Wealth Think

Whether you’re a NY Giants fan or a New England Patriots fan, one thing was clear. Super Bowl XLII was pretty much devoid of financial services advertising fluff while beer, soft drink and car ads dominated, as usual.

Learning about finance and how to manage your money is like learning a new language.

It wasn't long ago that Eliot Spitzer, reveling in the glory of a national media frenzy for having shaken down Wall Street scams with a power not even the entire Securities and Exchange Commission could muster, hinted he might one day run for president of the United States.

Let's hope Social Security remains a fixture on the American scene. There are too many senior citizens dependent on it, and with $1 million seeming to be the magic retirement savings goal, a vast majority are going to fall far short of that. In fact, some experts have said that even wealthy investors will be at least partially dependent on Social Security.

Let's be realistic about New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, a man many in the mutual fund industry detest for launching the timing and late-trading investigations.

Amid the sobering talk of a possible recession, there were two pieces of news last week that are cause for additional consternation. First, bond guru Bill Gross of Pimco warned that the subprime crisis could linger for another two years, wiping out another $250 billion in loan defaults through the end of next year on top of the $900 billion worth of current questionable collateralized debt obligations and subprime loans.

A new marketing idea we've been hearing at recent conferences for the mutual fund industry is the notion of embracing new technologies, including blogging, instant messaging, chat rooms, webcasts, podcasts, websites tailored for each individual investor and even creating communities along the lines of facebook.com and YouTube.com.

It's been four years since Noreen Harrington has appeared on the scene, but she recently spoke before an industry group on why she blew the whistle on the market timing and late trading at Canary Capital, setting off the shocking scandal that rocked the fund industry, cost it $5 billion in fines and nearly tarnished its reputation forever.

Hedge funds in Europe have just proposed that they self-police, in an attempt to ward off regulation. They are offering to volunteer information about their holdings, risk management, governance and valuation techniques.

It isn't often that mutual fund firms launch remarkable, truly unique new products. Certainly, exchange-traded, lifecycle, 130/30 and emerging-market funds have been among the most significant and popular offerings in recent years.