As the fracking boom has generated massive new interest in domestic oil and gas production, coal has become the red-headed stepchild of the energy industry.  Soaring new supplies of natural gas have led to a glut that has kept prices depressed for the past several years, but they’ve also pushed down the prices of energy...Read More

I spend quite a bit of time extolling the virtues of Dividend Achievers, companies with a long history of raising their dividends.  I consider them the single best long-term investment you can make, and not purely because of the income.  In fact, the income is often secondary. That statement generally gets me a few raised...Read More

In the world of finance, “Investing in Oz” is usually taken to mean investing in Australia.  But with the recent interest in the 1939 classic movie The Wizard of Oz, the phrase has taken on a whole new meaning. In 2013, Oz is back in a big way.  Walt Disney Pictures, a division of the...Read More

From Jeff Reeves’ The Slant: So the Federal Reserve threw investors for a loop with talk of quantitative easing programs ending sooner than expected. The dollar surged higher, gold collapsed, stocks sold off by triple digits … this was a big deal all around. But what exactly lies in store for investors going forward now...Read More

Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a short piece on Hugh Hefner’s leveraged buyout of Playboy Enterprises and commented that the company was transitioning away from its adult media businesses and into licensing and brand management.  Essentially, founder Hugh Hefner wanted to turn his company into something like a Dolce and Gabbana, but with an...Read More