Welcome to the Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance Carnival: find useful recent personal finance, investing and economics blog posts and articles. This carnival is different than other carnivals: I select posts from what I read (instead of posting those that submit to the carnival as many carnivals do). If you would like to host the carnival add a comment below.
- Hospital of Cards by Andrew Foy, MD – “For some perspective on the magnitude of the healthcare bubble consider that from 1990 to 2007 the cost of all items, as measured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), rose by 159 percent while housing rose 163 percent and medical care rose a staggering 216 percent. A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that between 1999 and 2011, health-insurance premiums increased 168 percent while workers’ total earnings increased only 50 percent. Over that same time period, government spending on healthcare increased 240 percent while GDP increased 62 percent. The BLS reported that over the last 50 years, the percent of workers employed in private-sector healthcare has gone from 3 percent to over 11 percent and employment has continued to grow throughout the current recession.”
- Apple’s Earning are Again Great, Significantly Exceeding High Expectations by John Hunter – Apple posted quarterly quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion (an increase of 94% in net income)… Apple’s Gross margin was 47.4% (the best ever) compared to 41.4% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64% of the quarter’s revenue…
- Demand for Rental Units Could Disrupt Fed by Kathleen Madigan – “The supply among rental housing is the tightest in more than a decade as only 8.8% of units were vacant in the first quarter. And given the steep fall in homeownership rates in the U.S., the demand for rental units is the highest in 15 years.”
- 5 Reasons Why Dividend Investing Rocks – “Dividend investors always look for high and sustainable dividend growth and any stock that decides to slow that down or even stop growing the dividend entirely raises red flags.”
- Start Your Own Home Business by Laura Adams – “That’s exactly what happened to Donna, who I interviewed about her 6-figure home-based business with Avon. It only took her a year and a half to replace the income she was making and work from home full time.”
- Indonesia Chases China As Middle-Class Consumption Soars by William Mellor and Femi Adi – “While he couldn’t save his stores — all four were looted to the last light bulb — Susanto was on hand to seize an opportunity that would make him a billionaire…
More than 1,100 people died in the 1998 riots, and the economy contracted 13 percent that year… In October 1999, barely a year after the riots, Susanto opened the first of what’s now a chain of 6,000 stores called Alfamarts.” [successfully implementing the “The time to buy is when there’s blood in the streets” is not easy and it doesn’t always work, but the returns when it does can be huge. – John - The huge bank problem (bigger than Spain) that nobody is talking about by Jim Jubak – “I think there’s enough wiggle room in the banking system and in China’s state finances to let the country and its banking system get through this round of problems. But the likely solutions just store up problems for the future. (Sound familiar? Europe? The United States? Japan?)”
- 5 unusual, yet effective ways to save money by Nathan Brown – “Switch Your Bank to a Credit Union… Who knew you can find a plethora of useful services at your local library. You can borrow books, magazines…”