Reuters - All seven Republicans on the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee plan to boycott next week’s work session on a climate-change bill, an aide said on Saturday, in a move aimed at thwarting Democratic efforts to advance the controversial legislation quickly.
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The Chase Sapphire Card is a new rewards credit card that is offering 10,000 bonus points after your first purchase on the credit card, which can be redeemed for $100 cash. No annual fee.
As a rewards card, it offers 1 point for every dollar in purchases (100 points = $1, or the usual 1% back). The nice part is that redemptions are easy - you can even redeem in $1 increments as long as above $25, so you could cash out $27 or $113 without anything left over. There are no earning caps, or points expiration dates.
In addition, you can get double points on airfare booked through their Ultimate Rewards website. It also promotes a “premium, dedicated service line that gives you access to a live person anytime, 24/7.” Fine print:
10,000 bonus points
You will qualify for and receive your bonus after your first purchase/first use of the card. First purchase/first use includes purchases, balance transfers, or any checks that are used to access your account, and excludes cash advances. After qualifying, please allow 6 to 8 weeks for bonus points to post to your account. This one-time bonus offer is valid only for first-time cardmembers with new accounts.
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We had to take him to the emergency room in middle of the night. Why is it that kids always get really sick in the middle of the night? It always has to be the middle of the night when you take them to the emergency room.
I was so nervous for him. I needed to make sure that he was ok. I was glad to hear it was just a little bit of medicine that we needed to give to him to make everything better. It is always comforting to hear that one of your sick kids only has something really small that isn't going to really hurt them very much.
Image via Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson
I really enjoy going on morning walks. It helps me to feel a lot better about myself. I really like the feeling of the sun coming up and the cool breeze on my face as I am jogging.
I love going out there and looking at everything. I think it just awesome. I love seeing all the empty streets. It is nice because there is nobody around. I love being out in the cool air.
I remember being a kid and doing my morning paper routine. I remember how nice it felt then and still does now. I am glad that I have time to go out and get exercise in the mornings.
AP - Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. presence in wartorn Afghanistan “is not an open-ended, never-ending commitment.”
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It’s never too early to start your retirement plans. After I graduated college my parents kept nudging me to start my retirement savings and I finally took their advice. Now I’m finding out that an IRA and Social Security alone might not be enough.
Top Searched Retirement Planning Techniques on AOL Search:
2. 401(k)
3. Mutual Funds
4. Savings
5. IRA
6. Bonds
7. Certificate of Deposit
8. Money Market
9. 403(b)
10. Preferred Stocks
For those of us who aspire to retire wealthy, and even better, wealthy and early, there are many financial planning options that’ll help us meet our goals. The three options AOL users are searching for most are, as you can see from the list below, stocks, 401(k) and mutual funds.
A recent article in Money Magazine shows a comparison of retirement planning at diffe! rent ages. They calculate how much money you’ll have at age 65 if you contribute 10 percent to your 401(k) beginning at 30, 35 or 45, with a starting salary of $40,000 and a 4 percent annual raise. They estimate that the 30-year-old will have $1 million while the 45-year-old will have $461,000 (a great reason to start your retirement savings as soon as you can).
Do you have any advice on saving for an early retirement? For more information on retirement planning, go to AOL Money and Finance. Also search for retirement savings on AOL Search.
More Offers: retirement savings, retirement planning, retirement investing
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The U.S. government has poured $50 billion into General Motors, and taxpayers own 61 percent of the automaker’s stock. Now the question is whether sales can ever recover enough for the public to get its money back.
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I don’t like them at all and I wish they would just go away and leave me alone forever. What purpose do they have anyway? Do they even have a purpose? Yawning has a purpose. When we don’t breathe correctly and don’t get enough oxygen to our lungs, we yawn to get more oxygen. It’s rather involuntary, and it happens a lot more when we are tired.
Maybe that’s because when we get tired it is harder for us to breathe in. So yawning has a purpose and it’s not as annoying as hiccups. Hiccups don’t seem to have a useful purpose at all. There are a few theories out there, but no one has come up with a way to prove them. I wish they would hurry up and go away.
Just think about it. If you were a grape you would be a fruit just sitting on a vine minding your own business. While you are there you get pulled away from your root which is traumatic until you realize you are with all of your friends.
