Just to make this a little less vauge, I will base everything on the Mercedes Benz American Express (MB AMEX) card, which is the closest to a $100 annual fee I found on American Express's website. The benefits of a card with an annual fee generally are worth the cost if (and only if) you spend enough money on the card, and avoid paying interest to offset the benefit.  Using the MB AMEX card as a reference, it offers 5X points for Mercedes Benz purchases, 3X points at gas stations, 2X points at restaurants, and 1X points everywhere else.  Even if we only make purchases at the 1X rate, it only takes charging $10,000 to the card in a year in order to make up the difference.  Not too hard to do on a card someone uses as their main method of payment.  Every dollar spent at the higher rates only makes that easier. There are a number of other benefits as well.  After spending $5,000 on the card in a year, you receive a $500 gift card towards the purchase of a Mercedes Benz car.  For anyone on the market for a Mercedes Benz, the card pays for itself multiple times with just this benefit.


> there is no way they will let it collapse   Do you think they would have let it get to the point of imminent collapse, if they could do anything about it?  Why do you think they will have any more power over the next stage in this debacle?


A standard mortgage lead generation strategy even so, is usually to purchase meticulously picked out lists of probable customers via mortgage lead generation companies, tailored in lead generation. The lead technique could cost substantially when compared with advertising, nonetheless in the lead structure, your service must be zeroed in on for preferred customers so, and who could possibly be engaged to obtain your product or service. Thus likewise supplies mortgage lead generation job opportunities, generating a beneficial win-win answer for all.


"When people (even people in the media) say: ""The stock market is up because of X"" or ""The stock market is down because of Y"", they are often engaging in what Nicolas Taleb calls the narrative falacy. They see the market has moved in one direction or another, they open their newspaper, pick a headline that provides a plausible reason for the market to move, and say: ""Oh, that is why the stock market is down"". Very rarely do statements like this actually come from research, asking people why they bought or sold that day. Sometimes they may be right, but it is usually just story telling. In terms of old fashioned logic this is called the ""post hoc, ergo proper hoc"" fallacy. Now all the points people have raised about the US deficit may be valid, and there are plenty of reasons for worrying about the future of the world economy, but they were all known before the S&P report, which didn't really provide the markets with much new information. Note also that the actual bond market didn't move much after hearing the same report, in fact the price of 10 year US Treasury bonds actually rose a tiny bit. Take these simple statements about what makes the market go up or down on any given day with several fistfuls of salt."


So wrong, on so many levels. You trust content from WP? Full of IC operatives and presstitutes. The little restrictions we have on imported steel do nothing to slow the market inundation of poor-quality (read: Chinese) steel. Since when does the Pentagon have the USA's economic interests in mind? Lastly, Buy-American/Sell-American is guaranteed to reinvigorate the country's economy. The money is reinvested in OUR country. And the surplus can be exported. We make quality goods, not mass production goods of lesser quality like Xi Ping's knock-off steel. #MAGA


I wrote this in another thread but is also applicable here. In general people make some key mistakes with property: Not factoring in depreciation properly. Houses are perpetually falling down, and if you are renting them perpetually being trashed by the tenants as well - particularly in bad areas. Accurate depreciation costs can often run in the 5-20% range per year depending on the property/area. Add insurance to this as well or be prepared to lose the whole thing in a disaster. Related to 1), they take the index price of house price rises as something they can achieve, when in reality a lot of the house price 'rise' is just everyone having to spend a lot of money keeping them standing up. No investor can actually track a house price graph due to 1) so be careful to make reasonable assumptions about actual achievable future growth (in your example, they could well be lagging inflation/barely growing if you are not pricing in upkeep and depreciation properly). Failure to price in the huge transaction costs (often 5%+ per sale) and capital gains/other taxes (depends on the exact tax structure where you are). These add up very fast if you are buying and selling at all frequently. Costs in either time or fees to real estate rental agents. Having to fill, check, evict, fix and maintain rental properties is a lot more work than most people realise, and you either have to pay this in your own time or someone else’s. Again, has to be factored in. Liquidity issues. Selling houses in down markets is very, very hard. They are not like stocks where they can be moved quickly. Houses can often sit on the market for years before sale if you are not prepared to take low prices. As the bank owns your house if you fail to pay the mortgage (rents collapse, loss of job etc) they can force you to fire sale it leaving you in a whole world of pain depending on the exact legal system (negative equity etc). These factors are generally correlated if you work in the same cities you are buying in so quite a lot of potential long tail risk if the regional economy collapses. Finally, if you’re young they can tie you to areas where your earnings potential is limited. Renting can be immensely beneficial early on in a career as it gives you huge freedom to up sticks and leave fast when new opportunities arise. Locking yourself into 20 yr+ contracts/landlord activities when young can be hugely inhibiting to your earnings potential. Without more details on the exact legal framework, area, house type etc it’s hard to give more specific advise, but in general you need a very large margin of safety with property due to all of the above, so if the numbers you’re running are coming out close (and they are here), it’s probably not worth it, and you’re better of sticking with more hands off investments like stocks and bonds.


>it was simply a vote on the definition of celestial bodies in the galaxy being voted on by an international coalition of scientists (IAU).  He changed it at the Hayden Planetarium before the vote.  >since it's larger than pluto  It's not.  It is more massive, not larger.  >Xena was going to be the 10th planet in the solar system after it was discovered  Ok?    The definition of planet is arbitrary and it would be easy to make a definition to include or exclude.  The decision to lead the charge for declassify is a publicity move that worked very well for him.


between two people purchasing a house together, one with good and one with bad credit, will having both persons on the loan raise the interest rates. If the house deed is on both names, generally the Bank would insist the loan should also be on both of your names. This to ensure that Bank has enough leverage to recover the house in case of default. If one of you has bad credit, bank would raise the interest rate, assumption that bad credit would drag the good credit and force him to some activities / actions that could stretch the finance of one with good credit. If timely payments are not made, it would make your good credit to bad. If the house deed is on only on your name and you can get the loan on your own, this would be a better position. If the house deed is on only on your name and you would like to loan to be on both names, then the positive side is credit score of the person with bad credit would start showing improvement over period, provided both of you make timely payments. As pointed out by keshlam, there are enough question where people have entered into agreement without deciding what would happen if they separate. There is no right / wrong answer. It would be best you decide how it would be with respect to the ownership in the house and with respect to payments and if in worst case you part ways, how the settlement should look like.


"You bring up good points. But Facebook is getting a lot of bad press and folks are starting to get a little paranoid. I can see the website's traffic decrease because of this (at least form users in the ""Western"" world). So perhaps my idea might work for Facebook? Maybe they should offer a two-tier system before it loses its users?"


Yes, retail stores will let you use multiple cards to make a purchase. Just be sure to know the exact balance on each one and tell the cashier how much you'd like to put on each card. If you don't know the balance and try to charge more than what is available, your card will be declined.


"For those not using ad and script-blockers:  > TOKYO (AP) — The head of Japanese automaker Subaru bowed deeply in apology Friday as the company admitted that it has been carrying out flawed inspections of its Japan-made cars for years.  > The announcement by Subaru's chief executive and president, Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, was the latest in a flurry of such scandals. Earlier this month Nissan Motor Co. recalled more than 1 million domestically made cars because of faulty routine tests.  > Subaru will submit a report on the problem to the government on Monday, Yoshinaga told reporters. He said a domestic recall is likely, spanning the entire Subaru lineup totaling 255,000 vehicles.  > ""We are truly sorry, and we apologize,"" Yoshinaga said, after bowing deeply. ""We all wanted to do the tests properly.""  > The government ordered automakers to check their inspection procedures after Nissan apologized for allowing unauthorized employees to do final vehicle checks for years.  > The scandals have stunned the public and cast a shadow over this nation's prized image for ""monozukuri"" or craftsman-like production, reputed for high quality and meticulousness.  > Yoshinaga said the faulty inspections for Subaru's finished products had been going on for 30 years. The workers involved did not fully realize their method was wrong, and a thorough review of the entire inspection system is needed, he said.  > Workers who didn't have enough experience to do checks borrowed Japanese ""hanko"" seals from authorized employees and stamped documents to show vehicles had passed the tests, according to the company. The recalls are expected to cost 5 billion yen ($44 million), it said.  > Subaru, formerly called Fuji Heavy Industries, is partnered with Toyota Motor Corp., a top shareholder. Toyota and Honda Motor Co. have said they did not have dubious inspections. Toyota said it was checking with Subaru on the reported irregularities.  > Nissan is recalling more than a million vehicles in Japan to re-inspect them, and has set up an investigative team that includes a third party to get to the bottom of the scandal and prevent a recurrence.  > The problem does not affect Nissan vehicles sold outside Japan and is not believed to have affected vehicle safety as they were final-stage checks.  > But the scandal raises serious questions about ethics and professionalism at Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models, and is allied with Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan.  > Reporters peppered Subaru's Yoshinaga with questions about why it took so long after the Nissan scandal for Subaru to come forward.  > ""I always wanted to make my company a great company, and I now know we had not done enough,"" he said. ""I am so ashamed that my company has become a cause for tarnishing Japanese monozukuri.""  > The auto industry has been hit by a series of scandals.  > Nissan took a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors last year after that company was caught inflating fuel economy figures for its minicar models, which are also sold under the Nissan brand.  > Japanese supplier Kobe Steel acknowledged recently it had systematically falsified data on its products, including steel, aluminum, copper and other materials, affecting some 500 companies including major global automakers, as well as the aircraft, electronics and railway industries.  > Volkswagen AG of Germany acknowledged in 2015 that it had equipped its diesel cars with illegal software that enabled cheating on U.S. emissions tests. Volkswagen has agreed to more than $20 billion in fines and civil settlements over the scandal.  > Air-bag maker Takata Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection after some 100 million air-bag inflators were recalled worldwide. The defect has been linked to 19 deaths and dozens of injuries."


