Last week I forgot to say that the day before Travel Nightmare Wednesday is September House Price Index Tuesday. Today is the day that S&P releases the S&P Case Shiller Home Price Index numbers for September.
They’re okay. The 20 city composite was up 0.33% for the month. but only 9 of the 20 individual cities were up. (Although on a seasonally adjusted basis the composite was up 0.27% with 11 individual cities posting positive numbers.) So basically it was flat. Ho-hum. Boring.
And ain’t that wonderful?
Of course, the fear would be that this is the tide turning again and we’re in for more declines. Anything is possible, but I don’t think so. We will probably get some down months in the near future, but the big bust is over.
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Yesterday the New York Times ran an editorial so inflammatory and in such willful disregard of the facts and reason that I can do nothing other than spend today’s post calling the editors of that once proud newspaper out as the bitter and infantile hate mongers that they are.
The editorial, entitled “Goldman’s Non-Apology” starts with dismissive criticism of a mild and philosophical mea culpa, largely on behalf of the entire financial industry, made last week by the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein.
Certainly, our industry is responsible for things. We’re a leader in our industry, and we participated in things that were clearly wrong and we have reasons to regret and apologize for.
This, the Times tells us, is a non-apology that falls far short of what is due. “Even if he had said, “we’re sorry,” it would have been hollow since he never actually said what he was sorry for….” Of course, the Times doesn’t get into all that much detail about what he should be sorry for either.
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We are coming up on what we Americans call the Holiday Season. And it is a season: not just one holiday, but a joyous period in which every day is special. A few of those days don’t have names yet, but I am sure that in time that gap in our culture will be filled. Here’s a rundown of the next week or so.
The traditional fun begins with Travel Nightmare Wednesday. Observed the day before the last Thursday in November, this holiday is celebrated around the nation by crowding into planes and spending quality time with loved ones inside cars crawling along interstates.
Then comes Thanksgiving, when we solemnly thank the Almighty for football and giant balloons in the shape of cartoon characters. Some families also give thanks that once again they deep fried the turkey without burning the house down.
Things pick up a bit with Black Friday, a holiday that celebrates the simple pleasures of buying stuff. Traditionally, it is observed by talking about how everybody else is going to the mall that day and recounting how it is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. It is not, nor has it ever been. That honor usually goes to Most Busy Saturday, which falls this year on December 19th.
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Last week Moolanomy ran a long post on Forex Trading Basics and How It Works. Although reasonably factual, the post qualifies as bad money advice 
for strongly implying that there is a possibility that investing in forex might be a good idea. It also ends with a paid link to a forex broker-dealer.
Forex, if you don’t know, is trading in currencies, also known as foreign exchange. And if you didn’t know that, I’m sorry I told you. You could have probably lived happily ever after without knowing that this particular intersection of investing and gambling existed. Oh well. Too late now.
Superficially, currency markets are simple. A person might buy some Japanese Yen, for example, in the hopes that it would go up in price relative to the dollar. If it does, it can be sold for a profit, if it goes down, for a loss.
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This is the fifth in a series inspired by a toy at CNNMoney. Previous installments covered housing payments, emergency funds, asset allocation, and buying your employer’s stock.
Using the search box just to the right here, I have discovered that in 217 posts to this blog I have used the phrase "life insurance" exactly twice. Once in an early Frugal Friday, and once in a post about annuities. Both mentions were in passing.
That may strike you as odd. In fact, it surprises me. Life insurance is a part of personal finance and certainly a likely topic for bad advice. And yet it doesn’t actually come up all that often in the media, traditional or otherwise.
It’s in the CNNMoney tool.
You need enough life insurance to replace at least five years of your salary – as much as 10 years if you have several young children or significant debts. But you might not need it at all if you have no dependents.
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Housing | Frank Curmudgeon | 
November 24, 2009 12:59 pm | 
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