I don’t have an Amazon Echo or a Google home speaker (too much paranoia about unauthorized listening) so I am pontificating from a uniquely unqualified position. However, my anecdotal evidence gathering from talking with early adopters of Echo and Google home, tells me Echo has many of the signs of a fad. There are undoubtedly some cool features, but once the newness wears off, the folk I’ve talked to who own the device find much less use for it. This morning, the FT is reporting that the Consumer Technology Association is calling for smart speaker sales will peak in 2019 at about 56 … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2018
Cadillac Flying High in China
The year 2017 set a milestone for Cadillac. Last year, for the first time, more Caddies sold in China than in the U.S. Mike Colias reports: Cadillac sold more vehicles in China than in the U.S. last year for the first time, an unexpected milestone that highlights the storied brand’s severe struggles at home as much as it represents momentum abroad. General Motors Co.’s luxury brand’s sales surged 51% last year to 175,489 vehicles in China, where it began selling cars in earnest only in the last decade. Cadillac’s tally in the U.S.—where it dominated automotive luxury for nearly a century … [Read more...]
Are Smart Phones Killing Your Productivity?
One would think having a pocket-sized computer as one’s disposable would improve productivity, but since the advent and popularization of the smartphone, productivity growth has sagged. Coincidence? Maybe, but some surveys show that we check our phones as many as 150 times per day. Couple that with the fact that it can take 20-25 minutes to get back on track after an interruption and the claim that smartphones contribute to slower productivity doesn’t sound so crazy. The FT reports on this in an article today. To wit: The costs of this distraction are starting to become apparent. I … [Read more...]
The ‘Hated’ Stock Market Rally
Do investors even believe this stock market? Despite reaping the benefits of the second longest bull market on record, investors seem to hate the rally. Wall Street Journal reporters Akane Otani and Chris Dieterich report: Rather than celebrating this wealth-generating machine, individual investors have expressed in multiple surveys just how little enthusiasm they have for this stock market. For years, analysts have described an “unloved” or even “hated” stock rally, where prices defiantly rise despite one of the weakest U.S. economic recoveries on record, Washington’s policy sclerosis and … [Read more...]
The American Auto Market Set for More Big Offerings
Americans love big cars. It's a fact. With relatively wide road and low gasoline prices compared to the rest of the world, America is the perfect place to own a truck or big SUV. For years the companies selling the middle class those vehicles were GM, Toyota, Ford and Chrysler. Now, more foreign companies are looking to cash in on Americans' desire for big automobiles. Chester Dawson writes: Subaru Corp. FUJHY 1.52% has become one of the world’s most profitable car companies by selling Japanese-inspired wagons to American buyers with unconventional tastes. Now, with its dependence on the … [Read more...]
Will France Succeed in Privatization Drive?
The next time you fly into Paris, you may be landing at a privatized airport. That's the plan of the administration of President Emmanuel Macron. The new president and his allies want to privatize a large chunk of the 81 companies in which the government has ownership stakes. They appear to be focused on Aéroports de Paris (ADP), operator of Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports as a starting place. David Keohane reports in FT: France owns 50.6 per cent of ADP, which has a market capitalisation of €15.6bn. The next largest shareholder is Vinci, the French construction and infrastructure … [Read more...]
Will Electric Cars Drive a New Mining Boom in Canada?
There's a metal found in electric cars today that is mostly mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The African country is a tinderbox of political turmoil, wracked by labor disputes, and a frequent abuser of child labor. Consumers are looking for alternative resources of the metal. In Canada, miners are working to find new sources of the metal, cobalt, that will be reliable, sustainable, and free of the disruptions and ethical woes attached to supplies from The Congo. David George-Cosh writes in The Wall Street Journal: Miners in Canada such as Vale SA, VALE 0.63% which has a … [Read more...]
Are You Still Investing in Long Bonds?
Complacency is a dangerous foe to a successful investment program. After one of the least volatile years on record in the stock market, many equity investors are complacent today. Though it is discussed much less, so are bond investors. Long bonds are the dog that never seems to bite, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. As the WSJ describes here, some investors don’t seem to mind the danger of bonds. The latest pillar supporting the U.S. Treasury market: everyday investors. Ordinary investors are a growing force keeping longer-term bond yields low, even as the Federal Reserve … [Read more...]
The Emotional Toll of the Great Recession
Despite years of distance between today and the depths of the Great Recession, many retirees and savers are still feeling the pain. Lydia Depillis, writing for CNNMoney details the despair some Americans are still in. A business lost, a life reinvented Landscape architect Dan Donohue and his wife, who ran marketing and accounting for their small firm in Batavia, Illinois, had been through downturns before in his 25 years of experience. But the Great Recession, which brought to a halt the real estate development they counted on, knocked them out. With no business and four young kids to … [Read more...]
Where are Americans Moving?
The United Van Lines 2017 National Movers Survey shows that Americans are fleeing states like Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut and heading for places like Vermont, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. The survey has been using household moves by United Van Lines has been conducted since 1977 as a way to gauge the amount of inbound and outbound traffic to each state. United Van Lines wrote in their analysis of the results: As a region, the Mountain West continues to increase in popularity with 54 percent of moves being inbound. The West is represented on the high-inbound list by Oregon (65 … [Read more...]
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