Research Question:

• Who are the top winners and losers of the financial crisis? Top Investors, economists, intellectuals, government officials, think tanks, and universities that lost or won because of the crisis

Research Findings:

We identified several winners and losers in different categories, including the following:

1. Economists, Policy Makers and Intellectuals
2. Investors and Money Managers
3. Investment Banks and Financial Firms
4. Universities and Academia
5. Economic Think Tanks

Economists, Policy Makers and Intellectuals

Top Losers

The list of the top experts whose intellectual abilities and credibility are put to question are Nobel Laureates like Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller and William Sharpe. Their work on portfolio theory underestimates equities risk in their asset pricing model. The economists from the Bush Administration including, Alan Greenspan, Ben Bernanke, Chuck Blahous, Pierce Scranton, Edward Lazear, and Henry Paulson. This group missed the crisis despite several warnings over the years.

On July 7, 2009, Cullen Roche, an opinion leader on Seeking Alpha, wrote: Ben Bernanke has no formal banking background and has never worked at an investment bank. He is a lifelong academic yet he is selected to run the most important branch of the global economy. That makes very little sense to me. This is not to say that he isn’t a phenomenally intelligent person, but if I am going to choose someone to fly my next flight he/she better have some hours in the cockpit rather than just thousands of hours reading the manual. – (Source: Seeking Alpha)

On October 3, 2010, Charles Ferguson, wrote in the Chronicle of Higher Education: “(Larry) Summers is unique but not alone. By now we are all familiar with the role of lobbying and campaign contributions, and with the revolving door between industry and government. What few Americans realize is that the revolving door is now a three-way intersection. Summers’s career is the result of an extraordinary and underappreciated scandal in American society: the convergence of academic economics, Wall Street, and political power. – (Source: The Chronicle Review)

Top Winners

Every decade or so, a few geniuses are discovered. For years they work hard trying to solve incredibly complex problems, they labor in relative obscurity until they achieve great results. At first they are ignored, dismissed or ridiculed by their peers, later they are recognized for their exceptional abilities and achievements. These exceptional experts saw what most of the world failed to see.

To be accurate in our research and to avoid offering these experts unsubstantiated titles, we looked up the definition of a genius. “A genius is someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight”.

In an article on Seeking Alpha (July 7, 2009), Cullen Roche, an opinion leader, asks “Why did economist fail to predict the crisis?” He writes: In hindsight, it seems like the crisis was so obvious… it’s still astounding that we can count the “experts” who actually predicted the crisis on two hands. And many are even skeptical of this small sampling of prescient economists and analysts. Statistically speaking you could easily make the argument that most of these “experts” who got it right were anomalies or lucky” Source: Seeking Alpha

In an interview (Dated Jan 9, 2009) with the Associated Press’s  Vice President Cheney repeatedly insisted that no one anticipated the looming U.S. financial crisis. “I don’t think anybody saw it coming,” he said.
REICHMANN: But why, why didn’t you see such a huge downfall in the economy coming?
CHENEY: I suppose because nobody anywhere was smart enough to figure that out.

Warren Buffett said no one should be punished for missing a bubble that the entire U.S. — himself included — failed to see (Source: Jessica Dye Forbes Magazine )

The list of top economists, experts and intellectuals who gained more respect and are recognized for their genius in  predicting the economic crisis include Dean Baker, Med Jones, Nouriel Roubini, and Peter Schiff.

Although Dean Baker was the first to warn about the crisis, and Med Jones had the most accurate predictions, they both were covered far less by the media.

