Barron's: Tobacco Is a Trusty Inflation Hedge. Here’s a U.K. Name to Play.

By SMON CONSTABLE

Stockholders have had a rough time this year, with surging inflation and fears of a recession. But there is a way to mitigate it: tobacco stock Imperial Brands

The company (ticker: IMB.UK) offers potential total returns above 22% over the next 12 months, some analysts say. It markets cigarette brands including Winston, JPS, L&B, and Gauloises, and rolling paper Rizla. It is also developing next-generation products, or NGPs, which include vaping materials and oral nicotine. Read more here.

Photo by Aman Upadhyay on Unsplash

CBS Eye on the World with John Batchelor: #Europe Energy equities after Glasgow COP 26; and cheaper cappuccino.

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Listen here.

 COP 26 UN Climate Summit 2021

President.am, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Forbes: Europe’s Energy Crisis Won’t Be Over Anytime Soon, Experts Say

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine quickly laid bare Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. But solving the matter could take years, experts say.

Worse still, the EU and UK will likely suffer economic turmoil while the situation rights itself. Read more here.

Forbes: It’s A Good-News Bad-News Scenario For The Gold Market

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

Here’s some bad news. Gold investors have taken a pummeling so far this year. 

The SPDR Gold Shares exchange-traded fund, which tracks the price of bullion, is down 5.3% in the year through Monday, according to Yahoo Finance data. Read more here.

Forbes: The Rise And Fall Of Crazy Eddie: A Tale Of Epic Fraud

By SIMON CONSTABLE

How bad is the worst thing you’ve ever done at work? Maybe you “borrowed” a few pens and paper for your kids. Perhaps, you “fudged” some expenses. And maybe you now feel guilty about such petty thievery.

A recently published book, Retail Gangster: The INSANE, Real-Life Story of CRAZY EDDIE, will likely make that guilt disappear in a trice. 

When you compare whatever you did to what happened at long-gone electronics chain Crazy Eddie, most malfeasance will likely pale into insignificance. Put another way, your infractions would likely be as noticeable as a miniature barnacle on the backside of a blue whale. Read more here.

Forbes: King Dollar? How The U.S’s Mighty Greenback’s Could Roar

By SIMON CONSTABLE

While soaring inflation took a bite out of your paycheck’s spending power, something else happened. The value of the dollar has surged, and by no small measure.

And it could go far higher before the rally ends, history shows. Read more here.

Forbes: China Suffers Another Dismal Month Of Steel Production

 By SIMON CONSTABLE

China’s economy continues to look wretched.

We know this because the country’s steel production continued to drop for yet another month. It fell 6.4% in July, and is down 6.4% for the first seven months of year, according to new data from the World Steel Association. 

For years China has been the world’s largest steel producer with output of 1.3 billion metric tons of the metal in 2021, or more than half of global production. In other words, it’s the world’s major producer. Read more here.