Lehman’s collapse 10 years on
The collapse of the US investment bank on 15 September 2008 sent shockwaves through markets. We explain the impact in the decade since. Ten years ago, US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, marking the most symbolic moment of the global financial crisis. It remains the largest bankruptcy filing in US history. The demise…
Stocks to win from cloud computing boom
Disruptive technologies are new ways of getting things done that “disrupt” current ways of doing things. History is replete with examples of disruptive technologies dating back to mankind’s first spear. A contemporary example is cloud computing, which frees consumers and corporations from the burden of housing computing resources at their location. What is being billed…
One big unintended consequence of protecting cyber privacy in the west
In late May, people in Europe were blocked from US news sites such as the Los Angeles Times. Others couldn’t turn on connected lights with mobiles unless they agreed to new terms of service. While that might sound standard, Tumblr users faced 322 questions to answer on how the blogging network could use their data…
Bear of The Week – 3rd April 2011
Stock: Centro Properties Group Stock code: CNP Share Price: $0.061 (as at Friday 1st April, 2011) Broker sells: Calibre Investments (28/3/2011, share price was $0.063 that day) Chart: Share price over the year to 25/03/2011 versus ASX200 (XJO) On March 01, 2011 Centro Properties Group released details on its restructuring plan including selling its…
4 Healthcare stocks for punters
High-minded investors and analysts bristle with indignation at the suggestion that investing in a stock is little more than gambling. The term “punting” has historically referred to activities like race track gambling; but it has entered the investing lexicon as a means of separating seemingly foolish speculation akin to gambling from “true” investing. Taking a…
Experts weigh in on Fed hike: it was the right call, but will it work?
Editor’s note: The Federal Reserve’s policy-setting committee decided to raise its target interest rate – known as the Fed funds rate – for the first time in nine years. It increased the rate from a range of zero to 0.25% to a range of 0.25% to 0.5%. We asked a few of our experts –…
Beware of bullish bankers, their bubbles and the inevitable burst
Anjan V Thakor, Washington University in St Louis Something happens between the bubbles, bailouts, boom and bust cycles that we can’t afford to ignore, and it’s happening right now in the US and Europe. It’s a kind of collective amnesia that lulls investors into forgetting exactly what and who caused the last financial crisis. The…
Why a Finite World is a Problem
Why is a finite world a problem? 1. A finite world is a problem because we and all of the other creatures living in this world share the same piece of “real estate.” If humans use increasingly more resources, other species necessarily use less. Even “renewable” resources are shared with other species. If humans use…
Obsessed with the dollar? What to expect from the Aussie in 2015
By Richard Holden, UNSW Australia Business School The Australian dollar is a curious currency. It is the fifth most traded in the world and it gyrates pretty wildly – having traded below 48 US cents and above 110 in the decade or so from mid 2001 to 2011. And to listen to the financial press…
Gold-stock prices have never been cheaper relative to their underlying profits
Gold miners’ stocks have been brutalised this year, leaving them bleeding in the gutter as the most hated sector in all the markets. Plunging prices always lead to fear and excessive bearishness, unsustainable anomalous extremes that investors desperately try to rationalise as righteous. Today the bears’ primary rationalisation against gold miners is the notion they…
