Its Christmas time and retailers around the country are vying for your money. Markdowns, sales and rebates are abounding in a battle to win your business. I am a bargain shopper. I happen to live very close to an outlet mall where I do all my shopping because I hate paying retail. I just so […]
My daughter is afraid of bears. I am still trying to figure out where it comes from because she is downright terrified of them. Even songs that mention the word bear get her nervous. I have tried in earnest to explain that bears don’t live in Florida and that she has no need to worry. […]
One of my favorite all time movie scenes involved Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper in the film True Romance. The dialogue between Walken, the mob lawyer, and Hopper, the soon to bedead ex-cop, was priceless. While researching and reporting on the numerous instances of investment fraud, I often think of a statement made by Walken’s […]
In a case that would have garnered national attention if the company perpetrating the fraud wascalled Halliburton, Exxon Mobil, Lockheed Martin or Wall-mart…Morgan Stanley will pay $12.5 million to settle a regulator’s charges that it repeatedly failed to provide incriminating e-mails, and lied when they claimed they were lost during the September 11, 2001 terrorist […]
The first thing that came to my mind when finding out about this latest hedge fund scandal was the fact that I have discovered either the plotline for the latest Rob Schneider film or the sequel to Eyes Wide Shut. I could not make this stuff up if I wanted to. Who needs the Hollywood […]
In a deal worthy of comparison to the United Nations Iraq oil for food scam due to its moxie and effectiveness, I give you the Big Brokerage Money for Nothing Scandal. This has nothing to do with Dire Straits, Sting or early MTV videos (before they turned into soft-core porn). This has to do with […]
People need to be aware that there is steep tax liabilities associated with taking money out of your retirement accounts. The majority of the people that take distributions from their retirement accounts could have avoided these additional liabilities if they only asked before acting. We all know that there are circumstances that are beyond our […]
The most powerful committee in the House of Representatives is Ways and Means. Members of the caucus wield the most powerful instrument in the United States, the tax code. This past month Chairman Charles Rangel outlined what is being dubbed in many outlets as the “Mother of All Tax Hikes.” This is the largest individual […]
A new academic report by Professors Vikas Agarwal, Naveen Daniel and Narayan Naik entitled Why is Santa So Kind To Hedge Funds? studied the performance of hedge funds returns for the month of December. The professors looked at 7,535 hedge funds from 1994-2002 and what they found is in their words is a “December spike.” […]
One of the more popular items being sold on the free lunch/dinner seminar circuit is the equity indexed annuity. It is our opinion that EIA’s are a seriously deficient financial product. I do not even like calling it a product; it is more of a high fee/commission gimmick. According to an April 2 report in […]