The man knew too much. And something else was wrong, too. As Joseph Wu talked to his guest, he wracked his brain. Wu was sure he had met this man before. But where? Sitting in Wu’s office, the two men continued to talk business. His guest was very well informed. Read More

Government spending cuts would utterly devastate most companies that rely on Uncle Sam for business. But there’s one company that would almost certainly earn hundreds of millions of dollars more if the federal government would make a very specific spending cut, one that lawmakers propose nearly every year. As the… Read More

Banks need a break, right? After all the bailouts, I thought so, too. Until this morning. As it turns out, banks may be eating some bad loans, but they’re raking in cash from other sources. The Financial Times reported that banks will charge customers more than $38.5… Read More

William Grant & Sons Distillers, in business for more than 120 years, recently released a limited-edition variety of its Glenfiddich single-malt scotch. The amber whisky has been quietly aging under the Glenfiddich Distillery’s Warehouse 8 in Dufftown, Scotland, for a half-century. At $16,000, it is one of the most expensive… Read More

I’m going to show you how to buy $2 billion worth of assets for pennies on the dollar. I’m not kidding. If you want in on the action, you just have to come to Houston. I’ll meet you at 600 Travis St,, Suite 5800, at 10 a.m. on Thursday. That’s… Read More

When it comes to mutual funds, you could be looking for love in all the wrong places according to the renowned bond fund manager, Bill Gross. In his August 2009 Investment Outlook, Gross compared his own industry to Madame Rue, the gold-toothed gypsy in… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives gives some insight into just how bad these politicians are at managing money. The table below shows the 15 most popular stocks held by members of Congress, with the number of owners to the right: If $1,000 had been invested in… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives gives some insight into just how bad these politicians are at managing money. The table below shows the 15 most popular stocks held by members of Congress, with the number of owners to the right: If $1,000 had been invested in each of the 15 most popular stocks held by Congress on Jan. 1, 2008, the entire portfolio would be worth $10,148 today, a loss of -32.3%. This exceeds the total loss of the S&P 500 index, which has fallen -31.7% in the same period. In fact, only one of the companies, IBM, has shown a positive return, though nine companies posted smaller losses than the benchmark, losses that could have been made smaller still with reinvested dividends. As you… Read More

We all know that Congress is only too happy to “invest” our money. But how are they when it comes to managing their own? Not so great, as it turns out. A review of the personal financial disclosures filed by members of the… Read More

At the beginning of the year, panic-stricken municipal bond investors were fleeing for the exits. The muni market was roi fears that issuers would default and bond insurers couldn’t make… Read More

Wall Street bets on companies by buying their stock. It bets against them by shorting their shares. A short seller borrows shares, sells them and waits for the price to go down. When it does, the shares are repurchased at a… Read More