States Where it's Cheaper to Rent than Buy Catey Hill writes at MarketWatch.com that there are 8 states where it's cheaper to rent than to buy a home: It’s cheaper to rent a home versus buying one in just eight states in America, according to an analysis of monthly costs released Monday by GoBankingRates.com. Those states, Hawaii, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Delaware and Oregon, are joined by the District of Columbia. The analysis compared the monthly cost to rent the median-priced single-family home in each state with the monthly cost of owning that same home. The latter … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2016
Worthy Reads: As Rates Sink, Housing Bubbles Rise
Why Central Banks and Markets Are Getting Out of Sync (WSJ) As Rates Sink, Housing Bubbles Rise (WSJ) It’s Not a Housing Bubble, It’s Just Expensive (Bloomberg) It’s cheaper to rent a home than buy in just eight U.S. states (MarketWatch) This lender offers free drinks, yoga, and matchmaking with its loans (Money) … [Read more...]
Switzerland: The Drawbacks of Wealth Taxation
Researchers studying the effects of wealth taxation in Switzerland have found that, rather than quelling inequality, the taxes are costly to the economy and generate little revenue with respect to their negative impacts. The Tax Foundation's Alex Durante writes: Many countries in the OECD impose estate or inheritance taxes, two kinds of wealth taxes, on their citizens. Estate and inheritance taxes are levied on the money and property of the deceased and paid by the beneficiaries. However, only a few of these countries tax personal wealth holdings on a yearly basis. Switzerland imposes the … [Read more...]
Worthy Reads: Pound Jumps After Bank of England Stands Pat
Pound Jumps After Bank of England Stands Pat (WSJ) Could you live on just $32,000 per year? Most retirees do (USA Today) What’s Behind the Ballooning Upper Middle Class? Education (Bloomberg) Here are the winners and losers as the foreclosure crisis slogs into extra innings (MarketWatch) Poorer than their parents? A new perspective on income inequality (McKinsey & Co.) … [Read more...]
Have More Money, Save More Money
Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Jason Zweig (one of my favorite financial writers) drives home a powerful message to investors around the world. This is a message that must be heard loud and clear. Worldwide, $13 trillion in debt yields less than zero; in “normal” times, when those bonds might have yielded 3% or so, investors would have earned roughly $400 billion on them annually. Now investors are spending, rather than earning, tens of billions of dollars a year to hold those bonds — much as you might pay a storage company to keep your heirlooms safe for you. Nevertheless, even at … [Read more...]
When the Lights Go Out
Inflicting major disruptions to the electrical grid, whether by humans or natural causes, is not that difficult to imagine. It has already happened which you’ll learn more about in this excellent article, and series, by Rebecca Smith in The WSJ titled, “How America Could Go Dark.” I spent time this week speaking with an engineer at our local utility company. The impression he gave me is the same as in the article: The money is simply not there. It’s not there to protect substations with proper security, and it’s certainly not there to upgrade the grid to bring it into the 21st … [Read more...]
New Highs in Extreme Territory
The 10-day moving average of NYSE new highs is entering extreme territory. … [Read more...]
Worthy Reads: Investors Now Pay Germany to Borrow for 10 Years
Google’s Project Fi Is One Step Closer to Unifying the World’s Wireless Networks (WIRED) Grid Attack: How America Could Go Dark (WSJ) Investors Now Pay Germany to Borrow for 10 Years (WSJ) Have You Thought About Tapering, Mario Draghi? (Bloomberg) Robots have their eyes on food service, manufacturing jobs (MarketWatch) … [Read more...]
Get Your Survival Training Now
You have plenty of opportunities to get your survival training now. Don’t let inertia slow you down. Here’s what I’ve learned for you. A client told me this week he’s thinking about attending a pistol course through the Surefire Institute. They will be in his town for about ten days offering a variety of coursework such as General Shotgun and General Handgun. I’ve taken similar courses through Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, New Hampshire and I highly recommend both for you and your loved ones. What’s cool about the Surefire Institute is that it has locations in Las Vegas (a nice activity if … [Read more...]
Worthy Reads: A Portrait Of Quantitative Failure
A Portrait Of Quantitative Failure (ZeroHedge) OPEC Downgrades Economic Outlook (OPEC) Starbucks to raise prices on coffee, espresso and tea lattes (MarketWatch) The Dynamics of Sovereign Debt Crises and Bailouts (IMF) Citibank to close certain Venezuela accounts (Reuters) … [Read more...]