With democrats sweeping into power this last election, the possibility of a privatized social security system being implemented anytime in the near future looks increasingly bleak.  That’s too bad, because a properly-implemented privatized social security system could go a long way towards solving some important problems.  Before the ideologues out there call me a contard and [...]

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This post is part of a group writing project at The Finance Blog Network.  President-elect Obama asked on Change.org for new ideas and advice from everyday people.  My fellow Finance Blog Network bloggers and I thought this would be a good opportunity to take him up on the offer.
Economy
The most important piece of advice I could [...]

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Those of you used to dealing with government agencies won’t be surprised to hear the unemployment benefits system is a complete mess.  The benefits application process is almost entirely manual and it seems like the Georgia Department of Labor did everything possible to make the process as drawn out and confusing as possible.  Seriously, it had to [...]

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Over the past few decades, capital markets in the developed world have become increasingly accessible to the middle class.  Formerly, one had to be wealthy and connected to benefit from the world’s financial markets due to the expense of making trades and conducting research.  Legendary investors like Benjamin Graham were able to uncover screaming bargains [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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In a surprise move, the House of Representatives yesterday voted against Paulson’s $700 billion bailout bill.  I was shocked, personally, because the bill was widely expected to pass and seemed to have a lot of support from both parties in congress.  In any event, this basically brings us back to square one since what happens [...]

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This morning, I almost had to call in sick to work.  My car was running on empty and I couldn’t find a gas station that actually had gas.  Eventually, after visiting 5 different stations, I eventually found one in an out-of-the-way location that still had gas.  At $4.50 per gallon.  The problem is two-fold.
Hurricanes Ike [...]

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A lower dollar and high oil prices aren’t all bad news.  According to the US Department of Commerce, exports grew by 21% for the year ending in June 2008, trimming the trade deficit by a small but nonetheless significant 4%.  But there’s another not-so-often-reported benefit of the current economic situation:  products manufactured and sold domestically [...]

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Today, the price of oil briefly dipped below $100 per barrel for the first time in who knows when, down from a high of $147 per barrel in early July.  What’s more, prices are expected to be a bit lower still this time next year.  So this is good, right?  Gas prices will (hopefully) fall [...]

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