“Investors need risk management in bear markets, not in bull markets.” “We are in the business of making mistakes.  The only difference between the winners and the losers is that the losers make big mistakes and the winners make small […] The post Investors need risk management in bear markets, not in bull markets appeared first on ValueWalk.

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Is it true that the gold price now has an 83% chance of being higher in 90 days? The post Is It True That The Gold Price Now Has An 83% Chance Of Being Higher In 90 Days? appeared first on King World News.

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A deadly collision between the Philippine-registered container ship ACX Crystal and Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald that left seven sailors dead earlier this week occurred while the ACX was on autopilot, according to a report in the Washington Free Beacon. While investigators say they’ve found no evidence the collision was intentional, that the ship was relying on its computerized navigation system at the team of the collision means hackers could’ve infiltrated into the ship’s

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App-maker King, of Candy Crush fame, has built up a reputation for itself as a trademark bully. The company has previously attempted to threaten pretty much any game or mobile app that utilizes the words "candy" or "saga." And if that sounds insane to you, you're not alone, as there have been several instances of severe backlash against how King goes about "protecting" its trademarks. As this site's version of the saying goes: live by the intellectual property, die by the intellectual

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Britain’s Brexit negotiations with the European Union have begun. The formal talks over the terms of the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU and the future shape of its trade relationship with the bloc are expected to last at least 15 months and could go on for much longer. For Britain, the talks could not have got off to a less auspicious start. Prime Minister Theresa May’s political authority has been severely dented after she lost her parliamentary majority in the recent general election, and she could have trouble achieving her main negotiating goal of a new free trade deal with the EU without most of the burdens and costs of EU membership. Britain’s European partners seem even less inclined to make concessions now that they they know that May’s hand has been weakened. So what if she fails to secure the offer of a satisfactory deal?   Some so-called “hard Brexiters” say that in those circumstances, the U.K. should walk out of the talks and make a unilateral declaration of free trade: scrap the tariffs on every import into Britain without waiting for a reciprocal arrangement with exporting countries. Such a move is so drastic that some analysts call this the "nuclear option."   “No, this would be very beneficial,” said Patrick Minford, professor of economics at Cardiff University in Wales and a longstanding advocate of free trade. “Prices for consumers would come down. We reckon by 8 percent overall. And our own companies would face much more competition, forcing them to raise productivity. As a result of that double process — consumers being better off and producers becoming more productive — our GDP would rise. By about 4 percent, according to our calculations,” Minford said, adding that when Britain’s trading partners see those benefits accruing to the U.K., they will want to follow suit and eliminate their import tariffs, too.   Related After a difficult few months Brexit negotiations begin Britain balks at Brexit bill Tom Cridland, youthful boss of a small fashion company, said unilateral free trade is worth a try. He has all his clothing manufactured in Portugal and Italy, and ships it into the U.K. before exporting it to many countries around the world; he’s concerned that after Brexit, he will have to pay import duty on that clothing from continental Europe. “That’s our biggest worry about Brexit” he told Marketplace. “It could make our products more expensive. So I think that without a free trade deal with the EU, unilateral free trade would be an excellent idea. It appeals to me very much.”  But many other British business people are not enthusiastic about the proposal. “I’m all for free trade, but we have to protect some key industries in the U.K. that are essential to the running of the country. The steel industry is a good example,” said Simon Boyd, managing director of Reidsteel, a medium-sized engineering company and a champion exporter that sells its products to 140 countries. Boyd said that if Britain unilaterally dismantled all its trade barriers, the country could be exposed to, for example, dumping of steel by the Chinese. He believes that the U.K. farming industry should also be protected from unfair or excessive competition. Related Britain fears labor shortage as EU workers stay away Brexit triggers mixed emotions in London's financial center “We would be in difficulty if we had to rely on people outside the U.K. for too much of our food or steel. We would be at their mercy if there were any issues that arose in the future.” Boyd said. Other critics of unilateral free trade argue that it’s the economic equivalent of unilateral nuclear disarmament: You surrender all your weapons, but very few other countries then feel the need to follow suit.  Minford challenges the analogy. “With weapons, you’re threatening other people, but with tariffs, you’re threatening yourself. Tariffs raise prices for your consumers and stifle competition. With unilateral free trade, you're getting rid of things that are actually hurting you,” he said.

