The term “emerging markets” has lost its meaning over the years due to many reasons. Some countries categorized as emerging countries are actually well developed. For example, MSCI considers the developed countries of Taiwan and South Korea to be emerging countries for technical reasons. The political and economic systems of these countries are equal if …
Continue reading ‘Standish: Emerging Markets Should Be Called ASTERISCS’ »
The US banking industry is still suffering from many fronts despite the billions of dollars in bailouts in the past few years. Accordingly investors are dumping bank stocks with no end in sight. Today Bank of America (BAC), one of the super-banks fighting for investors’ respect, reached a new low of $5.52. Like Citigroup (C), …
Continue reading ‘Goldman Sachs: Correlation Between US and European Banks Rising Dramatically’ »
The U.S. has one of the lowest individual income tax rates among the developed countries. For example, the top individual tax rate used to be 91% in 1960. For the 17 years from 1965-1981, the top individual marginal tax rate was 70%. However President Ronald Reagan reduced it drastically from 70% to 28%. Currently the top …
Continue reading ‘Why Higher Taxes Are Not a Barrier to Economic Growth’ »
Investors waiting to return to equities may want to consider the quality cycle, according to an article in the Risk and Reward report published by Invesco Perpetual of UK. Bear markets and recessions are usually followed by “junk rallies” in which low-quality stocks take the lead and their outperform high-quality peers. These speculative rallies can …
Continue reading ‘For the Next Stock Market Rally, Watch The Quality Cycle’ »
Healthcare stocks are generally considered as defensive stocks. So investors looking for a place to hide in the current volatile equity markets can consider this sector. In this post let us take a quick look at some of the foreign healthcare equipment makers and service providers traded on the U.S. markets. The universe of foreign …