Social Bookmarking Soulmates

So this time, I am going to find someone at Diigo who shares similar interests with me. I click on my tags and see four tags (Money, economy, personal finance, economic crisis). Then, I click on the community tab and wow, I am surprised that there are over 5,000 people who have money as their tags. Out of those 5,000 people, I just found this person with 523 money bookmarks. He is the one with the most money bookmarks and I think I should follow him.
His name is Taisuke Yanase and he lives in Tokyo, Japan. Since he is a Japanese, he has some bookmarks in Japanese. I try to read them with my basic Japanese, but you know I just can't. I am glad that half of his bookmarks are in English so I can read them. For some reason, all of his tags are in English; maybe Diigo does not allow tags in Japanese.
Not surprisingly, He has similar bookmarking topics with me. His number bookmarking topic is business and he has impressive 1,722 bookmarks. I wish I could do that. After business, he has some topics related to auto. I am not a big fan of auto, but I know I look through them once in a while (Honestly, I looked through an auto article before I write this blog). After auto related topics, he has finance, tips, and finally, money as his topics. So, I guess people who are into business world like me care about money-related issues a lot.
Since I am new to Diigo, I want to learn how others organize their bookmarks and tags. I am looking at Taisuke's bookmark now, and I am not impressed. He does not highlight or leave sticky notes on his bookmarks. Maybe he does not know how to use those. But I am very impressed with the number of bookmarks he has. Guess how many he has? 6,119!!! Unbelievable. I wish I can do that. His bookmarks are from various sources from Japanese blogs to Forbes and I am surprised that there are that many web sites where I can get money-related articles. Even though he has no highlights or sticky notes, he makes that up in his variety of bookmarks.
Unlike his bookmark, his tags are impressive. He has hundreds of tags and almost hundred of them have at least 100 or more bookmarks. I look into his tags and find out that his tags are very well organized. In each bookmark, he adds at least five tags, and he is probably doing that to sort bookmarks easily. He knows that if he adds only two tags per bookmark, he will have hard time finding the right articles for certain topics. For example, if he puts all articles related to economy under just one tag and he now wants articles about the Japanese economy. Guess what? He probably needs to go through all 391 bookmarks to find what he wants. So, I better start putting as many tags as possible.
I was right: his bookmarks are filled with resources. I just found two great bookmarks that I would like to keep for myself and readers. Those bookmarks are America's Best Long-Term Real Estate Bets - Forbes.com & How property bubbles help us | The beauty of bubbles | The Economist. Those bookmarks will help me and you to better understand the real estate market and the economy in general. Not only that, those bookmarks will expand our reading lists so we can have more opinions. Added bonus: he has a bookmark that describes why I recommend Diigo. Check this out: 7 Reasons Diigo Tastes Better Than Delicious | MakeUseOf.com

Recommended Social Bookmarking Site

Today, I want to introduce you to the world of social bookmarking. Honestly, I did not know what social bookmarking was until last week when my professor introduced it to me. So, what is social bookmarking? It is a way of storing and organizing web sites that you like and share them with others or keep them for your future reference. Also, you can highlight contents in a web site and leave notes to yourself or share them. There are many social bookmarking web sites but I want to recommend Diigo to you.
When I first looked through social bookmarking sites, I questioned myself what is the difference between bookmarks that I use on my internet browsers and social bookmarking sites. Do you know? Bookmarks on my internet browsers only save web site addresses for future references;however, Diigo not only saves web site addresses, but I can also add tags to those web sites and group them together. So, I can say that Diigo is the advanced version of Windows Favorites and Firefox Bookmarks.
Then why should someone use Diigo? Let me tell you why I use it: I am an old-fashioned person who prefers papers than computers. Then, Diigo completely got rid of the reason I preferred to read newspapers than online version. At Diigo, I can read whatever I want to read (save ink and the environment) and while I read, I can highlight the important ones without that yellow highlighter. Also, if I want to take some notes while I read, I can put sticky notes to where I highlighted. Yes, I don't have to buy that pricey Post-it! You can keep the notes to yourself or share them with others. And don't forget to look through your friends' notes. Isn't it so convenient?
I have to say Diigo is the grown-up version of MySpace. At Diigo, you can meet new people and join groups that you like. How? You can search people or groups who have same bookmarks or tags with you. Not only that, Diigo will match you up with people who have similar interests. Why bother to visit match.com when you have Diigo? From there, you can discuss about an article or share your bookmarks and tags.
Why not start your own group? My class started our own group at Diigo and it has been really great. We created a private group, so no one else could look through what we have. We share our blogs and leave comments to each other. Whenever our professor shares an article, we all read, highlight, and leave sticky notes to it. Then, we can read what everyone has to say and honestly, we learn from it. If you are teaching a class or taking a class, I highly recommend using Diigo because this site will help students develop their own ideas by sharing with others.
At Diigo, tags and bookmarks are very important because that is how people will find you and be your friends. I had four tags total (Money, Economy, Personal Finance, Economic Crisis) and decided to use these tags to meet new people. Wow, I found 5,597 people with the money tag. From there, I looked into this guy's profile. Guess what I found? I found many great bookmarks that I really love to read! I went ahead and saved those bookmarks on my page. Isn't Diigo so cool? So, don't be shy and try Diigo for yourself!!!

