892 articles · page 37 of 45
Too many financial professionals ignore the daily news and instead focus on their businesses. This is acceptable, except when the news directly impacts their industry and customers. When financial and investment news erodes customer confidence, it should be a major concern for anyone in the industry. Yet when this happens in the investment business,…
Like the Hatfields and the McCoys, the relationship between the factual progressive, non-profit journalism accountability group Media Matters and FOX News is an ongoing feud over what has made serious journalism mistakes in presenting the news to the American public. In their weekly radio show on Sirius Radio, and their web site, Media Matters often…
In plain-English, Yellen says the banking system is broken; Commentators and politicians suspiciously silent on her comments; Average Americans agree with Yellen. Welcome to 2015 America Fed watchers who routinely wax on for hundreds of thousands of words about possible…
Web Companies Prey on Freelance Contributors In response to a recent ad for a freelancer, I responded to an ad from a New York company. In return, I received this job solicitation which indicates the sad state of freelance journalism combined with the cheap tricks some web advertisers use to entice readers. Here is…
The Daily Show once again provides a great lesson for financial journalists The Daily Show’s success in merging comedy with serious political and business coverage, while reaching a previously unserved audience of younger people who never followed politics, is a great example for financial journalists who want to think outside the box about their profession.
Yesterday’s announcement that comedian Jon Stewart, 52, is leaving the Daily Show after 17 years as host and writer, marks a major turning point in comedy, but also in how news is presented. TV critics have rightfully pointed out that the show’s irreverent style, humor and tweaking the face of established political forces…
Hedge funds, private equity and venture capital firms have failed both in performance and in their claims of creating jobs. As a result, the huge lobbying effort to gain preferential tax treatment through something called “carried interest,” should be revoked. Carried interest let these hybrid financials firms pay ordinary income tax rates on their compensation…
At first glance, there is no connection between the shooting of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Missouri, and planning for retirement. But dig a little deeper and you can hear some of the same criticisms about poor people who have too many run-ins with the police and people who fail to save enough money…
Risk management is regarded as an essential element of modern investment management. But few people recognize that retirement—the period when a person stops working and begins to decumulate their assets–has now become the riskiest stage of a person’s entire financial life. Worse, most retirees are grossly unprepared to shoulder this burden, and most do not…
The marijuana industry is projected to produce $35 billion in revenues by 2020, according to Greenwave Advisors. So with this powerful revenue engine behind it, shouldn’t this transformational emerging marijuana industry structure itself differently than other traditional for-profit businesses? This is an important question since the evolution of the marijuana industry has some unique traits…
This article was originally published in 2014 and updated on July 10, 2024. Some things never change. One of the most significant and constant themes of the Project 2025 manifesto from the Trump MAGA right is its focus on dismantling the administrative and regulatory state and replacing it with MAGA loyalists who will cut regulations,…
CEOs set the tone for their companies in every respect–behavior, motivation, intellectual curiosity, innovation and ethics—so it was not surprising to hear that the Larry Zimpleman, CEO of Principal Financial Group ($114 billion in assets under management), my former employer, criticized some of the most innovative products in modern financial history as being too complicated…
As the 2014 mid-term election analysis continues, it is readily apparent that many voters and election experts say “the economy” is to blame for the major Republican win. But what do voters mean when they register objections against “the economy,” especially as it affects their individual economic situations? It’s safe to assume American voters naturally…
Last night’s rout of the Democratic political achievements in the up-righting the economy, advancing health care coverage to more Americans than ever before, cutting the budget deficit and reducing employment, among others, have not gained traction in the electorate due to a ignoring an important persuasive tool: propaganda. Propaganda is difficult to define. “Most students…
Adam Smith, author of The Wealth of Nations, is mistakenly depicted by most right-wing economic commentators and economists as the cheerleader for free markets, anti-regulation advocate and a proponent for the triumph of selfishness in the marketplace. Unfortunately, this is all wrong. The upcoming elections in which Republicans may win enough seats to control the…
The mistakes at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas were due to professional and cultural lapses that put nurses and the public in danger. Based on first-hand reports from nurses who worked at the the Dallas hospital, here are the mistakes the hospital made even when it was reported to them by staff and…
Since the first patient died of Ebola on U.S. soil, nurses and doctors have been on the front lines of treating this deadly virus. But it took the virus’ unfortunate spread to Nina Pham, a nurse attending the stricken Ebola patient, to shake up the protocol and alert the nation that there were problems in…
Six years after one of the worst US recessions began and its devastating impact on the housing market, one of the least scrutinized segments of the housing industry is still limping along, hampered by falling prices and slower sales. Surprisingly, it is not among middle-class communities but in manicured, expensively maintained, and exclusive, gated country…
The American justice system is clearly in trouble and here is a stark example of the gap between rich and poor, white and black, European vs. U.S. street culture and how this strange mix all came to be co-exist. This situation is an object lesson about the Two Americas which simultaneously exist in parallel universes.
“Don’t believe what you read in the newspapers. See, that’s the law talking. They want us to look big so they can look bigger when they catch us.” –Warren Beatty to Faye Dunaway in “Bonnie and Clyde,” 1967 Terrorism has used violence to shape political goals since the first century, but the scope of counter-terrorism…
