For instance, Fidelity customers can now use their cell phones and voice recognition technology to hear stock quotations.
"Everyone seems to be doing well in the market, and everyone hears stock tips," said Joel Silbey, a professor of history at Cornell University.
Hearing Stock Market Recovery Consultants' tough-as-nails ads on the radio, you'd never guess the firm operates out of a paper-stuffed hovel that makes Max Bialystock's office look fancy.
If they don't hear stock tips in the executive session of a committee meeting, they can pick them up after hours at fund-raising events, where wealthy corporate leaders often speak freely about their businesses.
He acknowledged that there were some opportunities for speech-recognition interfaces -- over the telephone, for instance, to hear stock quotations, or to retrieve small amounts of information, like sports scores or weather reports, from the Web.
Once the pounding heartbeat of the economic expansion, the place where people went to hear stock tips from the hottest analysts and fund managers, CNBC is now the bellwether for the market's descent -- where people often go to hear the latest bad news.
Callers will dial 800-555-TELL taptheirheir own voice-activated Web portals and hear stock quotes, weather and sports scores.
At Calvin College my 'widening the gap' remark, in its context, sought to challenge the students to think outside the box when they hear stock statements that pit one group of people against another.
"I heard Jupiter stock had tanked, and I went from being worth $20 million to $2 million," he said.
As you have no doubt heard, historically stock funds average larger gains than bond funds, but sometimes Wall Street can plunge, as it did in 2008, and that can be very painful for those who own stocks.
