Education | Reliving High School Daze | WSJ

Many folks say they'd never want to relive their high school years (I sure wouldn't). And this is part of that time that I would not care to repeat. Would you do a rerun of this experience? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124337711110856009.html

Money | Group Insurance | WSJ.com

How big is a group for group health insurance? You might be surprised. Not for everyone, but there's another option discussed in this article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124338117660756415.html

Life | Care and Feeding of Network Contacts | WSJ.com

haven't yet made the plunge into social networking sites ... but when I do I'll follow some of the suggestions in this article

Work | Starting Over as an Entrepreneur | WSJ.com

Useful approaches in this article for making the transition from employee to self-employed.

Tech | WinLive 1 Free Scanner | Microsoft

What with all the hype over just ONE of the malware worms out there, it's not a bad reminder that pc security is everyone's responsibility. Give this MS free safety scanner a try ... it will try to sell you a subscription, but that's optional. The scan is free. And, if you can't get to the site, that's a bad sign that your pc may be infected.

 

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-us/default.htm?s_cid=sah

Money | Mortgages, Refinancing, Info | Mortgage Professor

This is a great site to get lots of informed, unbiased guidance on residential mortgages. I particularly like the mortgage calculators at this sub-site where you can quickly evaluate the worthiness of a refi ... varying interest rates, points, fees, etc etc. With mortgage rates at a low point, now may be a good time to take a 2nd look at your 1st mortgage (pun intended).

Life | Complaining | WSJ

An interesting perspective on complaining. I've sent away for one of the purple bracelets ... then I'll see if it makes a difference.

Money | AIG Financial Products History | TPM

Remember Drexel Burnham Lambert and Michael Milken and the junk bond meltdown of 1990? Surprise, surprise! Guess where the financial whiz-kids that started AIG Financial Products came from? Looks like math skills are the WMD's of the MBA world!

World | When Help Does Harm | WSJ

I heard an interview with the author on NPR and then saw this book review in the WSJ. Interesting case made that Western aid to Africa has basically created completely aid-dependent economies. Why work hard and invest when you can just wait for the check? Not mentioned in the book review but discussed on NPR was PRC's approach which is to do business in Africa (which has 9 of the 10 most hostile business environements in the world) and help local African companies grow, hire workers, push for infrastructure improvements, etc.

Obama, Clinton, Bono, World Bank, UN ... are you listening?

Green | Dorm Room to Wal*Mart | WSJ

Unusual approach by this guy, Tom Szaky. He rejects the eco-chic Whole Foods model and instead goes for mainstream consumers with a combination of environmental virtue and low price.

Money | AIG Bonuses | Scribd

Can AIG hold the US government hostage? Check this white paper. Short answer, yup! So they said screw the taxpayers and pay the bonuses. Our response should be a special, Executive Order driven 150% federal income tax on all bonuses paid to financial companies receiving federal bailout money. Gotta pay bonuses anyway? OK. But we're clawing it back, suckahs!

Money | How to Fix Your Life in 2009 | WSJ

Some useful advice in here.

I'm starting my own project to make our money stretch further. Some simple steps:

• called the cable (TV/Internet) company and said I was looking at their competitors' offers and could they do better on price. Yep, they could. Knocked 20% off the price and made it retroactive for 2 months.
  
• told our insurance agent that with money tight we needed to shop rates (which I did) ... she found discounts and new rates for the same coverage that knocked 25% off our auto insurance ...
  
• took our POTS (plain old telephone service) landline services down to minimum ... no inside wiring maintenance, no long distance ... and knocked about $10/month off that bill ... not ready to give-up that landline yet but that may be sooner rather than later
• will also look at our cellphone bill (have a pretty good plan but may explore the pay-as-you-go services) and our DVD by mail plan (cheap entertainment that can, maybe, be even cheaper)

and more to come.

I don't love this new economic situation but maybe we'll all become smarter consumers as a result. A little silver lining in that cloud.

Tech | Cool Screensaver | Wired

You might like this cool screensaver.

Money | Stocks v Bonds | Bloomberg

Business | Weathering the Storm | Daily Breeze

From a local businesswoman running a small printing business in this economy:"Morales acknowledged the difficulties of running a business amid a recession.

"We feel strongly you have to market," she said. "Instead of huddling through the storm, you have to be out there on deck.""

Right-on. Get busy and move forward. It's not about hunkering down, it's about getting to it.

Money | Who Killed Wall Street? This Guy! | Wired

Hard to believe but seems credible. A brilliant mathematician developed a formula for risk assessment associated with debt pools. It greatly simplified risk analysis in the fixed income world and facilitated an explosion in collateralized debt obligations. And, in parallel with the CDO growth, credit default swaps also exploded. The market for CDS grew to $62 trillion. Yep, with a big T. For scale, the 2007 US GDP was $14 trillion.

Check out the article in Wired.

The formula also apparently over-simplified the analysis and caused ratings agencies to greatly underestimate the risk of pooled debt, especially in the mortgage market. When the economy weakened and mortgage defaults began to grow, the model fell apart. And so did the risk assessment of CDOs. And then Bear, Stearns ... and Lehman Brothers ... and etc etc.

For you conspiracy buffs out there, the mathematician behind this formula was born in China and has since returned there. Put that one in your alt-war pipe and smoke it!

Life | Jaded? | Conan

Check out this video ...

