10 Financial Articles: SEO Content

10 of 21 Articles Written for Consumer Finance Website, April 2008
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AUTO REFINANCING

Even when you are maintaining good credit standing and paying all of your bills on time, changes in the financial markets as well as improvement in your credit score can lead to potential savings. These potential savings can be yours if you take the time to do your homework and then approach creditors about renegotiating your existing loans. Since car loans are one of the biggest debts American consumers will have, auto refinancing is a proven method of leveraging market conditions (and your improved credit) to reduce the total repayment on a loan.

Various factors can come into play to make refinancing your loans a good decision. Although a 1/10th of a percent drop in a loan rate is not going to save you much, some consumers have used auto refinancing to cut three, six or even more points off their car loans. It can happen slowly, and often does, but it can also happen in a relatively short amount of time, too. Most everything you do better in your credit relationships will result in a positive credit report, sometimes quickly, sometimes over a period of time.

Onward and upward

As negative, older information starts falling off your credit report – and new earnings and assets data gets included for the first time – your credit score can move up to 100 points in a year or two. Since most auto loans are now between four and six years, there is plenty of time for your improved credit standing to positively affect your auto refinancing plan. It is not unheard of for consumers to refinance a long-term auto loan two times, even more.

You will need to crunch the numbers carefully, of course, and if you do not feel qualified to do so, get some help from your banker, accountant or financially sophisticated friend. With a drop in interest rates plus an increase in your credit score, you could be looking at some serious savings in interest expense over the life of the loan. Auto refinancing is second only to home refinancing as a means of saving loan expenses both now and into the future.

Shop around

Some consumers, because of marginal credit scores and short credit histories, have fewer lenders to choose from for their initial auto loans. As their scores increase and the years go by with timely payments (and few other loans of any size), these consumers will benefit from increased choice and lower rates when they consider auto refinancing.

The better their scores and histories, the more lenders they can approach for this auto refinancing, too. They can play lenders off each other to get the best rate, and shop around for other terms, as well – lower late fees, longer grace periods and so forth. As a consumer’s credit standing continues to improve, the better position they are in to renegotiate the terms.

AUTO INSURANCE

For most people, a house is the most expensive single, lifetime purchase. Of course, for those folks buying a new car every other year for 25 or 30 thousand dollars, the lifetime cost of car ownership can head toward half a million bucks. When you add in the mandated cost of auto insurance, and figure out the cost of upkeep and consumables, the lifetime cost of driving in good style would buy a few nice homes in most states, and be a decent down payment even in Boston or Los Angeles.

Auto insurance is, in fact, legally required in most states, at least liability coverage. Even in states where legal controls are minimal, lenders can require a certain level of comprehensive insurance while they are still the legal owners of the vehicle. You can lose your license in many places if you are caught driving without auto insurance, which is why many states establish government-private insurance pools to subsidize coverage for low-income motorists.

Not a luxury anymore

Without getting into the pros and cons of state mandated expenditures, it is clear that auto insurance is a necessity, not a luxury. With the cost of medical care and car repair, and possible loss of wages after an injury accident, it just makes good economic sense for people to insure themselves as much as possible within their respective budgets. The insurance markets in this country are somewhat skewed by government regulations, but it remains a highly competitive market where intense competition works to keep premiums down.

Even minimum-wage workers can afford car insurance today, and not only because of the state-sponsored pools. There are many private insurers who have learned to work within the various states’ constraints to find a profitable niche serving low-income drivers. Auto insurance remains a bargain for drivers who avoid tickets, not to mention accidents.

Rich, poor or in the middle, insurance is a major component of modern financial plans, for corporations as well as individuals. Although a fairly uncomplicated matter for a single young adult with a first job and a compact car, as people move through their careers and up (and sometimes down) the economic ladder, financial matters become as involved as any other area of a modern, upwardly mobile lifestyle.

The beginning of wisdom

Making decisions about auto insurance means calculating the appropriate deducible level, researching your car’s replacement cost, factoring in depreciation and considering other budget matters and financial obligations. Getting auto insurance is actually many young adults’ first experience with any kind of financial planning. Establishing good habits with insurance, learning how to make a budget and disciplining oneself to follow it are the first steps in a lifetime process of financial maturation.

Because life’s constant condition is change, you need to evaluate your insurance coverage on a nearly continuous basis. Changes in your economic situation, like career progress that begins rewarding you with fatter paychecks, is an often-overlooked reason for recalculating your insurance policies, including auto insurance. Your time is more valuable now, and income lost to injury (or, heaven forfend, death) adds up faster the more you make. Stay abreast of what your time and income are worth so you know what the replacement cost is, and insure yourself to that level.

