In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown cowardice and complacency
To be safe, Israel needs new leadership
Israeli officials see Hizbullah as an unacceptable threat
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JANUARY 1, 2024 ISSUE:
The world’s largest oil exporter has a plan to transform its economy into a high-tech hub for global business. How investors can ride along.
Stocks with dividends lead our annual listing. Energy pipelines and utilities also look like good bets.
Secure 2.0 included new benefits for savers—but many employers have been slow to add them.
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – DECEMBER 25, 2023 ISSUE:
Apple trades near record highs, with a market value no other company has ever attained. Now it has to justify the gains
Mexico and Brazil are heading into a favorable interest rate backdrop already in a strong position.Long read
Tesla and China-based BYD are financially similar. Both car makers generated almost identical operating profit in the third quarter. The one big difference: their valuations.Long read
Shares of smaller companies have taken off in the recent rally, but they are still a bargain compared with bigger companies.Long read
Active ETFs are the industry’s hottest trend. Picking winners is as tricky as ever.Long read
Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping threaten global trade
For the world to prosper, ships must reach their ports. They are most vulnerable when passing through narrow passages, such as the Strait of Malacca or the Panama Canal. So a recent surge of attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, the only southern conduit into the Suez Canal, poses a grave threat to global trade. The Houthis, militants in Yemen backed by Iran, have fired over 100 drones and missiles at ships linked to more than 35 countries, ostensibly in support of the Palestinians. Their campaign is an affront to the principle of freedom of navigation, which is already at risk from the Black Sea to the South China Sea. America and its allies must deal firmly with it—without escalating the conflict in the Middle East.
Mistaken recession calls were just part of it
Spare a thought for economists. Last Christmas they were an unusually pessimistic lot: the growth they expected in America over the next calendar year was the fourth-lowest in 55 years of fourth-quarter surveys. Many expected recession; The Economist added to the prognostications of doom and gloom. This year economists must swap figgy pudding for humble pie, because America has probably grown by an above-trend 3%—about the same as in boomy 2005. Adding to the impression of befuddlement, most analysts were caught out on December 13th by a doveish turn by the Federal Reserve, which sent them scrambling to rewrite their outlooks for the new year.
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – DECEMBER 18, 2023 ISSUE:
They might have a bumpy start to the new year, but stocks should finish stronger as interest rates fall. Stay invested.
About 20% of retirees haven’t taken their required minimum distribution for this year, says Fidelity. The clock is ticking
Barron’s annual list of unloved stocks ranges from tech giant Alibaba to miner Barrick to auto rental stalwart Hertz Global.Long read
The key is to focus on companies with affordable cars and profitable operations.Long read
America’s presidential election is a test of that proposition
Journalists should not spend much of their time writing about journalism. The world is more interesting than the inky habits of the people who report on it. But this week we are making an exception, because the discovery and dissemination of information matters a lot to politics. Don’t take our word for it: “A popular government,” wrote James Madison in 1822, “without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy; or, perhaps both.” Were Thomas Jefferson offered a choice between a government without newspapers and newspapers without a government, he said that he would choose the press (though that is probably going a bit far).
America should deter it from escalating the Gaza war, but also engage with it
Twelve months ago Iran was reeling from protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman who had been arrested for showing too much hair. Its theocratic regime was increasingly isolated, as Arab states forged closer ties with its enemy, Israel. The economy was a mess, adding to popular anger at Iran’s ageing supreme leader and inept president. The Islamic Republic had not seemed so vulnerable in decades.
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – DECEMBER 11, 2023 ISSUE:
Even as inflation eases, global changes including less trade and growing government deficits will keep rates higher than before.
Three moves to take advantage of higher rates.
Thanks to an inflation adjustment to the 2024 income-tax bracket thresholds, you may save money by deferring year-end income and bonuses to next year.
A peace process can go wrong in many ways, but a real possibility exists that it could go right
What the world could learn from Britain’s flawed approach
Our poll tracker sheds light on that competition. It may yet matter
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – DECEMBER 4, 2023 ISSUE –
Nvidia is the clear—and most obvious—beneficiary from the AI buildout but there are two other companies that are less well known to investors that should equally benefit in the year ahead.
Nvidia may be first on the list of AI beneficiaries, but Microsoft is a clear No. 2.
A subset of affluent borrowers hold dangerous debt, according to a new study.
Around the rich world, wage gaps are shrinking
Few ideas are more unshakable than the notion that the rich keep getting richer while ordinary folks fall ever further behind. The belief that capitalism is rigged to benefit the wealthy and punish the workers has shaped how millions view the world, whom they vote for and whom they shake their fists at. It has been a spur to political projects on both left and right, from the interventionism of Joe Biden to the populism of Donald Trump. But is it true?
Can it survive the Gaza war?
Old stereotypes are haunting the Middle East once more. The biggest butchery of Israeli civilians since the state’s creation, carried out on October 7th, has been followed by a slaughter of Palestinian civilians. America, which has funded, armed and defended Israel is again an object of ire. So are its Western allies. Together they are blamed for facilitating Gaza’s pummelling and the displacement of its people. A truce which began on November 24th, and which was set to expire as The Economist went to press, had led to the release of 81 hostages and 180 Palestinian detainees as of November 28th.
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