The Financial Decoder

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• Ask The Experts: Focus on Housing

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 20, 2009 | 4 comments

  We got a chance to bring in real estate gur-ess and MoneyWatch blogger Alison Rogers for “Ask the Experts” and not a moment to soon! Ali helped us get to the bottom of the rotten housing starts numbers and we even got to play a little Elvis Costello in her honor! If you have a [...]

• Mutual Fund Fee-asco

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 20, 2009 | 0 comments

  Here’s a primer on mutual fund fees. I think that I held my hands in that particular position because I was subconsciously praying that after watching, everyone would dump their loaded funds and trade them for index funds!

• State Unemployment Rates: A Small Victory For Little Rhody

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 20, 2009 | 1 comment

  I used to live in Rhode Island, which is why I still take an interest in what’s happening there. Little Rhody has gotten crushed in the recession. The last vestiges of its manufacturing base have been vaporized and the contraction in housing have contributed to the state’s dismal employment situation. You’ll note from this seal, that [...]

• Stimulus Spending: What Americans Did With $600

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 18, 2009 | 7 comments

  While ambling around the Bureau of Labor Statistics site (a fantastic trove of information), I stumbled upon a Consumer Expenditure Survey that details how Americans spent their 2008 Economic Stimulus Payments, which were actually IRS tax rebates. Here’s how 130 million income tax filers spent their $600 (for individuals) or $1,200 (married filing jointly): These results beg [...]

• TARP Audit Finds Geithner Gave Away The Farm

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 17, 2009 | 6 comments

  Special Inspector General for TARP (aka “SIGTARP”) Neil Barofsky said something we’ve all known for a while: the government gave away the farm when AIG failed. If you recall, AIG’s failure meant that the companies on the other side of all of its contracts (counterparties) were going to be left holding the bag. Under normal cases [...]

• GM on the Mend

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 16, 2009 | 3 comments

  When is a loss good news? When you’re General Motors and the loss could have been worse. Call me a cheerleader or a concerned citizen, but I have been rooting for GM throughout the financial crisis. This morning, GM announced that it lost $1.2 billion in Q3. Yes, we’d like to see profits, but the news [...]

• Gasparino: The SEC is “INEPT”

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 12, 2009 | 5 comments

  Here’s my interview with Charlie Gasparino, author of “The Sellout“. In addition to calling the SEC “inept,” watch to the end when he describes Wall Street CEO’s. Can you guess which of the former Masters of the Universe is: “The Iconoclast,” “Nasty,” “Nastier,” “Smart,” “Twerp-ish” “a Man’s man” and “King Lear”?!?

• Mr. Wrong, the Stock Market Bear

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 12, 2009 | 0 comments

  I should have expected the massive stock market rally–after all, at the end of March, I had heard that the guy who I consider one of the great “contra-indicators” (let’s call him “Mr. Wrong”) was predicting a steep decline to Dow 5000.  Before you brush aside that notion as nonsense, remember that at that time, [...]

• Veteran’s Day: Please Stop Thinking About Money

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 11, 2009 | 4 comments

  “Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States [...]

• 10.2% Unemployment: 1983 and 2009

  By Jill Schlesinger | Nov 9, 2009 | 4 comments

  I love this chart from this morning’s Wall Street Journal. It’s a quick comparison between today and 1983, which was the last time the unemployment rate was 10.2% (and the last time I was considered a formidable power forward on the basketball court). The unemployment rate’s the same, the stock market bounce is close and Michael [...]

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