DAY TRADING

The evolution of today’s instantaneous, always-on communications technologies has brought with it a flurry of new terms, both technical and fanciful. We have specific terminology like “Ethernet” and “802.11b/g wireless” on the one hand, and such expressions as “virtual worlds” and “cyberspace” on the other. The relatively innocuous sounding “day trading” is one term that sounds a lot more casual than it really is.

With the empowerment provided by high-speed Internet and cheap, fast personal computers also comes a tremendous capacity for both creation and destruction. The right tools in the right hands will result in the construction of skyscrapers, the founding of new companies and the creation of fortunes both large and small. A tool like day trading, where an individual investor can (hopefully) research investment opportunities and then execute buy and sell orders with a mouse click, can do all of these things. It can also deplete bank accounts and destroy futures just as quickly.

The sensible approach

There are obvious advantages to these powerful tools, but tools can be used both wisely and poorly. Everyone who attempts day trading needs to remember the old saying, “It’s a poor carpenter who blames his tools,” because there is no one and nothing to blame if things go bad. You are responsible for your own decisions, no one else, so you need to be realistic, above all, if you want to try your hand at day trading.

Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of firms offering Internet trading environments do so in a very responsible way. Depending on the type and cost of the service, you can get everything from basic research assistance to the same comprehensive data that professional stockbrokers rely on. Someone new to day trading would be well advised to get as much help as possible, and should consider leaving the trades (and even some of the decisions) to a trusted financial advisor.

Veterans do it, too

Of course, if you are financially astute, have time to keep up on all the research and market reports, understand the risks and do not put all of your eggs into your “day trading basket,” you can do quite well. You can also do all of these important things and still suffer losses, since there are no guarantees. The best day traders are disciplined, consistent and do not take any unnecessary risk unless they can afford the possible loss.

Veteran day traders are overwhelmingly male, mostly with a business or financial background, but otherwise represent a wide range of attitudes, abilities and net worth. Among the successful ones, day trading is absolutely not a hobby, but a serious, disciplined part of their life and livelihood. It is no place for amateurs or hobbyists.

The learning curve

If you want to become a serious day trader, you will need to do what people do in any subject area, and that is study. Depending on how much time and effort you devote to it, you can elevate your day trading from a hobby to an investment strategy in a relatively short time. One of the best ways to augment this learning process is to set up a “practice account,” by yourself or on one of the Internet brokerages, to chart your progress.

As you learn more and sharpen your financial acumen, you can decide on a reasonable amount of money (which you must be willing and able to lose in its entirety) to begin your day trading career. With consistent study, and perhaps a little professional assistance, you can become a successful day trader. However, it is not a matter of how you feel about it, or how much fun you’re having, or how exciting it is – it is a strictly rational assessment, measured by the money you’re making or losing.

Get a second, even third, opinion about your trial performance before getting in the real day trading game. If you’re not cut out for it, you will know soon enough, and if you never get the hang of it, it doesn’t mean you have to stop trading entirely. It just means that you should switch to Monopoly money and leave your real cash in other, more capable hands. Day trading isn’t for everybody. If it’s not for you, just stay away from it, as mistakes can be positively catastrophic.

ANNUITIES

Annuities are very interesting financial instruments, and one of the main products of insurance companies. Essentially they are “future repayment” contracts between you and an insurance company, which you fund with either a single lump-sum payment or scheduled remittances in advance of the first payout date. The insurance company agrees to make periodic payments of a certain calculated amount, according to an agreed-upon schedule.

Annuities usually feature tax-deferred earnings and might also contain death benefits. Since it is not a replacement for life insurance, the amount that it will pay the beneficiary is some guaranteed minimum amount, often the total of your initial pay-in amount.

Kinds of annuities

Generally speaking, there are two types of annuities, fixed and variable. Fixed annuities earn a specified minimum rate of interest while your account is maturing toward its payout date. The insurance company will then guarantee that the periodic payments will be a specified amount for each dollar in the account, payments that could last for either a defined period (15 or 20 years) or for indefinite periods like your lifetime or your spouse’s.

When you opt for a variable annuity, you can select from among various different investing options, mostly mutual funds. The amount you eventually receive will depend on the returns earned from the investments you selected.