Once you are with all of your friends, you go on a rid and accumulate more grapes. It would be exciting until you get to that wine press. You would get put through the press which would squeeze you until you had all your guts and juices pushed out of you. It would be really scary and very painful. It's a good thing we aren't grapes.
Dogfish are a relatively nondescript species – though they are credited with causing a lot of trouble with the Atlantic fishing industry. Dogfish are behind destruction of nets, bait, and eating fish in the nets, rendering them unfit for sale. Dogfish are a small species of bony shark, most notably the Spiny Dogfish, a very common fish, that are in every ocean.
They are a member of the Squalidae order of sharks, noted for having two dorsal fins, no anal fin, very rough skin and spines along the back. They are usually no larger than about 5 feet long. They are protected at present, and aren’t used in a lot of food beyond fish and chips in the UK and snack foods on the European continent, so it isn’t worth putting payday loans into catching any.
I’ve spent the last few hours browsing on Swaptree, which is a website that allows you to swap your books, CDs, DVDs, and video games with other members. You just list the items that you want to trade and the items that you want, and Swaptree sets up trades for you. You can also view a big list of other things you could get in trade. If you see a swap you like, you just pay for shipping your items out, the site does not charge any fees. (It appears to be ad-supported.)
You can list items you want to trade quickly by entering the UPC or ISBN code on the item. Everything is one-for-one. For example, one book is traded for one video game. The site tries to create more possibilities by figuring out 3-way and even 4-way trades between members. Trust is gained by an eBay-like rating system. There is also a postage-printing service that makes it easy to make postage labels and drop your package off without waiting in lines.
I kind of view Swaptree as the $3 store:
I know, this doesn’t take into account the value of your media, but I would say this is best for things that have been sitting around for a while. Why list a bunch of items that might be worth a few bucks on eBay and be subject to $1 in eBay/PayPal fees, not to mention paying listing fees for each item that doesn’t sell.
You are allowed to ship via Media Mail, which is based on weight (ex. $3.16 for a 3 lb. package). However, if you ship in a padded envelope and it is under 9 ounces, shipping via First Class is both cheaper and faster.
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NPR’s Tovia Smith last week introduced us to Anne Witte, an economics professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Witte co-teaches Econ 223, which is a primer on among other things: credit cards, health insurance and 401 (k) plans. Witte talks with Renee Montagne about the importance of the class.
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Their son, Jett, died at age 16. I think he had a seizure. John tried desperately to revive his son, giving him CPR for 45 minutes. Then, the ambulance driver accused John of intentionally killing his son and tried to extort money from the Travolta's.
John and Kelly had to testify in court against the extortionist. Like they have not been through enough? How do you lose a child? And then, I watched this dumb entertainment show where they debated whether the Travolta's had the responsibility to become advocates for autism since it turns out, Jett had autism. They also criticized John for not admitting he had autism before his death.
They finally came to the conclusion that it was alright for John to have kept his son's condition private from the rest of the world and that John and Kelly will probably become advocates after their grieving gets better. This is not our business.
I was so angry that anyone would even consider that John and Kelly had any kind of an obligation to the rest of us, when they are going through such hard times. It is not their responsibility to become advocates for families of autism. If they want to, fine, but the public is just too involved in the stars' lives. I wish John and Kelly peace.
I love TV. I love to magically leave the world I am in and transform into the imaginary world of the TV show I am watching. I fantasize that I am there. I dream I am there. When I used to watch the show Friends, I used to wish that I could live with them.
I started to feel like they were my friends and called them by their first names, Jen, Courtney, well, you get it. Or I spent years watching reruns of Bewitched. I would practice twitching my nose and trying to move things but it never worked. However, I felt like Darren, Samantha and Tabitha were my friends. And I world get so mad at Endora that I would stomp around the house and snap at my brothers and sisters in the real world. Or there was Stargate.
I believed with all my heart that there was really a Stargate somewhere that the government was hiding and that we could really go to other worlds. There was one episode where Samantha Carter was shot and John Sheppherd had to care for Samantha and save her life.
I dreamt that night that I was shot and Samantha and John were taking care of me and I woke up and was sure I had been shot. I looked all over my body and there were no gunshot wounds and I was so confused. Now I'm watching FlashForward and I keep trying to figure out what my FlashForward is. One of the premises of the show is that if you didn't have a FlashForward, it is because you are going to be dead in 6 months. Since I can't remember my FlashForward, I keep having anxiety that I am going to be dead in 6 months, then I remember, it is just a show I am watching.
