Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | May 25, 2018 12:09 pm ET The financial-deregulation bill passed by the U.S. Congress this week is the latest phase in the eternal tug-of-war between regulators and banks. As fast as governments impose limits on the financial industry, banks, brokers and other firms fight back. It’s been...
Read MoreWhen Your Investing Robot Has a Mind of Its Own
Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | May 18, 2018 10:30 am ET Not many people would keep adding money to a brand-new investment that has lost 9% in its first four months. But a robot will. That’s what has been happening at Wealthfront Inc., the automated online investment manager, or robo-adviser, that manages about $10.5 billion....
Read MoreTo Be a New Fool in the World
Image credit: Fool “playing” a dog as if it were a musical instrument, workshop of the Master of the Boucicaut Hours, from Bible Historiale, ca. 1400-1425, Royal 15 D III, f. 262, British Library By Jason Zweig | May 20, 2018 10:07 pm ET And the Lord told me that he wished me to be a new fool in the world, and...
Read MoreMercedes Wants to Borrow Money From You. Should You Bite?
Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | May 11, 2018 10:53 am ET This spring, tens of thousands of people who own or lease a Mercedes-Benz vehicle are receiving an unusual direct-mail offer: an invitation to invest in short-term securities from Mercedes paying a 2.5% annual rate. That looks like a limousine of yield alongside the...
Read MoreThe Bottle Imp: A Parable from 1891 for Today
Image credit: Blown glass flask, Cyprus, 2nd to early 3rd century A.D., Metropolitan Museum of Art By Jason Zweig | May 8, 2018 10:56 am ET Published in the New York Herald on Feb. 8, 1891 (and freely downloadable from the Library of Congress as originally printed), “The Bottle Imp,” by the great storyteller and...
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