Other winners who saw the some of the dangers of the financial sectors and warned about them include:

Brooksley Born who called for regulating derivatives and was fiercely opposed by Larry Summers and Robert Rubin  (Source: PBS Frontline )

Raghuram Rajan, former chief economist of IMF. In September of 2005 he presented a paper titled “Has the Financial Development Made the World Riskier? He focused on financial compensation incentive structures allowing bankers to take very high risks to profit in the short term while not penalizing them for losses in the long term, thus leading to imbalance in investment risk/reward decisions and putting the world at risk. (Source: NBER)

Robert Gnaizda, the cofounder of the Greenlining Institute – A public policy, research, and consumer advocacy organization, warned Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan subprime mortgages several times (Source: NY Times)

Bill Ackman Hedge Fund Manager of Pershing Square Capital Management warned about the subprime mortgage sector in May of 2007 in a presentation titled who is holding the back (Source: MarketWatch)

Robert Prechter A stock market analyst and forecaster warned about the housing bubble and its impact on the banking sector (Source: Fox News)

Nassim Taleb was also credited by many with predicting the crisis and had regular appearances on TV and major conferences like World Economic Forum in Davos.  However, our research finds that his Black Swan theory is not about the prediction of this financial crisis and the ensuing economic crisis. On the contrary, his early statements on the crisis states that no one could have predicted the crisis. The Black Swan book is more of a risk management theory explaining how unpredictable catastrophic events can impact the financial markets. We found no specific warning from him about subprime mortgages, housing bubbles and the ensuing financial market crash. Nassim Taleb books became best sellers as a result of the financial crisis. To his credit, he is correct in his criticism of the theoretical financial risks models that were flawed (in using mean variance to price risks), yet those theories won Nobel Prize in Economics and as a result many hedge funds on Wall Street used them to price their risky assets. Although he was wrongly credited with the prediction of this crisis,  this does not take away from the brilliance of his intellect and the quality of the book that he wrote.

Investors and Money Managers

Top Losers

Harvard Management Co., which runs the world’s largest endowment fund (Manages the funds of Harvard University) lost more than $10 Billion in 2008 because of the crisis (Source:Business Week). Many of Wall Street investment professional and US economist are Harvard educated. Losing so much money hurt the academic reputation of economic and investment education of the school.

The top investors who lost credibility and money because of the crisis include Warren Buffett and Len Blavatnik (Investments managed by JP Morgan), and David Tepper of Appaloosa Management

Even more surprisingly, Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett defended credit rating agencies’ performance prior to the 2008 economic collapse, saying that no one should be punished for missing a bubble that the entire U.S. — himself included — failed to see. If the rating agencies did their job, investors would have not mispriced their assets and the financial market could have avoided the collapse. Buffett, whose investment vehicle Berkshire Hathaway is the single largest shareholder of Moody’s Corp. with a 13 percent stake, delivered his remarks sitting side-by-side with Moody’s CEO and Chairman Raymond W. McDaniel. (Source: Jessica Dye Forbes Magazine )

Mr. Buffett testified that he did not know all that much about the credit rating market, even though the holding company he controls, Berkshire Hathaway, is the largest shareholder in Moody’s Investors Service. “I’ve never been to Moody’s,” he said at a hearing of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which is investigating the causes of the global crisis that led to the government bailout of big banks. “I don’t even know where they’re located. I just know that their business model is extraordinary.”  – (Source: New York Times Report)

One must wonder how Buffett and his team invested so much money without adequate due diligence. This is not a minor mistake. This is a multibillion dollar mistake.

Top Winners

Top Investors who won money because of the crisis are John Paulson, Philip Falcone, Kyle Bass, and Jeff Greene

Wall Street Firms

Top Losers

The top loser is Lehman Brothers and its CEO Richard S. Fuld, Jr. – It was the only major bank that was not bailed out by the Fed. Other top losing financial services companies, include AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, New Century Financial, DR Horton and Countrywide Financial, Bear Stearns, UBS AG Swiss bank, IndyMac, Washington Mutual, and Merrill Lynch

The Chief Economists of the biggest financial institutions including Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sacks, JP Morgan, Barclays’ Bank, Bank of America and other major financial institutions and investment firms. Many of them are ranked as top economists by the Wall Street Journal, which is a case in point about the credibility of the Wall Street Media and their role as a promotional and advertising platform than financial journalism

Top Winners

Top investment bank John Mack, CEO of Morgan Stanley — See NY Sun

For Top money managers who lost or won in 2008 because of the crisis (directly or indirectly) — See Hedgeable

