Financial Week In Review...

 
re: I read A LOT... and pass on the good stuff to you!

 Here are some of my favorite financial and lifestyle posts for the week of April 8:

In :The Rising Price of A Falling Dollar, Charles Kadlec, founder of the Community of Liberty


04/13/12 

"Do you know why oil and prices are moving sharply higher? Some blame the oil companies, charging they are manipulating prices. Others cite US sanctions on Iran and the threat of a military encounter that would disrupt the flow of oil from the Middle East.

Speculators, too are blamed for ostensibly bidding up the price of oil. In the political arena, President Obama is taking credit for increased domestic oil production even as his critics point out the slow pace of drilling permits issued by his Administration soon will hamper additional increases in the US oil production.
Yet, the basic reason for higher energy prices is being overlooked, even though it is right before our eyes: Oil prices are up because the value of the dollar is down.

Our common sense hides this source of higher prices because we view the dollar as fixed, and prices as moving. News reports explain the sharp rise in consumer prices in February were caused by higher energy and food prices, implying that higher prices cause inflation. Of course, higher prices do not cause inflation. Higher prices are inflation..."


(see the rest of the article at: http://dailyreckoning.com/the-rising-price-of-a-falling-dollar/)


Interesting tidbit from Bloomberg shows how long the major banks have been doing the things they do to us.

"Fortune magazine began publishing annual rankings of U.S. corporations by revenue in 1955. Ever since, scholars and forecasters have analyzed changes in the Fortune 500 to help inform their judgments about industry concentration and the relative importance of different sectors of the economy.

Historians would love to have snapshots of the nation’s largest corporations at earlier dates. Unfortunately data are scarce, especially before the Civil War. Based on our research, however, it is now possible to create a sort of historical “Fortune 500” ranked by corporate capitalization -- the total sum stockholders were supposed to pay for their shares.."

(check out the whole story: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-10/-fortune-500-of-1812-shows-u-s-banks-early-influence.html)

Is Groupon the Next Enron? Insiders and bankers are getting rich- but what will happen to investors. (this is a snapshot of how hard Wall Street works to drain your wallet!)

"Before the company even went public, there were signs that internal financial controls weren’t up to snuff.  Now I’m hearing refrains of “three blind mice” as “defrauded” investors line up to have their day in court. You might as well say the “dog ate my homework.”

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) made management redo Groupon’s financial statements and accounting practices not once, but twice before the company’s January 2011 initial public offering (IPO).

The first time involved including the cost of marketing in operating income – duh. The second was to force the company to deduct merchant payments from revenues – double duh!"

(full story http://www.investorplace.com/2012/04/is-groupon-the-next-enron-grpn-aig-lehm/)