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It's been hard to escape the narrative of the coal miner over the last year. President Trump talks a lot about putting coal miners back to work, and he's rolled back Obama-era regulations aimed at doing just that. But setting narratives aside, the numbers show coal is declining. Natural gas is cheaper to use to make electricity. And many of the people who have done this work don't see much of a future for themselves in coal. Gary Bentley is one of those people. He was born and raised in the small coal mining town of Whitesburg, Kentucky. Straight out of high school, he went underground into the Appalachian coal mines. "My original plans were not to work underground, it was to go to college," said Bentley, who's written a series of articles about coal mining called "In the Black." "I actually wanted to work in education. But then, of course, being 18 or 19 years old and earning $70,000 a year, I kind of got suckered into the industry and ended up staying." Related Counting up American coal jobs: What's the real total? Kentucky coal country hangs on to Trump's promise Bentley said there are other reasons people choose to work as coal miners. He worked with someone who used to be a college professor, for example, who realized he would make better money and be closer to his family by working in the mines. "It's not always about either not being able to do something else or not knowing how to, it's about being close to family. And when [mining's] the only option you have, that's what you do." There are about 51,000 coal mining jobs left in the U.S.; in 1985, there were 178,000. But in regions like eastern Kentucky, there's a real lack of viable alternatives that pay living wages.  Bentley said that nonetheless, the way you hear politicians talk about mining, you'd think it was the biggest industry in the region. Courtesy of Gary Bentley "In 2008, which would have been one of the biggest booms of my mining career as far as the industry itself, coal only made up 4 percent of Kentucky's economy. If you look at the way politics are played around the industry, you'd think that it as the majority of the state's economy. So I do think politicians either romanticize or blow things out of proportion for their own means, because an industry that's only 4 percent of a state's economy shouldn't play as large of a role in the state's politics." Bentley lost his job in 2013 after 12 years of underground coal mining. He said he chased other mining jobs around Kentucky, but realized the decline in the industry was going to make that more and more difficult. And ultimately, changes in the energy market were to blame. "You've got to look at the price of natural gas, which I think was one of the biggest heavy hitters in the change in the industry ... the fact that solar, wind and hydro is now a more affordable option for energy compared to coal." Bentley also said the export market for U.S. coal is disappearing, with other countries like China and Australia extracting their own coal. "It's all about profit margin and how to make an extra dollar." Bentley said the way to get former miners to continue to make their own dollars is to give them new economic opportunities, not to try to resuscitate the coal industry.

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China’s remarkable story of economic growth is well-documented. Some 800 million people have moved out of poverty over the last 40 years thanks to market-based economic reforms. The annual 10%-plus GDP growth that dominated for years may have moderated, but […] The post China: New Ambitions, New Directions appeared first on ValueWalk.

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MSNBC's "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brzezinski has become famous for her on-air Trump meltdowns and apparently she was feeling particularly 'triggered' this morning as an entire segment seemingly got derailed when she went rogue and compared Trump's administration to a "developing dictatorship."  The snowflake moment sparked a minor per-martital tiff between Mika and Joe resulting in some cringe-worthy awkwardness. It all started when Mika decided to, once again, share her personal thoughts

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Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com, Illinois is the perfect example of what happens when your state is run by fiscally irresponsible dunces for decades. The state is buried debt, and hasn’t passed a budget in over 700 days. 100% of their monthly revenue is being consumed by court ordered payments, and the Illinois Department of Transportation has revealed that they may not be able to pay contractors (who are working on over 700 infrastructure projects) after July 1st if the state

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Whatever is true about the stock market and economy in 2017, there is a lot of explaining to do. So many broadly unexpected and surprising developments have happened in the past few months, and there has been so much “fake […] The post We’re Going To See A Bloodbath In Retail appeared first on ValueWalk.

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Authored by Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com, Think of the ObamaCare reform debate now playing in the US Senate as the final gurglings of polity that knows it is whirling around the drain. They’re pretending to attempt to fix a racket that comprises eight percent of the American economy. Yikes! How did that happen? At the beginning of the 20th century it was one-quarter of one percent (.25 percent) of the economy. Source: USGovernmentSpending.com The standard explanation is that, first,

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As 'The Left' rages about President Trump's so-called "travel ban" from 'mostly-Muslim' nations for its dreadful discrimination, the liberal-ist of liberal states has decided that California civil servants should be banned from traveling to eight US states because "we will not spend taxpayer dollars in states that discriminate." Having unilaterally trotted over to sign a climate accord with China, secessionist California is restricting publicly funded

