By 2 Cents on January 1st, 2012 | Category: 20 Cents |  I missed posting the November 2011 edition of 20 Cents due to my short blogging sabbatical, so I’m combining some highlights from November and December here. There are a few bonus links in there too. Enjoy!
1. Let’s get things started with 3 great articles courtesy of Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture. Barry calls out Cognitive Dissidents, says the U.S. Is a Corporate Monarchy, and highlights 29 Systemically Dangerous Global Banks. All are well worth your time.
2. Million Dollar Journey posted an excellent article on Why Cash Is King. In a volatile marketplace, cash provides a much-needed, if low-yielding, margin of safety.
3. Global investors watched Eurozone leaders make unequivocal statements followed by very equivocal retractions for most of 2011. John Hussman did his best to sort out this economic Hokey [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from November and December 2011
By 2 Cents on July 13th, 2011 | Category: Economics |  I am more afraid of an army of one hundred sheep led by a lion than an army of one hundred lions led by a sheep.
~Charles Maurice, Prince de Talleyrand-Périgord
When the financial crisis erupted in 2008, many questioned the leaders and regulators in place at the time. How could the global financial system be humming along one minute and completely bankrupt the next? Clearly, those in charge either made some very questionable decisions or failed to inform the public of the potential consequences of those decisions. Most likely it was both.
When it came to constructing solutions for the crisis, however, we continued to listen to and implement the ideas of the same people who brought us to the brink. In turn, those people followed policy prescriptions similar to the ones that got us into trouble in the first place. Were there no other options available? [...]
Read on and enjoy … How the Leadership Void Feeds the Financial Crisis
By 2 Cents on July 1st, 2011 | Category: 20 Cents |  It’s been a busy couple of weeks as my son had a significant surgery on his leg last week. Caring for him afterwards has been a round-the-clock job. I hope to be able to jump back into writing a little more in the coming weeks, although we have our big move looming as well. I’ll do my best to keep up with my one post a week minimum and add in a few bonus articles when I can. In the meantime, I did manage to find some good thought-provoking articles from around the web this June. Enjoy!
1. In an article published in the Washington Post, Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture blog shared 7 Life Lessons from the Very Wealthy. This one is well worth a few minutes of your time.
2. What If 8% Is Really [...]
Read on and enjoy … 20 Cents from June 2011
By 2 Cents on February 28th, 2011 | Category: Financial Literacy |  What exactly is the function of the financial sector in our society? Simply this: Its sole function is supplying capital efficiently to aid the real economy. The financial sector is a tool to help those that make real tools, not an end in itself. But five fatal flaws in the financial sector’s current structure have created a monster that drains the real economy, promotes fraud and corruption, threatens democracy, and causes recurrent, intensifying crises.
~ Bill Black
Today I’d like to review an article on the financial sector that I came across via The Big Picture. It’s by Bill Black, author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is also “a white-collar criminologist who has spent years working on regulatory policy and fraud prevention.”
The [...]
Read on and enjoy … The Financial Sector: Capitalist Bastion or Corrupt Oligarchy?
By 2 Cents on November 8th, 2010 | Category: Economics |  Is the glass half empty, half full, or twice as large as it needs to be?
~Author Unknown
Update: Thanks to Christina at Northern Cheapskate for including this article in the Best of Money Carnival #77. Thanks also to Arohan at Personal Dividends for including this article in the Carnival of Wealth #12.
A couple of years ago my husband bought some really giant wine glasses. He loves them, but I happen to have abnormally small hands, and I find them hard to handle. Besides that, when you fill one of those things to just the one third mark, there’s enough wine there to make you a little sillier than you might like. It’s really hard to gauge your consumption. So now I just use a smaller glass.
There’s been a lot debate over whether the glass is half empty or [...]
Read on and enjoy … What Happens When the Glass Is Too Big?
By 2 Cents on May 20th, 2010 | Category: Investing | Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests on truth.
~ Sébastien-Roch Nicolas de Chamfort
Update: This post was included in the Money Hackers Carnival #117 posted at Engineer Your Finances. Thanks!
Monday’s post dealt with some of the ways in which today’s market climate is Not Business as Usual. I’d like to expand on that today with a bit more detail on some of the issues I mentioned. Many of the 5 challenges I’m going to address are double-edged swords. They can be productive market forces, but also have the potential to create enormous problems for our financial system.
5 Double-Edged Swords for Investors
Each of these factors is, in some way, interrelated with the others. Each one has been with us for quite some time and may persist much longer. Each [...]
Read on and enjoy … 5 Investing Challenges for the Next Decade
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