Money | Take Some Control | WSJ

Some good counsel here regarding striking a suitable balance between frozen inaction and panicked frenzy.

Life | Asking Doctors Tough Questions | WSJ

After my own little escapade at the local version of "Kingdom Hospital", I'm going to pay a lot more attention to articles like this one.

Economy | Layoff peak? | FirstRain

Maybe some good news on the job front? Time will tell ...

Money | How Wrong Can You Be | NAR

You've gotta laugh at these guys ... talk about drinking their own bathwater until they call it champagne!

Money | Hungry? Here's a Solution | Reuters

Work | Selling Expertise on the Internet | WSJ

An interesting article about another way to raise a little $$ via the Internet. I especially like the "Mechanical Turk" www.mturk.com approach.

Tech | Amazing Text Processor | WSJ

Money | Inside the Meltdown | Frontline

For a pretty comprehensive video summary of when/how the wheels started to come off the US/global financial markets, watch the PBS Frontline show from early Feb 2008 at this link. The consequences of choosing moral hazard over systemic risk became evident when Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail. Unfortunately, even a small hole can sink a large ship. Something to keep in mind going forward.

Money | November 2007 Interview with Warren Buffett | CNBC

Very interesting to re-read this November 2007 CNBC interview of Warren Buffett from the near-peak in the equity markets. Most of Warren Buffet's "advice to young people" is more useful than ever. For the near term, I'm expecting thrift to be the winning strategy.

1.  He bought his first share of stock at age 11 and he now regrets that he started too late! 
2.  He bought a small farm at age 14 with savings from delivering newspapers.
3.  He still lives in the same, small 3-bedroom house in midtown Omaha that he bought after he got married 50 years ago.  He says that he has everything he needs in that house.  His house does not have a wall or a fence. 
4.  He drives his own car everywhere and does not have a driver or security people around him. 
5.  He never travels by private jet, although he owns the world's largest private jet company. 
6.  His company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 63 companies.  He writes only one letter each year to the CEOs of these companies, giving them goals for the year.  He never holds meetings or calls them on a regular basis.  He has given his CEO's only two rule! s. Rule number 1: Do not lose any of your shareholder's money.  Rule number 2: Do not forget rule number 1. 
7.  He does not socialize with the high society crowd.  His pastime after he gets home is to make himself some popcorn and watch television.
8.  Bill Gates, the world's richest man, met him for the first time only 5 years ago.  Bill Gates did not think he had anything in common with Warren Buffet.  So he had scheduled his meeting for only a half hour.  But when Gates met him, the meeting lasted for ten hours and Bill Gates became a devotee of Warren Buffet.
9.  Warren Buffet does not carry a cell phone, nor have a computer on his desk.

His advice to young people:  'Stay away from credit cards and invest in yourself and remember:
A.  Money doesn't create man, but it is the man who created money. 
B.  Live your life as simple as you are.
C.  Don't do what others say.  Just listen to them, but do what makes you feel good.
D.  Don't go on brand name.  Wear those things in which you feel comfortable. 
E.  Don't waste your money on unnecessary things.  Spend on those who really are in need.
F.  After all, it's your life.  Why give others the chance to rule your life?'

Nutrition | The Iams Diet | Unattributed

The Iams Diet

Don't ask a retiree a dumb question ...

The next time someone asks you a dumb question wouldn't you like to respond like this?

Yesterday I was at my local Wal-Mart buying a large bag of Iams Dog Food for my loyal pet, Abby, the Wonder Dog and was in the checkout line when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.

What did she think I had, an elephant? So since I'm retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn't have a dog, I was starting the "Iams Diet" again. I added that I probably shouldn't, because I ended up in the hospital last time, but that I'd lost 50 pounds before I awakened in an intensive care ward with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and IVs in both arms.

I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pants pockets with Iams nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in line was now enthralled with my story.)  Horrified, she asked if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I stepped off a curb to sniff an Irish  Setter's ass and a car hit us both.  I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack, he was laughing so hard. Wal-Mart won't let me shop there anymore. Better watch what you ask retired people. They have all the time in the world to think of crazy things to say.

Money | View on Economy | Blackstone

Blackstone's Steve Schwarzman from today's earnings conference call for the beleaguered private equity shop:

Our view is the economy will continue to deteriorate sharply this quarter and next quarter and be pretty weak second quarter and maybe sort of see stability fourth quarter, and then I think you will have a pretty, and a weak 2010 although I don't think it will keep declining…I think 2011 will show some growth but still be well below the levels of 2006 and 2007. My own view is you may not get back to 2006 and 2007 a long time because we have sort of an emotional and psychic shift going on in America which is back to basics don't live on leverage, live within your means, more humble life styles, less extravagant consumption, savings and all of that sort of stuff.

I believe that a lot of people in America are legitimately scared and have seen their life savings or what they perceived as their net worth largely either wiped out or cut in half. That's going to forge fundamental behavioral differences and that will retard the growth."

Money | US Household Debt to GDP | Econometrics

Who to blame for the current economic mess? Republicans - Democrats - Politicians? Investment or Commercial Bankers? Wall Street or Main Street? We need to look in the mirror, folks. Check-out the trend of US Household Debt as % of GDP. See anything wrong here? I understand that the 100% current ratio was last seen in 1929. Here's that link from an NPR show on 2.27.09.