Comment on MSN Top Stocks Blog

I left a comment on MSN Top Stocks Blog. I am reposting that comment on my blog so that everyone can read what I think about Suze Orman. Enjoy and leave a comment for me.

Stop picking on Suze Orman!

Posted Feb 11 2009, 02:09 PM by Kim Peterson
Filed under: Kim Peterson

Oh come on, going after Suze Orman? Columnist James Scurlock tells people to stop trusting the "bottle-blond former waitress."

The thing that bothers Scurlock the most is that Orman is a big cheerleader for "dollar cost averaging," which he says is the practice of buying the same stock over and over again as the price drops.

"Since when does throwing good money after bad make you rich? It doesn't." Scurlock criticizes. Dump her as your financial adviser, he says. She doesn't even like stocks for her own money -- less than 3% of her net worth is in stocks, with the majority in government-backed bonds.

Scurlock is off base. For one thing, dollar cost averaging (DCA) doesn't mean buying the same stock over and over as it falls. DCA is a moderate approach to investing where you spend a set amount of money at regular intervals. In other words, you invest the same amount whether a stock is going up or going down.

DCA isn't the most sophisticated investor practice, by any means. And it has been criticized for not cushioning risk as much as its proponents would like.

But consider this: Orman isn't reaching out to sophisticated investors. She's targeting people who want to straighten out their finances, or maybe start building a nest egg. People who have too much credit card debt. People who can't budget their household income.

She helps motivate the Oprah crowd to think smartly about their money. And there aren't many advisers doing that for an audience that desperately needs this kind of advice.

So, James Scurlock, if you can dig up a real reason to go after Orman, then go for it. But as far as I can tell, she is bringing some common sense to a subject where Americans routinely have none: personal finance.

I wish there were more like her out there.

My Comment:

James Scurlock, stop criticizing Suze. As a college student with real estate and business background, I have also advised people around me about personal finance and real estate. From my experience, I can tell you that Suze Orman is the best financial adviser out there. Scurlock criticized her for saying, "People who grew up without much money and later earn a comfortable living sometimes spend too much to make up for what they didn't get as children. . . . People who feel entitled to the good life or are unconsciously copying a mother or father who lived beyond her or his means. . . . If you feel the need to impress people with what you have rather than with who you are, you are at high risk for credit card abuse." Everyone knows this is true. I have seen so many people in this situation and I am telling you all that this is how we started the economic crisis. Scurlock, do you know how the meltdown of real estate market started? It started because we went beyond our means buying homes that we couldn't afford and treat our homes as our piggy bank.

He also criticizes Suze for having conservative investing approach. Let me tell you this: if we all have invested like Suze, there should be no one struggling with loss from the stock market.So, what is the outcome for moderate to high risk investing? You lost so much money that you are now worried about your retirement.