Equity-indexed annuities are where the insurance company credits you with a rate of return based on changes in an equity index like the S&P 500 Composite Stock Price Index. Most insurance companies will guarantee a certain minimum return, which rates vary greatly from firm to firm. Following the accumulation period, you will receive periodic payments according to your contract terms, unless you prefer a lump sum payment.

The legal distinctions

Each annuity product is a different kind of financial instrument. Fixed annuities are not considered securities and therefore are not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On the other hand, variable annuities are securities, so the SEC does exert some oversight of those products. Equity-indexed annuities combine features of other, more traditional insurance products (like a specified minimum rate of return) as well as standard securities (return pegged to the markets).

Because they are constructed in different ways, even within the same company, equity-indexed annuities may or may not be considered securities. It is all according to their particular design. Most equity-indexed annuities marketed today, as a matter of fact, are not registered with the SEC.

Fitting into the plan

You can learn more about all the kinds of annuities by doing online research, as well as ordering information from the various insurance companies that deal in the products. A good financial planner, especially one who is also a licensed insurance agent, will be able to help you determine just how you can work an annuity into your financial formula.

One primary challenge in creating a comprehensive financial plan is making the best use of your funds and limiting the amount of overlap in benefits. That is, if you have other income-producing investments, you don’t need to use annuities for the majority of your future living expenses. Instead, if you anticipate paying for college for a kid or two, you could set up an annuity for that purpose, or according to some other plan that you develop. Annuities can be very effective instruments in a variety of plans, so don’t overlook them.

MUTUAL FUNDS

Before you can have an intelligent conversation about mutual funds, you must have at least a basic understanding of stocks, bonds and how they are created and traded. This is necessarily a brief treatment of the subject, but will point you in the right direction if you are new to the concepts. Even if you know a bit about investing, it doesn’t help to review the basics once in a while.

Stocks are not just the pieces of paper that are issued to you, as they actually represent shares of ownership in a particular, publicly traded company. Not every company, of course, is a stock-issuing public corporation. Even some very large firms, like Mars Candy and Johnson & Johnson, are privately held. On the other hand, such public companies as Apple Computer, General Motors and Time-Warner issue stock that is traded on various “exchanges,” and these stocks are the most common equity (“ownership”) investments that are traded today, by both individuals and mutual funds.

Bonds and other investments

Bonds are the means by which you lend some of your money to either the government or, again, corporations, both public and private ones. Your goal is to receive interest, as well as recover your principle, after an agreed-upon length of time. Bonds are by far the most prevalent “lending” investments that are traded today, and are also invested in by individuals as well as mutual funds.

Of course, there are a great many other types of investments, too, such as gold and silver, insurance and annuities, commodities and real estate. However, the vast majority of mutual funds invest in stocks and/or bonds.

The basics of mutual funds

Mutual funds, simply put, are financial instruments that let a group of investors pool their funds to pursue an agreed-upon investment goal. “Fund managers” are responsible for investing these pooled funds into certain stocks and/or bonds, and ensuring the fund’s objectives to the best of their abilities. Investing in a mutual fund means you are buying a certain portion of the fund (“shares”), making you a “shareholder” of that fund.

Mutual funds are simple to invest in because you don't have to do daily market research to pick which stocks and bonds to purchase. You are pooling your money with others, and entrusting it to the fund managers, who make the decisions on individual purchases and sales of specific stocks and bonds. The advantages go beyond relying on a professional money manager’s expertise, although this is a compelling reason by itself to consider mutual funds.

When they pool their money together in a mutual fund, investors can trade stocks and bonds with greatly reduced trading costs compared to what they would pay to do it alone. The biggest advantage of mutual funds, though, is the reduction of risk by spreading it among a number of investments. This is known as diversification.

Diversify and conquer

Allotting your money to various different investments is a wise strategy, which is why diversification is widespread. While some investments go down, others might go up, even for the same reasons or in response to the same news. Diversifying your investments dramatically reduces your risk, and doing it with mutual funds is smart – because you rely on the smarts and abilities of financial professionals.

Of course, you can accomplish a basic amount of diversification on your own by buying a number of stocks instead of just one. Mutual funds are design from the ground up to buy numerous stocks, even hundreds or thousands of different ones. You could spend weeks researching, studying and buying multiple stocks and bonds, but investing in a few mutual funds can be accomplished in an afternoon.

