The big news of the week was this social security new ID theft risk.  The media jumped on it like kids on a greased up watermelon at the 4th of July party at the neighborhood pool.  The idea is that now the evil people can guess your social security number and your identity will get stolen.  The fact that most ID theft does not occur using stolen SSNs is irrelevant to the media.  I’ve spent the last four years of my life looking at social security numbers and never once have I been tempted to take them.  In fact millions of people look at social security numbers and don’t take them.  So please ignore the hype.

Bad Money Advice l has more about the events of this week and exactly how this guessing thing works.  However all this boils down to is the fact that social security numbers were never designed to serve as ID numbers for the country.  We need a more secure ID.  Read the post though because you get a good history on the system.

Here’s the rest of what I liked reading this week:

Behavior Gap talks about Norway’s current financial situation. They’ve got the opposite problem that the US has. Instead of running a huge deficit they have a large surplus. When the markets tanked, Norway used that as an opportunity to purchase stocks in their sovereign wealth fund (link to my post). This post was written by a PF specialist and not an economist so I don’t fully agree that what was done is a good idea for Norway, what I love about this post are a couple of really good comments that go on to a bigger issue: is it really that bad to run a deficit? We’ll get to that topic more in the future.

Smithee from Consumerism Commentary talks about how stupid we can be with our social networks. Imagine you’re going on vacation, and you tweet this to your followers. Someone reads it and now knows you’re not at home. They break in and steal your stuff. This happened and I almost gave the guy a Weaky for it. The problem is not only are your followers watching, but anyone can read your tweets if you don’t have your privacy set up. You don’t know when I’m on vacation so you can’t break in. Better yet, I’m smart enough to not share where I live either!

Money Energy has a list of the US’s top 5 sources of oil imports. The post has a strong anti-oil stench around it but the facts about the countries are true. Stuff to ignore, the cost of production in Canada, Saudi claims of minimum necessary prices, and the fact that exports are dwindling. 48% of Canada’s oil exports are conventional crude, and 46% is the sandy crap of which the cost of production has dropped considerably in recent years. Saudi Arabia claims they need $75 oil because thats when they maximize profits without curbing demand, not to justify expansion. And finally, exports of all oil are falling because demand has fallen. We don’t want as much oil, so we import less which means these countries produce and export less. This isn’t broad support of oil, but I find there are a lot of half-truths out there.

BillShrink highlights the worst ‘financial gurus’. I largely agree with the list with a few exceptions. One person I’ve always hated but never talked about here is “Rich Dad” Robert Kiyosaki. I would also like to add Ben Stein to the list.

Photo: fabricatorofuselessarticles

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: links, lists, media