For students dreaming of winning the cross-cultural holy grail that is the Fulbright scholarship - thus earning the fully-funded opportunity to research or teach overseas - there's good news and there's some tough news.
"The good news about the Fulbright is you can do whatever you want," says James Calcagno, a professor of anthropology at Loyola University in Chicago, who has coached students through the demanding Fulbright application process for about four years. "The tough news about that is the same: You can do whatever you want."
Family connections are listed by 28 percent of Millionaire investors under 45 years old as a source of wealth, compared to only 9 percent of other Millionaire investors.
As promised last week, I added the new sidebar under DEBT to reflect the status of my Line of Credit. This account was opened last May when uncertainty of job action and status was present. As my EF was inadequate, the LOC was going to be a very 'poor choice' back up if need be. I never ended up using it for that, but I did to make the final payment of my son's trip to Italy. I am not pleased that I did not save the $ properly for that and had to use the LOC. However, the deed is done now and I need to own up to it, so there it is.
This is an interest only LOC so if a month went by where I did not make a payment, the interest amount would come out of my account tied to this. The interest is not added onto the loan. I have been making $50 payments per month on this loc while directing the bulk of my attention to paying off my vehicle loan.
Hopefully I can soon start attacking this loc a little more aggressively and get it off my list of things to do.
(Toronto, Canada) Morgan Solar Inc., a Toronto based solar energy start-up specializing in concentrating solar optics, has developed a new type of high concentrated photovoltaic system called the Sun Simba HCPV. By reducing the required materials and complexity of the system, Morgan Solar will deliver a highly efficient HCPV system mounted on a dual [...]
Georgetown University's legal and finance scholar Emma Coleman Jordan takes Bill Moyers through recent news on the bailouts as big business begs for more.
Amidst fading hopes for real reform on issues ranging from high finance to health care, economist Robert Kuttner and journalist Matt Taibbi join Bill Moyers to discuss Wall Street's power over the federal government.
Ford's 3rd quarter earnings report, released this morning, showed a surprisingly large net income of almost $1 billion. The company reported that it:
...reduced its Automotive structural costs by $1 billion in the quarter, largely driven by lower manufacturing and engineering costs, which included benefits from improved productivity, personnel reduction actions primarily in North America and Europe, and progress on implementing its common global platforms and product development processes.
So this leaves two questions: First, how much of these cost reductions came from cuts in intangible investments such as engineering, research and development?
The answer is: The earnings report doesn't tell us. R&D and product development are not broken out separately on a quarterly basis, even though Ford has had an enormous budget for these items ($7.3 billion in 2008, according to the 10K).
Second, is engineering, research and development money being shifted to Ford's overseas operations? Once again, the earnings report is mute on this point. The 10K says
We maintain extensive engineering, research and design centers for these purposes, include large centers in Dearborn, Michigan; Dunton, England; Gothenburg, Sweden; and Aachen and Merkenich, Germany
As Ford makes "progress on implementing its common global platforms and product development processes," it would be good to know the size of the ER&D spending cuts and where they are hitting.
Digging deep into the roots and evolution of the American conservative movement, Sam Tanenhaus talks with Bill Moyers about why he believes that conservatism is dead and how it might yet come back to life. Tanenhaus is the editor of both THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW and the Week in Review section of the TIMES.
For students dreaming of winning the cross-cultural holy grail that is the Fulbright scholarship - thus earning the fully-funded opportunity to research or teach overseas - there's good news and there's some tough news.
"The good news about the Fulbright is you can do whatever you want," says James Calcagno, a professor of anthropology at Loyola University in Chicago, who has coached students through the demanding Fulbright application process for about four years. "The tough news about that is the same: You can do whatever you want."
The European debt crisis is back in the headlines, and the news is not good. Portugal's prime minister resigned after his austerity plan for the beleaguered nation were rejected by opposition parties in parliament, and Germany's leadership is waffling on funding the huge bailouts needed by debt-burdened countries such as Ireland and Greece, reflecting the deep ambiguity of German voters weary of bailing out their weaker neighbors. Despite the brave talk of a few months ago, it now seems all but inevitable that Portugal will also need a gigantic bailout of at least 70 billion euros, or $99 billion.
