With CD and savings account rates plunging to record lows every week, it may be the time to consider a more lucrative alternative — social or peer-to-peer lending.
This is where you loan money directly to worthy borrowers through a Web site, rather than putting your money in a bank and allowing its loan officers to [...]

Michael Covel, who founded TurtleTrader.com, has produced a provocative documentary on why the financial crisis cost the typical American so much money.

Broke blames the herd mentality that seems to motivate so many investment decisions and uses some unflattering comparisons with sheep to make the point.
If everyone’s buying expensive homes with exotic loans, I should too. [...]

It’s been quite an afternoon.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 9,000 for the first time since Jan. 6.
The widely-followed index gained 187 points, or 2.1%, to close at 9,069, the Dow’s highest close since Nov. 5.
Then Mark Buerhle of the Chicago White Sox threw the major leagues’ first perfect game since 2004. Don’t miss [...]

If you’re like me, you groan every time you see what passes for the “best CD rates” these days.
But maybe things aren’t as bad as we think.
Why?
Because inflation isn’t eating up the profits.
Let’s say you’ve put your savings into a 12-month certificate of deposit that’s paying a very nice 5.0% APY. (And who wouldn’t like [...]

Frontline, the well-regarded PBS documentary series, has released this fascinating interview with investment advisor Michael Bienes.
His firm, Avellino & Bienes, promised clients returns of 15% to 18% a year, and made good on that pledge by investing their money in Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion Ponzi scheme.
When Madoff regularly “earned” 20% with their clients’ money, [...]

“60 Minutes” goes behind the scenes with a team of FDIC agents taking over a failed bank on a surprise raid.

This is pretty cool…

Barry Ritholtz has an interesting article that takes a look at how financial markets fared during Bush’s presidency… For example, below is a chart of oil prices for the last few years.

The full article is chock full of interesting charts. Read the rest of the article here.

If you have been watching CNBC lately, you’ll notice that the US Dollar has been skyrocketing against every major currency except the Yen.
It seemed strange to me that the dollar would get stronger amidst a crumbling worldwide economy, bailouts left and right, and a 11 trillion national debt, so I did some research.
Possible Factors Behind [...]

Quicken Online is now 100% FREE for personal users.
Their online system allows you to manage all your bank accounts, credit cards, and even PayPal from a centralized location.
Instead of having to log into all your online savings accounts individually to track your balances, you just provide Quicken with your login details and it will [...]