I certainly do not agree and you are making some sweeping statements without backing them up. What I am saying is that a company cannot make a promise of credit to an employee without having something to back that up. If you don't have that then you cannot offer pensions or other futures that you cannot ensure are going to be properly funded. No one forces a company to offer pensions in this day and age (there are exceptions of course) so they do not need to offer it at all.   Things like pensions are often used as incentives that can be provided in lieu of cash payments to the employee. If we are going to make cash like exchanges of value then that value should be just as guaranteed as it is when the company promises to pay back a loan.   In short you should not be able to hire employees on a financial promise you cannot keep in good faith. If for some reason you cannot keep that promise, just like with standard credit it should hurt you.   Or you know, as a company don't make BS promises and just pay people what they are worth.


Since insurance is priced for profit, the price will be more than the price of a new phone multiplied against the chance of loss and payout.  Otherwise insurance would not be offered since there was no money to be made by the insurance company. The idea of insurance is that you are pooling your risk with everyone else.  You all definitely pay a little (insurance premium) instead of any of you maybe paying a lot (when a phone is destroyed).  The question is not whether it is a good investment (almost surely no), but whether the loss at a random time would be too crippling to be absorbed by you when it happened.  If you can afford a new phone without financial difficulty if it were destroyed then you should generally not buy insurance. One other factor could be that although you are in the same risk pool as everyone else (everyone pays the same rate), but your situation has a higher risk than most, insurance can be a better deal, though the better investment over time would be to correct the risky situation instead of buying insurance.  This could be that you have a habit of losing things, live in an area where phones are stolen often, have pets that destroy your belongings, etc. Statistically, you will come out ahead not buying insurance, but you are accepting an unknown outcome.


"No our fiscal cliff is the result of, in part, a terrific degree of uncertainty of the market in 2013. The analogy would be more like ""we know the guy who has been taking our milk money might want to take our lunch money next week."" So businesses across the board are being more cautious."


Investing is really about learning your own comfort level.  You will make money and lose money. You will make mistakes but you will also learn a great deal. First off, invest in your own financial knowledge, this doesn't require capital at all but a commitment. No one will watch or care for your own money better than yourself. Read books, and follow some companies in a Google Finance virtual portfolio. Track how they're doing over time - you can do this as a virtual portfolio without actually spending or losing money.  Have you ever invested before? What is your knowledge level? Investing long term is about trying to balance risk while reducing losses and trying not to get screwed along the way (by people).  My personal advice: Go to an independent financial planner, go to one that charges you per hour only. Financial planners that don't charge you hourly get paid in commissions. They will be biased to sell you what puts the most money in their pockets. Do not go to the banks investment people, they are employed by the banks who have sales and quota requirements to have you invest and push their own investment vehicles like mutual funds. Take $15k to the financial planner and see what they suggest. Keep the other $5K in something slow and boring and $1k under your mattress in actual cash as an emergency. While you're young, compound interest is the magic that will make that $25k increase hand over fist in time. But you need to have it consistently make money. I'm young too and more risk tolerant because I have time. While I get older I can start to scale back my risk because I'm nearing retirement and preserve instead of try to make returns.


Great blog you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any community forums that cover the same topics discussed here? I’d really like to be a part of online community where I can get advice from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thanks a lot!


I think it's going to be a tough sell for their older user base. Most of their clientele is probably not going to jump online to watch the latest CSI/NCIS spinoff. If they want this to succeed, they should go after a younger demographic with shows like How I Met Your Mother and whatnot.


"The IRS doesn't tax ""increased wealth"" They tax Revenue -- income.  If this money or property came to you as a gift, you would owe no tax on it but the giver probably would owe gift tax.  If it came to you as a loan, you would owe no tax on it but the lender would owe tax on any interest you pay (and must charge at least minimal interest, though they could give that to you as a gift and possibly not have it be taxable). But if came as payment for goods or services or investment or anything of that sort, and you aren't demonstrably tax-exempt, it is income and you are responsible for declaring it as such and paying tax on it."


"If you want to have your wife stay home with kids, you'll have to make a plan to get there. As you point out, your situation right now won't support this. Create a budget that will work for you with a single income -- a ""zero based"" budget, not a budget based on your current expense structure. Figure out what you can afford on just your income for housing, church, food, transport, etc. Or apply the same idea on the assumption that she will keep working -- budget based on a second income plus child care expenses. Then you can decide what you have to change in order for that to work: maybe it means selling your house, renting, relocating, selling a car, finding a better or second job, etc. Then decide what you need to do in order to make these changes."


Wikipedia has a detailed article explaining this. A standard, commercial letter of credit (LC) is a document issued mostly by a financial institution, used primarily in trade finance, which usually provides an irrevocable payment undertaking. So yes, they are primarily for use by businesses. If you will read the article stating the terms and conditions for payment and shipment you will realize that such model won't be of much value to and will create many hurdles for a typical consumer. Yes, you can cash a letter of credit but only once the conditions in the letter have been met (e.g., delivery/shipment of goods/services). An array of documents need to be presented as well. Whether it is easy or not is a very subjective question.  A bank will issue a letter of credit only when it is reasonably sure that its risk is covered --either backed by a bank deposit or by conditions in the letter itself. Obviously derivatives on these letters have evolved as well.


"I was wondering how ""future cash flows of the asset"" are predicted? Are they also predicted using fundamental and/or technical analysis? There are a many ways to forecast the future cash flows of assets. For example, for companies: It seems like calculating expected/required rate using CAPM does not belong to either fundamental or technical analysis, does it? I would qualify the CAPM as quantitative analysis because it's mathematics and statistics. It's not really fundamental since its does not relies on economical data (except the prices). And as for technical analysis, the term is often used as a synonym for graphical analysis or chartism, but quantitative analysis can also be referred as technical analysis. the present value of future cash flows [...] (called intrinsic price/value, if I am correct?) Yes you are correct. I wonder when deciding whether an asset is over/fair/under-valued, ususally what kind of price is compared to what other kind of price? If it's only to compare with the price, usually, the Net asset value (which is the book value), the Discount Cash flows (the intrinsic value) and the price of comparable companies and the CAPM are used in comparison to current market price of the asset that you are studying. Why is it in the quote to compare the first two kinds of prices, instead of comparing the current real price on the markets to any of the other three kinds? Actually the last line of the quote says that the comparison is done on the observed price which is the market price (the other prices can't really be observed). But, think that the part: an asset is correctly priced when its estimated price is the same as the present value of future cash flows of the asset means that, since the CAPM gives you an expected rate of return, by using this rate to compute the present value of future cash flows of the asset, you should have the same predicted price. I wrote this post explaining some valuation strategies. Maybe you can find some more information by reading it."


yAnother potential tool for you would be a Monte Carlo Simulator.   here's one  http://financial-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Business+Fundamentals I know that past performance is no guarantee.....  but I think it's in many cases not exactly a flawed tool, and especially with respect to money managers a good way to find good ones.  If a manager has shown an ability over time to consistently beat the market, yes he might be due for a bad day, but you'd generally expect that they should be able to continue that trend. I'd apply the same logic to pundits.  If their track record sucks, and they constantly seem to whipsaw you with their advice, why listen to them other than


Your example shows a 4% dividend.  If we assume the stock continues to yield 4%, the math drops to something simple. Rule of 72 says your shares will double in 18 years. So in 18 years, 1000 shares will be 2000, at whatever price it's trading.  Shares X (1.04)^N years = shares after N years. This is as good an oversimplification as any.


"Yes... but it is a matter of balancing risks.  It is wiser to keep a small amount of ""ready cash"" as an emergency/buffer -- and to suffer the gradual loss to inflation...  Than it is risk becoming ""stuck"" in an emergency with zero dollars in any (low or no cost) source of funds -- those kinds of ""emergencies"" ($500 or $1,000 ""unexpected/unbudgeted"" expenses) are fairly frequent and virtually inevitable.  You lose vastly MORE money when you are forced to borrow those amounts (interest -- even **low-rate** loans -- is virtually always higher than the average inflation rate)."


