Culture & Society

Making Lemonade from Lemons

Have you ever listened to a promo for the 11:00 news and heard something like this: “Family’s house burns down, all is lost, stay tuned at 11:00.” Then you listen in and, in fact, all has been lost -- the house as well as all the belongings. Yet, the family is interviewed and manages to seem okay reporting that at least they all made it out including the cat. The kicker is that they also report looking forward to the opportunity to building a new and better house! Why is it that some people can face adversity without experiencing so much stress? How is it that some people can deal with challenges and see them as opportunities? It turns out that these individuals have a trait called hardiness. Some background More…

The Hybrid Car Theory of Investing

I am a late adapter. For example, I only just started using my cell phone for just about all my calls, so it is probably not surprising that I haven't ever driven a hybrid car until now. But, I rented one this week--I didn't seek it out; it is all that the people at Hertz had--and I love it. Yes, sure, I like the fact that I am helping to save the environment, but the appeal to an old cheapskate me is the gas mileage. I am getting about 50 miles to the gallon. What has this to do with investing? A lot. More…

If you haven't finished your Christimas shopping...

...it could work to your benefit this year. This is just a guess on my part, but given the economy I think the mark downs you saw today, "Black Friday," will continue to Christmas Eve. That's the good news. The potential bad news (other than the fact that all the mark downs mean the economy is in trouble) is if retailers are smart, they will have cut back on their ordering. So, I wouldn't wait too long. The item you want could be gone. More…

Vote

The cliche "if you didn't vote, you can't complain" isn't completely right. This is America. You can complain about just about anything at any time. But you will have a whole lot more credibility, if you voted. Please do. More…

The Great Recession?

I understand the marketing. And on one level I appreciate it. If the economy is going through hard times, why not offer coffee for a nickel (Krispy Kreme) and offer huge breakfasts for $4 like Denny's is doing and offer other Depression-style deals. (Referring to the Depression and current Recession as you do it.) But I wonder from a psychology point of view if it is helping things. Doesn't it just reinforce how bad things are? More…

Money for Nothing

Here are a couple of random thoughts, while waiting for the market to open. Should the L.A. Dodgers play the Red Soxs in the World Series, the Soxs will be paying for Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez to beat them. (Part of the trade that sent Manny from the Red Soxs to the Dodgers during the season required the Soxs to continue to pay all of Manny's salary for the year.) It gets better. If the Dodgers win, not only will Manny get a World Series ring, he will get two bonus checks. The first, for being a member of the winning team. And, the Sox will pay him a pro-rated share of what the losing team receives to cover the time he played for them during the season. Sure beats trying to make money in the market.. More…

Let’s not Blame the People Who Wanted to Buy Homes

If this was 24 years ago, I would have been blamed for causing the meltdown on Wall Street. I was about to turn 29, and couldn’t walk in our tiny two-bedroom condo. Every inch was covered with stuff devoted to the care, feeding and entertaining of our hyper-active two-year-old. My wife and I decided to go house hunting and found the perfect place: A three-bedroom, two and half bath home on a third of acre of land in a terrific school district. That was the good news. The bad news was it cost $138,340, and I was making all of $40,000 a year (my wife didn’t work) and we didn’t qualify for the traditional $110,000 mortgage (at 13%) we needed. More…

Maybe the 9% Approval Rating was Too High

On the morning after we all saw our retirement savings take a substantial hit, I only have one question: Is Congress' 9% approval rating too high? If we lined up 11 members of the ThirdAge community today, do you really think that we could find one person who would say they are doing a good job handling the financial crisis? More…

Is the U.S. About to Collapse? Could It Be a Good Thing?

Every day, it seems, there is disturbing news about the stability of the country. The housing crisis has lead to concerns about the future of the entire economic system. As the gulf coast is battered by one storm after another, we are reminded of the predictions of scientists who warned about global climate instability. Now a new book by Dmitry Orlov, Reinventing Collapse, suggests that the U.S. is vulnerable to the same forces that brought down the Soviet Union. More…

Are You to Blame for Wall Street Woes?

Bulls make money. Bears make money. Pigs get slaughtered. I was reminded of this old Wall Street saying as I was going through the papers this morning which are filled with stories about whether Lehman Brothers, one of the oldest investment banks, will survive. In the large part financial institutions like Lehman are in trouble became of the housing mess. And, in large part, the housing mess was created by people like you and me--folks who thought real estate prices could only go up forever, and so either bought more house than we could afford, or bought houses as an investment with the expectation of making a quick profit. That was dumb. More…