Reaction to Kiplinger’s Review

Kiplinger magazine reviewed my book, Whatever Happened to Thrift. They called it one of the “top money books of 2008.”

I thank the editors at Kiplinger for their kind words and attention to my book.

American Optimists

My posting today is published by Forbes. Its title is “American Optimists” and it discusses why some of the successes our country has had in the past make it more difficult for us to save.

I thank Forbes for taking an interest in my writing.

Interview on “The Takeaway”

“The Takeaway” is a radio show produced by WNYC and Public Radio International in conjunction with the New York Times and BBC.  They interviewed me this morning on material related to the book. It aired live on WNYC, New York; WGBH, Boston and on several other radio stations in the U.S.

How the Government Discourages Savings

This post was picked up by Forbes and they have asked me to pull it from my own blog site, at least temporarily. You can follow this link to the published version at Forbes.com.

PBS Interview — Your Investments with Adam Bold

This is an interview (with me) that recently aired on the PBS show “Your Investments with Adam Bold.” TV is certainly restrictive in the sense that any discussion must be very short, but it does briefly touch on a couple of ideas in the book — American’s endemic optimism and some gender-based issues in investing.

Interview: The Financial Sense Newshour

Here is a longish interview I did for The Financial Sense Newshour with Jim Puplava. It was released over this past weekend.  It contains links to the audio in several formats.

PBS Interview — Your Investments with Adam Bold, Part 2

Adam Bold, founder and Chief Investment Officer of the Mutual Fund Store, invited me to do an interview for his PBS show “Your Investments with Adam Bold.” Although filmed at the same time as the first interview with him I posted this material aired on a subsequent episode of the show. In the interview I discuss some steps the federal government could take to increase savings, as well as other issues surrounding savings. 

Vanguard’s MoneyWhys

Just a short post. Someone at Vanguard Mutual Funds wrote about my book in their newsletter “MoneyWhys.” It is a short, well-written article that describes one argument made in the book for why Americans engage in over-consumption. Although I have been very critical of the mutual fund industry in some recent posts, Vanguard really is an exception to the rule in many ways. In particular, their funds generally have very low fees and they spend a considerable amount of time and resources educating their shareholders about financial planning and the mutual fund industry.

Podcast from American Bankruptcy Institute

Here is a link to a podcast I recently did for the American Bankruptcy Institute.  It is about 20 minutes in length. It mainly covers the book, but does take a detour into current politics, talks more extensively about the particular challenges of getting younger Americans to save than the book does, and comments on David Brooks’ recent editorializing,

The Forgotten Issue

Here is an updated and expanded commentary on the presidential candidates’ positions on some important issues with respect to household savings. It is in the form of an editorial published in Financial Week magazine.