Personal Finance
Best columns: Fake prosperity, Credit-crunch ubiquity
With easy credit drying up, we may be nearing the end of “the standard-of-living bubble,” says Fortune’s Geoff Colvin in CNNMoney.com. “The credit crunch is the one area that many consumers think they can sidestep,” says Chuck Jaffe in MarketWatch, but I wouldn’t bet on it.
Best columns: Fund hints, Dollar delirium
There’s no reliable scorecard for choosing mutual funds, says Jonathan Burton in MarketWatch, but there are some helpful strategies. The U.S. dollar’s spectacular surge is making bulls happy, says Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Britain’s Daily Telegraph, but they’re misplacing their optimism.
Best columns: Rethinking synergy, Terminal fees
UBS is abandoning its “universal banking” model, says Barbara Kiviat in Time.com, and it’s not alone in its thinking. The era where wireless customers are hostage to “exorbitant early termination charges” may be nearing an end, says Lisa Scherzer in SmartMoney.com.
Best columns: Beating inflation, Overestimating gas
After a 30-year hiatus, says Dave Kansas in The Wall Street Journal, it looks like the “once-tamed inflation beast” might “still have some bite.” Gas prices hit record highs this summer, say Indur M. Goklany and Jerry Taylor in the Los Angeles Times, but fuel “is more affordable” than at many points in recent history.
Best columns: Fund finding, Offshore misadventures
When you’re in the market for a mutual fund, says Marshall Loeb in MarketWatch, how do you choose the right one? “It has become received wisdom,” says Floyd Norris in The New York Times, that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has driven U.S. companies overseas, but it’s not true.
Best columns: Pensions resurgent, 401(k) advice
West Virginia school teachers returned to a pension system, from an unhappy 401(k) period, says Jennifer Levitz in The Wall Street Journal, in “a cautionary tale” for all of us. Part of the problem with 401(k)s, says Money’s Walter Updegrave in CNNMoney.com, is that 21 percent of Americans “turn to friends and relatives for advice.”
Best columns: Funding frontiers, Judging 401(k)s
If emerging markets funds are too tame for you, says Money’s Penelope Wang in CNNMoney.com, then how about “emerging emerging market funds”? How can you tell if your 401(k) plan “is living up to the best standards”? says Robert Powell in MarketWatch.
Best columns: Phone lesson, Home obsession
Traveling in Europe is expensive enough, says Brett Arends in The Wall Street Journal, so avoid “sticker shock” when you “get home and open your cell phone bill.” Our pro-housing policies, says Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post, are turning the American dream into “a national nightmare.”
Best columns: Credit check, Dollar balance
Reliance on credit cards tends to grow “in tough economic times like these,” says Andrea Coombes in MarketWatch, but it shouldn’t. U.S. goods seem cheap to European visitors, says Martin Feldstein in The New York Sun, but that doesn’t mean “the dollar must rise from its current level.”
Best columns: Silver mining, Taxpayers shakedown
“If there’s any silver lining to this sluggish economy,” says Money’s Bob Tedeschi in CNNMoney.com, it’s that “you, the consumer, are back in charge.” In the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout, says Joseph Stiglitz in Financial Times, “the private sector takes the profits and the public sector bears the risk.”
Best columns: Money securities, Job searching
With money market funds holding Fannie and Freddie debt, says Charles Jaffe in The Baltimore Sun, you’re more likely to lose your nerve than any money. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ job projections, says Jacob Leibenluft in Slate, are “the most influential economic statistics you’ve never heard of.”
Best columns: Short shrift, Price-earnings rationale
“The price-earnings ratio is a popular tool for investors,” says Ben Steverman in BusinessWeek.com, but is it really “the best way to gauge stocks?” The SEC is clamping down on short selling, says Sebastian Mallaby in The Washington Post, but that will just defang a key market watchdog.
Best columns: Market muddle, Cutting cutting
Does the unfolding financial crisis reflect “the reality of economic fundamentals,” says Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post, or “irrational herd behavior?” “Nine times out of 10 cutting costs makes sense,” says Marshall Loeb in MarketWatch, but sometimes it “can do more harm than good.”
Best columns: Needless run, Fearless profits
Why would you keep more than $100,000 in a savings account or CD? says Brett Arends in The Wall Street Journal. “Buy low, sell high,” says Irwin Kellner in MarketWatch—how hard is that to remember?