As with any other investment decision, do your homework and get input from trusted sources. One great advantage of mutual funds, of course, is that you are not going it alone, and are relying on the judgment of informed professionals. What you need to do, of course, is find out just which professionals are investing in the industries or opportunities that you are comfortable with, and then stay abreast of their funds’ results. Stay informed and you’ll maximize the effectiveness of mutual funds, as well as any other investments you make.

BUYING INSURANCE

If you asked most Americans to list “buying insurance” on their to-do lists, it would probably fall somewhere between “going to the dentist” and “listening to fingernails on a blackboard.” Young working adults, for the most part, don’t even have it on their lists at all, content to take whatever health or life insurance is offered by their employers or parents. At some point in their working careers, though, even young people start thinking about things like insurance and retirement, and the sooner the better, too.

It was not that long ago that buying insurance meant calling around town, making appointments and going out to insurance agents’ offices to listen to dry, dull facts about actuarial tables and risk management. This is just one more task that has been “obsoleted” by the information superhighway. With an Internet connection and a $50 used computer, you can now shop for insurance of all kinds, from companies and brokers all over the world. Of course, having too many choices can be almost as problematic as having too few.

Study first, then shop

Buying insurance is not something you should do on a whim, in a hurry or without adequate study. This is always and ever a recipe for disaster, no matter what it is you are shipping for. You have to approach every financial decision – and make no mistake, buying insurance is part of your de facto financial plan, whether you’ve written it down or not – with up-to-date facts and information.

The fact is, you don’t go buying insurance without making a variety of calculations, depending on the kind of coverage you are looking to get. If you are buying life insurance, you need to calculate how much your survivor(s) will need for support for both determinate and indeterminate periods of time. If you are not up to making these kinds of calculations, by all means get some help.

Various types

Life insurance is only one kind of protection that you will need. You may, especially when younger, decide to save money by relying on employer-provided health insurance, and some companies also buy (usually modest) life insurance policies for their employees, sometimes with a face value that represents annual earnings. You may need other types of coverage, though, and you may have to pay for it yourself.

If you are not satisfied that the state- and/or employer-funded disability insurance will pay you enough if you are too ill or injured to work, you can augment your coverage with other personally purchased policies. Again, you cannot know the amount to buy, or what constitutes a “good deal,” unless you can see your various insurance coverages as part of your larger financial situation. You need to delay buying insurance of any kind just long enough to get good advice in the matter, and not so long that you start forgetting you need it!

Overall coverage

Once you get in the habit of assessing your financial situation, making plans for the future and buying insurance as part of those plans, you can begin the process of continuous review. That is, you will need to revisit your insurance policies at least annually to ensure that the coverage is sufficient for your changing needs. Families grow, careers advance and your net worth will increase, too, so you need to stay abreast of the mechanisms, like insurance, that help keep your plan (and life) safe from the vagaries of the modern world.

You can protect yourself against death, disease, injury and unemployment with a solid and sensible financial plan. This plan will include any number of insurance policies for various purposes, so buying insurance will be something you will do a number of times over your lifetime. Once you take the mystery out of it, and understand how insurance works with investments and tax planning to maximize and protect your life and livelihood, you will consider buying insurance just another one of the many small tasks that, taken together, add up to a comfortable and secure existence.

ONLINE TRADING

Today’s young adults – tomorrow’s leaders among them – cannot remember a time without computers, much less without the Internet, flat-panel TVs, iPods and other high-tech time- and labor-savers. Banking and financial services have evolved right along with everything else, so online trading of stocks, bonds and commodities seems the most natural thing in the world to today’s plugged-in, always-on generation.

Time was, you’d have to rely on nothing more current that today’s paper with yesterday’s news to make investment decisions. There was also a buffer zone, called the stockbroker, who sat between investors and the financial products and services they wanted to parlay into their retirement funds. Today, with nothing more than a $100 used computer and a $9 a month dial-up connection, anyone can be a “broker” with a low-cost, easily managed online trading account.

The good and the bad

In terms of political philosophy and social organization, Western-style freedom is overwhelmingly preferred to the common alternatives in the world today – tyranny, oppression and upheaval. Freedom of action, however, carries with it some serious responsibilities. No one should undertake online trading as a lark, just because it is easy to do. It is easy to lose all your money, too.

If you are going to consider opening and managing an online trading account, you will first be confronted with a bewildering array of companies from which to choose. E-trade, Ameritrade, Schwab and dozens of others compete for “day traders” with radio spots, print ads, direct mail and TV commercials with Law & Order’s Sam Waterston. Are there really any big differences among them?

