FeedPosted Oct 6th 2010 10:40AM by Kevin Kersten (RSS feed)
Filed under: India, China, Russia, Rich in America, Mexico, Japan, Economic Data

At times, it can be really hard to remember just how good we have it as Americans. In all the
doom and gloom talk of the economy, such as Goldman Sachs saying it will be "fairly bad" at best over the coming six to nine months, I think this is we need to be reminded of this sometimes.
We are one of the richest and freest countries in the world. We have freedom of speech, press and religion. Economically, we are very well off. While with the weak U.S. dollar we may not be the richest country in the world anymore, we are far from poor.
To put things in perspective, here is a select list of some of the countries in the world and their 2009 gross domestic product based on purchasing-power-parity per capita, according to
IMF data:
Continue reading Doom & Gloom Economy or Rich America?
Posted Aug 25th 2010 3:30PM by Tom Taulli (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Rich in America

Being a millionaire should be a good thing, right? In fact, it could even be more advantageous during tough times because of the attractive deals.
But even millionaires get anxiety attacks. Just take a look at a recent
survey from the Spectrum Group. According to its millionaire investor confidence index, the level is the lowest in more than a year. The reading is at a -18, which is the result of a 11 point drop over the past month. Anything below -10 is considered bearish.
Continue reading Millionaires Are in a Funk Too
Posted Jun 23rd 2010 11:20AM by Beth Gaston Moon (RSS feed)
Filed under: Money and Finance Today, Rich in America, Personal Finance

Well, millionaires of the world, your club has become a bit less elite. The number of millionaires across the globe
rose by an astounding 17% in 2009, according to the 14th annual "World Wealth Report" published by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini SA. That's a lot of wealth in a time of global economic crisis.
But first, what defines a millionaire? No, having a baseball-card collection that
might fetch that kind of a price tag doesn't count (unfortunately). The way the Merrill study defines it is those households with at least $1 million in investable assets,
not including primary residences. There are now 10 million of these households in the world, up from 8.6 million in 2008.
Continue reading Number of World's Millionaires on the Rise
Posted Dec 14th 2009 1:11PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Rants and Raves, General Electric (GE), Wal-Mart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Market Matters, McDonald's (MCD), AT and T (T), Alcoa Inc (AA), Bank of America (BAC), Boeing Co (BA), Chevron Corp (CVX), Procter and Gamble (PG), Verizon Communications (VZ), Rich in America, Kraft Foods'A' (KFT), Serious Money, S and P 500, DJIA
After reading an unbelievable sell recommendation by one of my BloggingStocks colleagues, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In Thirteen Dow stocks that are doomed, we are informed that 13 of the 30 are going down and we should all bail out before it is too late.
I find this silly on many levels. For one, 13 stocks amount to a large-cap index fund and since large-cap stocks have lagged the market the probability that they will outperform going forward is real and has many investors promoting them.
Continue reading Serious Money: These Dow Dogs are not -- AA, T, BAC, BA ...
Posted Mar 20th 2009 5:04PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Other Issues, Bad News, Consumer Experience, Rants and Raves, Citigroup Inc. (C), Money and Finance Today, Federal Natl Mtge (FNM), Amer Intl Group (AIG), Rich in America, Economic Data, Politics, Recession, MBIA Inc (MBI), Financial Crisis

There are very few people on this planet that can honestly say that they have not been affected in some way by the economic firestorm caused by underappreciating risk.
Congress, along with the Securities and Exchange Commission during a period where the White House was comatose, opened up the flood gates for Wall Street's financial wizards to bet the world
and lose!Continue reading Serious Money: Don't overlook these regional banks!
Posted Jan 28th 2009 7:00PM by Bruce Watson (RSS feed)
Filed under: Forecasts, Rumors, Products and Services, Blogs, Next Big Thing, Rich in America, Media World, Comic Relief

I have to admit that I'm a little naïve. While I've long since realized that rich men and pretty girls go together like frat parties and crab lice, I always assumed that the connection was tenuous and unformed. Basically, I imagined that it was a matter of overlapping social circles: bars, nightclubs and restaurants use financial sector employees to boost their bottom line by buying overpriced drinks and over-engineered food. In order to get these socially inept adrenaline junkies in the door, hot spots try to attract models by offering free crudite, well-appointed vomitoria, and... you guessed it, large numbers of financial sector employees. Thus, the models find their money men, the money men get their gold diggers, and the restaurants get a lot of money.
Now, I'm not a total rube. I never thought for a second that this connection was the result of random chance or pure romance. After all, there is nothing like a model to enhance the reputation and self-image of a hedge fund manager. Conversely, after
Baywatch went off the air, financial-sector employees became the ultimate means for aging models to parley their looks into long-term financial security. Both groups have something to offer the other; while this may not be the basis for true love, it certainly serves as a stable foundation for a business arrangement.
Continue reading Arm candy: The ultimate executive compensation
Posted Jan 21st 2009 4:00PM by Sheldon Liber (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rants and Raves, Scandals, Rich in America, Comic Relief

