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

Listen to Charles Sizemore discuss the re-election of Barack Obama and what it means for investors with Peggy Tuck on Mike Robertson’s Straight Talk Money. If you cannot view the embedded media play, you can’t listen to the interview here.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

I read a fact this week that I never expected to read in my lifetime: “The Japanese government is expected to announce Wednesday that the country recorded its first annual trade deficit since 1980″ (see ” End of Era for Japan’s Exports “). Trade deficit? Japan? Japan’s economy has been a slow-motion train wreck for...Read More

“We all know the story,” starts David Willetts in his book The Pinch. “The parents return home from a night away to find a teenage party has got out of hand and the house has been trashed… It plays to a deep-seated fear that younger people will not appreciate and protect what has been achieved...Read More