March 19, 2010

MGM picks Macau, lies over Atlantic City

A report from New Jersey investigators gives new insight into corporate malfeasance and [...]

February 21, 2010

The Next Asia: banker’s book doesn’t add up

Wall Street thought leader Stephen Roach’s book The Next Asia shows how little thinking it takes to be recognized as a thought leader in [...]

February 12, 2010

We Have No.....

We Have No…..

by Bob Grant

We have no lodge on mountain up high,

We have no jet on which to fly.

We have no yacht on which to ride,

We have no mansion in which to hide.

We have no Harley on which to cruise,

We have no closet with mountains of shoes.

We have no tailor to make our clothes,

We have no autos lined up in [...]

January 29, 2010

Fix corporations to fix campaign finance

Corporations behave irresponsibly because rigged elections prevent shareholders from supervising their investment. Until corporations fix their own elections, they shouldn’t meddle in others. [...]

December 17, 2009

A Christmas Present from New York City’s MTA

  The Metropolitan Transportation Authority handed the citizens of New York City big lumps of coal yesterday in the form of big service cuts. Two subway lines will be shut down, lots of bus service will decrease and they will phase out free fare for the city’s school children.

Did they get a memo to make the [...]

December 2, 2009

Moving Forward with the Fantasy of Life

This time last year I was swimming in Christmas presents that I had purchased for my family and a few friends. I hadn’t spent that much since I am a careful shopper but I had more funds to do as I pleased. This year there is less money to spend all around and I am [...]

November 15, 2009

A Man-Made Financial Disaster

A Man-Made Financial Disaster

By Alan Caruba

You will recall that, shortly before the end of the 2008 political campaign, the White House announced a threat to the entire financial system and called on Congress to enact emergency spending powers. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was enacted on October 3, 2008.

Just eighteen days earlier an [...]

October 3, 2009

A Look Back: One Year of Independence

This month marks a rather large milestone in my life — it’s the official one-year anniversary of my real-world independence. This time last year, I moved into my apartment in Jersey City. Sure, I stayed in the dorms at Seton Hall University, but I always went home for the summer. This was different, though. This [...]

September 24, 2009

My Golden Parachute

We haven’t heard much about it lately in the media, but the idea of a golden parachute came from the tremendous severance packages chief executive officers of large companies would get upon leaving their respective companies. We’re talking about millions of dollars in cash, stock options, and anything else of any real value that they [...]

September 20, 2009

Credit Cards are Tools — Not Crutches

Everyone is getting all up in arms about credit card use nowadays, how they can entrap you with high interest rates and a never-ending cycle of paying off bits and pieces — to no avail. Honestly, if you use credit cards to finance a life that is way beyond your means, then yes, that will [...]

September 17, 2009

Paycheck Palooza

Wednesday’s are generally good days. You’re halfway through the week, “hump day” if you will. (I know, I know. Today’s Thursday. This is a postmortem.) We’re almost to the weekend. Furthermore, when I used to live at home, it was the day of the “Good Breakfast” — a sausage and egg sandwich on a bagel, [...]

September 15, 2009

Illegal immigrants are “Nurtured” by our society

In the greater scheme of global brotherhood and advancement, all of the aims of these “special schools” are wonderful things. In the meanwhile, the taxpayers of today are suffering, and I don’t think most of us like [...]

September 14, 2009

Six Steps to Budgeting Bliss

I’ve taken the lessons my mother has taught me about planning and budgeting and broken it down into six steps. Follow these to establish your personal finance plan, and you will have the foundation in place for success — no matter what small obstacles or larger life events may come your way.

Here are the six [...]

September 14, 2009

Christopher’s Commandments

Save at least 10 percent of your yearly income.
Have goals for yourself — and write them down.
Do not spend money on items you cannot afford to pay immediately.
Treat credit cards like a privilege, not a right.
Have a cushion for yourself.
Stay on top of all purchases, bills, and other financial information.
Keep it simple when it comes [...]

August 30, 2009

A Russian Warns Americans Against a Communist Takeover

A Russian Warns Americans Against a Communist Takeover
By Alan Caruba

There is considerable irony involved when a Russian warns Americans against what is taking place before their eyes as President Obama seeks to transform and ultimately acquire dictatorial powers by a series of steps that are both bold and obvious.

In April, Stanislav Mishin’s post on his [...]

August 11, 2009

CREDIT SCORES

Are you checking [...]