Ratings agencies have downgraded Portugal's debt, and investors have responded by pushing the yield on its bonds to more than 8%, roughly 4.5% higher than the yield on German bonds. Yields on Ireland's debt exceed 10%, reflecting the perceived risk of default or renegotiation.
With Europe at risk of stumbling as a result of its austerity measures and the costs of bailouts, investors need to rethink investments in eurozone economies and the euro itself.
The bailouts are not small potatoes. The temporary rescue fund, known as the European Financial Stability Facility, is currently set at 250 billion euros ($353.6 billion) , and European Union officials want to expand it to 440 billion euros ($622.3 billion). The wealthier nations of Europe have already loaned 177 billion euros ($250.3 billion) to bail out Greece and Ireland, and the high yields on those nations bonds and credit default swaps -- insurance against default -- show that investors continue to see a high risk of default.
Spain Also at Risk
While Spain's economy expanded at a modest 0.9% pace last year, its debt situation remains precarious enough that ratings agency Moody's recently downgraded its bonds. The basic problems of Spain will be familiar to Americans: A property bubble drove residential real estate prices to unrealistic heights, and lenders made loans based on those sky-high valuations. Once home prices retreated, banks were left with large quantities of defaults on land and houses.
As if these losses weren't troubling enough, rising interest rates threaten to further undermine Spain's homeowners. The European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet recently said that the ECB's key interest rate could rise from 1% as early as April. Fully 97% of Spain's home loans are variable-rate: Their payments will rise when interest rates click higher.
Despite an unemployment rate around 20% and its recent debt downgrades, mainstream analysts see Spain as an unlikely candidate for a costly bailout. But Spain is burdened with the costs of bailing out its own banks, and other analysts are not so sanguine, citing a lack of information on the quality of assets held by the banks. In other words, some fear Spanish banks are overstating the value of their real estate holdings to hide the full extent of their losses.
Structural Flaws in the European Union Papered Over
While there is plenty of chatter about bailouts, austerity measures and heavy debt loads, few analysts are speaking to the potentially fatal weakness built into the European Union and its single currency, the euro, a flaw that is now painfully obvious.
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While the European Union consolidated power over the shared currency and trade, it left control over trade deficits and budget deficits entirely in the hands of the member states. Lip service was paid to fiscal responsibility via caps on deficit spending, but in the real world, there were no meaningful controls limiting private or state credit expansion, or on sovereign borrowing and spending.
In effect, the importing nations within the union (Ireland, Greece, Portugal and to a degree, Spain and Italy) were given the solid credit ratings and expansive credit limits of their exporting cousins such as Germany, The Netherlands and France. To make a real-world analogy, it's as if a spendthrift younger brother was handed a no-limit credit card with a low interest rate, backed by a guarantee from a sober, cash-rich and credit-averse older sibling.
For awhile, it was highly profitable for the big European and international banks to expand lending to these eager new borrowers. This led to over-consumption by the importing nations and handsome profits for big Eurozone banks. And while the real estate and credit bubble lasted, the citizens of the bubble economies enjoyed the consumerist dream of borrow and spend today, and pay the debts tomorrow.
Tomorrow has arrived, but the foundation of the banks' assets -- the market value of housing -- has eroded to the point that both banks and homeowners face insolvency. The heightened risk of default, both by banks and the governments trying to bail them out, has caused interest rates in the debt-burdened countries to rise. Faced with rising costs of servicing their debts, and spending cuts to bring deficits under control, the citizens of the states such as Portugal are rebelling against austerity measures. On the other side, taxpayers and voters in fiscally sound member states such as Finland and Germany are rebelling about being saddled with the costs of bailing out their weaker neighbors.
This structural imbalance will not be easily addressed, but until it's fixed, the E.U. and the euro, are at risk of a great political and fiscal fracturing.
