PowerTalk

Welcome to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits, and these are my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in the business world that take you behind the scenes and in the know. Be sure to check out ChrisVersace.com for more on PowerTrends and past editions of PowerTalk. Joining me on PowerTalk today is Michael C. Houlihan, co-founder of Barefoot Cellars where he was president and CEO for 19 years, During that time, Michael and his partner Bonnie Harvey took Barefoot from a startup and grew it to a business that sold over half a million cases making it a national best seller when they sold the company to E&J Gallo in 2005. What’s even more amazing is Michael and Bonnie did it all without advertising.  As Michael points out, you can have a great product at a great price, but what so many companies forget is that they are also in the distribution business. We’ve seen the product and distribution success of other companies t

Welcome to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits, and these are my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in the business world that take you behind the scenes and in the know. Be sure to check out ChrisVersace.com for more on PowerTrends and past editions of PowerTalk. Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Michael Gorton, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Principal Solar Inc. (PSWW). There’s been a lot of speculation by investors in the solar space, some making big money along the way and others losing it in the shares of companies like First Solar (FSLR), SunPower Corp. (SPWR), and of course Solyndra, Inc. It’s the view by those at Principal Solar that many are thinking about the solar industry the wrong way. Rather than replacing traditional forms of energy — nuclear, coal and natural gas — Michael and his team see solar generated electricity becoming a self-sustaining, investment grade asset within two to three ye

Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Peter Schiff, American businessman, investment broker, financial commentator, author and radio show host as well as the CEO and Chief Global Strategist of Euro Pacific Capital Inc. As I’ve come to appreciate about Peter, he is not shy about his views and that always makes for a great conversation, particularly this one that touches on the economy, the direction of the stock market and what lies ahead for both.  Despite slower earnings growth and the lackluster U.S, economy, the domestic  stock market continues to grind its way higher following the government shutdown. Your probably asking yourself - What’s fueling this continued rise?  If you look around in your every day life, you are likely thinking there is a disconnect between the economy and the stock market. After all the money the Federal Reserve has used to stimulate the economy, we continue to have huge numbers of people dropping out of the work force each month, wages have stagnated, unemployment remains at hig

Welcome to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits, and these are my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in the business world that take you behind the scenes and in the know. Be sure to check out ChrisVersace.com for more on PowerTrends and past editions of PowerTalk. This week I had the pleasure of talking with John Allison, President & CEO of the Cato Institute. Unlike many other firms located in Washington, D.C., Cato is neither democratic nor republican in nature, but rather it is a public policy research organization — a think tank – dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace. That alone is great reason to talk with John Allison, but it get’s even better. Prior to becoming the President & CEO of the Cato Institute, John was Chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation (BBT),  the 10th largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. Du

Welcome back to another edition of PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits. Each week I bring you my 1-1 conversations with the movers and shakers in business and those areas that impact business, the economy and more. This week I am especially proud to talk with today’s guest -- Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Now most of you know him as the only twice-serving Secretary of Defense. As you’ll learn in our coming conversation there is far more to Secretary Rumsfeld…for half a century, he’s been at the center of our nation’s history, as a Naval aviator, U.S. Congressman, ambassador, top aide to presidents. He also spent two decades at the top of American business, and was named by Fortune as one of America’s ten “toughest” CEOs and by The New York Times as a “turnaround artist.” That collected experience means Secretary Rumsfeld has valuable isight into leadership, strategy  and management. We’’ll talk about all of that as well as his new bo

Joining me today on PowerTalk to discuss all of this is Jeff Lawson CEO and co-founder of Twilio, a company that makes cloud-based telephony tools -- voice and messaging -- for companies and mobile application developers like Uber, Google (GOOG), Hulu, salesforce.com (CRM), Home Depot (HD), AT&T (T) and others.  With the global explosion of the Internet, smartphones and tablets, we’ve seen a shift in how we can communicate with one another. Instant messaging, mobile messaging, picture messaging, email, messing through Facebook, Google+, chatting and more recently video calls through Skype, Google and even Apple with its FaceTime app. While many think of these new modes of communication are for personal use -- keeping in touch with family, friends and so on, there’s another aspect to it -- for business. That’s right the Internet and telecommunications technologies are changing the way we connect with companies, and that has implications how a company communicates with its customers It’s not just Twitter

Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Ben Chodor co-founder of Happtique, a company that certifies medical, health, and fitness apps through its App Certification program and helps healthcare professionals fill prescriptions with its App Prescribing prescription tool. That’s right, we’re going behind the scenes and in the know this week on mHealth. It’s no secret that our lives are becoming more and more connected. Mobile carriers like AT&T, Verizon and others are looking for new revenues streams as smartphone and tablet sales grow. We’re hearing more about The Connected Car and The Connected Home and wearables. In that last category we’ve seen smartwatches and other devices from Samsung, Nike (NKE), Fitbit, Jawbone and others. Smartwatches, Fuelbands, fitness trackers, activity trackers and the like. With a rich ecosystem of supported devices and applications, mHealth enables you to manage your personal health and wellness from the palm of your hand, anytime, anywhere. Given the explosive growth of wh

Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Brian Jaquet, senior marketing manager  of Slingbox. We discuss not only about the past, present and future of place shifting but also what it means for Sling Media and how the company looks to compete in this next battleground. This is what Ted Loeonsis, the acting CEO of Groupon, partner at Revolution Growth and owner of the Washington Capitals, Wizards and Mystics says about Slingbox: “Slingbox, which turns my iPad into a television, has become an invaluable app for me. Everything that I have on my home TV's satellite setup I can now watch on my iPad, wherever I am in the world. Over the last year or so we’ve talked with a number of people at a variety of companies. This week we’re venturing into some new territory as we hone in on what I think is one of the next battleground to be fought in what I call the connected device space. That’s a key part of my Always On, Always Connected PowerTrend. We’re in the middle of what I call the smartphone bloodbath between Apple,

Joining me on PowerTalk today is Ed Bilek, the head of U.S. shareholder services  for Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA). While you may find it hard to believe, BBVA is arguably the next big bank you’ve probably never heard of. Before we get to why that is, let’s step back a bit and talk talk one of my   -- PowerTrends -- The Rise and Fall of the Middle Class. That PowerTrend -- of my Great 8 PowerTrends -- looks to capitalize on those companies positioned to benefit from rising disposable incomes in the emerging markets as well as gains in more mature markets, like here in the U.S. or the Eurozone. What would make a company even more interesting and the opportunity to own its shares even sweeter is if the businesses is is benefitting from a regional to national strategy. A great example of this is Starbucks (SBUX), which is going from a regional presence to a more national one in China. Starbucks recently opened its 1000th store in China during the June quarter, and aims to have 1,500 locations thro

Joining me today on PowerTalk is Leonard Moodispaw - Chairman and CEO of KEYW Holding Corp. (KEYW), a publicly traded company that provides cybersecurity, and geospatial intelligence solutions for U.S. Government,  intelligence and defense customers as well as  commercial enterprises.  As we move more and more of our lives into the digital frontier, it exposes us to a different set of risks. Whether your a person, a business or a government, the way in which you need to secure yourself is far different than it was 2-3 years ago, let alone 20 years ago.  What I just described is the downside of my Always On, Always Connected PowerTrend Cyber attacks, including website and email hacking, malware infection and targeted denial of service, are being increasingly reported by private users and government departments How big of a threat is it? Companies such as Google (GOOG), Twitter, Facebook (FB), Evernote, and recently Adobe (ADBE) have all reported being hacked. In fact, Adobe said it suffered a massive secu

Joining me on PowerTalk today is Chris Burruss, President of the Truckload Carriers Association and we talk about the trucking industry, what its responsible for, and what the key issues are facing the industry.  When most people talk about the economy, we tend to think of manufacturing, retail, restaurants and other industries that require goods be they finished products or key parts and assemblies.  We all know we need these, but how often do you think about how products and parts get where they need to be?  No deliveries means there is nothing to sell and nothing to buy. How does our economy work in that environment? Even before I started my investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits, as part of near 20 years keeping tabs on the U.S. economy as an equity research analyst on Wall Street, I kept an eye on transport activity -- trucks, rails and intermodal activity. For those not familiar with intermodal, it’s when something is shipped by truck to rail or rail to truck.  Think about it, if goods are not ge

Joining me on PowerTalk today to discuss the e-reader market, it’s new line of Android tablets that are designed with readers in mind as well as how it works with small book retailers and more is Mike Serbinis, the CEO and founder of Kobo. If your like me, your an avid reader. Books, newspapers, magazines and all sorts of reports be it from companies like Gallup or the Congressional Budget Office. As the old say goes reading is fundamental. Much like many other industries, the publishing industry has been rocked by technology -- how we consume information has changed and that means how people read has changed as well. Print continues to cede ground to digital publications that can be read on e-readers, tablets, smartphones and even on your computing desktop. We’ve seen magazines, like Newsweek, shift from print to only digital and newspapers such as The New York Times (NYT) try to figure out a pay-wall solution for its content. We’ve seen once prominent bookstore chains go out of business or in the case of

When most people think of hanging out with family and friends it tends to involve one of my favorite subjects -- food. According to The Bureau of Economic Analysis, on average the U.S. consumer spends $6,129 or 9.81% of their paychecks on food each year. That makes the food industry, which includes eating at home and eating out, a big big business. Joining me to talk about the success as well as the challenges that Domino’s Pizza (DPZ)  faces is Lynn Liddle, Executive Vice President, Communications, Legislative Affairs and Investor Relations at Domino’s. Lynn’s been with the company since 2002 and has seen the good, the bad and the ugly along the way. Like any business, the food industry has its ups and downs -- new products and better service to tighter consumer spending and cut throat competition to rising input costs and  potential regulations. Despite those and other challenges, people need to eat, which means balancing demand with consumer tastes that sometimes shift based on the diet trend du jour. 

