In his book Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty [my review], Nobel Peace Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus argues that one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and overpopulation is to boost the economic status of women. When you empower women — especially poor women — their communities are improved in many subtle ways.
The International Museum of Women has just launched their new global online exhibition, Economica: Women and the Global Economy. Economica features slideshows, interviews, podcasts, and more. Here’s a sample of what’s available:

A slideshow highlighting microfinance in South America.

An article about the food crisis in Egypt.

A variety of topics, including business leadership, marriage and money, and family and fertility.

The exhibition includes lists of books and films that explore the role of women in the global economy. (There’s also a discussion forum, though it’s a little barren at the moment.) Finally, if you’d like to contribute to the [...]

A reporter from SmartMoney contacted me a couple of weeks ago to ask me to participate in a little game they were hosting. “All you have to do is guess when the Dow will hit 10,000,” she said. “This is just for fun.”
“I’ll do it,” I replied, “but I want to make it clear that this is just a guess. Nobody really knows.” I told her the Dow Jones Industrial Average would reach 10,000 again on October 15th at 10:22am Eastern. I was wrong — but not by much. It actually reached 10,000 at 1:21pm Eastern on October 14th.
I know this because I’ve been sitting here for the past ten minutes refreshing my browser page, waiting for it to happen. And it just did:

The Dow has hit 10,000! We’re saved! The recession is over!
Well, not really. But sometimes it seems like that’s how the media reports things. I find it hilarious that of the [...]

This article is GRS staff writer Adam Baker. In addition to his work at Get Rich Slowly, Baker blogs over at Man Vs. Debt, where he maintains a list of every single item his family owns.
It’s no secret that J.D. loves him some Warren Buffett. Honestly, though, who doesn’t? Financial wisdom seems to ooze from his pores. Previously on Get Rich Slowly, J.D. has touched on Buffett’s philosophies, well-known frugality, and charitable efforts.
Buffett was born, raised, and still lives in Omaha, Nebraska. Even as a child, Buffett constantly tinkered with business concepts. He filed his first income tax return at age 13, including a $35 work expense deduction for his bike and watch. These days, at age 79, Buffett is one of America’s most respected business minds and constantly jockeys with Bill Gates and Carlos Slim Helu for the position of richest person in the world.
A couple of weeks ago, CNBC ran [...]

Mark Frauenfelder is the co-founder of my favorite sites, Boing Boing (which is a “directory of wonderful things”). Mark’s also a GRS reader. He dropped me a line the other day to tell me about a new project he’s been following.
Today, Credit.com is launching a free new online financial tool called Credit Report Card. This tool is designed to provide users with a quick snapshot of their credit reports. According to the site’s FAQ, “it breaks down your credit report into five simple-to-understand categories and gives you a letter grade for each one.”
In his e-mail, Mark offered a personal example of how the service works:

Here’s a screenshot of what a Credit Report Card looks like. It’s my own credit report card. (I’m only showing part of the report card, as I don’t want to share my personal data.) As you can see, I have excellent credit :), but I’ve made too many “Inquiries” in the [...]

This post is from GRS Staff Writer Adam Baker. In addition to writing for Get Rich Slowly, Baker blogs over at Man vs. Debt, where he often discusses traveling and the cost of living abroad.
A couple weeks ago, the New York Times featured an article entitled “Overspending on Debit Cards is a Boon for Banks“. While I usually favor personal finance blogs over the larger online media networks (call me partial), this piece was particularly compelling to me. It does an excellent job of shedding light on a topic that is positioned to be the next major debate in our government’s quest for banking reform.
27 billion reasons the banks want you to overdraft
As many other sectors of the banking industry continue to under-perform, debit cards have stepped up to become an essential profit center for banks. Fees associated with overdrafting checking accounts are expected to exceed $27 billion this year. In comparison, the article predicts only [...]

The August issue of the Journal of Consumer Research arrived in my mailbox yesterday. It contains an interesting article from Nicolao, Irwin, and Goodman entitled “Happiness for Sale: Do Experiential Purchases Make Consumers Happier than Material Purchases?” This is a topic we’ve skirted at Get Rich Slowly, but never fully explored. Many readers have offered anecdotal evidence that they get more “bang for their buck” by spending money on experiences instead of Stuff.
This new research supports that idea — but only for experiences that turn out well. Good experiences do bring greater happiness to consumers than buying Stuff. But bad experiences make us more unhappy than bad purchases. From the article:

Our results replicate those of Van Boven and Gilovich (2003), showing that, for positive purchases, experiences lead to greater happiness than material purchases. Also, there is a sense in which our results support the experience recommendation because we show that on average the most happiness [...]