home >> global news >> money
Favorite Money Links
History of Money from Ancient Times to the Present Day
(UK) Excerpts from renowned economist Glyn Davies’ seminal book on the history of money have been made available online for free by his eldest son, Roy Davies, librarian at the University of Exeter. Learn about the origins of money and banking and trace the development of money in its sociological and political context.
Financial News & Views
Bernie Schaeffer’s Market Forecast
(US) Market-timing investment guru Bernie Schaeffer’s oft-bearish newsletter has a sterling reputation among journalists and investors. Now you can get free email alerts from Bernieevery day four times a day.
Calvert Group Online
(US) The Calvert Group, offering a selection of socially responsible investing (SRI) opportunities in the form of mutual funds, has been in the forefront of the SRI movement for over twenty years. The Calvert website offers investors deep background about socially responsible investing, including an explanation of SRI investment philosophy, which utilizes both financial analysis and social analysis when scrutinizing investment opportunities. The Shareholder Activism Center is an interactive web-based tool which provides extensive coverage of shareholder resolutions focused on issues of interest to socially aware investors. This tool contains a wide range of resolutions pertaining to the environment, corporate governance, global finance, human rights, militarism, health, and equality. The Calvert Social Index™ is a broad-based, rigorously constructed benchmark for measuring the performance of large, US-based socially responsible companies. This section of the Web site provides comprehensive information on the list of companies in the Index, social analysis profiles, the daily value and performance of the Index and the industry sector representation.
CBS Marketwatch
(US) Free membership gets you market news, personal stock portfolios, message boards, alerts, and email newsletters on your favorite investment flavors.
CERES
(US) CERES is the leading American coalition of environmental, investor and advocacy groups and corporations working together to create a sustainable economic future. The 70+ CERES companies commit to the CERES principles and to continuous environmental improvement.
CSRWire
(US) Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire provides a library of corporate non-financial reports, including sustainability, corporate citizenship, Environmental, Health & Safety reports and similar documents, which are presented as received from the issuing company.
 The Daily Deal
(US) New York’s only daily newspaper dedicated to Wall Street’s never-ending obsession with mergers, acquisitions and other market-moving financial transactions.
Domini Social Investments
(US) Domini is an investment firm specializing exclusively in socially responsible investing. Domini manages more than $1.5 billion in assets for individual and institutional investors who wish to integrate social and environmental criteria into their investment decisions. Domini’s Learning & Planning section provides information on investment basics, saving for college, and retirement planning, as well as an array of calculators to help you plan your financial future. Domini Social Equity Fund is the oldest and largest socially and environmentally screened index fund in the world. Domini Social Bond Fund and the Domini Money Market Account invest in community economic development. Social screening criteria reflect both environmental and social concerns. Shareholder advocacy is vital to Domini. They filed sixteen resolutions in 2003, and are currently in dialogue with Merrill Lynch on environmental issues, and with Gap, McDonald’s Walt Disney and Nordstrom on vendor standards.
Economist
 (UK) This venerable and powerful media institution exists to fulfill global investors’ need for the unvarnished truth about political and economic events around the world, wrapped in a bright, sparkling package of laissez-faire Utopian ideology. Even its detractors acknowledge that the research is impeccable, and the ideology state-of-the-art.
Financial Times of London
(UK) The daily news voice of the City of London and the global investors whose collective daily electronic votes empower corporate chieftains providing the newest financial instrument flavor of the month and disempower political leaders who have the temerity to challenge the structural assumptions of neo-liberal globalization.
GreenMoney Journal
(US) This quarterly magazine published in New Mexico tracks trends in socially responsible investing, results of SRI mutual funds, vehicles for community investment strategies that build up local communities rather than tearing them down, and much, much more.
Institutional Investor
(US) Here’s the online home of the professional investor who manages mega-dollar portfolios for the jet-set, pension funds and mutual funds. There’s a wealth of free news here, geared to those with a professional’s knowledge and experience of financial markets.
Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
(US) For over thirty years the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) has been a leader of the corporate social responsibility movement. ICCR's membership is an association of 275 faith- based institutional investors, including national denominations, religious communities, pension funds, endowments, hospital corporations, economic development funds and publishing companies. ICCR and its members press companies to be socially and environmentally responsible. Each year ICCR- member religious institutional investors sponsor over 100 shareholder resolutions on major social and environmental issues. The combined portfolio value of ICCR's member organizations is estimated to be $110 billion. Investors interested in joining ICCR’s campaigns for corporate responsibility can find out how they can participate on ICCR’s shareholder resolutions page. Issues include: access to health care, corporate governance, environmental justice, global warming, human rights, militarization of society, food and water.
