So much for hard-and-fast positions: Two days ago, a Federal Reserve governor from St. Louis stated the nation’s central bank wouldn’t move to combat the credit crunch unless there was “a real calamity.” He also asserted there was still no evidence of a negative impact on the US economy.

How do you solve a liquidity crisis? The simple answer is to inject more liquidity into the financial system. The hard part is not pouring in too much and thereby setting off a speculative boom in the markets that leads to a greater meltdown later on.

The subprime mortgage/high-yield meltdown continues to dominate the markets and financial media. There’s a good reason for that: The world’s financial markets are intimately connected in myriad ways, and none of us has a firm grip on all of them.

A Vodafone bid for US partner Verizon Communications may or may not be in the cards. But increasingly strong US utes, including the entire UF Portfolio...

Vodafone may not offer 30 percent over market to buy Verizon Communications. But last month’s rumors again underscore that US utilities are...

From late-2000 peak of more than $80 a share, AES Corp common shares plunged all the way to $1 by late 2002.

Regulated businesses provide steady cash flows, ensuring strong credit ratings and access to capital to expand well-run unregulated energy operations for growth.

I’m a glass-half-full guy. I always look for the bright side. And when things look their blackest, my every instinct is to buy, buy, buy. I’ve also been in the investment business long enough to know that things don’t always work out. Many times, where’s there’s smoke, there’s a raging blaze that will scorch anyone who gets too close. Businesses as cash-rich as investing do attract criminals. And you can’t always trust the numbers.

DTE Energy sold a 50 percent interest in a portfolio of power and industrial projects to a unit of General Electric for $650 million in after-tax proceeds last month.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield remained above 5 percent last month. The Portfolios, however, mostly returned to the upside because of...