Archive for the ‘Economy’ Category
Learning, leverage, and the coming change in education
Institutions of learning are going to be dramatically changed in the coming years.
Rolfe Winkler is an astute blogger, and he (along with many others) sees a parallel in the markets for housing and higher education. We have students (homeowners) purchasing an education (housing) at ever increasing prices using vast amounts of leverage. That didn’t end [...]
My Principles of Investing
Once you think about any topic for long enough, you begin to develop a personal philosophy about how it works. This could be your perspective of how to best throw a baseball, how to make the perfect souffle, or how to best tackle a sudoku puzzle.
I happen to think about investing, finance and business an [...]
View from my recession: Brooklyn car service
As you may know if you read this blog, I live in Brooklyn, New York. Although the subway is my primary means of transportation, I occasionally indulge in using a car service to get to the airport or during exceptionally rainy days. This is not, as those who live in Brooklyn can attest, an extravagant [...]
An inflation hedge
I recently bought TIPS - Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities - for the first time. All the talk about looming hyperinflation was beginning to alarm me, and given a recent conversation with a friend who professionally manages money, it seemed justified.
Alan Blinder’s article in the NYTimes was all the more interesting: inflation, he contends, is the least [...]
Layoffs Easing
Just out from the AP: total unemployment insurance claims fell for the first time since January:
The Labor Department said the total unemployment insurance rolls fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the week ending June 6, the largest drop in more than seven years. The decline is a sign that layoffs are easing.
The drop also [...]
Record Credit Card Default Rate
CNBC outlines how credit card default rates are rising above record levels:
Bank of America—the largest U.S. bank—said its default rate, those loans the company does not expect to be paid back, soared to 12.50 percent in May from 10.47 percent in April.
In addition, American Express, which accounts for nearly a quarter of credit and charge card [...]
