It’s the season for garage sales and they’re as popular as ever as people continue to try and save money any way they can.

After losing more than $1 billion last year, cutting 400 jobs and closing 50 stores, Best Buy has a new strategy that focuses on its smaller stores. But will it work?

For those unafraid of taking a risk, South Korea might be a smart place to invest, while others watch and wait for a steadier global economy.

Even though Enron as a company no longer exists, there are certain lessons and anecdotes in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room that everyone should see. The epitome of greed, the courage to stand against it, and the cheesy-yet-true revelation that you can never judge a book, or a major corporation, by its cover.

Thinking of investing your dollars in the land of wine, cheese and haut couture? Now may not be the best time. France’s presidential elections could usher in a socialist leader whose views threaten to shake up the delicate balance in the eurozone among leaders trying to solve the region’s sovereign debt crisis.

Money Talks brief featuring Personal Finance expert Matt Bell.

Money Talks

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While President Obama’s economic approval rating has gone up in the past week, American consumers seemed to be somewhat less optimistic about the economy itself—well, some American consumers, anyway.

Investing in the iShares MSCI Mexico Investable market index fund, EWW, is one way retail investors can take advantage of the growing middle class in Mexico, but risks abound for a country where the rule of law has been unsuccessful in curbing serious outbreaks of drug-related violence.

Economic theories can’t explain economic events in history, say George Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller in their 2009 book, because they don’t take into account that humans are involved. Or, more specifically, humans and their “animal spirits.”

As the economy begins to slowly piece itself back together after the Great Recession, many are still wondering how it all happened. What went wrong? How could this have been prevented? Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz tackles those questions and more in his analytic book “Freefall: America, Free Markets, and the Sinking of the World Economy.”