BILL MOYERS JOURNAL travels to ground zero of the mortgage meltdown-Cleveland, Ohio. Correspondent Rick Karr takes viewers to Slavic Village, one of the hardest hit neighborhoods in the nation when it comes to the spate of foreclosures caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. There, more than 1,000 homes stand vacant and decaying in a neighborhood that once thrived with families living the American dream of home ownership.
Consumers’ growing awareness and rising concern of global warming has certainly pressured businesses to consider more environmentally friendly solutions. While you may be well aware of green packaging, energy saving equipment or reclaiming practices, sustainable transportation is a seldom talked about aspect that deserves attention, especially considering the amount of trucks, planes and trains used [...]
A full-service broker remains the most common type of advisor used by Millionaire investors, but a small share of wealthy Americans prefer the services of a registered investment advisor.
Assets overseen by a registered investment advisor have grown rapidly over the past tumultuous decade. According to RIA Central, roughly 29,000 RIAs managed $34 trillion in assets at the end of 2011. What is a registered investment advisor? Does a registered investment advisor or RIA have a place on your financial team?
An investment advisor must register with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when managing more than $100 million in assets. Investment advisors managing less than that amount are required to register with state regulatory agencies. A registered investment advisor is held to a high “fiduciary standard,” which requires the advisor to put the financial interests of clients foremost. (To learn more about the fiduciary duty of a registered investment advisor click here.)
A registered investment advisor provides advice regarding securities in return for compensation, according to RIA Compliance Consultants, and is typically compensated through fees. (For more information about different ways that an advisor’s compensation can be structured, click here.)
As part of the registration process, a registered investment advisor must file a Form ADV, which, among other things, provides important information to prospective clients. According to RIA Compliance Consultants, the Form ADV discloses the services provided by a registered investment advisor, as well as associated fees and any third-party compensation. Investors can also use the Form ADV to research the personal background of the registered investment advisor, any potential conflicts of interest and the firm’s code of ethics. A registered investment advisor is required to update the Form ADV every year, and to offer the information to clients.
What other criteria do Millionaire investors consider when selecting a financial advisor? Trustworthiness is paramount, whether investors prefer a broker-dealer or registered investment advisor.
Bill Moyers speaks with historian Simon Schama, who spent months traveling across America in the run-up to an historic election to discover what events in our nation's past can tell us about how we live today and what's in store for the future.
I assumed that the smaller charging port on the bottom of recent iPhone 5 leaks was a Micro USB port but Apple might not dump its lucrative licensing business so quickly after all.
As promised last week, I added the new sidebar under DEBT to reflect the status of my Line of Credit. This account was opened last May when uncertainty of job action and status was present. As my EF was inadequate, the LOC was going to be a very 'poor choice' back up if need be. I never ended up using it for that, but I did to make the final payment of my son's trip to Italy. I am not pleased that I did not save the $ properly for that and had to use the LOC. However, the deed is done now and I need to own up to it, so there it is.
This is an interest only LOC so if a month went by where I did not make a payment, the interest amount would come out of my account tied to this. The interest is not added onto the loan. I have been making $50 payments per month on this loc while directing the bulk of my attention to paying off my vehicle loan.
Hopefully I can soon start attacking this loc a little more aggressively and get it off my list of things to do.
Prime Minister David Cameron seeks to claw back powers after 'remorseless logic of having a single currency' forces Germany to accede to Italian and Spanish demands for eurozone aid to cut borrowing costs.
Long-time readers will know that I’ve written before about Dimensional Fund Advisors, an innovative investment firm that builds low-cost, widely diversified funds. I enjoy keeping an eye on DFA, because their strategies are based on academic research (there are a few Nobel laureates in the family) that all investors can learn from. The one downside [...]
Bill Moyers speaks with political analysts Merle and Earl Black, who've tracked the American electorate for years. They will discuss how American demographics - particularly votes from the Southern and the swing states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania - will influence the campaign and the election.
Tim Cavanaugh, Reason Washington economic experts have been proclaiming that economic recovery is right around the corner since before they were sure the patient was sick. For those of us who have been saying all along that none of the economic interventions since 2007 would revive the economy"”not the rescue of Bear Stearns and other financial institutions; not the Troubled Asset Relief Program; not the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; not Quantitative Easings I, II, and III; not the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; not Cash for Clunkers or Solyndra or the bailouts of...
