As featured in The Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, and more!

Economy

Are You An Investor Or Speculator?

by Flexo

Mark Cuban has presented an editorial on the differences between investing and speculating. He proposes that investors no longer exist and the vast majority of those in the market are speculators. He concludes with his own opinion about how corporate profits distributed to shareholders should be taxed. True investors in businesses would not be taxed, ... Continue reading this article…

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What Are You Afraid Of?

by Flexo

CNN Money has an extensive feature on how general consensus is wrong again. The articles look at the biggest money fears, how they may be unreasonable, and what should worry the public instead. Here are the first three from the series. The remaining three appear in a follow-up post here at Consuermsim Commentary. While Americans ... Continue reading this article…

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Moving On Up

by Flexo

This just in: The Fed has raised rates another quarter point to 3.25 percent. The effect will ripple through the economy, which is good news for banks. I’m looking forward to some of the banks, such as ING Direct and Emigrant Direct (where I hold my savings) raising their rates as well.

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Master of Your Eminent Domain

by Flexo

Last week I talked about the Supreme Court decision regarding Eminent Domain. Hot on the heels of the decision, a town in Texas is preparing to seize 3 properties to make way for a marina. This time, businesses are involved rather than residences. The marina is expected to attract $60 million and create as much ... Continue reading this article…

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Eminent Domain Rules Officially Changed

by Flexo

Let’s say you own a home, like many people in this country do. Let’s go further and say that you own the property completely. Maybe you had a mortgage, but it’s completely paid off. The property is yours. Well… as Jon Stewart is fond of saying, not so much. If your state government decides that ... Continue reading this article…

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Sell Gold, Pay Off Debt

by Flexo

Mark Cuban from Blog Maverick believes the country should sell its gold reserves in order to pay down national debt. This plan assumes that the amount of held gold reported actually exists in storage. It’s a safe assumption unless you’re a conspiracy theorist. Fort Knox would be an expensive operation if it was protecting nothing. ... Continue reading this article…

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May the Economic Force Be With You

by Flexo

Those strange CNN photographers and graphics designers have been at it again, apparently. While the yields of treasury bonds were falling, CNN.com staffers were busy morphing Alan Greenspan into Yoda. The caption for the photo: “Conundrum, hmmm? Boost interest rates, I must.”

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Price Waves

by Flexo

Jim Jubak has published an important article about inflation. Jim, with support from The Great Wave by David Hackett Fischer, explains how the Federal Reserve Bank is ignoring long-term inflation while being concerned with shorter, cyclical events. There is historical precedence for the price inflation the world is currently going through. Jim picks out some ... Continue reading this article…

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The Great (Class) Divide

by Flexo

Big Media CEOs get paid to stay at home. Media companies will pay their chief officers big bucks on top of their salaries to keep second homes for business. The numbers in that article are staggering, but not unexpected. This quote by Paul Hodgson from The Corporate Library mimics my sentiment exactly: “The very idea ... Continue reading this article…

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Today’s Interesting Items

by Flexo

The Federal Reserve Bank raised rates to 3.0 percent. Will ING Direct, Emigrant Direct, and other high-yield internet savings banks follow? Seven rules for negotiation. Here is some good advice for negotiating anything, such as raises, car prices, and hostages. I wish I had read this when I first accepted my current position at this company. ... Continue reading this article…

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Back To Reality

by Flexo

This weekend, I arrived home from my California Vacation. It wasn’t exactly a Griswold farce, but the week had its share of zany moments. Now I’m back to reality — New Jersey — and things aren’t looking good: * The stock market hasn’t exactly been working in investors’ favor this year. * Mathew Emmert from ... Continue reading this article…

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Being Last is Best

by Flexo

According to a CNN story and a AAA report, New Jersey is the last state whose average price for a gallon of gasoline has surpassed $2.00. Still, New Jersey remains at the bottom of the list thanks to local refineries, ports and low taxes. Luckilly, there are two low cost gas stations on my route ... Continue reading this article…

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Predicting Markets

by Flexo

Neville is writing about predicting the markets. Are the markets predictable? What were people predicting in 1930 and 1940, and were those predictions accurate? I was researching these questions and I came across a paper by Felix Stalder, a PhD Student at the University of Toronto, entitled The Nature of Financial Networks. It’s an interesting ... Continue reading this article…

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The New Bankruptcy Bill

by Flexo

There’s a new bankruptcy bill that’s up for vote in the Senate. if it passes, and it probably will, filing for bankruptcy will be harder. More specifically, fewer people will be able to file under Chapter 7, where creditors will get nothing and all debt is liquidated, and instead will be forced to file under ... Continue reading this article…

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New Jersey is Last

by Flexo

It never felt so nice to be last on a list. New Jersey is ranked 50th when it comes to the average price of gasoline according to AAA. If you’re looking for more fun with gasoline price statistics, check out AAA’s Daily Fuel Gauge Report. The good news is the station I usually go to ... Continue reading this article…

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Better Stock Up

by Flexo

I was listening to Marketplace on NPR during the commute home from work today. They reported that according to CBS, gas prices at the pump may surge $0.24 a gallon in the next few days. The article says that this is one analyst’s prediction, but that one analyst is getting a lot of press. When ... Continue reading this article…

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Positive Outlook

by Flexo

It’s true that maintaining a positive outlook can help keep your life together, generally or financially speaking. Here are steps from the CBS Marketwatch article: * Identify your traps. Figure out what your excuses are. One of mine, for example, is I’m not making enough money to cover all of my expenses. * Consider your ... Continue reading this article…

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Social Security Calculator

by Flexo

Chuck Schumer, the senator from New York, put up a fancy Social Security benefits calculator on his website. This calculator shows how much today’s workers will likely receive for their annual benefits if Bush’s proposed plan is pushed through. Here’s a hint: your combined benefit of both the government and private portion will be lower ... Continue reading this article…

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Financial or Marital Bliss

by Flexo

An ever-growing body of research shows that most of us adapt quickly to improvements in our finances; we simply learn to covet a higher class of goods. But the happiness-inducing qualities of a solid marriage last and last. That’s a quotation from this special report from CNN Money. The summary is simple: If you want ... Continue reading this article…

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Fed Funds Up

by Flexo

The Federal Reserve raised the “target for the federal funds rate” to 2.5 percent up 25 basis points (0.25 percentage points). Their statement shows that their decision is based on the idea that inflation is “realitvely low.” I expect the interest rate on my savings account will follow suit, especially since the competition has leapfrogged in ... Continue reading this article…

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