When Lehman Brothers failed in September 2008, the U.S. financial system locked up and proceeded to plummet in a classic deflationary spiral. As the value of overpriced, overleveraged assets came back to Earth, the banks that had lent money and accepted those assets as… Read More

If at last year’s New Year’s Eve party you had told me that 2012’s five biggest market gainers at mid-August would be a computer hard-drive maker, a wireless carrier, a homebuilder, a clothing retailer and an online travel company, I would have… Read More

If you’re an income investor who strives for stable, high-yielding assets, then you should be looking at master limited partnerships (MLPs). Particularly right now, MLPs can be terrific investments — their yields are exceptional, averaging nearly 7% and well above the average yields for utility stocks (about 4%),… Read More

You’ve likely heard of this valuation method countless times: The price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio that analysts use to compare a stock’s current share price to its per-share earnings. By this measure, stocks may… Read More

Have you ever wanted to own a stake in that fast-growing auto-parts manufacturer on the other side of your town? How about that local bakery chain that draws a crowd every morning? Maybe you’d like to become a silent partner in the nearby road-construction company that seems to always win… Read More

In a world where the S&P 500 is paying a paltry 2.0% dividend yield, savings accounts earn next to nothing and treasury yields are barely beating inflation, millions of investors are turning to high-yield… Read More

If the thought of having a portion of your portfolio in foreign stocks makes your stomach turn, then you’re not alone. Conversations I’ve had with people in the industry confirm what I had expected because of the drawn-out euro crisis: Foreign stocks are extremely unpopular and many investors want nothing… Read More

The venerable TV investigative journalism program “60 Minutes” recently blew the lid off a story we’ve been tracking for months. And you absolutely won’t believe it when you hear about it. Congress was trading on insider information — and it was 100% legal. Read More

I have a prediction for you. Well, actually it’s not much of a prediction as much of a forecast. You see, rather than go out on a limb and make a bold statement like some market pundits seem to enjoy so… Read More

One of my favorite places to search for undiscovered income stocks is in the small-cap sector. Most small-cap stocks have few analyst followers and little institutional ownership, because their limited liquidity makes big positions more difficult to unwind. As a result, many good… Read More