Welcome to the Curious Cat Investing and Economics Carnival: find useful recent personal finance, investing and economics blog posts and articles.
- How the Plummeting Price of Cocaine Fueled the Nationwide Drop in Violent Crime – “But it’s not only a growing supply of product that led to the collapse of the cocaine market. Newfound competition in the form of locally-produced methamphetamines and prescription narcotics would continue to drive business away from cocaine… At a certain point the decision matrix for entering a life of drug-related crime collapses for all but those with no other alternate financial sources or for those with a personal interest in the craft.”
- Eight Reasons to be Bullish on the US Dollar by Steen Jakobsen and Michael Shedlock – “58% of the US dollar index is the Euro, and the Euro is a basket case. European banks are in worse shape than their US counterparts, and a breakup of the Eurozone that I expect will certainly exacerbate the problem.”
Video: Bogle says Market are About Fairly Valued Today- Investing in an Engineering Degree Provides a Lifetime Advantage of $1,090,000 by John Hunter – “the lifetime advantage ranges from $1,090,000 for Engineering majors to $241,000 for Education majors”
- How To Optimize Your Apartment Hunt by Sarah Davis – “Right now, it’s a landlord’s market. There’s a surge of renters who have either gone through foreclosure or are simply waiting out the sleepy housing market. That means at best it will be hard to negotiate a lower rent and at worst you may be competing with other prospective tenants to land the apartment you want.”
- France starts to show the early symptoms of the Greek disease by Jim Jubak – “The problem is one that we should be familiar with from Greece and Italy. No sooner does a government—in this case that of President Nicolas Sarkozy—put an austerity package in place in order to reduce the budget deficit than falling economic growth blows a hole in that budget and creates the need for another austerity package.”
- How Much is too much in your 401(k)? – “So while I still advise maxing out any tax-deferred savings accounts like the 401k, you’ll also need to invest elsewhere simultaneously. My own strategy was in Vanguard index funds, a paid-off house, and some rental properties, but you will surely find other places depending on your own interests.”
- Surge in Rich Chinese Who ‘Invest’ in U.S. Citizenship by Robert Frank – “Under the program, foreign investors must finance commercial projects in the U.S. by investing either $500,000 or $1 million and create at least 10 full-time jobs… In 2011, 2,969 Chinese citizens applied for the program and 934 were approved… a huge increase from previous years. In 2007, only 270 Chinese citizens applied and only 161 were approved”