Investopedia.com
(CAN) Here’s a free online encyclopedia and self-paced course of instruction in Finance 101, along with more advanced tutorials that will make you a personal finance expert. An online dictionary, tutorials, exams and articles help you understand the basics of asset allocation strategies, technical analysis of stocks, fundamental analysis of companies, tax issues, hedge funds, mutual funds, commodity trading, and more. Free tools and educational guides offer free home study guides, CD-ROMs, videos, books and software.
Microsoft MoneyCentral
(US) Investing, planning, mortgages, taxes, and banking all in one place. Stories from Louis Rukeyser’s CNBCTV show, Morningstar, and Briefing.com. Plus commentary by financial journalist and technician Jim Jubak, contrarian investment manager Bill Fleckenstein, and other market mavens. Online account aggregation enables you to quickly see account information from all your financial institutions on one webpage. Create an online budget, plan for retirement and manage your portfolio online.
 Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum
(US) Morgan Stanley’s controversial, somewhat contrarian Chief Economist, Stephen Roach, and the Morgan Stanley economics team provide weekday commentaries on the US and global economic trends, region by region. These commentaries are well worth reading, and provide some insight into the mental maps of globalization’s shock troops on Wall Street and Main Street, a kind of electro-encelphalogram of DavosMan.
Northern Trust Economic Research
(US) Northern Trust administers over $2 trillion in assets for institutions and high net worth individuals. Northern Trust economists, led by the eminently quotable Paul Kasriel, who has a well-justified reputation for probity and honesty among financial journalists and investors alike, provide free daily and weekly web-based market commentary, and monthly US economic forecasts, as well as occasional global economic forecasts.
SmartMoney
(US) Personal finance, market news, investment trends, selected stories from The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and SmartMoney magazine. Cool java applets provide visually stunning stock screening tools and real-time streaming quotes for investors willing to pay a modest subscription fee.
SocialFunds.com
(US) SocialFunds.com is the largest website devoted to socially responsible investing, with over 10,000 pages of information on SRI mutual funds, community investments, corporate research, shareowner actions, and daily social investment news. Order a free mutual funds guide to help you get started in green investing, or check out the many flavors of SRI mutual funds in the mutual funds center, where you’ll find descriptions, performance histories percentile rankings and more. The Community Investment Center offers comprehensive listings of community investment opportunities, and you can also order a free community investment guide online.
StarIQ.com
 (US) Market Week with Raymond Merriman combines technical analysis of market trends around the world with astrological interpretations of the market hive mind, price trends and analysis of major global events likely to affect the world money flow. In the Business and Finance section, Robert Gover and other astrologers provide big picture articles on long-term global cycles, social and political trends and financial news stories that combine analytical skills, historical perspective and a feel for the astrological configurations that shape the years to come. Free personalized astrology forecasts via email. Extensive directory of astrologers. New articles daily about celebrities, health, relationships, business, finance and sports with an astrological perspective.
Stocks & Commodities Magazine
(US) A free selection of stories from a magazine for short-term traders, focusing on technical analysis of stocks and commodities. This is for the financial propeller-head. Don’t use this information to make investment decisions if you don’t understand the jargon. Undigested financial wisdom can be dangerous to your portfolio!
Public Policy, Economics and Financial Democracy
50 Years is Enough: US Network for Global Economic Justice
 |
|
"Banks Redlining the Community" by Jane Sherry | (US) 50 Years Is Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice is a coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social- and economic-justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Network works in solidarity with over 185 international partner organizations in more than 65 countries. Through education and action, the Network is committed to transforming the international financial institutions' policies and practices, to ending the outside imposition of neo-liberal economic programs, and to making the development process democratic and accountable. We were founded in 1994, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Bank and IMF. We focus on action-oriented economic literacy training, public mobilization, and policy advocacy. Key issues include: debt cancellation for poor countries, women and economic justice, the environment, privatization and free trade.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
(US) The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is one of the nation’s premier policy organizations working at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. In addition, the Center examines the short- and long-term impacts that proposed policies would have on the health of the economy and on the soundness of federal and state budgets. Among the issues explored are whether federal and state governments are fiscally sound and have sufficient revenue to address critical priorities, both for low-income populations and for the nation as a whole. Key issues include: the federal budget, federal tax structure, health policies and medicare prescription drug legislation.
