Barron's: A British Construction Stock Offers a Solid Foundation

By SIMON CONSTABLE

London-based infrastructure company Balfour Beatty could provide a solid foundation for investors looking to diversify internationally.

The stock (ticker: BBY.UK or BAFYY), which has a market cap of £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion), is exceptionally cheap, and management has done an impressive job of improving profitability over the past few years. Read more here.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Forbes: Venezuela's Capital Caracas Now The Worst Big City The Western Hemisphere

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Is Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro trying to act like an advert for how not to run a country? It sure looks like that.

Caracas, the country's capital, now ranks as the least liveable large city in the western hemisphere, according to new research from the Economist Intelligence Unit. Read more here.

Caracas, Venezuela

Photo by Wilfredor, 

CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Featured in the American Institute for Economic Research

All the survivors of the great newspaper wars of the last several decades, WaPo, NYT, WSJ, LA Times, and so forth, diversify their pageview portfolios by publishing articles along that spectrum. Some great economic journalists, like Jason Zweig and Simon Constable, are thereby able to continue to ply their craft, but readers rightfully remain wary of misleading reporting.

Read full post here.

Korn Ferry: New German Angst?

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Contractions in the German economy are as rare as they come. Only now, the latest slowing has stirred concern it won’t be a fluke for this EU stalwart.

In the second quarter, the country’s gross national product dropped 0.1%, only the third quarterly contraction in the last five years. Coming off a year of economic uneasiness on the continent and beyond, the results were enough to raise some serious recession fears. Indeed, one analyst is now declaring that Germany’s “golden decade” is over. Read more here.

Forbes: More Bad News For Germany's Economy

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The bad news just keeps on coming for Europe's largest economy, Germany.

Already we know that the German economy contracted in 0.1% in the second quarter. But mounting evidence now suggests that the third quarter will offer a repeat performance of declining output.

If that happens the country would officially be in a recession, which is generally defined as two back-to-back quarters of negative growth. Read more here.

TheStreet: Gold Prices Are Pointing to a Significant Decline in the Bond Market

By SIMON CONSTABLE

Bond investors should brace themselves for a significant reversal.

While corporate fixed-income has done well these past few months, the gold market suggests that may be coming to an end soon. The problem is that a rallying bond market and surging gold prices would seem to be incompatible, according to new research. Read more here.

Forbes: Investors Flee China As Trade War, Hong Kong Jitters Bite - $65 Billion Leaves in Latest Quarter

By SIMON CONSTABLE

The U.S.-China trade war and the recent violent Hong Kong protests are giving people a case of the jitters.

They've pulled a staggering $64.7 billion out of China in the three months through July, according to new research from the Washingon D.C.-based think tank, The Institute of International Finance. Read more here.

Reinhold Möller, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons