Cal Thomas asks: What do the president's critics have to say about his economic success?

What should the little investor do when a bleary-eyed floor trader says “We’re all freaking out, man”? Well, first thing: Don’t panic. Don’t freak out. But do consider what is driving these markets, and has been for a long time now.

As a finance professor and investor, I sometimes chuckle when I hear people complain that their company does not have a profit-sharing program, arguing that employees deserve — in addition to compensation and benefits — to share a portion of their company's profits because they helped generate this financial surplus. Large corporations already have a generations-old, highly-accessible version of profit sharing that too many seem to forget: dividends.

After markets close Dec. 1, the Baltimore money manager will be replaced by AmSurg Corp., a Tennessee health care company that is expected to finalize earlier in the day an acquisition of another health care firm that will boost its market capitalization.

As the trend accelerates, it brings new attention to how money managers with active strategies at their core, including Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group and Legg Mason, are responding to an investment strategy that appears to be here to stay

Worries about China's slowdown infecting the global economy sent stock markets steeply lower Friday as U.S. equities got off to one of the worst starts to a year ever.

The new year got off to an inauspicious start on Wall Street as stocks tumbled Monday in a global sell-off triggered by new fears of a slowdown in China and rising tensions in the Middle East.

The U.S. stock market took investors on a stomach-churning ride Monday, as the Dow Jones industrial average briefly plunged more than 1,000 points and sent a shiver of fear from Wall Street to Main Street.

Suzanne Bradshaw, a financial adviser with Edward Jones, said she spent most of Monday morning in her Eldersburg office trying to alleviate her clients' fears due to a 588-point stock market drop. "Some people have the jitters, so I've been talking them off the ledge," Bradshaw said. "But some clients understand there are opportunities out there and want to put more money out."

Forcing corporations to pay higher dividends helps the economy grow.