Center for Economic and Policy Research
(US) A left-of-center public policy research organization, The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) was established to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people's lives. Key issues include: globalization, International Monetary Fund and World Bank activities, World Trade Organization & other international economic issues and vital information on Social Security: The Phony Crisis. For those who don’t believe everything the read in the daily papers, but don’t have all the facts on every financial issue at their fingertips, check out The Economic Reporting Review, a weekly analysis of business and economics articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post by CEPR Co-Director Dean Baker.
Center for Economic Policy Analysis
(US) New York’s New School University’s economics research center, CEPA’s three main areas of research are macroeconomic policy, inequality and poverty, and globalization. CEPA conducts conferences and publishes presenters’ conference papers online, along with articles and other research. Current projects include: Program on Markets, Equality and Democracy, and External Liberalization, Economic Growth and Distribution, and Social Policy, a project funded by the Ford Foundation.
Economic Policy Institute
 (US) The Economic Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank that seeks to broaden the public debate about strategies to achieve a prosperous and fair economy. The EPI is the most influential left-of-center economic policy organization in Washington, often quoted in the major media. The EPI homepage provides articles analyzing economic trends and statistics in the news. You’ll find issue guides on wage trends, poverty and family budgets, retirement security, unemployment insurance and welfare. Special sections with rich research papers include: government and the economy, and trade and globalization.
Financial Markets Center
(US) The Financial Markets Center is an independent, nonprofit institute that provides research and education resources to grassroots groups, unions, policymakers and journalists interested in the Federal Reserve System and financial markets. This organization has done more to pierce the legendary veil of central bank secrecy than any other group in Washington. Here's the link to their Fed Archives where you can find transcripts of meetings by the ultra-secretive Federal Reserve Board and a range of free publications analyzing US and global monetary policy, money flows, and financial market operations, including FOMC Alert (timely analysis of the latest activities by the Federal Reserve Board and Federal Reserve Banking System), Beige Book Review and Analysis (same-day analysis of the Fed’s main report on economic conditions around the US, published eight times a year), Capital Flows Monitor (quarterly analysis of international capital and investment flows and trends), and much, much more.
Global Exchange
(US) Global Exchange is an international human rights organization dedicated to promoting political, social and environmental justice globally. GE provides research and analysis of key issues as well as tools for activists to become immediately involved. Key issues include: fair trade, including chocolate and coffee campaigns and fair trade stores; oil and automobile addiction, sweatshops, including the Gap campaign, the Nike campaign, the China campaign, and more; peace in Iraq, human rights in Palestine and an Afghanistan sister school project that helps in rebuilding Afghani schools and engages in cultural exchange programs.
Jerome Levy Economics Institute
(US) Upstate New York’s Bard College is the home of this world-renowned economic research organization. Here’s where you’ll find deep, lengthy analysis of crucial public policy issues at the intersection of Washington and Wall Street from a point of view untainted by the desire to sell stocks, bonds or commodities products to gullible investors, and uncontaminated by the conventional free-market Utopianism now endemic in the economic departments of many major US universities.
Jubilee Research
(UK) Jubilee Research is building on the work of the hugely successful Jubilee 2000 debt cancellation campaign, and has attained a well-deserved reputation for providing up-to-date, accurate research, analyses, news and data on international debt and finance.
