NYTimes: Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds

From The New York Times:

Financial Crisis Was Avoidable, Inquiry Finds

A Congressional inquiry said bankers and regulators could have seen the 2008 crisis coming and stopped it.

http://nyti.ms/gBFn7Z

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

NYTimes: With Retirement Savings, It’s a Sprint to the Finish

From The New York Times:

YOUR MONEY: With Retirement Savings, It's a Sprint to the Finish

You can save all your life, but those last years before you retire will determine the result.

http://nyti.ms/gqzMwv

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Financial Investments and Economic Investments...

Rich Republicans want very much to believe that the money they put into 'savings' or 'investments' is doing all kinds of wonderful things for the economy.  Unfortunately, this belief is based on little more than wishful thinking.  To understand why they are so very wrong, people need to understand the difference between financial investments and economic investments.

Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar

Hu Highlights Need for U.S.-China Cooperation, Questions Dollar - WSJ.com
http://www.stumbleupon.com/to/s/2vP9H3

whistleblower Rudolf Elmer plans to hand over offshore banking secrets of the rich and famous to WikiLeaks

 He will disclose the details of 'massive potential tax evasion' before he flies home to stand trial over his actions

http://m.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/16/swiss-whistleblower-rudolf-elmer-banks?cat=media&type=article

Forbes Investment Guide 2011

As a new year dawns, investors are heaving sighs of relief. A semblance of sanity has crept back into world financial markets. At home stocks posted 10% gains through mid-November 2010. Bonds did nearly as well. Is this the new normal— with little of the panic that prevailed in late 2008 or of the euphoria that chased it the following year? What 2011 has in store nobody can say. However it turns out, this Investment Guide offers strategies aimed at helping you increase your wealth, protect it, stretch it into retirement and pass it on to loved ones, or to worthy causes, in ways that will continue doing good for generations to come.

Global investing trap: Economic growth as red herring

First of a three-part series on misconceptions about international investing.

It seems a simple proposition: If you had a choice between investing in a country with an economy that promises rapid growth, or investing in one with flat or stagnant growth—such as the two economies depicted in the chart showing gross domestic product (GDP) growth —which would you choose?

Japan Income Taxes and Tax Laws

Taxation of an individual's income in Japan is progressive.
In other words, the higher the income, the higher the rate of tax payable.

The tax rate for an individual in 2009 is between 5% - 40% There are reduced rates of tax for certain income earners.

Japan corporate tax in 2009 is currently fixed at 30% and, again, there is a reduced rate of tax for certain corporations it is important to point out that the effective tax, for individuals and corporations, is higher as a result of the other local taxes that exist in Japan.