US Finance World

1. “We carefully picked your neighborhood.”

The average $21 or so the National Retail Federation estimates most Americans will spend on Halloween candy this year might only buy Susan Stroga enough to last through an hour of trick-or-treaters. Parents for miles around like the closed subdivision in Barrington, Ill. where Stroga lives for its safety and walkability, while kids know it for having the best goodies. “We’ve developed a reputation for having a lot of candy,” she admits. Stroga plans for a whopping 1,000-plus visitors and spends $100 on value bags of candy at Costco to save cash — and only once in her 10 years in the neighborhood has she had any left over. The first year, and in most years thereafter, she’s had to send her husband out to the store for more. “I was shocked,” she recalls. “I was thinking, where did all these kids come from?” Now she routinely alerts new neighbors to stock up.

Where you live plays a big role in the number of trick-or-treaters you get and how much you may have to spend.

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As a Credit Karma user, I recently received an email announcing that they have begun offering daily free credit monitoring in addition to free credit scores!

What is credit monitoring?

Credit monitoring is a service that automatically updates you when a significant change has been identified in your credit report. This could include a hard or soft credit inquiry, a new credit account being started, late payment updates, or updates to your personal information.

You will automatically get an email when one of these things happens. In the long run, this can help you protect your credit and protect yourself from identity theft. If you have a big credit event such as a loan application coming up, it can also protect you from any unforeseen roadblocks.

Just like Credit Karmas credit score service, which offers up your Transrisk (TransUnion) and VantageScore, it is also free. You do not need to enter your credit card or any payment information like you do with other free credit score services.

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The Retail Motor Industry Federation forecasts higher wholesale prices will be passed on at the pumps very soon.

A motoring industry body is warning that the cost of diesel is set to rocket in the next few weeks due to high wholesale costs.

The Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI) has been monitoring the wholesale price of both diesel and petrol over the Christmas and New Year period. It says that diesel increased by 4.5p per litre and unleaded petrol by up to 5p per litre.

The RMI says this could push the cost of diesel at the pumps over last May’s record high of 143p per litre and possibly as high as 145p per litre.

It says that the Christmas break meant that retailers haven’t had time to factor in the increases at the pump yet but they are likely to from this weekend.

The RMI says prices are rising due to growing tensions between Iran and the West, a freeze in production at four refineries and companies holding low stock due to cash flow problems.

The average price of petrol had fallen to its lowest level for nine months by mid-December, according to the AA. But

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If you read the news, there has been a renewed push by regulators to bring white-collar crime and white-collar criminals to justice. But, if we look behind the head-lines, is justice ever rendered? There is at least two ways to look at this issue.

The first is monetary fines for violators should theoretically act as a deterrent to all participants in the financial industry. Set the fine high enough and it should send a chill against illegal behavior. Theres two problems with this approach. In 2010,  Goldman Sachs agreed to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) a $550 million fine in connection with Goldman Sachs misleading the public about subprime mortgage products. The amount sounds staggering but, as many commentators noted, this amount was equivalent to 4 days revenue to Goldman Sachs.  A $550 million fine may sound great on main street but it is merely the cost of doing business on Wall Street.

The much larger problem with levying large fines is actually collecting these fines. I

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Your cost of living went up about 0.2% in September, says the government. Meanwhile your U.S. stocks went down about 8%. Ouch.

Your cost of living went up 0.3% in August. The stock market lost you about 6%. Ouch, again.

Your cost of living went up 0.1% in July. U.S. stocks? They lost another 2%.

Okay, three months isn’t much to go on. But let’s look at the slightly longer term.

So far this year the stock market has lost about 3.5%, even when you include dividends. That’s not too bad, right?

At the same time the consumer price index has risen 3.5%. So in real terms the stock market has cost you about 7%. A diversified basket of U.S. stocks — I’ve used the ultra-low cost Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) fund as a proxy — will buy you 7% fewer goods and services than it would have done at Christmas.

Economists may talk about the threat of “deflation,” or falling prices, but steady, persistent inflation remains the reality for most people.

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