The notion this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression keeps popping up, but is it really?  It just may be before this is over:  we’re not out of the woods yet, but in many ways, the current crisis isn’t even as bad as the Savings and Loan crisis in the 1980’s.
Bank Failures [...]

[Read more →]

I actually do a lot of shopping online there days, especially on Amazon.  Last Christmas, in fact, I did 100% of my shopping on Amazon for several reasons.

They sell practically everything these days
Their wish list feature makes it easy for everybody to let me know exactly what they want
Their prices are generally quite competitive if [...]

[Read more →]

After reading William Bernstein’s Intelligent Asset Allocator somebody suggested I check out Richard Ferri’s book All About Asset Allocation and I’m glad I did.  Ferri has a knack for making even the most complex investing concepts easy to understand, even for relative novices, but that’s not to say there’s nothing here for the advanced investor.  In fact, [...]

[Read more →]

Finance Blog Network Group Writing Project
This week marks a second successful group writing project for  The Finance Blog Network.  This project’s topic were our predictions for the fourth quarter where each participant was asked to predict a number of events relating to the economy, stock market, and even the presidential election.  As it turns out, my own predictions [...]

[Read more →]

Recent troubles with former insurance stalwart AIG have raised questions about the status of different insurance products in case a particular insurer becomes insolvent.  For instance, what if the company underwriting your life insurance policy goes under just when your family needs the money? 
The Risk Of Complete Loss Is Minimal

Fortunately, the risk of having the [...]

[Read more →]

Yesterday I made a few predictions about what state the economy would be in by the end of the year.  Specifically, I predicted the Dow would end the year around 11,000 due to the bailout propping up the market.
Well, it didn’t take long for that prediction to start looking stupid.  Despite the bailout package finally [...]

[Read more →]

As part of our next group writing project over at The Finance Blog Network, we are sharing our predictions for how the remainder of the year will pan out for the economy.  Then, at the beginning of next year, we will see how accurate our predictions turned out to be.
Who Will Win The Presidential Election?
I think the [...]

[Read more →]

At first it was just annoying.  I drive a tiny Toyota Corolla that gets 35+ mpg even in the city and by luck managed to fill up the day before the shortage started, so initially I wasn’t too concerned.  After all, I assumed it would just be a few days.  But the Atlanta gas shortage only [...]

[Read more →]

The cost of credit default swaps to ensure against a default on US Treasury bonds is on the rise.  According to CNN Money,
“In New York trading Tuesday, prices rose to a record 31.3 basis points (each basis point is 1/100 of a percentage point) to “insure” Treasury debt, compared to as little as 7.5 basis [...]

[Read more →]