Something was drastically amiss. I had turned the radio in my car to my favorite FM station, a boisterous “urban” format that’s best enjoyed loud. But that’s not what I was hearing. Not even close. I called a… Read More

An unprecedented level of industrial expansion during the past two decades has not only made China wealthy. It’s made the country really dirty. Now comes the clean up. Years of industrial growth, largely powered by coal, have left China choking in smog. Cities smolder… Read More

There are a plethora of Chinese ETFs already on the market, so what can investors expect from another offering? Emerging powerhouses of Chinese business. This ETF isn’t limited by size and has free reign to invest across… Read More

Oil at $200 per barrel: That’s what an analyst at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) predicted in May 2008. At the time, oil had just hit a record high , surpassing $110 per barrel. A month later, the CEO of the Russian energy company Gazprom predicted $250 per barrel oil. Read More

“Give me a lever long enough,” said Archimedes, “and a place to stand, and I will move the world.” If the old Greek were alive today, he might well work for Fluor (NYSE: FLR, $41.95), one of the world’s largest public engineering and construction companies.  Fluor designs… Read More

Beginning next Wednesday and for the following two weeks Copenhagen will have the coal industry on pins and needles. That’s where President Barack Obama and leaders of 190 other countries will convene to try to reach a consensus on reducing carbon emissions. It’s doubtful that the international… Read More

Gold has been grabbing all the headlines lately as the price for the precious metal has hit record highs. In the weeks and months to come, however, you’re going to be hearing about a far more pedestrian commodity: Rice. The price of rice has started to climb based on reports… Read More

People in the United States only hear about “the middle class” in an election year, when candidates promise not to raise taxes. The rest of the time, Americans don’t think much about the middle class, even though that’s where most people find themselves. That hasn’t been the… Read More

Canadian royalty trusts (CanRoys), which typically own oil and natural gas wells, have provided investors with high yields for years. You see, these trusts avoid taxation at the corporate level provided they pay the bulk of their income to unitholders. The Canadian government created this incentive to encourage investment in… Read More

Brazil has been one of the best places for U.S. investors for a long time. During the past five years, the Bovespa Index, Sao Paulo’s premier index, has gained +167.0%, or +21.7% compounded annually. The… Read More