Adults under the age of 35 -- the so-called millennial generation -- are spending more than they make. They are either borrowing or depleting assets to pay for their lifestyles, resulting in a negative [...]
On Thursday, Sarasota hosted the first PINC conference conducted in America. PINC is a handmade conference that started in the Netherlands 15 years and has been repeated annually. Nelleke van Lindonk, the widow of the [...]
Tumbling gas prices make me feel like dancing when I pull into a filling station. Gas prices in Sarasota now hover near nationwide levels below $3 a gallon, according to AAA. Prices of oil, [...]
The central banks of Europe and the U.S. are on different paths: The U.S. Federal Reserve is ending its quantitative easing program because it worked; the European Central Bank is considering starting such a [...]
SARASOTA — In October, the city will receive an engineer's report detailing the deterioration of Hart's Landing and suggesting the possible cost of repairing it. The bait-and-tackle shop near the foot of the John [...]
For close to a century and a half, Lewis Carroll's novel, "Alice in Wonderland," has entertained children and adults and provided analogies for columnists. It certainly felt like I had gone down the rabbit [...]
Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, remains a key player in efforts to save the Eurozone. Two years ago, he halted a Eurozone crisis by loosening the interest-rate logjam that threatened beleaguered countries [...]
CAUSEWAY: Local man donating playground equipment and more Causeway Park may be renamed after the late wife of a Sarasota man who is donating playground equipment and other amenities to improve it. The park, [...]
Introduction: In my judgment (1) the abhorrent treatment of Jews following the end of World War II both in displaced persons’ camps or in their native countries such as Poland, Rumania, and Germany, (2) the [...]
"The best is the enemy of the good."- Voltaire France and the U.S.-based General Electric Co. have become unlikely business pals. On June 23, after a nearly two month's battle, the French government and [...]
Over the past few days, I have become angered and confused over articles about the fees that the Clinton’s have received. Specifically, my inquiry was initiated by reports that a foundation associated with UCLA paid [...]
In today’s Wall Street Journal, an article “ Recruits’ Ineligibility Tests the Military” states that according to the Pentagon, only 29% of Americans, aged 17-24, qualify for military service because of physical, educational, or behavioral [...]
"The world must act to contain the risk of another devastating housing crash." -- Zhu Min, deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund In the space of a few days, June 11-12, a [...]
The extraction in the U.S. of oil and natural gas from shale rock remains controversial. On the one hand, the benefits from this domestic power source are so great that they have changed the [...]
Pfizer Inc. is trying to acquire AstraZeneca for both tax and strategic reasons. First, the tax reasons: Internal Revenue Service regulations have made it difficult for companies to leave the U.S. to go to [...]
David Kertzer, a finalist for the National Book Award and professor of history at Brown University, provided a groundbreaking work on the relationship between Pope Pius XI and the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini. It gave [...]
Recently, activist investors have performed alchemy, burnishing their base image into one with a golden tint. It is beneficial and informative when these hedge-fund managers -- notably David Einhorn of Greenlight Capital, Dan Loeb [...]
The popularity of dividend-paying equities has grown tremendously as investors looking for ways to generate meaningful income in today's low-interest world. But Mebane Faber, a portfolio manager at Cambria Investment Management, argues that dividend [...]
"There cannot be a single currency without economic convergence, or the euro zone will explode." - Mario Draghi, European Central Bank president, Dec. 1 Last week, Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, [...]
We Need to Heed Warnings of power grid's vulnerability "The power grid now faces a range of threats it was never designed to survive." - Paul Stockton, former assistant secretary of defense We can [...]
Some six years after the 2008 financial meltdown, we are still learning important information about the mindset of policymakers during that anguished era. Recently released transcripts of the central banks' policy meetings in 2008 [...]
"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana To put in perspective the importance of the Keystone Pipeline, we need to remember the shock the U.S. suffered [...]
"The future ain't what it used to be."- Yogi Berra It has always been difficult for the retail industry to keep its customer base because of constantly changing consumer preferences, rapid commoditization and low [...]
"J. P. Morgan as an institution failed, and failed miserably." - Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara J.P. Morgan, fraudster Bernard Madoff's primary banker, agreed to pay more than $2 billion to avoid criminal charges [...]
Summary: The Galveston Movement operated between 1907 and 1914. Its intent was to divert Jews fleeing Russia and Eastern Europe away from crowded East Coast cities to America’s West. Faced with poverty and death, millions [...]
The first landmark moment will arrive May 17, with the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision striking down "separate but equal" segregation in public education. The second watershed will [...]
Ernest Werlin's column appears today instead of Thursday because we won't have a business section Thursday. As an investment, gold lost its glitter in 2013. Year-to date, gold is down 28 percent, to around [...]
Last Friday, I met with a few friends to celebrate the holidays and discuss our thoughts about economic policy decisions made by the Federal Reserve and our Congress. My friends expressed their concerns about [...]
Philadelphia Federal Reserve president Charles Plosser thinks the Fed has gone too far. Plosser, in a Nov. 23 speech before the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, proposed four limits on the central bank [...]
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with a $39 billion payment to the U.S. Treasury by the end of the year, will be close to repaying the government almost the entire amount that was injected [...]
The media attention on the upcoming initial public offering of Twitter obscures a much bigger and possibly worrisome economic phenomenon: junk bonds. Global high-yield-bond issuance dwarfs new equity offerings. The Twitter initial public offering [...]
"More needs to be done to strengthen the recovery. Too many Americans still can't find a job and worry how they'll pay their bills and provide for their family." - Janet Yellen, nominee to [...]
"I should state that at all times the idea of doing only first-class business and that in a first-class way, has been foremost in our minds." - J.P. Morgan Jr., 1933 Mr. Morgan's comments truly [...]
Five years after the Sept. 15, 2008, collapse of Lehman Brothers and the paralysis of the global financial system, it is important to recognize that some of the causes of that calamity remain unsolved. [...]
We now have a classic case of being careful about what you wish for. When the Federal Reserve was ramping up its purchases of U.S. Treasury bonds to support the American economy, many overseas [...]
I was as surprised as the companies and everyone else seemed to be when the U.S. Justice Department filed a lawsuit Aug. 13 seeking to block the proposed $11 billion merger between US Airways [...]
