linklings, off to the misty mountains edition

Scribbled by Steve on September 6, 2008 - Comments

tranquility
Another busy and stressful week goes by (my client is melting down, along with the US capitalist system), and my roundup is sparse… fortunately, this next week I’m on vacation with the brood. We’re off to the mountains for a few days to live life a la Davy Crockett, a first for us city-dwellers. I’m still planning to post, but in the meantime here’s a few links to tide you through a slow Sunday while you enjoy the kickoff to the 2008 NFL season, which started so well with a New York (football) Giants victory.  Again, while the country collapses and some politicians continue to slither down a trajectory of pure and unadultered stupidity.

How to Increase the Value of Your Home by 5% to 11% With Little Effort and Little Money: Er, yes, sign me up.

Death of the Balance Transfer Arbitrager: I always thought it was a less-than-optimal idea.

Would You Take a Better Job for a Lower Salary?: A question I have asked myself several times in career, and once answered yes – and a couple of years later I was doing far better than I could’ve in the old job.

A Peek into a Millionaire’s Account Structure: Always worth a look…

Attention Ladies, Saving Money Tops List of Frugal Male Turn Ons: Oh, baby, that’s one hot coupon you’ve got!

BRIC Countries: Russia: As a Russophile, I found this intro to investing in Russia quite interesting.

Amazon Prime: 5 Reasons To Try It Out If You Shop Online: I love – absolutely love – amazon prime.

How to Track Your Roth IRA Contributions… and Why You Need To!: I never thought about this, but I suppose I should.

Creative Commons License photo credit: josef.stuefer

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  • Ruth
    Jeff: I agree with your comment about big government for the most part, but as an unrepentant aging baby-boomer liberal, I would like to modify your comment slightly. Fannie and Freddie (and lots of banks) would possibly not be in the position they are in if the government had enforced reasonable restrictions. People get greedy and large institutions are nothing but huge collections of greedy people. It is the job of government to regulate that greed for the greater good. So yes, I hate government intrusion into my private life, but I want government to protect me from the unfettered greed of corporations. We have had a "conservative" president and congress for most of the last 8 years and they have not done the job that government should do, and now they are in the position of being the biggest spenders of all big government spenders.
  • Ruth: "Conservative" has become an almost comical term in the American political arena, if you ask me. I am a fiscal conservative, but in this election cycle I feel the Democrats are more fiscally conservative than the Republicans. Tax cutting's only half the battle - Republicans were NEVER able to walk the walk on cutting spending.
  • I just want to make a point here. Saying that the the US Capitalist system is coming down and then linking to an article about Fannie Mae is just absurd. The reason for Fannie's problems is the implicit government guarantee that they would be bailed out if they ever got into trouble (just like what's happening.) So Fannie and Freddie took more risks than they should have, since they had an enormous safety net.
    Good lord I hate big government.
  • Jeff, I think given the fact that a significant percentage of mortgages will now in effect be owned by the government, and the government just wiped out, by fiat, a large number of shareholders in a semi-private company is not the healthy behavior of a capitalist society, any way you'd want to look at it. Is this level of intervention reasonable in a "capitalist" system? I would argue it isn't even CLOSE to the behavior of a capitalist system. Just my opinion...
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