The Enron scandal in 2001 became the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. It featured a loophole in the accounting principles that allowed corporations to maintain entities off their consolidated books as long as the parent company owned less than 50% of the entity and the entity was adequately capitalized. A clever but crooked financial […]
This is the second part of a previous blog from a couple of years ago explaining the fundamentals of short selling. With this we are going deeper into tools available for technical analysis required for good short selling. How Does a Short Sale Work? A short sale of securities takes place when the investor sells
THE ART OF THE SHORT SALE PART II Read More »
When the China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, an up-and-coming economy soon became an economic powerhouse with dynamic 6-10% plus growth in GDP year after year. The Chinese stock markets became the market of choice for many foreign investors to take their money for great, and sometimes outsized, returns. For sundry reasons this
IS NOW THE RIGHT TIME TO INVEST IN CHINA: PART III Read More »
Life insurance companies do not always make a profit from the insurance underwriting portion of the business. Most of the profit comes from investing the policyholders’ premiums and realizing the financial returns. In a way this amounts to a double-edged sword of risk taking—first in the underwriting of insurance policies, and secondly in the management
HOW LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE IMPACTED BY PRIVATE-MARKET FIRMS Read More »
If the politicians are asked this question, the democrats will complain that corporate power and inequality of wealth have geared the economy to benefit and protect the rich. Ask the republicans and they will contend that the entrepreneurial spirit has been stifled and the public debt is completely out of control. What then is the
IS THE U.S. ECONOMY STRONG OR WEAK? Read More »
During inflationary times investing can be frustrating as the measuring stick (U.S. dollar) used to determine the value of future returns keeps getting smaller. With inflation comes the antidote of higher interest rates. Inflation and higher interest rates don’t automatically spell doom for investors, but some changes to retirement portfolios and the way investments are
AN INVESTOR’S GUIDE IN AN INFLATIONARY ECONOMY Read More »
Inflation has a significant and sometimes severe impact on the overall economy. The impact on prices can be felt far and wide in the world of commerce, but an even greater concern is the impact of inflation on the investment sector. With rising interest rates, the stock market has whiplashed up and down with volatility.
INFLATION’S IMPACT ON PENSION FUNDS Read More »
Surging inflation has forced central banks including the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates. Their objective is to cool down the economy without disrupting normal activities in financial markets. Interest rate increases initially impact financial institutions that borrow from central banks. From there the increases are gradually passed on to other lenders in the chain
WHAT HAPPENS TO FINANCIAL MARKETS WHEN INTEREST RATES RISE? Read More »
As it looks as though a recession may be looming on the horizon, many investors are concerned about the depth and duration of a potential economic pullback. No two recessions are exactly alike, but it’s worthwhile nonetheless to take a look at what got our economy into the worst one ever in our history. Vulnerabilities:
WHAT LED TO THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 1929? Read More »
Across the rich world inflation is raging by about 9% year on year. This constitutes the highest rate of inflation the rich world has seen since the early 1980’s. The last time inflation was this high, it ran for about sixteen years from its inception in the mid 1960’s to the recession in 1983. But
THE WAR AGAINST INFLATION Read More »