April 2009

Credit Card Industry Defeated – For Now

April 30, 2009

Hi All, We’ve been following the on going anti-credit card legislation thats currently going through congress. Here is a great recap from American News Project. At 5:39 its a quick watch. Might be worth your time to see whats going on with potential changes to your card agreements.

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Stay Away From Banks and Detroit

April 30, 2009

Hi All, Maybe this is obvious by now, but I wanted to urge our readers to stay away from two economic sectors: domestic automotives and banking. This may be somewhat controversial, but here is my thesis: Banking: 1) Banking will continue to suffer. Why? Several reasons. First, a toughened, but contradictory regulatory environment is beginning [...]

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Chrysler Bankrupt!

April 30, 2009

Hi All, Just heard the news on NPR. Chrysler will file for bankruptcy. Rest In Peace Update: story is being carried by CNN. Best, James

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Five Things About Taxes And Your Investments

April 29, 2009

Hi All, Kiplinger media produces a much underrated series of videos for fans of personal finance. If you’ve got any mutual funds, you might be interested in this one. Basically the video looks at 5 ways you can minimize taxes when investing (which you can then invest to build wealth!). In a nutshell they are: [...]

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GDP Down by 6.1%

April 29, 2009

The latest numbers are out. The GDP declines by 6.1% first quarter of 09. Ouch! (Bloomberg).

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Term of the Day: Hostage Value

April 29, 2009

Hi All, Here is a term you might not have heard: hostage value. Hostage value is when a lender loans you more than the value of the underlying collateral. For example it used to be common practice that a lender would lend you $10,000 and secure it with $2,000 worth of household goods. The lender [...]

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Tuesday Link Round Up

April 28, 2009

Everywhere else is the pits, but the Bay Area is doing good (SF Chronicle). The Feds are backing up to 10.5 trillion worth of the U.S. economy. This roughly the same as the 2008 US GDP (CNN). Finance magazines are going out of businesses. O the irony! (Marketwatch). How Madoff was able to scam so [...]

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China: Coming Up Fast From Behind

April 27, 2009

Hi All, Just saw this presentation. It outlines some of China’s past economic growth and gives some thoughts on the countries projected future. It makes a compelling case that the middle kingdom is on a trajectory to become a global superpower. China has created incredible wealth in a relatively short period of time. Provided the [...]

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How Does Your Debt Compare?

April 27, 2009

Hi All, If you want to kill some time today, consider surfing over to the NY Time’s website. They have a nifty little calculator that lets you compare your debt to a sample of 92 households from 2004. I plugged in the value of our first mortgage ($285,000) and saw that our mortgage alone means [...]

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U.S. Economy Not Out of The Woods

April 27, 2009

Hi All, It’s Monday. Over this last weekend I was having coffee with our neighbor Derek enjoying the nice weather. Our neighbor was of the opinion that the economy was going to get better in the next couple of months. We like Derek, so I didn’t want to flatly contradict him. However, dear reader, please [...]

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