Resources for Financial Enlightenment

Below is a brief list of resources that I have found helpful in my quest to find out what's really going on this world. YMMV.

Barron's - Barron's is a great weekly wrap-up with lots of ideas and profiles. It also provides a nice look-ahead to the upcoming week. Be wary of following their stock recommendations as a Barron's write-up will move the stock.
Value Line - Apparently, Warren Buffett swears by this publication. I don't want to afford so I just trek up to the library and peruse there.
Financial Times - A great mix of political and economic news but minus most of the excess right-wing baggage that plagues other papers. My favorite newspaper but unfortunately, they are pretty antiquated in their delivery methods. I live in Sacramento, CA and cannot get home delivery of this paper which is absurd considering that I live ten minutes away from the Capitol building of the 7th largest economy in the world. No wonder newspapers are a dying business.
Wall Street Journal - As much as I hate their editorial page, WSJ is more business/company oriented than the FT and so really you need both for complete coverage. I'm fairly ambivalent about the possible News Corp. takeover as the WSJ editorial and letters page is so ridiculously right-wing that Murdoch would probably be an improvement.
Monocle - A new European magazine that tries to capture a little bit of everything from business to fashion. Their political and business coverage is absolutely superb -- highly recommended, especially if you care about the finer things in life as well as money.
BusinessWeek - Good in-depth articles on business. I focus heavily on the business aspects of our investments so I prefer BW over other rags like Forbes or Fortune which are more stock related. They also have a good selection of podcasts available in iTunes.

Bloomberg - A little too close to Wall Street to be of great value but they do offer a wide array of international news. They do offer both streaming radio and TV online from their site -- I prefer the TV feed and the "Open Exchange" program during the 11am (EST) hour is good.
CNBC - Ok, I'll admit it -- I don't know who this "Money Honey" is but I enjoy watching Jim Cramer and also the Fast Money trading show. I would never invest money the way they recommend but it's entertaining and if you retain a highly skeptical mindframe, you might even run into a good idea or two.
The Real Story with Aaron Task - This is an online Internet broadcast from Jim Cramer's site, thestreet.com. Aaron Task does lean more towards the Jim Cramer permabull mindset but it's a thoughtful and nuanced permabull bias. I've benefited much from listening to it, which is the highest compliment that can be paid to an investing/financial media offering.
Financial Post Daily - A Canadian podcast that gives a brief summary of the news stories covered in that morning's paper. Good way to keep in touch with Canadian markets.
Wake Up to Money - Nice BBC podcast that gives a magazine-style overview of British financial markets. Good way to get a handle on sentiment in the UK.
Market Report with Michael Pascoe - An Aussie podcast that broadcasts 2 times per day. The host has some great insights on the financial markets, Australian and global. I recommend the morning podcast over the evening one as the earlier edition is more analysis and less recap of market action.
The Big Picture - Barry Ritholtz's blog about the economy, markets and sometimes, music. I come from an elitist record snob background and believe that a person's music taste is somewhat revealing. Ritholtz's analysis mirrors his music taste: insightful and diverse, approaching situations from multiple angles.
Seeking Alpha - Great site for DIY investors to research possible investment ideas. Sites like Seeking Alpha and Motley Fool are truly information-age revolutions that level the playing field for "the little guy."
Motley Fool CAPS - If you believe in the "wisdom of crowds", then Motley Fool's CAPS is the place to go where thousands of users rank stocks and give opinions on buying or selling them. While you shouldn't mindlessly follow the crowd, everyone needs confirmation sometime. Even Warren Buffett bounces ideas off Charlie Munger!
Financial Sense Newshour - Jim Puplava does a good macro-news broadcast. The first hour is packed with good experts giving their insights and opinions and the guests are usually enlightening. Don't pay too much attention to their stock market predictions, though. Can get thick with rote right-wing ideology so I routinely skip the 2nd and 3rd hours unless he has a good guest but like everything, you must think for yourself and draw YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS.
Your Money with Chuck Jaffe - This is a radio show that's broadcast out of the Boston area on weekdays. Jaffe talks about a good deal of personal finance issues as opposed to just stock market stuff as well as individual stocks so it's a great way to generate research ideas. Geared toward more casual investors but he does have some great guests from time to time.
The Korelin Economics Report - A good cross-section of different viewpoints with an emphasis on gold and commodity markets. There's a daily and weekly version that you can listen to from their website.

For links to the Internet sites, please visit the links section of the website.

The Enlightened American

Resources for Financial Enlightenment