Clean energy has been one of this president’s favorite topics. Mr. Obama calls his strategy “All of the Above” and has vowed to continue to fund energy research and development even if it fails. This is a bold statement considering the heat he took for losing more… Read More

I don’t know about you, but in the first two weeks of February there is always this nagging feeling in my head that I am forgetting something. Do you get that? Then, inevitably, my wife will hand me a red envelope and it will dawn on me that once again,… Read More

While the mainstream financial media chases every conceivable Facebook angle ahead of its initial public offering (IPO), which is expected sometime in May, it’s important not to get lost in the frenzy. About $5 billion worth of… Read More

We humans are pretty predictable. We live our lives in certain patterns and according to certain preferences. There was a time when no one knew what those preferences were. The guy taking my order at a restaurant might remember I like Diet Coke, or the mechanic might… Read More

Want to know what separates a mid-level financial advisor from a major Wall Street hedge-fund manager? The ability to discern opportunity before the rest of the pack… It’s something not many can do, especially when it comes to investing… It takes a curious alchemy… Read More

The big question in the market never changes. Investors only want to know one thing: What’s next? To the degree that such a question is answerable, one must consider four aspects. 1. The historical underpinnings… Read More

If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when Warren Buffett is right. He usually is, of course, and that’s one of the things that make the Oracle of Omaha worth listening to. A Buffett adage that very few people seem to take note of… Read More

A Saudi-Sized Oil Find… And a Rupert Murdoch-Backed Company Is in the Middle What I’m about to say might shock you… Israel sits on nearly as much oil as Saudi Arabia. You read this correctly, Israel — a country the size of the state of New Jersey — sits atop an estimated 250 billion barrels of oil. To put the sheer volume of Israel’s reserves in perspective, take a look at the chart below.   As the chart shows, that’s roughly the… Read More

A Saudi-Sized Oil Find… And a Rupert Murdoch-Backed Company Is in the Middle What I’m about to say might shock you… Israel sits on nearly as much oil as Saudi Arabia. You read this correctly, Israel — a country the size of the state of New Jersey — sits atop an estimated 250 billion barrels of oil. To put the sheer volume of Israel’s reserves in perspective, take a look at the chart below.   As the chart shows, that’s roughly the same as Saudi Arabia, which is the 13th largest country in the world and almost exactly 100 times larger than Israel. If oil is worth $100 a barrel, then Israel has the ability to tap into $25 trillion worth of crude. How did a country that’s historically struggled to meet its energy demands stumble into one of the largest known petroleum reserves on the planet? #-ad_banner-#Trapped beneath Israel’s famed Shefla basin, rests a special type of shale called kerogen. Kerogen contains bitumen, the petroleum-rich substance that the Canadians extract from the tar sands to… Read More

I’m not sure I remember exactly how I felt in February, but like most investors I was interested in what the New Year would bring. I suppose there’s a certain amount of optimism that goes with that. The S&P 500 had just finished two pretty good years,… Read More

Years ago, my dad and I were driving across his farm in his vintage Land Rover, which looks almost exactly like the one John Wayne used in the movie Hatari! The heavy-duty off-road tires were having a hard slog through the mud. Dad had cut across a recently plowed field… Read More