Criticizing Suze for investing in municipal bond? Oh, come on. She is at the highest tax bracket and it makes sense for her to invest heavily on municipal bonds since she doesn't pay any tax on munis. If I were her, I would do the same. Why take risk when you can get a decent return on munis? Because of her tax bracket, it makes no sense to invest in the stock market for short-term. For long-term, she would not risk her fortune and that's why she only invested a portion of her assets.

Criticizing her stock market advice? Give me a break. She worked for Merrill Lynch and she knows how to make money in the market. Do you know how hard it is to get into Merrill Lynch? Only the top students at elite business schools get hired. If she is that bad and Jim Cramer is the best stock market adviser, why did Jim Cramer tell people to buy Wachovia two days before it went bankrupt?

Criticizing Suze for not forecasting the downturn? Let me tell you about my story. I predicted the economic downturn in August 2005 and told people to sell all hard assets. At that time, I was criticized for unreliable forecast even from my parents. I had to suffer that criticism until 2006 and it was not pleasant. Even Suze knew it was happening, she could not say that in public because of the impact it would cause to our society.

I have to tell you Suze has inspired so many people in despair and teach us the importance of financial education. Her money management tips are outstanding and can be applied to anyone. She is the pioneer for making financial advice available to the general public and I always appreciate her for that. Now, STOP blaming Suze! I appreciate Kim Peterson for a wonderful post defending Suze. If you have any questions or concerns, please leave a comment on my blog at moneyneconomy.blogspot.com I will repost this on my blog.

Repost of My Recent Posts

Everyone tells me that my writing is so dry and boring. So, I decided to change my writing style to meet the needs of the new generation readers. You will see my writing is now provocative and conversational. To celebrate the transformation, I have reposted three of my recent posts with the new writing style. Enjoy!



1. Hello, by now,we know that we are in the midst of the worst economic crisis in the human history. Almost every one is affected by the economic crisis, and because of that, people chose President Obama believing that he would revitalize our economy. I recently watched the news and a poll showed that Americans chose economy as their number one concern. If one turns on television lately, there is no way to avoid news of the economic crisis. As a blogger, it is very important for me to write about topics to which we can all relate.
Then, why do we have economic crisis? Could it be because of our financial ignorance? My classmates will get you the answer. Last week, my sociology class happened to discuss the credit card interest rates. I could not believe what I heard: Some students were shocked by the fact that they have to pay interest if they do not pay the credit card balance in full each month. Shocked? These students are studying in a top-tier research university. They are intellectuals in terms of their academic knowledge, but when it comes to financial issues, they are idiots. I know many college students and adults who have absolutely no financial education because they just don't care. Do you see why we have this terrible mess? No wonder, right? Their parents could get away without learning the basic of personal finance; however it does not apply to us who are living in the 21st century.
I am dedicated to sharing my knowledge through my blog with the general public. While many people out there write about the economy and personal finance, however, it seems rare for a college student like me to take on these topics. Curious about my experience? I have assisted my mentor who is a real estate professor at a college. He has given me many insights of the real estate market and the economy. I have obtained my California real estate license and I am working towards my broker’s license. During my study, I have learned so much about the economy and have done some research about the real estate market and economy in general. Obviously, I am no Suze Orman, but with knowledge I have gained, I will do my best to write excellent blogs that will improve lives of people. I am a firm believer in educating ourselves about personal finances and this is the only way we can avoid any future economic crisis. I hope I can share my knowledge with others and ultimately help others achieve success in their lives.