July 26, 2009

B.O. is an economic ignoramus or a devious Marxist

 

 B.O. is an economic ignoramus or a devious Marxist
By Ben Cerruti

 

July 15, 2009

Borrowing, Spending and Regulating, Oh my!

Borrowing, Spending and Regulating, Oh my!
By Alan Caruba

It sometimes seems to me that the Congress and the White House are determined to put an end to the nation through a combination of exorbitant borrowing and insane spending.

At the end of May, an article in USA Today reported that “The government took on $6.8 trillion in [...]

July 10, 2009

Start a Business? Are You Ready?

 

    Do you plan to give up your job and start a new business of your [...]

July 9, 2009

Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki endorse networking as a business. Do you have what it takes for this industry?

So you want to start a home based business now what?

You have made the decision to become an entreprenuer and start a home based business but with so many different comensation plans, products, established companies and start up businesses the choice can become a daunting task.

If you have been searching you will hear over and [...]

July 5, 2009

Am I Ready to Start a Business? 10 personal questions to ask yourself before you commit

 

     No, we won’t begin with “Do you have a master’s degree?” Although education does matter, higher education is not a requirement for starting or succeeding in a new business. In fact, according to a 1992 United States Census Bureau report, [...]

May 22, 2009

REQUEST FOR WHATEVER (RFW)

The nonsense involved with [...]

May 14, 2009

SEO Strategies for Financial Websites

SEO Strategies for Financial Websites

by David Leonhardt

Here are a few SEO tips specific to financial websites. 

First, understand that people are very sensitive and possessive about their money.  Your website has to ooze credibility if you want to convert traffic to customers.  You probably know this already, but keep it in mind when you hire an [...]

April 20, 2009

“Getting Around Congress?” – It’s Much Worse than That

                                                  “Getting Around Congress?”
It’s Much Worse than That

by John Armor

       The Treasury Department announced today that it would “convert its preferred stock in the nation’s largest banks into common stock.”  The stated advantages were that this would allow Treasury to aid more banks without going back to Congress for more money than what was already approved.  [...]

April 9, 2009

Toxic Money v. Toxic Assets

Our economy is going through a lot of turmoil right now and there is a push to find the bastards to blame. But if we concentrate too much energy on those at fault and too little energy on correcting what went wrong then we will be equally culpable when we go through this again.

So let’s [...]

March 18, 2009

The Domino Theory

When we were in Vietnam they said that if Vietnam fell then the rest of Indochina would go Communist. They invoked the Domino theory to say one thing will cause another. Ten years later we left and Vietnam became a Communist country and nothing else happened. Then they said that if we didn’t go in [...]

March 4, 2009

The stupidity of ‘cheap’

John Ruskin wrote: “There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey.” These days many of us are looking carefully at our bank balances, striving for economy, trying to avoid unnecessary expenditures. [...]

February 28, 2009

Have Faith

        The President hath decreed that we, as a unified nation, will fix what’s wrong with our economy.  I strongly agree with this.  I have faith.  But that faith is not based on any of the ample collection of strengths possessed by President Obama.  I have faith in Nature.  Not human nature.  Just Nature.
        Nature [...]

February 25, 2009

Lent as Economic Salvation

A Baptist friend once told me that Catholics didn’t know what a good thing they had in Lent. We were both trying to loose a few pounds at the time and my friend, soon to become a minister, proselytized stating the virtues of being forced to fast during Lent. Although her point was taken having grown [...]

February 20, 2009

“The glass is 90% full.” “No! It’s 10% empty.” Your choice?

The U.S. economy, and much of the global economy, is retrenching. There are many causes, some nefarious or naive, some cyclic or naturally caused (what goes up must come down—nature’s oscillations). Either way, we’re seeing a ~10% adjustment worldwide. It has happened before. It will happen again. Guaranteed.
For an individual suffering layoff, foreclosure or other [...]

February 12, 2009

The Art of Giving- The Time is Now

You tell yourself you don’t have a dime to spare. You wish the man in the ragged coat would withdraw his hand and not ask for your help. You are tired of seeing the homesless person with the dog sleeping outside on the cold ground. You wish the agencies to assist the needy would loose [...]

January 21, 2009

Titanic and the Economics of Class

Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. When they rescued the fifteen hundred people from the icy Atlantic they found a disproportionate amount of first class people. There were some from second class, further down in the ship, but very few from steerage down in the bowels. It seems the Captain and his crew had concentrated [...]