More research to be done in this category

Universities and Academia

Top Losers

Ivy League Universities: Harvard, MIT, Yale, Wharton, and Northwestern

On November 22, 2010, in an article on Huffington Post, Brian Ross, wrote an ironic article on how poisonous “Ivy” League graduates made the global financial system and the global economy sick with ”toxic” banking assets. He blames Ivy League presidents, CEOs, compensations, and their policies (Source: Huffington Post)

He is right in saying that Ivy League Schools flooded Wall Street and top government jobs with their financial graduates and economists (See Guardian UK). However the article is not entirely fair and generalizes the blame by using guilt by association. On the other hand, his questioning of the fascination with brand name educational institutions rather than focusing on the individual abilities of the job candidate is a valid point.

These institutions, along with their economics and financial departments lost credibility as thought leaders and their abilities to produce top economic and financial talents.

It also is ironic that Harvard University, the top brand in business and financial education and its president, Larry Summers, who is the US Top Economic Advisor to the Obama Administration during the crisis, lost more than $10 Billion in 2008 because of the crisis (Source: Business Week).

Top Winners

Our research shows that only two research institutions predicted the economic crisis caused by the housing bubble; they are CEPR (See Dean Bakers Predictions) and International Institute of Management (See Med Jones Predictions)

Economic Think Tanks

Top Losers

Think Tanks that totally missed the crisis:

Brookings, American Enterprise Institute, Center for Economic Policy Analysis, Institute for International Economics, American Enterprise Institute, Brookings Institution, Cambridge Energy Research Associates, Cato Institute, Center for Economic Policy Analysis, Century Foundation, Committee for Economic Development, Economic Policy Institute, Economic Research Council (London), Employment Policy Foundation, Economic Strategy Institute, Heritage Foundation, Institute for International Economics, Jerome Levy Economics Institute, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Kiel Institute of World Economics, National Bureau of Economic Research, National Center for Public Policy Research, Progressive Policy Institute Rochester,  Center for Economic Research, Theoretical Research Institute United for a Fair Economy, Urban Institute, and Washington Institute for Policy Studies

Top Losers

Wall Street Economists

Stephen Stanley, RBS Securities; Nigel Gault and Brian Bethune, IHS Global Insight; Maury Harris, UBS; Neal Soss, Credit Suisse; Spencer Staples, EconAlpha; John Silvia, Wells Fargo; David Greenlaw, Morgan Stanley; Michael Feroli, JP Morgan; Dean Maki, Barclays Capital; Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs; Thomas Lam, United Overseas Bank; Kurt Karl, Swiss Re; Richard Berner, Morgan Stanley; Daniel North, Euler Hermes; Brain Fabbri, BNP Paribas;

Top Winners

Center for Economic and Policy Research CEPR (See Dean Bakers Predictions)
International Institute of Management (See Med Jones Predictions)
The Greenlining Institute who warned Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan subprime mortgages (Source: NY Times)

All three think tanks warned about the housing bubble and its impact on the economy. They are smaller in size and less prestigious, yet they were right while top think tanks were wrong.

Other research questions and findings

1. Why did the world’s top economists fail to predict the financial crisis? (Others who missed the crisis, include government leaders, award-winning scientists, market analysts and investors). Was the crisis predictable or was it a Black Swan (unpredictable) event? Are government policy makers competent enough to manage the nation’s financial freedom and security? Are economists and their policies helping or hurting our economic growth? Do we need to re-define the education of economic science and the role that economists play in our financial markets, government policies and business regulations?
2. Who is to blame for the financial crisis? Who contributed to the creation of the crisis? Can they be held responsible for their actions or inactions? Was there a conspiracy by some Wall Street executives and government officials? Do investors have legal cause to seek compensation for damages caused by Wall Street firms?
3. Who predicted the financial crisis and the ensuing economic crisis? Is there a documented evidence supporting their claims? Were those who warned about the crisis lucky or did they have a clear logic behind their predictions? Can we use their knowledge to predict future crises? What are their future predictions? How do their predictions compare with each other? Where do the experts agree and where do they disagree? How accurate are their economic predictions? Can they be relied on for investment decisions?
4. Who are the top winners and losers of the financial crisis? Top Investors, economists, intellectuals, government officials, think tanks, and universities that lost or won because of the crisis.
5. What are the lessons we can learn to avoid future crises? What the the economic policy lessons? What are the investor’s lessons? Do we need more or less financial regulations?

