Investing

KFC and Pizza Hut may not be standard economic indicators, but they're flashing a warning sign about the state of the Chinese economy right now and, if China won't eat at KFC, or at Pizza Hut, the world has a problem! Let me explain.

The stock market used to be a playground for the elite and the well-informed but it is now overrun by relatively ignorant retail investors. In light of this, and other dramatic shifts in market conditions, a P/E ratio of '15' may now be a real bargain if '20' is now the new fair market value.

The Fed is beginning to wake up to the fact that there is no easy escape from its artificial zero interest rate policy. The Fed will not be able to move very far off of the zero-bound range before the yield curve inverts and the U.S., and indeed the entire global economy, melts down. This means real yields will become more negative, the U.S. dollar will lose more of its purchasing power and economic instability will intensify over time—the perfect fundamental backdrop for rising gold prices.

In search of the best places to invest your money in the fourth quarter of 2015, I put together recommendations from a group of Barron's-ranked financial advisors [who are] deemed [to be] the top 1% in their industry. Here are their recommendations:

Our economy is falling apart all around us, and now another great financial crisis has begun. When will the “nothing is happening” crowd finally wake up? Hopefully it will be before they are sitting out on the street begging for spare change to feed their family.

The bottoming process for the junior miners after a seven year decline may be ending in the next few months as they once again come back into favor for the following ten reasons.

The cloud on the horizon is a flock of black swans. No one can predict when they might land. What can be said for certain is that, at some point, they most certainly will.

Let’s imagine the stock market as a whole bunch of balloons. One or two can pop loudly and everyone will jump and then laugh it off but, eventually, enough balloons will pop that the weight of the debris overwhelms the remaining balloons’ ability to keep the string aloft. Then your whole bunch falls down. In like manner, some kind of catalyst sets off every market collapse.The last balloon to pop isn’t any bigger or smaller than the others; it just happens to be last. What are some candidates for that last balloon?

The large gap between the price of copper and U.S. indices is a warning sign that investors should take into consideration before starting new positions. Here's why.

Dividend Paying Stocks are Not a Safe Substitute for Bonds! Ever! DIVIDEND PAYING STOCKS ARE NOT A SAFE SUBSTITUTE FOR BONDS! EVER! EVER! Did I write that big enough? Maybe not. Let’s try again: DIVIDEND PAYING STOCKS ARE NOT A SAFE SUBSTITUTE FOR BONDS! EVER! EVER! Here's why.