I wasn't there, that's why I don't remember my FlashForward. Anyway, I heard the other day Rachel Ray saying that it smelled so good, what she was cooking for her 30 minute meals show that there should be smellivision. With smellivision, you could smell what she was cooking. So, I got an idea. Shouldn't there be Wish TV? You make a wish while you are watching the show and it comes true. But the rules of Wish TV are that it would have to be related to the show you are watching. Like you couldn't watch Stargate and wish for a million dollar, but you could wish you were on that planet with the Stargate team. I'm hoping that Wish TV is out there on the horizon. If they can make smellivision, they should be able to make Wish TV.
Would you like a recipe for a Witch's Hat Cake? It looks great sitting on the middle of your kitchen table. First it is a centerpiece or decoration, and then it is your Halloween dessert. Here is the recipe:
Cooking spray, for greasing pans
Flour, for flouring pans
1 box cake mix, any flavor, and whatever else it calls for on the mixing directions.
1 cone shaped ice cream cone
3 cans prepared chocolate frosting
Powdered sugar
Light corn syrup 2 tablespoons
Green fruit roll up (hatband)
Gummy worms
Grease and flour 1 round baking pan and 1 square baking pan. Make the cake mix according to package directions. Pour the batter into prepared pans. Bake as directed. Cool. Remove cakes from pans. Using a knife, trim the tops of each cake so the tops of the cakes are flat and the thickness of the cakes is even.
Find something to make 4 circles, either cookie cutters or glasses, one 5-inch circle, one 3 1/2-inch, one 2 1/2-inch, and a 2-inch circle. Cut these 4 circles from the square cake layer. Press the cutter straight down into the cake without twisting. If you twist, you can cause the cake to be uneven or break. Use the scraps to fill the ice cream cone to make it a little more sturdy. Pack the scraps firmly into the ice cream cone.
Drape a cake stand or plate or a box with black fabric. Place waxed paper (3 pieces) around the edges of the stand or plate. Leave an open space in the middle. Place the large round cake in the center of the stand, on the waxed paper. You will be pulling out the waxed paper, which will prevent the cake stand from getting frosting on it while making the cake. Frost the large round cake with the chocolate frosting.
Put the 5-inch circle in the center of the large round cake. Frost this completely. Place the 3 + inch cake in the center of the 5-inch cake. Frost this completely. Place the 2 + inch cake on top of the 3 + inch cake and frost this. Place the 2 inch cake on top of the 3 + inch cake and frost it. Put the ice cream cone on the center of the 2 inch cake top. Frost the cone. With a spatula, spread frosting up and down the sides so that it now looks like a witch's hat. Spread the frosting so it is smooth between the layers. Wrap the hatband around the 5-inch cake. Decorate the cake with gummy worms. Have the worms crawling up the hat and over the hat band and let them drape off the tip of the hat. Hold the cake firmly with a spatula and gently pull out the waxed paper.
When I was young, my mom would always take me to the children's hour at our neighborhood library. The children's hour always had fun activities for us. They always started with a story of some sort. We would gather on the floor and listen intently while the librarian would read to us.
The librarian was always very animated as she read and we loved to hear the story. Then we would do some sort of activity, things like ring around the rosy and duck duck goose. It was always something to keep our hands and feet busy. Then would come activities. We would finger paint or draw or color. In January we would cut out snowflakes and hang them from all the library windows.
February we would cut red and pink hearts and glue them together. March were green shamrocks and leprechauns. April we would color eggs and cut and paste on them. May we would make some kind of summer flowers. We made giant daisies one year. June would begin the summer reading program. We would read at the library and check out books and read at home.
If we read enough over the summer, which we always did, we got tickets to our local amusement park, to the professional baseball team games and free books. July we cut out stars and flags. August was always something summery. Maybe rainbows. September was a back to school activity. I remember making book covers for our school books. October was the witches and pumpkins and even pumpkin carving. November was pilgrims and Native American Indians. And December was all about Christmas.
My mom said she loved the children's hour because the mess stayed at the library. I loved it because it was fun. I hope someday to be able to take my children to the children's hour at our local library. I hope they still have it.
In the clear night sky tonight you will find a meteor shower. October 2009 brought back the Orionid Meteor Shower that we last saw when Ronald and Nancy Reagan lived in the White House.