2.MSN Money Top Stocks is a blog maintained by Microsoft, and written by its staff journalists, journalists from partner web sites, and Wall Street investors. Using Wall Street investors who are at the top of their field, and professional and well respected financial journalists, their blog provides outstanding advice and up-to-date financial news. Isn't this impressive? This blog has many writers and they write at least six to eight new posts a day.
Not surprisingly, one of the most popular blogs in the world, some posts reach 150,000 views. Because there are so many interesting writers, it will be hard to choose a favorite. I was particularly drawn to Douglas McIntyre's post, “Could 50 million jobs be lost worldwide this year?” He talks about the deteriorating world economy and its effects. I was very surprised when he mentioned that if the economy continues to deteriorate, the US may lose 1 million jobs in January alone. Then what about other countries? He also mentioned that, “While it may be unimaginable to talk about the US defaulting on its debt or deferring interest payments, the chances of that rise as the economy gets worse and global unemployment accelerates.” We would never have anticipated this even five months ago.
One of my favorites, Kim Peterson's “College financial aid the latest recession victim,” brought 37,808 full-view readers and 133 comments. Due to the loss in most colleges’ endowments, students may see less financial aid than previous years. Less financial aid? Oh, no. (I know this is not the case for my school which recently announced that it will increase its financial aid for its undergraduate students by eight percent during 2009-2010 school year). What enraged the readers was the fact that despite the record loss for these institutions, they still have billions of dollars in their endowments. US Senator Charles Grassley argues that, “Contrary to what colleges might argue, the weak economy makes a strong case for more endowment spending.” What is more important? Students or money? If there was no student, there would not be such thing as endowments.
I see the correlation between this blog and mine since both cover topics such as the current economy and personal finances. This blog is very professional in its contents and maintain its writers to people who are at the top of its chosen fields. Even though they are professional writers, they try to not to mention the details of certain events since this will deter the general public from reading their posts. They write this blog to educate the general public, not to analyze a financial statement of a corporation. But they try to cover every aspect of the current economy as it progresses; this is evident by reading and seeing at least five new posts a day. Let me put it this way. If you get headache by watching CNBC, this blog is for you. Got that? I will regularly follow their posts and write on my blog that I believe are very important for everyone to know. Readers of my blog will definitely see a difference between this blog and my blog since I will write in a college student's perspective. By reading both blogs, you will be well informed about the current economic events and personal finances.

3.Option ARMageddon is written by Rolfe Winkler, a former hedge fund analyst who currently holds Chartered Financial Analyst designation.Wow!It has no correlation with Armageddon, but he used that word to emphasize ARM, as anyone can see from the title how he capitalizes ARM and use lower-case letters for the rest of the word. So, this is not the movie, Armageddon, okay? Then what is ARM or option ARM? ARM stands for adjustable rate mortgage. Unlike fixed-rate mortgages that we have used since the Great Depression, borrowers with ARM would see their mortgage payments fluctuate with the change of the index rate. For your information, let me make you dizzy for few more seconds. Option ARM adds the flexibility of selecting the rate that borrowers want to pay at the beginning of the term. Also, they could just pay the minimum payment due causing the principal balance to increase. No wonder we are having this credit crisis, don't you agree? He writes the blog expecting that readers already know what ARM is. So, this blog is not for readers who have not received the basic financial education. Then why is he writing a blog that not everyone could understand? Is he trying to teach us a lesson? He says that,

Because I think Option ARM loans, particularly borrowers’ over-reliance on them towards the end of the housing bubble, exemplify much that is wrong with our economy: deferred interest payments, growing loan balances, low (no?) down payments.

Feeling guilty? He makes a point that Option ARM symbolizes our economy which is heading to the worst depression in our history. He also mentions why we have economic problems and who started them:

if American individuals, institutions, companies and governments had more skin in the game–and cared more about paying their debts–we’d all be better off.

Stop blaming the Wall Street for this mess; we all have contributed to this. Yes, unlike other blogs that only analyze issues, this blog uses lots of criticism and arguments. I have to say that is the reason why this stands out from the others.
In his post, "With Allstate, you’re NOT in good hands ," he criticizes the government for allowing Allstate to have lenient accounting standards and also criticizes Allstate for its unethical tactics.

Allstate is shopping for sympathetic regulators that will help it hide its deteriorating financial condition. By suddenly changing the way Allstate calculates its regulatory capital, allowing the company to include deferred tax assets, the Illinois insurance regulator is putting all of Allstate’s policy-holders at risk, not just those in Illinois.

I found a strategy in this quote that he had used to entice readers to keep on reading. He wrote too much in this post and it was hard to keep up with what he had to say due to the fact that he used many accounting terms such as leverage ratio;however, I had to read the rest of the post when he mentioned

all of Allstate’s policy-holders at risk, not just those in Illinois.

