by The Investor
on February 9, 2010
Last night I saw rock star economist Joseph Stiglitz pimp his new book give a lecture at the London School of Economics.
When I say Stiglitz is a ‘rock star’, I refer not only to his 2001 Nobel Prize, his stint as chief economist at the World Bank, or his string of professorships including his current gig at Columbia University.
I also mean:
- Last night’s queues of hundreds of young people that stretched around the block
- The post lecture signing of his new book, Freefall, which was as much a scrum as you’d see at the Brixton Academy
- The glamorous after-party, which I wasn’t invited to, mainly because it was hosted by the UK Prime Minister
There is also knuckle-dusting rivalry here to rival The Stones Vs The Beatles.
Stiglitz is loving the fall from glory of the ultra-free market economists who held sway in the 1980s and 1990s, and he has only scorn for former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan.
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by The Investor
on February 6, 2010
My regular roundup of the week’s blog and financial site links.
I suspect most of you caught the market turmoil this week. The financial journalists certainly relished the chance to scare their audiences witless again.
No, surprise given everyone is still nostalgic for the credit crisis.
Let’s keep this in perspective. Year-to-date:
- The FTSE is down 6.5%
- The S&P is down 4.5%
That’s just noise, not a new Apocalypse.
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by The Investor
on February 5, 2010
I keep reading personal finance bloggers saying there’s no recovery in sight because unemployment is rising.
This is backwards thinking. Unemployment is a lagging indicator.
In this post I’ll explain what that means, and why unemployment only turns down after the economy picks up.
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by The Investor
on February 3, 2010
A lot of people arrive at this site after asking Google: Is it safe to invest in corporate bonds?
It’s a reasonable question, yet the answer is complicated.
Many people are confused about what a ‘bond’ is, with good reason given how freely the financial services industry throws the word about.
Even with true corporate bonds, safe investing will depend on:
- The type of corporate bond you invest in
- The performance of the company that issued the bond
- Interest rates and inflation
- Whether you invest in individual bonds or via a fund
- The timing of your investment, and the price you pay
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