Forbes: 5 Surprising Lessons From Medieval Warrior-Knights That Every Leader Should Learn

By SIMON CONSTABLE

America’s obsession with the new and funky means that sometimes our leaders forget the lessons of the past.

That’s why a quick flick through Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands, is not only grounding but instructive as well. Publication is scheduled for October 1. Read more here.

Forbes: Coming Soon To America: The​ Incredible Shrinking Savings Account

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Savers are having a hard time in most places but it’s far worse in Denmark. 

In the Scandinavian country, some savers must pay the bank to look after their money not vice versa. Worse still, such a weird phenomenon will likely come to the U.S. sooner or later.

Here’s what you need to know. Read more here.

Korn Ferry: The Thomas Cook Nosedive

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Britain just suffered a vacation nightmare. 

Thomas Cook Group, the iconic British travel company that all-but-invented the package holiday in the early 1800s has gone bust after almost two centuries doing business. It leaves 21,000 people without jobs, hundreds of thousands of holiday makers stranded and lots of questions about what exactly went wrong. Read more here.

Korn Ferry: Is Brexit Really One Month Away?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

With just weeks to go before the country's scheduled Brexit 'leave date' of October 31, even the British government has the jitters about the potential for economic chaos.

Cabinet ministers recently revealed part of the disaster plan if the UK exits the EU without a trade deal. The report, named Yellowhammer, warns about supply disruptions in medicine and food, as well as long border delays for commercial trucks. There's also the potential for civil unrest. Read more here.

Forbes: Trump's Tweets Shows How The Fed Lost Its Credibility With Investors

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Observers have long suspected that President Donald Trump's jawboning of the Federal Reserve may hurt the central bank's credibility with investors.

Now they have proof in the form of a recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research. Read more here.

Forbes: The Eurozone Economy Slips Even Further Into Malaise

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Europe's single currency area is sinking further into economic malaise and the authorities will likely need to act further to help. Read more here.

TheStreet: Why Europe Will Feel More Pain From the Oil Market Than the U.S.

TheStreet: 3 Reasons Investors Should Avoid European Stocks as Oil Prices Rise

By SIMON CONSTABLE

This week's jump in oil prices is likely to be far more damaging to Europe than it will be to the U.S.

For that reason, savvy investors would do well to avoid stocks dependent on activity in Europe and instead look elsewhere for investments. Read more here.

John Batchelor Show: More Brexit News

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Photo by James Giddins on Unsplash

Korn Ferry: UK Pay: It's Back to 2007

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

It only took twelve years.

Inflation-adjusted wages in the United Kingdom are finally back to the level they were just before the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Raises are even exceeding the rising cost of living, with average pay increasing at a 3.9% annual clip versus the 2.1% inflation rate. "It's about time, too," says Ben Frost, Korn Ferry's global manager for pay. Read more here.

WSJ: What Is Machine-Read Analyst Sentiment?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Wall Street firms increasingly are using artificial intelligence to get a read on how analysts feel about certain stocks. That has given birth to a term that investors may start hearing and reading about more often: “machine-read analyst sentiment,” or MRAS. Read more here.

Photo by Mike Hindle on Unsplash

Barron's: A British Construction Stock Offers a Solid Foundation

By SIMON CONSTABLE

London-based infrastructure company Balfour Beatty could provide a solid foundation for investors looking to diversify internationally.

The stock (ticker: BBY.UK or BAFYY), which has a market cap of £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion), is exceptionally cheap, and management has done an impressive job of improving profitability over the past few years. Read more here.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Forbes: Venezuela's Capital Caracas Now The Worst Big City The Western Hemisphere

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Is Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro trying to act like an advert for how not to run a country? It sure looks like that.

Caracas, the country's capital, now ranks as the least liveable large city in the western hemisphere, according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Read more here.

Caracas, Venezuela

Photo by Wilfredor, 

CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Featured in the American Institute for Economic Research

All the survivors of the great newspaper wars of the last several decades, WaPo, NYT, WSJ, LA Times, and so forth, diversify their pageview portfolios by publishing articles along that spectrum. Some great economic journalists, like Jason Zweig and Simon Constable, are thereby able to continue to ply their craft, but readers rightfully remain wary of misleading reporting.

Read full post here.

Korn Ferry: New German Angst?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Contractions in the German economy are as rare as they come. Only now, the latest slowing has stirred concern it won’t be a fluke for this EU stalwart.

In the second quarter, the country’s gross national product dropped 0.1%, only the third quarterly contraction in the last five years. Coming off a year of economic uneasiness on the continent and beyond, the results were enough to raise some serious recession fears. Indeed, one analyst is now declaring that Germany’s “golden decade” is over. Read more here.

Forbes: More Bad News For Germany's Economy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The bad news just keeps on coming for Europe's largest economy, Germany.

Already we know that the German economy contracted in 0.1% in the second quarter. But mounting evidence now suggests that the third quarter will offer a repeat performance of declining output.

