When American companies decide to go public, they have to go through an Initial Public Offering (or IPO). This is a lengthy and expensive process that takes months, perhaps longer than a year. Audits, investigations, legal fees and many other factors play into an IPO and not everyone is willing to undergo this. That’s when reverse mergers come into play: A reverse merger is a process where a private company acquires a publicly-traded company to bypass issuing an IPO and becoming a public company faster. There are a lot of companies that have used this method, both successful and not.

NYSE

The most well-known case of a reverse merger happened on December 6, 2015. The New York Stock Exchange (or NYSE), a business with over 200 years’ worth of history, decided to merge with Archipelago Holdings, an electronic trading company. The sole objective of this merger was for the NYSE to become a public traded company. Four months later, on March 2016, NYSE became the NYSE group and Archipelago Exchange turned into its subsidiary under the name NYSE Arca.

This reverse merger proved so successful than less than a year later the NYSE group completed another merger, this time with Euronext. The result was NYSE Euronext, a transatlantic stock exchange, the first of its kind.

One of the biggest names in the financial world is Berkshire Hathaway. They own huge well established companies such as American Express, Apple, Burlington Northern Santa Fe and GEICO. They also share in several other well-know companies such as the Coca-cola company, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Berkshire Hathaway was started in the 1830s as a textile manufacturing company. This mill grew into one of the most successful of all time. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the Hathaway Manufacturing company merged with Hathaway to become Berkshire Hathaway.

Warren Buffett

In our modern world, the company is a multi-million dollar asset under the control and leadership of Warren Buffett, who is the chairman and chief executive of the company which focuses on long term investment strategies and diversifying business interests. Today, Berkshire Hathaway is one of the top players in the financial world and active partner in main international deals and agreements. According to the Forbes Global 2000 list, Berkshire Hathaway is the third largest company in the world. Their class A shares are currently selling for over $300,000.00 and are worth every penny. The number of big name companies that are connected with Berkshire Hathaway’s stock is the reason they are priced so highly. These businesses are tops in the world and will not look to disappear any time soon. Apple is one of the companies and they have such a firm grasp of the technology sector that they won’t be leaving the business world for quite sometime. The same can be said for the number of insurance companies who are doing better than ever with the rise of the pharmaceuticals industry worldwide.

Berkshire History of Cash Reserves

What really makes the Berkshire Hathaway stock worth so much is Warren Buffett. He took the old textile company and made it into one the most stable and investable business ever. He mandates the firm keep a minimum of $20 billion dollars easily at hand, though lately that number has been more than $100 billion. That makes this company a highly investable asset. This is a company that is actively investing in strong stable companies and has no debt to speak of in regards to them. To be bought by Berkshire Hathaway means that, that company is also a strong stable entity. Companies all over the world want to be acquired by Berkshire Hathaway because it will mean their business will grow beyond their wildest dreams and become one of the more sought after companies in the world.

Banks are one of the best places to invest your money in, as they are not as affected by the ups and downs of the economy when compared to other businesses. In fact, logically speaking, right after a slump is when banks are of the highest value as they would earn from interests earned of loan payments. Banks are also quite generic when it comes to their services and strategies, so you can pretty much determine how all other banks perform by only studying the trends for one specific bank.

Still not all banks perform at the same rate with each other. With that, here are some of the best bank stocks of 2019 based on their past performances.

Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley is one of the major banks on Wall Street that is seen to be on the rise this 2019. It provides multiple services that are doing quite well such as debt underwriting, wealth management advice, and acquisitions services. It has also shown improvements in revenue at the latter part of the previous year and its current low prices are something that can be taken advantage of.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase is one of the largest banks in the United States and is one of the banks who have thrived despite the most recent financial crisis. It boasts 2.5 trillion US dollars in assets and is partnered with Berkshire Hathaway, which makes us foresee a bright future for this bank in 2019. Add to that its high dividends as well as the leadership of CEO Jamie Dimon and you’ve got one of the best banks that you can invest in.

Citizens Financial Group

Potential investors must take advantage of the low valuations currently being offered by CFG. Trading is currently at 10 times earnings with a P/E ratio of 0.6, this holding company that owns, among other assets, Citizens Bank guarantees dividends of at least 3.4%, making this one of the best bank stocks of 2019 as there’s no way to go but up for the 15 billion US dollar bank.