There are many reasons for buying new versus used vehicles. Price is not the only factor.  This is an individual decision. Although interesting to examine from a macro perspective, each vehicle purchase is made by an individual, weighing many factors that vary in importance by that individual, based upon their specific needs and values. I have purchased both new and used cars, and I have weighted each of these factors as part of each decision (and the relative weightings have varied based upon my individual situation). Read Freakonomics to gain a better understanding of the reasons why you cannot find a good used car. The summary is the imbalance of knowledge between the buyer and seller, and the lack of trust. Although much of economics assumes perfect market information, margin (profit) comes from uncertainty, or an imbalance of knowledge.  Buying a used car requires a certain amount of faith in people, and you cannot always trust the trading partner to be honest. Price - The price, or more precisely, the value proposition of the vehicle is a large concern for many of us (larger than we might prefer that it be). Selection - A buyer has the largest selection of vehicles when they shop for a new vehicle. Finding the color, features, and upgrades that you want on your vehicle can be much harder, even impossible, for the used buyer. And once you have found the exact vehicle you want, now you have to determine whether the vehicle has problems, and can be purchased at your price. Preference - A buyer may simply prefer to have a vehicle that looks new, smells new, is clean, and does not have all the imperfections that even a gently used vehicle would exhibit. This may include issues of pride, image, and status, where the buyer may have strong emotional or psychological needs to statisfy through ownership of a particular vehicle with particular features. Reviews - New vehicles have mountains of information available to buyers, who can read about safety and reliability ratings, learn about problems from the trade press, and even price shop and compare between brands and models. Contrasted with the minimal information available to used vehicle shoppers. Unbalanced Knowledge - The seller of a used car has much greater knowledge of the vehicle, and thus much greater power in the negotiation process. Buying a used car is going to cost you more money than the value of the car, unless the seller has poor knowledge of the market. And since many used cars are sold by dealers (who have often taken advantage of the less knowledgeable sellers in their transaction), you are unlikely to purchase the vehicle at a good price. Fear/Risk - Many people want transportation, and buying a used car comes with risk. And that risk includes both the direct cost of repairs, and the inconvenience of both the repair and the loss of work that accompanies problems. Knowing that the car has not been abused, that there are no hidden or lurking problems waiting to leave you stranded is valuable. Placing a price on the risk of a used car is hard, especially for those who only want a reliable vehicle to drive. Placing an estimate on the risk cost of a used car is one area where the seller has a distinct advantage. Warranties - New vehicles come with substantial warranties, and this is another aspect of the Fear/Risk point above. A new vehicle does not have unknown risk associated with the purchase, and also comes with peace of mind through a manufacturer warranty. You can purchase a used car warranty, but they are expensive, and often come with (different) problems. Finance Terms - A buyer can purchase a new vehicle with lower financing rate than a used vehicle. And you get nothing of value from the additional finance charges, so the difference between a new and used car also includes higher finance costs. Own versus Rent - You are assuming that people actually want to 'own' their cars. And I would suggest that people want to 'own' their car until it begins to present problems (repair and maintenance issues), and then they want a new vehicle to replace it. But renting or leasing a vehicle is an even more expensive, and less flexible means to obtain transportation. Expense Allocation - A vehicle is an expense. As the owner of a vehicle, you are willing to pay for that expense, to fill your need for transportation. Paying for the product as you use the product makes sense, and financing is one way to align the payment with the consumption of the product, and to pay for the expense of the vehicle as you enjoy the benefit of the vehicle. Capital Allocation - A buyer may need a vehicle (either to commute to work, school, doctor, or for work or business), but either lack the capital or be unwilling to commit the capital to the vehicle purchase. Vehicle financing is one area banks have been willing to lend, so buying a new vehicle may free capital to use to pay down other debts (credit cards, loans). The buyer may not have savings, but be able to obtain financing to solve that need. Remember, people need transportation. And they are willing to pay to fill their need. But they also have varying needs for all of the above factors, and each of those factors may offer value to different individuals.


Buy gold, real coins not paper. And do not keep it in a bank.


"The tax system in general, and income tax in particular, is used for several purposes at once. One of those purposes is to raise money to run the government. It isn't the only purpose of income tax, and income tax isn't the only source of money to run the government. Try a thought experiment: let's say it costs $10,000 per person per year to run the government. (It might actually cost far more or far less, that's not the point.) A super simple tax system would just ask each person for $10,000. But such a system isn't fair. Some people don't even earn $10,000 so they are literally not able to pay that. Some people, who earn a lot, can easily afford to pay more. So a still-pretty simple approach asks each person to pay a particular percentage of their income, and the hope is that this will add up to enough to run the government. This still doesn't feel fair to everyone - 10% of your income is hard to find when you're spending it all on rent and food, and easy to find when you have way more than you ""need"". So many countries have what's called a ""progressive"" system of income tax where you pay no tax on the first X of your income, then a small percentage on the next Y, a larger percentage on the next Z and so on.  But you asked about business profit. Some places don't tax business profits at all - they just collect income taxes on people once the money reaches them as salary or dividends. Other places do. Just as a person who doesn't earn any income can't send the government money, a business that spent more on expenses than it brought in as revenue can't send the government money either. So the tax is on profit. That seems fairer to most people anyway. Things then get even more complicated for both business and personal income taxes because the government uses the system to encourage certain behaviours and to help people facing hard times. If you want to encourage people to get training and move into higher paying jobs, you might make tuition tax deductible. Most countries give a tax deduction for each small child you have. This isn't because people with children use less of the services government provides, is it? Instead it's an acknowledgement that people with children generally have less money to spend. Or an encouragement to have children, or something. Tax motivations are complicated.  If you charged all businesses a flat tax regardless of whether they were making or losing money, people might be hesitant to start companies that lose money at first. There might be less entrepreneurship in that country. If instead you only tax profits, it feels fairer and more people are likely to join in. So that's what most governments do. Is the imaginary business owner who is not turning a profit somehow getting a free ride? They are still paying tax. If they took any salary for themselves, there was personal income tax on that. Everything the company bought, it paid sales tax on. There may have been excise taxes and such in other things they bought. The economic activity of the business has been driving the wheel of the local economy and spinning off some taxes at various levels that whole time. Whether the business itself is chipping in some corporate income tax too may not end up being particularly relevant. Example: a sole proprietor has revenue of $100,000 and spends $10,000 on supplies and such. If the salary to the owner is $89,000 the company has a $1000 profit which it pays tax on. If the salary to the owner is $91,000 the company has a $1000 loss and doesn't pay tax (and may be able to use the loss to reduce taxes in a future year.) So what? The owner is paying personal income tax on roughly $90,000. The government is getting the support it needs. Yes, some owners do all the ""encouraged"" things so that some income is not taxed either in the business or the personal sphere. That is presumably what the government wanted when it set those things up as deductions. Making charitable contributions, hiring new employees, building new facilities ... essentially the government is paying the business to do those things because they're good for the country. The overall government budget (funded by personal and corporate income tax along with sales tax, excises taxes etc) is supposed to achieve certain goals which include roads and schools but also job creation and the like. This is one of the ways they do that."


First of all any loan will have the last payment be slightly different than the rest. Even if the interest rate is zero it is hard to have a perfect monthly payment amount. By perfect I mean the amount of the loan divided by the number of months would be $ddd.cc0000...  When looking at the amortization table the last payment will either be slightly higher or lower to adjust for the rounding that was done. My suspicion is that the rounding would have resulted in a left over 12 cents. It is also possible that you are paying it off slightly early and the computer is simply taking the leftover amount an spreading it over the remaining period of the loan. You could be paying it early because for the main part of the loan was paid to a company that rounds all payments to the higher dollar, or has a minimum monthly payment amount. I looked at the company you mentioned in the question, and searched the site for an amortization tool. I found it, and used the pre-filled in example. https://www.edfinancial.com/amortizationschedule?pmts=120&intr=6.8&prin=25000 If that last payment is not adjusted the borrower will still owe $0.12. The fact it equals your situation is a coincidence. But is does show what can happen.


"XE Trade advertises the following features: So if you think you can predict where rates are going enough to set your bid at a level that you think will be a good deal, you have the opportunity to do that with XE's service.   I do not work for XE trade and do not care or receive any financial benefit if you use them or not.  I'm just aware of an offering out there that seems like it might answer the question you've asked and am providing an answer that seems like it might be helpful.  If you do find the answer helpful, feel free to upvote/accept as appropriate; if you are aware of significant cons or limitations please comment or edit.  While this may answer the question you asked, the underlying question cannot be addressed without knowing more about what's behind ""Sadly I cannot sell the property."" When it's clear you think ""having stupid Spain in my life is like a ball and chain around my leg,"" sale of the property seems like a good option."


"So my read on the question is ""How do I invest 300k such that it earns me a 'living wage' without the ongoing grind inherent in most formal employment?""  Reading the other answers to date it looks like most of them are thinking in terms of investment accounts and trying to live off of the earnings from such.  I wanted to throw out a couple of alternative choices that may be worth considering... The first is real-estate investing.  $300k should allow you to pick up 2 or 3 single family dwellings with little or no mortgage.  Turning them into rentals placed with a good property management company should easily pay their expenses and provide a consistent income with minimal effort/attention from you.  Similar story with buying into multifamily housing or commercial real-estate. Your key concern here is picking the right market in which to buy and finding a reputable manager to handle the day to day issues on your behalf. Note that you are not overly concerned with the potential resale value of the property(s), but the probable rental income they can generate, these are separate concerns that may not align with each other. Second is buying/founding a business that has a general manager other than yourself.  Franchise ownership may be a potential option for you under the circumstances.  The key concern here is picking the business, location, and manager that make you comfortable in terms of the risk involved.  You need the place to make enough money to pay for itself and the salary of everyone working there, with enough left over for you to live on.  Sounds easy enough, but not so much in practice.  Generally you can expect at least a few years of being hands on and watching things very closely to make sure it is going the way you want it to.  Finding a mentor who has done this type of transition before to walk you through it would be strongly advised.  So would preparing yourself for a failure or two before you work out the exact combination of factors that work for you."


