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Byline: Patrick Watson I'm starting to like Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. I still wish the Fed didn't exist, but if we must have fiat money, its source should at [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson At this point in 2008, the corporate body of Lehman Brothers was still warm. Others on Wall Street were betting who would fall next. The answer turned [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Until 12 years ago, Americans didn't know airliners could be used as 'weapons of mass destruction.' Our solution those first few days was simple: ban airliners. Planes [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Contrary to what we all expected last week, U.S. missiles are not yet striking Syria. President Obama decided Congress should first have a chance to express itself. [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Based the political rhetoric I hear, cruise missiles could already be flying by the time you read this. Elected officials all over the Western hemisphere are eager [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The mainstream news media is proving oddly reluctant to mention possible financial motives in their coverage of the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance story. With very few [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The law of unintended consequences reached Silicon Valley this summer. Thanks to Edward Snowden, the whole world knows not to trust U.S. Internet companies with private data. [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The Federal Reserve just sent you a message. Did you see it? The message was in last week's Federal Open Market Committee statement: 'The Committee recognizes that [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Last week, as I explained why Google is really a media stock, I cited Microsoft (MSFT) in comparison. I later ran across a startling number that should [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson In the stream of mid-year corporate earnings news, Google (GOOG) was one of last week's biggest logs. The quarter could have been better, but the big picture [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Conservatives like to say the government should run like a business. Fair enough. So here is a business question: Why does National Security Agency (NSA) Director Keith [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The sheer magnitude of PRISM and the other National Security Agency (NSA) spy programs Edward Snowden revealed is breathtaking. The threats to privacy and civil rights are [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Whatever you think about Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA) data collection he unveiled is more than a privacy issue. Investors should pay attention, too. The [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Layoffs are never fun. In the United States, we usually get through it and move on. China is different, as one American business owner is learning the [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Gold investors know about the SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) exchange-traded fund. You can buy and sell 'shares' of gold bullion much like shares of stock. No one [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Everything about China is enormous, especially the scale of its economy. And the scale of fraud underneath this economy may also be huge. New data suggest years [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Washington went into near-ecstasy last week thanks to some good news from the Medicare program trustees. Healthcare costs seem to be growing at a slower pace. Medicare's [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Here in the United States we worry about inflation. In Japan, they want inflation. Strange? Yes, and the closer you look at the Japanese economy, the stranger [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson So the Internal Revenue Service targeted conservative groups for extra scrutiny. OK. Why is anyone surprised? This is the agency every taxpayer loves to hate. The events [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Graduation season is here. We see eager young people cross a stage, receive a piece of paper and enter a new phase of their lives. Hope and [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Investors were apparently encouraged by last Friday's U.S. jobs data. The stock market rallied to a new high on the news. Why? The unemployment rate remains high [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson This Friday we'll learn whether the U.S. labor market improved in April. You can bet that our unemployment rate, whatever it may be, is far better than [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Americans - especially older Americans - worry about our economic future. Between unemployment and debt, bombs and terror, we wonder what will be left when we're gone. [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Falling gold and silver prices leave recent buyers wondering what to do. Should you take advantage of the panic and buy more? Sell before it gets worse? [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Every month, like clockwork, the U.S. government updates us on the unemployment rate. In March it was 7.6 percent. We see the headlines, but we rarely stop [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson In an alternate universe, Albert Einstein might well have been a great stock trader. He would know that financial markets are priced not on their own merits, [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The European eggheads who attempted last week to seize insured bank deposits in Cyprus did us all a favor. Their ham-handed money grab exposed a near-fatal flaw [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Scratch Cyprus off your 'safe as money in the bank' list. Bank customers on the tiny Mediterranean island learned this week that deposit insurance is little help [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Last week, we learned the government's official unemployment rate was 7.7 percent in February, an improvement from 7.9 percent the previous month. Total employment was up by [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson If you think American politics is hopeless and our economy stagnant, take a look at Europe. Their leaders can't decide whether to produce a comedy, a drama, [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Prominent on President Barack Obama's to-do list this year is 'Raise minimum wage to $9 an hour.' Why? Because, we are told, it will put more cash [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Remember that fiscal cliff problem we solved back on New Year's Eve? Guess what: It's not over. Prepare for more drama as the dreaded 'sequester' hits an [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Everyone's investments have to go somewhere. You can leave your portfolio with one of the big, global financial institutions or you can pick the local adviser with [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The U.S. stock market started 2013 strong. No question there, but some in the media got a bit too enthusiastic last week. Here are two examples for [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Financial planners used to talk about a 'risk-free rate of return.' I don't hear this term much anymore - and now I think it may have been [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Congressional Republicans, who had previously sought to use the fast-approaching federal debt ceiling as a budget bargaining chip, have now agreed to extend the borrowing authority. Financial [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson For some traders, Federal Reserve news is as addictive as any illegal substance. Think about it: They'll pay any price and they always want more. They're obsessed [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The last-minute fiscal cliff compromise was a huge success. No, I haven't gone mad. I'm just redefining 'success.' If 'success' means extracting more money from the public, [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson 'Financial markets shot higher today following the passage of a fiscal cliff solution by Congress.' Whatever your news source, you probably saw a sentence much like this [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson The books aren't completely closed for the year yet, but let's look at the 2012 leading and lagging equity sectors. It was a year in which even [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Smart traders keep an eye on sector momentum. Why? The same reason pilots look at a wind sock. They want to know which way the wind is [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Government programs, no matter how well-intentioned, tend to aggravate the very problems that inspire them. So it will be with Obamacare, I predict. Even if every employer [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Fiscal cliff stories dominate the media, but the rest of the world is still turning. Here are some other market-moving events to watch as the calendar rolls [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson If you think your job is tough, imagine being Ben Bernanke. Yes, the Federal Reserve chairman is well-paid, gets a limousine and bodyguards and so on. But [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Investors have more than enough reason to shun stocks, with the economy going nowhere fast and the fiscal cliff inching closer. Add to this the unfolding scandal [...]

Byline: Patrick Watson Are aerospace and defense stocks vulnerable to a fiscal cliff sell-off? Investors might think so with all the rhetoric. I'm not so sure, and here's why. We're [...]