Welcome to the Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance Carnival. The carnival is published twice each month with links to new, related, interesting content online.
- For Capitalism to Survive, Crime Must Not Pay by Bruce Judson – “Justice must be blind so that both parties — whether weak or powerful — can assume that an agreement between them will be equally enforced by the courts.
There is a second, perhaps even more fundamental, reason that equal justice is essential for capitalism to work. When unequal justice prevails, the party that does not need to follow the law has a distinct competitive advantage. A corporation that knowingly breaks the law will find ways to profit through illegal means that are not available to competitors. As a consequence, the competitive playing field is biased toward the company that does not need to follow the rules.” (the crony capitalism that has grown in the last few decades in the USA is poisoning the country with a failure to justly prosecute those that break laws if they are rich and connected to the other powerful cronies. This is a serious problem. – John).
- Don’t Expect to Spend Over 4% of Your Retirement Investment Assets Annually by John Hunter – “This is likely one of the top 5 most important things to know about saving for retirement (and just 10% of the population got the answer right). You need to know that you can safely spend 5%, or likely less, of your investment assets safely in retirement (without dramatically eating into your principle.”
- What America Pays In Taxes – In 2011 the USA government collected $1,100 billion in personal income taxes, $741 billion in payroll taxes (social security and medicare) [this should be a hint that look only at income taxes paid it might be very misleading – John], $200 billion in corporate taxes, $10 billion in estate and gifts taxes and $268 billion in other taxes (customs duties, excise taxes on products such as gasoline…).
- Value Investing is Not Necessarily Buy and Hold Investing by Shailesh Kumar – “Value investors choose to buy a stock when it is cheaper than the intrinsic value of the stock and sell it when it becomes more expensive.”
- Things You Need to Know Before Becoming a Freelancer: How Much Do You Need To Earn? takes a detailed look at the financial benefits of a normal job and considerations for how much a freelancer needs to earn to match the same net income.
- Why Generation Y is Causing the Great Migration of the 21st Century by Nathan Norris – “Just as cities were not completely abandoned in the 20th century, suburbs will not be abandoned in the 21st century. But the shift in preferences is clearly underway, and this radical change will manifest itself in the nature of real estate development over the next 20 years.”
- Become Wealthy Without the Lottery by Ryan Yates – “How much more money per month or per year would it take for you to be happy? The funny thing is, numerous surveys tell the story that your answer will be about $10,000 to $20,000 more per year – no matter what you’re currently making.”
- More Pain for Spain – “It would be a difficult choice but I do think that if Spain left the euro, which would be “a disaster for everyone else,” then it could really truly devalue its currency, make its workforce truly competitive and move on. Otherwise there has to be, perhaps, more fiscal integration and loss of ultimate sovereignty. I think that truly we would have to see the United States of Europe where everyone in Europe votes for the same President, is taxed by the same authority, and there are truly fiscal transfers that take place.”
Flip-flops for sale in Singapore by John Hunter
In 2007 Irish public debt was a low 25% of GDP. The country finished 2011 with a public debt to GDP ratio of 112%. And it’s forecast to hit 120% by the time it peaks in 2013.”
Also see hand picked books and articles on investing, personal finance and economics from the Curious Cat library.