892 articles · page 38 of 45
The financial media is replete with articles about why more Americans are failing to accumulate enough wealth for retirement. There are many seemingly viable answers, but the problem is that they all come from the monolithic perspective of the financial services industry: investment firms, banks, financial planners, investment counselors and corporate human resources departments. These…
While Social Security has become a political football in Washington, Americans still regard it as the corner stone of their retirement and are very concerned about it future financial health. A Pew Research Center for the People & the Press report, the Millenials in Adulthood report, found just 14 percent of Americans expect to receive…
Students of history know that the most powerful idea is one whose time has come. And that is why some of the nation’s largest food trade associations have entirely missed the boat on an emerging trend which has huge profitability written all over it. The vast opportunity, the equivalent of the “Go West Young Man”
Social responsible investing (SRI) is defined as the investment process in which “investors weigh the social and financial returns they expect from an investment in different ways. They will often accept lower financial returns in order to generate greater social impact.” Another more upbeat definition is: “SRI is an alternative investment philosophy and strategy seeks to encourage…
Russell Investments is on the block for a reported $2.8 billion asking price and is set to be acquired by the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Russell was purchased by Northwestern Mutual for $1.2 billion in 1999 and made an infusion of about $764 million when Russell’s money market fund dipped below the $1 mark in…
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican in the 2016 presidential run, made headlines this spring by proposing a five-point, Social Security-focused reform plan. The last time Congress made changes to Social Security was 30 years ago, so Rubio’s plan helped to fuel an emotional and complex national debate, although nothing he proposed is viewed as exactly…
It is common knowledge that the 2008 recession was created by a meltdown which affected the housing market worldwide and resulted in the greatest recession and wealth destruction event since the Great Depression of 1929. But what is less known is how exotic financial instruments used by the world’s hedge funds helped create and accelerate…
“To put it badly, there are two ways to become wealthy: to create wealth or to take it away from others. The former adds to society. The latter typically subtracts from it, for in the process of taking it away, wealth gets destroyed.” –Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, 2001 Pity the middle class.
Today marked a black day for Barclays Plc. as it was cited twice by British financial regulators for manipulating the price of gold on June 28, 2012 and a day after the bank was fined a record £290 million for manipulating the London inter-bank offered rate (LIBOR). Barclays, which dates back to 1896 when it was founded…
“While 85% of the equity managers studied underperformed the market in nearly all relevant time periods, the amount of fees extracted globally for this and other financial-intermediation services is in the range of $1.5 trillion annually.” –Suzanne Duncan, global head of research for State Street’s Center for Applied Research…
The recent heated discussion about whether the equity markets are rigged should be a major concern to all investors, especially those in retirement, since it fundamentally affects their quality of life and collective financial futures. Any society which has its fundamental retirement system under constant attack by conservatives concerned about its privatization, higher fees, expenses…
Yesterday’s announcement that the U.S. Supreme Court increased the ability of wealthy donors to influence political campaigns and elections by raising the amount they can contribute to candidates signals that money and politics are now synonymous. In effect, this means that all political offices at every governmental level will now be influenced by campaign contributions…
As the hot discussion about high frequency trading (HFT) enters the public spotlight thanks to the recent 60 Minutes story and the book by Michael Lewis, it’s important to note that trading in front of individual investors and other conflicts-of-interest have existed in various forms since the start of trading in the U.S. Front-running of…
Every day in the U.S., 10,000 people turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare. Due to the simple passage of time, these people now become eligible for federally-subsidized hospital and physician services delivered by any licensed medical professional or hospital in the U.S. By receiving Medicare Parts A (hospital) and B (medical), seniors, as well…
Two news items this week indicate that the financial services industry may be inherently unethical, yet the SEC has chosen to do little about it. That’s the conclusion anyone who has followed the twisted, convoluted and agonizingly slow pace of the adoption of a fiduciary standard by the financial services industry. Due to inherent conflicts…
Anyone who has ever spent time on an exchange’s trading floor goes through a progression of observations. First, any observer is awed at the commotion. There are the coats of different colors, the trader’s frenzy, the enormity of the closed space, the roar, clutter of papers and the mix of all types, sizes and races…
The looming shutdown of the federal government is clearly not good for investors. Any shutdown is expected to cut fourth quarter GDP growth by as much as 1.4 percentage points as furloughed workers drop out of the economy, according to a survey by Bloomberg news. Yet while the shutdown is bad for investors, it is…
In their focused efforts to revoke regulations, conservative zealots in the media and Congress have expanded their argument to elevate free markets into near-divine status. But in the process, free market proponents have consistently avoided any discussions about how government intervention and its largesse provide essential funding and profits to major economic sectors and significant…
“The Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera released a full transcript Monday of the most recent videotape from Osama bin Laden in which the head of al Qaeda said his group’s goal is to force America into bankruptcy. “Al-Jazeera aired portions of the videotape Friday but released the full transcript of the entire tape on its Web site…
The American workplace has become very risky and it’s not because of any safety hazards. It is more risky because individuals, most of them ill-equipped, are being asked to make more complex, long-term investment decisions that will affect their own retirement for many decades into the future. To complicate matters, the ill-effects of the 2008…