Another thing that's often overlooked is the hiring of felons. I'm not going to say I support it. But now adays companies can pay $1 and get a nationwide background check that often includes even things that were expunged off records.  In the past as a felon you just had to go to a different state and you could get a job anywhere.  Most didn't do background checks anyway.


"Is that it?  You hardly put any effort into it . .  over the last week you have desensitized America and now you have to top talking smack to a war veteran widow to deliver Americas week end Cringe worthy Moment.  Come one . .lets get your blood flowing  The Iranian Ayatollah called you a ""Mental Retard"", thats Persian for ""Fucking Moron""   3...2...1  Your on!!"


They are like the other extreme from Apple.  Apple hoards way too much cash but RIM didn't hoard nearly enough.  Had RIM just waited they'd be able to buy the entire company now for what they spent on buybacks in 2011.  That is mind blowing.


The usual lazy recommendation: See what similar objects, in similar condition, of similar age, have sold for recently on eBay. That establishes a fair market value by directly polling the market.


Thanks for your reply.  I agree shooting down the majority of Chinese as being shady is perhaps unfair. I was just left with a really bad taste after all the crazy situations I was in during those 10 years. I am sure they have some strong opinions about Americans also.   On the USA side I did bring my usual law firm in on a consultation and even contacted and consulted with a firm who specializes in Transportation Law. My wife and the Chinese side thought that was a waste of money - but it was valuable on answering many of the questions you bought up, including things like a DOT registration and so on. As for it being salvageable, I think not, as I cannot work with someone I don’t trust. The “recovery” is not much - just under $3000, as it was caught before the warehouse lease was signed/etc.  part of the problem was I required a “good faith” payment from them before the lease signing which they did not do. The Chinese side is scared of me for some of the reasons I alluded too in my original post - and they have agreed to pay that amount on Monday. I will give them a receipt for their payment, and move on without any further action. I think my wife has learned a lot from this - I have perhaps also - both about my wife and what she is willing to do and how much she wants to start a business. I agree that my demeanor is perhaps not 100% when I feel slighted - I will try to temper that some in future - but most importantly - through clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Thanks again!


Keep in mind, there are times that house is in such bad shape that it's going to need 6 months of renovations, in which case you might ask the town if they are willing to reappraise a lower value until the work is completed. Keep in mind, you'll get a new appraisal when permitted (I mean pulling a permit from the town) work is done. I finished my basement and the town was eager to send the appraiser over even before work was fully complete.


There is no margin call. Inverse ETFs use derivatives that would lose value in the case you describe though this doesn't force a margin call as you may be misunderstanding how these funds are constructed.


To add technical detail to other answers, your (and some commenters') estimates of storing that data is woefully (many orders of magnitude) off. Let's take your 10MB of transaction data per user. You're only estimating text records like in Quicken. Now add on the volume of storing everye check's image. That's 100K (if not 500Kb depending on resolution of the scan) per check. If you have 100 checks per year (not unrealistic, if you pay all utility/morgage bills by check, as well as purchases), you now have 10Mb/year to 50MB/year. Now you're asking for 10 years of this, so you have 100-500MB per customer. NOT 10MB-70MB as you initially assumed. Let's take a mid-range figure, 300 MB. You were estimating using consumer grate cheap-o storage (which Facebook can afford for their data, as they don't store transaction data). Now let's up that to enterprise server hard drives. Your storage costs just rose 2x-5x. Now, typically you'd have RAID. So 2x more. Most large financial institutions have multiple data centers. You typically store all data's copies in those data centers for DR purposes. Your multiplier added another 2x-4x Most production data servers have multiple copies (Write DB server + one or more read-only copies). Multiply by 2x-4x With some rare exceptions, most banks don't just have one central database server. Each major app  / business line would have its own DB, so you multiply that by 2x-20x depending on the bank, especially if it's arrived at its size by merging with other banks and has dozens of inherited legacy systems. multiple backups. Regulatory backup requirements means you don't just back up your data once a year. You do it daily, till the data is purged from DB. Meaning, you don't store ONE copy of your transaction in backup. You stored, say, 10*365 copies, assuming 10 year retention) So, at the low end, your cost estimates are 30*2*2*2*2*2 = 900 times off (3 orders of magnitude) just for live database storage, and 3500 times off for backup costs. At the high end, they could be 50*5*2*4*4*20=16,000 times off (4-5 orders of magnitude) At this range, no, it isn't worth it for the bank to keep your transactions available in DB and online any longer than bare-bones absolutely critically necessary.


I wouldn't only consider the entry/exit cost per trade. That's a good comparison page by the way. I would also consider the following. This depends if you are planning on using your online broker to provide all the information for you to trade. I have lower expectations of my online broker, not meant to be harsh on the online brokers, but I expect brokers to assist me in buying/selling, not in selecting. Edit: to add to the answer following a comment. Here are three pieces of software to assist in stock selection


"It's a matter of social policy. The government wants people to make long term investments because that would lead to other long-term government goals: employment, manufacturing, economical growth in general. While speculative investments and day-trading are not in any way discouraged, investments that contribute to the economy as a whole and not just the investor are encouraged by the lower tax rates on the profits. While some people consider it to be a ""fig leaf"", I consider these people to be populists and dishonest. Claiming that long term social goals are somehow bad is hypocrisy. Claiming that short-term trading contributes to the economy as a whole is a plain lie."


Are my mortgage terms locked in? Who oversees this? Yes your terms like rate, balance, penalties, due dates, are all covered in the mortgage documents. Those will not change. If the mortgage is an adjustable or has a balloon payment those terms will be followed by the new company. That being said, mistakes can be made. Double check everything. I had a transfer get messed up once, and all the terms were wrong. It took a few months but everything was worked out. In fact because they first tried to stonewall me I was able to negotiate some additional concessions out of them. Running your own escrow account is one thing you always want to do. That makes sure that the taxes and insurance are always paid by you, even if the servicing company has a glitch. Generally you have to have enough equity to not have PMI in order to get them to agree to the self-escrow option. If you have a problem with the servicing company then contact the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau a part of the US Government. They have only been a round a few years, thus I have no experience with them. Have an issue with a financial product or service? We'll forward your   complaint to the company and work to get a response from them. The last few times I applied for a mortgage or refinanced a mortgage the lender had to reveal as part of the application stage the percentage of recent mortgages they still own/service. Check those numbers the next time you apply.


I'm going to guess that you found this because of a stock screener.  This company went through a 1:20 reverse split on June 30, so every 20 shares outstanding became a single share.  Where before you had 20 shares worth $100 you now have 1 share worth $100, the value of the company doesn't change because of a split.  This company was never trading for $30+ per share.  Reverse splits are typical of a floundering company trading on an exchange that has a minimum share price requirement.  While reverse splits don't change the value of the company, just the number of shares outstanding and the price per share, no healthy company performs a reverse split.  Reverse splits are generally a massive signal to jump ship... The company seems to be trading for $1 right now, why the value fell from a pre-split $1.65 ($33/20) to $1 is anyone's guess; how the company ever got to $1.65 is also anyone's guess. But looking at the most recent 10-Q there are numerous causes for concern:  Note 2. Capital Stock On March 6, 2017, the Company issued as compensation for services provided a total of 650,000 common shares with a fair value of $390,000 to a third party. The fair value of the shares was based on the price quoted on the OTC pink sheets on the grant date. this indicates a share price of $0.60 ($390,000/650,000) as of 3/6/2017, just to reinforce that the google price chart doesn't show the true past but a past adjusted for the split Results of Operations The three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to the three months ended March 31, 2016 For the three months ended March 31, 2017 compared to the three months ended March 31, 2016, total revenues were $0 and $0, respectively, and net losses from operations were $414,663 and $26,260, respectively. The net losses were attributable to costs attributable to operating as a public company, in particular, common stock with a valuation of $390,000 that was issued to an investor relations firm in the first quarter of 2017. Going Concern As of March 31, 2017, there is substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern as we have not generated sufficient cash flow to fund our proposed business. We have suffered recurring losses from operations since our inception. In addition, we have yet to generate an internal cash flow from our business operations or successfully raised the financing required to develop our proposed business. As a result of these and other factors, our independent auditor has expressed substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.    Liquidity and Capital Resources We had no cash as of the date of March 31, 2017. Additionally, since there is no balance sheet in the last 10-Q (another bad sign), the last annual report 10-K has this balance sheet: So the company: So why did the stock value plummet? It's anyones' guess but there is no shortage of ways to justify it.   In fact, it's reasonable to ask how is this company still worth $3mm ($1 * 3mm shares outstanding)...