How to choose

The reason that choices proliferate in the freer nations of the world is because there is a broad range of human preference concerning, well, everything. As far as online trading accounts, some people prefer extensive research, others want quick processing of orders, still others shop for the lowest monthly service fee while a few might choose at random. Humans are motivated by myriad things, so investment firms develop strategies to reach their preferred customers.

There is no short, sweet answer here (or anywhere else) for what you should do in your particular situation. If you are comfortable with balance sheets and stop-loss orders, and stay up to speed on the financial markets and news, you may be able to set up and maintain your own portfolio of investments. If you are not so handy with figures and financial factoids, you’d be better off restricting your online trading, using some sort of advisory service or just leaving the ultimate decisions to a trusted financial planner or broker.

Bottom lines matter

There are actually several bottom lines to consider, beginning with the financial one. Use your head when deciding how much online trading you want to do, because there is little or no margin for error. You can’t “take back” any moves like you might in a Sunday afternoon chess match in the park. Decisions are final in this arena, so you had better know what you are doing.

If you cannot allot enough time to become or remain an expert in investing, you should not attempt online trading with any more funds than you can afford to lose – in their entirety. You may find that you have a natural affinity for picking good investments, and over time you can perhaps increase the amounts you put at risk, but you should always have a professional on tap to provide a needed “reality check.” There is at least one indisputable fact about online trading: Buy and sell orders are on virtual paper in cyberspace, but the money they represent is real. Never risk what you cannot afford to lose, online or off.

ROTH IRA

Named after the late U.S. Senator William Roth, the Roth IRA was created by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and became available for use on the first day of 1998. It is a variant of the Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that had been in use since its own creation in 1974 as part of the ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) amendments to the tax code.

As opposed to the “regular” IRA, the Roth IRA allows no deductions for plan contributions, but does establish a benefit unavailable in other traditional retirement plans. By meeting certain criteria, you (or your designated beneficiary) can draw out all of the plan earnings tax-free when they’re needed.

Pros and cons

The Roth IRA also eliminates what is called the “early distribution penalty” for certain kinds of plan withdrawals, and relieves you of the requirement to take only “minimum distributions” after age 70-1⁄2. These are important benefits, but may or may not fit your own retirement plan, so make sure to get good advice, as always.

The primary advantage of the Roth IRA, of course, is clear. With it, you can shield your account earnings from taxation. Because this advantage comes at a known price – no deductions for contributions – the appropriateness of a Roth IRA for your specific financial plan can be calculated with a fair degree of accuracy.

How to decide

The decision to use a Roth IRA versus a “regular” one always depends on your personal financial situation, as well as on what you are assuming about your future income and future needs. Do you know long you will wait before you need to take money from your IRA? What do you think your tax bracket will be at that time? What other earnings, taxes, investment results and life/career changes will happen in the meantime to affect your decision?

Of course, you need to do your own calculation and analysis, but generally speaking, most people today are better off in the Roth IRA. The main reason is that the Roth IRA is simply bigger than the regular IRA since it contains after-tax, not untaxed, dollars. Therefore, if you can maximize your contributions you can add a great deal of “tax leverage” to your retirement income. Depending on how you answer these questions – and what a sensible financial plan indicates about your lifetime earning potential – you will soon understand whether your particular situation warrants a Roth IRA.

Other advantages

There are two other, very compelling advantages to the Roth IRA. The first is that minimum distribution rules are irrelevant, so if your other retirement resources are sufficient you are not required to take your Roth IRA distributions at age 70-1⁄2. What this means, of course, is that your account continues to grow, and does so in a tax-free fashion.

The second big advantage is that you are able to take specified, early distributions without paying a penalty. To summarize, then, the Roth IRA is an easier and more efficient way to keep your money in the account and working for you - and offers easier ways to take your money out, too. As always, “your mileage may vary,” but a lot of folks get farther down the retirement road, and in better overall shape, thanks to the advantages of the Roth IRA.

INSURANCE

One of the classic insurance agent sales pitches went something like this: “Insurance is the one product you can’t buy if you wait until you need it.” It would seem that gas in the car’s tank fits that definition, too, but that’s not the point. The point is, insurance for today’s working men and women is an integral part of their financial plans – assuming, of course, that they have a plan at all.

Obviously, there are all kinds of insurance policies covering all kinds of risks. The three kinds of insurance that most people are familiar with are car insurance, medical insurance and life insurance. The first is required by most states for you to drive, the second is most often provided by one’s employer and the last one is what couples start thinking about after they get married and have a kid or two.

