What if Wages Rise?

Quick disclaimer: I’m not an economist and I don’t really care about economics at all except as it relates to the investment markets in which I earn my living. As my friend Stephen Weiss likes to say, if you’re attempting to trade based on economic reports, you’re going to need a second job to make…

Late 90’s Rock Revival!

The late 1990’s were a difficult period for rock and roll and the musical genre certainly ended the century (the millennium!) with a whimper. By the end of the 90’s, Britney and Christina were being treated as serious artists, mall-pop music was ascendant and our Total Request Live-obsessed culture was encouraging embarrassing comparisons between the…

Solar’s Big Hurdle

The 30% credit has helped solar installations increase by 1,600% annually since it took effect in 2006. Industry employment has grown from 15,000 to about 143,000 at more than 6,100 companies. At the same time, the cost of solar power has fallen from an average of $7.50 per watt in 2009 to $2.89 per watt…

“BlackBerrys down, heads up … This is urgent.”

One of the major stumbling blocks to a broad-based financial stock rally is Citigroup’s persistent inability to get its shit together. The Wall Street Journal recounts the company’s horrid 2014 so far… Bulls argue the stock is cheap – and they’re right. But it’s been cheap for a long time and the company continues to…

This Week on TRB

These were the most read posts on TRB this week, in case you missed them: How New York City Works Reckoning for the Rollover Pigs The Investment Management Business in a Nutshell “the essence of shadow banking is giving people a liquid claim on illiquid assets.” No bulls were harmed in the making of this…

“Hedge funds set the price of stocks”

ConvergEx strategist Nicholas Colas has just spent the week in London meeting with institutional clients of his brokerage firm. He relays the fact that London is now the quintessential globalized financial center (centre?) and that it’s filled with oligarchs from around the world and the high performance sports cars they so adore. London is spotless,…