P.J. Media: Fed Suggestion That Hurricanes are Good for Economy? Hardly

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The Federal Reserve is starting to look as absurd as a character from Alice in Wonderland.

Earlier this month, an official of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York suggested that the hurricanes that devastated Florida and the metropolitan Houston area would be good for the economy. Read more here.

Middle East Eye: Iran nuclear deal may be dead within weeks

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The Iran nuclear deal could be dead by mid-October, and the potential collapse of the agreement, which lifted sanctions on Iran last year, may send crude prices higher by $10 a barrel.

This is the assessment of one analyst who both understands how the politics of Washington work and also has deep knowledge of the global energy market. Read more here.

Photo by Johannes Daleng on Unsplash

U.S. News: Why Global Stocks Should Surge From Here

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Global stocks look set to surge from here.

It's because they are about to pass a significant earnings milestone. Here's what's happening and why it's good news for equity investors.

Earnings per share for all the public companies in the world could be about to surpass $30, according to a recent report from brokerage company Charles Schwab. The firm bases that figure on an analysis of consensus EPS estimates for the next 12 months for the stocks in the MSCI All Country World Index. Read more here.

Forbes: U.K. Politician Offers Cure For Housing That Is Worse Than The Disease

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A leading British politician just announced a policy that would be worse than the economic disease its designed to solve.

The man in question is Sir. Vince Cable, leader of the U.K. Liberal Democrat party who has taken aim at Britain's appalling housing crisis. Read more here.

Forbes: Forget Full-time Work, Gigs Can Be Safer

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Hardly a week goes by without someone lamenting the rise of the so-called "gig economy" where freelancers cobble together income from multiple sources. The common complaints are that there's no security in freelance work and that such workers are exploited.  The frequent call to action is that companies should create more permanent jobs because that would give workers more security.

Such claims and calls to action defy logic.

Consider the following here.

Forbes: Napoleon Hill's Lessons On Creativity

By SIMON CONSTABLE

A lot of business people confuse what it means to be creative. They frequently talk about creativity as if artists and filmmakers are the only ones endowed with such ability in significant quantity and quality.

While this view is commonplace, it doesn't make the observation accurate.

Step forward iconic self-help author Napoleon Hill with a previously obscure book How to Own Your Own Mind. It is scheduled for republication September 19. It was "first compiled in 1941," and then forgotten, according to the publisher. Whatever happened it's back and worth a read. More here.

John Batchelor Show: Remembering 9/11. Bull on Turkey and gold. Bear on Bitcoin.

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Photo by LunarHunter,

CC BY-SA 4.0, 

via Wikimedia Commons