I am absolutely pleased to bring to you the 7th edition of the Best of Money Carnival. I decided to theme this carnival off of the Top 10 Financial Collapses of 2008 as per Time.

7th Edition?! Yup, it’s a very new blog created by the one and only Free Money Finance. You can find him on twitter, too, at @FMFblog.

Now, as I am sure a lot of my readers run blogs themselves, I wanted to reiterate what the benefits of submitting to this carnival are:

• March Madness Automatic Entry
• $1,000 Charitable Contribution

Visit the carnival homepage to see the other benefits & requirements and to familiarize yourself with the guidelines for submission.

 

Without further delay, here are the top 10 financial collapses. (Oh, and the top 10 posts, too!)

10. Iceland Goes Belly Up

Three major banks, 300,000 people and zero liquidity. It’s not often that the wealth of an entire country is wiped out. But Iceland almost managed that when its currency, the kroner, got caught in a freefall created when investors bailed.

J. Money presents Best Free Budget Templates & Sites posted at Budgets are Sexy saying "The best free budget templates around – mostly from fellow personal finance bloggers!"

9. Greenspan’s Reputation

Until the chairman refused to do what Fed Chairmen are supposed to: take away the punch bowl just when the party’s getting good. By not raising rates quickly enough in a real estate bubble, Easy Al helped let the money flow to every high-risk, no document loan applicant extant.

WC Porter presents Wine Tastings: Finding Cheap Wine That You Like posted at Wisebread saying "Wine tastings are the perfect way to save money and find wines you think are tasty (and cheap)"

8. Exploding Hedge Funds

Don’t feel so bad if you find the stock market perplexing. Hedge fund managers, who are supposed to be geniuses about these things, demonstrated a spectacular penchant for making vast amounts of money disappear this year. There was Citadel’s Ken Griffin, arguably the smartest guy in the business, puking up 47% of its main fund through November and professing to being completely flummoxed by the market’s behavior.

Neal Frankle presents Frugality 0, My Family 1 posted at Wealth Pilgrim saying "There are times when frugality has to take a time-out. Here’s why I sent frugality to detention and why it was the right decision."

7. Rating Agencies’ Credibility

The agencies, looking backward at the accumulated data, continued to give their top rating to securities that were piling up risk as each week went by and the real estate markets started to wobble. And did we mention that the agencies get paid by the issuers of the CDOs to make their supposedly objective rating?

MoneyNing presents What to Do When Money Conflicts with Ethics posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning saying "What will you choose? Ethics or money?"

6. Supposedly “Safe” Securities

Money market funds, which unlike bank accounts are not guaranteed by the FDIC, had a practically unassailable record for safety, until Reserve decided to invest in Lehman’s highly rated bonds. Investors running for the exits will be lucky to get 98 cents on the dollar.

Sarah Eliza presents Your Toolbox for Obtaining Organic and Local Produce… AFFORDABLY! posted at Devastate Boredom saying "The ultimate cheat sheet for obtaining organic and local products, without breaking the bank to do so!"

5. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae Shareholders

But Fannie and Freddie got caught in the downdraft. By being among the last outfits to jump into the business of crap mortgages, Fannie and Freddie basically loaded their balance sheets with more dry brush than California in August. When the market match struck, they went up in a hurry.

Ray @ Financial Highway presents Dealing with Collection Agencies- Tips on Handling Collection Agencies posted at Financial Highway saying "Dealing with Collection agencies can be frustrating, here are some tips to make things a little easier."

4. The Citigroup Colossus

Today Citi is a one-bank depression. This year it has announced 75,000 job cuts, sold off divisions, and blew the acquisition of equally troubled Wachovia, which was whisked away by Wells Fargo. It’s been forced to take a $20 billion handout from the U.S. government to shore up its capital base, which took a huge hit because of its exposure to CDOs and other toxic assets. The government also agreed to back more than $300 billion of those assets to keep it from collapsing.

FMF presents How You Grow Your Income by 10% or More a Year posted at Free Money Finance saying "You can grow your income significantly but that growth is almost never consistent from one year to another. This post details a more-likely scenario of growing your salary 10% per year."

3. The Detroit Three

The credit market freeze ensured that average Joes who love Fords and Chevys couldn’t possibly get the loans they need to buy them. So sales were off more than 30% in October and November, pushing GM and Chrysler close to insolvency.

Darwin presents Minimum Wage Increase Coming – Is it Right? posted at Darwin’s Finance saying "With the minimum wage set to increase later this month, this article examines the pros, cons and economic purist’s view on whether the minimum wage should exist at all."

2. AIG’s Credit Default Swaps

Merely setting the stage for a $100 billion bailout by the U.S. government and becoming the poster child of the meltdown. From its London branch office, AIG’s CDS chief Joseph Cassano minted money for the company for a couple of years, and garnered huge payouts for himself, by basically selling everyone in the world insurance that the Titanic wouldn’t sink.

 

Jeff Rose presents Gone Daddy Gone – AGI Restriction For Roth IRA Conversion posted at Good Financial Cents saying "In 2010, the AGI restrictions for Roth IRA Conversions will be "Gone Daddy Gone". Here’s some good info to know…"

1. Losing Lehman

Of all the decisions made by Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the one to let Lehman go under stands as the most pivotal. And the most controversial. The Federal Reserve and Treasury decided to let Lehman fail and set a "moral hazard" example: from now on, you can’t rely on Uncle Sam to bail you out.

Mike Piper presents Why I Invest with Vanguard posted at The Oblivious Investor saying "Most mutual funds are managed with the simultaneous (and conflicting) purposes of earning money for the fund company and earning money for investors. Vanguard, on the other hand, is owned by the investors in its funds, thereby eliminating a major conflict of interest."

Thanks for the Submissions!

 I wanted to thank everyone for their GREAT submissions. I encourage all of my readers to click through and read each of the top 10 articles. They are up there for a reason!

I wanted to remind other bloggers to read the submission guidelines, as well. Out of about 60 submissions, 50% were disqualified for either not including a summary of the article or for submitting multiple articles in one week. The submission window is between Saturday and the following Saturday at 6pm. For example, for this weeks carnival I looked at all submissions between 7/4/09 6:01pm and 7/11/09 6pm.