Forbes: Should UnitedHealth Be Allowed To Walk Away From ObamaCare?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Well fancy that!

UnitedHealth Group is warning that it may pull out of the Obamacare (a.k.a. the Affordable Care Act) exchanges after 2016. Why? Because enrollment has been low and the people who have enrolled have tended to use a lot of healthcare, which of course costs United lots of money.

If this doesn’t strike you as unseemly then let me explain. With great privilege comes great responsibility. Noblesse oblige, if you like. The greater the privilege  the greater the responsibility.

Read more here.

TheStreet: Why Age Discrimination Hurts Your Mom the Most

By SIMON CONSTABLE

As if women in corporate life didn't already face enough obstacles, new research shows the challenges get worse with age. 

The authors of a National Bureau of Economic Research paper, who examined 40,000 job applications in cities from New York to Chicago and Los Angeles, found "considerably stronger evidence of discrimination against older women than older men" in fields from sales to teaching, administration and security services. 

Read more here.

OZY: The Hidden Costs of Border Control

By SIMON CONSTABLE

After Friday’s atrocious attacks in Paris, messages of condemnation and condolence were soon joined by a drumbeat of calls for Europe to reintroduce internal border controls. Combined with the deaths of Charlie Hebdo magazine staff earlier this year, it’s easy to see why politicians would want to reintroduce some passport controls, at least to know who is inside which country. No one in their right mind wants a repeat of anything like those events if they can possibly be prevented. The problem is, financially, it would slow the beleaguered European economy, which is still struggling to find robust growth.

Read more here.

Forbes: How To Be The Worst Boss Possible -- Part 3

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Part three of a continuing series, which outlines how you too can achieve the heights of awfulness in management ineptitude. See Part one here and part two here.

Hiring is one of those things that you have to do, but that doesn’t mean you have to do it well. In fact, if you hire badly (either by your natural ability or through studied effort) you can quickly lower performance of your company and demoralize your staff at the same time.

Read more here.

U.S. News: 4 Facts Investors Should Know About Bonds

By SIMON CONSTABLE

If you listen to investment pundits, or read them with any frequency, you'll hear a consistent mantra: Bonds, particularly treasuries, are a losing proposition, at least in the current investment environment. Unfortunately, the analysis behind such a view isn't a valid reason for you to avoid them in your portfolio. That's whether or not you believe interest rates will fall or rise. 

"Bonds provide much more protection than most people realize," says Peter Tchir, managing director of macro income strategy at Brean Capital in Darien, Connecticut. Read more here.

Photo by Michael Longmire on Unsplash

TheStreet: Investors Pull $50B From Emerging Markets, Outpacing '08 Crisis

By SIMON CONSTABLE

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Bearishness about emerging market economies in general, and China in particular, has reached an unprecedented level, according to a fund manager who has specialized in the sector for more than three decades.

"More than $50 billion has been withdrawn from emerging markets in the first nine months of this year, which is more than in the 2008 financial crisis," says Allan Conway, head of emerging market equities at Schroders, and portfolio manager of the $1.3 billion Schroder Emerging Market Equity Fund (SEMNX)

Read more here.  

TheStreet: Why Bubble Phobia Is Bad For Your Investing Health

NEW YORK -- Has the investing world completely succumbed to bubble phobia? 

Maybe the housing crash and the dotcom bust have addled our brains, but hardly a month goes by without someone warning of a bubble. Is the market for Treasuries in a bubble? What about Silicon Valley startups and junk debt? Is there, perhaps, a bubble in everything? 

The problem with that perspective (or rather, the good news) is that financial bubbles just aren't that common, and if you see them everywhere you may be hallucinating. 
Read more here.