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.
Italy and Spain last night threatened to block "everything" at a crisis summit to save the European Union's single currency unless they got immediate eurozone aid to bring down their borrowing costs.
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.
Retailers and consumer-products companies are increasingly using Twitter as a marketing tool, which has given them limitless opportunities to connect with their customers.
It's also exposed them to nearly as many chances to come across as, well, a pack of twits.
Because the social network gained prominence as a platform for off-the-cuff, irreverent, 140-character tidbits, some companies have been lulled into a false sense of intimacy -- right up until the moment a poorly thought out missive gets them into serious hot water with the buying public.
Some businesses see tweeting "as an invitation to say things that they would not otherwise say," Gregory Parks, a partner with Morgan Lewis' litigation practice, who co-heads the law firm's retail practice group, tells DailyFinance.
But in reality, Twitter is "like any other public statement," so businesses should figure: "If they wouldn't put it in a newspaper, they shouldn't put it on Twitter," he says.
And when an ill-conceived tweet goes out on the world wide web, the backlash is far-reaching -- and hits in a New York minute, to boot.
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"The power of social media allows one statement to reach millions of individual in an audience -- general audience, target audience, etc. -- which [can] then allow the message to spin out of control," Kenneth Wisnefski, founder and CEO of Webimax, which develops online marketing strategies for retailers such as Aéropostale (ARO) and Sam's Club (WMT), tells DailyFinance.
This can add up to a public-relations nightmare for high-profile businesses. "Companies have a public image to uphold, and with consumer perception being one of the most important things to them, there's a higher standard to which they have to adhere," Parks says.
He should know. In Parks' role advising retailers on sale advertising, more and more of his time is spent reviewing their social media campaigns -- in part to uncover potentially harmful tweets before they get sent.
"Five years ago, I was reviewing no social media programs; in the last couple of years, it's dramatically increased from 20% to 30%" of the advertising programs he reviews, be it a discount offer or a contest promotion, he says.
"The challenge with Twitter is that a company has a very limited space to get their message across."
Here are five unfortunate examples of corporate tweeting gone wrong.
We told you last year that very unusual conditions then existed in the corporate and municipal bond markets and that these securities were ridiculously cheap relative to U.S. Treasuries. We backed this view with some purchases, but I should have done far more. Big opportunities come infrequently. When it’s raining gold, reach for a bucket, [...]
With state budgets strapped, President Obama's proposed economic stimulus plan directs funds to educational institutions. Bill Moyers talks with Carnegie Corporation president Vartan Gregorian on the future of public higher education and its role in our democracy.
The Journal profiles public health doctor America Bracho, who serves her Santa Ana, CA community – notorious for crime, poverty and disease – with her organization, Latino Health Access.
It can get very hot and humid in Montreal each summer but that doesn’t stop millions of people from visiting Montreal and attending all of the great festivals that happen every summer. Along with all of the festivals you’ll find delicious restaurants, active nightlife, museums, art galleries, fun shopping, amazing firework displays, thrilling amusement parks and more. Although I can’t cover everything Montreal has to offer in today’s post, let’s take a look at a few of the special attractions that you will find when you visit Montreal this summer.
Montreal Fireworks Competition
I love fireworks anytime, anywhere. Since 1985 Montreal has hosted one of the world’s largest fireworks competitions. One of the special parts of these firework displays is that they are synchronized to music. The firework competitions begin at the end of June. In the past they took place every Saturday and Wednesday night until the end of July.
The Montreal Fireworks schedule has been changed for 2012 to include Friday nights and Tuesday nights, as well as some Saturday nights. The first night will be Saturday, June 30th and the featured country will be Japan. The following dates are July 7, 14, 17, 21, 24, 27, 31 and August 3rd.
Viewing the Montreal Fireworks
If you want to watch the fireworks competition for free you can go to the Old Port or the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, which closes off the car traffic as of 8 p.m.
