Tag: banks
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Retrospective rubbernecking at the subprime mortgage disaster
17 November 2011As I mentioned once before, I have a block on ‘formal’ book reviews, so consider this just a friendly little chat, okay? I trust Stacy’s opinions implicitly, particularly on matters of journalism, so when in passing she praised Michael Lewis’ The Big Short, the very next thing I did was hit the library web site […]
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Move your money and bump your interest rate too
1 November 2011A lot of people are moving their money this week, either because of outrage at the imposition of yet another fee, or due to a general realization that customers tend to get better treatment from small not-for-profit credit unions than from gigantic banking corporations. In tangentially related news, interest rates seem to be exploring Zeno’s […]
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Risk-free high-yield savings option
17 June 2009When is a CD not a CD? When it’s a savings account in disguise. Traditionally, certificates of deposit have offered a trade-off: in return for the bank’s guarantee of a fixed interest rate, you promise to leave your money with the bank for a specific term. If you renege and withdraw your funds early, you […]
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16 September 2008
A job-matching site which has my resumé on file just emailed me an alert about a new position for which I was supposedly a near-perfect match. I dutifully clicked through and started reading. Job description sounded good, and then I got to the ‘About the Company’ section: Seattle — home to gourmet coffee, grunge, and […]
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Should we worry about WaMu? and other disasters
16 September 2008Sorry for the recent silence; I’ve been having a rough couple of weeks on the Life front. No financial crises, though, at least not yet! Thanks for all the recent comments — it cheers me up to see so many people reading. This week got off to an interesting start for us with the early-buzzard […]
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WaMu ad campaign supports gay couples
7 August 2008As I was searching through Flickr photos that might illustrate the last post, I came across a couple of a WaMu bus stop ad campaign that I didn’t know about. One photo is from New York City, the other from West Hollywood. Each depicts an enormous checkbook holding personalized Washington Mutual checks. The joint account […]
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Customer goodwill worth more than high interest rates
7 August 2008J.D. at Get Rich Slowly recently opened up a discussion about chasing interest rates on savings accounts. The range of comments are pretty interesting, but the one recurring theme is that most people are willing to stay with a slightly lower rate as long as they’re happy with the service and convenience. I guess I […]
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Double exposure: risks of working in the financial industry
14 July 2008If you have any money in the stock market right now, you’ve probably noticed a distressing trend over the past few months. I only check my retirement account balances once a month, and I can’t help being pained when the decline in net worth measures thousands of dollars. Compounding this is the fact that, because […]