Corporate Profits – August 2013 

Second quarter earnings season is nearly complete. According to Bloomberg, 87% of companies in the S&P 500 had reported as of August 15th. Both earnings and revenue growth are up year-over-year relative to the first quarter of 2013. Earnings growth is coming in at 4.1% versus only 1.9% for the first quarter. However, the results are dominated by Financials (16% of the S&P 500), which showed a whopping 28.1% earnings growth rate. Without the Financial sector performance, earnings growth is relatively flat, as is revenue / sales growth. What do these results portend for future earnings and profits? (Read Here)

Fiscal Cliff – December 2012

As debate rages in Washington, DC, it appears evident that progress is slow toward avoiding or easing the consequences of the fiscal cliff. Furthermore, both parties are espousing growth dampening incorrect fixes to this fiscal dilemma. How? One party is speaking about increasing taxes while the other is focused on reducing spending. We have 23.1 million unemployed or underemployed U.S. workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 9/7/12) who require a growth strategy to get the U.S. economy expanding again. Neither tax increases nor spending cuts will accomplish this objective. (Read Here)