On Tuesday, I brought my Scarcity & Real Wealth subscribers some important news, some of it bad, some of it good. The bad news: rare earth miner Molycorp (NYSE: MCP), one of my favorite stocks in this exciting sector, was down 22% on Tuesday, Sept. 20. Since then, it’s fallen… Read More

In recent weeks, I’ve been focusing all my efforts on large- and mid-cap stocks, especially those with strong balance sheets and consistent free cash flow. Many of these rock-solid companies offer a degree of stability in this… Read More

A discussion about dividends used to revolve solely around stocks. Not anymore. The evolution of the exchange-traded products business has been a boon to income investors. Dozens of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) now fit into the ”Dividend ETF” classification.. Read More

A winning trade is often about connecting the dots. If one company is set to steal market share from another, it often pays to take two actions: Go long the market share winner and short the market share loser.   Unfortunately, I… Read More

Let’s be honest. When you hear about a stock that yields 12% or more, your first thought should be that the company is probably a basket case that can’t even turn a profit. If it’s offering a… Read More

In my nearly two years penning articles for StreetAuthority, I’ve made my share of winning and losing calls. Thankfully, the track record has been largely positive, so I hope I’ve made readers a lot more money than I’ve lost them. As much as I hate the idea of a bad… Read More

Think the credit-card business has been forever crimped by the Credit Card Reform Act of 2009? Or, maybe you think it’s simply dead in the water because nobody wants, needs, or can get credit after 2008’s lingering debt debacle. This is what the… Read More

The brutal market swoon has reminded us of an oft-repeated lesson: even the best companies can get swept up in a downdraft. This across-the-board selling, frequently the result of an economic slowdown, can end up revealing a clear chasm. On the one side are companies that would indeed run into… Read More

I’ve found what I think is one of the safest dividend-paying stocks on the planet. In the past year, this company earned $8.1 billion dollars in profits and only distributed $4.5 billion in dividends. In other words, it could see its… Read More

The massive government stimulus measures passed by the U.S. Congress in 2009 and 2010 enabled states to continue their work on major municipal projects. New highway spurs were completed, roadbeds were repaved and creaking bridges were shored-up. This not only provided work for individuals at a time when unemployment figures… Read More