Insider Trading and 911

I'm not one for conspiracy theories but there's something to this.

Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge | 911 Research.

Financial transactions in the days before the attack suggest that certain individuals used foreknowledge of the attack to reap huge profits.

"You follow drugs, you get drug addicts and drug dealers. But you start to follow the money... and you don't know where the fuck it is going to take you." - Det. Lester Freamon, The Wire

The Great American Bubble Machine

Rolling Stone columnist, Matt Taibbi explaining how Goldman Sachs is behind every major market bubble since the Great Depression. His original article can be read here.

You can follow Matt on his blog Taibblog.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5

Payday Lending

I'm always shocked at the amount of Payday lending vendors around the City of Chicago. If I drive one block south to Roosevelt or a couple blocks west to Damen, I start to see the infestation of payday lending.

The 411 on Payday Lending:

• Payday lending is legal and regulated in 37 states


• In 13 states it is either illegal or not feasible, given state law


• 23,000 lenders


• $40 billion industry


• Typical borrower takes out between eight and 10 loans each year

“Payday lenders contend that they provide access to credit for underserved communities,” said Leslie Parrish, a senior researcher at the Center for Responsible Lending. “What they are really providing is access to long-term debt traps which too often lead to extra overdraft fees, credit card delinquency, trouble paying bills including medical expenses, even bankruptcy." (Louisiana Weekly)

The Center for Responsible Lending (yes, you should be familiar with them) explains how payday lending works.

In May, the crew at Planet Money made a podcast about payday lending...check it out.

Additional Reading:
Costly Cash: The Great Recession Is Paying Off for Pawnshops and Payday Lenders

Uncle Ben goes shopping

In September I posted a video about Quantitative Easing from Patty Hirsch at Marketplace.org. This is a good follow up to that video.

"The Federal Reserve is trying to stimulate the economy by buying billions of dollars worth of bonds from banks. Senior Editor Paddy Hirsch explains how that's supposed to work."

Rich Whitney and Election Rigging in Illinois

We've had the voting/electoral system in this country for hundreds of years. Yet, we cannot get a candidate's name spelled correctly. I do not think this is an egregious error - but election rigging. Politics is a dirty game in Illinois and unfortunately for Rich Whitney (G-Carbondale), when you decisively win a debate about economics against the two favored candidates (Governor Pat Quinn (D-Chicago) and Bill Brady (R-Bloomington), this is what happens:

"(Springfield, IL) -- An Illinois Green Party gubernatorial candidate is unhappy with the Chicago Board of Elections. That's because Rich Whitney's name is misspelled as Rich Whitey on electronic-voting machines. The problem shows up in more than 20 wards, half of them in mostly African-American areas. Officials acknowledged earlier this week that there's not enough time to get the problem corrected by election day.
They added that about 90-percent of votes will be cast on paper ballots, where Whitney's name is spelled correctly." (mystateline.com)

Seriously, how can you explain this?

Financial Illiteracy in America

We have a problem in America. That problem being that so many Americans do not know the fundamentals of finance (personal or otherwise).

Here's some links regarding Financial Illiteracy.

• Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints wrote this about financial literacy.



• Author, John Hope Bryant expressed the problems with financial illiteracy as well as some ideas on how to fight the war on financial literacy Financial Literacy as the New Civil Right: Why It Matters to Business in America



• Greater Fools | The New Yorker
  
  
• America's Financial Illiteracy | Forbes



• Even the Government has stepped in by signing into law the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Although it doesn't mention Financial Literacy verbatim, evaluating credit and lending practices, permanently increasing protection of bank deposits, providing more transparency and accountability for investments and related services, addressing risky banking practices, and monitoring systemic risk is a SOLID step in the right direction.

Two Housing Articles You Should Read

Global House Prices: Unsafe as Houses - An interactive overview of global prices and rents (as a BONUS it allows you to compare house price indicators in 21 markets).

"The interactive tool above enables you to compare nominal and real house prices across 21 markets over time. And to get a sense of whether buying a property is becoming more or less affordable, you can also look at the changing relationships between house prices and rents, and between house prices and incomes." - The Economist


Realistic homeowners debunk the nest egg myth - Homeowners are realising that the proverbial housing ladder is not the route to financial security

Econ News!

1.)Google eyes online consumer index to track inflation

2.)Three Economists Win Nobel Prize for Search Market Theory