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Web links for Finance & Economics

Those studying the Virtual US Bank of Biz/ed are encouraged to seek out additional data about money, banking, macroeconomics, and the operations of the Federal Reserve Bank through use of Internet search engines such as Yahoo! and Google. Instructors may assign a variety of related research topics. Students should be careful to choose reputable sources with appropriate bibliographic references.

The purpose of this document is to develop a set of URL addresses that will provide students with accessible information about business and finance and economics. With the advent of the Web, so much information is available that even experts can be overwhelmed. It would be easy to get hundreds of URL's on finance and economics, many of them excellent. It's often better to know the quirks of a few sites well rather than try to access dozens of sites. The intent here is to provide basic information about quality sites in finance and economics.

This document has been created and maintained by James Taylor PhD, Associate Professor, University of Guam. Students, faculty, and staff who discover websites that provide new and useful URLs with information about business and finance and economics are invited to submit them for future editions of this document. Send the suggestions to jtaylor@kuentos.guam.net. Especially useful are collections of articles about finance, economics, and business that come with good search engines and no charge for access.

Note the categories can have a lot of overlap. Fund companies have become brokerage houses. Brokerage houses can be excellent sources of investment research. This listing does assume that students are able to utilize search engines such as Yahoo! and Google.

Investment Information

The Motley Fool

This is one of the oldest do it yourself investment sites. Thoughtful amateurs do almost all of the investment analysis. They specialize in an approach called "free cash flow." Unfortunately, like many other formerly free sites, Motley Fool now charges for some of its material. Motley Fool thinks an intelligent, thoughtful investor can beat the market. What do you think?

Morningstar

This is probably the best known of all the companies that evaluate mutual fund as well as stock performance. Overall the company does excellent work. This site started as an adjunct to the printed publication. They are now charging for specialized on-line access. Many retirement funds offer access to Morningstar as part of their investment package.

Site-by-Site

This site provides access to information and research about international investing.

Bloomberg

This is another well-known site with comprehensive information related to investing. This site has the information that made the current (2008) mayor of New York City very, very rich.

Yahoo! Finance

This site has a search engine / portal approach to providing investment information. You have to wade through a lot of ads, you may need to sign up, but the information is there and it's free. You can also find a currency converter

Standard & Poor's

You can get access to the S&P information in several ways including having an E-Trade account.

Savings Bonds

Information on investing in US savings bonds.

Investing in Bonds

More information on investing in bonds.

Hoover's Company Research

This site has one of the largest databases on companies available anywhere, from the large to the small, from the public to the private. Unfortunately Hoovers charges for much of the most comprehensive information. They have a "lite" version available for $59.95 a month.

Daily FX Currency Trading

This is a good site to track what's happening to your money, no matter in what country you live.

XE Currency

These people claim to be the world's favorite currency site.

Media, Newspapers, & Magazines

The Wall Street Journal

If you want to use just one source, this is the one to have.

The Asian Wall Street Journal

The Far Eastern twin of the WSJ.

Barron's

A weekly WSJ publication with more of a focus on investing.

The Financial Times

The one to have if you live in London, or are really into international finance.

The New York Times

All the news that's fit to print.

The Economist

If you want to impress people in Washington DC or New York City, read this while on the subway into the District or into Manhattan. Of course if you were really important, you wouldn't be riding the subway.

Forbes

Where the real businessmen / women gather. Read the annual Forbes 400 rankings to see where you stand.

Fortune

Business Week

Harvard Business Review

Thoughtful thought about business. Home to many of the business cases that you are given.

CNN Money.Com

CFO (Chief Financial Officer)

An excellent, free magazine that takes the perspective of people interested in finance. A good place to research articles. To get on the mailing list you have to fill out a long application. It can be difficult to qualify. However the website has all the material found in the magazine and it has search capabilities. It is a good place to start research.

Media, Newspapers, and Magazines: The Pacific

KUAM

Pacific Daily News

Pacific Magazine

Fund Companies

Vanguard

This is one of the very largest fund companies with an excellent reputation as a provider of no load index funds. Vanguard provides access to a number of good publications. The site is not always easy to navigate.

TIAA-CREF

This is another very large fund and insurance company providing no load funds. Originally it specialized in providing retirement programs to teachers. The teachers forced the company to provide additional investment options. Smart teachers.

