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

Experienced debaters are familiar with the Latin term reductio ad absurdum. This is a tactic in which your opponent’s proposition is disproven by taking it to a logical extreme—or reducing it to the absurd. For example, the statement that “Stocks always rise over the long run” or that “Over the long run, the economy will...Read More

The rating agency lowered Japan to “AA-,” citing Tokyo’s lack of a coherent strategy for dealing with its soaring debt, which now stands at 200% of GDP.Read More

Charles Sizemore, Editor of the Sizemore Investment Letter, gave his analysis of the developing crisis in Japan to Reuters following the earthquake and tsunami and offered his suggestions of how investors can profit from an improvement in sentiment. BOSTON, March 15 (Reuters) – Japan’s stock market, usually one of the world’s dullest, has turned into...Read More