Welcome back!The top item in the news in the last week has been the financial crisis facing the banks. Yesterday, Washington Mutual was seized by the FDIC. This is the largest bank failure in United States history. WaMu was then sold to JP Morgan Chase, to further consolidate the banking industry into a handful of giant banks.
As the [...]

Leverage creates wealth. This has been the promise behind the real estate boom. Now that the boom has gone bust, what is the role of leverage in the current financial crisis?
Greed is blamed for much of the economic crisis currently facing us. But blaming greed misses the real point. Greed needs a mechanism—a tool—to put [...]

John McCain claims that Wall Street greed is responsible for the current financial mess behind the bank failures and the subprime mortgage debacle.  Michael Hirsh has written a significant article that places the blame squarely on the refusal of the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan to use its regulatory authority.   
Who is mostly to blame for [...]

On Tuesday, August 5, the Federal Reserve voted to keep the interest rate for banks unchanged at 2 percent.  Although I am by no means an expert on the economy and the role of the Federal Reserve, the actions of the Federal Reserve often remind me of that old cartoon about the conversation between  Bob [...]

Stranger-Owned Life Insurance (STOLI) is offered to older people. Even if you are too young to be approached about such polices, it’s a fair bet that your parents or grandparents could be targeted, if they haven’t been already. It is in everyone’s interest to understand how this insurance scam works.  
“Stranger-Owned Life Insurance (“STOLI”) is a [...]

By Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD.
One of the enduring beliefs in American society is that people can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and succeed if they work hard and persevere.
Today, the Associated Press published an article that claims that people are losing faith in this belief. It asks the question:  “Is everything spinning out of [...]

Making money after the summer solstice is a test of persistence. Each season of the year has its gifts and its challenges. The gifts of summer are warmth and light, the essential elements of growth. At the same time, the greatest challenge of summer is persistence.  Most people begin new projects with enthusiasm, even though [...]

“The Secret” has been a colossal phenomenon about how to create abundance, using “The Law of Attraction.” When my adult son first watched the “The Secret,” he objected to one dramatic episode. A boy wants a bicycle. He hopes and dreams for the bicycle and spends time gazing excitedly at a picture of the exact [...]

An entrepreneur abundance strategy is characteristic of the way entrepreneurs approach business. Whether or not entrepreneurs ever use the word “abundance,” the mindset and actions of entrepreneurs are the same mindset and actions that produce abundance.
“Entrepreneur” is one of those umbrella terms that can cover a range of meanings. In essence, an entrepreneur wants more [...]

by Kalinda Rose Stevenson, PhD
Interest rate changes are the most widely publicized method the Federal Reserve uses to control the money supply.
You will see all kinds of speculation about what the Federal Reserve will do before such meetings, which affects the stock market. You will also hear media reports about how changes in the interest [...]