Free Money Finance: Paying Off Your House Early

This topic came up in class recently so FreeMoneyFinance had impeccable timing:Free Money Finance: Free Money Finance Top 10 Most Hated Posts/Themes: #8 Paying Off Your House Early: "Most financial authors, writers, and bloggers would say NOT to pre-pay your mortgage if the interest rate (adjusted downward for the tax savings from having a mortgage) is below what you could earn investing the

Update and where in the world have I been

Hi everyone.What a few weeks. LOL. As Burns would say "the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray." And that is exactly what has happened since the Friday Lunch at the FMAs in Salt Lake City. While in the luncheon my phone vibrated a few times but I did not take the calls. In Hotel's atrium afterwards I did. The most important call was from Josh one of the BonaRespond leaders. He

Online NewsHour: Experts Examine How Brain Makes Economic Decisions -- May 10, 2005

Online NewsHour: Experts Examine How Brain Makes Economic Decisions -- May 10, 2005: "...as it happens, even economists are getting in on the action, asking how and where we humans think economically by seeing which parts of the brain are most active when we're deciding what we want and how to get it. One lesson thus far: The brain isn't quite as rational as the discipline of economics has long

SSRN-Corruption and International Valuation: Does Virtue Pay? by Charles Lee, David Ng

SSRN-Corruption and International Valuation: Does Virtue Pay? by Charles Lee, David Ng: "Abstract: Using firm-level data from 44 countries, we investigate the relation between corruption and international corporate values. Our analysis shows that firms from more corrupt countries trade at significantly lower market multiples. The effect is both economically and statistically significant. "

Live from Salt Lake City

Hi from Salt Lake City! I am here attending the Financial Management Association (FMA) meetings. I figured that if I could blog from Biloxi weeks after Katrina, I could make some time to do so from a conference. Finance conferences are pretty much all day events. Today’s started at 8:00 AM and papers went until after 5:00 at which time there was a reception. (I confess I skipped the

Slow and steady still wins the investing race - MarketWatch

Thanks to the Unknown Professor over at Financial Rounds for pointing this one out. Short version: Morningstar is going to report the dollar-weighted returns! And shock of all shocks, these are lower than the time weighted returns.Slow and steady still wins the investing race - MarketWatch: "...Morningstar, Inc...announced that it was going to start reporting mutual funds' returns in a new way,

Yale's Money Guru Shares Wisdom with Masses

This one is really good! It is an NPR piece on David Swensen who manages Yale's Endowment fund. While Swenson has done remarkably well, his basic strategy is easily replicated and fits very well with the idea of market efficiency and diversification taught in almost every finance class, although not as well as Swenson does it!NPR : Yale's Money Guru Shares Wisdom with Masses:On his relative

A cool way to protect property rights

Ok, this might not strictly speaking be finance, but property rights are always an interesting topic that has financial ramifications (we usually cover them in International finance classes) and htis is just so cool that I had to share it.It deals with how YouTube is satisfying the Music companies.YouTube’s Video Poker - New York Times: "Potentially most significant, Mr. Hurley pointed to a deal

FRB: Speech, Bernanke--The Coming Demographic Transition: Will We Treat Future Generations Fairly?--October 4, 2006

More on the changes that may be brought about by the retiring of the baby boom generation. This is from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke. FRB: Speech, Bernanke--The Coming Demographic Transition: Will We Treat Future Generations Fairly?--October 4, 2006:Short version: increase savings to increase productivity. And rely on FinanceProfessors to save the day ;) Ok, so maybe that was added.Some

Will stocks go Boom?

Canada's National Post gives us all something to worry about it its series on the impact of an aging labor force. In the second part of the series, the paper examines whether as baby boomers retire if they will drive down stock prices.Will stocks go Boom?: "In the United States, for example, the ratio of workers to retirees is expected to fall to just 2.6 in 30 years, from 4.9 today. In Japan,

USATODAY.com - Easy credit can mean long-term hardship for college students

I am torn on this one. On one hand it is inarguable that many people (including no doubt a higher percentage of college students) do get into financial difficulty stemming from excessive use of credit cards. However, the ban on marketing of the credit cards on campus does seem a tad much. Credit cards do have their upsides as well: they help build credit and lower transaction costs.On the

Financial Rounds: Who are My Picks For the Nobel Prize in Economics

It's that time of year again: time to bet on who will be the next Nobel Prize winner in Economics. The Unknown professor over at Financial Rounds does a good job with his two picks. Who are My Picks For the Nobel Prize in Economics: "....speculation seems to be heating up for who will get the next Nobel Prize in economics. I'll cast my vote for Eugene Fama of the University of Chicago for his