In yet another week where the spill in the gulf dominated the headlines, one couldn’t help but notice the sequence of events where Obama first referred to kicking someone’s ass (so, presidential…but so 2010), to then, massive calls for a suspension of BP’s Dividend and an escrow fund, all culminating in a Presidential speech and a meeting with executives to which some Republicans are now calling a “shakedown”. In fact, one Republican, Joe Barton, went so far as to apologize to BP for the behavior of our administration. Then, he apologized for apologizing. It’s really disappointing to see what fools we have running our country. There’s plenty of blame to go around and while I agree the administration and politicians may have been out of line on a lot of statements and how the situation has been handled from a disaster preparedness standpoint, the dividend cut and establishment of a $20 Billion escrow fund certainly did provide some certainty to the situation that was sorely lacking previously. In fact, with each announcement, BP’s share price actually bounced 5% each time, moving from a loss to a gain on Wednesday. That being said, there’s still much uncertainty as to just when the leak will be capped and what the ultimate impact will be to wildlife and the way of life in the Gulf region.
With that backdrop, as always, there were some great articles this week in the financial blogosphere, so without further ado, here are some favs from some new sources, some usual sources and of course, some Yakezie:
Wealth Pilgrim: You Need a Budget Review
Weakonomics: Why Companies Buy Back Stock
Zen Habits: How to Avoid Becoming a Workaholic
Financial Samurai: Are You Overly Content? It Could be Detrimental to Your Job
Len Penzo: Private School Ripoff
Tax Vox: The Non-Jobs Bill
Wisebread: 6 Months as an Amazon Seller
Dividend Guy: The Problems Dividend Investors Face
Max Keiser: WSJ says Oil Spill Helps GDP. Let’s Just Line People Up and Shoot Them
Recent Articles by Yours Truly:
- REPORT: $222,360 to Raise a Kid in America – NONSENSE!
- House Hunting: New Home Construction vs. Existing Homes
- 10 Ways Spend Less Time at work – Guaranteed!
- AAA Companies in the S&P500 – Only 4 Left!
- Darwin’s Portfolio June: Finally a Loss, But a Silver Lining
- Billion Dollar Inheritance: Heirs Pay NO Tax – Right or Wrong?
- Extra Income vs. Saving Money – Have You Considered Everything?
- Should BP Fold and Suspend Dividend Payments to Shareholders? [*they did!]
- Why Leveraged ETFs are Too Risky
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Thanks for the wrap up mate. How long have you been at your current job? I remember reading a post how you turned down a 90% offer increase?