The highly regarded S&P/Case-Shiller home- price index comes out this morning. Last month it reported that home prices for December had dropped 18.55 percent from a year earlier, a record decline. Read the full story

Something very strange is happening in the world of dividend investing…

A form of backward thinking is infesting Wall Street. I first saw it in an article a couple of months ago…

A bank had just cut its dividend. And the journalist was quoting a Wall Street investor who applauded the move. He said it was better for the bank to save its cash by cutting its dividend than to run the risk of running out of money and/or having to raise capital in the markets. Read the full story

A recession is simply a contraction phase of the business cycle.  Most economists define a recession as two or more consecutive quarters of negative real gross domestic product (GDP).  Read the full story

A few weeks ago, my article suggested using a simple timing tool to determine if we were in a bull market or a bear market. I suggested looking at the 6-month and 12-month moving averages as a way to make your investment allocations accordingly.

I used examples of 80 percent in stocks and 20 percent in bonds as one a way to allocate during a bull market. Most of you are probably familiar with the Pareto Principle, whether you know it or not. It is also known as the 80/20 Rule. Read the full story

Consumer Confidence is expected to show an improvement in March when the report is released tomorrow morning. Nothing comes to mind as the reason for this sudden jump, so it may be nothing other than things were so bad, they could only get better at some point. Read the full story

The Fed pulled out its “nuclear” option last week when it announced coming purchases of $300 billion in long term Treasuries (and other similar extravaganzas). This is an act of total desperation. It will also serve as a key historic moment in US and global monetary economics. Let’s look closely at what it will mean to you.

Why exactly did the Fed resort to such a stunt? The stated reason is to bring down long- term interest rates in typical central planning fashion. A re-inflation of another credit bubbleis also in their pipe dreams. We all like low interest rates when we borrow,but our capacity to borrow is long gone. Unfortunately, low interest rates punish savers who should be the backbone of a healthy economy. Read the full story

There are a lot of reasons why investors and institutions buy gold. It has no counterparty risk. It’s the premier hedge against inflation. And it’s a safe haven in a sea of financial turmoil.

But there is really only one reason why the price is going up… because the demand for the metal is significantly outpacing the supply. And every indication points to the situation becoming even more acute in the months and years ahead. Read the full story

How many times have you heard, “the economy won’t turn around until banks start lending?”

It’s so damn obvious…

Banks got us into this mess, so it’s banks that will have to get us out.

From the President on down, nobody is disputing such a self-evident premise. Read the full story

I have been saying for months that at some point the market would become immune to the economic reports.  Unfortunately, I thought they would become immune to them and people would start buying a few stocks here and there, but the attention has shifted to the potential collapse of some of our corporate titans.

Last week saw a Read the full story

Though I’m a “resource guy”, you seldom see me write about oil. It is, in fact, one of my presently favored commodities. It’s ti Read the full story