The Friday Financial Follies are designed to summarize the important financial issues of the week.
- Make light of those that are funny.
- Make fun of those that are stupid.
- Highlight those you just need to be aware of if you want to be financially well grounded.
Debt Limit Dance Redux:
Debt limit extension and balanced budgets remain in the news-negotiations are ongoing. A game of chicken at the highest level of our government is in action. The next few weeks will be interesting to watch. For more info on the debt limit game see this post!
Job Schizophrenia
If you love schizoprhenia, you will get a kick out of the two job reports this week. The ADP private job survey suggested there is light at the end of the tunnel….Jobs data showed improvement for the first time in months.
But the more respected governments own employment report showed a measly bump up of 18,000 jobs in June-with a net of 140,000 required just to break even. The unemployment rate is up again to 9.2%, which doesn’t count those so frustrated they no longer are actively looking for work.
Unintended Consequences
Another example of unintended consequences: The 2006 law that makes automatic enrollment of workers into a 401k was supposed to increase participation, and it has especially among lower income workers. New studies show however that because employees aren’t active in making the decision, they aren’t increasing the amount they put into the plan as their wages increase. The overall result for middle and upper income employees is that their overall retirement savings are lagging!
Remember the big petroleum reserve release?
Oil prices are back up above the level that precipitated the release in oil reserves two weeks ago. So much for the Obama’s administrations efforts at getting oil prices down.
The President’s own economic advisers has released it’s latest report on the $650+billion stimulus resulted in job growth costing $278,000 each. Not an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. (Understatement of the year)
Retirement age?
Getting close to retirement age? This article reports 5 states friendly for retirees…The comments from the various state residents involved are worth reading too.
Ethanol tax breaks may soon be ending-whether that will help or hurt at the pump remains to be seen…
And when you think you’ve heard it all: A new lottery in Britain-worth about 40 grand in In-Vitro fertility treatments….
If the stakes weren’t so high, the jousting going on in Washington would be amusing. I’m afraid the decisions made in the next few months will reverberate in our economy for years. (Fingers crossed!)
For your weekend Reading Pleasure:
Donna at Surviving and Thriving goes dumpster wading??? In Alaska…
Bret at Hope to Prosper writes words of wisdom on investing.
Broke Professionals has a 1000 ways for you to save money. Yes, 1000 ideas-go check ‘em out!
Faithful With A Few explains the common traits of financial failure during credit counseling.
The downsides to self-employment are explained by Daniel at Sweating the Big Stuff.
Canadian Personal Finance explains why debt is like teenage sex. Worth a read! Course I’m too old to remember….
Free Money Finance wonders how he would fare after 3 hours in a financial hot seat…It sounds interesting. Let me know if you set up a group FMF, but if the entrance threshold is a net worth of 10 mil, I will have to wait till next year:)
Roundups where I’ve been featured:
The Wealth Artisan’s weekend roundup.
The Great Len Penzo wants me to buy the Dodgers. Interested billionaire investors contact me here at the blog!
Thanks and if I’ve missed one let me know!
Hope you have a great weekend, and return next week for another round of financial follies found only here, at The Millionaire Nurse Blog!
{photo credit: Bytemarks c.c.}
Make sure you follow me on Twitter @DrDeanBurke- quick links on the side of the blog! And let’s not miss a post-sign up for email special delivery or the RSS feed!
Friends, I love friends-check out my Facebook page, and I’m definitely Linked-In-use the shortcuts on the side-that’s why I paid my Web Master of the Universe-Ben-the big bucks to put ‘em there-saves you time!
I always read these reports about the results of stimulus and I’m not surprised anymore, as it’s usually a similar result each time! I wonder why we keep expecting our politicians to continue if we know we’re not getting much bang for the buck?
Thanks for the mention!