Don’t look now, but radio frequency identification (RFID) chips are all around you. They’re used in toll booths, at the gas pump, in retail stores and on the farm to keep track of animals. They even allow store managers to change the price of a product on the shelf with… Read More

The exchange-traded fund (ETF) world remains abuzz with activity on the new launch and product development fronts. Money managers like Pimco that have recently dipped their toes into the ETF waters with… Read More

If you thought Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s announcement Wednesday of an offshore wind farm was big news for alternative-energy investing, then you must have missed the far bigger news from his Cabinet colleague, Energy Secretary Steven Chu. While Salazar was standing behind a rostrum touting a 130-turbine… Read More

First quarter earnings season is now in full swing. That means not a day will go by without investors getting bombarded with the latest financial report cards from companies around the world — or the endless chatter that accompanies them. Read More

The beer market is very mature in developed markets as has been around for hundreds of years. Case in point: Molson has been in operation since 1786 while Coors was founded in 1873. Legend has it that beer is as old as civilization itself, dating back thousands of years and… Read More

The financial crisis interrupted an unmistakable trend. Worldwide demand for oil, which had been sharply on the rise in the past decade as a result of ever-increasing demand in China and India, plummeted in the past year. While worldwide oil consumption rose from 64.8… Read More

Large telecom providers have become some of the market’s strongest dividend-paying companies. Although they pay strong yields, most of the big U.S. telecoms don’t offer much in the way of growth. The problem is that fixed-line usage is slowly dying as more customers drop their wired phones… Read More

As the Japanese economy developed in the 1970s and 1980s, U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) made major headway into the hearts and minds of local consumers. But a similar trend may not emerge in China. Western nations… Read More

Tax time is rolling around. And it’s one more time when I’m reminded about how much I pay — and potentially still owe — the government. So I thought this was a fitting time to turn the tables — and get a government to pay me for awhile. Read More

Investors with a pulse have no doubt heard about Brazil’s potential by now. After all, given the multi-year run-up in Brazil’s main exchange, the Bovespa, and the announcement that the 2016 Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janiero, it’s a little hard to ignore. But make no mistake… Read More