"You're conflating LLC with Corporation. They're different animals. LLC does not have ""S"" or ""C"" designations, those are just for corporations. I think what you're thinking about is electing pass through status with the IRS. This is the easiest way to go. The company can pay you at irregular intervals in irregular amounts. The IRS doesn't care about these payments. The company will show profit or loss at the end of the year (those payments to you aren't expenses and don't reduce your profit). You report this on your schedule C and pay tax on that amount. (Your state tax authority will have its own rules about how this works.) Alternatively you can elect to have the LLC taxed as a corporation. I don't know of a good reason why someone in your situation would do this, but I'm not an accountant so there may be reasons out there. My recommendation is to get an accountant to prepare your taxes. At least once -- if your situation is the same next year you can use the previous year's forms to figure out what you need to fill in. The investment of a couple hundred dollars is worthwhile. On the question of buying a home in the next couple of years... yes, it does affect things. (Pass through status? Probably doesn't affect much.) If all of your income is coming from self-employment, be prepared for hassles when you are shopping for a mortgage. You can ask around, maybe you have a friendly loan officer at your credit union who knows your history. But in general they will want to see at least two years of self-employment tax returns. You can plan for this in advance: talk to a couple of loan officers now to see what the requirements will be. That way you can plan to be ready when the time comes."


It's time she look into what employer provided retirement plan she can use. She's at the point where she should think about investing for the long term, with retirement in mind.


It is possible. You'll have to call the bank and ask what documentation is required, I'm pretty sure they'll want notarized authorization by all partners, at least.


"The first rule I follow is pretty simple: Get paid for what you do. Earn a return on what you own. If you are running your company prudently, you should earn a salary for the position and responsibilities you hold within the business. This salary should be competitive. You should be able to replace yourself in the business at this salary. If your title is ""President"" or ""CEO"" - look for market rate salaries for others in that position within your industry and company size. If you wear multiple hats in a small business, you will likely have to blend this salary based on those various positions.  Based on how you run your business, the money left over at the end of the year after you and your team takes a competitive wage is your profit. If there isn't any profit, then you might want to do some work on your business model. But if their is a profit, then it's a clear return on what you own and not just a payment for work completed. The idea would be that you could exit the business as an operator, pay someone else to do exactly what you do, and you would continue to get that profit return at the end of the year. This is when a business acts like a true asset.  Whether you take your money in salary or profit distributions (or dividends) depending on your structure, taxes are about the same. W2'd salaries get normal employee contributed taxes, but then of course the company matches these. It is identical if you take a guaranteed payment or distribution that gets hit with self employment taxes. Profits are also going to get hit with the same taxes.  Follow ups: 1) A fair salary would be a competitive market wage for the position you hold within the business. What is left over would be considered true profits and not just fabricated profits by taking a lower than market wage to boost the appearance of profitability. 2) Shareholders requesting salary information would be covered in your Operating Agreement or Shareholder Agreement. This might be terms you set with your investors. Or you might simply set a term that you only need approval if a single salary exceeds a cap (like $250,000). Which would mean you would need to present why you deserve a higher salary and have your board approve (if you are governed by said board via your investors). Profitability is a different ballpark. Your investors most likely have a right to see a monthly, quarterly, and/or annual Profit & Loss statement which should clearly state profitability. I can't imagine running a completely closed book company to my investors. Actually... I can't really imagine ever investing in a company where I am not permitted to see the financials.  Something to also consider here is the threat of trying to keep your profit numbers low in order to not pay taxes or to pay yourself a higher salary. If you ever plan to sell or exit the company, most widely accepted valuations of a business are done from profits (or EBIDTA). You might think you are saving yourself a couple points on taxes by avoiding profits in the short term, but if you exit the business and get a 3-5X (or even up to 12X in some cases) multiplier on your annual profits, you might be kicking yourself for trying to hide them through your accounting practices. Buyers will often sniff out an owner who created false profits by not paying themselves, but what's harder to do is figure out how much profits should have been when there were none on the books. By saving yourself $100,000 in taxes this year, could add up to close to $1,000,000 in an acquisition.  Good luck."


I'm the last guy to argue in favour of increasing the protections around creative works, but I don't think I'd categorically agree that the best artists have regular jobs. My favourite books were all written by pro authors, my favourite games by pro developers. Even when I listen to indie music, the best ones are playing the touring game, making them pros. Arguing against DRM doesn't require deriding professional creatives.


">It's the lion's share of the annual expenditures in the health sector and up there  Dude - no. Healthcare is [almost 4 trillion dollars a year](https://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunro/2014/02/02/annual-u-s-healthcare-spending-hits-3-8-trillion/#1ec0a80276a9) in the US. None of the links you posted show that the majority of that cost is due to regulation. Even if we *did* spend billions and billions on drug research - that's still a minor piece of the whole pie.  >If you don't have a problem with it then contribute the share of your income you see fit voluntarily. But who entitled you to decide for others that they have to do the same  I advocate UH because it would save us money. *All of us*. Even folks like you who don't envision being old or sick. Even rich people who are able to pay ridiculously high premiums without feeling it. Because it brings the total cost of healthcare down as a segment of the economy. Care for which we currently pay [twice as much as other developed nations](http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/oct/us-health-care-from-a-global-perspective). This isn't about handouts. This is about saving American money *and* doing the right thing.   >But I'd prefer the US to cut subsidies to 0, replace them with nothing and finally lower taxes. Which will eventually leave a lot more people with enough money to easily get private insurance. Just without the administrative effort and without forcing people to partake.  A simple example to show why this is purely wishful thinking. In the US - a heart stint (which is a big deal when you need one) is 50K. In the UK - it's 17K. In Spain - it's 12K. The median savings for American families is 5K. That means prices in the US need to come down 90% in order for people to be able to afford life saving surgeries.   Do you really, honestly, believe that cutting taxes and allowing mom and pop surgery centers or correspondence course MD schools will bring prices down that much? If so, do you *really* think we'll have favorable health outcomes that way?   Because remember - money isn't the only objective here. Healthy Americans is the desired outcome of this process.   >exploiting a minority against their will is the right thing to do.  The world is more nuanced than that. And this is in general why I think the left tends to look down on the right alot. Very black and white. Very is or isn't. No reasonable person thinks that asking the wealthy or businesses to help pay to *maintain the house they live in with us* is the same thing as slavery or even ""exploitation"".   And do you really think they're paying their fair share now? Romney paid 15% in taxes man. Trump, likely, hasn't paid taxes in years. Apple paid 0%. The list goes on and on. They've built a tax system so complex that *the only people paying* are you and me. And they're so slick with this shit that people like you come out here and defend them while they fuck the both of us. Shit blows my mind.   >You can try to seek refuge behind sources, but you can't refute the moral argument with those.  I've sourced every argument I've made clearly. That's not seeking refuge that's having an informed opinion.   For the latter, you claim taxation is theft.   If that's the case, then I claim it's OK to steal to heal sick people."


It also reduces risk from the bank's eyes. Believe it or not, they do lose out when people don't pay on their mortgages. Take the big 3 (Wells, Chase and BoA). If they have 50 million mortgages between the 3 of them and 20% of people at one point won't be able to pay their mortgage due to loss of income or other factors, this presents a risk factor. Although interest payments are still good, reducing their principal and interest keeps them tied down for additional (or sometimes shorter) time, but now they are more likely to keep getting those payments. That's why credit cards back in 07 and 08 reduced limits for customers. The risk factor is huge now for these financial institutions. Do your research, sometimes a refi isn't the best option. Sometimes it is.


"Bitcoin Well, the market cap is still way too low to transfer ""huge"" amounts of money, but that's hopefully a temporary problem. See also Bitcoin Stackexchange for further questions."


I think Buffet is a strong indication that the writing is on the wall for Walmart. It may take a few years, but the peak has happened. And Walmart doesn't have the executive culture to pull off anything that will gain ground against Amazon: Amazon's thing is to continually reinvest money into expansion and forgo tidy profits. Walmart is a cash cow to make the Waltons and gang a bundle of money for their debauchery.


"Johnny.  I recently bought my first home as well, and I have worked in the credit business (not mortgage), so I think I can answer some of your questions.  Disclaimer first that I'm in NY, and home buying does vary from state to state. In my experience, pre-qual is not too different from pre-approval.  Neither represents any real committment on the part of the bank (i.e. they can still deny approval at any point), and both are based on pulling your credit bureau and calculating ratios based on your stated (probably not documented) financial information.  It's theoretically possible that a seller would choose a pre-approved buyer over a pre-qualified buyer, all other things being equal, but all other things are seldom equal. Remember also that you don't need to ultimately get a mortgage from the same bank that you use for the pre-qual.  The pre-qual just shows that you are probably credit-worthy and serves to give you some credibility with sellers.  Once you have an accepted offer and need to find a real mortgage, you can shop around for the best rate and best loan structure.  Banks don't need to have pulled your credit to quote rates, but they will need to have a general idea of your FICO range.  Once you find the bank you like with the best rate and actually apply for the loan, they will pull a hard bureau, and if your scores are different from what you said before, the rate may change, but within the same range, you'll generally be ok.  Also, banks do not necessarily pull all 3 bureaus; they may only pull 1, as it costs them for each pull. 2 potential downsides to this approach: Also, make sure you have a mortgage/funding clause in your contract, as banks are unpredictable, and make sure you have a great real estate lawyer, not a legal ""factory"" - the extra few hundred $ are worth it. Don't overthink this credit stuff too much.  Find a good house for a good price, and get a no-nonsense mortgage that you fully understand - no exotic stuff.  Good luck!"


