Business and practice owners need to consider the most important thing for the continuing development of their business. Customer service, sales and marketing, product and service development, and productivity are all a constant but their effectiveness is not. In the wrong political environment these constants are negatively impacted by slow…
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Greece is only 2% of the US GDP. Why does such an economically small country have enough impact on the US as to drive our stock markets down? Because, like so many things, the country is heavily leveraged, owing much to other countries. It should…
It’s the 1930’s gold grab all over again, maybe. Sure feels like it, looks like it, walks and talks like it. Today the Fed is suing banks over mortgage drivel. Drivel because the Fed helped cause it, and drivel because their only remaining point of first bailing them out and…
The job report today came in at +117,000, creating an unemployment number of 9.1% vs. last reported 9.2%. The error margin is +/- 100,000. This means that the number is statistically irrelevant. Yet our news media and low-level talking heads in the financial industry choose to play it up as…
No doubt Japan has suffered a tragic loss of life and property, and the risk of nuclear radiation is real. The problem here is the apparent panic sell-off which is already out of proportion with reality and more in proportion to a real war. What’s pushing this negative market activity? …
Reality. The reactors in Japan seem to be at low risk of full meltdown. Barring another huge quake and tsunami the impact on the markets in Japan and around the world is likely to be very small. Japan’s economy can easily handle the cost and it hasn’t taken long for…
The NYSE was sold out yesterday to the German Boerse exchange in a merger deal. A major icon of our American ingenuity and capitalist structure has truly been sold out to a foreign entity. Even if they try to say Americans still have an interest in it, it’s like you…
Large corporations continue to find ways to reduce overhead and sell enough to each other, distributors, and retail companies in order to raise earnings. This is great for stock investors and does a lot for those employed by them. At the same time we see that economic numbers in the…
Currently I have been doing market research online to prepare for the launch of a business. In doing so I have been startled to find that maybe (only a maybe), there is more trouble in Small and Midsize business than we realize. In the coming weeks I will add blogs…
Not knowing what their current portfolios look like in their eyes, it does seem odd that in the midst of all the news and portfolio managers who have said "No double-dip recession", that here comes Goldman with a big negative.