We’ve already seen how recessions can be good for consumers, but recessions actually serve a much larger purpose.  Capitalism, at its root, is all about the efficient allocation of scarce resources.  In a free-market capitalist society, capital naturally flows wherever promises to give the highest return.  If manufacturing companies are having trouble competing  in the [...]

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Recessions get a bum rap. People lose their jobs, their homes lose value, their savings account pays peanuts, and the media predicts the end of the world on the hour. But there are several reasons you should welcome a recession,  some selfish and some selfless. Let’s start with the selfish reasons you might welcome a [...]

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The science of asset allocation gets a lot of attention in the personal finance realm but it only tells part of the story.  In an ideal world, there would be no taxes or transaction costs, so asset allocation would be the only game in town.  You’d simply divide your portfolio between the various asset classes and [...]

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If Peter Lynch’s One Up On Wall Street : How To Use What You Already Know To Make Money In The Market doesn’t get you excited about stock picking, nothing will. Lynch has a penchant for making the mundane task of researching companies glamorous and exciting, which is ironic because his investment thesis [...]

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The term long tail, coined by Wired editor Chris Anderson in the October 2004 issue, refers to a socio-economic trend away from a hit-based economy to a niche-based one.  In essence, the theory of the long tail states that the revenue potential of all the less popular, long tail markets taken together far exceeds the [...]

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And on the seventh day, The Lord surfed the web for personal finance advice. “Go forth my children, and learn the ways of profitable investing for yea, nothing pleases Me more than to see my children prosper in the ways of finance”.
-Hidden Biblical Manuscript I discovered in my back yard last week
Mrs Micah takes on those [...]

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So I finally finished up my taxes this weekend.  My personal return was no big deal, as always.  TurboTax does a pretty good job of importing my brokerage and W2 data directly over the internet and it’s a snap to enter things like mortgage and state income tax deductions and partnership income.  It doesn ‘t [...]

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There are probably plenty of four letter words that come to mind when you look over your mutual fund statement for the past few months, but there are also a couple of five letter words you should watch out for:  asset bloat.  No, it’s not what you get after eating too much mexican food, although [...]

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I had a Stumbleupon panic earlier this week coupled with a botched Wordpress upgrade that brought my server to its knees.  Thanks a to the Ramblings of a Bored Geek, I’ve got wp-supercache with a special GoDaddy fix up and running, so I should be prepared for any future traffic spikes.  I also got my [...]

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I had a semi Wordpress panic upgrading to version 2.5 and lost a few posts from the database I had prepared to publish in the next few days.  My host assures me they can get them back, but in the meantime here’s some mid-week link love.  Hopefully I’ll be back on track by tomorrow evening.
Carnival [...]

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