than everyone is right. Universal consensus about the end of the dollar makes me think it won’t happen. Several things move currencies: Economics, interest rates and politics. I’m going to show… 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

I’m going to share some advice I think you’ll find valuable. You see, after one of the most brutal bear markets in recent history… a bear market where stocks fell, bonds fell, oil fell, housing fell, Bear… Read More

Two dozen S&P 500 members yield 6% or more, about one in 20 companies listed on the market’s benchmark. Here are those companies: Company Ticker Yield Frontier Communications FTR 14.4% Windstream Corp. WIN 11.1%… Read More

I’m consistently amazed at the ability of smart, successful people to get things totally wrong. I find myself in slack-jawed awe of how just plain clueless investors can be. The supply of intelligence is finite, someone once said, but the population is growing. That makes me smile. I don’t grin… Read More

Stocks have been on a tear the past few months — no doubt about that. Investors who bought in at the market’s March 6 ebb have seen a +52.8% return in the the S&P 500. Even investors who entered the market at the beginning of the year have seen a… 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

The government usually doesn’t make things easy. Take tax forms. Or consider the Postal Service. But rules were made to be broken. Washington’s latest pronouncement is turning the difficult task of making money in a recession into a walk in the park —… Read More