Wednesday was a trending day for Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) after Berkshire Hathaway shared that 7.134 million of the bank's shares were sold between April 10 and 12. Further to those 7 million shares, Berkshire also plans to divest an additional 1.865 million shares at some point in the future. Berkshire is selling because under federal regulations, the holdings of any single shareholder of a large bank must be below 10% and Buffet's company had owned 479 million shares at the end of last year. The selling is not because it is bearish on the bank. This works well good for the Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) bulls. Since Wels Fargo was re-buying its stock, Berkshire's holdings did increase over the 10% limit, so Buffett's firm sold to stay within the limit.

Over the past few weeks, fluctuating polls have shown that Donald Trump has narrowed Hillary Clinton's lead, improving his odds of becoming president. As the presidential race hurdles towards the November finish line, a few stocks stand out as potential winners if Trump is elected.

In general, energy and military-based companies stand the best chance of substantial gains. Under a Trump presidency, coal industries, for example, would avoid the substantial hit from Clinton's promise to close down plants and enact stricter regulations. In addition to coal and oil stocks such as Cloud Peak Energy Inc. (NYSE:CLD), Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL), and Continental Resources, Inc. (NYSE:CLR), companies that provide for military, including Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and Lockheed Martin Corporation (NYSE:LMT), will also benefit.

Rents  Down in 2016 Forecast

Zillow Rent Forecast sees rents to slow, shifting to low gear in all the 12 months of 2016 that will include even well-performing markets in the previous years.

For renters though, Zillow predicts a flat line this year as well, a market movement that is expected from a meager 1.1 % rent increase.

Back in 2015, rents shoot up over the charts well enough to go beyond the average income of most tenants and renters which then made rent affordability one of the most volatile issues then. This is dominantly obvious in rising metropolitan areas such as San Francisco where rent appreciation rose more than two digits or exactly 12.5 %. This will most likely not be an issue in 2016 where rent increases are performing only half as quickly compared to 2015.

H and R Block shares have come down 21% in the last month after a disappointing third quarter caused a mass exodus by investors from the stock. However, we believe that fourth quarter earnings could turn H and R Block stock around and potentially offer up a significant opportunity for the savvy investor.

Though the third quarter is traditionally low performing for H and R Block, this year's loss was greater than expected. Revenue declined to $475 million, far lower than the expected $502 million. The third quarter loss amounted to $79 million, a significant increase from the $37 million third quarter loss experienced in 2015. In its third quarter results, the company also noted that they have experienced their fourth consecutive year of declining volume.

In Washington, people are having trouble coming to terms with the nation's numerous social and economic troubles. It is a bad idea for our government to leave our limited public resources to the hands of wealthy and politically well-connected corporations like the Export and Import Bank.

Those who are in favor of the current status argue that the bank benefits taxpayers because it protects jobs and promotes US exports. However, these are unsubstantiated arguments that will not stand up to further inquiry. As a matter of fact, less than 2 percent of US exports are supported by the bank yearly, and the usual beneficiaries are huge businesses like Caterpillar and Boeing.
Moreover, the bank's claim of supporting 205,000 jobs in 2013 was disputed by the Government Accounting Office, stating that the bank did not consider the number of jobs that would have been available if the bank had not been present among other arguments. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office reported that over the next decade, the bank is estimated to yield losses to taxpayers.

Job Losses and Casino Bankruptcies Do Not Concern Donald Trump

On August 31, the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City closed its doors as did the Revel Hotel some days prior. This resulted in the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs which included dealers, waitresses, bartenders, security guards and other personnel in the casino. The Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City is also poised for closure in late September, which will bring the number of laid off workers to 6,000.

Donald Trump has a lengthy history in Atlantic City and this includes him leaving his business deals in the area before the collapse of the local economy.

It was during the early 1980s when Trump first bought properties on the Atlantic City boardwalk after having received approval from the state's gaming and control board. This resulted in his forming a partnership with Holiday Inn and building Trump Plaza. The deal that Trump negotiated allowed him to collect 50% of all profits without assuming any liability for casino losses throughout the casino's first five years.

H&R Block jumped higher yesterday by 6% at the open after the company posted a smaller loss and better revenue than anticipated. The company also announced a stock buyback program of $3.5 billion in addition to closing its banking business a month ahead of schedule.

The company’s adjusted gross earnings for the first quarter came in at a loss of $96 million with revenue of $138 million. Analyst were looking for $108 million loss, the same as last year, and revenue of $134 million.