It is called the Orionids because the meteors come from the constellation called Orion. Orion mean the Hunter. It is said the swarm of stars is easy to spot, shaped like an hourglass. Halley's comet is the culprit, leaving a trail of debris in its path that can be seen in the night sky. If it is clear and warm where you live, I would head out to the hills to watch this spectacular event.
The last time Halley's comet flew buy was 1986. And we don't expect to see Halley again until July 28, 2061. I don't know about you, but I won't exactly be young when it returns. They are saying this meteor shower will produce 20 to 25 meteors an hour. And this is actually expected to go on for a few nights so if you can't get out tonight, get out tomorrow. And it doesn't matter where you live.
They are saying this meteor shower is visible from anywhere in the world, as long as you have a clear sky. The best time of night is the same worldwide, locally just after midnight. What a great date idea! Go to a dark spot away from the city lights and let your eyes adjust. No need for binoculars, just look up. A reclining chair or a blanket is a necessary accessory. At this time of year, many areas around the world are cooler or down right freezing s so a coat is also probably warranted.
Once a few years ago, we went out into the hills. There were many of us friends that decided to do this together. It was a warm summer night and the talk was all about the meteor shower. We started with a barbecue hot dog dinner on a little individual grill. We didn't want to start a fire because it would make it harder to see the stars, we thought. Little did we know what we were in for. We laid a blanket in the back of the truck and counted hundreds of falling stars.
The skies were alight with the meteor shower that night. It wouldn't have mattered if we had built a giant bonfire, we would not have been able to miss the lit night sky. There were some smaller children in our group and they were fascinated. This is a great family activity as well as a great date idea. It can open the door to lessons with children of the stars and planets. Who knows where it will lead. Maybe encourage some little astronomers. It was a memory I will never forget.
How much longer will these be around? Image from Flickr.
We all saw it coming. Well, at least people who are even mildly interested in e-book readers saw it coming. The Barnes and Noble Nook has entered the scene as the next big contender in the market for devices used to electronically read books.
A few other companies have or will attempt to produce an e-book reader that will knock Kindle out of the first-place spot when it comes to sales of e-readers, but experts say the Barnes and Noble Nook just might do the trick.
Engadget dubs the Barnes and Noble Nook superior to the Amazon Kindle, but its only piece of evidence is the fact that the Barnes and Noble Nook has a feature that lets people lend out books. While this does mean the Barnes and Noble Nook is closer to simulating a real book, will it be enough to get people to spend the $259 to buy it?
While an e-reader isn’t the type of thing people get an instant cash loan for, I predict these will be very popular Christmas gifts. I think parents who want to find creative ways to get their teens and tweens to read will be all over these things. The question is, which e-reader will parents choose?
The Barnes and Noble Nook retail price, $259, is $20 cheaper than the price of the latest Kindle model. That $20 difference might just be the winning factor, as the two products are very similar, besides the fact that Barnes and Noble Nook lets you lend out books and Kindle doesn’t. … click here to read the rest of the article titled “Barnes and Noble Nook Competes with Kindle“
In our weekly Money Coach segment, Tell Me More’s regular contributor on personal finance and the economy, Alvin Hall, walks listeners through how to defer their student loans.
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2009 has been hard on a lot of people. There have been a lot of people lose their jobs, others have lost their homes, others have been sick, some have died. Maybe we need to focus on the good things that have happened in 2009. Maybe something as simple as the sweetest day you had in 2009. What was your sweetest day 2009?
Mine will be when a friend of mine gets married in December. I know many people have had children or grandchildren born. Some have gone on trips. Some have had business successes. Some have found new love. Some have found a new recipe or a new book they have enjoyed reading. That can be the sweetest day if it's been a rough year. Some have found a new friend. Some have bought a home. Some have finally sold a home that they have had on the market for a long time. What is your sweetest day 2009?
I was talking to a friend the other day and she said her father was, how do you say it in a good way, a racist. We agreed there was no good way to say it because there is nothing good about racism. Well, racism has a new twist. Nikole Churchill is the first winner of the Hampton annual beauty pageant who was not black.
So she wrote a letter to President Barack Obama speculating that her winning the pageant was not "widely accepted" because she is not black. Her letter was on Congress.org, sparking a debate about her skin color and the pageant. Some say she won in the spirit of diversity. Nikole Churchill has raised a lot of controversy.
