When people think about the phone company, most naturally think about AT&T (NYSE: T), the most storied company in telecom. Though A&T has its fans — particularly dividend payers these days, with its 6.3% yield — it can… Read More

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied more than 2,500 points, climbing from a March low near 6,500 to retake the 9,000 level. That’s a +40% advance in less time than it takes to grow a tomato. So is the market set to roar past 10,000? Or is it about… Read More

What the mind can conceive and believe, it can insure (my apologies to Napoleon Hill). You already know from personal experience about insurance on your life, your house and your car. But maybe you didn’t know you could insure your wages, a business can insure its directors and officers, and… Read More

Conventional wisdom is that stocks outperform bonds. That’s wrong. Fact: Investors who buck conventional wisdom and buy bonds are more likely to see better results than investors who focus solely on equities. Don’t let anyone tell you that bonds are staid, stodgy or that they’ll… 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

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

Whether dividends are safe is on most income investors’ minds, and for good reason. The final quarter of 2008 was the worst for dividends in a half-century, according to Standard & Poor’s. The first half of 2009 has seen even more cuts: 367 companies have reduced dividends since Jan. 1. Read More

Stocks and bonds too dicey? Commodities out of reach? Options too complex? Then forget about all those investments. Right now, you can earn up to 4.5% with FDIC protection. Now, 4.5% isn’t too tough to beat with other investment classes, but each of them… Read More

Art Laffer is the dean of supply-side economics, which holds that the key to any macroeconomic ill is to let people keep their money rather than to tax them. I agree. So did President Reagan, whose landmark tax cuts in the early 1980s were… Read More

In late December 2002, the “dot com” bust was complete and the market was about to close the books on its third straight losing year. Bargains were plentiful and the economy was pulling out of a recession, but investors had had enough and many… Read More