TheStreet: For Big Love, Make Sure Your Credit Scores Match

by SIMON CONSTABLE

Ugh! The dating scene just got worse.

Now you have another annoying item to add to the already enormous list of things you should look for in your potential mate: Their credit scores.

The two key takeaways: 

• Big differences in scores mean big problems for the relationship.
• Ideally, you should both have high credit scores.

Read more here.

U.S. News: How Taking a TV News Fast Makes for Better Investing

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The terrorist attacks in Brussels, Paris and Pakistan are reminders that we live in a dangerous world. While we mourn the loss of the victims, it's important to make sure that emotional responses don't harm our investment decisions. 

That advice is good not just in the face of terrorism, but all the time. Rash investment decisions usually don't pay off. 

Here's one way to avoid a mistake – take a TV news fast. Or, limit what type of television you consume and how much of it. Try the same thing with other media, too. Read more here.

OZY: Can Anyone Bring American Companies Home Again?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Trumpisms, verbal attacks and aggressive stances for taking down ISIS have all been shared on Republican debate stages of late. But one sentiment has largely been missed: that time when GOP candidates tried to knock out their opponents using a serious While there’s little agreement across party lines on personal taxes, there may be some consensus on the business front. 

“Corporate taxes are the one area [where] there could be tax reform,” says Bill Cobb, CEO of tax preparer H&R Block. Cobb should know. He routinely roams government hallways, keeping his finger on the policy-change pulse. And it seems that this election cycle some candidates are pushing to fix a unique U.S. tax wrinkle: the double taxation of offshore corporate profits, even though the companies have already paid local taxes in other countries. Read more here.

Photo by Kevin Lanceplaine on Unsplash

WSJ: Do College Students Pick Majors Based on Potential Earnings?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

“If only I knew then what I know now,” is a common lament among some workers about their (perhaps suboptimal) choices at college.

It relies on the rather dodgy idea that you could somehow have the insights of a 35-year-old when you’re only 19.

But what if you could? That is, what if while you were young, you were exposed to real data that called into question some of your beliefs? A couple of researchers tried it with a group of New York University students who had misinformed views about wages in various fields. Read more here.

Barron's: Wheat and Corn Prices Could Head Higher Soon

By SIMON CONSTABLE

If you truly believe in the investing maxim “buy low, sell high,” now is the time to chew on some grain. Unfavorable weather conditions and increased global grain consumption are expected to lift prices for wheat and corn out of a slump that has lasted for years.

Wheat prices have been cut in half in the past four years, to a recent $4.63 a bushel from more than $9 in mid-2012. Corn prices have fared similarly, falling to $3.70 a bushel recently from more than $8 in the summer of 2012.

Growing conditions were so favorable in the past few years for both wheat and corn that production outstripped demand, sending stockpiles higher. But the likelihood of bad weather in the future could dramatically change this dynamic. Read more here.

U.S. News: Buying Spree Ahead for Regional Banks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Never mind the glamour of Wall Street's enormous institutions – the real banking action is in the heartland. 

Larger regional banks are already gobbling up smaller rivals as the business suffers from reduced profitability, increased red tape and the hefty cost increases. It's a trend that looks likely to continue indefinitely. Read more here.

TheStreet: What CarMax and Google Have in Common: Hennessy Fund Stock Picks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Spare auto-parts, used cars, and the world's biggest search engine might seem to have little in common. Yet all are top picks at the $2.2 billion  Hennessy Focus Fund(HFCSX) . 

Its performance over the decade through December is in the top 2%, when compared with other midcap funds. How's it done? TheStreet asked one of the portfolio managers, David Rainey, who works for the fund's sub-adviser  Broad Run Investment Management. He and two others pick the stocks.  

Here's what Rainey said.

OZY: The Economics Of Wall Street's Exodus

By SIMON CONSTABLE

For decades, many top grads wanted to be wolves of Wall Street, residing in trading rooms where vast sums of cash flowed in and out. And if they were lucky enough to land a position, they’d likely end up watching multiple blinking screens of asset prices all day while juggling two or three phones — and probably earning a hefty paycheck.

But something has changed. Read more here.

Forbes: Good, Fast, Cheap -- Worst Bosses Demand All Three

By SIMON CONSTABLE 
Part 14 of a continuing series, which outlines how you too can be an appalling manager. Read part 13 here.

It’s something of a economic law that you cannot get something which is good, fast, and cheap. Think for instance of the interior redecorating of your new home.

• If it is fast and good, then it will not be cheap.
• If it is good and cheap, then it will not be fast.
• If it is cheap and fast, then it will not be good.

However, you can have any two items on that list. Good managers know this as surely as they know that they cannot expect to drink the finest champagne for the same price as a no-name soda. They make tradeoffs. They know that good things will either be expensive or take time.

That’s why as an aspiring “worst possible boss” you must insist, I repeat insist, that you have all three. Here's how.

Forbes: Alexander Hamilton As U.S. Economic Architect

By SIMON CONSTABLE

How did America get so rich so quickly?

It’s a question at the heart of economics, which in one broad definition, is a study of how some countries get rich and some stay poor.

Some people, including me, would say that the United States benefited hugely from sound property rights and hands-off government (as in “keep your filthy hands off my stuff.”) Then add some bootstraps to pull, a lot of hard work, and then hopefully you get rich.

