Archive for February 8, 2008

Free, basic online options classes

Although I’m an instructor of Internet technology, I like to incorporate finance and economics into my classes every opportunity I get. Here are some good online courses for beginning options traders (and good for the classroom). Let me stress that I link to these for learning and entertainment purposes only. I am not offering financial tips. Besides, taking financial advice from me would be equivalent to taking longevity advice from Dr. Kevorkeian.

Solar activity

This article on global warming begins:

Back in 1991, before Al Gore first shouted that the Earth was in the balance, the Danish Meteorological Institute released a study using data that went back centuries that showed that global temperatures closely tracked solar cycles.

To many, those data were convincing. Now, Canadian scientists are seeking additional funding for more and better “eyes” with which to observe our sun, which has a bigger impact on Earth’s climate than all the tailpipes and smokestacks on our planet combined.

And ends:

The study says that “try as we might, we simply could not find any relationship between industrial activity, energy consumption and changes in global temperatures.”

The study concludes that if you shut down all the world’s power plants and factories, “there would not be much effect on temperatures.”

But if the sun shuts down, we’ve got a problem. It is the sun, not the Earth, that’s hanging in the balance.

Cigarette taxes

The Tax Foundation says higher taxes on goods can drive consumers to the black market.

Health care mandates

This article on health care mandates in the WSJ begins:

To hear some of the presidential candidates, you’d think that health-insurance companies are the driving force behind the growing cost of health insurance. The more likely culprits are our politicians and the laws they pass.

Other people’s money

Don Boudreaux says you can’t be generous with other people’s money.

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