What do Cisco Systems (Nasdaq: CSCO), IBM (NYSE: IBM), AT&T (NYSE: T) and Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) all have in common?

Hawaii: Pristine black sand beaches… surfing… spectacular volcanic eruptions… and miles of pineapple plantations. If you are like me, this is what comes to mind when you imagine Hawaii.

Every country needs a few basic ingredients in order to achieve healthy, sustained economic growth.

Ten years ago, it would be hard to imagine a more stable investment than timber, or those Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) that bought millions of acres of harvestable trees.

Sometimes, all the reasons others are shunning a company are the same reasons to initiate a position in it.

Taxes are going to go up. I’m not happy about it, and I’m sure most Americans are as steamed as I am.

Flying home from our conference in Victoria, and looking out the window of the airplane taking me home, I begin to understand the vast opportunity we have by looking over the rooftops of homes and business parks alike.

Of all the people you might expect to spearhead a movement away from oil and onto alternative energy, T. Boone Pickens probably wouldn’t be at the top of the list.

In the waning days of the Great Depression, FDR Signed the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 into law, heralding a new era of growth and prosperity for the nation’s heartland. While electricity was generally available in cities and towns, it was nearly unheard of on farms, ranches and other rural areas. The REA brought electric power to these sparsely populated Midwest farms and ranches. Today the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak.

Earlier this week, T. Boone Pickens, the 81-year-old Chairman of BP Capital, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the progress of the “Picken’s Plan.”