Green Investing Is Paying Off

Eco-friendly investments, from individual stocks to mutual funds and ETFs, have outperformed the Dow and S&P 500 this year

By Mark Scott (Business Week)

Stock markets from New York to London are finally recovering. Appetite for risk is returning. And recent improved corporate results have buoyed hopes that the global economy is on the mend. Investors looking to get back into the market are in search of safe growth opportunities—and for many, eco-friendly investments are becoming more attractive as U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders put increased emphasis on tackling global warming.

Roubini, Zuckerman, and Ferguson Debate the End of the Recession

wallstreetpit.com

Is the end of the recession finally at hand? Economics Professor, Nouriel Roubini; US News & World Report Editor-in-Chief, and real estate billionaire, Mort Zuckerman; and economic historian Niall Ferguson discuss with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria the current state of the economy, the looming CRE crisis, greenback’s status, and why the $787 billion economic stimulus plan hasn’t created much stimulus. According to their opinion, adding a stimulus package on top of an already existing U.S. fiscal crisis, which was structural in nature, wasn’t the right strategy. Their consensus is that the majority of policies and efforts of lending support to demand and laying the groundwork for a return to growth, were not structurally sound and had very little to do with the severity of the recession. Even when the recovery starts it won’t feel much like one they say, because the job markets — with unemployment projected at peaking at 11% — will remain weak until businesses gain confidence in the upturn’s sustainability.

Best month in years gives markets hope

NECN/ABC) - The bulls are loose on On Wall Street, as the Dow Jones closed with the best month in nearly 7 years.

The NASDAQ has not had a July as good since 1997.

"You have to remember you can get double digit returns when you are coming from such a low point. The move is exceptional but it is in the face of double digit downward moves that we had prior," Ben Willis of VDM Institutional Brokerage said.

But could this still be a signal the worst of the recession is over? The latest economic analysis from Washington shows a 1-percent negative growth rate for the country -- much less than was feared.

Global Markets in Review: Forwards and Upwards for Risky Assets

Seeking Alpha

For some reason the lyrics of Electric Light Orchestra’s classic, Livin’ Thing, keep resounding in my head: “You took me, ooh, woah, higher and higher, baby. It’s a livin’ thing … ” Followed by: “It’s a terrible thing to lose … ” But let me get on to the review of the financial markets …

Investors (or should I say “Johnny-come-latelies”?) last week again favored the reflation trade on the back of better-than-expected U.S. earnings announcements and economic data, indicating that the trough of the recession might be behind us, or at least be stabilizing at depressed levels.

Newsweek’s cover declared: “The recession is over”, but a footnote stated “Good luck surviving the recovery”, implying a hard and treacherous slog ahead - note the pin below the “liquidity-inflated” balloon.

Beware of Big Ideas

Newly nervous post-Soviet states crack down on Western schools.
By Owen Matthews and Anna Nemtsova | NEWSWEEK

A generation ago, as communism was collapsing and the leaders of the former Soviet empire were scrambling to create prosperous nations from the ruins, most agreed that bringing in Western-style universities was the key to improving local business and tech culture. Whether it was a government of former dissidents in Budapest or old Soviet strongmen like Nursultan Nazarbayev in Kazakhstan, many leaders began welcoming in foreign professors and U.S. academic practices.

A slew of American- and international-style universities sprang up across the region—some, like the Central European University in Budapest, funded by individuals such as the financier George Soros; others, like Kyrgyzstan's American University of Central Asia, partly funded by the U.S. State Department. Several, like the short-lived American University of Baku, Azerbaijan, immediately foundered in suspicion, but surprisingly, most flourished. By 2008, the Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research (known as KIMEP), for example, boasted 110 foreign professors teaching everything from business administration to international journalism. Another Nazarbayev-supported school, the Kazakh-American Free University, managed last year to place all of its graduates in ministries or top multinationals.