Great Recession?  What Great Recession? After flatlining for five years, restaurant and bar sales hit new all-time highs earlier this month (see chart).  It would seem that the scrimping and ramen noodle eating that became so common after the 2008 meltdown is now a distant memory. Well, sort of.  There are a couple things to...Read More

China made waves with a bad manufacturing report this week, sending world equities–and particularly Japanese equities–sharply lower. But the issues in Asia go beyond just exports and currency rates. It’s about plummeting birth rates and demographics, and what it means for Chinese and Japanese investments. Jeff Reeves of InvestorPlace.com and I talk things over. As...Read More

For those who might have missed the news, a Japanese company is buying American mobile phone operator Sprint Nextel (NYSE:$S). By buying Sprint, SoftBank will jump from being Japan’s third-largest mobile provider to being one of the largest providers in the world. But Sprint? Sprint is a mess.  I recommended the company last year as...Read More

The following article by Michael Tarsala was originally published by Covestor. Gen Z: Many people age 22 or younger have a laissez-faire attitude toward money. They expect to inherit it. But experts say most of their parents’ assets will dwindle before it falls into the laps of the youngest adult generation. A recent TD Ameritrade survey suggest that just 16...Read More

You really never know where a conversation on demographic trends will sprout up. I recall a conversation I had nearly a decade ago in a London pub with some Italian classmates from my graduate program at the London School of Economics. After, perhaps, one pint too many, I decided to rile my new friends by...Read More