I tend to look down on companies that depend on buying up others to fuel their research and growth, especially at high valuations when their own stock has a low valuation. I'd be somewhat neutral on this buyout. The real winner is $KITE and their competitors, not #Gilead.

Even though the economy remains in a morass, many publicly traded companies have been able to grow sales and profits by cannibalizing smaller players, buying back stock with artificially low rates, and expanding overseas. Thus the market run up is not entirely built on fumes. That said, I'd focus on rapidly growing new segments of the market and stocks with overseas sales since the expansion has moved to depending on devaluation of the dollar recently.

Very good analysis. Although it is not clearly apparent oil supply is coming closer into line and there is worry more will be brought to market, As it stands today oil prices will rise even with the increases of oil brought on by the US. What is worrisome is that if for some reason a shortage of oil occurs in the future or moderate demand continues, there is no clear indication more can be brought on quickly because Saudi Arabia isn't able to increase supply dramatically from their current production. And even if they were able to they wouldn't due to their growing realization they don't have an infinite supply anymore. Remember, Saudi Arabia has been able to dump oil on the market cheaply at will in the past playing a spoil to any run-up much more than being the spoil by cutting production to keep prices from falling.

MASI looks decent. The stock was performing stellar until the wind was pulled out of its sails. I don't know what will make it attractive again. It may be a wait and see stock.

This should not surprise economists given the same thing happened to Japan when they dropped rates to zirp and implemented QE. Likewise their population growth slowed. Sadly, there are now too many similarities to discount comparisons.

Good article. It certainly gives us something to think about. It reminds me of the book, The affluent Society. The simple fact is there is now less work than people and I don't see it changing in our lifetime.

The main reason why hedge funds return so poorly these days are fees to make the operators rich and regulations that require more overhead to weigh down what little they earn. Watch out for outsized gains, they are often had by taking outsized risks which aren't apparent until they are realized.

I'm in 100% agreement. It's not even that severe of a correction.

The good signs are mostly due to the dollar weakening. Recently it seems to have gotten some support. If the dollar falls further gold may not be the only sign things are not going well despite the hype that all is well in America.

Expecting change in Japan is practically hopeless as the lost generation has found out. We will see what the next generation will be in Japan. The only thing keeping many afloat is that the population is decreasing thus the slow erosion of standard of living continues as the young inherit more from their parents to keep them afloat as the economy stagnates further. It is true the economics of Japan have improved recently, but it is not sustainable and not prudent. The fear is that Japan may embark on even more monetary loosening as the author points out and risk an accelerated collapse which is almost already inevitable.