The Daily Middle

“Right now [Obama] is deciding how hard to push to regulate the OTC derivative market. The President’s point man, Larry Summers, now says he supports strong regulation of over-the-counter derivatives. And Treasury has released a proposal outlining some of the same ideas Born had 11 years ago. But the financial lobby is still against those ideas and is lobbying hard at the White House and in Congress. The new regulations are stalled. As for Brooksley Born, without new regulations, she’s offering another warning.”

Brooksley Born closes with this comment,

“I think we will have continuing danger from these markets and that we will have repeats of the financial crisis [that] may differ in details but there will be significant financial downturns and disasters attributed to this regulatory gap over and over until we learn from experience.”

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4 or Part 5. As you know from our prior posts of this Series, Part 2 was removed from the Internet.

From: Dispatch

Stacey Wilkerson’s professional life reveals a good news/bad news story.

First, the good news: She loves her full-time nursing job at the Cleveland Clinic as well as her monthly home-care visits for a private company in the Columbus area.

The bad news? The married mother of four lives in Mansfield – 60 miles or more from both jobs.

So she commutes, spending two nights a week in hotels and countless hours on the road. In less than three years, she has logged more than 100,000 miles on her 2007 Chevy minivan.
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From: MSN Money

Regrettably, these days it seems that ferreting out the right investment decisions is sort of all macro, all the time. The top-down economic overview is far more important, I think, than the bottom-up fundamental view of any company or stock.

Important pieces to that macro jigsaw puzzle are Greece and the United Kingdom, as the U.S. is headed for a variation of the funding crisis, though how severe ours will be remains to be seen. Without a money-printing press — because it uses the euro, not a currency of its own — Greece is forced to consider austerity measures to deal with its debt woes. The U.K., on the other hand, is not as bad off as Greece, and it does have a press.

• Check exchange rates for 6 major currencies

For America: A Greco-Anglo scenario?

A crisis of confidence has invaded Greek and U.K. shores, and we can all learn a bit about what our future might look like as we watch developments there. (The U.K. may be the most useful example for us, since we also have a printing press.)

We will soon find out whether Bank of England Gov. Mervyn King will extend quantitative easing and, if he does, how the bond market will respond to a renewed effort to pump money directly into that economy. (The pound is already under a good deal of downward pressure.)
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From: ZeroHedge

Via Value Investing Insight. Absolute must read for a new investing generation which really does think that this time it is different (and will not end in tears). Pay special attention to the False Lessons, which blare at you daily as the one true gospel by the likes of CNBC.

In this excerpt from his annual letter, investing great Seth Klarman describes 20 lessons from the financial crisis which, he says, “were either never learned or else were immediately forgotten by most market participants.”

One might have expected that the near-death experience of most investors in 2008 would generate valuable lessons for the future. We all know about the “depression mentality” of our parents and grandparents who lived through the Great Depression. Memories of tough times colored their behavior for more than a generation, leading to limited risk taking and a sustainable base for healthy growth. Yet one year after the 2008 collapse, investors have returned to shockingly speculative behavior. One state investment board recently adopted a plan to leverage its portfolio – specifically its government and high-grade bond holdings – in an amount that could grow to 20% of its assets over the next three years. No one who was paying attention in 2008 would possibly think this is a good idea.

This has been filed in our Investing 101 Section

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Question:

“Do you think the situation in the U.S. or do you think the situation in Europe is worse? And which is getting worse right now? I’m talking not about the stock market, I’m talking about the economies.

Peter Schiff,

“I think it’s certainly worse in the United States. They’ve got problems in Europe, but if you look at the European community in its entirety. When you take the stronger countries like Germany and you look at the whole picture, Europe is in much better shape than the United States. They have a positive balance of payments for the whole European Union, they have a much higher savings rate… We are in serious, serious trouble.”

Question:

You end up therefore recommending people buy gold, is that correct?

Dr. Marc Faber,

“Yes, I think that everybody should accumulate some Gold over time. I’m not saying that today is the best buying point. As you know, Gold prices hit the peak on December 3rd of last year at $1,226 and then we corrected down to $1,045 per ounce on February 5th of this year, the same day the S&P bottomed out at 1,045; and now we’re at, say, 1,120. So we are at a rally already. And possibly Gold can retreat somewhat. But I would recommend people to buy every month some Gold forever.”