If that happens the country would officially be in a recession, which is generally defined as two back-to-back quarters of negative growth. Read more here.

TheStreet: Gold Prices Are Pointing to a Significant Decline in the Bond Market

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Bond investors should brace themselves for a significant reversal.

While corporate fixed-income has done well these past few months, the gold market suggests that may be coming to an end soon. The problem is that a rallying bond market and surging gold prices would seem to be incompatible, according to new research. Read more here.

Forbes: Investors Flee China As Trade War, Hong Kong Jitters Bite - $65 Billion Leaves in Latest Quarter

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The U.S.-China trade war and the recent violent Hong Kong protests are giving people a case of the jitters.

They've pulled a staggering $64.7 billion out of China in the three months through July, according to new research from the Washingon D.C.-based think tank, The Institute of International Finance. Read more here.

Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes: Did Trump Just Act Like Britain's King Just Before The 1776 Revolution?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Last Friday U.S. President Donald Trump ordered American companies to stop doing business in China. The move came as part of Trump's fast-deteriorating trade negotiations with China. Read more here.

Forbes: Hong Kong's Richest Man Makes Multibillion-dollar Bet On Britain

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

The truly rich don't get that way without being well, truly savvy with their money. So when a bona fide billionaire makes a big bet on something it pays to take notice and possibly do something similar. Read more here.

Hot-desking Story Featured in Slate.France

Le «hot desking», un open space de l'enfer

Read more here.

Joe Piscopo Show: Talking Jobs, Economy, Tariffs

TheStreet Video: Why Bitcoin Is Still Nowhere Near Money

By SIMON CONSTABLE

TheStreet: Bitcoin Failed as a Safe-Haven Investment Last Week

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Whatever bitcoin might be, it isn't a substitute for gold bullion. 

Specifically, it fails as a hedge.

"I would call gold more of hedge and bitcoin more of a speculation," says Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Chicago-based Cresset Capital Management. Read more here.

Featured in MarketWatch Story on FoodStamps

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

"Why would the administration want to take critical food assistance away from children and families who need it? The administration has claimed ineligible people are using the program, perhaps fraudulently. But that’s unlikely.
Looking at figures through 2016, Forbes contributor Simon Constable calculated potentially fraudulent SNAP expenditures at under 1% of the cost of the program — a minuscule amount compared to behemoth agencies like the Pentagon, which can’t even pass an audit, and which nonetheless keeps getting budget increases."

Read the full story here.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Lance Cheung/Photojournalist/USDA/Lance Cheung,

Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On "Liquid Lunch" Talking Economics, Brexit, Recession

Featured in The Sun newspaper

The Sun newspaper included comments of Constable on a story about the uprising in Hong Kong.

Commentator and author Simon Constable warns on Forbes: “If protests continue in Hong Kong, and inspire mainlanders to act similarly, then the army will take control of the Hong Kong territory and crush the protesters.
“At that point, you’ll have a Tiananmen Square crackdown take two, only it will be in Hong Kong, not Beijing.”

Read the full story here.

Forbes: Gold To Reach Almost $1,700 Next Year, UBS Says

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Gold prices could rally more than 10% in the next 18 months, a new report says.

The bullion bounce surge, which has taken off this month, will continue to be propelled by mounting investor worries, according to Swiss bank UBS. Read more here.

TheStreet: Why You Should Buy Pipeline Stock Antero Midstream

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Antero Midstream is a victim of guilt by association, and investors should consider taking advantage.

The stock of the natural-gas-pipeline and energy-storage company is woefully undervalued, offers solid dividends and has growth potential. Read more here.

Joe Piscopo Show: More Trade Wars

Korn Ferry: A Triple Whammy Against Women’s Pensions in the UK

By SIMON CONSTABLE

As corporate issues go, gender pay continues to pick up growing attention and concern. But new data suggests the size of pension gaps may be far greater—and harder to resolve. Read more here.

Barron's: Corn Crop Problems Could Lead to Higher Prices

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The corn crop looks set to go from bad to worse, which should boost prices of the grain.

The combination of a weather-related planting delay, lower-than-forecast crop yields, and the probability of fall frost could conspire to produce double-digit gains in futures prices. Read more here.

Barron's: A Bad Bet on the U.K. Real Estate Market

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Dumping United Kingdom–based real estate listings service Rightmove might be, well, the right move for investors. Read more here.

TheStreet: Russia Investigates Apple Over Possible Abuse of Dominant Market Position

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Russia is investigating tech giant Apple over allegations the company is abusing its dominant market positions.

Apple is no stranger to strange claims against it coming out of Russia. In 2015, Russia investigated the tech giant over allegations of producing homosexual propaganda. Read more here.

WSJ: Money Rains on a Cloud ETF

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A new exchange-traded fund focused on cloud computing is off to a strong start with an investment strategy that differs from an established rival’s.