Joining me on PowerTalk to peel the onion on a number of issues that we face in our broadband centric lives is former FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell. He recently left the FCC after 7 years, and while his is not a household name Broadcasting & Cable magazine said he “gained a reputation of a statesmanlike conservative who can find common ground with his opposition without compromising his principles.” He was kind enough to spend some time with me as he heads to Hudson Institute’s Center for Economics of the Internet as a visiting fellow. If your the average American, I’m sure you enjoy your cell phone, smartphone, high speed internet, cable programming and so on. In fact, you probably semi-addicted to it. What you probably don’t enjoy is stroking that ever increasing check each month when you pay your bill to AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or some other service provider.  While we tend to think of the device we are using -- smartphone or set top box --  and the network that enables it, there’s far more goi

Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Lauren Fifield, Senior Health Policy Advisor at Practice Fusion. Practice Fusion is one of the fastest growing electronic health record community in the US. Founded in 2005, the company has 150,000 physicians and practice users using Practice Fusion’s EHR across all 50 states. At Practice Fusion, Lauren manages government relationships and monitors an ever-changing landscape of legislation, regulation, and health industry antics.  Many citizens and business owners are concerned over the increasing costs associated with the Affordable Care Act -- better known as Obamacare. A study from the the nonpartisan Society of Actuaries estimates that because of higher risk pools, insurance costs will rise 32% on average nationwide within three years. Even Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters that, “Some people purchasing new insurance policies for themselves this fall could see premiums rise because of requirements in the health care law.” In talking

Joining me this week on PowerTalk is Alice Joe, Executive Director, Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness at U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Alice and I talk about not only  about The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act,  but many of the issues it creates and the ensuing uncertainty. For example, did you know that certain aspects of Dodd-Frank could alter the way companies like McDonald’s, The Hershey Company and Starbucks conduct their business? Not only that but when Alice and I spoke, she shared with me that roughly one-third of the 400 new rules to be put forth by Dodd-Frank across more than 10 agencies in DC had yet to be proposed.   Those two examples describe just some of the uncertainty that Dodd-Frank is creating in the business community. Dodd-Frank aside, there’s plenty of uncertainty to go around  these days -- new data shows the average American household is earning less than when the Great Recession ended four years ago. In a letter to congressional leaders, Treasury Secret

This week on PowerTalk I’m serving up our late summer reading list. That’s right, the last few weeks of August tend to be filled with cookouts, vacations and lounging by the pool. If your doing those things, or if your like me and your not, you still need a good book or two to get your through the dog days of summer. With that in mind, I’m bringing you two books that are great reads in general, but make for great end of the summer reads.  The first is Niall Ferguson’s latest book -  “The Great Degeneration.” Odds are you’ve heard of his other books -- "The House of Rothschild", "The Pity of War", "The Cash Nexus" and many others including "The Ascent of Money", which was the basis for a PBS series that won the International Emmy for best documentary. In The Great Degeneration, Niall tackles the decay in four key institutions -- representative government, the free market, the rule of law and civil society -- that he argues have been the key to success in Western Civilization. We talk about whether or not its

Joining me on PowerTalk this week to talk about the economy, the outlook for small business and job creation prospects as well as the availability of credit is Jay DesMarteau, Head of Small Business, SBA, Restaurant, & Government Banking at TD Bank.  Each week on PowerTalk, we go behind the scenes to put you in the know - this time we’re talking about the lifeblood of job creation here in the U.S - small business. Based on the recent July employment report, which disappointed on several levels,  it seems that small business is only moving at half speed. The weakness in hiring is not all that surprising given some of the data that Jay shared with me -- only 17% of small businesses  planned to hire at least one new employee, down from 32% six months ago. However, more than three-quarters of small business owners intend to keep staffing levels the same, up from 59% in December. If you or someone you know owns a small business or is looking to start one, then you know that access to credit or business loans

Joining me this week on PowerTalk to talk about the Moto X and Motorola’s re-shoring of jobs is Mark Randall, Motorola Mobility’s Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations.  We all now recognize the July 2013 Employment Report not only fell short of expectations with only 162,000 jobs added during the month, but sifting through the details it can easily be labeled a low quality report: The unemployment rate fell only because more Americans left the labor force than the total number of jobs created during July Where we saw job growth was primarily at low-paying and part-time jobs Wages remain under pressure. The news is also a buzz over the latest and greatest new device be it a new smartphone, tablet or streaming device that attaches to the back of your TV.  We as a people are connecting and interacting with each other more than ever thanks to the explosion in smartphones. Almost 230 million smartphones were shipped the June quarter alone and while that sounds like a lot, industry data points t

This week on PowerTalk, I’m doing a deep dive on a subject that is literally ripped from the headlines -- insider trading. Over the last few years, a number of government agencies including the Securities Exchange Commission, the Justice Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation among others, have targeted hedge funds, expert networks and other sources of insider information. Over the last three years, the SEC has filed more insider trading actions (168 in total) than in any three-year period in the agency's history. Last week, headlines were rampant over insider trading and what it may mean for the SAC Capital, one of the most successful hedge funds around, and its leader Steve Cohen. Joining me to take you behind the scenes and in the know on these efforts over the last few years is award winning journalist and author of the new book Circle of Friends, Charles Gasparino. I’m sure your more than familiar with Charlie and his reporting on the Fox Business Network and the Fox News Channel, where he