I would like to see the race name calling stop. We are all one people, whatever the color. I think if Nikole Churchill won her pageant, race should not be an issue. But it appears it is. Whatever your skin color.
I got my McDonalds Monopoly Board and my first game pieces today! I love playing McDonald's Monopoly. I hope to win $1 million dollars this year. I think it is my turn to win.
I've played McDonald's Monopoly for years now so I think my odds are pretty good. As a matter of fact, I play all kinds of monopoly. It started years ago when my best friend taught me to play. It was actually kind of boring to me, it took way too long to play and he was pretty cut throat. He played to win.
He would haggle and negotiate all of my properties out of me. But I liked this friend so we played again and again. We got Bay Area Monopoly a few years ago when we lived in the Bay Area. It was fun. It had properties like Palo Alto, San Jose, San Francisco. It was very fun. I hear they even had the world's largest monopoly Board in San Jose recently. You walked on this board. It was over 900 square feet and cost $300 real money to play.
One year we received a chocolate monopoly where all the houses and hotels were pieces of chocolate but we kept eating our houses and it got confusing. Anyway, if I were applying to win this game, I think I would be pretty qualified to win McDonalds Monopoly this year.
Today I got to hear all about the balloon boy hoax. This family was on a show when they thought that their six year old son had flown away in a hot air balloon. I thought it was pretty funny in the first place.
They ended up finding him in a box later. Apparently the little boy exclaimed to his parents a little later that he was pretty sure that they were just doing it for a show. Everyone thought that was pretty funny as well.
The whole situation makes the show just that much funnier. It is always fun to watch scandal whether that be that the son is missing or that the family set it all up.
The oldest tree on this earth is a 4700 year old pine that people have named, "Methuselah. " Can you imagine what this tree has seen in 4700 years? Back when this tree was "born" or planted, there were no computers, no cars, no airplanes, not even any cowboys in the old west.
This is so long ago I can't even comprehend it. Where would you think the 4700 year old pine tree would be located? I would think somewhere like Egypt or Israel or Africa, some country that is old anyway. But surprisingly, this tree is in a town called Bishop in California. I've been to the giant redwoods in California. They are amazing.
You stand next to them and are awe struck by the size of them. But I have never seen the oldest one, the 4700 year old tree, and apparently, not many have. It's location is kept secret to protect it. There was an even older tree named "Prometheus" that was cut down. I don't know the details, but they don't want it to happen again so not many people know where Methuselah is, except that it is located in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest which is in the White Mountains outside Bishop, California.
Bishop is in Inyo County which is in Southern California. It is a town of about 3,575 people and is the Mule capital of the world. They even have a festival each year called Mule Days to celebrate all that mules have given to us. Yes, mules. They can tell the age of trees by measuring the ring count, which each represents a year. They bore out a little segment to test for age.
Cashier: The ready-made chicken wings and the video game, Wii Resort, will be $70.
While lining up and watching all these people buy groceries, business supplies and other “adult-preferred” products, I found myself staring at the two items I picked out and thinking “Aren’t these things for kids?”
It got me thinking some more. Do mature people spend less money?
I know this sounds a little ridiculous but hear me out first. It’s true that as we age, items on our wish list become pricier but aren’t there fewer items in there as well? Even if a kid hasn’t added that lavish vacation yet, he will eventually right?
Here’s a theoretical example:
Let’s say that Joe and Sam are young kids. Joe, like everyone else his age, likes video games. When he grew older, he fell in love with guitars and subsequently spent a ton of money on them. Later when he finished college, he realized that guitars helped him meet many girls but he was never good enough to turn professional. He moved on, but he’s found a new love – cars.
Sam on the other hand was always a little bit more mature. He never really liked video games much, but he certainly loved guitars as much as Joe. They spent all their money on the equipment for years, but he too realized that playing guitar is really a hobby and not necessarily a career. When Joe bought a car, Sam was jealous and wanted to lease one as well.
Sam, for some reason, never liked video games. He seemed to have “skipped” that phase and went straight to guitars. If Sam could fast forward a few years and know what he knew about guitars early, would he have spent all the money on them?
Part of me believe that splurging is tied to experience and maturity. If I knew what I now know back then, I would’ve spent much less than I did.