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The $600 to $800 price tag on the latest Apple or Samsung smartphone could create some serious sticker shock, especially compared to the much cheaper models from Chinese competitors. Chinese smartphone brands from the Pearl River Delta region and the city of Shenzhen are gaining market share fast. They can contract with manufacturers in Shenzhen who are already tapped into the region's vast smartphone supply chain and pump out low-cost phones under their own brands, no designing or engineering necessary. The Wall Street Journal went to Shenzehn to find out what it would take to make their own smartphone brand. Wall Street Journal reporter, Liza Lin, talked to Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal talked to about how she and some of her colleagues created their smartphone, the WSJ 1, for just $70. The following is an edited version of their conversation. Kai Ryssdal: So were you guys just sitting around the Journal bureau in Hong Kong one day and said, "Hey, listen, let's make a phone"? Liza Lin: We are looking for a way to tell the story of Shenzhen and the Pearl River Delta, which is pretty much the area that makes all the smartphones in the world. And the Asia editor came up, and he's like, "Why don't you guys make a smartphone?" And that was when we were like, "What? OK." So a colleague of mine made some calls to Shenzhen, we looked on Alibaba.com, found a couple, narrowed it down and that was it, we went down. Ryssdal: And you wind up making a phone that costs $70. I'm going to say that again, 70 bucks — the WSJ 1 — and it works, and it's got some small amount of bells and whistles. And all of a sudden, you guys were in business. It was crazy. Lin: So given the fact that we were making 20 phones, I figured the phone costs $200, $300 U.S. at least. And when I asked her the total and she said, "It's $70 a phone." And I was like, "Whoa, are you kidding me?" So we did it. Related How Apple's technology affects the smartphone repair business Building a better smartphone for blind users How much would an all-American iPhone cost? Ryssdal: There's a great phrase that one of the folks in your video uses, and he talks about technology as a commodity, and I wonder really if what's going on in south China now is technology manufacturing as a commodity? They have this thing that everybody wants. Lin: Indeed. When China started to open up its economy to the world, and that was back in 1980, Shenzhen was earmarked as a special economic zone. So a lot of foreign companies came in — think of guys like Nokia, Motorola — and the economy just built up from there. So now you have a thriving supply chain for any sort of electronic product that you can think of. Ryssdal: Not that the Wall Street Journal is going to get into the telephone manufacturing business — you guys are not a competitor — but what does sort of the larger lesson of you making the WSJ 1 mean for companies like Apple and Samsung, who are right now the giants? Lin: So in 2012, the Chinese brands had a global market share of 20 percent. As of the first quarter of 2017, Chinese brands have doubled their market share. So you're looking at a market share globally of 40 percent. Basically, they're eating Apple and Samsung for lunch. They're expanding in India. They're expanding in Indonesia. Africa in some cases, too. And these are the emerging markets that Apple and Samsung will have to go into. Ryssdal: So you've got these 20 WSJ 1s. What are you going to do with them? Lin: Yeah, good question. Ryssdal: Because I bet everybody wants one, right? Lin: Yeah, there was a bit of a tussle in the office about who would get those phones.

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Succinct Summations for the week ending June 23rd, 2017 Positives: 1. S&P 500 made another all-time closing high. 2. Existing home sales rose 1.1% to a higher-than-expected 5.620 million annualized rate. 3. Initial jobless claims rose slightly to 241k, but the 4-week average remains low, at 244.75k. 4. New home sales in May totaled 610k, 20k more… Read More The post Succinct Summation of Week’s Events 6.23.17 appeared first on The Big Picture.

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Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com, Beginning in December of last year, following the announcement by OPEC of a cut in oil production, I have discussed the “headwinds” that persist against a sustained rise in oil prices. “The supply/demand dynamics currently suggest that oil prices and energy-related investments could find a long-term bottom within the next year or so following the next recession. However, it does not mean those investments will repeat

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Populism is here—and it isn’t going away. The ideology can come from either side of the political spectrum, and it can have a big impact on policy, the macroeconomic landscape and—ultimately—how we invest today. The drivers of populism’s rise in […] The post How The Populist Wave Could Reshape Policy appeared first on ValueWalk.

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Albert Edwards must not have taken a summer respite yet, as in a July 22 research note he is up to his crankiest and cantankerous self as he leads his audience of well-heeled institutional investors to grab their pitchforks and […] The post Albert Edwards Sees Central Banks Losing Independence After Next Crash appeared first on ValueWalk.

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"Despite May's good news, new home sales still have a long way to go to reach historic norms," Trulia Chief Economist Ralph McLaughlin said. "When taking into account the U.S. population, new home sales are still about 69% of the long-run average."..."Ultimately this report is a disappointment for those looking to builders to meaningfully help solve the pressing supply issues in the market overall, especially for entry-level buyers," Zillow Chief Economist Svenja Gudell said. "The median price of a new home sold in May was close to $350,000, by far the highest it's ever been and likely well

See Something, Say Something (UK Edition) has arrived! In the wake of terrorist attacks, local law enforcement are urging people to report "suspicious" activities. There's a long list of things to be on the lookout for, but most notable is the call to view certain internet use as suspicious, as Joseph Cox reports. Police in the capital have reportedly been handing out leaflets listing what authorities deem as suspicious activity, in the hope that vigilant community members can continue to

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You might have heard the news that the first new coal mine in a decade opened this month in a small Pennsylvania town called Friedens. The Acosta Mine—the output from which will be used in the production of steel—is expected […] The post What Caused The Decline Of Coal And What Is It’s Future? [CHARTS] appeared first on ValueWalk.

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