Madoff should have asked for protective custody
Instead he asked for bail
The judge sent him home in bracelets
When he should have sent him to jail
Madoff admits stealing $50 billion with no remorse over 30 years
Investors and foundations lost millions and are raining tears
A thousand questions cannot be answered
How could this scandal go on so long?
Undetected by the regulators and investors around the world
Who didn't think
always winning meant something was wrong
They turned a blind eye while they were charmed by a smile
From a friendly man with a key to the city and connections that could beguile
The Securities and Exchange commission did not do its job
Incompetence in the highest office for three decades
Giving the swindler Bernie Madoff a license to rob
And pretend he was a genius trader when few were ever made
Continue reading Rapped up with Madoff
Posted Dec 18th 2008 5:31PM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Management, Employees, Market Matters, Money and Finance Today, Rich in America
I have to hand it to Brady Dougan, CEO of Credit Suisse. He has shown some fiendishly clever imagination in paying bonuses to his managing directors. Instead of giving them multimillion dollar cash bonuses this year, he's paying them in the very thing that has brought Wall Street to its knees -- $5 billion of its leveraged loans and commercial mortgage-backed debt.
This move alone demonstrates that Credit Suisse is using its brain. By doing this, Dougan keeps the future losses of $5 billion worth of its toxic waste from cutting into Credit Suisse's earnings. Since the alternative was giving them no bonus at all, those managing directors will have a chance to share the emotions of all the people to whom they sold that toxic waste.
Not only that, but it will be much harder to get the general public angry at Credit Suisse for paying bonuses in toxic waste than other firms that are actually paying cash to their employees. Credit Suisse took $2.8 billion in losses in October and November, but it has not received any government money, unlike its peers. But the cleverest part of all is the accounting for the $5 billion in bonuses.
Continue reading Credit Suisse eats its own dog food
Posted Dec 16th 2008 6:40PM by Michael Rainey (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rich in America, Comic Relief
This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.
So what do you do for fun when you're worth $600 million? Gambling is one option. Though the thought of sitting in front of a slot machine in Vegas and feeding it quarter after quarter might be less than appealing for some, I suppose it would be different if each pull on the bandit's arm cost $1,000. And even if you don't need another penny in your bank account, it still might be kind of fun when the bells ring and the lights flash as you hit the jackpot.
This is what happened to multi-millionaire Candy Spelling this past year. She was reportedly playing high limit slots at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas when she hit the jackpot. Her payout? A cool $180,000. (Though as TMZ points out, that's the equivalent of about $8 to us ordinary proles.)
Candy is of course the wife of legendary television producer Aaron Spelling, creator of such eternal classics as The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, Charlie's Angels, and Beverly Hills 90210, among many others. Together, the Spellings created another classic: their daughter Tori, actress and tabloid all-star. Aaron Spelling died in 2006, leaving an estate worth over half a billion dollars, famously controlled by his wife but not Tori.
Continue reading Money winners of 2008: Candy Spelling hits the jackpot -- again
Posted Dec 13th 2008 8:41AM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Bad News, Consumer Experience, Scandals, Money and Finance Today, Rich in America, Entrepreneurs, Personal Finance, Financial Crisis
This week a little story about a $50 billion investment fraud has metastasized. Madoff Securities, a brokerage firm that ran a secretive investment fund on the side, has closed down -- revealing that its steady 10% annual returns was a result of a Ponzi scheme. For some who trusted Madoff a week ago, they are today coming to grips with life without money. Is Madoff the only one out there? I doubt it. So you need to protect yourself.
How did Madoff accomplish this? That story has yet to be revealed. But founder Bernie Madoff revealed that he was using money from his most recent investors to pay off the earlier ones who requested their money. And a letter from hedge fund research and advisory firm, Aksia -- which steered its clients away from Madoff -- reveals five useful clues:
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Unknown accounting firm. Madoff used an accounting firm Friehling & Horowitz that employed three people -- one was a 78 year old living in Florida.
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Incomprehensible investment strategy too good to be true. Madoff employed a "split conversion strategy" which was never clearly defined and whose returns other traders could not duplicate.
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Deception about technology. Madoff claimed it was technologically sophisticated but a visitor to its offices found paper tickets sent through the mail.
Continue reading $50 billion investment fraud: Could you be next?
Posted Dec 8th 2008 4:23PM by Peter Cohan (RSS feed)
Filed under: Rich in America, Recession, Financial Crisis
The average American family has seen its income fall over the last eight years while its expenses have risen. Not so for the top 1%. They've been building 40,000 square foot mansions and flying in private jets to visit their vacation homes in Aspen and the Hamptons and so on. But since the fall of 2007, things have headed downhill for the rich along with the Dow -- which has lost 36% of its value since its peak in October 2007.
They're changing their lifestyles. How so? Vanity Fair provides examples of how the super-rich are downsizing in wine, shoes, fitness training, air travel, grocery shopping, and maid service. To illustrate these changes, the list below contrasts their behavior in these different categories between the fall of 2007 and the fall of 2008:
WINE
- 2007: $1,950 bottle of 2003 Screaming Eagle Cabernet Sauvignon
- 2008: $15 bottles of wine
SHOES
- 2007: $600 or $700 pair of shoes as "retail therapy
- 2008: No retail therapy because "It just doesn't feel good."
FITNESS TRAINING
- 2007: Fitness trainer three times a week
- 2008: Fitness trainer once a week
Continue reading The rich are feeling the crunch too...
Posted Dec 7th 2008 10:00AM by Daniel Solin (RSS feed)
Filed under: Getting Started, Rich in America
This post is part of a series where personal finance expert Dan Solin looks at money secrets that help the rich stay rich. See them all.
To be a successful investor, you need to know the odds.
Investing is far more important than gambling. Yet most gamblers understand the odds before they place a bet. Few investors understand the odds of achieving a return on their investments.
The odds of shooting snake eyes at a craps table are one in thirty-six.
The odds of winning on one number at a roulette table are one in thirty-eight.
Most investors buy actively managed funds, where the fund manager attempts to beat a given benchmark. What are the odds she will be able to do so?
They are one in thirty-six. Sound familiar?
Almost every broker and many advisors will tell you they can pick stocks that will be winners. What are the odds they can deliver?
Continue reading No. 12: Odds are rich people know the odds
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