Who are we?

Wall Street Economists Institute is a new startup non-profit project. The website developed and managed by two research students studying in the field economics and financial journalism. We are disillusioned by our professors and the academic curriculum at our universities. We believe that independent students can conducted better research than most academic institutions. Many research professors have gotten lazy and some of them steal the ideas of hardworking research students and adapt them as their own work or publish books containing the work of their students without referencing them. We do not want to demonize any particular professor or university, we just want to conduct better research and publish the results for public awareness.

Who can participate in this project?

Anyone can contribute to the project – students and professionals alike. Our intention is to make this website an open research forum for financial journalists, economists, investors, analysts, experts, investment advisors and researchers. If we like the quality of your contribution, we will include your contribution and credit you for it. If you are interested in becoming a regular contributor or an editor, please send us links to your online bio and sample writings (blogs, articles, etc). We are also looking for a webmaster to help us with wiki setup and management.

Find out more about EconomicPredictions at http://www.economicpredictions.org

Market Plunge Baffles Wall Street

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704370704575228664083620340.html

Market Drop Fueled by a Crisis, Anxiety and an Error

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/business/economy/07norris.html

Forbes: Greek Woes Or Trader’s Mistake? Take Your Pick
http://blogs.forbes.com/streettalk/2010/05/06/greek woes or traders mistake take your pick/

Eight Things the Plunge Means for Your Money

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703686304575228704252831856.html

BLOGOSPHERE COMMENTS ON THE 2:45pm FINANCIAL MARKET CRASH in May 2010

Stockmarket crash of 998 points – Procter and Gamble down over 30 at one point in late-trading

http://www.subprimeblogger.com/2010/05/06/stock-market-crash-of-998-points-procter-and-gamble-down-over-30-at-one-point-in-late-trading/

Remaining Problems That Could Cause A Second Stock Market Crash in 2010-2011

http://www.getmoneyenergy.com/2009/11/remaining-problems-could-cause-second-stock-market-crash-2010-2011/

Dow Jones Industrial Average | Stock Market Crash By Trading Error?

http://www.busybuzzblogging.com/2762/dow-jones-industrial-average-stock-market-crash-by-trading-error/

The Web Struggling To Keep Up With The Stock Market Crash/Bounce

http://techcrunch.com/2010/05/06/stock-market-crash-web/

Where Things Stand

http://www.bespokeinvest.com/thinkbig/2010/5/6/where-things-stand.html

DEEPER INSIGHTS INTO THE 6th MAY MARKET CRASH

May 6, 2010 Recap: The Day the Market Broke

http://tradermike.net/2010/05/may-6-2010-recap-the-day-the-market-broke/

8 Theories For Why The Stock Market Plunged Almost 1000 Points In A Matter Of Minutes On May 6th

http://www.benzinga.com/266954/8-theories-for-why-the-stock-market-plunged-almost-1000-points-in-a-matter-of-minutes-on-may-

You Don’t See That Every Day: 6 Minutes of Insanity

http://www.smbtraining.com/blog/you-dont-see-that-every-day-6-minutes-of-insanity

What Caused the Crash Today?

http://pragcap.com/what-caused-the-crash-today

Does Anyone Want to Defend the Decision to Cancel Trades?

http://fridayinvegas.blogspot.com/2010/05/does-anyone-want-to-defend-decision-to.html

Algorithmic Trading and Price Volatility

http://rajivsethi.blogspot.com/2010/05/algorithmic-trading-and-price.html

How a Typo Crashed the Market

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-05-07/how-a-typo-crashed-the-market/

