From the category archives:

Economy

Have We Learned Nothing – GM expands subprime car loans

July 22, 2010

GM announced today that it is buying Americredit Inc, which makes loans to consumers with credit scores below 620.
GM, majority owned by taxpayers, is buying a company that makes car loans to shoppers with poor credit. Unlike home loans, though, the risk in subprime auto lending is relatively low and may reward GM. [...]

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Greenspan and the Costanza Principle

July 1, 2010

Alan Greenspan appeared on CNBC’s Squak Box this morning. Here is a recap of what he said. Personally, I am glad I went for a run rather than listen to his drivel. But, it just seems that the Costanza principle applies to Greenspan. For those who never watched the show about nothing, George Costanza experimented [...]

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Straight Shooting from Someone Who Got It Right

June 9, 2010

Here is a video interview of Michael Pento. I like Pento because he called the market crisis before it happened as well as the market’s rise. For the recent rise, he knew it was nothing more than a stimulus induce high, but it was going to happen. Now, he is saying the high is over, [...]

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Good Bank, Bad Bank

May 30, 2010

If you want some impartial analysis about local and national banks, you should head over to Weiss Research. The folks at Weiss is offering free access to the banks on their trouble list as well as the top rated banks by state. Unlike Standard and Poors, Moody’s, and A.M. Best, Weiss Ratings is not paid [...]

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Love to See an Economist Put in His Place

May 28, 2010

Interesting video from a show where money manager Hugh Hendry puts an economist in his place. Economists are like weathermen IMO. They can be completely wrong, but they can continue to make predictions and listened to so long as they get published, make tv appearances, or look like Paul Krugman. So it was fun to [...]

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Fix the Banking System by Letting Bankers Fail

May 22, 2010

An excellent op-ed piece by Jim Grant, author of Jim Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, in the Washington Post. Grant looks back at the past and finds that bankers use to be personally liable for a bank failure. The government didn’t step in and bail out the banks in the olden days. From 1848 to 1913, [...]

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13 Things Your Advisor Won’t Tell You

May 14, 2010

Good article in Yahoo today about things your advisor won’t tell you. Being a fee-only financial planner, I agree with all of them. I really see no reason to work with a commission planner anymore. That is so 1950s. You should be hiring someone to provide objective advice, not sell you product. My big piece [...]

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60 Minutes Looks at Walking Away

May 10, 2010

Interesting story from 60 Minutes last night about walking away from an underwater mortgage. As I have stated several times, I think you should walk away from a mortgage if you can rent an equivalent place for considerably less than your current mortgage. This is a contract between two parties. Each party should understand the [...]

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Are the Banks Playing Chicken?

April 22, 2010

The big banks have been reporting big earnings this quarter so far. However, the vast majority of their profits come from trading, not traditional banking activities like lending. In the real banking functions, the big banks are still losing their shirts. Citigroup just announced a $4.4 billion dollar profit this quarter. Eight billion of revenues [...]

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Is This a Recovery? – John Mauldin’s weekly letter

April 5, 2010

Thoughts from the Frontline Weekly Newsletter
Is This a Recovery?
by John Mauldin
April 2, 2010
In this issue:
Is This a Recovery?
This Time is Different
The End Game
Some Good News on Unemployment
The Effects of a Tax Increase
The Health Chair, Phoenix, San Diego, and New York
Last week I wrote a letter to my kids trying to explain what Greece meant to [...]

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