Crash Survival Zone

Decades of advice turn out to be so much garbage.

By Helaine Olen

Years ago, when I wrote a popular financial makeover feature for a major national newspaper, one of our subjects asked if he should be plowing his more than $50,000 in savings into gold. It was 1997 and gold was trading at a little more [...]

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it superman? Investors can’t seem to figure out whether the recent leaps in stock prices represent a brief uptick in a falling market or something more meaningful, even the start of a brand-new bull run. The Pavlovian impulse is to dismiss the rally as just another [...]

3M Co. and Kimberly-Clark Corp. are among the few manufacturers that make respiratory masks sophisticated enough to ward off swine flu, exacerbating a shortage at retailers.

Only masks rated N95 or above, which can filter at least 95 percent of airborne particles, are effective at blocking the H1N1 virus, according to the U.S. Department of Health [...]

By Henry Blodget

Now that stocks have rallied nearly 30% off their low, pundits agree: It’s a new bull market.  So be very afraid.

Market punditry is a lagging indicator, not a leading one.  Pundits are excellent at describing what has happened, not what is going to happen.

But doesn’t the 30% rally off the bottom obviously mean [...]

When Warren Buffett speaks, it’s usually worth paying attention. This time, the Oracle of Omaha is voicing concerns about the ability of some battered local and state governments to pay off their debts. The idea of cities and states facing insolvency is alarming for sure, and Buffett isn’t alone. Moody’s recently assigned a “negative outlook” [...]

Economically battered Americans at all income levels are rooting through their drawers to sell off their gold and jewelry for extra cash

The great gold rush of 2009 is on. In February, the spot price of gold peaked above $1,005 per ounce for the first time in a year. While gold prices have fallen off a [...]

Author Ramit Sethi’s advice for getting started with investing in a vexing environment: Automatically invest and rebalance, and don’t time the market

At a conference on financial literacy on Apr. 20 in Chicago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said it was time for Americans to learn to manage their money. Ramit Sethi couldn’t agree more. The [...]

The legendary investor is sticking for now with the two Cs: China and commodities.
Well, bank executives and investors can breathe a sigh of relief: Jim Rogers has covered the short positions on financial stocks he put in place ahead of last year’s massive meltdown.
But just because this influential investor isn’t betting that big banks will [...]

Consumers are eating in, holding on to their cars longer and cutting back on entertainment. That means companies that make pasta, sell replacement auto parts and let you stay home and watch a movie (no babysitter needed) are benefiting. So are discount retailers. And with the economy mired in recession and likely to remain that [...]

There’s still bad news ahead for the U.S. economy and the bear market for stocks is not over yet, according to a prominent economist who foretold much of the current turmoil.

Nouriel Roubini, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and chairman of economic research firm RGE Monitor, said on Tuesday that he [...]