Continue reading Don't look for both justice and success in the bank bailout plan

Don't look for both justice and success in the bank bailout plan originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Volcker: U.S. needs more civil engineers and fewer financial engineers

Volcker: U.S. needs more civil engineers and fewer financial engineers originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

New York Times

Continue reading Emotions shouldn't cloud decision on the bailout plan!

Emotions shouldn't cloud decision on the bailout plan! originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading What this market needs is Louis Rukeyser

What this market needs is Louis Rukeyser originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

First was the column in the Wall Street Journal that argued that Mister Rogers helped spawn a generation of brats. Then there was an equally preposterous Fox News story. It's official: Conservatives have run out of villains.

The late Fred Rogers spread the message -- which for some reason is controversial now -- that children are special. He never taught selfishness. In fact, neither the Journal nor Fox News could produce any evidence that he did. Even the author of a book cited to back up their argument doesn't blame Rogers for the growing selfishness of today's youth.

"The MTV show 'My Super Sweet Sixteen' has done 100 times more to normalize narcissism than Mr. Rogers ever did," writes San Diego State University Psychology Professor Jean Twenge, author of Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled -- and More Miserable Than Ever Before." Mr. Rogers' show also emphasizes many things that are the complete opposite of narcissism: Gentleness, caring for others, and the value of community."

The Journal argued that "what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself." Ironically, that was exactly the message that Rogers preached.

"He certainly didn't want to be giving children messages that were narcissistic," said Hedda Sharapan, who started working with Rogers in 1965, in an interview. "Young children need affirmation. The security of being loved is essential for moving forward."

In addition, she pointed out that secure children develop self-control and self-discipline. As fans of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood -- which included me when I was a toddler -- could observe, those were qualities the television show host had in abundance.

"Instant gratification, and entitlement -- that's the antithesis of Mister Rogers," she said. "He always hung up his sweater. He always fed the fish. The stories were never solved easily or even within the half hour. The theme carried across the whole week."

Rogers, whose program still gets about 2 million viewers a month, chose his words very carefully. When he started his program, he told his young viewers that "I like you you just as you are." By the late 1970s, he changed that to "people can like you just because you are you," Sharapan said.

Fred Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister who died in 2003, should be a hero for people who profess to care about family values.

Continue reading Media World: Mister Rogers isn't to blame for today's selfish youth

Media World: Mister Rogers isn't to blame for today's selfish youth originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Each year Steven Halpern, editor of TheStockAdvisors.com, surveys the leading financial newsletter advisors asking for their favorite stocks for the coming year. This article is part of his 24th annual Top Picks Report.

Although advisors participating in the Top Picks Report were limited to two stock picks, we allowed John Bollinger to select three, in compliance with the strategy employed in his The Capital Growth Letter.

He explains, "My strategy is not about stock picking in the sense of what will do best in 2007. Rather we ask what is doing well now, invest in that, hold for as long as the performance is satisfactory and then move on. This method is known as the cast-out method of relative-strength investing.

"As an example, let's take a look at our ETF Sector Portfolio. After a careful screening process we have selected 27 sector ETFs as candidates for this portfolio. Let's suppose that we are just starting out. To get going we would purchase the top three ranked ETFs and hold them for as long as they are ranked better than the middle of the list.

"When one of the funds drops below the midpoint of the ranking, it will be sold and replaced with the highest-ranked fund that is not already held in the portfolio. We use daily data and conduct reviews on a weekly basis. There are several other rules, but that's the essence of the program.

"We have found this cast-out approach to relative-strength investing delivers the sort of performance that we are after in our practice, and that it has an acceptable risk-reward relationship. As of December 18th, our top three ranked sector funds are: iShares Global Telecom (ASE: IXP), iShares Select Energy (ASE: XLE), and Powershares Dynamic Media (ASE: PBS)."

Top Picks 2007: John Bollinger targets sector funds originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This post is written as part of AOL Money & Finance's Best & Worst 2006. You can vote for Suze Orman as the most annoying money expert.

For some of us, certain names come more readily to mind than others when a phrase like the "most annoying money expert" is bandied about. For her critics, financial guru Suze Orman is one such name.

Besides being the author of best-selling personal finance books and the host of CNBC's The Suze Orman Show and QVC's Suze Orman's Financial Freedom, Suze (rhymes with doozy, not snooze) has won two daytime Emmy Awards. A pitchwoman par excellence, she has raised millions of dollars for PBS. She's also a Certified Financial Planner who has worked at both Prudential and Merrill Lynch. With well-known catchphrases such as "Truth creates money. Lies destroy it," and "People first, then money, then things," she's a popular columnist and public speaker -- a favorite with Oprah and Larry King.

Orman claims that she does not multitask, which she says leads to mediocrity. While having neither a husband nor children to distract her, Orman also claims to have no personal assistant and no permanent employees -- she's a one woman show.

She has a reputation for offering practical, easy-to-understand, and down-to-earth financial advice that's nonjudgmental towards those who have made poor decisions. But her advice can also verge on New Age mystical. For instance, Orman sometimes asks audience members to rip a dollar bill in half. Most cringe at the idea, which she claims is due to that fact that money has an energy field that other objects don't have, almost as if money were alive.

Continue reading Best & Worst: Suze Orman, a one-woman show of irritation

Best & Worst: Suze Orman, a one-woman show of irritation originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 04 Dec 2006 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.