U.S. News: These Stocks Will Be Winners This Holiday Season

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The holiday season could be good for investors this year as consumers seem to have found their spending mojo. But it pays to understand where the dollars will likely flow so that investors can target stocks that should outperform analysts' expectations.

"The improving condition of the U.S. consumer implies a fairly brisk holiday shopping season ahead," says Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at professional services firm RSM.

Read more here.

OZY: Building Blocks for A Cheaper Housing Market

By SIMON CONSTABLE

In the mid-1970s, my grandfather retired after decades with the Admiralty, the U.K.’s equivalent of the U.S. Navy, and bought the first home he ever owned — paying 100 percent cash for it. Not bad for a man who spent most of his life getting by on a government salary. These days, the idea that an average working person in Britain or the U.S. could accomplish such a thing seems ludicrous, a truly impossible dream.

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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.

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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