What? Not just Illinois? I was worried about my aunt who is a customer of Allstate and had to call her while I read his post. Smart blogger, he knows how to grab me and you. Out of his many posts, this post caught my eyes because of the title. The blogger used sarcasm and rephrased Allstate's slogan, "With Allstate, you're in good hands" to emphasize the fact that their slogan is just a puffery. So, don't ever fall for ads, okay? I was surprised when he said,

If an insurance company makes too many crappy investments, they’ll have nothing left over to pay hurricane, car accident or life insurance claims.

What crappy? I don't even say that word when I talk to my friends. In financial blogs, bloggers do not use words such as crappy since readers may question the credibility of bloggers; however, he used that word to emphasize insurance companies' outrageous conducts. I was shocked when I saw that word, but no other word would replace the meaning this word had. It is true that bloggers' usage of everyday language in posts is what makes blogs very popular. As a last comment, he said,

It’s horseshit that regulators are changing capital adequacy requirements when the company is still making payments to shareholders.

What horseshit? He is going way beyond my comfort zone in a financial blog. Are you all okay? Through his last sentence, he summarizes his point that both the government and the corporation are at fault for economic problems. It is important to notice that he never offers any solution to the problem, but just analyzes the problem. Is he worried about the consequences of going against the big people?

In his other post, Bill Gross says government must spend “trillions” , he writes about how our greed has led to this gloomy economic situation. At first, I read this post to learn what this prominent figure had to say. But, I realized very soon that this post was not about Gross' advice to the government, but it was about why he wanted the government to spend more money. At this point, I was compelled to read further to find out why. Now I know why he emphasizes the word, trillions. Whenever he emphasizes a word in his title, that word implies what he is going to talk about. He describes why Gross wants bigger stimulus package by saying,

If banks collapse, shareholders will be wiped out and bondholders like Bill Gross will feel a lot of pain themselves. Unless of course the banks and other distressed companies magically survive courtesy of massive government intervention to keep asset prices from falling.

What about my money in the bank? Will it be wiped out too? We all better check if our banks are safe. He purposely made the second sentence into a fragment sentence to emphasize the pain he and others would experience. He knew that if he connected two sentences together, his emphasis on the pain of bondholders would diminish. It is interesting to see how he implied the consequence of massive government intervention without saying how it would benefit wealthy bondholders.

Overall, most of his posts are negative in tone and filled with criticism and sarcasm. In almost every post, he was angry and found someone to blame at. I guess he wants people to see what we have done to our economy and ask us to stop blaming others because all of us contribute to the problem.

His link strategy is outstanding; he uses a link program, The Wikinvest Wire, to increase his exposure by adding the link to his blog at other blogs and sites. If there is a related post or article on other blogs, his blog would list on the bottom of the page making curious readers to click on his blog. It really works: I actually clicked on several posts that were listed under his. No wonder his blog lists at the top at Technorati. It is great that he only uses reputable sources for his analysis such as Bloomberg. I mean I would not have read his blog if he used biased Fox News as his source. He probably knows that by using reputable sources, his blog would also be considered as the hottest blog! Yes, who doesn't want that hot blog!

Voice Analysis

Option ARMageddon is a blog that has no correlation with Armageddon,but the blogger has used that word to emphasize ARM as one can see from the title how he capitalize ARM and use lower-case letters for the rest of word. One cannot understand his blog without knowing ARM. Then what is ARM or option ARM? ARM stands for adjustable rate mortgage. Unlike fixed-rate mortgages that we have used since the Great Depression, borrowers with ARM would see their mortgage payments fluctuate with the change of the index rate. Option ARM adds the flexibility of selecting the rate that borrowers want to pay at the beginning of the term and also, they could just pay the minimum payment due resulting the principal balance to swell.
The blogger, Rolfe Winkler, a former hedge fund analyst who currently holds Chartered Financial Analyst designation writes his blog expecting that readers already know what ARM is. So, this blog is not for readers who have not received the basic financial education. Then why is he writing a blog that not everyone could understand? He says that,

Because I think Option ARM loans, particularly borrowers’ over-reliance on them towards the end of the housing bubble, exemplify much that is wrong with our economy: deferred interest payments, growing loan balances, low (no?) down payments.

