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I got off my virtual tush and participated in some Carnivals this week:
The Carnival of Personal Finance was run by We’re In Debt. It’s organized nicely by topic, and my post on my current bank setup was an Editor’s pick. Woohoo!
The first part of my Zecco broker review was also included in the Festival of Stocks, hosted by the Stock Market Prognosticator.
After the significant hurricane losses sustained by the insurance industry, insurance agents are working hard to ensure that their clients are provided with the opportunity to obtain flood insurance. This is critically important in order to properly protect the clients and reduce their own insurance agents EO exposure. A recent article (see here) provides some guidance on the provision of flood insurance to agency clients in a manner to reduce EO exposure. As with all insurance agents EO exposures, documentation...
Filed under: Management, Columns, Books, EntrepreneursWritten by CNBC business new anchor Liz Claman, The Best Investment Advice I Ever Received consists of short essays written by investors like John Bogle, Jim Cramer, Steve Forbes, Bill Gross, and BloggingStocks's own Peter Cohan. It also has some puzzling choices such as Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki, and Suze Orman.This is one of those books that sounds so good that even if I tell you it's horrible you will probably buy it anyway. And it isn't horrible. It's just repetitive. It seems like half the experts provide either "Diversify!" or "Go against the crowd!" or "Don't trade frequently!" as the best advice they ever received. It's sage advice to be sure, but gets boring after the fifteenth time.Continue reading Book Review: ...
Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising, Personal finance(This is a picture of TV detective Columbo working on his famously noisy and unreliable car)Of course, that title was a trick. There is no good way to borrow money to buy a car. With everything except the purchase of a home, here's a good adage to live by: If you can't pay for it in cash, that means you can't afford it! Do you see how that works? You can't afford to get a car loan to buy a car because if you could, you could just pay for it in cash.The Boston Globe makes an excellent point about the dangers of car payments, but is a little bit less militant than I am: "First, use ...
Filed under: International markets, Good news, Law, Internet, ColumnsSEC Chairman Christopher Cox said on Sunday that, by 2009, the United States and Europe should be able to agree on a single set of General Accepted Accounting Principles. Until recently, many European companies with American Depositary Receipts trading on U.S. exchanges were required to issue two sets of financial statements -- one for their European investors and another for their American ones. They complained about the added expense and annoyance, and now companies can choose to report results to American investors under IFRS international standards, but this can still be confusing for investors here. Of course, the strict requirement of Sarbanes-Oxley may prove to be an obstacle in working out a deal, but this is good news. International accounting ...
Filed under: Deals, Products and services, Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL)I realized today (in part because of a comment from a reader) that I post too often about the dealings of Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG). The only reason for this slight to the other big three music labels is that they are not traded in American markets. Is this short-sightedness on my part? Most assuredly, and I intend to fix that problem very soon, but not today. I am again perplexed by Warner Music, and not in an "oooh look what they are doing on TV" but again with their DRM (digital rights management) technology position and its stark contrast with Steve Jobs and Apple Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AAPL) attempts to drop the use of the file-sharing limiting technology.Billboard.com is ...
Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertisingThe Observer posted a column yesterday about the death of the album and the rise in digital sales this year. Of note in the piece (which I quite like) is the statement that Paul McCartney wants his newest CD Memory Almost Full to be "a desirable object" when it is released in June at your local Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).The release of that album on June 5th is marketing genius, at least in my opinion. The week it is released will mark the 40th anniversary of The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. McCartney, obviously, would want to use that date to release his newest album, but think about the name of it as well. Memory Almost Full ...
Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Television, General Electric (GE), Marketing and advertising, Business of sportsGeneral Electric Co.'s (NYSE: GE) NBC is thanking its lucky stars that the New York Rangers are in the National Hockey League playoffs as of the month of May dawns. Otherwise, its ratings would probably be as pathetic as national numbers usually garnered by rodeo, lacrosse or the network's Thanksgiving Day tape dog show. NBC yesterday saw a 44 percent surge in large-market Nielsen ratings for the double-overtime New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres playoff game, won by the Rangers 2-1. NBC drew viewers in 1.3 percent of homes in the 56 largest U.S. media markets, which encompasses about two-thirds of the 111.4 million U.S. households with televisions. The game lasted more than four ...
Filed under: Management, Newspapers, Columns, PoliticsThe Republican party has been embroiled in several high-profile scandals involving its corporate donors in recent years. First the Bush Administration came under fire for its close ties with former Enron executives, and then questions have been raised about Vice President Dick Cheney's relationship with his former employer, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL).With the Democrats in charge of the Congress, corporate America is shifting its energy and dollars over there. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Big companies that have shifted their funding in Democrats' favor so far this year include General Dynamics Corp., whose PAC gave 62% of its $210,500 in contributions to Democrats in early 2007, compared with 64% to Republicans in the previous election cycle. PACs for Honeywell International Inc., Home Depot ...
Filed under: Management, Newspapers, Columns, PoliticsThe Republican party has been embroiled in several high-profile scandals involving its corporate donors in recent years. First the Bush Administration came under fire for its close ties with former Enron executives, and then questions have been raised about Vice President Dick Cheney's relationship with his former employer, Halliburton (NYSE: HAL).With the Democrats in charge of the Congress, corporate America is shifting its energy and dollars over there. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Big companies that have shifted their funding in Democrats' favor so far this year include General Dynamics Corp., whose PAC gave 62% of its $210,500 in contributions to Democrats in early 2007, compared with 64% to Republicans in the previous election cycle. PACs for Honeywell International Inc., Home Depot ...
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