Fidelity

This is perhaps the best known of all fund companies, made famous by Peter Lynch and the Magellan Fund. This company has given loaded funds a good name. For another perspective, see Morningstar for June 6, 2005.

Web-Based Brokerage Houses

Charles Schwab

This is probably the best known of all the online brokerage houses.

E*TRADE

This is one of the earliest and also better known of the online brokerage houses.

Direct Investing / Temper of the Times

This company provides an easy way to join Dividend Reinvestment Plans (called DRP's or DRIP's or DSP's). This is one of the best ways for small investors to purchase a variety of stocks with minimal expenses. It is also reasonably possible to manage a portfolio of over $1,000,000 using DRP's. DRP's provide one of the easier ways to utilize the annual $3,000 IRS gift to small investors. You say you don't know about the gift? Check out your 1040.

The Federal Reserve

New York Federal Reserve

San Francisco Federal Reserve

The San Francisco Federal Reserve also covers Guam.

Saint Louis Federal Reserve Economic Research

The Saint Louis Fed maintains over 15,000 separate time series dealing with economics and finance. The Saint Louis Fed also maintains FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research. The site provides over 40 thousand pages of historical economic data. Everything you always wanted to know about economic data, and then some.

Minneapolis Federal Reserve - Glossary

This site provides a list of definitions of economic terms related to banking and economics.

US Government Sites

First Government

Even the federal government has a portal.

Congressional Budget Office

Where Congress gets all the facts fit to print.

Office of Management and Budget

Where all the President's men get all the facts fit to print.

Government Printing Office

Where the rest of us get all the facts the feds want to print. See the annual Economic Report of the President.

The US Department of the Treasury

See also http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov and Treasury Direct (see below).

Treasury Direct

Do you want to play ball in the very same market arena with big time investment managers that buy and sell a billion dollars at a time? Here you can play with the big boys. Just be sure you don't get an elbow in the ribs. This site even explains TIPS. Can you? Who needs a local banker or a broker?

The US Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Even the feds can have a sense of humor. Or are they serious?

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

The US Mint

Social Security

You're young and ambitious. Do you want the right to make your own decisions with a portion of your social security funds? What about everyone else? Why do both Congress and the Executive Branch worry about the fiscal consequences of giving people control over their own retirement monies? Where is that social security money anyway?

US Department of Labor

Bureau of Labor Statistics

Home to the people that count workers, not beans.

US Department of Commerce

US Bureau of Economic Analysis

This is a group within the Department of Commerce.

US Bureau of the Census

This is another group within the Department of Commerce. The abundance of information available at the Census Bureau makes the Saint Louis Fed look like amateurs. This is the group that annually produces The Statistical Abstract of the United States. A wonderful CD-ROM version is available in which all the pdf tables are linked to Excel worksheets that you can manipulate yourself. A number of reports on Guam are available. Related sites include:

CIA World Factbook

Where the "spooks" go to get their information.

Library of Congress

Stat-USA Internet

This is an effort by the US Department of Commerce to provide relevant business and economic information in one place.

Internal Revenue Service

US Postal Service

Home to 'snail mail'.

Securities and Exchange Commission - Filings

Where to get 10K reports for most companies.

Sites for Other Governments

The United Nations

If you've ever talked with someone who has worked for the UN you will realize there is a wonderful irony here.

The International Monetary Fund

The European Union and the Euro

Secretariat of the Pacific Community - Pacific Regional Information System

Reference Sites and NGO's

The Library of Economics and Liberty

This site provides copies of many classic economics texts along with a comprehensive search engine. The site supports a free market point of view. They maintain an excellent set of annotated links to online bibliographic material, especially but not uniquely in the area of economics and finance. They also maintain the Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. It's a good place to get a quick review of various economic topics.

The Economic Policy Institute

Economagic

This site has lots of charts and time series.

The Herbert Simon Collection

The Carnegie Mellon University Library maintains a special digital collection of the works of Herbert Simon. He was a psychologist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978. Many of his most important papers are available here. For example you can log on and review Reprint #127 ("Rational Choice and the Structure of the Environment" -- PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW 63 -- 1954, 1956). This is the work that helped introduce the concept of satisficing, an approach to economics that provides an alternative to consideration of rational economic optimization.