The Federal Reserve Flow of Funds Accounts for Q2 2009 showed a positive net issuance of Non-farm Non-financial Corporate Equities at an annual rate of $88 billion (Table F.102). At the same time, cash dividends of this sector fell 22.5%, from the annual rate of $465.8 billion in 2006, to only $360.7 billion in Q2 […]

No one knows for sure the real earnings of American corporations. In Q1 2009, according to the Federal Reserve flow of funds table F.102, after-tax profits of US non-financial, non-farm corporations, on an annual basis, were about $589.9 billion. However, about 50% of these after-tax earnings were disbursed through stock buybacks, primarily to support prices and give […]

Heroic solitary security analysts, like Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham are figures of the past — vestiges of forgotten times when capital markets were much, much simpler than today. […]