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Blogs I’ve Been Following This Week
Welcome to another rousing edition of Black Coffee, your off-beat weekly round-up of what’s been going on in the world of money and personal finance. Here’s what caught my attention over the past week…
Mighty Bargain Hunter – The Mighty Bargain Hunter astutely reminds us (again) why anti-credit card legislation embodied in The CARD Act of 2009 does more harm than good, hurting everyone in the process. Exhibit 193: credit card companies are now starting to penalize those of us who pay off our cards every month with fees for, well, paying off our cards every month. For more on why this is so, check out MB’s post that helps explain credit card company motives for implementing such a fee in the first place.
Personal Dividends – Meanwhile, Miranda notes that consumers are getting the shaft as banks rush to raise credit card interest rates. What in God’s name is the reason for this, you ask? Would you believe… The CARD Act of 2009? Yep. Miranda breaks out some of the other problems that consumers should be aware of and a very modest tip for how to mitigate the pain. There is a pearl of wisdom in her concluding remarks that bears repeating here: “…until consumers take better control of their credit use, it doesn’t matter how many laws are enacted.” Exactly. We don’t need ANY new laws with respect to credit cards. We simply need more personal responsibility demonstrated by those who choose to use the credit cards in the first place.
Spend on Life – For those who are interested in reading more about the CARD Act of 2009, here’s a nice summary. Who knew that the act included a law that allows visitors in U.S. National Parks and refuges to carry licensed firearms in the parks (assuming state law allows it)? Yes, the United States Congress works in mysterious ways.
Poorer Than You – While loitering over at Steph’s site I noticed that she is trying to land the “Good Mood Gig” being offered by NatureMade. Stop on by and give her your vote. I did. Twice, so far. What the heck is the Good Mood Gig? Beats me, but I know what it ain’t: me having to ask the Honeybee a question about anything before she gets that first cup of coffee in the morning. Oy.
The Digerati Life – My regular readers know that every Thursday I do a movie review here at Len Penzo dot Com. You can check them out by clicking “Movie Reviews” on the sidebar menu. The great majority of the movies the Honeybee and I watch every week come from the Netflix rental service. For those who don’t have Netflix and are wondering how it works and whether its overall benefits are worth the cost, check out this detailed review from SVB.
Brain Dead Simple! Financial Organizing – Susan has an interesting concept that she started this week: a fictional personal finance soap opera. You know, when I was a teenager I admit I followed the travails of Luke and Laura on General Hospital, and Patch and Kayla on Days of Our Lives. I also remember following Demi Moore and the great Rick Springfield on General Hospital too. Anyway, here is Episode 1 of Susan’s soap; it features another fictional couple, Holly and Jack, who immediately get into trouble when one of the two fails to air their dirty laundry. This should be a lot of fun! So far, it appears as if the soap opera doesn’t have a name; I think Susan needs to hold a contest to name it after the soap opera gets a few more episodes out. Maybe if I’m really nice, she’ll let me be a judge. 
Credits and Debits
Credit: A 19-year-old Norwegian student won the 2009 Monopoly World Championship, pocketing $20,580 in real money for the title – the total amount in the bank of a standard Monopoly game. For the record, an American has not won the title since 1974.
Debit: The price of oil reached $82 per barrel on Thursday, its highest level since October 14th of last year. The reason for the rising prices: continued weakness in the greenback that is being primarily fueled by America’s unwillingness to rein in its massive deficit spending.
Credit: Speaking of deficit spending…Never mind the diminished quality and rationing of health services that will certainly plague us if we start down the road to single-payer socialized medicine. As Congress gets closer to overhauling a health care system that 84% of Americans say doesn’t need fixing, this week Michael Ramirez reminded us of the other significant impact of Obamacare.
Debit: MSNBC reports that owners of shopping malls, hotels, office space and apartment buildings — and the bankers who financed them — face a major crunch over the next two years as the mortgages on those properties start coming due. The end result could be the devastating second half of a real estate “double bubble.” For those who think this crisis won’t affect them, think again – heavy losses on commercial real estate could force banks to tighten lending for home mortgages, car loans and credit cards for the rest of us. It could also cause home prices to sink even further as bankers try to offset commercial loan losses by accelerating sales of foreclosed homes.
Credit: A 60-year-old Rapid City man has been sentenced to four years in prison for robbing a bank in the city. The convicted felon was originally caught by police when he forgot to gas up the getaway car. As further evidence of the genius behind this criminal mastermind, court documents also showed that when the guy was booked into jail, he named “robbery” as his occupation.
Debit: I mentioned last week that I was not convinced that the unemployment situation was changing enough to justify the recent run-up in stock prices. Sure enough, the number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the past six weeks. Employers continue to remain reluctant to hire, even with the economy showing signs of recovery.
