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Nov 30, 2015

In the past 12 months, companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have doled out nearly $1 trillion to shareholders in the form of both dividends and stock buybacks, the highest level since 2007. For years, hedge fund managers have been big proponents of share buybacks. Now, though, they are viewing them with a more...


Nov 25, 2015

Corporate inversions are the rage as corporations look to save billions of dollars in taxes by buying or merging with a foreign company in a lower tax environment, often Ireland. The law firms making it happen are racking up big fees. Just ask the team at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP working on Pfizer...


Nov 24, 2015

When the Federal Reserve finally decides to raise short-term interest rates from near zero, it will be Simon Potter’s job to make it happen. The 55-year-old, British-born head of markets at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York had never worked at a securities-trading firm before taking his current post three...


Nov 23, 2015

Is the saying “older but wiser” just an old wives’ tale? A study of adult intelligence, published in March in the journal Psychological Science, tested this long held idea against the data. The results challenge some common assumptions—including the idea that mental acuity, like athletic prowess, always declines...


Nov 20, 2015

According to a study of 4,500 Dutch consumers in the Journal of Economic Psychology, unhappy people save less, spend more and have a higher propensity to consume. Americans are spending just as fast as Europeans, says the University of Utah. Researchers are finding that we are all spending money--often more than what's...