The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in… Read More

The last time U.S. federal government spending topped 28% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in the White House and the nation was fighting all-out war on two major fronts. As the chart shows, total federal government outlays have hovered around 18% to 22% since the early 1980s. But based on projections from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) President Barack Obama’s proposed Budget would push total federal spending to near 29% of GDP in fiscal year 2009; the U.S. federal deficit is projected to be more than 13% of GDP in 2009 and close to 10% in 2010. And there’s a catch: both the CBO and the White House are assuming the U.S. economy grows by an average rate of more than +4% over the coming decade, a generous assumption given current economic conditions. This skews the numbers in terms of percent of GDP — actual federal spending is projected to rise from a… Read More

Working for StreetAuthority, I do a lot of different things. In the course of a day, I may be writing an article… editing a newsletter… discussing potential picks with our staff… researching the next investing hotspot… even working with a development team on our new StreetAuthority website… Read More

 The average stock in the S&P 500 Index sports a dividend yield of just 4%. But in many countries around the world, the average stock offers a significantly higher yield. In… Read More

There are only eight of these securities in the world. They carry an astronomical average dividend yield of 17.2%. Read More

Terra Nitrogen (NYSE: TNH) produces ammonia and nitrates used in agricultural crop fertilizers. Its assets consist of a nitrogen plant in Oklahoma and storage terminals in Nebraska and Illinois. Products are sold wholesale to chemical firms, farm dealers, and national retail chains in the central and southern US. Structured as… Read More

Let’s face it. When it comes to treasure, few of us picture stock certificates and bond coupons. Instead, we usually conjure up images of gold bars stacked high in Fort Knox or glittering gold coins strewn about sunken galleons. Over… Read More

Back in October 2007, when the Dow was sitting at record highs above 14,000, there weren’t too many bargains out there. A furious multi-year advance was winding down, and valuations had become overly stretched. Most stocks at the time were trading well above… Read More

     How would you like to get a cut of the take almost every time someone pops open a beer in Chile… or a bottle of juice or mineral water for that matter?      When a Chilean says, “Una cerveza, por favor,” seven times out of eight,… Read More

Value-seeking income investors need look no further than the ailing banking sector to find some hidden gems. The U.S. government has lent and guaranteed literally trillions of dollars to financial institutions to keep them from going bankrupt. Treasury’s plans to buy toxic bank assets… Read More

Two months ago, panic-stricken municipal bond investors were fleeing for the exits. The muni market was roi fears that issuers would default and bond insurers… Read More