POST PUBLISHED INOctober, 2009
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  • Crash of '29 anniversary - setting the record straight

    October 30th, 200910:31 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    On this 80th anniversary of the Great Stock Market Crash of 1929, I refer you to Mark's February 2008 article that corrects common misconceptions about the crash. As he noted then, "Sadly, because these misconceptions are foisted regularly upon the investing public, many investors fear bear markets intensely and make poor decisions as a result." ...

  • "Too big to fail" is too big

    October 29th, 200909:03 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    Jim Jubak's latest column is a pretty convincing explanation of Why Big Banks Hate Banking. He runs through several examples (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo) showing that these companies may be involved (to varying degrees) in regular banking activities, but at least recently, they've been making most of their profits ...

  • Good news for workers

    October 28th, 200909:46 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    There's been precious little good news for American workers over the past two years, but that may be slowly starting to change. Here's a good sign that things may be turning the corner a bit for some American companies. Last April, we noted that at least 200 companies had either reduced or suspended matching contributions to their 401k plans. The ...

  • Homebuyer tax credit

    October 26th, 200908:58 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    Last week, I came across an article about the effort to extend and expand the Homebuyer Tax Credit. I hadn't been paying much attention to this particular effort, but in a nutshell, the idea is to extend it beyond Nov. 30, when the original is due to expire. It would be expanded by making it a $15,000 tax credit rather than $8,000 and by making it ...

  • College costs continue upward

    October 23rd, 200908:36 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    Prices are down in quite a few areas of the economy, but not in higher education. Not by a long shot. The New York Times has details from the College Board's latest "Trends in College Pricing" report. The price of a college education rose substantially last year.... Hit hard by state budget cuts, four-year public colleges raised tuition and fe...

  • When a 5,300% gain = a catastrophic loss

    October 21st, 200902:16 PM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    Financial commentator Jonathan Hoenig, writing at SmartMoney.com, tells a sad (and recent) tale of how runaway inflation can destroy the value of earnings. From May through October of 2008, Zimbabwean stocks skyrocketed, shooting from 72,000 to almost 400,000 by early November as measured by the S&P/International Finance Zimbabwe Index. Fo...

  • Prepaid college tuition: it seemed like a good idea at the time

    October 16th, 200909:14 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    The New York Times offers an unhappy updateon state-run plans that pledge to cover the cost of attending a state's public institutions of higher ed, irrespective of how much tuition may have increased between the time of the pre-payments and a student's actual enrollment. In other words, prepaid plans imply (or in some cases explicitly offer) a gu...

  • A tale of 1,000 points

    October 15th, 200911:43 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    The Dow reclaimed the 10,000 level yesterday, roughly a year after it last held that level, and more than 10 years since it first passed that milestone. As David Callaway of Marketwatch points out, a look back clearly shows that it's anybody's guess what happens next: When the Dow first closed above 10,000 in 1999, it only took another 24 trading...

  • Time is running out for Sam and his family

    October 14th, 200909:52 AM ET
    By Austin Pryor
    Let me tell you about my friend Sam. I've watched the way he handles his finances for years, and unfortunately, he never seems to learn from his past mistakes. He's never learned to live within his means, and he's now deeply buried in debt. One of his biggest weaknesses is he has a hard time saying no when he sees a need. He has a good heart and t...

  • Consumers jumping off the credit card wagon

    October 09th, 200909:00 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    It's not all voluntary, and it's not always a decision made of virtuous intent. But for a variety of reasons, consumers are rapidly cutting their credit card use. Marketwatch reports that consumers cut their borrowing by nearly $12 billion in August, a 5.8% annualized rate of decline. Nearly $10 billion of that cut was credit card debt. That w...

  • Gold sets new highs

    October 07th, 200911:44 AM ET
    By Mark Biller
    Gold soared to an all-time high of $1,045/oz yesterday, sparked by a couple of news items this morning. Both illustrate the point we've been making in recent months that the rationale for investing in gold stems from what is happening (and likely going to happen) to the dollar. One of the news items that sparked gold's rise was a report in the U.K...

  • Lobbying for more options in your 401(k)

    October 05th, 200910:39 AM ET
    By Joseph Slife
    "My company retirement plan has a lousy set of fund offerings. How do I convince my employer to offer more (and better) options?" One of our readers e-mailed with this question recently. Since there are likely to be other readers in similar situations, I've decided to publish my response to him here on the Editor's Weblog: The best possible...
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