The Curious Cat Investing, Economics and Personal Finance Carnival is published monthly with links to new, related, interesting content online. Also see related books and articles.
- QE3 is Ben Bernanke’s masterstroke of market manipulation by Matt Phillips – “it’s way more profitable to make mortgages now than it was during the peak of the housing frenzy. This is because at that time banks were competing like crazy to make new mortgages, driving profit margins way down.”
- Long Term View of Manufacturing Employment in the USA by John Hunter – “In 1980 manufacturing jobs accounted for over 22% of USA jobs; by 1990 that fell to 17%, by 2000 to 14% and by 2010 to 10%.” During this period jobs fell from 18 million to 12 million while manufacturing output increased.
- Let’s Increase America’s Savings Rate in November! by Jim Blankenship – “Recent figures have shown that we Americans are doing a little bit better of late, at a 5% savings rate versus around 1% back in 2005 – but this is a dismal figure when you consider how most folks are coming up short when they want to retire.”
- The Importance Of Elizabeth Warren by Simon Johnson – “We should confront excessive market power, irrespective of the form that it takes. We need a new trust-busting moment. And this requires elected officials willing and able to stand up to concentrated and powerful corporate interests. Empower the consumer – and figure out how this can get you elected.”
- Dollar-cost averaging just means taking risk later by Vanguard – If an investor is “satisfied with his or her target asset allocation, and is comfortable with the risk/return characteristics of each strategy, the prudent action is investing the lump sum immediately to gain exposure to the markets as soon as possible.”
- Savings Snowball Update – “Even though I’m within $10 of my previous Emergency Fund goal, I’m not stopping now! My rent was just raised, so the previous goal wouldn’t really cover 3 months of living expenses any more. It’s time to bump the goal up to a solid $5,000.”
- Private Equity Funds Investing in Single Family Housing by Prashant Gopal and John Gittelsohn – “The company projects an average net yield, or cash flow after all expenses and management costs, of about 8.5 percent for purchases this month, Fuhrman said. It can finish renovations in an average of 15 days for about $15,000 per house and get a tenant in a property in at most 21 days after it’s available for lease, he said.”
- The news on the Greek debt deal is bad enough that I’m raising some cash today by Jim Jubak – “the unpleasant truth that even with the latest austerity package Greece is not on track to reduce its debt to GDP ratio to a sustainable level—defined as 120%–by the 2020 deadline. Some calculations show that the ratio would be 145% by the deadline.”
Fruit at outdoor market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by John Hunter.