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President Obama has introduced “Cash for Clunkers,” a subsidy program designed to help the automotive industry, the environment, and drivers with older, less fuel-efficient cars.
Formally named the Customer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) program, “Cash for Clunkers” is designed to stimulate the purchase or lease of brand new cars.

Consumers may be cutting back on a lot of unnecessary spending these days, but many people still see eating out as a “treat.” The average American considers going to a restaurant with family and friends as a relatively inexpensive form of entertainment and pleasure, and a nice break from cooking and cleaning at home. And, [...]

Mining investments are looking attractive. For the last 6 months, this sector has been on the upswing. Iron, used extensively in steel production, isn’t as glamorous as gold, but its importance is critical. Gold is, of course, the standard, and will always be a good recession investment, but the bottom of that market may have [...]

Gillian Tett’s new book, “Fool’s Gold”, is a refreshing and innovative approach to the failings of financial institutions, in that she convincingly ties such failings to the personalities and tribal behavioral patterns of the bankers and economists who putatively cause them. As a trained anthropologist, Tett is well qualified to examine tribal behavior, and her [...]

On April 22nd, the U.S. Energy Departmentannounced that it will spend $6 billion to clean up nuclear weapons facilities dating back to the Cold-War era. This endeavor is part of Barrack Obama’s stimulus package, and more than half of the money is going toward clean up in South Carolina and Washington. In total, twelve states [...]

High-speed rail development is a growing industry worldwide, and President Barack Obama recently committed $13 billion in seed money to the United States’ foray into this hot market. If the federal government follows through with visionary plans for a cross-country high-speed rail system, U.S. companies that specialize in railway equipment, technology and vehicles could get [...]

The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) mark-to-market rule requires firms to report the fair-market value of their assets on a quarterly basis. The valuation is based on the sales price fair market price of equivalent assets. Opponents of mark-to-market contend that in illiquid markets, mark-to-market unduly penalizes companies by making them write-down their assets, [...]

On March 10th of this year, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made a bold statement when he declared that large banking institutions will not be allowed to fail. What this has essentially done is put a temporary bottom in the financial market, and gave investors a reason to starting buying shares of some of [...]

The retail sector has seen some dramatic declines over the last six months. People are losing their jobs, their houses are being foreclosed, and wages have become stagnant. All of these factors spell doom for the retail sector. During a recession, people still spend money they just spend less and often spend [...]

In January 1920, an Italian immigrant discovered an arbitrage potential in international reply coupons - IRC. By purchasing IRCs for stamps in Spain, and then exchanging them for postage in the USA, he could net a profit. Forming a corporation called “Securities Exchange Company”, he decided to raise capital by selling investment coupons [...]