Forget The “Trading Error” — Today’s Sharp Pullback In Stocks Is Hardly A Surprise

http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-dont-miss-forest-for-trees-trading-error-or-no-market-closed-down-350-2010-5

Dissecting the Crash by ZeroHedge
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dissecting crash

7 Facts Nobody Wants to Hear About the Market Plunge by Steve Place
http://www.investingwithoptions.com/2010/05/06/7 facts noone wants to hear about the market plunge/

-998.50. If You Like Roller Coasters, You’ll Enjoy This
http://seekingalpha.com/article/203631 998 50 if you like roller coasters you ll enjoy this?source=hp_wc

OTHER INTERESTING LINKS

Can the government control a stock market crash?

http://money.howstuffworks.com/government-control-stock-market-crash.htm

I suvived the crash of 2:45pm TShirt from StockTwits
http://www.zazzle.com/i_survived_the_crash_tshirt 235723238369605089

The Market Plunge and Liquidity in the Start Up Business
http://seekingalpha.com/article/203665 the market plunge and liquidity in the start up business

(Please feel free to share any good resources you’ve come across in the comments section below.)

1. In depth coverage of Global financial crisis from the Financial Times (FT)
2. John Taylor on the Financial Crisis (John Taylor)
3. How the financial crisis has killed the governance reform agenda
4. The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) View on the Financial Crisis (WHO)
5. Global Financial Crisis Overview & Consequences (Global Issues)
6. The Implications of the Global Financial Crisis for Low-Income Countries (IMF)
7. America in financial crisis from MSNMoney (MSN Money Central)
8. Latest Financial Crisis, Banking crisis and Credit Crunch news (Daily Telegraph)
9. Yahoo Financial Crisis News and Headlines (Yahoo)
10. The Guardian’s View on the Financial Crisis (The Guardian)
11. The Global Financial Crisis by the IFAC (IFAC)
12. Financial crisis may have been good for the climate (New Scientist)
13. Europe’s Response to the Financial Crisis (Europa.eu)
14. Financial Crisis and Recession
15. IFC’s Response to the Financial Crisis (IFC)
16. The First Global Financial Crisis of the 21st Century
17. Colorado State University Guide to the global financial crisis (Colorado State University)
18. AOL Money & Finance Financial Crisis Guide (AOL)
19. The Financial Crisis of 2007-2009: Causes and Remedies
20. Financial Crisis in Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia (Wikipedia)
21. 2007-2009 Financial Crisis (Wikipedia)
22. The World Bank’s View on the Financial Crisis (World Bank)
23. The IMF’s View on the Financial Crisis (IMF)
24. A Plan for Addressing the Financial Crisis by Lucian Bebchuk
25. Iceland Financial Crisis from the Icelandic Government Information Center (Iceland)

Update: The Economic Predictions Project (http://www.economicpredictions.org) is another good source of research on the financial crisis.

There are a lot of good websites and links to resources about the various financial crises over the years including the one we’re in right now.

Here are 25 of the best sites, blogs and detailed reports related to the financial crisis:

1. Global financial crisis of 2008–2009 (Wikipedia)
2. The Financial Crisis by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ)
3. Real Estate Financial crisis of 2007–2009
4. The World Bank Group Crisis Talk (World Bank)
5. Global Economic Crisis by the ADB (Asian Development Bank)
6. The IMF’s Response to the Asian Crisis (IMF)
7. Latest Financial Crisis, Banking crisis and Credit Crunch news (Telegraph)
8. Credit Crisis News from The New York Times (New York Times)
9. International Financial Crises (International Economics)
10. Financial crisis by the African Development Bank (the African Development Bank)
11. The Asian Financial Crisis
12. Financial crisis by the OECD Observer (OECD)
13. The global financial crisis: implications for the South
14. Interview with Danny Leipziger on Financial Crisis (World Bank)
15. America in financial crisis (MSN Money Central)
16. THE 1997-98 ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS
17. The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis
18. The Crisis & What to Do About It (NYBooks.com)
19. The Korean Financial Crisis of 1997-98
20. Confronting the Crisis: Its Impact on the ICT Industry
21. The Unfolding Crisis (World Bank)
22. 2008 Financial Crisis (WikiInvest.com)
23. Causes of the Financial Crisis (2009)
24. Global Financial Crisis of 2008
25. Coping with Japan’s financial crisis

In fact, the money is actually being spent on a website redesign as there’s already an existing “website to foster greater accountability and transparency” in the use of funds covered by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 at www.Recovery.Gov.