If you would like to get a closer and better view, and listen to the synchronized music while you watch the fireworks, then you want to head to La Ronde, just in front of the Lac des Dauphins. La Ronde is a Six Flags Theme Park.
Montreal Theme Park
Take the family for a fun filled day at La Ronde, Montreal’s Six Flags Theme Park. With over 40 rides stretched across 146 acres you will find rides for the whole family to enjoy including the kiddie rides, panoramic rides that offer a beautiful view and thriller rides that make you scream. La Ronde is open from May until October.
Montreal Shopping
Head underground for some of the best shopping in the world. Under downtown Montreal you will find what is known as the indoor city. You will feel quite comfortable and safe as you walk through the well lit, air conditioned tunnels that are lined with shops on both sides. The tunnels connect to shopping malls, apartment buildings, banks, offices, hotels, museums and condos. You will definitely not feel trapped as there are over 120 exits.
The Underground City of Montreal was designed to help people get around in the brutally cold winters and the very hot summers. Many visitors to Montreal have said that once they discovered the underground they never left as they were able to easily get from their hotel to all of the restaurants and shopping that they needed.
Beer Festival
If you enjoy a good cold beer you won’t want to miss the Montreal Beer Festival that takes place in early June. This festival is a taste testing beer festival and this year it will include approximately 637 different beers from 191 breweries. This festival runs for 5 days and offers four-ounce samples of each beer for you to try throughout those 5 days. As you venture through the festival and taste the beer you will also find live brewing demonstrations held from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. As well the beer festival in Montreal includes food such as alligator soup and kangaroo burgers and fun events such as mini disk golf tournaments, beach volleyball and silent dancing.
Admission to the festival is free but each tasting glass is $9.
Montreal Jazz Festival
For those who love a wide variety of music, the Montreal Jazz Festival is the place to be this summer.
The Montreal Jazz Festival attracts over two million people each year to both the indoor shows and as well as the free outdoor shows.
The jazz festival features many well known entertainers such as Diana Krall, Prince, Pat Metheny, Ray Charles, Sade, Dave Brubeck, The Roots, Smokey Robinson, Esperanza Spalding and Robert Plant.
This year’s festival runs from June 28 to July 7, 2012. If you enjoy listening to Reggae, African, Cuban, Brazilian, Latin Jazz and the blues you will not want to miss this festival.
And speaking of the Montreal Jazz Festival, in 2009 Stevie Wonder performed at the jazz festival and paid tribute to his friend Michael Jackson several times during the festival. Here is one of his live performances at the festival in Montreal.
Photo: Sebastianlund Welcome to another installment of the blogging tips series. Last week Andrea from So Over Debt was kind enough to share tips on how to get more on social media. She provided a lot of great advice and … Continue reading →
Victor Davis Hanson, PJ Media The last thirty days have made it clear that Barack Obama is not going to win the 2012 election by a substantial margin. The polls still show the race near dead even with over five months, and all sorts of unforeseen events, to come. But after the Obama meltdown of April and May, I don't think he in any way resembles the mysterious Pied Piper figure of 2008, who mesmerized and then marched the American people over the cliff. Polls change daily; gaffes and wars may come aplenty. But Barack Obama has lost the American center and now he is reduced to the argument that Mitt Romney would be...
When working on your retirement calculator, one of the most important decisions you must make can be a difficult one: when will you retire?
Deciding at which point in your life you will retire can be quite a hassle, and it can affect your future in different ways. To assist you with this, we have provided you with two substantial factors that you must consider that could affect your retirement calculator.
Factor #1: Social Security
Many people don't realize that the full retirement age has changed. They still believe that 65 is the magic number, but that is no longer true. Depending on when you were born, your full retirement age will be closer to 67, and if you're several years away, it could be even later.
Fact is, you can actually retire when you are 62 and begin receiving benefits. But while an early retirement may sound great, making this decision can have a lasting effect on your future. If you retire at 62, your monthly income from Social Security will be less than had you waited until you were 65. Taking that one step further, if you wait until after your full retirement age, your benefits will actually increase. In fact, if you wait to retire until you're 70, you will receive approximately 75% more money than if you had decided to retire when you were 62. Imagine the difference 75% could make to your future.
