Articles

Forget the price, Americans have always lined up to get the newest, best thing on the block. That's what Steve Jobb has counted on. He's a master at it. What person, in a cool minute of reflection, would buy a cell phone that must be returned to the manufacturer for replacement when the battery goes? What do they do while the battery is being replaced?

George Bush, without the W, who is the first cousin of the president's great-great-great-grandfather was born in 1796 and died in 1859 and wrote -- for that time -- the definitive work on "The Life of Mohammed."

If you think you know whom to market green products to, you are probably completely wrong. A recent study by Autobytel.com discovered who is behind the wheel of a hybrid. It will surprise you.

Chicago-based hedge fund, Citadel Investment Group, bought at basement prices the distressed assets of the much smaller hedge fund Sowood Capital. The story here is twofold: (1) there is plenty of money still out there to pick up assets of hedge funds falling off the cliff (Citadel did this before with the distressed Amaranth), and (2) success with Harvard’s investments is not necessarily a guaranty for success in the hedge fund world.

This article is going to seem cold, and maybe it is. But lately, as foreclosure rates have been soaring I’ve been hearing about quite a few politicians who want to help borrowers who got into their head with their mortgages. Many have ARMs and the rates on these have been increasing, making it tough for some to meet their payments. Across the country, mortgage delinquencies have been climbing sharply. The government should be bailing out these people en masse. Most knew what they were getting into and chose to ignore their situation or the market.

Today, Rafat Ali posted in his PaidContent.org newsletter that video site Break.com received $21 million in funding. Okay, seems a bit high but maybe it’s true. He then went on to say that the site reports receiving 17 million unique visitors per month. 17 MILLION UNIQUE VISITORS. That caught my attention.

When the head of homeland security goes on TV and says we are in a period of increased risk of terrorism here in the United States people should take note. This guy is a man of understatement, and such a warning should be given real weight. America has gone to sleep again -- we have a very hard time staying focused on anything. Can you imagine the impact on the market of another big attack, not to speak of the horror for those of us who are attacked.

China is introducing and testing a new, inexpensive, and sleek line of cars and SUVs in Europe. It is beginning to catch on. Anyone who thinks they are just playing and that they have no chance of taking on the big guys is making a mistake and missing a huge investment opportunity.

Google could easily lose half of its market value without a real stock market crash - here is why.

It is quickly becoming an American pastime to bash Bernanke, but I think that he is acting responsibly.

Microsoft's numbers indicate very clearly that that technology growth by and large is anemic. There are only four stocks that anyone should be looking at - here they are.

Angelo Mozilo strikes me as a pretty honest and very smart guy and I wouldn't dream of comparing him to Ken Lay or Bernie Ebbers, but Countrywide could easily go into an Enron-like death spiral if their access to credit dries up.

With all the failures in grocery delivery, it is strange, indeed, to see Amazon putting its toe into this arena. But that is exactly what Amazon is doing. They have begun, without fanfare, to deliver fresh groceries in the Seattle area. For any other company, one would just say they probably have lost their sense of direction. But, Amazon is another case entirely.