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.
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,
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.
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,
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!
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!
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