Factor #2: Health Benefits
If monetary concerns don't interest you as much as simply having the freedom that goes along with retirement, then you might want to consider what happens to your healthcare. As you grow older, your cost for health care will most likely increase due to a number of factors that go along with old age. Making sure that you maintain your healthcare benefits is an important part of your retirement calculator.
Many retirees plan to utilize Medicare. While that system doesn't pay for everything, it can be a great benefit and cover a large portion of your healthcare expenses. Problem is, even though you can officially declare retirement when you're 62, you cannot apply for Medicare until you're 65. Which means that if you retire early, you would need to cover your medical expenses and/or healthcare for as long as three years. This could be a costly decision that might greatly affect your retirement plans.
There are a couple of additional factors to consider, also. First, if you are receiving Social Security disability, you may be eligible to begin receiving Medicare before the age of 65. And second, some employers will supplement your Medicare costs, depending on when you choose to retire. This is becoming an increasingly important factor in the decision-making process of when to retire. If you think your employer might offer this benefit, it would be a good idea to check so that you can plan accordingly.
Other Factors to Consider
The above represent two very important factors that you must consider when deciding when to retire, but they are not the only ones. You must also consider such things as the amount of your earnings from retirement accounts that are separate from Social Security, what types of expenses you might have such as travel or hobbies, the current state of income taxes at the time of your retirement, and any kind of care or other expenses related to family members that you might need to plan for. Above all, it is important to sit down with your loved ones and a financial expert in order to help with this important decision.
As we've reported, workplace safety experts have expressed concern that Gulf oil spill responders aren't getting enough safety training. On Wednesday, we spoke with a federal official who said the four-hour safety course that BP is providing to Gulf cleanup workers lacks basic information on health risks and is too short to cover the necessary material.
Joseph Hughes, director of the worker training program at the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences, said the course fails to incorporate important information. Among the subjects not included are chemical inhalation, the health effects of dispersants, and the risks of direct contact with weathered crude oil.
Hughes' agency, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, helped develop the training. "We tried to recommend what we thought the right training topics were, but all of those were not included," he said.
As we reported on Wednesday, cleanup workers are continuing to suffer health problems that they believe to be related to chemical exposure, including vomiting, dizziness, and nose and throat irritation.
Hughes also said the course's four-hour duration -- a fraction of the 24-hour training usually required for cleanup workers who may be exposed to hazardous materials -- is insufficient and rests upon a faulty interpretation of safety regulations. In 1990, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued a directive following the Exxon-Valdez disaster that allowed the minimum training to be cut to four hours for workers performing low-risk tasks such as beach cleanup.
"The idea of the Exxon-Valdez exemption is that they would not have direct contact with crude oil or weathered oil," Hughes said. However, he said that some spill responders receiving the four-hour training, such as booming and skimming workers on vessels, are "definitely having direct oil contact."
BP spokesman Toby Odone stated that the safety trainings are appropriate for the work people are doing. "Training for Vessels of Opportunity and shoreline workers is 4+ hours and includes properties of oil, insect bites, heat, marine operations such as laying and collecting boom," Odone wrote in an e-mail. The Vessels of Opportunity program employs local boat operators and crews in cleanup activities.
Odone also wrote that workers going into oiled areas are accompanied by a technician with 40 hours of training, and that the training was approved by the government. "It was developed with OSHA and approved by OSHA and the US Coast Guard," he wrote.
OSHA is in charge of monitoring workplace safety for the cleanup. We at ProPublica have been trying to get in touch with officials there since Monday to discuss the safety trainings, but haven't yet gotten a response.
Hughes said that his office is pressing Unified Command -- the interagency spill response team that consists of BP, Transocean, the Coast Guard and numerous federal agencies -- to implement an eight-hour training course for those at greater risk of contact with hazardous materials. The course would include the chemical exposure curriculum that is not provided in the current trainings.
"The group that I'm still concerned about is the booming and skimming workers," Hughes said. "There's an effort under way to increase the training of those workers that's being discussed at the highest level."
