Investing and Global Finance News

Financial Advisor Population in Decline

According to a report published by Boston-based research group Cerulli Associates, the number of financial advisors in the United States has fallen for five straight years. The report points to large numbers of experienced advisors entering retirement as the cause of the decline in numbers of these professionals. In 2014 there were about 285,000 financial… Continue Reading

Hyundai Expanding into US Car Market

South Korean auto maker Hyundai Motors has announced its plans to enter the commercial auto market in Europe and the United States. The move is based on the prediction that car sales are on the rise in these markets. When the US and European consumers can expect to see Hyundai in their regions has yet… Continue Reading

Frank-Dodd Hurting Small Banks, Expert Says

Marshall Lux, former chief risk officer for consumer businesses at JP Morgan, and now senior fellow at the Kennedy School at Harvard, believes that regulation which has been enacted in the wake of the financial crisis has disproportionately harmed smaller banks in the United States. Lux has been researching the issue of how recent regulations,… Continue Reading

New Research on ETFs Shows Little Reason for Concern

Leveraged, inverse and inverse leveraged exchange-traded products first came on the scene in 2006. During the financial crisis, however, they rose to prominence as they showed outrageous returns. Many were attracted to the price swings and the opportunity to get amazing returns in a short period of time. Since that period, according to Michael Sapir,… Continue Reading

Gas Prices May Have Reached Rock Bottom

The price of gasoline has been falling, falling and falling some more over the past several months, finally reaching its lowest price since April, 2009. The latest price dive, 13.3 cents during the last two weeks, may be the end of the slide, according to a survey by Lundberg released on Sunday. The average price… Continue Reading

2014 Was a Great Year for Business Travel

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) released its summary of business travel statistics for 2014 this week, and the news is good.  Business travel reached record levels, with about 484.4 million trips made creating some $292.2 billion in spending. The summary, which takes the past trends and projects them into the future, predicts that 2015… Continue Reading

New Risk Manager Phelan Appointed by Treasury

The new position of chief risk officer created by the US Treasury Department will be filled by Kenneth Phelan. Phelan, who is 55 years old, has held similar roles for the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and at Fannie Mae soon after the last US financial crisis. The newly created Office of Risk Management,… Continue Reading