From the Department of Dangerous Ideas comes the news that your employer may soon offer you the “opportunity” to invest some of your hard-earned money in private equity as well as in the public stock and bond markets. Opportunity? Er…indeed. More on that in a moment. But last week the current administration’s Labor Department opened the door to including private equity funds in 401(k) plans as part of diversified funds, such as all-in-one “target date” mutual funds. The excitement is...

The new normal: Masks, sanitizer and social distance “Hong Kong is definitely coming back to life” following a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown, says Adam Najberg, an American executive who’s been living in the territory for over a decade. “It’s clearly not bustling, and restaurants aren’t brimming with activity, but people are going out again, shopping again, walking on the streets.” “You have to wait a bit for taxis, people are back on the subway and buses. Traffic is back, [the] subway is...

Mark Mulholland doesn’t pretend to be an epidemiologist, a doctor or a medical expert. “I have no idea how serious the coronavirus will get,” the money manager says from his office outside Philadelphia. “There’s no question it’s going to put some kind of crimp on the economy. My hope is that we won’t get two quarters of negative growth.” But Mulholland knows something about investing. The manager and owner of the small, independent Matthew 25 mutual fund may be the best money manager that...

Brett Arends's ROI ‘Fund names are often the first piece of information investors see and they can have a significant impact on an investment decision,’ the SEC says If you think you know what your fund companies are doing with your money, maybe you need to think again. The Securities and Exchange Commission is so concerned about misleading fund names, and funds that hide risks from unsuspecting investors, that it is re-examining the way funds are allowed to name themselves for the first time...

Prosecutions of white-collar crime had been falling for about a decade The U.S. Justice Department is prosecuting fewer white-collar criminals now than at any time since records back more than 30 years ago, a new report says. Federal prosecutions of white-collar criminals plunged in January to the lowest level on record, falling 25% from the levels reached just five years ago, says a study from Syracuse University. The 5,702 white-collar prosecutions recorded last year are expected to fall to...