60 Minutes has an excellent 9 min expose on the “shadow banking system”, the unregulated trades of complex derivatives that led to this collapse.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4502673n%3fsource=search_video

Lastly, Seth Godin has perhaps the best advice on personal finances, similar to what Michelle and Suze advocate, I send this URL to many of my associates in high school and college.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/urgent-personal.html

Only borrow money to pay for things that increase in value.

It’s a short list: your business, your house and your education, mostly. Stocks if you’re smarter than me. That’s pretty much it.

I thank you for your time and consideration.

When you think about it, her mural makes her home an extension of herself instead of an impersonal place meant for others. Your home is your home and she has imprinted her will and her soul into the mural therefore the house becomes hers. If her husband could paint a mural or some other art form then he too could imprint his will and soul into the home thus making it his as well.

Their daughter is already doing her job to imprint her will and soul into her portion of her home.

Very good.

I’ve got a great one to add to your business reading list, “Nice Girl’s Don’t Get the Corner Office” by Lois Frankel. It’s all about how we are raised as girls not really being condusive to the business world. I loved it (and saw too much of myself in some of the ‘bad’ behaviors). It’s geared towards women in the business/corporate culture, but some of the ideas transend into everyday interactions. Remind me to get it to you soon.

J

Looking forward to more- have already marked as a favourite!!

Alison

I have just finished reading “Einstein: His Life and Universe” by Walter Isaacson (Simon&Schuster 2007). This 550 page biography is only for the most devoted of Einstein fans. As if to suport the adage that you can’t teach an ol’ dog old knowledge, I am ashamed to admitt that I still have no real understanding of the Theory of Relativity. However, I did pick-up a better understanding of the man behind the theory.

Having fled Hitler’s Germany, Einstein became convinced that the Germans were on the scientific and technological path to developing an atomic bomb. Acting on his fears, he wrote FDR a letter explaining his concerns and suggesting that the US put together a scientific committee to explore the posssibility of building a bomb of our own in self-defense. Roosevelt had no idea what uranium was, but believed if Einstein was worried, he should be too. He ordered the committee formed, and this led to the creation of the Manhattan Project and, ultimately, our development, and use, of the first atomic bomb.

Ironically, Einstein was not invited to participate. He was considered a security risk because he was a conditional pacifits and an advocate of ‘world government’. Einstein would spend the rest of life supporting people and policies that worked to ensure that atomic weapons were never again used, but the US government never would trust him.

In death, a well-intentioned, but guileless, doctor stole Einstein’s brain and put it in a cookie jar. But, as I look around the world today, our loss is not Einstein’s brain, but his mind. Where are the leaders who THINK as he did.

I enjoyed the book.

Cheers!
Heather