The Market Return

A new law being proposed in the Senate would levy a 2 percent excise tax on all funds used for share buybacks.

Early in the year, SPACs were all the rage as a way to sidestep the IPO process. In January, 97 SPACs went public compared to 27 IPOs. In July, there were only 32 SPACs compared to 57 IPOs.

Belize is well-known for its coral reefs and scuba diving, including the Great Blue Hole, which Jacques Cousteau called one of the five best dive sites in the world. Now, Belize may help save its coral reefs through bonds.

Early critics of the efficient market hypothesis claimed incorrectly that market efficiency meant that a monkey throwing darts at a list of stocks was just as good an investment strategy as any other.

Investors have been looking for alternative investments and will be able to invest in a guitar from an alternative metal band. Gibson is using Rally to sell ownership of collectible guitars.

Zillow has decided to abandon house flipping, laying off 25 percent of the workforce. Zillow wrote off $304 million in losses due to house flipping in the third quarter, with another $240 million to $265 million in losses to follow.

You can own a sports team. The Green Bay Packers are offering 300,000 shares of stock at a price of $300 per share.

Fidelity Investments recently hired Gilbert Haddad to head the company's decision science area.

The issuance of green muni bonds is a small part of the overall muni bond market, but the segment is growing.

In 2006, Adidas purchased Reebok for about $3.8 billion. The goal was to increase the company's presence in the sneaker market to better compete with Nike. In the past several years, Adidas' sales have grown, while Reebok's sales have been poor.

Back in December, Nasdaq approved a diversity requirement for the boards of companies listed on that exchange. Every company must have at least one female board member and one from an underrepresented minority. If a company fails to do so, it must explain in writing why it does not. 

If you are not familiar with a Ponzi scheme, it is generally fraud in which early investors are paid out from contributions made by later investors.

China has recently asserted more control over private companies throughout the country.

Volkswagen's Dieselgate scandal has been ongoing for the past five years. Recently, former CEO Martin Winterkorn agreed to pay the company €11.2 million ($13.7 million) in a clawback.

We explore the dangers of negative amortization, that is when the interest paid each period is less than the interest accrued during that period. 

If you own shares of GE, you may have noticed that the share price jumped 700 percent in one day! The reason is that GE underwent a 1-for-8 reverse stock split.

The COVID-19 economic downturn affected many areas of business, including working capital management.

In early 2020, COVID-19 lockdowns slowed the economy and resulted in a record dollar amount of debt being downgraded. By the end of the year, the default rate on corporate bond reached 6.8 percent. 

It is estimated that 24 million accounts containing $1.35 trillion in assets have been left in 401k accounts when someone leaves an employer.

The IPO market has been hot this year, with more than 200 offerings raising over $70 billion. Of these IPOs, 30 were Chines companies, making 248 U.S. exchange listed China-based companies totaling $2.1 trillion in market value.

You have heard of inflation, deflation, and stagflation. How about shrinkflation?

Former NBA star Allen Iverson signed an endorsement contract with Reebok back in 2001. One of the terms of the contract was that Iverson would receive $800,000 per year for the rest of his life, plus a trust fund of $32 million on his 55th birthday on June 7, 2030. Good deal?

During 2020, a record $270 billion in green bonds were issued, and green bond issuance is on pace to surpass that record this year. 

Many of you are probably familiar with near instantaneous money transfers using Venmo or Paypal.How about the RTP network? 

While most people are familiar with EE savings bonds, fewer are familiar with I bonds. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal highlights I bonds and the advantages of these bonds.

There have been 97 convertible bond issues totaling $54.3 billion so far this year, a record pace.

General Electric is serious about reducing the company's use of factoring. In 2018, the company factored about one-half of its receivables, but it expects eliminate all factoring in the near future.

In a recent survey by the Association for Financial Professionals, 40 percent of companies increased cash holdings in the first quarter of the year, but 34 percent of companies reduced cash holdings.

A number of U.S. dollar LIBOR rates will be available until the end of June 2023, but can only be used for legacy contracts. 

SPAC issuance this year has been at a record pace, but an accounting change by the SEC appears to have slowed the market dramatically. 

So how do analysts value a stock?

Over the past decade, the company lost about $7.8 billion on its Brazilian manufacturing, or about $2,000 per car. 

General Electric, with a share price of about $13 and a market capitalization of $117 billion, currently has 8.8 billion shares outstanding. 

Who are better investors, women or men? A recent interview with proprietary trader Kathy Donnelly discusses reasons why the evidence suggests that women tend to outperform men as investors. 

Increasing demand for products in the U.S. has resulted in supply chain problems for many companies. 

In our discussion of market efficiency, one trait of an efficient market is that it is difficult for investors to outperform the market.  

The administrator of the London Interbank Offer Rate (LIBOR) has extended the termination of some tenors until mid-2023 to allow users more time to change to another reference rate. 

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal notes that banks sharply increased their loan loss reserves in 2020 in response to the pandemic. Increasing such reserves reduces a bank's reported profit, and decreasing them improves the profit picture.  

Confronted with the economic hardships of COVID-19, many industries looked for new ways to sustain stability. One university offered a buyout if instructors over 70 retired by spring of 2021. With your understanding of real options, would you consider this a good idea?

Here's a quick update on the return of dividends distribution for economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic.