Economic Folk | Business News, Real Estate and Stock Market: November 2010

Video: David Lazarus on a scam that uses PayPal to tap bank accounts

Consumer columnist David Lazarus tells the tale of a woman whose checking account has been drained several times by scammers in Canada and India who used PayPal to access her Wells Fargo information. The case highlights the ease with which con artists can use the Internet to get to your money.

When cyber thieves use PayPay as portal to bank account

Credit bureaus make it tricky to buy a copy of your own report

Bank ATM fees need regulating

--Pat Benson

Full story at http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/MoneyCompany/~3/aSnX6TnsH9U/consumer-alert-cyber-thieves-use-paypal-as-portal-to-bank-account.html

As a The Walt Disney Company (DIS) shareholder, I've been disappointed by the long-term price action of the stock (I've had the company in my portfolio since 1998). These days, I want every movie to hit it out of the park. Tangled, the latest cartoon from the Mouse, grossed a decent amount of money during the Thanksgiving frame. But, I have to ask: did it gross enough money for shareholders?

Maybe not. And I know, I'm sounding greedy. After all, according to estimates at Box Office Mojo, Tangled made almost $70 million at domestic locations for the Wednesday-through-Sunday period. That's not so bad, is it?

Continue reading Disney's 'Tangled' Did Well -- But Is It Enough?

Disney's 'Tangled' Did Well -- But Is It Enough? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Full story at http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=96aeb2ff6319c5f6dbec64eb1d72e11e

Cyber Monday Numbers in Question

Filed under: Apple Inc (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), Wal-Mart (WMT), Best Buy (BBY)

We won't know until a couple days have passed, exactly how large a success or failure Cyber Monday 2010 has actually been. One thing is for certain though, manufacturers such as Apple, Inc. (AAPL) and retailers including Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (WMT) are taking the concept ever more seriously with the hope that it shall return more than just the echo of an already trite catch phrase.

What has become obvious to me though is that the idea of Cyber Monday has given way to a virtual cyber week, or perhaps a cyber month, or perhaps more accurately, a cyber shopping lifestyle. People who shop on line are going to shop on line. We know it's smart. We really don't need a declared virtual event to motivate us.

Continue reading Cyber Monday Numbers in Question

Cyber Monday Numbers in Question originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Full story at http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=9f3a79f6f991262041e58ebca0d26611

Silver Is Set To Explode

A large scale sell-off materialized in the silver market in mid-November after the CME Group (CME) raised silver margins. The iShares Silver Trust ETF (SLV) fell from over $27 to under $25 in a matter of days on very heavy volume. It looked like a top had been put in after a heady run in the precious metal.

The SLV, however, has now retraced that move despite the fact that the U.S. Dollar has been climbing on a near daily basis. A stronger dollar should be putting a cap on the silver market, and that is not happening. This is a very bullish signal that the price of silver is going to continue to climb as we head into 2011. Look to get long the iShares Silver Trust ETF in the coming days.

Silver Is Set To Explode originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Full story at http://www.pheedcontent.com/click.phdo?i=6a37a307decec04955f49e2eeac57842

If It Can't Protest Its Citizens, Why Does Government Exist At All?

The fundamental flaw in the EMU is that it is not designed in a manner that allows each government to sufficiently protect its citizens in times of crisis. The allure of joining the Euro was greater economic stability, price stability, potentially lower interest rates, cost savings and ultimately a higher standard of living for all involved. Unfortunately, the single currency system has been exposed as being a great boon to growth and a great disaster in fending off depression. A single currency system gives a government no ability to defend itself from outside threats.

Ceding monetary sovereignty gives you no ability to protect yourself from crisis. This is not to imply that a nation that acts irresponsibly should not suffer at all. But what use is a government that merely allows depression to be imposed on all of its citizens – even those who behaved prudently when others did not? Here in the USA we are firing teachers and firefighters because bankers speculated on real estate. Why should a child lose his/her teacher because of a mistake that a banker makes? From a societal perspective that should never be acceptable.

The problems in Europe are far worse. The periphery nations of Europe are now entirely dependent on the kindness of strangers. All they can do is cut spending which is self defeating in a debt deleveraging crisis. They all rely on the kindness of strangers to help them. They cannot utilize traditional policies to stabilize their economies. They cannot devalue their currency. They cannot even default unless they essentially receive permission from their “partners”.

This all raises an important question about the purpose of this “union” – what good is government if it does not protect those it is created for? Human beings are stronger in groups. 100 humans living in trees can fend of 10 lions living in the grass. Ultimately, the formation of government is an extension of this survival need. This is why we create government in the first place. As a unified force we are more powerful, safer, efficient and likely to survive than we are on our own. But without this unifying force we have to ask ourselves what purpose a government is serving?

Now, we can quibble over the level of intervention that govt should have in any society (and I tend to favor less), but I think we can all agree that the group should ultimately protect its own. In times of war or hardship I would expect any government to voraciously defend its own people. And if you cannot protect your own then what good is your government? This is the question Europeans ultimately have to be asking themselves today….Their governments do not exist to protect them. This Irish “bailout” is not helping the people of Ireland. It is helping to protect the interests of foreign bankers. In the case of most Irish citizens it is in fact making matters worse. At some point the people of Ireland must ask themselves why they are involved in a currency system that is not truly unified. And perhaps more importantly they have to ask themselves why they allow their government to exist in its current form when it is incapable of helping them in the midst of crisis?

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This post previously appeared at PragCap >

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Full story at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/Fb5Gnw5WNME/if-it-cant-protest-its-citizens-why-does-government-exist-at-all-2010-11

A Deep Dive Into Long-Term Stock Market Returns

Here's an interesting set of charts that will especially resonate with those of us who follow economic cycles.

Imagine that ten years ago you invested $10,000 in the S&P 500. How much would it be worth today, adjusted for inflation with dividends reinvested? Brace yourself: Your investment has shrunk to $8,288, an annualized return of -1.86%. That's a loss of 17.1%.

chart

And this is an improvement over the same ten-year return in March a year ago, when your annualized return would have been -5.93%, for a total loss of 45.7%.

Now let's imagine that we time-travel back to September 2000 and pose the same question. Your ten-year inflation-adjusted gain would have been 396% for an annualized return of 16.13%. As the chart illustrates, investment performance with a 10-year timeline has been a real roller coaster as far back as we have data.

If we extend our investment horizon to 20 years, the roller coaster is less volatile with higher lows and lower highs.

chart

The volatility decreases further with a 30-year timeline. But even for that three-decade investment, the annualized returns since the 1901 have ranged from less than 2% to over 11%.

chart

As these charts illustrate, and as many households have discovered over the past few years, investing in equities carries risk. Households approaching retirement should understand this risk and make rational decisions about diversification. They should also consider fixed income alternatives for that part of the nest egg that will pay non-discretionary expenses not covered by Social Security and pensions.

You can play around with hypothetical returns — both nominal and real — over various time frames with this nifty The S&P 500 Calculator at the Political Calculations website (data through January 2010). Here's another version that allows you to include a fixed monthly additional contribution.

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This post previously appeared at DShort.com >

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