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2016 IRS Tax Refund Dates It’s always painful to see how much you pay in taxes, but at least there’s a silver lining: your 2016 IRS tax refund. Personally, I know all I want is a tax refund schedule to show me when to expect my tax refund.…

Some of the biggest names in investing publicly stated months ago that the U.S. dollar would fall hard against other world currencies. Big investors, like Warren Buffett, have actually made investment bets the dollar would fall. Why hasn't it happened? Patience, my dear reader, patience. The financial markets…

As I have been saying for the last few years, the auto sector in the U.S. and around the world remains terrible; it's a bad place to have placed your capital. Even with the recent decline in stock prices of automakers to decade lows, we are still not…

It would seem that, if you’re a stock market investor, dividends are your only friend in this market. In fact, dividends have been an equity investor’s only friend since the beginning of last decade. For 11 years now, the S&P 500 Index really hasn’t done anything—it’s down slightly…

The U.S. debt currently stands at a staggering $9.74 trillion, as of September 23 and, worse yet, $2.0 billion a day over the past year. This translates to $31,938 for each American. Now, you may think that fiscal spending should be more constrained, but the reality is that…

The late-day surge in the markets was definitely something investors and traders wanted to see, reflecting the emergence of buying support at the recent lows. Market breadth was extremely strong on Thursday, with buying on very heavy volume, which helped to confirm the underlying strength of the rebound.…

We have a likely debt default in Greece, pegged at a whopping 98%. Ireland and Portugal continue to struggle with muted growth and massive debt. Spain may be needing help. Bond yields are rapidly increasing in Europe in line with the risk levels. You can get a whopping…

Stock markets are extremely shaky at this time, as investor sentiment on both the NASDAQ and broader markets has turned bearish. This is evidenced by the surge in new lows versus new highs.While the current market bias is negative, the recent streak of relatively low trading volume at…

It’s pretty clear that the economy will be in a slow growth state for quite some time and the most important economic statistic to follow will be consumer spending. We know that the economy is going to be lackluster for the next several years, because government spending will…

The floodgates of help from the government continue to open in the United States. It's now believed that Congress wants to use the remaining $350 billion of the $700-billion Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP") to reduce interest rates on consumer mortgages and to forgive some mortgage principal. As…

I'm amazed by the strength of this bear market rally and can only surmise that investors that have been sitting on the sidelines decided to invest a small portion of their cash after a period of exasperation. We had a lot of bad news in a short period…

In the continuing story of excess greed on the part of a few bad apples on Wall Street, the story isn't just the estimated $50.0 billion in losses, but also the complete breakdown of oversight by regulators.  The Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC's) own Chairman, Christopher Cox, came…

Everywhere we look to today, we either hear or see bad news on the economy. In the same way smart investors jumped ship from the real estate market in 2005 and from the stock market in 2007, smart investors today are using the "bad news" to their advantage.…

Never would I believe that U.S. interest rates could fall to zero, but that is simply the reality of the current times. At the Fed meeting on Tuesday, the last one for this year, the Federal Reserve made a bold statement after aggressively cutting the key fed funds…

The year is nearing a close and investors will bid it a fond farewell, hoping for better results in 2009. Yet, with stock markets down as much as 45% this year and with no solid bottom yet in place, we could see more selling to begin the New…

Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its target for the federal funds rate (which is the interest rate banks charge each other on overnight loans) to between zero and one-quarter percentage point. Aside from the Fed's historic move on interest rates, there were two statements in the Federal…

The market news continues to be bad, not only in North America but worldwide. Facing negative headlines makes it difficult for investors to be bullish in the current market and buy stocks. Take a look at some of the headlines over the wires: "Rio Tinto to cut 14,000…

The storm we are facing in the economy today is as strong as most of us can remember. Companies continue to tighten their operations, job losses continue, and the government tries its best by pouring billions of dollars into the "system" in its effort to halt a deflationary…

It's been a tough environment for equity speculators in recent history and the only ones making any decent money are those that are good at index trading. The stock market's actually been rallying fairly well over the last couple of weeks, but I just don't see this as a…

So, how bad is it out there for businesses these days? In two words: Getting worse. I've been traveling extensively for work and all you hear from people are complaints about the economy. In New York, the cab drivers can't make their daily wages. In Tampa, I find…