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Bleak...
JackN
<font color=#99FF99>Lightwave Alien</font>
in Zocalo v2.0
[QUOTE] ...Also on Thursday, Microsoft Corp. stunned investors with the announcement that it would cut 5,000 jobs, about 5 percent of its workforce, over the next 18 months owing to fallout from the global recession. The company also reported that its profit in the second quarter slid 11 percent.
"We are not immune to the effects of the economy," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in the company's earnings report.
Intel Corp. said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs as the company struggles with lower demand for personal computers...[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99763941&ft=1&f=1006"]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99763941&ft=1&f=1006[/URL]
Looking back 10 years ago at the life changing event in my personal life that foreshadowed all that is happening now, I can say I'm glad it happened and broke the illusion of security I and my wife had.
I thank God every day for what we have and for the job I have that hasn't really been hit yet. I know I could be doing harder work for less money and no insurance.
When Sierra's Oakhurts division was closed, all that followed taught us lessons we can REALLY use now, and allowed us to be financially ready for what has happened and what is coming.
A thing or two I will comment on:
While positive thinking will help you deal with what is thrown at you, it will not determine WHAT is thrown at you.
The fault of bloated consumer debt does not squarely lie only on the shoulders of consumers who used it, but is also the responsibility of the Credit pushers who gave it.
IMHO, credit is a financial cancer causing agent that needs to be used in moderation.
...but, maybe I am just speaking the obvious.
"We are not immune to the effects of the economy," Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said in the company's earnings report.
Intel Corp. said Wednesday that it plans to cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs as the company struggles with lower demand for personal computers...[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99763941&ft=1&f=1006"]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99763941&ft=1&f=1006[/URL]
Looking back 10 years ago at the life changing event in my personal life that foreshadowed all that is happening now, I can say I'm glad it happened and broke the illusion of security I and my wife had.
I thank God every day for what we have and for the job I have that hasn't really been hit yet. I know I could be doing harder work for less money and no insurance.
When Sierra's Oakhurts division was closed, all that followed taught us lessons we can REALLY use now, and allowed us to be financially ready for what has happened and what is coming.
A thing or two I will comment on:
While positive thinking will help you deal with what is thrown at you, it will not determine WHAT is thrown at you.
The fault of bloated consumer debt does not squarely lie only on the shoulders of consumers who used it, but is also the responsibility of the Credit pushers who gave it.
IMHO, credit is a financial cancer causing agent that needs to be used in moderation.
...but, maybe I am just speaking the obvious.
Comments
How the hell do you expect a student who cosigns with their parents to pay off 80k worth of debt in their first year of college?
Fuck, how can you even accumulate 80k worth of debt in your first year of college, without being completely irresponsible?
(I'm referring to a former friend who took way too much advantage of her privileges.)
More recently when I went into the student financial aid office. Most of the people were in their to take out loans for stuff completely unrelated to school.
Asinine!
While positive thinking will help you deal with what is thrown at you, it will not determine WHAT is thrown at you.
The fault of bloated consumer debt does not squarely lie only on the shoulders of consumers who used it, but is also the responsibility of the Credit pushers who gave it.
IMHO, credit is a financial cancer causing agent that needs to be used in moderation.
...but, maybe I am just speaking the obvious.[/QUOTE]
I think you are sorta right in your comments, there are two responsiblities that tend to get ignored in the creditor/borrower relationship
First the responsibility of the borrower is to understand how lending money works and its implications. It's also the responsibility of the borrow to have some understanding of the time value of money and why borrowing to purchase items with high rates of depriciation is often a bad idea (cars, TVs etc). This is a responsibility we as a public have not taken seriously.
The responsibility of the lendor is to make money off the money they lend, but as we've seen, lending to risky borrowers does not make money, it ends up costing. Therefore the responsibilty of the lender is to lend only to those borrowers who understand the responsibilitys listed borrowers above. Again a responsibility the lending industry did not take seriously.
I personally believe this overall crisis would have been greatly reduced if we did one simple thing...require every single high school student to have one year of personal finance before he or she can graduate. Teach some basics like time value of money, the difference between collatoralized and un-collatoralized debt. How different vehicles of investment work, etc... In the end preditory lending and other practices wouldn't near the problem it is if the general public had even a reasonable understanding of finance.
Credit can be a very usefull tool if used correctly. For example, my wife and I regularly by large ticket items with the often offered XX months no payments/no interest. I'd much rather have that money in my bank earning me interest then giving it to someone else while at the same time getting use out of said item. Near the end of the term, we pay it off in a lump sum.
Jake
as for those no interest credit offers, i've got a friend, who has great credit so he's always getting 12 month interest free loan offers, so he takes them at 0% interest, opens a CD with the money he borrowed, then in 12 months when the CD matures, he pays back the loan and pockets the interest. talk about working the system.
Why not send money directly to the US Treasury?
Okay a dollar a day, after 30 days turns into $30 dollars.
Now assume somewhere around 230,000,000 million Americans pay into that.
After a month thats 690 billion going back into the economy!
After a year that number turns into 8.28 trillion.
Budget surplus of nearly two trillion dollars.
Is my math wrong?
Am I missing something?
Second, we already have such a thing, its called taxes, and many of us pay far more than $30 per month.
Finally we are talking about personal finance here, not the national budget.
Jake
Still I would think that it would be beneficial in the long run, since the feds are printing so much money.
Hmm just thinking that all that money that goes into the system indirectly ends up going elsewhere, 20k toilets and such.
Just trying to think outside the box here. Don't mind me!
However, I dont think this war is as popular as the last one..
Now there pretty much is no heavy industry remaining.
I was looking into a money market account too, but min deposit is $2000 even as a student account.
Returns suck at 1% and change.
Such a system would make a huge difference, I think. Far too many people don't understand personal finances properly, particularly those with less money, who should be being far more careful with it. Too many people are sucked in by the claims of "own that big screen TV today!" without realising that not only are they going to pay a lot more for it in the long run, but they can't afford it any more now or at the end of three years (when it will be obsolete anyway).
And for what it's worth, my engineering degree had a one semester accounting course as a requirement.
[QUOTE=Entil'Zha;179056]as for those no interest credit offers, i've got a friend, who has great credit so he's always getting 12 month interest free loan offers, so he takes them at 0% interest, opens a CD with the money he borrowed, then in 12 months when the CD matures, he pays back the loan and pockets the interest. talk about working the system.[/QUOTE]
When I was about half way through uni, the government made all student loans interest free until you graduated. The idea was that you wouldn't start paying interest until you were working and so could start paying it off. There were no real restrictions on who could get a student loan, so guess what all the students who didn't need one did? They took out a student loan for their fees for their entire degree (about $NZ10000 to $NZ20000), put the money in the bank for 3 or 4 years, then before graduating, took it out and paid off the loan, keeping the interest.