He tries to make a point that Option ARM symbolizes problems we have with our economy. He also mentions why we have economic problems and who have started them:

if American individuals, institutions, companies and governments had more skin in the game–and cared more about paying their debts–we’d all be better off.

Yes, unlike other blogs that only analyze issues, this blog uses lots of criticism and arguments. I have to say that is the reason why this blog stands out from others.
In his post, "With Allstate, you’re NOT in good hands ," he criticizes the government for allowing Allstate to have lenient accounting standards and also criticize Allstate for its unethical tactics.

Allstate is shopping for sympathetic regulators that will help it hide its deteriorating financial condition. By suddenly changing the way Allstate calculates its regulatory capital, allowing the company to include deferred tax assets, the Illinois insurance regulator is putting all of Allstate’s policy-holders at risk, not just those in Illinois.

From this quote, I found a strategy he had used to entice readers to keep on reading. This post in particular, he wrote very much and it was hard to keep up with what he had to say due to the fact that he used many accounting terms such as leverage ratio;however, I had to read the rest of the post when he mentioned

all of Allstate’s policy-holders at risk, not just those in Illinois.

I was worried about my aunt who is a customer of Allstate and had to call her while I read his post. He knows if his post is interesting, readers would react to it. Out of many posts he had written, this post caught my eyes because of the title. The blogger used sarcasm and rephrased Allstate's slogan, "With Allstate, you're in good hands" to emphasize the fact that their slogan is just a puffery. I was surprised when he said,

If an insurance company makes too many crappy investments, they’ll have nothing left over to pay hurricane, car accident or life insurance claims.

In a professional writing, writers do not use words such as crappy since this word is not considered as a proper word; however, he used that word to emphasize insurance companies' outrageous conducts. I was shocked when I saw that word since that was the word I would not have used in writing, but no other word would replace the meaning this word had. It is true that bloggers' usage of everyday language in posts is what makes blogs very popular. As a last comment, he said,

It’s horseshit that regulators are changing capital adequacy requirements when the company is still making payments to shareholders.

Through his last sentence, he summarizes his point that both the government and the corporation are at fault for economic problems. It is important to notice that he never offers any solution to the problem, but just analyze the problem. Is he worried about the consequences of going against the big people?

In his other post, Bill Gross says government must spend “trillions” , he writes about how our greed have led to this gloomy economic situation. At first, I read this post to learn what this prominent figure had to say. But, I realized very soon that this post was not about Gross' advice to the government, but it was about why he wanted government to spend more money. Now I know why he emphasizes the word, trillions. Whenever he emphasizes a word in his title, that word implies what he is going to talk about. He describes why Gross wants bigger stimulus package by saying,

If banks collapse, shareholders will be wiped out and bondholders like Bill Gross will feel a lot of pain themselves. Unless of course the banks and other distressed companies magically survive courtesy of massive government intervention to keep asset prices from falling.

He purposely made the second sentence into a fragment sentence to emphasize the pain he and others would experience. He knew that if he connected two sentences together, his emphasis on the pain of bondholders would diminish. It is interesting to see how he implied the consequence of massive government intervention without saying how it would benefit wealthy bondholders.

Overall, most of his posts are in negative tone and filled with criticism and sarcasm. In almost every post, he was angry and found someone to blame at. The reason behind his negative views is that he wants people to see what we have done to our economy and ask us to stop blaming others because all of us contribute to the problem.

His link strategy is outstanding; he uses a link program, The Wikinvest Wire, to increase his exposure by having link to his blog at other blogs and sites. If there is a related post or article on other blogs, his blog would list on the bottom of the page making curious readers to click on his blog. This is no wonder that his blog lists at the top at Technorati. Another outstanding aspect of his blog is that he only uses reputable sources for his analysis such as Bloomberg. He probably knows that by using reputable sources, his blog would also be considered as a reputable medium.