Jubilee Research policy platform:
- advocating 100% cancellation of the unpayable and uncollectible debts of developing countries;
- promoting a framework of justice and discipline for relations between sovereign debtors and international creditors. The primary vehicle for this would be an international insolvency process (the Jubilee Framework - outlined in our report "Chapter 9/11? Resolving international debt crises - the Jubilee Framework for international insolvency");
- democratizing the international financial activities of sovereign governments and multilateral institutions, making them more transparent and accountable to citizens;
- highlighting environmentally sustainable policies for financing development;
- advocating the repayment of the north's ecological debts to countries of the south;
- critiquing IMF-imposed structural adjustment policies which, by imposing deflationary economic policies, help to transfer assets from sovereign debtors to international creditors. IMF policies elevate the rights of foreign creditors over those of citizens, and remove policy autonomy from sovereign governments;
- developing policies for financing development in a more self-reliant way, without recourse to dependency on foreign donors and creditors
New Economics Foundation
 (UK) NEFwas founded in 1986 by the leaders of The Other Economic Summit (TOES) which forced issues such as international debt onto the agenda of the G7 and G8 summits. NEF works to create new ways of measuring progress towards increased well-being and environmental sustainability. Key projects include:
Time banks. Barter-based community organizations create what amounts to an alternative local currency enabling professionals and concerned individuals to swap products and services with one another. Hundreds of such organizations have sprung up in the US, the UKand Japan.
Climate catalyst. Working with environmental advocates, anti-poverty campaigners, leading scientists and policy analysts NEF is developing a new architecture for protecting the world’s atmosphere and delivering a more equitable system for meeting human development needs. NEF's aim is to develop a unique international movement for change accommodating the needs of poor countries while working within the constraints of the global atmosphere
Participation & democracy. Current models of representative democracy are not working. They have alienated people from politics and have created policies that do not always work in practice. NEF’s participation and democracy program creates new innovative tools to engage people in decision-making and promotes practical action and awareness raising. Through the people in public services program, NEF explores how people can become directly involved in public services like health and education, building on practical experience of the power of timebanks.
New Internationalist
(UK) NI is a monthly magazine that represents the voice of a new generation of global activism, with reports and articles and photos by writers and photographers from both developed and developing countries. Published by a communications co-operative, NI exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless in both rich and poor nations; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary if the basic material and spiritual needs of all are to be met. Here’s where you’ll find a doorway to the ideas, food, music, books and art favored by the local intellectuals, activists and community leaders on the front lines of the struggle against rampant globalization.
(All photos this page without a caption are from stock photography)
Articles:
 2/08 Global NewsLetter: The Coming Collapse of Globalization
by Curtis Lang 2/7/2008
We are witnessing the slow motion collapse of “globalization”, which is shorthand for a set of political, economic and social policies, including Reaganomics, free trade and the leveling down of global wages, human rights and environmental protection, financial deregulation and corporate oligarchy. more >>
|
 A New Meaning for Car Wash
6/1/1993
Forget "Miami Vice" and high-speed chases on cigar boats and shootouts with South American thugs armed with semiautomatic weapons.The really heavy federal drug enforcement artillery is now being trained on suburban car salesmen." more >>
|
 Follow the Money
by Curtis Lang 2/10/2005
Eliot Spitzer’s insurance probe promises to shake up business as usual in the $1 trillion industry -- and in Albany, where campaign finance reform may be the only solution to the problem. more >>
|
 Irrational Exuberance: Deja-vu All Over Again?
2/21/2001
"Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin," explained famous philosopher, Hall of Fame ballplayer, and pennant-winning Manager (for the both the Yankees and Mets), Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, when asked about a long dry spell at the plate.
He could have been speaking for the equity markets' hivemind this week. The Nasdaq composite is off more than 53% from its high reached less than one year ago. After a big January pop, the COMP ended the month 46% off its March 2000 peak, and then proceeded to lose another 16% from its January 31 level.
more >>
|
Is Bad News Good for the Net?
11/12/2000
The dot-com bubble has burst. The Nasdaq bear refuses to go into hibernation for the winter. “Geek chic” suddenly looks as tired and dated as those Priceline PCLN ads with William Shatner that looked so cool only a few months ago, when Priceline’s stock was soaring.
more >>
|
 June 2012 Cosmic Weather Forecast Part 2: Uranus-Pluto Global Financial Meltdown Part Deux
by Curtis Lang with Jane Sherry 6/4/2012
Europe is melting down. The top ten industrialized debtor nations owe $70 trillion. There are $700 trillion in derivative debt instruments resting upon that $70 trillion in debt. So if these countries’ debts begin to default and financial markets and banks lose confidence in the ability of counter-parties to make good on the $700 trillion in extremely complicated wagers and counter-wagers they have made to one another it’s game over! more >>
|
 Microsoft.Net: Is it time yet?
7/11/2001
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Oracle chieftain Larry Ellison should be delighted with Microsoft’s new .NET initiative, unveiled last month. more >>
|
more articles >> |
|
