Military heroes typically are made of flesh and blood, but that’s all changing. For defense strategists, pilot-less aircraft outfitted with ultra-sophisticated sensors are a vital tactic in fighting the guerilla wars of the 21st century. These so-called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are the darlings of reformers in the Pentagon, and… Read More

With Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) going gangbusters and lifting many other tech firms with it, the S&P Global Technology Index Fund (NYSE: IXN) may be a great idea. IXN’s assets are weighted toward large-cap global tech companies. Other top holdings include Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), IBM (NYSE: IBM)… Read More

Companies focusing on steady growth face a real challenge: recent massive cost-cutting may have boosted bottom-line results, but as economic growth is likely to remain tepid in coming years, it will be hard to keep showing impressive year-over-year gains. At this point in previous economic cycles, management teams have historically… Read More

Personally, I’m not much of a racing fan. But I’m probably in the minority in my neck of the woods (Louisiana). Nationwide, there are millions of avid fans glued to every race — particularly the high-profile NASCAR Sprint Cup events. Last year, the Daytona 500 drew a… Read More

It certainly looked good on paper, but Citigroup’s (NYSE: C) ambition to acquire its way to global dominance as a one-stop shop for clients seeking banking, insurance, investment and just about any financial advice imaginable, has miserably failed. A corporate umbrella that spanned Travelers (NYSE: TRV) and its famous… Read More

Everyone likes a good stock tip: a hot new Internet company, a disruptive technology, an acquisition rumor — anything that gets the adrenaline pumping. This type of hearsay-based buying and selling can net investors a buck or two now and then, but rest assured, someone already knows what you know… Read More

The financial crisis interrupted an unmistakable trend. Worldwide demand for oil, which had been sharply on the rise in the past decade as a result of ever-increasing demand in China and India, plummeted in the past year. While worldwide oil consumption rose from 64.8… Read More

In 2003, former President Bush signed into law the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. One major provision of this law was to reduce the tax rates on certain dividends from nearly 40% for the highest income earners down to 15%. The… Read More

As the United States wrestles with the future of nuclear power, it faces a more prosaic concern: What to do with all of the existing nuclear power plants, many of which were built more than 30 years ago and have already exceeded their originally planned life spans. The choice is… Read More

Thanks to the recent credit crisis, much of which was its own doing, the financial services industry has experienced one of the most volatile operating environments in its history. Fortunately, a heavy dose of government stimulus and calmer capital markets have brought the majority… Read More