Street Fight: Comcast Rolling Out a New Local Ad Service

By SIMON CONSTABLE

For local businesses looking for advertising, there’ll be a new kid in town to help this summer. Better still, ad buyers will get the help for free. The service, called Stratasphere, is a new offering from Comcast-owned Strata, which already has three decades in the business of connecting ad sellers with ad buyers.
Read more here.

Forbes: What You Should Love About Trump's Tax Proposal

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Wednesday we got a look at how the Trump Administration wants to overhaul the U.S. tax system.

While it is not perfect there are some things to love about the proposal.

First, remember that it is a wish list. That is to say, not everything on the proposal will come to pass, but some of it shall. Hopefully, what gets enacted are some of the better ideas. Read more here.

Forbes: It's The Corporate Tax Cut That Will Drive Growth

By SIMON CONSTABLE

President Trump is set to announce tax reform today. Anyone interested in economic growth should focus on what he says about corporate taxes.

While the likely proposal will likely involve changes to individual tax rates, it is the corporate tax rate that has the potential to spur economic growth more than what will likely happen to individual taxes. Read more here.

U.S. News: Does OPEC Matter Anymore?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

There was once a time when oil market traders could win or lose based on just a few words from OPEC oil ministers. These days, not so much.

For investors, there is an important question: Is OPEC even worth worrying about?

Just as with many things in investing, the answer is nuanced. Read more here.

Pensions & Investments: How institutions caught gold fever last year

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Large money managers and investors dove into gold bullion and other precious metals in a big way last year. They did so through exchange-traded funds. Read more here.

 

Photo by Scottsdale Mint on Unsplash

Forbes: Why Slavery Wasn't Just A Monstrous Evil, It Was Also Bad Economics

By SIMON CONSTABLE

It should be clear to all right-thinking people that slavery was and is a moral abomination. Most would leave the matter at that, hoping that never again will the practice become entrenched in any society.

Not so, Robert E. Wright, chair of political economy at Augustana University and treasurer of Historians Against Slavery. He decided to delve further into the matter, looking at the economics of the situation.

The result is his recently published book, The Poverty of Slavery. Read more here.

Middle East Eye: Saudi sale of Aramco a major economic challenge

By SIMON CONSTABLE

For more than half a century, Saudi Arabia and crude oil have gone together like baseball and hotdogs. But that may be about to change.

One young prince wants to ditch the country’s dependency on oil exports, with the process starting in earnest next year when there are plans to sell the state-owned oil company, Aramco. It’s a high stakes move with the future prosperity of the kingdom depending on the success of the effort.

Few observers expect the process to be smooth. Worse still, the world will be watching closely to see if the kingdom is serious. Read more here.