This is no surprise to me that the national unemployment rate rose to 9.2% in the latest numbers released today. I have not been drinking the economic recovery kool-aid and I really don’t see the worst being behind us in terms of economic suffering. This increase in unemployment is only the first indicator of a sour economy continuing to drag [...]

I have been following the BP disaster in the Gulf quite closely and have been especially observant regarding the business and economic ramifications of the event and I feel I have a solution to the revenue problem being realized by station owners. I will be the first to say that a boycott against BP branded gas stations is a childish [...]

I think it’s indicative of the state of the nation’s intelligence when the general consensus among the public is that the government should be determining pay rates for executives of publicly traded companies. I wrote about this topic before with regards to the AIG bonuses and am further outraged by the current Administration’s intent to slash bank executive pay just [...]

The recent upswing in the stock market averages will likely be short lived as all the economic data is digested and analyzed and everyone realizes that the recovery is anything but certain. Unemployment is still at a 26 year high and will likely keep increasing. Holiday sales will most assuredly disappoint later in the year. The stratospheric rally of the [...]

I have been very cautious about the stock market since its meteoric rise from March lows. The economic recovery will be slow and tedious and will most definitely not support this 40%+ stock market growth over the past 6 months and is due for a correction. Already we are seeing oil prices and gold fall. Soon enough, the market will [...]

With all the hype in the press recently about banks who receive government bailout money spending too lavishly on corporate retreats and jets I am left puzzled. Aren’t these parties and purchases a way to stimulate the economy? The money is being spent domestically and has been done so for many years without question. How many hundreds of millions of [...]

OPEC announced a historic cut to oil production today and the market sold off significantly, sending crude oil prices down over $3 a barrel to just over $40. I think the market is oversold, by a significant margin, and this is a tremendous buying opportunity for oil related investments. While the global economic recession is certain, the world’s appetite for [...]

As I have been expecting, crude oil has begun its runup from the $40/barrel low it touched recently. With OPEC announcing what could amount to an unprecendented production cut at their upcoming meeting and the expectation that oil should remain at around $75/barrel, I think there is a lot of upside potential and am heavily invested in Canadian Royal Trusts. [...]

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal was just on CNBC live for an interview with Maria Bartoromo and it proved to be a very interesting conversation. The Prince has increased his stake in Citigroup to 5% and is supportive of the US Government’s increased lending to the bank. I think this additional governmental bailout of Citigroup is still just the beginning and [...]

It’s only a matter of time before the recession that has gripped the European Union stretches across the Atlantic and hit home. With gas prices dropping like a rock I think that consumers will be more inclined to open their wallets a little further this holiday shopping season. Retail sales in the U.S. dropped 2.8% in October, which I didn’t [...]