With online shopping becoming more prolific for an array of different categories the trucking industry is reaping the rewards. You can now order everything from a couch to an outdoor kitchen and get it delivered and assembled. Bloomberg has the story. Wielding a cordless drill, Osborne hooked up all three appliances in about 45 minutes and sped off for the next home. Meanwhile, across the urban sprawl of North Texas, a colleague navigated a sofa bed down a tight hallway while another driver unpacked and assembled a patio table. The array of cargo would have been rare just a few years ago, … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2019
Does Your Investment Advisor Take Legal Kickbacks behind Your Back?
When you seek investment council be sure you work with an investment boutique that’s required by law to act as your fiduciary. Ask the question: “Are you required by law to act as my fiduciary.” Do not accept any answer other than Y-E-S. Because too many professionals in this industry put themselves out there as “Investment Advisors” or “Financial Advisor” when in reality they are neither. In order to legally call yourself an investment advisor you are required to act as a fiduciary. So called “advisors” working for big Wall Street firms are not required by law to be your … [Read more...]
Home Health Devices are Hot
Home health care devices are hot. This year's consumer electronics show is packed with home health devices including a wrist band that checks your blood pressure and an band to track a baby's heart beat in-utero. “A lot of these companies are moving full steam ahead in terms of collecting data and using it to help the personalization of the customer,” said Anshel Sag, an analyst with Moor Insights & Strategy. “I just got an email about a bladder monitor.” Helping to drive this shift in the market are both the improvement in sensor accuracy, which increases a company’s likelihood of … [Read more...]
Get Ready! The Annuity Onslaught is On
If you haven’t received an email selling you an annuity, get ready because the annuity onslaught is on. Yesterday I received one promising 4%. The fine print explains the egregious sales charges, penalties for early withdrawal (in case you need YOUR money), and a minimum holding period of five years. And your payment is contingent on the insurer being able to pay you. Let’s rewind here for a moment to the debacle that was 2008. If you recall, the insurance sector was on life support with big name insurers trading at less than $5 a share. And that’s not including the need for some to be … [Read more...]
IBM Beats the World to the First Standalone Quantum Computer
The race for quantum computing dominance is ongoing around the world, but IBM has beaten competitors everywhere by building the first standalone quantum computer. Quantum computing promises untold advancements in computing power, and leaders in the market could fundamentally change computing forever. Richard Waters reports in the Financial Times on IBM's achievement, writing: IBM has built the first standalone quantum computer, packing some of the world’s most advanced science into a 9ft glass cube. But so far there is only one — and while IBM does not rule out one day selling such … [Read more...]
Tucker Explains: Families are being Crushed by Market Forces
Anyone driving through rural New England knows this part of America is not open for business. Take a drive up route 16N in New Hampshire up to North Conway and you’ll see what I mean. And yet upon visiting Boston, New York City, and Washington D.C., it’s hard to miss the cranes dotting the skyscape. These cities and others are the islands of opportunity out of sight to much of America. The America that I grew up in is gone. Gone are towns like mine where my dad was a realtor and my mom was a teacher and my sister and I had dinner with them at night and we believed in the American … [Read more...]
The Other Oil Price Crash
In 2018 crude oil prices fell 44.1% from peak to trough, a roller coaster ride for producers and investors for sure. But another oil price has also been plummeting. Coconut oil prices fell 58.2% from a recent peak in January of 2017 to $759.66/metric ton (Philippines Bulk, CIF Rotterdam, Average of Period) in November of 2018. Lucy Cramer, writing in The Wall Street Journal explains how some negative attention from doctors put downward pressure on coconut oil, which had been rapidly gaining popularity. She writes: Consumption of virgin coconut oil—a pure form of the commodity that is … [Read more...]
Will Kroger Beat Amazon to High-Tech Grocery Shopping?
Kroger has teamed up with Microsoft to transform its stores with high-tech upgrades. Amazon has also been working hard to bring technological innovations to brick and mortar retail, with mixed results. It could be that Kroger and Microsoft beat Amazon to the punch in the high-tech retail business. Matthew Boyle and Dina Bass write in Bloomberg: Kroger Co. and Microsoft Corp. are joining forces to bring the ease of online shopping to brick-and-mortar grocery stores. Kroger, America’s biggest supermarket chain, has remodeled two stores to test out the new features, which include “digital … [Read more...]
Gold Begins to Shine
Market volatility and a weaker dollar have pushed the demand for gold higher. Investors are driving up the price for the safe-haven precious metal. Neil Hume reports at the Financial Times: For much of 2018 gold was out of favour, hit by the strength of the dollar and interest rate rises in the US, which dented the appeal of assets such as the precious metal that offer no yield. That saw gold trade as low as $1,174 in August in spite of rising geopolitical tensions and the fallout from US-China trade war. Sentiment towards gold began to improve towards the end of the year as US stock … [Read more...]
Is Mikaela Shiffrin the World’s Best Athlete?
As Barry Svrluga writes in The Washington Post, there comes a time in each great athlete's career where they become so dominant they must be compared across time rather than to their same-sport contemporaries. I’ve written about Mikaela Shiffrin before. Then, as now, I agree with Bode Miller--I’m not sure we’ve ever seen anyone better in the sport of skiing, male or female. At a certain point, the manner in which the best in any field evaluate themselves can’t be against other practitioners of that same pursuit. LeBron isn’t measured against his contemporaries; he’s measured against … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- Next Page »