From: MSN Money

Consumer advocates and debt experts agree that credit card companies have never been more willing to cooperate with distressed borrowers than they are right now. Issuers are lowering rates and minimum payments, offering workout plans and settling debts for 50 cents or less on the dollar.
But not everyone is getting the help that’s needed.

Rosemarie is 59 and disabled, and has had trouble making the minimum payments on her $12,000 credit card debt since her interest rate soared to 30%. She asked for relief but didn’t get it. “I was late making a few payments, and now they are charging me over $300 a month in interest,” Rosemarie wrote me. “I called asking if they could lower the interest, (but) they said no. . . . What can I do?”

Cutting a deal with your credit card company typically isn’t easy or simple.

Read Full Article

From: The Ready Store

What’s there to worry about when it comes to potentially contaminated water?

There are basically 7 areas of concern when it comes to purifying water. They are:

• Protozoa – Cryptosporidium & Giardia
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Parasites
• Particulate
• Chemicals
• Taste/Odor

When it comes to purifying water because of these risks you basically have three options.
Boiling – By boiling water you bring the temperature of the water to a high enough degree that it kills living bacteria and viruses. This makes your water bacteriologically safe to drink. One of the challenges with boiling water for water purification is the need for a heating source.

Chemical – If boiling is not an option, the next option is to use a chemical which will actually kill the bacteria. A popular option is iodine, and you can get this in tablet form. The challenge with iodine is that it has an after taste. However there are options like Potable Aqua + PA Plus which removes the iodine after taste. If you’re on the move Iodine tablets are a great choice because a packet of iodine tablets are extremely light weight and easily transportable.

MSR has recently introduced a purifier which uses the same technology that is used in municipal water treatment plants. The MSR Miox Purifier was developed in conjunction with the military. Basically it creates a powerful dose of mixed oxidants (MIOX) which inactivates all viruses, bacteria, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium. A little salt and some camera batteries and you’re good to go.

If you’re staying put and you have large amounts of stored water such as a water storage barrel; I would recommend bleach (which contains chlorine). With a very little amount of bleach you can purify a large amount of water (1 teaspoon of bleach for every 10 gallons of water).

Filtration – Water filtration is a process where a mesh filter with miniscule holes allows the water to flow through but limits contaminates. When selecting a water filter, to insure that it will pick up most major contaminates you want to be sure that the filter pore size is 0.2 or smaller. This pore size will take care of everything but viruses. There are packages likes the MSR Sweet Water Microfilter Purifier System which includes both a filtering and a purifying system and addresses all 7 contaminates.

Read Original Article

There are a significant amount of commercials in this video, so you can fast forward from 3:43 through 7:10.

“Banks were pressured to bail out LTCM themselves. It worked. The crisis passed. In Washington, a collective sigh of relief. And then, a call to action. Some in Congress began to clamor for regulation. But Alan Greenspan had no intention of yielding. In the end, Congress agreed with Alan Greenspan. There would be no new regulations of over-the-counter derivatives. But within the next few weeks, Congress did decide to do something about Brooksley Born; they stopped her entirely. Born resigned. With Born out of the way, the last two years of the Clinton Administration were a hay-day of deregulation. OTC derivatives were off limits. Banks were freed to make riskier investments. Wall Street was largely left to regulate itself… “

If you missed the former posts, click for Part 1, Part 3, or Part 4. As you know from our prior posts of this Series, Part 2 was removed from the Internet.

From: LifeHacker

Many financial advisers recommend buying a home to take advantage of the associated tax benefits. If you want the investment portfolio without the hassle of home ownership, life management blog My Life ROI has some suggestions.

Buying and long-term renting each come with their own long lists of pros and cons. On the one hand, the tax benefits of home ownership are pretty sweet. On the other, renters aren’t beholden to a fickle real estate market and can move fairly quickly if the dwelling no longer suits.

Many homeowners and serial renters each believe steadfastly—and with good reason—in their decision. How, though, do you know which option is right for you? While each situation is unique, blogger MLR says there are a few things to consider when deciding whether to plunk down your cash on a mortgage down payment or a rental deposit.
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