Google just announced that it will “reorganize” as a new corporate entity named “Alphabet”. In a sense, this is Narcissus looking into a mirror and saying, “I am much more than a silly name meaning the number 1 with so many zeros after it. No, look world, how Colorful I
About one year ago in a previous blog article, we commented on corporate “mergers by inversion”, which is the attempt by a US-based company to buy/merge with a UK-based company in order to reap significant tax benefits due to much lower corporate tax rates in the UK company. The
Featured stock:
An example of a high quality equity which we have recently included in our portfolio is as follows:
LyondellBasell Industries NV (LYB)
LYB is a global manufacturer of chemicals and polymers, based in Rotterdam The Netherlands. LYB has had it’s share of problems having exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April,
The US economy grew about 2.6% in the last quarter of 2014. This is reflective of the growth in consumer spending (which represents about 70% of the US economy) of more than 4%, and less than 2.6% for the rest of the economy, including manufacturing and exports. In
While it may be a bit presumptuous to say that the US economy is still the “epicenter” of the world economy, given that some of the developing countries, especially China continue to grow, albeit slowing, more than the US, the US is still the #1 powerhouse and force in the
Overall inflation in the US is currently running at about 1.5%, still less than the 2.0% target that the Federal Reserve shoots for. Fairly or not, many equate a decrease in inflation enough to cause deflation, with a recessionary environment or economy. While