Free Republic

OPEC’s meeting this week takes place against a gloomy background: A global economic meltdown has caused oil prices to fall even as Russia’s war against Ukraine has made supplies more uncertain than ever. An expected production cut could combine with other factors to send prices sharply higher. In fact, it isn’t hard to see how oil could climb back to $100 even as the economy weakens. Oil prices rose on Monday, with Brent crude BRN00 –0.47% climbing to nearly $89 per barrel. Shares of oil companies also rose, with the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production XOP +5.24%...

Twitter stock was falling Friday night after Elon Musk said he is terminating his deal to buy the social media company, asserting that it breached terms of the agreement by refusing to provide detailed information about fake accounts on the site. In a filing that came after the stock market had closed, Musk reported that his lawyers sent a letter to Twitter terminating the deal. In the text of the letter, Musk’s attorney asserted that Twitter had “not complied with its contractual obligation,” and that Musk was therefore ending the deal. The original agreement includes a $1 billion breakup fee,...

To say investors are bullish on oil again would be an understatement. In a year that has begun with serious uncertainty—largely about the path of interest rates and tech stocks — a positive call on oil is as close to a consensus opinion as it gets. In fact, traders are making bets again that U.S. oil prices will rise above $100. It would take a major surge to get there. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures, the U.S. benchmark, were down 0.2% on Monday to $78.72 per barrel. There are several reasons for the resurgent bullishness. For one thing, oil...

Royal Caribbean had to bring its cruise ship Quantum of the Seas to port this past week after a passenger aboard the ‘cruise to nowhere’ tested positive for Covid-19. snip S&P Global Ratings said it has placed Royal Caribbean Group (ticker: RCL) on credit watch negative following the suspension of cruises. It did the same for NCL, a subsidiary of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) that holds debt. In a press release this week, the rating firm said Royal Caribbean’s listing “reflects the heightened likelihood that we will lower our rating within the next few months, given a high degree...

Gold has gotten a bad rap. Long seen as the investment choice of the cranky and the fearful, the metal yields nothing; as Warren Buffett has said, it just “looks at you.” This year has been especially lackluster for gold. Its price has slumped 8%, to about $1,200 an ounce, and is off more than 35% from its high of $1,900 in 2011. Adding insult to injury, Vanguard will soon rechristen the largest gold-oriented U.S. mutual fund and shift its focus away from the metal. But this out-of-favor asset class now deserves a place in investment portfolios. Compared with stocks...

Barron’s Educational Series, the maker of popular Advanced Placement study guides, has apologized for linking Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas to fascism and comparing him to the KKK. The Daily Caller reported Monday about the extreme comparison, found on page 168 of the 7th edition of Barron’s AP European History study guide. “It has been brought to our attention that Barron’s AP European History, 7th Edition by Seth Roberts and James Eder contains erroneous information that casts aspersions on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,” reads a statement released by the company on Tuesday. “In an attempt to draw a comparison...

The latest version of a top-selling study guide for the Advanced Placement European History exam explains the French Revolution with a chart which identifies Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a fascist and pairs him with the Ku Klux Klan.“Barron’s AP European History” (7th edition) makes the claim, intended for consumption by American high school students, on page 168. The chart attempts to compare modern American political affiliations with the various factions involved in the French Revolution. The chart moves politically from left to right.The far right of the chart is labeled “fascist.” The authors demonstrate modern-day “fascists” by pairing “Clarence...

The financial position of the U.S. is not just troubled; it is artificially created to fool the people. The nation's budget deficit and debt are exponentially higher than what our politicians say they are. None of the headline figures used as the basis of public discourse have any relevance to the true state of U.S. finances. The government's financial reporting is misleading because our political leaders have subverted the democratic process to advance their personal interests. Adding all of the costs associated with the nation's social-insurance programs to the amounts reflected in the Financial Report shows that over the past...

