The Financial Times published a good piece this week on the boom in 1980s “classic cars.”  Yes, I put “classic cars” in quotation marks because, frankly, everything to come out of that decade is horrendously ugly and best forgotten. The FT writes: The 1980s, often recalled as fashion’s ugliest decade, is back in favour when...Read More

I chatted with CNBC’s Oriel Morrison last night about LinkedIn (LNKD)’s earnings release: LinkedIn beat analysts estimates, posting non-GAAP earnings per share exluding stock-based compensation and acquisitions costs of 52 cents. The Street had expected 47 cents.  Revenues for the quarter were $568 million, jumping 45% over the same quarter last year. LinkedIn shares were...Read More

It’s never a good sign when a company’s CFO and top accountant abruptly resign at the same time “accounting irregularities” are announced, but that’s exactly what happened at American Realty Capital Properties (ARCP) this morning. An audit committee said, in a nutshell, that every quarterly report put out this year should be discarded and that...Read More

The Economist ran a piece over the weekend prodding German Chancellor Angela Merkel to “Build Some Bridges and Roads” as a way of jolting Germany’s slowing economy back into growth. My response:  Who’s going to be driving on them in another 10 years? Take a look at the following chart, which comes from the United...Read More

Here’s a novel idea: Advisors might actually need to earn their advisory fees in the years ahead.  With the arrival of online financial planning sites like Mint.com and robo-advisors like Covestor, which allow an investor to mimic the trades of a portfolio manager, a real in-the-flesh advisor has to offer something more than generic, packaged...Read More