Exactly, it's not like there's a shortage of rental properties or housing opportunities. There are a few hundred (if not thousand) within a 5 mile radius of my house alone, and they certainly don't all have the same terms.  Maybe you're not going to get into a gated white collar community, but I'm pretty sure you can secure a nice place in a nice neighborhood even if your credit score is somewhere between ass and the toilet.


"I think you underestimate the power politics and favoratism play in teacher ratings and the impact of local school systems.  Until/unless the us moves to a national system then the notion of ""good"" and ""bad"" teachers is entirely up to the officials who oversee the teacher and thus more a matter of politics than any sort of absolute rating.  Indeed I'd suggest a quantiative rating is not only infeasible but impossible."


You should probably get a professional tax advice, as it is very specific to the Philipines tax laws and the US-Philippine tax treaty. What I know, however, is that if it was the other way around - you paying a foreigner coming to the US to consult you - you would be withholding 30% of their pay for the IRS which they would be claiming for refund on their own later. So if the US does it to others - I'm not surprised to hear that others do it to the US.  Get a professional advice on what and how you should be doing. In any case, foreign taxes paid can be used to offset your US taxes using form 1116 up to some extent.


In addition to paypal, Amazon also offers a payment processing service that has micropayment pricing: For Transactions < $10:


I'll agree that some variance in wage between city and rural makes sense. The whole, more restaurants are now closing because of hikes in staff wages is pretty misleading. About 60% of hospitality ventures fail in the first three years and that's across the board before any wage change discussion. Requiring workers to be paid more, requires the employer to make adjustments to the business model. This added level of operating complexity is sure to adversly impact some folks but presenting it as a major contributing factor to increased failure rates is a stretch.


I am confused as to why the author thinks people wouldn't do this.  If target wants to hand out free money they can be my guest.  edit: Target, PM me if you're interested in this sort of arrangement.


"Utter nonsense.  You wish to use force to make me comply with your version of social equity.  I want to use NO force upon anyone.  I merely want each person to dispose of their own property as they see fit until/unless they start to use fraud or force.   You cannot achieve what you want without using government jackboots to enforce it.  My vision is one of voluntary, non forceful, exchange of value.  The truth is that the ideological left continues to peddle this drool because it needs pretend victims in order to have any hope of having a foothold on political power.  This, in turn, means that the dregs of society are courted by the left - the substance abusers, the terminally lazy, the incompetent, the selfish, and the entitled are all the natural feeding ground for this ridiculous ideology.  But, as I said, you and yours are losing this battle, however subtly.  I have done a ton fo consulting for large companies over the past few years (remember, I am personally unwilling to hire anyone for my own company).  Guess that what they're doing?  They're outsourcing - first within the US to the right to work States to try and get away from the corrupt and greedy union thugs.  And secondly, they're moving jobs overseas wherever it makes sense.  For every American fool that majors in Womens'/Gay/Black Studies, Sociologogy, Psychology, or a host of other utterly useless majors, there are kids in China, India, Russia, and increasingly even Africa, that are studying useful arts like science, mathematics, and engineering.  The future of the US is being burned to the ground by geniuses like Obama and the left, and all you people can say is ""I want more, more, more.""  Good luck with that - within 40 years you will be the rest of the world's bitches."


I would say binomial tree, except your last sentence,  > The probabilities of the various outcomes are unknown.  causes issues with that.   You could do a scenario analysis in which you compare values using different %chances of up vs. down.


Most of the bankruptcy is due to taking [or building over a period of time] a loan that one cannot service, if the interest rates rise, then the amount of money to repay the loan increases, when one doesnt pay the revised amount and keeps paying less, the over all debt keeps shooting through the roof ... a lower interest rate means that one can continue to pay the same amount ... and few missed payments do not cause as much as damage as it does when the rates are high.


Out Of The Dark OOTD is a budgeting and personal money management web app that does not require you to give out access to your bank accounts or even your personal identity.  It's a great tool for people with no financial experience with features like Cash Put-Aside and the Credit Card Debt Terminator and it has tons of instant guides explaining how to use every feature.  You can check it out at myootd.org.


Once your listing ends, the buyer who has purchased your item pays through Paypal within a window of allowed time (ie. 2-3 days). The item then gets marked as *'paid'* and a confirmation to you is sent.  Once you are paid, you, the seller, ship the item and marked the item as shipped, providing any necessary tracking numbers.  http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/sell-getstarted.html


In reality here is what is going to happen.  Other nations will continue to distance themselves from the dollar. China in its arrogance will make a premature move against the dollar but at the same time the dirty little secret is they are dancing on the edge of economic collapse right now. Some countries will move towards China further weakening the dollar but not destroying it. China is going to have a real drop very soon (*probably along with the US and other large nations*) then everyone is going to panic and flock back to the dollar because they don't know what else to do.


If your parents were resident but not domiciled in the UK and were using the Remittance Basis in the year when they got the income or gains from which they're now lending you this money that could trigger UK income tax and or capital gains tax on the money the transfer to the UK whether to an account of their own or directly to your account. If they were non resident or using Arising Basis or it was UK income then this is not an issue.


"I think a big part of the issue is ignorance. For instance, the US govt cannot default on its loans, yet you keep hearing people speak as if it could. The US govt also does not have to borrow to pay for anything, it creates its own money whenever it wants. These 2 facts often evade many people, and they feel the US govt should act like a household, business, or a state govt. This disconnect leads to a lot of confusion, and things like ""fiscal crisis"". Just remember Rahm Emanuel - don't let a crisis go to waste.  Disclaimer: this is not to say the US should create money whenever it wants without thought. However, the simple fact is it can. For those interested in more, check out Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). Its economic study in a world not based on gold standard, or convertible currency (fiat currency)."


The way the question is worded, it is slightly opinion based. Just to point out;   Tax benefits - Upto 50000 INR is tax free when invested here. This is actually 200,000 INR under 80C. So if you invest max of 150,000 in other instruments in 80C; you can still invest 50,000 into NPS. Hopefully it will provide some lumpsum money that I could probably use to buy a house / kid's education / kid's marriage. There are very few withdrawal options. Generally in the current scenario; By the time you retire; you would already have house, kid would have got married. Answers given the current data is it a worthwhile investment? It is a good investment option available. It is up to individual to select this or invest else where. If yes, would be better to fix choice at 50% in E and 25% in C and E or go for the auto choice? As you are young it is better to have max 50% in Equity and actively monitor this and change the percentage as you near the retirement age. If you don't have time, or are not financial savy, or one is plain simple lazy; going with Auto choice makes sense. bad investment because if you put the same money into equity oriented mutual funds then you will get better returns ... This depends. If you are currently investing everything into Equity; then yes at absolute level, the returns are high. However if you are investing into Equity and debt to achieve a balance, then NPS is doing it automatically for you. As the NPS has very low costs, there is substantial advantage. In some years [2013-2014?] the NPS equity return has been excellent and exceeded leading mutual funds. Other Aspect Edits: The Annuities need to invest in guaranteed risk free instruments; generally bonds. As the rates are locked for life, they need to factor things like average life expectancy, demographics, etc. This is largely statistical. Similar to how the Insurance premiums are decided. This is adjusted periodically. Say they offer 6.5% for 100 people. The investments into bonds is yielding only 6%. Then for next 100 people, they would offer 5.5%. However if the mortality increases, i.e. 50 people die at age of 70, they just need to adjust it to 5.75% for next 100 ... so there are quite a few parameters that go in and statical models output what the rate should be offered. At times the corpus manager may take a hedge to minimize downside. This is a specialized subject and there no dummies that show how rates are determined. It is also a trade secret.


"As JoeTaxpayer says, ""It's a very rare circumstance where an early 401(k) withdrawal actually makes any real economic sense."" Your statements that one year's salary for you is $60K and the combination of your spouse's income and yours puts you into the highest income tax bracket together lead to the conclusion that your spouse's income is considerably higher than yours. If this income will continue past your death (e.g. you two are not in a joint venture that will collapse when you pass away because she cannot do the work by herself), then it is very definitely to your joint advantage to leave your money in a tax-deferred account for as long as possible. Her income should be enough to cover the mortgage payments.  Also, rather than take the money out and paying taxes at a high rate right now, your  spouse can roll over the 401k money into an IRA and withdraw only small amounts per year, paying taxes spread over the years rather than in a lump sum."


What the comments above say is true, but one more thing is there. FD rates are directly proportional to loan rates. However, banks make money because loan rates will always be higher than FD rates.