Doesn’t that in a way suggest that mature people spend less? If I could somehow skip ahead of the thinking of my age group, wouldn’t I somehow be able to control my desires a little better?
This post might be way out there, but it’s some food for thought! Let me know what you think!
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Related Articles at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning:
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I need to lose weight and have tried everything out there, diets, diet pills, Atkins, low carb everything, counting calories, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, lettuce, grapefruit, you name it, I have tried it. And nothing works. I can never lose a pound.
I have had money refunded to me from all these companies that guarantee you will lose weight or your money back. I get my money back. And they always say, we've never seen anything like this before. The only hope I have left is a fat camp. I feel like if I could just get a boost, just get those first pounds off, maybe the rest would fall off.
At a fat camp, I think you eat really great foods that they fix for you, but that are low in everything bad for you and high in everything good for you. I imagine the exercise programs would be easy to start, because if you can't do it, they wouldn't give up but help you succeed. I would imagine there are Jacuzzis and hot tubs and saunas and massages to help you deal with the pain associated with losing weight. This is my last hope, a fat camp.
She is scolding him publicly for having sex with his co-workers. The Drew Barrymore-David Letterman friendship has been ongoing for years.
She has had this long time friendship with David Letterman appearing on his show many times for him. The part of this whole thing that I find ironic is one time for David's birthday, Drew lifted her top for him to see her body. This, she said, was his birthday gift.
To me, she has cheapened sex just as much as he has. I have a hard time understanding why it is o.k. for her do to that but not for him to do what he's doing. I don't think any of it should be done. But isn't this just a case of the pot calling the kettle black?
The Chicago Marathon is one of the top 5 marathons in the world, next to the Boston Marathon, New York Marathon, London Marathon and Berlin Marathon. There are others like the Long Beach Marathon, Bay to Breakers and Bloomsday. October 11, 2009, runners will run 26 miles, well actually 26 7/32 miles, to compete.
I would like to see a Chicago Marathon Route Map so if you have a link, please let me know. The city of Chicago will close the streets and track the runners as they go. The weather called for rain that day. I read that in 1906 the Chicago Marathon was actually rained out but that doesn't make sense as the first Chicago Marathon, originally called the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon was September 25, 1977.
Only runners who finish within the first 6 ½ hours have their time officially timed, however, anyone can run. I handed out water once to runners at a marathon. It was very exciting as the first runners rounded the corner and started up a hill. Then came thousands more. The streets were packed, water cups were thrown everywhere. If you are thinking of volunteering, handing out water is very fun.
I think that sometimes schools are a little too strict about things. For example, Zachary Christie is a six year old who got suspended from school because he brought a knife in a camping kit to school to eat lunch with. They decided that they have a no tolerance policy that they have to follow through with and he got suspended by his school.
It is ridiculous that they couldn't have any kind of tolerance for it. They can't say that the child was really planning on killing someone with the knife that he brought with him to eat his lunch with. There should be some kind of policy where they take each case individually. If they spoke to the parents and the child and made sure that the child and parents understood the policy then they could suspend him if he were ever to do it again. Sometimes people can be ridiculous.
Better late than never is perhaps the best way to describe the government’s latest attempts to introduce financial reforms and consumer protections that it hopes will prevent the US from repeating the mistakes that got us into this financial mess in the first place.
This morning, Austan Goolsbee briefed MintLife on the Obama Administration’s plans for financial industry regulatory reform in advance of President Barack Obama's remarks Friday afternoon, particularly about the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). Goolsbee is staff director and chief economist of the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, a member of the Obama's Council of Economic Advisers and otherwise a University of Chicago economics professor.
For free markets to be fair and effective, they depend on two things: free flows of information and free choices for all parties. A comprehensive package about consumer protection and industry accountability will address both, Goolsbee says. The Obama Administration is essentially calling for more accountability from three parties: from the industry, from government itself and from you the consumer.
In terms of protection, the White House is calling for new "rules of the road" on at least three levels:
• Protections for individual banking and credit consumers against predatory lending practices, abusive credit card terms, and unfair charges and fees;
• Protections for individual investors against unclear terms and undisclosed risks in their portfolios and retirement savings—and protections from conflicts of interest by their investment advisors;
• Protections for citizens and taxpayers against another catastrophic economic meltdown caused by
irresponsible and unregulated financial practices and "innovations" .