So, why do we need a multi-million dollar site to report on how much money the government is spending, especially as we’ve already got one?

In an announcement from the General Services Administration, officials mentioned that the new site will allow “taxpayers to see where their dollars are being spent” but failed to reveal pertinent details about the deal where apparently only 59 companies were eligible to bid for the contract.

Although the Recovery.Gov site is supposed to create greater transparency, the management of its own redesign has certainly been surrounded by secrecy and too many unanswered questions.

As for accountability, it’ll be interesting to see how anyone justifies spending US$18million on a website upgrade.

UPDATE:

As it turns out, the contract’s price tag may be quite understandable if we take a closer look at the details:

1. The current cost of the redesign is only US$9.5 million. US$18 million is the total value of the contract including the possibility of an extension through to 2014.
2. US$9.5 million is still an enormous sum to develop a website when you consider that the technology licensing cost for UsaSpending.Gov (a larger site which tracks the entire Federal Budget) was only US$600,000. Using this as a reference, it may be reasonable to assume that a fair value for the project may fall in the region of US$2 to 3 million.
3. Further investigation reveals that there is a very tight deadline on the project, where the contractor has less than 60 days to deliver a finished product. OMB Watch explains that this could be a major reason for the high cost.

In view of the expedited timeline, the premium included in the project cost may be more understandable, even if it’s still unacceptable.

As more people face a personal financial crisis during this economic recession, many will search the Internet for information, products and services which may hopefully help them to solve their money problems.

For the purpose of this article, we thought that it would be interesting to simulate the scenario of a typical individual (such as yourself) searching for answers to their financial crisis on the web.

We are assuming that you’ve just lost your job, can’t pay the mortgage, used up all your savings and don’t have cash to pay the heating bills. As a result, you’re tense, anxious, scared and desperately needing to find a way out of this rut. You’ve heard that you can find anything on the Internet, so you charge online with the hope that you’re going to find something.

One of the problems of searching for stuff online, is that you need to know what you’re searching for and how to search for it. If you venture out without a plan of what you should be looking for, you will spend hours learning interesting new things, but at the end of your session, it’s unlikely that you will have the answers to your financial problems.

So, before starting out, it’s important to make a list of keywords covering some of the potential subjects which may help you handle your personal financial crisis. This is the list we came up:

1. personal financial crisis
2. save money
3. earn money
4. consolidate debt
5. avoid foreclosure
6. get a loan
7. find a job
8. pay medical bills

Personal Financial Crisis

The first phrase is perfect in describing our financial position and a natural place to start. We are ideally looking for a thorough guide which relates to our crisis and offers tips which lead to actionable solutions for our state of near bankruptcy.

After 15 minutes of going through the first 3 pages of results in the search engines for “personal financial crisis”, we were indeed no closer to an answer. Most of the websites from the search results had some sort of information related to personal financial crisis but none of them addressed our core needs.

This is the problem about trying to find good free online financial advice. You have to know where to go as the search engines do not always lead you to the best resources.

Here’s a list of the top results and how it doesn’t really help our dire situation:

(1) When Credit Problems Become a Personal Financial Crisis
http://ezinearticles.com/?When-Credit-Problems-Become-a-Personal-Financial-Crisis&id=1153087

The title from this first result looks interesting but if you’ve come across content from article submission sites (which this was, as evident from the domain ezinearticles.com) you’ll know that it doesn’t have much depth. We took a look anyway.

The article seemed to be fair, highlighting a number of issues which were similar to our predicament, but that was about all it did. At the end of the article, there was a link at the bottom from the author which linked to a site called ‘Solving-Credit-Problems’. Wow, that’s exactly what we need! We click on the link.

