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

Over the past 10 days, a period where the S&P 500 has traded sideways, REITs and MLPs are down 8% and 6%, respectively, as measured by the Vanguard REIT ETF ($VNQ) and the JP Morgan Alerian MLP ETN ($AMJ). Individual REITs and MLPs got hit harder.  The popular Realty Income ($O) and Martin Midstream ($MMLP)...Read More

In volatility we haven’t seen since the Fukushima disaster, Japanese shares dropped by 7% on Thursday before bouncing off of those lows later in the day.  Ouch! The ostensible cause?  Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke indicated that QE Infinity might—just might—come to end if U.S. economic data improve, and China’s PMI came in lower than expected. ...Read More

Investors are starved for yield.  It’s not exactly breaking news.  With traditional savings vehicles such as savings accounts, CDs, and bonds yielding next to nothing, investors have been flocking to dividend-paying stocks for years. On the surface, this makes all the sense in the world.  Unlike fixed income investments, dividend-paying stocks tend to enjoy rising...Read More

In my last article, I noted that “Big Money” managers was wildly bullish on U.S. stocks—74% were bullish and only 7% were bearish. But what about those legendary masters of the universe—the global macro hedge fund managers who, if their reputations are to be believed, hold the fates of companies and even entire countries in...Read More