My Blog Recommendation 2

Of course, you are not going to find all the information you need from my blog, You need additional blogs that will guide you becoming a wise consumer or an investor. Here is my recommendation where you can read more about the personal finances and economic issues. My first recommendation is Wise Bread. This blog has many bloggers who share their secrets to control one’s finances. They even have posts on health issues so this blog could be a perfect match for someone looking to gain a well-rounded knowledge. Check out how they save money by going to a specific store for bargains. This will inspire you to become one.
My second recommendation is Option ARMageddon. This blog is written by Rolfe Winkler, a former hedge fund analyst who currently holds Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He talks about many issues that face us, from the subprime crisis to world economy. Since he is a financial professional, his post generally meets the needs of supplicated investors and economists, therefore it could be difficult for the general public to understand. In many posts, he uses criticism and I think that makes his blog very unique compared to other financial blogs that only analyze issues.
My next recommendation is Bank Run Blog. This blog focuses on analyzing articles or news topics from reputable sources such as CNN and the Associated Press. This blog is recommended to those who do not have time to browse different channels of media. The bloggers will choose important topics from different sources and analyze them for its readers. They mostly focus on the current economic crisis, particularly on the banking industry.
My last recommendation is Smart Spending blog by MSN. This blog is one of the most read blogs in the nation since it is linked with its administrator, MSN’s web site and has won the 2008 Clarion Award. Most posts are written by professional journalists, but they also introduce posts from other blogs. This is a blog where basically everyone can benefit from: the journalists write posts in plain English so it is easy to understand and it has many consumer advices that anyone could use. In this challenging economy, it is worth the extra trip to this blog to grab some advice from the experts.

My Blog Recommendation 1

The name of blog I would like to profile is MSN Money Top Stocks. This blog is maintained by Microsoft and most blogs are written by its staff journalist, partner, and Wall Street investors. Since most of bloggers are Wall Street investors who are at the top of their field and professional financial journalists who are very well respected in the financial journalism, their blog provides outstanding advice and up-to-date financial news. Since this blog is written by many bloggers, it is usual to see around six to eight posts a day except on weekends (since most of their posts are related to current financial data, they do not usually post on weekends).
This blog is probably one of the most popular blogs in the world. Since some of their posts are featured on MSN home page, it is not surprising to see a post with 150,000 views (when I say 150,000 views, it does not include readers who only preview the post). This blog has many interesting posts and it is very hard to choose a post if someone asks me to pick the best post. One of the posts that I find very interesting is a post by Douglas McIntyre. His post, “Could 50 million jobs be lost worldwide this year?” talks about the deteriorating world economy. I was very surprised when he mentioned that if the economy would deteriorate as it has been, the U.S. may lose 1 million jobs in January alone. He also mentioned that, “While it may be unimaginable to talk about the US defaulting on its debt or deferring interest payments, the chances of that rise as the economy gets worse and global unemployment accelerates.” This is what we have never anticipated even five months ago.
Another post that I find interesting is a post by Kim Peterson. Peterson’s post, “College financial aid the latest recession victim” brought 37,808 full-view readers and 133 comments. Due to the loss in most colleges’ endowments, students may see less financial aid than previous years. I know that this is not the case for my school which recently announced that it will increase its financial aid for its undergraduate students by eight percent during 2009-2010 school year. I think what enraged the readers was fact that despite the record loss for these institutions, they still have billions of dollars in their endowments. U.S. Senator Charles Grassley argues that, “Contrary to what colleges might argue, the weak economy makes a strong case for more endowment spending.” Please read my post on financial aid in coming weeks.
This blog is definitely related to my blog since it covers topics such as the current economy and personal finances. Not only that, this blog is very professional in its contents and maintain its writers to people who are in top of its chosen fields. Even though the bloggers are professional writers, they try to not to mention the details of certain events since this will deter the general public from reading their posts. The purpose of this blog is to educate the general public, not to analyze a financial statement of a corporation. But I know that they try to cover every aspect of the current economy as it progresses; this is evident by reading their blog, seeing at least five new posts everyday. This blog covers many different aspects of our current economic activity. I will regularly follow their posts and try to write posts on my blog that I believe very important for everyone to know. Readers of my blog will definitely see a difference between this blog and my blog since I will be focusing more on the real estate market and the personal finances. By reading this blog and my blog, you will be well informed about the current economic events and personal finances.