Warren Buffett and his geeky, bridge-playing sidekick Bill Gates have talked 40 billionaires, including some of the business world’s marquee names, into giving half their fortunes to charity.   It’s an interesting scenario: If the avuncular Buffett showed up at your house and asked you to donate half… Read More

The unemployment rate in the United States has only recently experienced some moderately good news, dipping back into the single digits to 9.5% — a slight downtick from 9.7% in May. A 9.5% unemployment rate is still… Read More

The largest players in the technology space garner the lion’s share of attention. Investors are obsessed with Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), as are consumers who have shifted from snapping up iPods to iPhones and the newest iPad device. Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) is the other big name that draws attention with its… Read More

As I noted earlier this week, the current market environment could prove to be a real opportunity for investors — if the economy sputters to life. And even as there’s ample reason to expect the economy and the stock market to eventually strengthen,… Read More

In the world of high-speed wireless technology, known as 4G, you can bet on two horses: WiMax,... Read More

In the world of high-speed wireless technology, known as 4G, you can bet on two horses: WiMax, which is a long-distance version of Wi-Fi, or LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution. Sprint (NYSE:... Read More

For Japan, the hits keep on coming. Just last week, China knocked the country off its perch as the... Read More

For Japan, the hits keep on coming. Just last week, China knocked the country off its perch as the world’s second-largest economy, dealing a sharp blow to national pride. But this week’s... Read More

One might think that just because the economy stinks and consumers have cut back on spending that any stock described as being “retail” would be in trouble. For the most part, that would be right. However, there is a relatively unknown… Read More

What do Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Alcoa (NYSE: AA) have in common? They are book-ends on the Dow Jones... Read More

What do Boeing (NYSE: BA) and Alcoa (NYSE: AA) have in common? They are book-ends on the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s ranking of best and worst-performing stocks thus far in 2010. Boeing... Read More

Call it the winner’s curse. When companies grow at fast clip for a long time, investors come to assume they’ll never slow. Of course, all companies eventually grow too large to keep posting explosive growth. Some settle into a more moderate — but still respectable — plane of growth, while… Read More

An easy way to make money in the market is to buy a stock that has been beaten down due to short-term worries. Of course the rub is discerning whether the problem is indeed temporary. But there is considerable upside to identifying a setback that will not permanently impair a… Read More