On Wednesday, Aubrey Miller, senior medical adviser in Hughes' agency, testified to a House subcommittee that OSHA is "working with BP to develop a new eight-hour curriculum for worker safety and health training," according to a transcript of his remarks provided by the agency.
Hughes said he had not heard any dates for when this eight-hour training program would start.
As it stands, Hughes said the training goes against the precautionary principle -- the concept that the possibility of harm is enough to warrant action to reduce the risks to public health.
"We thought it was backwards," he said of the current curriculum, "that it had a reduced amount of protection for workers."
How did Big Finance grow so powerful that its hijinks nearly brought down the global economy – and what hope is there for real reform with Washington politicians on Wall Street's payroll? Bill Moyers talks with authors Simon Johnson and James Kwak, two of the nation's most respected economic experts and authors of the new book 13 BANKERS: THE WALL STREET TAKEOVER AND THE NEXT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN. Also, a Bill Moyers essay on the true costs of war.
BAKERSFIELD Calif. – The Kern County Department of Airports in conjunction with the Kern County Board of Supervisors and Regenesis Power, LLC will officially break ground on a $6 million solar array at Meadows Field (BFL) on July 31, 2008, at 9:00 a.m. The public is invited to attend the ground breaking which will take place [...]
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich sits down with Bill Moyers to talk about the influence of lobbyists on policy, the economy, and the ongoing debate over health care.
The "quadruple witching" hour -- when index futures, index options, equity options and security futures expire simultaneously -- is traditionally a time of higher trading volumes and investors decide what to do next. But if the low trading volumes so far this week are any indication, the next quadruple witching hour, scheduled Friday, will likely pass with barely a bump.
The investor uncertainty that has characterized the market's choppy performance seems to be going strong. For the entire month of September, investors have behaved as if someone cast a spell rendering them unable to rally or retreat from stocks.
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The market has been stuck in a small trading range of between 1040 and 1130 on the S&P 500 ($SPX) index for the last four months. And there's been a lower-than-normal volume of stock and options trades as investors try to figure out which way the market might head next. Even the approaching quadruple witching hasn't been able to energize traders.
"We are at a point where the economic numbers are a little bit better, but they are not good enough to convince the buyers or sellers to take a stance with any kind of conviction," says Nate Peterson, senior derivatives analyst for Charles Schwab. "It's a market where you continue to wait and see. As the [reports] come out, you look for indicators that will give you a reason to buy, or to short the market."
Waiting for News
Options investors seem to be waiting for news and economic reports to help them reassess their positions before making trades, Peterson says. As a result, the average options volume in September has slipped to 15 million contracts per week from the 20 million contracts per week the market averaged through May.
That options volume may stay low until closer to October, when companies may begin making announcements in advance of the earnings season, Peterson says. Those announcements may then give investors better clues to where the market is headed. Unfortunately, while providing some clarity for investors, those announcements can also create higher market volatility.
"Right now VIX futures are around 25 - so traders are not pricing in a lot of volatility for October," Peterson says, referring to the Chicago Board Options Exchange Market Volatility Index ($VIX), which measures the market's anticipated volatility based on the sale of S&P 500 index futures and options. Historically, volatility has usually grown during earnings seasons, and an increase in the market volatility index generally makes options and futures more expensive, so Friday may be traders' last chance to lock in positions before higher volatility -- and higher prices -- kicks in.
Leading up to the quadruple witching, some traders bought new options on Wednesday and Thursday, but it seems that most are waiting until next week to decide if they need options to protect their long positions. Those who choose to buy put options for that protection as earnings season approaches can likely get them cheap, relatively speaking, on Friday, Peterson says.
And getting cheaper protection would definitely take the hex out of quadruple witching.
For students dreaming of winning the cross-cultural holy grail that is the Fulbright scholarship - thus earning the fully-funded opportunity to research or teach overseas - there's good news and there's some tough news.
The European debt crisis is back in the headlines, and the news is not good. Portugal's prime minister resigned 
Montreal in the Summer
As we've reported, workplace safety experts have expressed concern that Gulf oil spill responders 
The "quadruple witching" hour -- when