The Entrepreneurial Way to 4% Growth

Trump Should Fix the Business Climate So a Million Americans a Year Can Start Companies

By Carl Schramm

Consider the economic situation that President-elect Trump is inheriting. Despite the addition of 161,000 jobs in October, the labor-force participation rate fell to its second lowest level in nearly 40 years, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve. More people have joined the ranks of the chronically unemployed, slipping into poverty at alarming rates as their skills decay and dependency on public assistance grows. Considering population growth, America needs at least 325,000 new jobs every month to stanch the growing numbers of discouraged workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Merely bringing back factories from overseas will not solve this problem. Technology has made every factory more productive. Fewer workers make more goods no matter where they’re located. At the same time, fewer U.S. businesses are being started. New firms are the country’s principal generator of new jobs. What can President Trump do to encourage more entrepreneurship? First, increase economic growth. More businesses start when GDP expands at 4% rather than 2%. Existing businesses look for new markets, often turning to young companies for innovative ideas. [more...]

The Prospects of a Trump Economy

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

If Mr. Trump runs this country like he runs his business, which he intends to do, our economy is in for a HUGE treat. He promises to lower corporate taxes and individual tax rates, thereby boosting profits and helping business owners create more jobs. Couple this with Trump’s plan to slash regulations and we’ll likely see very fast growth in the short run.  One of the hottest items on Trump’s agenda is trade. If he follows through on trade and imposes tariffs on foreign goods, the U.S. could see a great deal of money coming in from abroad as well as jobs returning to the US. The list of what-ifs and possible policy actions goes on, but the most important thing to understand is that for Trump to be successful in growing the economy, he must focus on job creation, civic investment, and shrinking the size of the government. The prospects of a Trump economy are encouraging. No government in history has been as efficient as the private sector. [more...]

More M&A Activity

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

Coming off a week when AT&T announced one of the biggest deals of the year to acquire Time Warner, more M&A activity headlined the news Monday morning. General Electric Co., the world’s largest oilfield equipment maker, announced it will merge its oil and gas business with Baker Hughes Inc., one of the world leaders in oil services and production. The merger will create the world’s second largest oilfield services provider behind Schlumberger and ahead of Halliburton. GE will end up owning 62.5% of the combined company and paying Baker Hughes shareholders a hefty one-time dividend as part of the deal. Looking several years ahead, GE projects to create $1.6 billion in synergies as a result of the two companies complementing each other. [more...]

Walmart Takes on Amazon

By Michelle Seiler-Tucker

Competition is heating up in the world of e-commerce. Walmart announced Monday that it will be acquiring the e-commerce site Jet.com for a whopping $3.3 billion as it aggressively moves to take on Amazon’s recent dominance in the online space. Though Walmart is a leader in brick-and-mortar retail sales, online sales for the company only accounted for 3% of its total revenue last year. An acquisition like this is necessary if Walmart is ever going to challenge Amazon. [more...]

The Brexit Money-Quake

By Lowell Ponte

The world's ruling elite expected the June 23, 2016 United Kingdom Brexit vote to fail. Investors who believed these elitists were shocked when this referendum won by 52-48 percent, launching a countdown to separation between the UK and European Union. This triggered a worldwide seismic shockwave that on Friday, June 24, wiped out more than $2 trillion from global markets. If these investors had heeded the advice and warnings that monetary expert Craig R. Smith and I have set forth in six books, they could have profited handsomely while this giant “Money-Quake” shook the planet and set assets tumbling. A word to the wise: this Brexit vote is the first of many more soon to come. Read our books and quickly pick up the broken pieces of your investment portfolio. You will want to move quickly at least a portion of what remains before the falling dominos and other pains of aftershocks hit. [more...]

Great Britain Voted Thursday to Exit the European Union - This “Brexit” Could Unleash Global Chaos

By Lowell Ponte

Yesterday, the British people voted in a national referendum to declare their independence from the European Union. The ruling political establishment, right and left, had joined to crush this populist uprising with a campaign of fear and authority. But a majority of voters, sick of the European rot that has been destroying the Great in Great Britain, pushed back – and history changed. Brexit’s victory unleashed a shock wave around the world that for a time halted stock trading in Asia, sent Dow futures plunging by more than 700 points, drove the 10-year Treasury bond yield to modern record lows, and sent gold surging upwards by more than $80. [more...]

The Big Bank that is One of the Market’s Most Undervalued Stocks

By Crista Huff

U.S. stock markets are now factoring in more than a 50% chance that the Federal Reserve will increase the Fed funds rate in June or July. Rate hikes are positive for most financial stocks because the companies then earn increased fees on customers’ deposits. In addition, withering expectations of a global recession are fueling growth prospects for financial institutions, bringing increased investor attention to the sector. Consequently, bank stocks are turning bullish, with stock price charts surprisingly in sync with each other. [more...]