Looking for extreme sentiment?Look no further than the cover of Barron's magazine. The cover speaks for itself, but check out some of the commentary in New Highs in Sight The party is far from over. The early-year rally that on Friday took the Dow Jones Industrial Average to within 1% of its record high, set in 2007, could have a lot further to run. For starters, stocks aren't expensive. The Standard & Poor's 500 index is valued at about 14 times estimated 2013 profits and the Dow fetches less than 13 times projected 2013 earnings. At the market peak in...

Bullish Views From Barron's Roundtable Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/18/2010 10:20 -0500 A summary recap of the bullish groupthink gripping the Barron's Roundtable. As David notes: "The emerging consensus is that everything is just going to be fine and that we should expect nothing more than a second-half economic slowdown, and that if there is a sharper turndown the monetary and fiscal spigots will be turned on even harder. The market is seen no worse than fair-value. Treasuries remain the enemy." The age old question rises: with everyone bullish, who is selling? * Felix Zulauf: “Cyclical forces are bullish...

AS THEY SAY IN CRIME NOVELS, they are rounding up the "usual suspects." In the stock market, there also are usual suspects and changes in their relative performances will tell us when the bear is firing up his getaway car. When leadership by traditionally defensive sectors gives way to leadership by traditionally aggressive and cyclical sectors, it is a good indication that the market is turning the corner. Currently, such defensive areas as consumer staples and health care are still in the lead and that tells us what we already knew -- the market is still hurting.

It seems like a no-brainer: Raising taxes is bad. It's a shame that Barron's is one of the few outlets to pick up on it. An economic plan floated out by Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, Ill., would raise taxes on incomes above $250,000 - with the highest rate at 39.6 percent - and redistribute the wealth to the poor and middle-class. But that would be a big mistake, according to an article by Jim McTague in the August 25 issue of Barron's. "It's almost as if Obama wants to repeat the mistakes of Herbert Hoover," McTague wrote. "During...

NOTE: the article needs something corrected. Jim Nesfield, who represented the investors in the takeover of SLM after the bankruptcy, is the one spearheading the effort. Peter Paul is not part of the lawsuit. Marvel and Lee can claim all they want that there is no basis for the suit. The facts, however, suggest otherwise. Lee signed an agreement with SLM in Oct. 1998 before he signed virtually the same agreement with Marvel in Nov. 1998. The claim was never asserted in the SLM BK. Lee pulled properties out of the BK for his new company POW! without court approval...

JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years – and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don’t see it. Our analysis – based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data – suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect...

JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years -- and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don't see it. Our analysis -- based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data -- suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect...

JUBILANT DEMOCRATS SHOULD RECONSIDER their order for confetti and noisemakers, BARRON's claims in their next edition. The Democrats, as widely reported, are expecting GOP-weary voters to flock to the polls in two weeks and hand them control of the House for the first time in 12 years -- and perhaps the Senate, as well. Even some Republicans privately confess that they are anticipating the election-day equivalent of Little Big Horn. Pardon our hubris, but we just don't see it. Our analysis -- based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data -- suggests that the GOP will hang on to both...

".Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment..

AMERICA HAS TWO ECONOMIES, and one is flourishing at the expense of the other. First, there's the legitimate economy, in which craftsmen are licensed and employers and employees pay taxes. Then there's the fast-growing underground economy, where millions of nannies, construction workers and others are paid off-the-books, their incomes largely untaxed. The best guess as to the size of the output of this shadow economy is about $970 billion, or nearly 9% that of the real economy. It should soon pass $1 trillion. What is largely fueling the underground economy, experts say, is the nation's swelling ranks of low-wage illegal...

LONDON -- Roman Polanski, Oscar-winning director of The Pianist, has brought a libel suit in the UK against Vanity Fair magazine. In the offending article, an acquaintance of Polanski's is quoted remembering the director attempt to pick up "the most gorgeous Swedish girl you ever laid eyes on" while Polanski was on his way back to Hollywood in 1969 for the burial of his wife, actress Sharon Tate. The actress had just been brutally murdered by followers of Charles Manson when she was eight months pregnant. Polanski says he flew directly to Los Angeles for the funeral. The Times of...