Margaret Atwood on debt and consequences
What might be most surprising about the myriad economic problems around the globe right now is how many major world economies seem to have been taken by surprise by the concept of debt. Maybe they should have been reading more Margaret Atwood.
Atwood isn’t only one of the world’s premier novelists, she’s also the author of the nonfiction “Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth,” which hit the presses just as the financial crisis arrived in the fall of 2008 (timing that one review described as “freakishly prescient”).
Insight: Wal-Mart moms – The election pollsters’ new favorites
By Chris Taylor
(Reuters) – Laura Bartlett doesn’t think of herself as the key to the 2012 elections. She’s a bank employee, mother of two and budding comedian with the troupe Four Funny Females. And honestly, the she couldn’t care less about politics.
But that doesn’t mean pollsters aren’t keenly interested in what she’s thinking and feeling. After all, she’s in the heart of a demographic that’s been the subject of some recent political research: The Wal-Mart Mom.
Wal-Mart moms: The election pollsters’ new favorites
Oct 13 (Reuters) – Laura Bartlett doesn’t think of herself
as the key to the 2012 elections. She’s a bank employee, mother
of two and budding comedian with the troupe Four Funny Females.
And honestly, the she couldn’t care less about politics.
But that doesn’t mean pollsters aren’t keenly interested in
what she’s thinking and feeling. After all, she’s in the heart
of a demographic that’s been the subject of some recent
political research: The Wal-Mart Mom.
State colleges are a bargain-hunter’s best higher-education dream
When it came time for Cassidy Rumble Meyer to choose a college, she had a range of options thanks to great SAT scores, a solid grade point average and a stellar volunteer resume.
But when it came to mulling over elite universities, Rumble looked at the bottom line, which for private four-year colleges now average over $27,000 a year in tuition and fees alone.
Analysis: Why some fund managers don’t invest in their own funds
NEW YORK (Reuters) – If you’re an investor who owns a single share in a mutual fund, here’s a nasty little shocker: You might have more money on the line than your own fund manager.
Amazingly, many portfolio managers don’t invest in the funds they’re running. According to Chicago-based fund research firm Morningstar, 45 percent of stock funds and 66 percent of bond funds that are considered ‘core’ – basic building blocks of a portfolio, like an S&P 500 index – have a grand total of zero manager investment.
Why some fund managers don’t invest in their own funds
NEW YORK, Oct 4 (Reuters) – If you’re an investor who owns
a single share in a mutual fund, here’s a nasty little shocker:
You might have more money on the line than your own fund
manager.
Amazingly, many portfolio managers don’t invest in the
funds they’re running. According to Chicago-based fund research
firm Morningstar (MORN.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), 45 percent of stock funds and 66
percent of bond funds that are considered ‘core’ – basic
building blocks of a portfolio, like an S&P 500 index – have a
grand total of zero manager investment.
Analysis: Time to borrow? Debt is not a dirty word
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Here’s a crazy idea: Maybe, just maybe, you should be borrowing more money.
You don’t have to tell Matt Kouri of Austin, Texas. Just last month, the chief executive officer of local nonprofit Greenlights traded up to a bigger home for his growing family. Not only did they secure an additional 700 square feet of living space, the Kouris moved into a superior school district that enabled them to switch their son from private to public school. And what made it all happen? A new 4.375 percent mortgage.
Investment pros are profiting from your panic
Don’t take this the wrong way, but everything you’re thinking and feeling about the stock market is usually dead wrong. And money managers appreciate that. Your missteps often help them profit.
It’s a basic premise of behavioral finance, that folks behave irrationally when it comes to their investments. People are panicking like the world is coming to an end? Time to buy. Your cabbie is giving you stock tips during a raging bull run? Time to sell.
Rich kids pushed to pay bigger share for college
Bad news for the coddled college masses who are waiting for a check from mommy and daddy: You might have to get a job. Your parents may not be willing or able to keep paying all those skyrocketing school bills.
According to a new study from Sallie Mae, in the last two years, high-income families have slashed the amount they chip in for their kids’ college education from 51 percent to 43 percent of the bill. Meanwhile, students from those families have had to pony up almost double what they used to, now covering 10 percent of total costs.
Passion or obsession? Collecting can add up to serious dollars
You could say that Jay Pomerantz is a fan of the New York Jets.
You might suspect that from the room in his Long Island house, decorated wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with memorabilia from the NFL team – game-worn cleats, bloodied jerseys from the 1960s, old playbooks and even Super Bowl rings. Some of the items are so rare and valuable that the team itself displays some of Pomerantz’s collection in its front office.
He’s spent about $200,000 over 20 years as he’s amassed over 1,000 Jets-related items –
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