Writing in Bloomberg, "Tall Paul" Volcker, who as Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the 1980s near singlehandedly tamed America's rampant inflation, explains why a 2% inflation target is dangerous. He writes: In 1996, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan had an exchange with Janet Yellen, then a member of the Fed’s Board of Governors, that presaged a major — and, I think, ill-advised — change in the central bank’s approach to managing the economy. Yellen asked Greenspan: “How do you define price stability?” He gave what I see as the only sensible answer: “That state in which expected … [Read more...]
Why the U.S. Can Beat China in a Trade War
Though it won’t be pain-free, if U.S. / China trade relations continue to devolve, it is the U.S. that is likely to come out on top. America’s multinationals are already engaging in contingency planning in the event of further tariff increases. Bloomberg News reports: Earnings reporting season is underway, and analysts are eager to hear from executives about how an escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is impacting their businesses. A common theme is that they are ready to relocate supply chains if the cost of importing Chinese goods becomes prohibitive. U.S. President Donald … [Read more...]
Can Amazon Ever Crack the Fashion Code?
Amazon is working hard to sell its own private label fashion brands, but success isn't coming easy to what could be a potentially profitable business. Amazon's women's clothing brands are doing especially poorly, with "more than 4 of 5 Amazon women’s clothing brands selling fewer than 100 items per month," says Bloomberg's Spencer Soper. Soper writes that a report by Jungle Scout finds poor performance among Amazon's apparel brands: The report shows that Seattle-based Amazon’s apparel brands aren’t benefiting from consumers’ greater interest in buying clothing online. Online sales made up … [Read more...]
This Can’t Happen Soon Enough
Some of America’s largest businesses that have a major impact on almost every U.S. citizen and billions more internationally, are now governed by a dual-class structure that gives all of the voting power to the likes of Mark Zuckerberg. Google and Facebook are the fourth and sixth biggest companies in the U.S. Both firms have share class structures with unequal voting rights. No way public companies this big and influential should be controlled by young founders without adult supervision. Because the dual-class prevents shareholders from changing the structure though regular voting, big … [Read more...]
Tim Cook Slams Rivals’ Surveillance of Consumers
In Brussels on Wednesday, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., tore into other tech companies for performing what he called "surveillance," on users by collecting their data and breaching their privacy. Bloomberg's Natalia Drozdiak and Stephanie Bodoni report: In some of his harshest rebukes of his competitors yet, Cook sought to distinguish the iPhone maker from Silicon Valley competitors, like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook, both under scrutiny for recent user data breaches. “We shouldn’t sugarcoat the consequences,” he said Wednesday. “This is surveillance and these stockpiles of … [Read more...]
Look What’s Rising While Everything Else is Falling
Since the end of August, the Dow is down, the Russell 2000 index of small stocks is down, bonds are down, oil is down, foreign stocks are down, and guess what is rising? Gold is up nicely with technicals indicating further upside is possible. See charts below. … [Read more...]
Buyer Beware: Goldman Goes Retail
Goldman Sachs has signaled it is taking a step down to provide services to the masses. With online banking offerings, mutual funds and ETFs, Goldman is looking to widen its customer base. The investment bank may even have a robo-advisor offering clients advice, reports CNBC: While the bank hasn't officially said what form the product will take, one option is a robo-advisor, according to people with knowledge of the plans. Most robo-advisors have low or no account minimums to start investing. Presumably, the company could offer mutual funds and ETFs created in-house through its digital … [Read more...]
The Ethical Minefield of Structured Settlements
Accidents leading to exorbitant medical bills are unfortunately a part of the reality many Americans face each day. Often medical bills from those accidents end up paid for with negotiated annuities called structured settlements. This is a reasonable arrangement for many victims, but there is occasionally some nefarious behavior attached to the business. Some of the planners who create the structured settlements are offered incentives to steer victims into the products sold by particular insurance companies. These kickbacks could influence planners to recommend plans that aren't in the best … [Read more...]
Can China Restore Confidence in the Heat of a Trade War?
China's economy is slowing down, with GDP growth at 6.5% in third quarter. That's the lowest rate since 2009. The question for Chinese policy makers is whether or not they can restore market confidence in the face of a trade war with the United States. Lingling Wei reports in The Wall Street Journal: Restoring market confidence is proving to be one of the toughest economic challenges for China’s leadership. Soon after the financial mandarins’ remarks were released, the official Xinhua News Agency published an interview with Vice Premier Liu He, President Xi Jinping’s economic captain, in … [Read more...]
A Story of Retail Dominance Ends
Sears filed for bankruptcy this week. NBC News provides a timeline of Sears' storied history. Sears was the Amazon of its day, creating businesses in many different industries and disrupting the dominant retailing model of the time. Here's how Sears got its start: 1886 — Richard Sears begins selling watches at a railroad station At age 22, Sears, who was working as a railroad station agent in North Redwood, Minnesota, began selling watches to fellow agents as a way to supplement his income. 1886 — Mail order business, the Amazon of its time Within six months, Sears’ watch business … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 108
- 109
- 110
- 111
- 112
- …
- 218
- Next Page »