Most Americans are broke.A recent Federal Reserve Board study found that 46% of Americans said they didn’t have enough in savings to cover a $400 emergency expense.A new survey by GoBankingRates.com found that close to half of Americans who make $100,000 to $149,999 a year have less than $1,000… Read More

After months of anticipation, mixed signals and several million perceptive predictions by professional prognosticators, the Fed today announced that it will do nothing.The Federal Open Market Committee said it would keep short-term interest rates unchanged, despite a relatively optimistic outlook on economic growth. The FOMC statement, released this afternoon, said… Read More

The New York Times took an in-depth look at infrastructure yesterday — and the editors are bullish. Part of the reason is politics. Democratic presidential candidates usually favor more spending on infrastructure, appealing to their union base. But this year, the Republican candidate seems to agree. Clinton and Trump… Read More

Brace yourself for a wild week in the markets. Read More

One of the Great Truths of Investing is that diversification is the key to avoiding roller-coaster returns in your long-term portfolio. That “Truth” looks more and more like a myth. I’m not saying diversification won’t smooth out returns in some cases. It will. That’s certainly true in a stock portfolio. Read More

It's still a strong company, and buying on dips will be profitable. Read More

Now that both presidential candidates have informed the world of their blood pressure and cholesterol counts, here’s hoping the inane campaign coverage turns to topics that really matter to the future of our country and the world.From an economic perspective, it’d be nice for the media to examine both candidates’… Read More

Great economic news yesterday. The Census Department announced that median household income rose 5.2% in 2015. That’s much higher than expected, and the biggest jump since the Great Recession ended. What does it mean? First, that other signs of wage growth aren’t an illusion. Lower unemployment tends to put upward… Read More

Ah, football. Still savoring that first weekend.But my pigskin party was interrupted yesterday by the latest evidence that the average American family is woefully unprepared for retirement.The Economic Policy Institute, CNBC reported, found the average retirement savings of all U.S. families is around $96,000, which is low, and even… Read More

Unemployment is low. Wages are rising. Consumer spending is up. Good news for retailers, right?Not necessarily. Plenty of retailers are getting hammered, and so are their stocks.Times like these are ripe with opportunity, especially for an analyst who knows how to make money on both winners and losers in an… Read More