What really happened on May 18, 2012, with the botched IPO of Facebook Inc. (Nasdaq: FB)?
In a recent conversation about resources I had with Rick Rule, founder of Sprott Global Resource Investments, our talk kept coming back to water
One megatrend continues on its path, unperturbed, with no end in sight: The East’s huge push for investing in gold.
European Union leaders have seemingly changed their tune lately on how best to deal with the long-running Eurozone debt crisis.
My first thoughts on Wednesday’s announcement of a merger between Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. and Smithfield Foods Inc. (NSYE: SFD) selfishly went straight to my refrigerator: about the last thing that I want to eat is a Chinese meat product.
The United States’ Eisenhower Interstate Highway System was the biggest, most expensive public works project since the Pharaohs had the Pyramids built.
This may sound funny, but water availability is becoming an issue in energy generation. And it may start to impact prices.
The issue here is not the environmental impact of water usage. That is quite a different debate.
What I’m talking about today is the water supply/demand issue.
Because water is plentiful in those areas of the U.S. where shale gas and tight oil drilling is most concentrated, the price of the water itself is very low.
But there are three other costs involved with the usage of water, and those are beginning to cause some serious concerns.
Here’s what I mean…
One of the biggest problems facing investors nearing retirement is how to invest their money in such a way that they will have the capital needed to fund their golden years.
This is a syndicated repost published with the permission of Money Morning. To view original, click here. Opinions herein are not those of the Wall Street…
As an economist, I wince whenever I hear someone say that we live in a true free market.
The reality is we live in a semi-free market where regulation stifles business and corporate money influences and distorts what would normally be a highly competitive marketplace.
And over the last two decades, the situation has only gotten worse for consumers, producers, and defenders of the so-called “free market.”
From 2008 to 2010, 30 major corporations paid more money in lobbying fees than they did in taxes, according to the Public Campaign.
But while traditional lobbying once centered on altering tax rates and encouraging legislation to liberalize and deregulate the economy, it has now evolved into a competitive weapon for companies trying to box out competitors and raise barriers to entry in their markets.
It’s a business phenomenon that I like to call the “Rise of the Fifth Rail.”
You see, in traditional markets, companies compete on four specific principles: Price, product quality promotion, and place (market access). These principles are known as the “four P’s.”
The first three are self-explanatory in that customers want the highest quality product at the cheapest price. Companies use promotional techniques to instill a need for its products and do so by marketing against the offerings of a competitor.
The fourth principle centers on a company’s ability to reach new markets and still provide low prices for high-quality products. A strong coordinated distribution network tends to make this possible.
Naturally, when all four work together, you end up with a company like Walmart (NYSE: WMT), which has the ability to provide low, everyday prices due to its best-in-class distribution network.
But over the last few decades, this new phenomenon of using lobbying as a competitive tool has altered the course of market economics, and driven fair competition into the ground.
And that phenomenon is rotting the American free market from the inside.