Natural gas drilling that employs hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is under intense scrutiny because of the risk of environmental pollution. Is the benefit of cheap energy and independence from foreign energy sources worth the cost? Read More
Stocks to Watch
Apple's Ron Johnson may be a retail visionary, but Jim doubts that his addition to JC Penney's management ranks is worth the $1.2 billion in market cap that JC Penney's stock added on the news. Read More
Emerging-market investors focusing on Chinese companies that export to the West are looking in the wrong place -- if outsized capital gains are the objective. Read More
Looking for a good stock broker? Which broker is "good" depends upon what type of investor or trader you are. Jim discusses his seven favorite brokerage features and provides names of those brokers that fit the bill. Read More
Stock market history provides a surprising answer to the question of whether the S&P 500 index will continue falling after five consecutive weeks of decline. But high-yield income investors shouldn't care what the answer is as long as they reinvest their dividends. Read More
After a disastrous regional election, Germany's Christian Democrats have decided to shut down all 17 of Germany's nuclear power plants by 2022. Jim doubts that it will ever actually happen. Read More
Crude oil prices have been very volatile so far in 2011, but the trend is now firmly up. Read More
Bruce Berkowitz is criticizing the U.S. government for selling part of its stake in AIG for only two-thirds of book value. But AIG's book value of $47 may be less real than it appears. Read More
Jim argues that a huge IPO price pop is a sign of failure, not success. Long-term investors in LinkedIn should be very angry at both the investment banks involved and LinkedIn's corporate executives. Read More
Equal-weighted index ETFs are all the rage, but will they continue to outperform their market-cap weighted competitors in the future? Read More