As an income investor, should you be worried about inflation? You bet. On an annual basis, prices were up 2.7% in March. That’s the highest mark since December 2009. Cotton prices are up more than 170% in the past year. Oil had increased by 40% through mid-April. Copper, corn and wheat prices registered double-digit gains in the first three months of 2011 alone, from the same period last year. In the past six months, Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg’s (NYSE: K) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) have all… Read More

As an income investor, should you be worried about inflation? You bet. On an annual basis, prices were up 2.7% in March. That’s the highest mark since December 2009. Cotton prices are up more than 170% in the past year. Oil had increased by 40% through mid-April. Copper, corn and wheat prices registered double-digit gains in the first three months of 2011 alone, from the same period last year. In the past six months, Kraft (NYSE: KFT), Kellogg’s (NYSE: K) and McDonald’s (NYSE: MCD) have all put through price increases to consumers. Nike (NYSE: NKE) and Whirlpool (NYSE: WHR) have done the same. Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) CEO Bill Simon has said he thinks inflation “is going to be serious.” He warned that recent transportation-related cost hikes will be passed through to shoppers. This means the amount of income you’re earning may not keep pace with how much prices are rising — especially if you are retired and living on a fixed income. If you own long-term bonds, such as 30-year U.S. Read More

Here in the United States, the scary days of 2008 when Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. collapsed, major auto firms needed to be bailed out and Uncle Sam injected $85 billion into a teetering AIG (NYSE: AIG) are starting to seem a like a distant memory. The bailed-out auto makers are looking stronger, the rest of Wall Street failed to buckle under as Lehman and Bear did, and much-reviled AIG is valued at more than $50 billion once again. But from Berlin to Paris to Rome to Athens, the painful… Read More

Here in the United States, the scary days of 2008 when Bear Stearns and Lehman Bros. collapsed, major auto firms needed to be bailed out and Uncle Sam injected $85 billion into a teetering AIG (NYSE: AIG) are starting to seem a like a distant memory. The bailed-out auto makers are looking stronger, the rest of Wall Street failed to buckle under as Lehman and Bear did, and much-reviled AIG is valued at more than $50 billion once again. But from Berlin to Paris to Rome to Athens, the painful economic crises have never left the stage. Three years on, policy makers are struggling to come up with yet another plan to save the weakest economies in Europe without saddling the larger, healthier economies with open-ended liabilities. It’s been a Sisyphean task, trying to get that boulder up the hill — and Sisyphus is getting tired. If Europe can’t reverse course and develop a better game plan, then a whole series of events will play out, with mixed implications for equity investors. #-ad_banner-#1.  Why do the problems persist? A number of European governments run persistent budget… Read More

Bill Gates founded Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in 1975 and for a time was the wealthiest person on the planet, thanks to the company’s ubiquitous Windows operating system. In June 2008, Gates gave up his day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time working with his wife at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mexican businessman Carlos Slim has since taken the title as the world’s richest person, while Gates has shifted focus to his philanthropic efforts. A significant portion of Gates’ $56 billion wealth has shifted to his foundation as well as his private investment vehicle, Cascade… Read More

Bill Gates founded Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) in 1975 and for a time was the wealthiest person on the planet, thanks to the company’s ubiquitous Windows operating system. In June 2008, Gates gave up his day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time working with his wife at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Mexican businessman Carlos Slim has since taken the title as the world’s richest person, while Gates has shifted focus to his philanthropic efforts. A significant portion of Gates’ $56 billion wealth has shifted to his foundation as well as his private investment vehicle, Cascade Investment LLC. The foundation received significant further support when Gates’ long-time friend and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett committed to donating a significant portion of his $47 billion net worth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. #-ad_banner-#When you are investing such vast sums of money for philanthropic work, you need to play it safe in terms of investment risk and preserving the long-term value of the asset base. After all, the Gates Foundation has to fund grants to support causes such as global health and related charitable gifting for many years… Read More

The stock market’s a great place to invest for the long haul, but the rollercoaster ride sure does get old sometimes, doesn’t it? That’s why I’m always looking for stocks that can enrich shareholders with as little volatility as possible. To find them, you generally have to… Read More

“You can always trust the Americans to do the right thing, but only after exhausting all other possibilities.” –Winston Churchill When it comes to our political leaders in Washington, let’s hope Churchill was right. If he’s wrong, then the U.S. Read More

Income investors disappointed by yields on U.S. stocks are looking outside America’s borders for bigger dividends. Emerging markets offer dividend opportunities, of course, but some investors consider them to be too risky. However, there is another market closer to home where growing dividends can be found. I’m… Read More

Investment advisors Sterne, Agee & Leach describe this restaurant chain as “the best-positioned player in the fast-food business.” Many analysts expect it to gain market share in the coming months due to menu upgrades and in-store decorative improvements. #-ad_banner-#But the opportunity to profit from the company’s… Read More

You can’t blame Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for trying. Faced with a struggling economy last summer, he devised a massive $600-billion plan to revive the economy, known as QE2 (or the second major round of quantitative easing). Investors are surely pleased,… Read More

It’s been tough sledding for stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) has dropped at least 100 points on four separate trading days so far in May, bringing a wide array of stocks down from recent highs. Lost in the negative price action is… Read More

You’ve heard a lot of talk about gold lately — and for good reason. Gold is loved as a hedge against economic uncertainty. And given the unsteady dollar and ripe conditions for runaway inflation, it’s no surprise gold… Read More