I don't see it in any of the exchange feeds I've gone through, including the SIPs. Not sure if there's something wrong with Nasdaq Last Sale (I don't have that feed) but it should be putting out the exact same data as ITCH.


Zynga is based on a single point of failure, in an industry known even among technology companies as very faddish.  Netflix is different in that they actually have more than one content source, and if the MAFIAA drops Netflix, *nobody* will get to pick up the customers, they'll flee back to bittorrent.


Well they all went to college, but on the side did their own projects. They eventually dropped out because college wouldn't grant them wealth. They took leadership, and did it on their own.  I mean... would you still be in college knowing you built an enterprise that is currently taking off?? No.  It's stupid to say DONT GO TO COLLEGE OR DROP OUT OF COLLEGE BECAUSE YOULL BE GRANTED TO BECOME A BILLIONAIRE. That's absurd. These drop outs had a plan already.


Honest question, I've been seeing a lot of trump-tillerson and trump-PR embarrassment posts here, especially in the last week.    Are these economics-focused posts? I enjoy trump debates as much as the next redditor but this seems out of place to me.


Okay thanks, let's hope it's a relatively painless process to correct my mistake!   Really odd that my 401(k)s are traditional, I was so sure they weren't.  Maybe it's better then to open up a traditional IRA alongside the Roth, use that for rollovers, and just kick a few bucks into the Roth on occasion?


"Your first article is all about analyzing the effect of minimum wage on employment by looking at rents. Their analysis ""assumes peoples' utility functions in a particular city depend on wages plus amenities less the cost of rent available in that city""  Basically if wages go up (due to a minimum wage hike for example) the city is more desirable to live in and people would lay more to live there. That is not at all the mechanism you were talking about and would not apply for a national raise in minimum wage.   Why should I read the rest of your links when you didn't even read the first one?"


Actually the insertion part is interesting because they actually aren't middlemen just faster buyer's and sellers on the open market. They just buy what one person is selling and sell it to someone else who is at the same time looking to buy. So I guess the issue is the 'same time' isn't the same for all parties concerned. On the other hand both buyer and seller can set limits on the bounds of the price and only transact when someone meets their terms. If you are willing to accept 'whatever the market will bear' then it seems like you should be OK with getting it.


>If you lived in a gang banger / drug dealer's house  right, because it's their house. As in, that person is the rightful and legitimate owner of that property.  Are you claiming that the US Federal Government is the rightful and legitimate owner of all the property of the United States?


"If you haven't been a US resident (not citizen, different rules apply) at the time you sold the stock in Europe but it was inside the same tax year that you moved to the US, you might want to have a look at the ""Dual Status"" part in IRS publication 519."


"It's viable for you,  but the ""investor"" is either stupid or willing and able to write off the investment as a gift for a friend in need, knowing it will probably end the friendship.  The banks make their money off of indebtedness, with the highest returns being on the highest risk loans . If the bank isn't willing to give you that debt on your own,  it's because they already know it's a bad debt. In this case,  trust the banks. If you can't come up with the downpayment on your own, you won't be able to meet your other commitments on this contract."


I'm assuming this is the US. Is this illegal? Are we likely to be caught? What could happen if   caught? If you sign an occupancy affidavit at closing that says you intend to move in within 60-days, with no intention of doing so, then you'll be committing fraud, specifically mortgage/occupancy fraud, a federal crime with potential for imprisonment and hefty fines. In general, moving in late is not something that's likely to be noticed, if the lender is getting their money then they probably don't care. Renting it out prior to moving in seems much riskier, especially if you live in a city/state that requires rental licensing, or are depending on rental income to carry the mortgage. No idea how frequently people are caught/punished for this type of fraud, but it hardly seems worth finding out.


Neither. Food, fuel, and tools. Books on how to make and use basic tools -- the books published for farmers who want to kluge their own solutions might be helpful. Heck, help defend a library; it will be beyond price as soon as things settle out a bit. Having skills like blacksmithing and knowing how to teach could go a long way. SF really has explored this in better detail than we could possibly cover here.


">I think its really funny when everyone says Bill Gates or Carlos Slim or anyone else like that is the ""richest""   No, it's not that funny.  While it may not be 100% accurate, it's useful to try to estimate such things."


Uh, yeah, it's all good because... I'm the consumer. My role is to pay for and receive a product or service I've deemed worth my dollar. Where in this are you confused? I'm not chief of Sharia morality police for corporate officers, I'm a guy going to the airport. And if United has the best flight to get me where I'm going I'll take that plane, too. I'm about getting the best product or service for the money spent, not trying to start a VC firm with no ROI by propping up businesses that don't offer what I want. Should I go slap a hundo down at the farmers market, too, and walk away without any food just because I like their business practices even though it's 15 miles out of my way compared to my grocery store across the street?   People get so up in arms about corporate operations now that instant data transfer allows you to become an alleged expert in a company's internal operations mere moments after a story breaks. The beauty of the market is I get to spend my dollar where I want to and you get to spend yours where you want to. If you don't like it, I hear North Korea is nice this time of year.


But what creates more business owners?  They don't pop up out of the ground, and there are always lots of people that want to make their own business.   Businesses need capital, they need startup funds.  Angel investors, VCs and banks provide the capital.


"Oh look, yet another Tesla circle-jerk.  r/""technology"" is leaking again.  You guys are a bunch of fucking sheep.  This is a knee-jerk reaction driven by their (prodigious) PR department because of the number of powertrain failures they've been experiencing."


Paying this off early is robbing yourself of the extra earning potential for this money.  Think of it as an interest free loan from your future self.  If you can otherwise use that money to get a better rate of return then you are better off putting it there.  Best options would normally be to use it to buy additional regular RRSPs, RESPs, or TFSA because of government benefits but even puting the extra into a GIC for a year is better than paying back home buyers plan early.


This industry is either you are in or you forever won't, and it started since highschool the time you picking your collage and major.... So for average Joe like me, I should be picking  a career in computer science instead... Now I am stuck as a supporting analyst with career ending nowhere...


"**I'm going to reemphasize this post for the OP**  > Also, sales skills are key in this business, even in research, because if you're a sell-side analyst, half your job is going to see clients (i.e. sell to clients) with the sales people.  Agreed.  Agreed so hard.  Too many people think research roles in finance are like academia or some shit.  Who do people think pays for the research and who's role do they think it is to sell the research?  Sure as hell not your VP's or Manging Directors.  More importantly, sales skills are intrinsic in succeeding.  The core of sales is communication.  If you can't sell your research, how do you plan on selling yourself well enough to make VP/MD or to land a role at a HF doing research.  > or is there room for the ""but I'm not good at this!"" excuse.  People who have that attitude are out the door just as quick as they finish that sentence.  Working at a BB the expected mentality is one of two possibilities:  * I'm good at this.  or  * I will be good at this (and very, very soon)  I know someone that took one comp sci course in college and placed Perl on their resume's.  They were offered the Quant Analyst role and learned they were expected to be fluent in Perl (knew enough to show in the interview she had *some* experience with Perl).  He spent the next week locked in their room teaching themselves and mastering coding in Perl.  This is the mentality of people who are successful on Wall St.  OP needs to learn this now or step out into a less competition intensive industry."


**Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco**  Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco is a book about the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco, written by investigative journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. The book is based upon a series of articles written by the authors for The Wall Street Journal. The book was later made into a made-for-TV movie by HBO, also called Barbarians at the Gate. The book centers on F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco, who planned to buy out the rest of the Nabisco shareholders.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/finance/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.23


"So Linda/Josie's initial plan was to have your dad pay money to (supposedly) help her get the gold chest. After he would have paid, there would have been another complication, and more yet (someone to bribe, a plane ticket to buy, transport to arrange, customs to handle, whatever, the list would last as long as there's money to take). Even if he does not have much money, the appeal of his share of the treasure could have been enough to tempt him to spend money he can't, or borrow, etc. Once ""she"" found out that he doesn't have any money and/or is apparently not willing to send any, ""she"" switched to a different scam: she would send him a large check, have him deposit it on his bank account, transfer most of the money (minus his generous share) to ""her"". Once the money is irreversibly transferred, the check will bounce. End result: 0 in the account before the transaction, minus a lot afterwards. It's quite simple: if an e-mail from a perfect stranger includes any of the following keywords, it's a scam:"


I agree with the first poster- the first step is to measure your spending and put it down into raw numbers. Once you have the raw numbers, you will feel a natural inclination to improve on those numbers. Set yourself a daily target for cash / incidental expenses. It doesnt have to be a crazy target - just something you can achieve easily. Mark a 'tick' mark next to every day on the calendar that you meet that target (or spend less than the target). Gradually the momentum from the past few 'ticks' will automatically compel you to want to tick off the next day.  At the end of each week, lower the target a little. You'll find that when you start measuring your expenditure, you become more aware of how you might be wasting money. All too often we just go out and buy stuff we don't need without really thinking about it.


