Read the whole item here, but why are we talking about tax increases in California again?
“Subprime mortgages are a problem but they are not the cause of the collapse. The collapse was caused by an OPEC generated precipitous rise in oil prices. Subprime mortgage buyers could no longer pay their mortgages because too much of their pay check had to go to pay for gasoline.”
ajamison:
Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 - 2007 (2nd Edition)
This is amazing to watch. Peter Schiff on various TV shows throughout 2006 & 2007 warning about the impending financial crisis. He’s then ridiculed and laughed at repeatedly. Amazing.
Even the usually-awesome Ben Stein joins in the mocking. =/
This is amazing. It’s not that no one could see the problem coming. It’s that most people didn’t want to see it coming. Whoever Peter Schiff works for, he’s not getting paid enough. And it is painful to watch Ben Stein be so wrong.
fred-wilson:
Great picture from great slide show on the credit crisis
This is a good slideshow. I think slides #12 and 13 are the best explanation of what’s happening now. It goes a little fast so do the one slide at a time thing instead of the play button. And there’s lots of detail so go full screen.
So what should you do?
Adams has nine steps that he says, when performed in order, can help you to generate — and protect — your wealth. We think his suggestions are pretty Foolish and thus, with his permission (thanks, Scott), publish them here:
- Make a will.
- Pay off your credit cards.
- Get term life insurance if you have a family to support.
- Fund your 401(k) to the maximum.
- Fund your IRA to the maximum.
- Buy a house if you want to live in a house and can afford it.
- Put six months’ worth of expenses in a money market account.
- Take whatever money is left over and invest 70% in a stock index fund and 30% in a bond fund through any discount broker, and never touch it until retirement.
- If any of this confuses you, or if you have something special going on (retirement, college planning, tax issues), hire a fee-based financial planner.
Seems like good advice. You might want to skip the buy a house part. (via morrismaven)
“In “The Coming Economic Earthquake” (1991), Burkett delineated growing federal deficits and the ever increasing use of debt by business and households out of control. Burkett points out those severe economic times will appear sometime shortly after the millennium unless current polices are changed. Burkett believed that Keynesian economic policies, with ideals for continuing federal deficits and the implicit preference for higher levels of consumption, reduced saving, and a larger role for government in the economy are a means to disaster. As Burkett states in the book that as interest on the debt consumes a larger and larger portion of the yearly federal budget, and more money is borrowed each year to pay the interest on what was borrowed in previous years, there will be a temptation to “monetize” the debt at an increasing rate leading to a calamity not seen since the Great Depression. Burkett questioned whether or not elected leaders would take action in time to prevent fiscal chaos, and believed they would not.”
Here’s the glass-half-full view.
hilker ← datainsightsideas:
kevintwohy:
modiddy:
A year ago Jim Cramer went ballistic on CNBC. While a lot of people called him a kook, looking back he was prophetic. (via reddit)
hah. funny in retrospect…
Wow, this does seem quite prescient.
The Simple Dollar financial blog offers up a guide to creating a “Master Information Document”—a single piece of paper that’s locked away securely, explained only to family and very close friends,…
marco:
There’s a huge lack of good, practical, useful financial advice for regular people… .
Hopefully we can have a more open discourse about personal finance in our culture. It’s too painful to see 50-year-olds without retirement funds because nobody ever told them they needed one, or 20-year-olds with credit-card debt because they bought frivolous things and didn’t consider the math.
Click through for an initial dose of good, practical, useful financial advice.