By Anthony Burke Boylan -- Green technology has been the holy grail of investment for more years than anyone cares to recall. Its history is littered with efforts – noble and otherwise – that have been ballyhooed but ultimately fizzled. Purveyors of solar, clean coal, hydro-electric and other well-intentioned energy sources have gone out of busi... read on

By Anthony Burke Boylan -- Some banks don’t seem to have any money to lend right now – or at least none they want to - and equity markets aren’t a great value proposition for many companies with investors skeptical about, well, everything.Yet business needs to go on. Companies still need to buy goods, meet payroll, cover seasonal adjustments and even seize market opportunities. So what are they to do?More and more are turning to factoring; an alternative to asset-based lending that provides businesses with capital when needed and dates back to the Roman Empire. Factoring is not lending, b... read on

By Anthony Burke Boylan -- In what seems counterintuitive to many consumers feeling the economic and credit pinch, CEOs and analysts can’t wait to give bank industry bailout money BACK to the federal government. The financial industry for the most part has found the government oversight and public flogging that came with their checks – some large, some massive – too onerous for its business model.  And in the case of banks like Northern Trust Corp. (NTRS) there is good reason. Not all the banks have so good a case, though, in the rush to return about $700 billion in federal funds issued under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. A stampede into equity markets by banks from your local community lender to the nation’s largest retail names, however, could put pre... read on

I watch cable TV business, political and news networks. It’s our job to know what’s going on. And I’ll be the first to admit there’s a lot of value in hearing congressional hearings, presidential news conferences beginning to end, or observations from the more intelligent members of the business and financial communities. On the other hand, there is a nearly constant drone caused by the newsreaders and commentators in their furious quest to entertain, sho... read on

Some frightening financial terms are floating around, from Wall Street to Washington, D.C. Sure, recession, depression, foreclosure and failure are old standbys; long part off the lexicon and terms we are familiar with, even if we aren’t too fond of them. Now we are learning the meaning of stress test beyond the cardiologist’s office. The phrase zombie bank has been tossed around so much it feels as if the whole industry just attended a George Romero film festival. ... read on

I don’t know about you, but these past few quarters of mucking about at the bottom and dealing with scandals and dirt has made me want to take a nice, hot financial shower. But if we are beginning the initial stages of the bottoming out process, what’s a decent low-risk sector with a reasonable recovery outlook?  Personally, I think the first opportunities have to be in companies that sell everyday stuff people need, including products that keep things and people clean. ... read on