In fact, insurance goes a lot farther than these three applications, and our modern lifestyles would grind to a halt without insurance companies. No movie gets made in Hollywood today without an insurance policy protecting against a star’s untimely death or a director who can’t finish his shooting schedule. No aircraft flies the friendly skies without a huge amount of liability coverage. Insurance, quite frankly, makes the world go around – although love and money do help, too, as various song lyrics and old sayings attest.

The big three

The big three insurance policies for most people, then, cover their cars, their medical bills (or part of them) and their lives. Insurance is a way to protect against the loss of a physical piece of property, like an automobile, as well as the loss of loved ones and their future earnings. Cars, health and life are the premier areas of concern for most people.

However, other people, including about every businessman in the world, need to protect against any number of other eventualities. A widget manufacturer needs insurance for his facilities and inventory, while an oil tanker operator needs to insure against the vagaries of ocean storms and engine malfunctions. Property needs to be insured, and equipment and machines need to be insured against both loss and damage, as well.

Doing the math

Frankly, once a person or couple starts to accrue a few nice things in their life – cars, home and, yes, children – the integration of insurance policies into their overall financial plan becomes a must. Many people need the help of a financial planner or other professional to calculate these needs.

The amount of coverage to get for a car is an easier calculation to make that the coverage on the home’s breadwinner(s). A car has a certain “replacement value,” but there is no simple math to figure the value of a human being. The best approach is to consider earnings, age, anticipated lifespan, etc., and come up with a figure that will replace the person’s future earnings in the event of death or disability.

Property calculations are, of course, easier to make, although it will take some work to come up with actual replacement values for some possessions. It is wisest to use replacement value for insurance valuations, rather that original cost, since the latter does not take inflation or appreciation into account.

A properly devised financial plan – for an individual, a family or a business – will consider all relevant factors, including insurance. With the right balance of income, expense, investments and insurance, the vagaries and vicissitudes of modern life can be managed and minimized. If you need professional help to do this, by all means get it.

STOCK TRADING

One of the bolder claims made for the Internet – the “information superhighway” – is that it is a “democratizing” technology that partially redresses the imbalance between the individual and The Powers That Be. It is hard to gauge the effect of downloading, texting and chat-rooming in the public square, but in the private sector people have pretty much stormed the gates of the financial markets with their Web browsers, and stock trading will never be the same.

Frankly, many things won’t be the same, and good riddance, too. It was not that long ago that the princes and viscounts of Wall Street kept their doors closed and their windows shuttered against prying public eyes. The middle of the last century saw national political careers born of “trust busting” and the prosecution of “insiders.” Funny (and felonious) things happen in the dark, when financial manipulators collude to fix prices, restrict trade, prevent competition and, above all, keep secrets.

Free data, free minds

The 1970s through the early 1990s saw the precursors of the Internet transform the way that people communicated, in business and private. The copy machine, the fax machine, the continuing advances in computer science and telecommunications – all of this technological evolution facilitated the creation, capture, storage, transmission and analysis of information. In the West, where freer economies rely on the dissemination of accurate information for setting prices and coordinating supply and demand, stock trading changed dramatically.

More information, especially better and more current information, means more informed choices. It means more appropriate, effective and, yes, profitable ones, too. With computers now analyzing market conditions and trading stock, the rhythm of the financial markets has gone from the sedate pace of a Manhattan to nearly the speed of light.

Money talks

Because of its history of greater freedom, the West is managing the transition into the post-information age (whatever it is going to be called) more smoothly than many other parts of the world. For Americans, most Europeans and many Asians, stock trading and other kinds of transaction seem perfectly safe to do online. These are great advances, but the changes wrought in other parts of the world are ever more dramatic.

Other countries have had to play catch up to the West, in both political and economic arenas. You can’t have free markets without the free flow of information. The countries of the late, unlamented Soviet Union are living laboratories, proving that where information proliferates and people learn about their world from other than “official” sources, things start changing politically, as well.

The idea that former members of the Lenin Youth Corps have their Lenovo PCs set up for stock trading, gambling and playing Grand Theft Auto games over the Internet must have the Bolsheviks turning over in their graves. The fact is, when people and nations are communicating and trading with one another, they are much less likely to go to war. In today’s world, that’s a good thing to know, and good reason to spread computers, information, Internet connections and every other kind of communications technology to every person in the world.

Now there’s a great investment!

April, 2008 SEO project (10 of 21 articles, 500-600 words each).