Bernard Madoff Didn't Just Hurt Jews: He Was an Equal Opportunity Swindler
Why should Jews be any more surprised that one of their own is less than honorable? Are we not subject to the same failings of other humans?
HuffPost's QuickRead
2008 Ends With Alarming Retirement Benefit Trends
Unlike traditional pensions, employers have the flexibility to stop or start matching 401(k) contributions as they like. It's a relatively obvious target for cuts in a severe economic crisis.
Making the Best of the Economic Mess
I don't know how a Citigroup collector is going to convince an unemployed worker that he has a moral obligation to pay up. Thus, I am expecting huge credit card defaults in 2009.
We're in a "Repression": The Economics of Shame
Perhaps we're better off thinking of our current state of economic ennui not as a recession or a depression, but as a "repression."
State Controller's Office Says Your Money is Waiting: So Why Don't You Just Get it?
I'm always amazed that so many people bitch about not earning enough money to make ends meet when many of these same folks disregard money that is just sitting and waiting for them to collect.
Is Your Debt Naughty or Nice?
For the first time in over 50 years, it is clear that "debt" has finally come to be seen for what it is, a four letter word that should be used with extreme caution.
Sarah Palin: the All-in-One Reality TV Show
Palin is one-person reiteration of everything from "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" (early round dismissal?) up through and including "Survivor."
Lasting Homeowner Help? Try (Financial) Fishing Lessons
As a nation, we have lost our financial way. Founded in the principles of thrift, frugality, and hard work, our beloved country has morphed into a giant financial couch potato.
Changing the Present
Is anyone else having trouble shopping for the holidays this year? I sure am. I'm finding that I cannot buy things. I'm definitely in the spirit of the season, but things just aren't cutting it.
Jimmy V and the Closed Wallet
I'm not the only person thinking twice about giving money to charity. Or about spending money. Most people have the same kind of hesitation that I have. And this compounds the financial crisis problem.
Son of a Gambler's Guide to Holiday Books
It's a lesson to me, the ablers and the beggars and the thieves -The Grateful Dead If you read my book, Son of a Son of a Gambler, you'll know that...
The Wall Street Journal's "Really Personal" Finance
No matter who you believe is at fault in the subprime crisis -- borrowers, lenders, Jimmy Cayne, Alan Greenspan -- it's clear that millions of people ...
Barack Obama: America's 44th President
The election of Illinois Senator Barack Obama as America's 44th president is astounding, historical, implausible, improbable and completely without precedent.
Money and Fear
Illusion of control makes everything tolerable. Problem is, we are plum out of illusions.
Fiscal Crisis Yoga
Understanding and accepting that bad things happen, that things won't always go our way, that people and events will disappoint us -- it's not pessimism. Rather, it's reality.
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Wasn't this all predictable? When people had to commit 40, 50, 55% of their incomes to mortgages, why weren't the banks, the lenders cocncerned? Surely they didn't think it was sustainable. And when the foreclosures began to mount, the banks folded their arms and decided they didn't want to play anymore. But since taxpayers have now funded their losses to the tune of $750,000,000, they're feeling a little better. The greed of the oil companies sunk the nails in the coffin though, and now here we sit. Change has come, and more drastic changes are on the way.
No one has commented on a major social change over the past fifty years. It is now widely accepted that in order to survive financially most families will need to have both parents working in the paid labor force.
Yep - we need 104 paychecks per year. And this is just to cover FIXED COSTS - Housing, health care, education, and food.
Meanwhile, families facing greater risk if one is laid off - more risk to each family. Put on top of that the cost of mortgages today as is correctly pointed out above, health care today versus 20 years ago, then add day care... give me a break.
Now someone gets sicks and guess what - insurance doesn;t cover it or hospital sends them home early to recover with the family = more days off = more poor families.
Families today with children are facing 100% increase in mortgage costs, meanwhile they have to forgo health insurance to pay for these fixed costs and there is no social safety net.
LEt's face it folks - the middle class has been decimated....
why do you need me as a tax payer to be your so called safety net
I have. And what was the major reason for that, even more than wages not keeping pace? The banks, who manipulated home prices to skyrocket. I did a little calculation: If home prices (where I live, Seattle area) had been tied to wages in the 60's a house that is $500,000 would be $80,000. That is where they should be, given people's reasonable ability to pay them off in their lifetime given what we make.
1) This country is creating massive debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for.
2) Oops, we made a little miscalculation, regarding when 1) would come due.