Global X Cloud Computing (CLOU) ETF, which launched April 12, has already drawn about $475 million of inbound investment flows. With market gains, the fund now has a shade over half a billion dollars in assets. Read more here.

Photo by Pero Kalimero on Unsplash

WSJ: What Does ‘Premium-Priced Bonds’ Mean?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Investors may increasingly find bond-market strategists referring to “premium-priced bonds.” Individuals would do well to understand the terminology because it may help them make better investments. Read more here.

WSJ: ETFs Don’t Rule Gold, After All, Says One Analysis

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The launch of exchange-traded funds backed by gold bullion changed the way investors could access the precious-metals market.

Nevertheless, professional investors still prefer to buy or sell futures contracts when investing in gold, according to a recent report. Read more here.

Photo by Realterm, 

CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, 

via Wikimedia Commons

Barron's: The Iron Ore Boom Looks Like It’s About to Go Bust

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The recent iron-ore boom may be ending. Production of the mineral, which is used to make steel, is rebounding after recent disaster-related interruptions to mining operations. That supply surge, along with slipping demand, should send prices into a tailspin, analysts say. Read more here.

TheStreet: Newell Brands Posts Profit Slump but Beats Wall Street Expectations

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Shares of Newell Brands were rallying in premarket trading Friday despite a massive drop in profit after the consumer-goods conglomerate's second-quarter adjusted earnings beat forecasts. Read more here.

TheStreet: GoPro Misses on Earnings, Gets Boost From Upbeat Outlook

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Shares of beleaguered action-camera company GoPro rose in after-hours Thursday after issuing an upbeat outlook despite missing quarterly earnings estimates. Read more here.

TheStreet: Cloudera Rallies After Activist CarI Icahn Takes 12.6% Stake

By SIMON CONSTABLE 

Cloudera was jumping in premarket trading Friday on news that activist investor Carl Icahn had taken a 12.6% stake in the data analytics company.

In regulatory filings, Icahn revealed that along with his associated businesses he had accumulated the position. Icahn is chairman of New York-based conglomerate Icahn Enterprises. The filing also said Icahn might seek seats on Cloudera's board. Read more here.

TheStreet: Yeti Crushes Earnings and Revenue Estimates, Raises Outlook

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Yeti Holdings, the maker of Rambler mugs and coolers, smashed expectations with its second-quarter earnings report and raised its profit outlook for the year.The company earned 33 cents a share after adjustments, far better than the 30 cents that Wall Street expected. Read more here.

TheStreet: Fitbit Skips a Beat, Shares Plunge on Lowered Revenue Outlook

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Fitbit, the maker of wearable fitness trackers, was skipping a lot of beats in premarket trading Thursday after saying revenue for the year would be lower than it previously forecast. Read more here.

Photo by Sigmund on Unsplash

TheStreet: Beyond Meat Tumbles After Secondary Offering Is Priced at $160/Share

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The sizzle just left shares of plant-based protein producer Beyond Meat. 

The stock was off more than 6% in premarket trading Thursday following the pricing of a secondary offering of shares Wednesday evening. Read more here.

TheStreet: Why Silver Will Be a Better Bet Than Gold if the Precious Metals Rally Continues

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Anyone bullish on precious metals should consider silver instead of gold.

The white metal tends to see far more volatility, which is an advantage for traders in an up-trending market. Plus, silver prices are still playing catch-up with gold based on historical price analysis. Read more here.

Forbes: Brace Yourself For A Replay Of The 1989 Tiananmen Square Crackdown

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Three decades ago, the world watched aghast as the Chinese government crushed democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square Beijing.

Investors in China should brace themselves for a repeat performance. Read more here.

Forbes: Krugman Misses The Target On Corporate Taxes

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Economist Paul Krugman just wrote a column excoriating the Trump administration for a supposed multibillion-dollar tax giveaway to foreign corporations.

Unfortunately, Krugman hasn't just gotten hold of the wrong end of the stick, but rather the wrong stick entirely. Read more here.

Forbes: How A Corporate Debt-diet Is Saving Stocks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

At the beginning of the year, many investors were terrified that corporate America's debt binge would end in tears resulting in crashing stocks. But it didn't happen that way, not even nearly. Read more here.

Forbes: Don't Blame A Slowing Economy For Auto Industry Woes

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The car stocks have had a rotten time lately, but investors shouldn't blame the economy. Some of the industry's problems stem from car loans made to people with less than perfect credit. Read more here.

Barron's: How to Make a Fat Profit From Lean Hog Futures

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Commodity investors should consider pigging out on lean hogs. A record-breaking drop in global pork production will mean a massive shortfall of meat, which could spark a rally in hog prices of at least 20% by year end. 

“There isn’t enough pork in the word to solve this shortage,” Shawn Hackett, president of Boca Raton, Fla.–based Hackett Financial Advisors, told Barron’s. “Certainly, it can go back and retest these highs we saw earlier the year, and it may not stop there.” Read more here.