Not everyone sees it quite like that. For instance, the authors of the recently published book Concrete Economics: The Hamilton Approach to Economic Growth and Policy by Stephen S. Cohen and J. Bradford DeLong, say there was a heavy policy role for government in the early years of the republic, and one that continued quite successfully until it all went wrong starting with the Reagan administration in the 1980s. Read more here.

U.S. News: Hidden Mutual Fund Fees That Are Robbing Your Returns

By SIMON CONSTABLE

So you've accumulated a nest egg by investing in mutual funds. Congratulations! That puts you ahead of the game. 

But to grow an even bigger stash, try squeezing out the fees. 

"Make sure you pay as little of that gross return in fees as you can," says Mitch Tuchman, managing director at Rebalance IRA, a financial services company in Palo Alto, California. Fees ultimately eat into any gains made by the mutual funds you own. 

But mutual fund fees are only about 1 percent of the assets, right? Wrong – on three counts. 

Read more here.

Fortune: Here Are the Stocks to Buy if Donald Trump Becomes President

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Big change in the land’s highest office can mean big changes in the economy.In general, promises are broken or only half kept. Still, we get clues on which areas of the economy will be favored, and which will not. Health care got a boost under President Obama, and defense did well under George W. Bush.

With any politician running for office it’s hard to know exactly how things will turn out if they’re elected. What if Donald Trump were to become the next U.S. President, which sectors would benefit then? Here’s what some experts had to say on the matter:

TheStreet: Scrap the C-note to Stop Crime? It's a Red Herring

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Something smells fishy about the call to scrap large denomination currency, such as the U.S. $100 bill and the €500 note.

The idea, forwarded by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, is that the only people who really use such money are criminals and terrorists.

"Extensive analysis is totally convincing on the linkage between high denomination notes and crime," Lawrence wrote in a recent editorial for The Washington Post.

The problem is that such assertions don't pass even the most cursory sniff test. Read more here.

U.S. News: The Disconnect Between the Economy and Wall Street

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Ugh! The financial world seems to have developed a touch of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, the economy is slowly, but surely, getting better. On the other hand, investors seem jittery, like addicts waiting in agony for their next fix. 

It can be confusing, but here's what you need to know. Read more here.

TheStreet: Lower Oil Prices Are Actually Stopping a U.S. Recession, Not Causing One

By SIMON CONSTABLE

What a difference a few months makes: Not so long ago, hand-wringing pundits warned that plunging oil prices portended an ugly global recession from which the U.S. wouldn't escape.

Now that concern seems overblown. The economy continues to grow and add jobs -- 242,000 in February, according to the latest government data. Read more here.

WSJ: Gender Bias in Hedge Funds?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Running a successful hedge fund is a challenge for anyone. But it’s especially hard for women, a recent study says.

Hedge funds run by women are struggling for capital despite there being no statistically significant difference in performance between their funds and those run by men, according to new research. Part of the reason, say the researchers, is that women running hedge funds get a low level of news-media attention. Read more here.

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WSJ: What Is the Presidential Predictor?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Will the stock market’s performance this year determine who will be the next U.S. president?

It’s a questionable proposition, but a study of market data in presidential election years since World War II found a strong correlation between the performance of the S&P 500 index and who ended up in the White House. Read more here.

Forbes: Truman's Forgotten Economic Crisis

By SIMON CONSTABLE

President Harry S. Truman is famous for many great lines, including one of my favorites: ”I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”

What perhaps isn’t so well known is the economic turmoil his administration had to navigate as peace broke out.

Kenneth Weisbrode reveals that story, as well as other parts of the first post-war year, in his new book: The Year of Indecision, 1946: A Tour Through the Crucible of Harry Truman’s America. It was published in March. 

Read more here.

Forbes: Worst Boss Possible Part 13

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Part 13 of a continuing series, which outlines how you too can be an appalling manager. Read part 12 here.

I read with horror about a new practice sweeping the offices of corporate America. It seems tailor-made for the awful manager. In this case, a very high level manager.

CNN Money reports that companies are introducing “hoteling” and “beach toweling.” Confused?

Read more here.

Forbes: Worst Boss Possible -- Part 12

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Part 12 of a continuing series, which outlines how you too can be an appalling manager. Read part 11 here.

One of the things I've noticed about great bosses is that they are consistent in the way they treat their team. It's not just in one way, but in all. For instance, they are typically consistently fair, consistently level headed, consistently decent to people, consistently respectful, consistently encouraging etc. You get the idea.

I have had bosses who behaved this way and I adored them. However, this column is about how to be truly awful as a manager.

If you want any chance of achieving the status of the world's worst boss, then you must in no way be consistent. Instead, you should strive for what I call "self-contradictory inconsistencies."

Read more here.

U.S. News: Why Is Investor Sentiment So Bad?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Mr. Market has caught a case of the grumps. The question is why – and what that means for your investments. 

Pessimism remains above its historical average of 30 percent for a seventh consecutive week and for the ninth time in 10 weeks, according to the American Association of Individual Investors. 
That ambivalence has led investors to buy so-called safe-haven investments such as Treasury bonds and gold, rather than riskier assets such as stocks. Read more here.

Photo by Niklas Kickl on Unsplash