When we began putting this Portfolio together, we started with two premises. First, we’re 100 percent long in stocks at all times, with no cash, bonds or hedge positions. Second, we’re building the Portfolio by systematically picking up companies backed by the highest-quality businesses we can find. These businesses are wired into the ongoing transformation of global systems to a 21st century economy and polity. Read More

When we began putting this Portfolio together, we started with two premises. First, we’re 100 percent long in stocks at all times, with no cash, bonds or hedge positions. Second, we’re building the Portfolio by systematically picking up companies backed by the highest-quality businesses we can find. These businesses are wired into the ongoing transformation of global systems to a 21st century economy and polity. Read More

In the long run, those investors who have a plan and stick to it tend to be more successful. Such an effort requires an understanding of your objectives as well as your risk tolerance. Only you can determine your short-, medium-, and long-term financial goals. And only you know whether you can tolerate wild swings, to the upside as well as the downside. Read More

The TVA disaster is certain to reignite the debate over the environmental impact of coal-fired power plants around the country. But grave as the implications of the spill are for residents of eastern Tennessee, they’re by no means the most serious threat to America’s drinking water supplies. Read More

The TVA disaster is certain to reignite the debate over the environmental impact of coal-fired power plants around the country. But grave as the implications of the spill are for residents of eastern Tennessee, they’re by no means the most serious threat to America’s drinking water supplies. Read More

I look for continued massive government-led investment in alternative energy over the next few years. But this is clearly no time to be an upstart. Rather, the advantages of scale are increasingly coming to the fore. The industry’s biggest and strongest will profit as never before. But smaller rivals--even if they are innovative--are in for a rough ride and survival is most definitely not assured. Read More

I look for continued massive government-led investment in alternative energy over the next few years. But this is clearly no time to be an upstart. Rather, the advantages of scale are increasingly coming to the fore. The industry’s biggest and strongest will profit as never before. But smaller rivals--even if they are innovative--are in for a rough ride and survival is most definitely not assured. Read More

The recent turmoil engulfing the global financial system and economy has had a significant impact on all businesses. There’s a great deal of uncertainty about where we’re headed in 2009, which makes it all the more important to understand how tight credit conditions, for example, will affect day-to-day operations for companies. Read More

It will require a helluva Santa Claus Rally to pull 2008 out of the rare company it’s currently keeping, but we take at least some solace that the last 11-plus months have formed an outlier--a disaster--second to only one. Read More

Billions in unplanned spending, now to be included in the budget scheduled to be presented Jan. 27, will push Canada into its first budget deficit in a decade. The federal government has pledged to accelerate CAD6 billion already set aside for 2009 for infrastructure spending, and provincial and territorial finance ministers will be seeking aid for their particular struggling industries. Read More