-
The Ultimate Scare: Wall Street Halloween Costumes
Tweet Share on Facebook October 31, 2008 CommentIf you're still searching for a Halloween costume, check out Forbes' annual selection of Halloween masks. Each of "the Scariest People of 2008" comes with printing instructions and a cutout (see this one of Ashley Dupre).
The collection includes Eliot Spitzer, Julia Allison, Chris Matthews, Ben Bernanke, Henry Paulson, the presidential hopefuls, and my favorite, Rick Astley.
If you don't have a color printer, head on down to Kinko's.
-
Fed Rate Cut: Future Stop, Zero?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2008 Comment (1)Now that the Fed has slashed rates by a half-percentage point, big leaguers are already asking if that's enough to prop up the flagging economy.
Former Federal Reserve governor Laurence Meyer thinks the federal funds rate may drop all the way to zero next year. According to Real Time Economics, he and former Fed economist Brian Sack expect the Fed to cut rates 0.5 percent again, in December.
-
Treasury: Check Into the 'Bad Credit Hotel'
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2008 CommentCheck it out. The Treasury's trying to get us to swallow the bitter pill of credit education with an interactive game!
It's called the Bad Credit Hotel, where you "check in and learn the basics of maintaining good credit." At first, I got excited because I thought it might be like Choose Your Own Adventure. And it may well be. But either I'm not good at this game or I'm missing something, because after the hotel clerk ushered me into the parlor, a man in a top hat asked me to find his spectacles, and I gave up after clicking on everything on the page. Luckily, I can check out anytime I like!
-
More of Us Are Living to 100: How That Affects Our Finances
Tweet Share on Facebook October 28, 2008 Comment (4)By 2050, the number of people in the United States living to 100 will be 14 times what it is today, or nearly 850,000, according to a recent Nielsen study. And making it to the century mark might be easier than you think, according to this story.
If you live to 100, that means you need your money to last, and most financial professionals say the only way to do that is to keep a good portion of your nest egg invested in stocks. Like me, you may not be anywhere near retirement, but it's not a bad idea to get an idea of what your investments should look like when you get close (many planners say keeping 40 to 60 percent of your portfolio in stock funds is a good bet). Here are some sample portfolios.
-
Tripping the Circuit Breakers: 'Limit Down' and Trading Halts
Tweet Share on Facebook October 24, 2008 Comment (1)Whoops—it looks as if we tripped the premarket circuit breakers. Ahead of trading this morning, stock futures fell 6.5 percent and hit "limit down," a built-in safety net that suspends futures trading until the start of the trading session (9:30 a.m. in New York). According to Investopedia, limit down is the maximum the price of a futures contract can decline in one trading day.
Now, let's talk trading halts.
Says the Kirk Report:
We're currently in crash mode and all but the most stubborn bottom callers will get flushed out in this move. As you might expect, they're already talking about trading halts that may occur today in response to the selling. In addition, Fed Funds futures are pricing in a larger rate cut for next Wednesday and there are already rumors of an emergency rate cut this morning as well.
-
Greenspan: It's Not Just a Crunch, Folks; It's a 'Credit Tsunami'
Tweet Share on Facebook October 23, 2008 Comment (3)Grab a life raft. Former Fed chief Alan Greenspan didn't mince words today when he characterized the financial crisis as a "once-in-a-century credit tsunami" in testimony before Congress.
What caused the tsunami and how policymakers can shimmy the country out of it were the focus of the House Committee of Government Oversight and Reform's hearing. Greenspan said he's in a "state of shocked disbelief" and admitted a flaw in his thinking about the free-market system. "I was going for 40 years or more on the perception that it was working well." (During his tenure, he opposed tight regulation of financial companies.) Today, he called for tighter regulation. He also said he was "partially wrong" about credit default swaps.
-
Money Market Funds: Fed to the Rescue
Tweet Share on Facebook October 21, 2008 Comment (2)In the latest move to unclog the credit markets, the Fed said today that it's providing help for money market funds. (That's on top of the Treasury's guarantee to insure money market funds that pay a fee.)
Money market funds have been strained by investors cashing out and moving their money into government IOUs, which pay less but guarantee safety. The funds have had a tough time selling assets to satisfy redemption requests from investors, the Fed said in a statement. About $500 billion has flowed out of prime money market funds since August, according to Bloomberg.
To help money market funds meet redemptions, the Fed is setting up the Money Market Investor Funding Facility, which will be made up of five units run by JPMorgan Chase & Co. These units will buy money market instruments (such as certificates of deposit and bank notes) held by money market funds. By facilitating the sales of these instruments in the secondary market, the MMIFF "should improve the liquidity position of money market investors, thus increasing their ability to meet any further redemption requests and their willingness to invest in money market instruments," the Fed said. In other words, don't lose confidence in money market funds.
-
All Ready for a Raging Bull
Tweet Share on Facebook October 17, 2008 Comment (4)Here's diving into a down market. Just in time for my 30th birthday a few months back, I finally got my finances in order enough to open my first brokerage account. I should mention that I'm a faithful 401(k) contributor, but I don't count on seeing that dough for another 35 years or so.
Money I won't see until my late 60s doesn't really seem like money. And I have to admit, charting my course with a supermarket-worthy selection of stocks, funds, and exchange-traded funds just felt more Working Girl (or, better yet, The Secret of My Success).
-
The Beige Book's Grim News
Tweet Share on Facebook October 15, 2008 Comment (1)The latest Beige Book is out, and it's quite a gloomy read. (The book, published by the Federal Reserve eight times a year, is a roundup of "anecdotal information on current economic conditions" by each Federal Reserve regional bank, as well as "interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources," according to the Fed.) Highlights from the information gleaned in September:
Consumer spending: weak, with declines in retailing, auto sales, and tourism. Some districts noted lower sales on big-ticket items and increased activity at discount stores.
Residential real estate: weak. In addition, commercial real estate activity slowed in many districts.
-
Libor Loosens Up: Why You Should Care
Tweet Share on Facebook October 15, 2008 Comment (4)Libor—the London interbank rate—is on the decline, thanks to the government's rescue package. Translation: Rates for borrowing between banks are falling. Why should you care? Because many consumer loans are tied to it, including more than half of U.S. adjustable rate home loans. Many small-business, student, and auto loans and home-equity lines of credit also take their cues from Libor. The higher the rate, the tougher consumers have it.
Libor rates for three-month dollar loans are currently 4.55 percent, down from 4.64 percent on Monday. Some context: After the House of Representatives rejected the bailout bill at the end of September, Libor rates shot up to 6.88 percent, and a month ago, rates were less than 3 percent, according to the AP.
advertisement
Follow U.S. News Money
Like Us On Facebook
advertisement
