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Posted on Tuesday, August 03, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Senators Coburn and McCain allege waste in the stimulus. I allege something quite different.
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Posted on Friday, July 23, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
European banks just completed a "stress test" designed to indicate whether a bank could survive a further economic downturn. The primary measurement in this test is whether the bank is adequately capitalized, another way of saying whether its assets can absorb losses that may occur in such a downturn. Why that test was deeply flawed.
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Posted on Friday, July 16, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Last April, I outlined the case against Goldman Sachs. Here's what happened, and what it means to you.
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Posted on Sunday, June 27, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Before you listen to pundits and talking heads, you may want to read a review by someone who's actually read the bill. It's a mixed bag. Some things are good. Some things are not so good.
Let's take a look.
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Posted on Thursday, June 10, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Only your closest friends will stop you before you leave the house in an unflattering outfit. Maybe it takes a grown woman without an agenda to tell you to truth about US debt. Here's an unbiased look. Please refrain from the temptation to shoot the messenger. All links are to most current US government promulgated reports.
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Posted on Monday, May 31, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Anyone who doesn't harbor some degree of animosity for the bankers who, through a combination of stupidity, short-sightedness and avarice, caused the global financial crisis is a better person than I am. That said, financial reform should not be tantamount to financial dismemberment. And there's a little known accounting rule winding its way through financial reform that may be just that.
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Posted on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
The latest market downturn was accompanied by countless stories of women who panicked and sold at the bottom and were too scared to get back in, even after a 70% + bounce back. Buying high and selling low is clearly not an effective strategy. Here are five simple questions to see if you've got what it takes to be an investor.
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Posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
In the midst of a stomach churning stock market correction, Dr. Nouriel Roubini predicts another 20% down. Why I think he's wrong (and why I think the moniker "Dr. Doom" fits him well).
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Posted on Friday, May 21, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Do you remember looking back at the market low in March, 2009 and thinking, "I wish I had bought then"? Here's another chance.
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Posted on Friday, May 14, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Now "fat finger" and "high frequency" trades are part of the common vernacular. Not much solace for those who lost money during the stomach churning drop. What you must know to protect yourself from losing money, while the slow process of figuring out what happened occurs.
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Posted on Friday, May 07, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
May we remember Warren Buffett's recent admonition.
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Posted on Tuesday, May 04, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
You may have heard Warren Buffett has said that he has no problem with the Goldman Sachs deal that has resulted in charges of client misrepresentation by the Security and Exchange Commission (and is being considered for criminal charges by the Justice Department). As discussed in a previous article, I agree. If not the banks, than who is most responsible for the financial meltdown?
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Posted on Tuesday, April 20, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
It's easy to vilify Goldman for bad behavior. Let's take a look at this case, and decide for ourselves.
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Posted on Saturday, April 17, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
If you ask the individual investor, the answer is "no one." Not after the likes of Bernard Madoff, Allen Sanford and, now, Goldman Sachs, the crown jewel of investment banks. So, if you follow the thinking of the individual investor by measuring "Investor Sentiment," you would have drastically cut back in stock investments in December, 2008, and you would not have returned to the stock market yet.
In other words, you would have sold near the market low.
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Posted on Wednesday, April 07, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Last January, I posed the question that buying shares in the S and P 500 may be just as effective as following professionals' stock market picks. Some women who are participating in the facebook "Self-Invested Women" Pilot Program are considering whether they are passive (people who buy an index, like the S and P 500) or active (people who buy individual stocks or types of stocks, like energy and health care) investors. This may help you make that decision.
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Posted on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Taxes. Just hearing the word makes most people cringe. How a couple of easy steps can go a long way in making the process more bearable.
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Posted on Sunday, March 14, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellin is Obama's nominee for Vice Chair of the Federal Reserve Bank. While I'd love to see a woman in this position, why this policy dove may be a perfect short-term answer, and a long term disaster.
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Posted on Thursday, March 11, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
The "Tea Party" movement alleges that the USA is moving toward socialism with higher taxes and increasing levels of public debt. Let's take a look at where the country actually stands with its taxation.
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Posted on Friday, March 05, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
As our nation grinds to a halt under the failure of statesmanship, I refuse to take a side. You may not characterize me with a word, when doing so will only give me the opportunity to give countless examples of when that word does not accurately describe my position.
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Posted on Tuesday, March 02, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
One of the Federal Reserve Bank's most powerful tools is raising short term interest rates. Why they should (and why they shouldn't) do just that now.
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Posted on Thursday, February 18, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Health care costs are 17% of our Gross Domestic Product, and growing at 12% per year. At this rate, in 10 years, health care will be 50% of our GDP. No health care legislation on the horizon. The biggest contraction of GDP since the Great Depression just took place, and caused a worldwide recession. No financial reform legislation on the horizon. This is the story that may be bigger than either of those.
