In just a few days we have seen the resignation of both the Greek Prime Mininister George Papandreau, and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Before each of them resigned, their countries seemed on the brink of economic disaster, sending markets spiraling downward. Then on both occasions news that they were reorganizing the government brought about a rebound. I have to wonder if this could be the new form of insider trading. If well positioned personel could have intimate details of these matters a little before the markets, they could profit handsomely. Moreover, if the media or politicians could be swayed by certain financial industry insiders, there would be even more to gain.It's food for thought, and certainly there is some truth to it.Meanwhile, can Europe...
Though there has been very modest job growth in the private sector, that growth has been tempered by continuing job cuts in the public sector. The only real growth has been in defense, and the biggest drops have been in education. That does fare well for the future as we invest less in education, and certainly the baseline employment would be higher if it weren't for these drops....
I find it interesting how for many years small businesses claimed their biggest problem was high taxes, but now that we have lowered taxes (under Reagan and then Bush 2) the biggest problem reported is Poor Sales. ...
So true... ...
If a bank of other business is in trouble the common practice today is to bet on its downfall. It is especially valuable to engage in short selling when you have either insider information or have made a discovery about the company that others don't know about yet. One of the last things people would be inclined to do is tell other people about the problem facing the company. If too many people know about it there is less profit to be made. Better still there are often larger investment banks that can manipulate markets in a way that automatically gives them a "type" of insider information. Let's look at a real example... Investors from an investment banks buy oil contracts on oil that is to be...
Michael Lewis talks about how hedge funds are employing pollsters because economic changes are so dependent on public opinion in varying countries and how they are likely to vote. Lots more good stuff. ...
Ronald Reagan also spoke out about tax loopholes for the rich, saying that in theory such loopholes might sound great, but in practice it was unacceptable for a millionaire to pay fewer taxes than a bus driver. In today's debate, so often the closing of loopholes is advertised as a tax increase. However, what it is not is a tax rate increase. It is a closing of loopholes, and in this video we can see that Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama would have agreed in this matter. ...
Sanders discusses how the fed could have loaned money to small businesses and people who needed it instead of bailing out banks. ...
As we look at debit card fees, it seems that big banks like Bank of America and Citibank are scrambling for methods to drive profits. Having already laid off workers, yet paying massive salaries and benefits to board members, even after bailouts, it seems that few will feel sorry for their plight. What is so interesting is in this case there are so many better options. If you visit a site like Deposit Accounts, they give you a great listing of some of the options available to you for both checking and savings accounts. One of my personal favorites that has held strong for many years is Alliant Credit Union. One of the big changes that is great for consumers is there is rarely a need to...
Part 1 investigates how banks were unregulated and were giving loans to those who could not afford it, as well as engaging in practices that were just outright illegal. ...