Financial Schools Reviews

() - South Korea’s industrial production rose for the thirteenth consecutive month in July, official figures showed Tuesday.

Production in the mining and manufacturing sector increased 15.5% year-on-year following a revised 17.1% increase in June, the National Statistics Office said. On a monthly basis, output rose 1.1%.

The continuing strong growth in the industrial sector confirms that the South Korean economy is firm on the recovery track.

Also on Tuesday, survey results from the Bank of Korea showed that an index measuring manufacturers’ sentiment for September rose to 104 from 102 in August. At the same time, a reading for non-manufacturers fell to 85 from 89.

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When I reached my financial bottom in April 2006, one of my first responses was to simply start reading a lot about personal finance. I checked out a pile of books from the library on personal finance and tackled a lot of different suggestions from those books, along with some of my own ideas that I came up with as I went along.

One idea that was repeated over and over was how incredibly important and valuable having a budget was. I tried several different budgeting approaches and stuck with them for short periods, but the idea of a budget just never really stuck with me.

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() - Sweden’s trade surplus unexpectedly improved for a second straight month in July.

The trade surplus rose to SEK 10.3 billion from a revised SEK 9.7 billion excess in June, Statistics Sweden reported Thursday. June’s surplus figure was initially reported as 11.4 billion. The July surplus was SEK 8.3 billion last year.

Exports value narrowed to SEK 89.3 billion from SEK 106.2 billion in the previous month. Imports value declined to SEK 79 billion from SEK 96.5 billion.

Year-on-year, exports increased 18% in value, while imports rose 17%. During the January-July period, Sweden recorded a trade surplus of SEK 43.7 billion, with exports rising 11% and imports gaining 17%.

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In this recession, sin is in.

That’s according to a mutual fund manager who’s finding plenty of investment opportunities in companies profiting from vices such as smoking, drinking and gambling.Jeff Middleswart’s aptly named Vice Fund (), up 6.7%; Lorillard (), down 3.8%; and Altria Group (), up 14.8%. The fund recently ranked in the top 3% of its large-blend-fund peers, according to Morningstar, and is running about 5 percentage points ahead of the market.

Defense contractors, another Vice Fund mainstay, were recently up an average of 12%.

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Australian insurance major IAG has had its bottom line severely hit by storms that have raged in Melbourne and Perth, as well as losses incurred at its UK division.

Australia’s largest general insurance company as measured by written premiums said its net profit for the year ending June 30th fell precipitously year on year. N

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