In Washington, people are having trouble coming to terms with the nation's numerous social and economic troubles. It is a bad idea for our government to leave our limited public resources to the hands of wealthy and politically well-connected corporations like the Export and Import Bank.

Those who are in favor of the current status argue that the bank benefits taxpayers because it protects jobs and promotes US exports. However, these are unsubstantiated arguments that will not stand up to further inquiry. As a matter of fact, less than 2 percent of US exports are supported by the bank yearly, and the usual beneficiaries are huge businesses like Caterpillar and Boeing.
Moreover, the bank's claim of supporting 205,000 jobs in 2013 was disputed by the Government Accounting Office, stating that the bank did not consider the number of jobs that would have been available if the bank had not been present among other arguments. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office reported that over the next decade, the bank is estimated to yield losses to taxpayers.

Job Losses and Casino Bankruptcies Do Not Concern Donald Trump

On August 31, the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City closed its doors as did the Revel Hotel some days prior. This resulted in the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs which included dealers, waitresses, bartenders, security guards and other personnel in the casino. The Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City is also poised for closure in late September, which will bring the number of laid off workers to 6,000.

Donald Trump has a lengthy history in Atlantic City and this includes him leaving his business deals in the area before the collapse of the local economy.

It was during the early 1980s when Trump first bought properties on the Atlantic City boardwalk after having received approval from the state's gaming and control board. This resulted in his forming a partnership with Holiday Inn and building Trump Plaza. The deal that Trump negotiated allowed him to collect 50% of all profits without assuming any liability for casino losses throughout the casino's first five years.

A positive earnings report for the 3rd quarter and some positive guidance boosted Boeing (BA) stock today by near 2%. Commercial place deliveries provided for a revenue surprise of $25.85 billion. A 7% increase from the prior year period. The new earnings guidance came in above the range of $7.7-7.9 a share at $7.95-8.15.

Profit popped 25% and the company reduced costs on its 787 Dreamliner that many analyst have been pushing for. The company has a backlog of 5700 jets which is a good number of orders that should keep revenue solid going forward. Other worries include the closing of the import-export bank and slowing demand from emerging markets. The company did not feel these issues would be enough to offset current positive trends.

Twitter is struggling to make money and has made a move to reduce costs by cutting 340 employees. The company currently employees 4100 individuals. They recently brought back founder Dorsey to run the company as user engagement and growth has slowed. Some feel reason moves spell trouble for the messaging service that is very popular put has never been profitable.

The company has expanded over the past two years so the cuts may be overdue. They have an upcoming profit report at the end of October that could be disappointing. The stock moved hire after the cut announcement. Recently they have begun to face competition from WhatsApp and SnapChat. I find the service compelling and the information useful compared to the spammy and often fact articles shared on Facebook.

Wal-Mart decided to lay off 450 employees Friday at their headquarters in Bentonville Arkansas. Currently there are 18,600 employees working there. The stock rallied a little bit on Friday after the announcement, about 0.2%. The company at the same time has begun hiring seasonal workers.

The company made a statement stating that customers have changed and they need to make changes to stay competitive. The stock of Wal-Mart is down 22% year to date as investors fear competition from Amazon and flat revenue. Same store sales have increased 1.5% in the second quarter and 1.1% in the first quarter, so it's not all bad news.

We put much of our faith in the international monetary system, but we know the market can collapse at any time. In the 20th century, the system crashed three times in less than 60 years. James Richards, a well-respected expert in the financial world believes another financial collapse is on the way. He also believes in owning tangible assets because the value of money goes up and down. At the moment, gold is one of the most stable physical assets on the market. Even though this precious metal is solid, stock prices for gold mining companies are lower than usual. These undervalued share prices are exciting many investors, and they are taking advantage of this opportunity by purchasing gold mining stocks and ETF's. When a person invests in a mining company, as opposed to purchasing the actual metal, they are doing so to gain from the intrinsic value. An example of an undervalued stock with excellent growth potential is Cliffs Natural Resources Inc (NYSE:CLF).

Owners of Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX) benefited from a push upwards yesterday with a 7.25% increase in the stock price following an announcement that Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service determined Google Inc. (GOOG) was guilty of taking unfair advantage of its dominant position in the search space.

Yandex NV (NASDAQ:YNDX), a leader in the search engine space for consumers in Russia, took offense to how Google Inc. (GOOG) essentially used a domineering posture by requiring Russian Android phones to have the Google search engine pre-installed. They were also found to give special treatment for where a number of Google mobile apps are located within their mobile operating system. Similarly, it was only in 2014 that a number of device manufacturers found they were unable to install Yandex apps on Android devices pre-installed in the same way that Google does today. The interesting distinction is that whilst Yandex controls 60% of search traffic within Russia currently, smartphone users see a different picture with Google controlling 86% of the Russian search market.

The stock of book seller Barnes and Noble fell this week (15% on Wednesday) as their revenue fell and their costs increased. The company sold its education division which helped revenue but the retail sales and Nook sales were weak. Sales per store increased but the number of stores fell which resulted in negative revenue growth for the retail business. Sales of the Nook fell 22% from the previous year and streaming media sales were down 28%.

H&R Block jumped higher yesterday by 6% at the open after the company posted a smaller loss and better revenue than anticipated. The company also announced a stock buyback program of $3.5 billion in addition to closing its banking business a month ahead of schedule.

The company’s adjusted gross earnings for the first quarter came in at a loss of $96 million with revenue of $138 million. Analyst were looking for $108 million loss, the same as last year, and revenue of $134 million.

During the last quarter, hedge fund traders were bullish on five stocks in the area of Consumer Services. These five stocks include McDonalds, Comcast, Liberty Global, Charter Communications, and Amazon.com. Insider Monkey which composes a small cap strategy portfolio of stocks, takes the best of the hedge fund picks, and puts them together. Their strategy has returned 118% since the middle of 2012, beating the S&P 500 by almost 100% according to the company. These stocks are some of that portfolio.

Amazon has been a strong performer and hedge funds piled into the stock during the period ending June 30th. The company started delivering packages on Sundays and Holidays through the United State Postal Service. The only downside is the companies lack of strong profits and a small lawsuit from authors that are feeling squeezed by the retail giant.