Credit: Meanwhile, the Dow continued to push higher this week, reaching a high of just under 10,100 on both Monday and Thursday before finally pulling back Friday to finish at 9,972. I don’t believe for a minute that happy days are here again with respect to stocks, folks – as far as I’m concerned, the current market rally has “bear trap” written all over it in big bold red letters.
Credit: The St. Paul Pioneer Press reported that a man was caught shoplifting some rather unusual items from a local KMart earlier this week that he told police were intended for his Halloween costume. After setting off the store security system and leaving the store, Spiral Lightninghawk was apprehended and brought to the security office where four items valued at $55.96 were recovered: 2 DVDs, black fishnet stockings and a pair of women’s underwear. Heh. Police later cited him for misdemeanor theft. Surely there must be some misunderstanding here, officers – if my memory is correct, I am pretty darn sure that Spiral Lightninghawk is one of the Super Friends. Isn’t he?
Credit: If you haven’t seen this short video clip of the cutest little baby you’ve ever seen giving his version of “the evil eye,” then you are in for a real treat… Go ahead, I dare you not to smile after looking at this! 
Other Useless News
I had a ham sandwich for lunch today and then I washed it down with a can of Coke (high octane, I can’t stand diet sodas).
As always, if you happen to enjoy what you’re reading please feel free to follow me on Twitter – and don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed too!
The Way-Back Machine: Past Posts You May Have Missed
From March 2009:
24 (Financial) Things About Me… and One Confession Makes 25 – Remember that “25 Things About Me” parlor game that was going around the Internet late last year? After awhile it was getting pretty annoying; my inbox was littered with them. Well, this is my version – personal finance style. A pure puff piece, but it’s a fun read.
Carnival News
This week I had articles featured at the following carnivals:
- The Carnival of Personal Finance at Fabulously Broke in the City! (Editor’s Pick! – Hooray!)
- The Bobo Carnival of Politics at The Bobo Files
- Cairns, Australia at The Great Barrier Reef
- Boo Boo Bear at Jellystone Park
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Thnx for the run down Leo.
Do you really not believe the economy is back with all the great earnings results for 3Q09 so far? I see it everyday at restaurants and department stores.
.-= Financial Samurai´s last blog ..Six Figure Incomes & Unemployment – Challenging Reality By Engaging The Community =-.
Thank you for introducing the soap opera! I love the idea of a contest though I have no idea how to set one up for a blog.
.-= Susan Tiner´s last blog ..Financial Organizing Soap Opera Episode #1 =-.
@Sam: There is no doubt that the economy is recovering somewhat. Let me use a simile: let’s compare the economy to a hospital patient. Late last year the patient was in intensive care. Today I would say the patient is out of ICU – thanks to a massive transfusion (i.e., stimulus money, bailouts, government involvement to prop up housing) – and sitting up in bed and eating soup (although it is still in the hospital). Now, did the transfusion kill the underlying disease that put the patient in ICU, or did it only mask the symptoms? I say it only masked the symptoms and when the transfusion is exhausted the patient is going to be right back in ICU.
Most people are still in debt up to their eyeballs – they are not going to be able to spend like they did during the last economic expansion. Many banks and other companies that were performing poorly are still solvent today only because of government bailouts; they are still fundamentally screwed up. Meanwhile, the effects of the housing bubble have been greatly tempered, for now, by the government. More trouble is coming there, especially with respect to the commercial side of real estate – that is the other shoe there, so to speak.
@Susan: You are very welcome! I sent you a private e-mail on how I would set up your contest!
Hi Len – Thnx for your thoughts. Actually, the start of your 2nd paragraph is EXACTLY why I wrote my post in Friday at Financial Samurai.
You say “Most people are still in debt up to their eyeballs.” Are you drowning in debt? Because I’m not drowning in debt either. Are you doing well with this recovery? I bet you are, and frankly so am I. When we write “other people” or “most people”, we’re simply talking about ourselves! And if we ourselves are all fine, then all is fine because we are “most people.”
I hope you can have a read of my post and share your thoughts. Frankly, the large majority of people I know are really gaining from this rebound. How could they not?
The patient is walking again and enjoying the sunshine.
But, Sam, my personal experience does not disprove my point at all. In fact, for me to claim that everything is okay because I (or other people I know) am/are doing well financially is merely argument by anecdotal evidence, which is pointless.
BTW, I was doing well before the last recession hit too. If we extend the anecdotal evidence to how I was doing then, the economy should never have hit the skids in the first place.
I agree Len. Frankly, I don’t really know many who did horribly in this downturn, and who aren’t reaping the rewards of the rebound! 10% unemployment means 90% employment by definition. Just don’t include the underemployed.
Let the bull market rock on!
Thanks very much for the link and the tweet!
I expect we’re just seeing the start of the fallout for this.
@Sam: You definitely are good at finding the silver lining in a dark cloud! lol
@MB: You’re very welcome. I am in complete agreement with you.