Totes, messenger bags, backpacks, and shoulder bags from L.L. Bean sale section, most for half off the original price.
Cheapskate Wisdom from … Joe Louis
“I don’t like money actually, but it quiets my nerves.”
Should it really be surprising that financial analysts don’t believe that markets are efficient?
Gillian Tett writes in the FT:
For the past five decades, the Chartered Financial Analyst Institute has been teaching the tenets of analysis based on efficient markets to tens of thousands of adherents from banks, fund managers and investment houses that make up the global financial system.
Now, however, the credit crisis has forced
…
Q&A with The Lottery Wars author Matthew Sweeney
It seems odd that any U.S. state would actively encourage its citizens to gamble, especially during hard economic times. But that’s exactly what the vast majority of states do via lotteries. Firms on state payrolls are constantly devising new ways to bring in more players and more money, including high-stakes scratch-off games ($50 to …
The Secret to Getting Out of Debt? Just Ask
Credit card delinquencies are on the rise, climbing 11 percent in the first quarter of 2009. And all signs indicate that the number of delinquencies is expected to grow into 2010, perhaps even 2011. But now, creditors are trying to get whatever they can out of delinquent accounts. Rather than trying to squeeze water out of sand—i.e., …
Why I ♥ economists, Paul Krugman edition
There are a lot of books out there that make the case that conventional economists are a bunch of narrow-minded, equation-besotted twits. I didn’t write that kind of book in The Myth of the Rational Market because I’m of the opinion that, for all its flaws, the economists’ approach of building mathematical models that imperfectly explain …
More Recession Porn, via the Art Auction World
Another sad tale of recession porn, via the Economist: Art collectors just aren’t speculating like they used to, and fine art auction houses in New York, London, and beyond are suffering. One curator’s sale, which fetched $144.5 million last June, is only expected to bring in around $65 million this year. How are people going to survive?
A Summer Tradition: Steep Rise in Gas Prices
Ah, summer. You know what to expect, and most of it is quite wonderful. Barbecues, swimming, baseball, fireworks, no school, and … an explosion of gas prices?
Marketplace interview and other book PR news
I just taped an interview about my book with Kai Ryssdal for Marketplace, which you should be able to hear this some afternoon/evening soon on your local public radio station. I forgot to bring a glass of water with me into the studio and my mouth was for some reason extremely parched, so that explains any ostentatious lip-licking you …
The Tim Geithner mantra: Be cautious
The Treasury Secretary actually uttered the words “be cautious” while discussing his approach to interpreting economic and financial data, but it also seems to be something of a personal credo. In a half-hour long chat this morning with my boss, Rick Stengel, as part of something called Conversations on the Circle (the circle being …
Bulk Buying Power: Teaming Up Online for Deals
There is power in numbers. A number of new websites are helping consumers meet up and combine their purchasing strength when dealing with retailers, who are happy to unload the goods at big discounts—so long as the goods are being unloaded in large quantities.
It’s a Deal: Free Coffee at Borders
Just print out a coupon at the Borders website and bring it in to a store for a free 12 oz. Seattle’s Best coffee. No purchase required, good through June 18.