Source: CNBC

Facebook is out trying to convince Corporate America to go back to the kind of old school, metric-free “brand engagement” advertising that Don Draper executed so well 50 years ago. In the meantime, Google is going full speed ahead in the other direction – quantifying the value of everything, from views to clicks to filled-out…

361 Capital portfolio manager, Blaine Rollins, CFA, previously manager of the Janus Fund, writes a weekly update looking back on major moves, macro-trends and economic data points. The 361 Capital Weekly Research Briefing summarizes the latest market news along with some interesting facts and a touch of humor. 361 Capital is a provider of alternative…

If you’ve been talking to realtors, then you already know that the housing market – from new-builds to rentals – is on fire once again. They’re coming out of the woodwork with all-cash offers, topping the asking prices and jamming the Open Houses. This morning we got some data to back up the obvious anecdotal…

James Erwin via the Financial Times: It was on my lunch hour; I’d just gone on Reddit.com (a website where people submit content and then vote it up or down depending on if they like it) and saw a question: “Could a battalion of US marines destroy the entire Roman empire?” I thought to myself,…

Morgan Housel, who is rapidly distinguishing himself as the best writer at Motley Fool, has a great post up in which he exhorts us to focus on five big knowable things when it comes to investing, stepping high through the muck and mire of trivia and formula on our way toward the larger truths. I…

My friend and blogger colleague Cullen Roche at Pragmatic Capital posted a 7-point takedown of the deification of Berkshire Hathaway. It is a tongue-in-cheek post ostensibly teaching the reader “7 Easy Steps to Invest like Warren Buffett” while it sardonically catalogs the most well-known contradictions between Warren’s business style and his public statements. As an unabashed…

For some reason, the latest parlor game investors are being egged on and encouraged to play is “Guess When the Fed Will Say or Do Something!” I’m trying my best to serve as counter-programming to the mental illness I see and hear everywhere on the subject. The idea that investors are going to be able…

There’s a school of thought that says because we’ve come so near to real crisis during this cycle, it’s forced us to get our act together in a way that political wrangling and wishful thinking never could have accomplished. I think there’s some merit to that. Procrastination and working better under pressure are the norm…