Financial News Friday – August 30, 2013

August was a rough month for the S&P 500. (Yahoo Finance)

Here’s a great article from the CFA Institute’s blog, the Enterprising Investor that reframes the dilemma about strategic oil assets and energy independence. (CFA Institute)

Apple has jumped into the music streaming business with iTunes Radio (Yahoo Finance)

An interesting estate planning issue has begun to turn up: children conceived via in-vitro fertilization (IVF) after a parent has already died could under current law “inherit with the same rights as a natural born child.”  This could occur even if the child was conceived years after the parent’s death.(NY Times)

Americans think they earn more than they do. This is perhaps due to the wealth effect. The wealth effect is the idea that consumers will spend more as their home values and retirement account values increase, even if their incomes stay the same. (Yahoo Finance)

Here’s to more financial shenanigans over at your favorite consumer-friendly investment bank, Goldman Sachs. Just as they tell their clients to sell gold, they purchase it. (Zero Hedge)

GE to spinoff its consumer financing division, which is largely comprised of private label credit cards in partnership with retail chains. (MSN Money)

What is the cost of high frequency traders to market participants? A Berkely professor sets out to find the answer. Professor Hendershott was given access to a high-speed trading and in one day, was able to “walk away” with $377,000 of theoretical profits had he actually executed the trades. Just how bad is that? Well, as one trader, Joe Saluzzi, puts it, “It’s clear to us these guys are just raping, pillaging, and plundering the market.” (CNN Money)

The site has been transferring to a new server this week, so there has been some quirkiness. If you’ve submitted a comment this week, I may not have gotten it until now. However, I’ll be sure to get back to you this weekend!