Goolsbee points to a number of unfair practices that would be prohibited by new rules enforced by the CFPA: eliminating bait-and-switch teaser rates on credit cards, by forcing companies to honor their offers and commit to them for the specified period of time; preventing companies from retroactively raising interest rates on existing balances; no "gotcha" tactics to earn late charges, such as moving deadlines to early morning in payment due dates to early mornings (before mail deliveries); or no payment processing tactics to clear large items before small ones in ways that maximize overdraft charges.
The CFPA would consolidate authority that has previously been fragmented among disparate efforts, making it easy for abusive or risky business practices to slip—or be slipped—through the cracks between seven different financial regulatory agencies. Having too many separate agencies "allowed certain actors in the financial system to wiggle their way between the regulatory cracks or to exploit those agencies that had the least amount of oversight," he says. For example, Federal Reserve standards on housing lending by banks didn't have jurisdiction over the other two-thirds of the subprime mortgage market.
Consolidating and streamlining oversight is also designed to improve the accountability of government in its role of preventing financial innovations or undercapitalization risky enough to endanger the whole system "with somebody who is accountable and whose job is to make sure consumers are being protected in the financial sphere," Goolsbee adds. "There will be one person sitting there whose job it is to protect both the system and protect consumers."
But new rules have to apply to consumers as well. Accountability from institutions has to be complemented by more responsibility from consumers: not buying more house than they can afford, not charging more purchases than they can afford, and not making risky investments that they can't afford to lose.
For example, on the transparency side, Goolsbee says the White House wants to see contracts and term sheets presented in "plain language" (despite his PhD in economics, he says even he can't understand his credit card agreement). But such clarity is wasted unless customers make time to read their agreements before signing.
"Consumer protection is not intended to remove accountability from consumers. People still have to read their bills and read before they sign up for things," he adds. "And there's nothing wrong with borrowing money, but if you don't pay it back there should be a penalty."
Not necessarily. Will there be fewer surprises in your monthly statements? Theoretically. Will new rules stay ahead of financial innovations that can bring down the economy? Let's hope so.
"Part of our reform effort involves putting in place new safeguards that would help prevent the irresponsibility and recklessness of a few from wreaking havoc on our entire financial system. We want to close gaps in regulation; we want to eliminate overlap; and we want to set rules of the road for Wall Street that make fair dealing and honest competition the only way for financial firms to win and prosper," President Obama said later in the day. "But a central part of our reform effort is also aimed at protecting Americans who buy financial products and services every day — from mortgages to credit cards. It’s true that the crisis we faced was caused in part by people who took on too much debt and took out loans they couldn’t afford. But my concern are the millions of Americans who behaved responsibly and yet still found themselves in jeopardy because of the predatory practices of some in the financial industry. These are folks who signed contract! s they didn’t always understand offered by lenders who didn’t always tell the truth. They were lured in by promises of low payments, and never made aware of the fine print and hidden fees."
The briefing was an economic transaction in its own right. Goolsbee was offering insights, but also asking for help from the largely liberal political bloggers on the call. Only Web-based activism, he says, can counter political vulnerability to special interest lobbying.
"Interest groups associated with the financial industry have decided they want to block or seriously change the effort of the administration to reestablish rules of the road and some kind of stability to the financial system," Goolsbee said. "So the president is looking to amp up public pressure on what changes are needed. Just going back to the status quo, which got us into the worst financial crisis since 1929, is completely not an option."
Expect the financial industry to war against these regulations with a lobbying campaign that’s even bigger than the one being waged over healthcare reform. Obviously, Republicans will fight Democratic proposals tooth and nail, but likely Democrats will fight among themselves, too. Undoubtedly, so will the various executive branch agencies fight for control of the new agency.
If so, this doesn't bode well for effective regulation, does it?
A fact sheet (pdf) on the Consumer Financial Protection Agencyis posted on the White House website.
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I think that I may be partially dyslexic. I feel sorry for people who really are dyslexic. They have such a hard time reading anything and I don’t think I could deal with that. I love to read. What on earth would I do all day if I couldn’t read?
I couldn’t go to school, I couldn’t read the morning newspaper, I couldn’t read or send important emails, and I couldn’t read the mail. I couldn’t do a whole lot of things, because there are so many things that require the ability to read. I suppose that I would be able to get by with not knowing how to read, but I don’t think I would like it very much.
