Reuters/Navesh Chitrakar
A cow eats out of the garbage.
Three people were charged with running a $54 million Ponzi scheme that was built on the promise of a green energy technology that would supposedly turn trash into fuel, according to AP.
The green energy technology was never developed.
Two of the three people charged in this instance were previously ordered to pay $37 million each after losing an SEC civil suit in 2012.
Ken Fisher: Trying to time the pain in the markets is "a fool's game" (CNBC)
The markets have been extremely volatile as of late, and bad news keeps pouring out of China. Still, now is not the time to try to bet on these risks, Ken Fisher, CEO of Fisher Investments, told CNBC on Tuesday.
"The likelihood is that we have more pain ahead and that it's over just as fast as it began. But trying to time that is a fool's game," Fisher said.
He added that bull markets don't end quickly, but rather "die with a whimper and not with a bang."
It's not just about China (Project Syndicate)
"The standard explanation [for the recent plunge in oil prices] is weak Chinese demand ... But this is almost certainly wrong, even though it seems to be confirmed by the tight correlation between oil and equity markets," argues Anatole Kaletsky, chief economist and co-chairman of Gavekal Dragonomics. "The answer lies not in China's economy and oil demand, but in Middle East geopolitics and oil supply."
One example Kaletsky gives is the potential return of Iranian oil. He writes that, if that happens, Iran will be competing with other major energy producers who all want to restore previous peak output levels in an already super-saturated market.
There's been no correlation between China's economic growth and its stock market (Charles Schwab)
There has been "no discernible relationship" between China's mainland stock market, the Shanghai Composite, and the growth in its economy, according to Charles Schwab's Jeffrey Kleintop.
"Fortunately, the signal being sent by the Chinese stock market crash can probably be discounted based on history. While in many countries the stock market can rightfully be considered a leading indicator of the direction of the economy, that has not been the case in China," according to Kleintop. "This can be seen statistically, in the zero correlation between them over the past 20 years."
Charles Schwab
The market needs to stop worrying about the Fed hiking rates (Advisor Perspectives)
Markets are freaking out over othe possibility of a Fed rate hike. But its fears are "not well-founded," argues Scott Brown of Raymond James.
"Much of this appears to mirror the 'taper tantrum' of 2013. Amid QE3, Fed officials began to talk about reducing the monthly pace of asset purchases. Markets freaked out. Bond yields rose. The Fed delayed its decision to start tapering, but when the Fed did begin to taper, long-term interest rates drifted lower, not higher. We may be seeing on over-reaction now in equities," he writes.
"A hike would signal that the recovery has progressed sufficiently and the Fed is confident that growth will continue," he adds.