(Wall Street Journal) — When screening a fund manager, investors like to see experience and a consistent record or returns. Elizabeth Prial, however, looks for dilated pupils and uneven breathing. Ms. Prial, a psychologist and former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, has spent most of her career looking for lies in the statements of mafia […]
(New York Times) — With litigation costs rising, many plaintiffs and their lawyers do not have the money to hire expensive experts or pay for years of trial preparation. To fill this need,specialized litigation lenders are stepping in to bankroll lawsuits — often providing millions of dollars at very high interest rates because conventional banks […]
Advertising executives see room to grow on the continent.
(Wall Street Journal) — Why do powerful people with so much to lose push so hard to squeeze out a little more gain for themselves? That question lingers after The Wall Street Journal’s series of articles about securities trading by members of Congress and their aides. As the Journal has shown, dozens of public servants on […]
(Wall Street Journal) — Just when Americans seem more desperate than ever for trustworthy investment advice, financial advisers are brandishing a baffling array of new credentials—some of which can be earned with minimal or no study and a few hundred dollars. Increasingly, say regulators, financial advisers are using these dubious designations as marketing tools to […]
(Bloomberg) — Stung by a drought in technology initial public offerings, venture capital investing plunged in 2010, with the number of active firms dropping 47 percent in the first half from last year, according to Ernst & Young LLP. The number of U.S. venture firms making at least one investment a quarter sank to 167 […]
(Black Web 2.0) –Black Web 2.0 has discussed at length some of the unique challenges that African-American tech entrepreneurs face in an increasingly overwhelmed marketplace. One of the most frequently mentioned hurdles is a (suspicious) lack of funding from traditional sources such as angel and other investors. Commenters on our site (and other sites) often discuss how to […]
(Smart Money) — For all the recent talk about a bump in the recovery, some companies with a hefty stake in the global economy seem to be doing just fine. Intel’s (INTC: 21.02, -0.49, -2.27%) record-setting quarterly earnings report and better-than-expected results from JPMorgan Chase (JPM: 39.00, -1.46, -3.60%) last week illustrate how some large-cap names have been able to maintain growth throughout a […]
(Wall Street Journal) — So-called absolute-return funds—portfolios that purport to deliver gains in any market environment—are hot. But many aren’t living up to their billing. Through May, funds with “absolute return” in their names saw net inflows of roughly $5 billion, up from $2.7 billion last year and $322 million in 2008, according to Morningstar Inc. Absolute-return […]
(Wall Street Journal) — Money managers world-wide are optimistic about prospects for the U.S. and Asian stock markets over the next 12 months, but they nevertheless project a slow recovery in global economic growth, according to a new survey. The impact of inflation is a fear, indicated the 102 global mutual-fund, hedge-fund and private-equity managers who […]
(USA Today) — Earning their money by managing yours? If you suspect that your mutual fund manager might just be tracking an index instead of, you know, actively managing, a new site, http://www.fundanalyze.com, will help confirm your suspicions. Created by fund expert Max Rottersman, the site takes advantage of a statistical measure calledr-squared, which shows […]
(Wall Street Journal) — U.S. stocks edged up, boosted by tobacco companies after the Supreme Court declined to review a landmark tobacco-industry ruling as well as by telecommunications stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 14 points, or 0.1%, to 10157. The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3% to 2229. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index rose 0.3% […]