I probably wouldn’t make a very good one, but it would be fun just to try it out. I don’t think I’d make a very good spy because I laugh too much. I laugh at anything if it’s the slightest bit funny.
I even laugh at things that aren’t funny. I’m kind of hopeless like that. Because of this, I wouldn’t make a good spy at all. I suppose if I really tried I could muster some strength to keep in the laughter. And if the situation is tense enough, that would make it easier because I wouldn’t really be in the mood for laughing.
A lot of people are searching Google and other search engines to get the word Admonish defined for them.
To sum up, to admonish is to rebuke, or reprimand, correct, or otherwise criticize someone for a wrong they have done. Apparently, hardly anyone knows the English language anymore – and they let just anyone have a degree of some kind. It’s like an award for “Participant.”
Admonish being sought on do many online dictionary sites is proof positive that the world has started awarding mediocrity. Seriously – if private schools can teach people how to read, write, and vocabulary then public school teachers had better start bloody putting their hands up, and prove their worth all that extra time off.
The rest of you – get payday loans and take a remedial English course if you didn’t know the word admonish.
Reward points programs can turn saving money on the purchases you make seem like a game. But the game you’re playing is more like skee ball than frisbee. Playing for points means you’ll be tempted to buy things you can’t afford just to acquire points. But even worse is the fact that the game is rigged before you even begin. Most people will never acquire enough points to pay for the luxury items they desire. And many reward programs are deliberately deceptive in describing how they work. Not all points are created equal and some are downright worthless. Our guide to reward points programs will teach you the tricks you need to be a points ninja.
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Ernie Anastos is a news institution around New York City. He made his rounds on several TV stations, finally settling in at WNYW, or Fox 5. (Channel 5, FOX network.)
However, he’s also part of a viral video – apparently, after a weather forecast from weatherman Nick Gregory, in the midst of onscreen banter he meant to say “keep PLUCKING that chicken.” It did not sound like that – we think you probably know what we mean. Co-anchor Dari Alexander was MORTIFIED, and Gregory looked at the camera as if to say “he doesn’t know what he just said,” however he deftly kept going as if nothing happened.
Ernie Anastos now would probably throw quick cash into keeping that video from circulating.
For the first time in what feels like over a year, banks are actually raising some of their rates. Very slightly, but still up. Ally Bank just raised their rates on their online savings account to 1.80% APY, up from 1.75%. Their 12-month CD is also up to 2.05% APY, while ING Direct has a 12-month CD rate of 2.10% APY. Not exactly exciting, but if rates are rising I’d be keeping my maturities short.
Read more about Have Bank Interest Rates Hit Bottom?…
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Jon posted a sign outside the Gosselins' Pennsylvania home saying "no film crew or production staff from TLC is permitted on this property."
Jon Gosselin has issued a cease-and-desist order against TLC, saying they must stop filming his children. Filming was in progress on the modified reality show, “Kate Plus Eight,” which was supposed to hit the air Nov. 2.
Kate Gosselin said in a statement that Jon Gosselin was being filmed with the kids as recently as Friday, and she doesn’t know why he had his lawyers order the TLC production crew to leave their property in Wernersville, Pa. The Associated Press reports that filming that doesn’t involve the children will continue, but production will be suspended until further notice.
“It appears that Jon’s priority is Jon and his interests,” Kate Gosselin, said in a statement. “My priority remains our children and their well being.” The show, which was called “Jon & Kate Plus 8″ through its most recent season, brings in a hefty income for the Gosselins. Kate says she is saving most of the income from the show for her eight children’s educations. It certainly would be nice to be able to pay for college without needing a debt survival course, but some people argue the children are being exploited. … click here to read the rest of the article titled “Jon Gosselin Shuts Down ‘Kate Plus Eight’ Filming“
The game Gyromancer is rumored to become the most addictive game of all time, which is hard to believe in the era of World of Warcraft. The game is being released by PopCap Games and Square Enix, and it’s slated for release in 2010.
The game is essentially Bejeweled with a fantasy/MMORPG and a few additions. (You know, elves and warlocks and talking trees, that kind of thing.) Essentially, teams of players meet online and solve puzzles akin to Bejeweled in order to complete aspects of game play. (Essentially – fill in this crossword puzzle and this bad guy blows up!)
Still, Bejeweled is one of the most played games of all time. This means that a lot of people will line up payday loans to buy Gyromancer and keep it up online.