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Posted on Monday, February 08, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Most economic news is reported by someone with a vested interest in what you think. I don't care what you think, but I do care that you get all the information you need to draw your own conclusions.
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Posted on Friday, January 29, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
In the Catholic school I attended, nuns often kept an entire class after school for the behavior of a few. In the current economic climate, We the People are likely to do the same for any public official who has responsibility for anything "financial." In order to avoid throwing the baby out with the bathwater, here's a list of who is responsible for what, so we don't fire those who may not have misbehaved.
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Posted on Friday, January 22, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Yesterday, the stock market slid precariously with dire warning about the impediments to profitability we can expect if Obama's limitations on risk-taking by "too big to fail" banks are enacted. Let's take a look.
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Posted on Monday, January 18, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
A look at why so many women are furious at the amount of bonuses paid to bankers, and what to do about it.
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Posted on Tuesday, January 05, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
We're going head to head with stock market pros this year, by comparing the results of buying the S and P 500 Index with that of professional investment strategists. In order to compare track records, let's look at how the strategists did last year. All initial recommendations were taken from Barron's Magazine December 22, 2008 (and changes to portfolios were published as of September 7, 2009, and calculated as of September 30, 2009).
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Posted on Saturday, January 02, 2010 by Kitty O'Keefe
Last September, I published the 2010 investment advice given by several market professionals and posed the question,"What would earn you the most money? Buying the entire S and P 500 Index or buying just the sectors of that Index that the market pros suggest?"
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Posted on Thursday, December 31, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
As we leave the year of the "Great Recession" behind, knowing four likely financial outcomes will show us how to position ourselves for financial prosperity in the coming decade.
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Posted on Wednesday, December 23, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
This is a re-print of an article I originally published last February, when the markets were near their lows and sentiment was dismal. Now that a recovery is beginning, we can again pause to reflect on the meaning of the season and revisit what is truly important.
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Posted on Thursday, December 17, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
You may love that health care reform in any form may emerging from the Senate. You may want health care reform, but find so many flaws in this legislation that you hope it doesn't pass. Why Dr. Dean wants the Bill to die.
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Posted on Sunday, December 13, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
2010 seems to be a nice place to start thinking more positively about our lives. Let's clean up the last remnants from this decade, and start anew. Let's control what we can.
Let's be more financially responsible.
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Posted on Monday, December 07, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
There are two sides to everything. Our previous discussion, that compared the US debtor status with a few less zeroes on the assumption that trillions are not numbers we throw around all that often. Our example showed a woman earning $134,540 per year, who owes $125,000 mortgage and $1871 on her car. Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Sadly, there is no perfect analogy.
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Posted on Thursday, December 03, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
An enormous amount of discussion about health care, additional troop deployments, extension of unemployment benefits, etc., begins with opponents saying, "We can't afford it." Let's take a look at our debt, how it compares with other countries, and weigh the pros and cons of policy decisions based on an educated look at our financial circumstances.
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Posted on Friday, November 27, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
I've edited a financial book for women eight or nine times now, and that process has taught me a few very important things.
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Posted on Monday, November 16, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
Buy low, sell high is an investing mantra we all know -- and rarely follow. Here's a simple and effective solution.
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Posted on Sunday, November 08, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
No issue is more politicized than deficit spending. Blame abounds, but little insight is given into the components of our deficit, and what reasonable action must be taken.
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Posted on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
After a third quarter that dazzled like a diamond in the pile of coal our economy had been for the prior year and a half, we seem to be standing at a crossroads. The stock market seems economically cheery, but most of us are not. What's the best action to take in times like these?
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Posted on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
After having been told that finance books don't sell well with women, I point out that we are over 51% of the population and manage billions of dollars in household finance.
What we do matters.
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Posted on Friday, October 23, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
Issues involved with planning for retirement are different for women than they are for men. And understanding them can be the difference between comfort and poverty in our old age.
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Posted on Sunday, October 18, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
Poverty for older women is twice that for older men. Here are the facts . . . and what we can do about them.
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Posted on Friday, October 16, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
. . . and it isn't the train.
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Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
Bernard Madoff defied the odds by returning a consistent 12% annual return to his investors. Stanford Financial assured its clients that they were investing in safe, insured certificates of deposit. WorldCom's balance sheet was remarkable in its ability to grow profitably.
All were lies.
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Posted on Friday, October 09, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
The business news is full of wildly varying opinions from market pundits. Here's some information you need to make the best decisions for you and your money.
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Posted on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
After the worst recession since the Great Depression, how do you feel about doing absolutely nothing to change the way financial institutions operate (except paying for a bailout)?
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Posted on Monday, October 05, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
Gender marketers tell us that we face economic uncertainty by buying pricey leather handbags. Perhaps they underestimate us.
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Posted on Friday, October 02, 2009 by Kitty O'Keefe
"Happiness is," said a song that was popular when I was a girl, "different things to different people."
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