SolvingCreditProblems.com is quite an informative site which covers a wide range of subjects related to credit problems such as foreclosure, debt settlement, personal bankruptcy and more. It provide useful tips but did not offer any direct solution to our problems. For example, it shares about what you should and should not do in a debt consolidation but does not go on to suggest some good sites and providers. Overall, not bad, but not what we require.

(2) Causes of Financial Crisis
www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/learningcenter/debtknowhow/debtwarningsigns/financialcrisis.html

This is a link to an article in the learning center of Mastercard’s website. We may get some useful info here, but it’s unlikely that a credit card company is going to solve our crisis.

Upon entering the site, there was some general advice on what to do in a personal financial crisis but not much else.

(3) Avoiding Personal Financial Crisis
http://family-budgeting.blogspot.com/2006/10/avoiding-personal-financial-crisis.html

This is a personal blog by Bill Nadraszky who share’s good tips to avoid financial problems. Again useful, but not directly helping us.

(4) The Financial Crisis’s Sacrificial Lambs
www.meshio.com/2009/02/the-financial-crisiss-sacrificial-lambs/

Yes, we feel like a sacrificial lamb now, perhaps this article was going to truly relate and provide answers. We took a look and found a short post featuring the Top 25 People to blame for the financial crisis. Interesting, but not solving our cash problems.

(5) 5 errors to avoid in a financial crisis
www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/20050524b1.asp

The fact that the brief description in Google stated that this article was from May 2005 was not encouraging. Any article addressing our needs should ideally be quite recent so that it can cover the benefits from the Economic Recovery Stimulus Package. We clicked and found another general article. Good content but much of the same again.

(6) Take Control of Your Financial Crisis
www.credit.com/products/loans/Facing-a-Financial-Crisis.jsp

This was by far the best link so far. The guide is detailed and provides clear steps which you can take to manage your personal financial crisis. It would have been good to see more links to suggested financial service providers.

(7) Making a Better Life: Preparing for the Post-Katrina Personal Financial Crisis
www.brookings.edu/opinions/2005/1018communitydevelopment_lee.aspx?rssid=new+orleans

An article directly related to Katrina from 2005. No answers here.

(8) Twentyhood
www.twentyhood.com/2008/11/24/college-sophomore-fixes-personal-finance-crisis-or-does-he/

A blog post talking about teaching personal finance in high school to solve personal financial crisis issues. Interesting.

(9) Books on Business & Economics
http://www.alibris.com/search/books/subject/Business%20Economics%20Personal%20Finance%20Money%20Management

Books may help, but not now, we need immediate solutions.

(10) financial crisis- Personal Finance Forums
http://www.savingadvice.com/forums/personal-finance/6719-financial-crisis.html

Looks promising but it turns out to be a 2005 forum post by someone claiming to be in a personal financial crisis because he can’t get a loan to buy a piece of land.

Hardly the same as not being able to pay your gas bills!

CCH Financial Crisis News Center

To follow current events on the financial crisis from the legal community, you should take a look at the CCH Financial Crisis News Center which may be found at FinancialCrisisUpdate.com.

This site is maintained by legal editors who state this about their site:

The CCH Financial Crisis News Center is intended to provide the legal community and others with news and links to vital information on the current financial crisis.

Recovery.Gov

Another site which is essential for tracking the financial crisis and the economic recession is Recovery.Gov. In the site, it states their mission as:

• Education: Explain the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
• Transparency: Show how, when, and where the money is spent
• Accountability: Provide data that will allow citizens to evaluate the Act’s progress and provide feedback

It goes on to say:

The site will include information about Federal grant awards and contracts as well as formula grant allocations. Federal agencies will provide data on how they are using the money, and eventually, prime recipients of Federal funding will provide information on how they are using their Federal funds.

To keep abreast of the latest developments, Recovery.Gov also lets you sign up for updates via Email and allows you to Share your Recovery story.

More: Who Benefits from the US Stimulus Package?