TheStreet: 5 Reasons the Fed's Economic Progress Is Painfully Slow

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- It should be clear by now that the Federal Reserve is making slow progress toward its dual goals of keeping prices stable and achieving full employment.

Here are five of the biggest reasons the central bank, whose monetary policy committee is meeting this week, is falling short:

Forbes: How To Be The Worst Boss Possible -- Part 1

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Part one of a continuing series. If you aren’t cut out for management, why be just mediocre when with a little more effort you can be truly awful?

Here are some tips.

TheStreet: Is the Fed Putting the 'Chapel of Love' Out of Business?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The chime of wedding bells is becoming rarer and rarer, and it may be the Federal Reserve's fault.

While many young couples choose to get married solely for love, the cost of acquiring a family home can cool their passion, according to a recent study. The effect is a depressing one. 

"A higher housing-cost burden in a county is associated with a lower marriage rate," according to a paper from the Eastern Economic Journal titled " Bricks, Mortar, and Wedding Bells: Does the Cost of Housing Affect the Marriage Rate in the U.S.?" Read more here.

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

TheStreet: Yes, the Dollar Can Buy Love -- And It's About to Buy Even More

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Brace yourselves: The dollar is set to surge once again. 

That's because while there are questions about the strength of the U.S. economy, there's no question that the rest of the world is in an even worse state. 

Read more here.

U.S. News & World Report: How to Buy Stocks When the Dollar is Strong

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The greenback is looking strong, but there's no reason to believe that it can't get even stronger. If it does, then it will have an impact on your investments. Here's why it matters and some key things you need to know.

"It's the kind of thing that Americans don't think about much unless they travel overseas," says Eddy Elfenbein, a Washington, D.C.-based private investor and author of the influential Crossing Wall Street blog. But when the dollar is strong, it does change the way various types of investments perform. "It's like putting a magnet near a compass," he says. Read more here.

Photo by Timis Alexandra on Unsplash

OZY: Can Investors Trust Wall Street's New Ticker Tape?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It wasn’t long ago that IBM Watson emerged as a new kind of Jeopardy! champ in a battle of knowledge against two human quiz whizzes and proved what had long eluded scientists — that computers really could emulate human intelligence. Now one of the brains behind that same technology is playing a part in trying to shape a more democratic Wall Street.

Meet Social Alpha, a New York City-based startup created a couple of years ago by Prem Melville, who not only holds a Ph.D. in artificial intelligence but is also a veteran of the IBM Watson Research Center. Social Alpha’s programs are designed to scour Twitter in an effort to pinpoint hot investing tips — in real time — “to increase profitable trades and reduce investment risk.” How, exactly? Well, it attempts to pinpoint what analysts and investors are saying about stocks in your portfolio or how people feel about certain new investment opportunities, among other things that get discussed in tweets.

Read more here.

U.S. News & World Report: Why There's No Better Time to Buy Commodities

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Commodities haven't just had a rough year. It's been more like a rough half-decade, in which prices of raw materials and foodstuffs were halved. Once a mainstay ingredient in the investing soup, this asset class is now being shunned, and some people are making ever more bearish price forecasts. 

So is it time to jump back in and gain the well-documented investing benefits of adding metals, grains and energy into your investment pot? Maybe so, and there are good reasons to consider it (plus some pitfalls to avoid).

Read more here.