"Working retail myself, I do not accept an unsigned card without verification.  If I received one I would ask for ID and verify the photo with the Name. I would also let the buyer know it was unsigned and remind them that anyone finding it can sign it and use the card without issue. Putting on the back of the card ""SEE ID"" is the way buyers have protected themselves from thieves as long as people are actually looking at the cards.  How does this protect?  1- a lost card cant be signed by a complete stranger as there is already writing on the card.  2- It provides a photo identification for use. I know with today's technology that this is going away and fewer people are actually checking but shame on those companies who handle the cards and don't look. Obviously this process does not apply to self checks, but safety protocols there require a pin of some form that only the authorized user should know."


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.theweek.co.uk/88506/us-lost-2bn-in-tourism-in-first-months-of-2017) reduced by 80%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Tourist visits to the US dropped by 4.2% in the early months of 2017, raising fears of a &quot;Trump slump&quot; following the November 2016 presidential elections.  > The news follows months of &quot;Warnings from the travel industry about the negative impact of increased travel restrictions from the Trump administration&quot;, the BBC reports.  > The decline in international tourism comes months after a survey by global polling company Pew found a significant drop in US prestige around the world since Trump came to power.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/72jwy1/us_lost_2bn_in_tourism_in_first_months_of_2017/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~216751 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **travel**^#1 **year**^#2 **Trump**^#3 **reports**^#4 **international**^#5"


"Thank you I am obviously pretty new and just starting to learn about it.  As I am declaring finance my major in the fall.  Edit: How do I go about trading options is it a viable route for some ""broke"" college kid?"


I can understand your fears, and there is nothing wrong with taking action to protect yourself from them. How much income do you need in retirement?  For arguments sake, lets say you need to pull 36K per year from your 401K or 3K per month.  Lets also assume that you current contribute (with any match) 1,000 per month.  Please adjust to your actual numbers accordingly. One option would be to pull out 48K right now and put it in a money market.  With your contributions, I would then put half into the money market and half into more aggressive investments.  In 10 years, you would have about 110K in your money market account.  You could live off of that for three years.  If the market does crash, this should give you plenty of time to recover. Taking this option opens you to another risk, which is being beat up by inflation or lack of growth on a nice pile of cash.  My time frame is not that different then yours (I am about 12 years away), but am still all in stocks.  Having 48K and more with not opportunity for growth frightens me more than any temporary stock market crash. Having said that I think it would be a horrible mistake to get completely out of stocks.  Many of those destroyed in 2008 also missed 2012 through 2014 which were awesome years.  So do some.  Set aside a year or three of income in something nice and safe.  Maybe one year of income in money market, one in bonds and preferred stocks, and one in blue chips.


This will probably end up as a case study in business schools on what not to do.  They pull the ads after pressure from a bigoted, xenophobic evangelical group in Florida, and then issue a couple of confusing press releases trying to explain their actions.


> A service provider that prevents competition by making it illegal to compete.   I don't know what you mean. There is a lot of competition.  * At least every two years you can replace a majority of the decision makers.  * You are perfectly free to get services from another provider like private roads or charter schools. * you are free to move to another city/county/state which has enacted laws you like. * you are also free to immigrate outside the US if the Federal Government is the issue.  > Every other insurance program allows you to opt out.   You can opt-out any time you like!  I think your objection is that you have to forgo the product that is America to opt-out of the American government service provider.  Do you know of any company that will give you services for free and not exploit you?


Interesting idea, except I know for a fact that the applying for and getting SSDI payments is not easy, simple, or quick. It commonly requires years or appeals, and the assistance of a lawyer just to have a chance. It's literally more complex and expensive than working. So, under what diagnoses are these so called able-bodied americans getting through?


I don't need to back anything up.  It will do him good and will help him stand out.  Explain why this is not the case - it's on you dumbass.  I made the comment 1st, so if you want to refute it then you need to provide proof that my opinion is invalid.  As well, I'm reporting you yet again because you're still acting like a child.  You're verbally attacking a stranger because of an opinion.  Maybe you have an MBA, maybe you don't... one way or another you don't deserve to be called an adult.  This is the 3rd attempt to ask you to be civil and you continue to be insulting, like somehow being Mr. Big on the interwebs makes you special.  Grow up you idiot.


Rauner is just the latest version of people like Mitt Romney who think because they can run a business they can run the government, except worse because at least Romney wasn't a completely useless governor. All the financial acumen in the world doesn't count for shit in politics when no one likes you and you aren't interested in getting them to like you. Maybe it's stupid but that's democracy, unfortunately.


Have you bought different brand of shoes?    >Is there a difference perhaps in womens sizing, or what gives?  It exists for men's as well.  With one brand I get a size 15 but with another I get a 14 because they cut their shoes on the longer side.


Appication Packaging as-a-Service enables IT pros like you to create custom packaged apps for slick, dialog-free 'silent installs'. The process will take just a few minutes, even if you've never packaged an app in your life. All you need to do is sign up and... get Apptimized!


It's one of those things where it was meant, economically, for the first purpose (opportunity cost) but has been used by big corporations for the later since you have to have international divisions to really even make it work (to some degree it does on the state level; however, the tax breaks aren't really big enough for it to make sense since the Federal is the big one).   It's also a huge reason why big corps have such low effective domestic tax rates on big profits and why the government is debating about restructuring tax law to prevent most forms of FTP'ing (you'd pay taxes on Gross Income essentially. It gets MUCH more complicated than that but France effectively does this now).  Also, it's very much an accounting thing, and accountants tend not to have a big seat at the table. Hence, the reasoning behind stuff often get lost on upper mgmt (or they fire the accountant, etc.). That's a BIG part of why it often makes things worse even when when the principal makes sense economically...


I've used Soundcloud for years and don't even know what player comments are?  Do people comment on sounds?  I don't think I've ever done that.  Is that even accessible through the app?  I only use it through the app (which is terrible).


Still not following. There were a whole bunch of places that outlawed slavery long before it went 'mainstream' in the US with the civil war  I mean, what do you want, a history of the abolition movement because it sure as hell wasn't started by some guys sitting round going 'hey, owning people is bad mkay?' for their feelie weelies.


">Are you being paid by the word?  I'm not religious. I think the bible is full of fairy tales. So no! I just don't like being stolen from and having it whitewashed as ""the ends justify the means"". Which is crap. Theft is theft no matter who does it for you. A badge or costume does not change that fact. Your rights end where someone else's rights begin. If your ""solution"" requires theft and violence to pay for it, it isn't much of a ""solution"" then."


"Do you guys know any options that are accessible to any global citizen? Prepaid and stored value cards are anonymous. For an arbitrary reason, the really anonymous ones only allow you to load $500 but there is no regulation that dictates this amount. In the USA, these cards are exempt from being declared at border crossings. Not because they look like credit cards, but because they are exempt by the US Treasury and Customs. The cons is that there are generally fees to use them. US DOJ has done research showing that some groups take advantage of the exemption moving upwards of $50,000 a day between borders, but Congress is fine with this exemption and the burden is always on the government to determine ""illicit origin"". Stigmatizing how money is moved is only a 30 year old phenomenon, but many free nations do not really have capital controls, they only care that you pay taxes and that the integrity of their stock markets are upheld. Aside from that there are no qualms about anonymity, except from your neighbors but they dont matter for a global citizen. In theory, the UK should have more flexibility in anonymity options, such as stored value cards with higher limits."


One last thing...   Would you mind making up a spreadsheet of *ALL* of your finances? Income, expenses, etc. If you do not want to share it publicly, I would be glad to help you via PM. I am doing quite well with money and fixing past mistakes (make only $12/hr, work overtime just to pay bills, but have $10,000 in credit, with no balances, etc.).   Let me know! :)


I'm afraid you're mistaking 401k as an investment vehicle. It's not. It is a vehicle for retirement. Roth 401k/IRA has the benefit of tax free distributions at retirement, and as long as you're in the low tax bracket - it is for your benefit to take advantage of that. However, that is not the money you would be using to start a business or buy a home (except for maybe up to $10K you can withdraw without penalty for first time home buyers, but I wouldn't bother with $10k, if that's what will help you buying a house - maybe you shouldn't be buying at all). In addition, you should make sure you take advantage of the employer 401k match in full. That is free money added to your Traditional 401k retirement savings (taxed at distribution). Once you took the full advantage of the employer's match, and contributed as much as you consider necessary for your retirement above that (there are various retirement calculators on line that can help you in making that determination), everything else will probably go to taxable (regular) savings/investments.


Leather cuff watch band are available in a wide range of sizes and colours and they of course are one of the most incredibly desirable wrist accessory, wearing which on hand could make you feel the worth of carrying a spectacularly special addition.


Generally, if you watch for the detail in the fine print, and stay away from non-FDIC insured investments, there is little difference, so yes, pick the highest you can get. The offered interest rate is influenced by what the banks are trying to accomplish, and how their current and desired customer base thinks. Some banks have customer bases with very conservative behavior, which will stick with them because they trust them no matter what, so a low interest rate is good enough. The disadvantage for the bank is that such customers prefer brick-and-mortar contact, which is expensive for the bank. Or maybe the bank has already more cash than they need, and has no good way to invest it. Other banks might need more cash flow to be able to get stronger in the mortgage market, and their way of getting that is to offer higher interest rates, so new customers come and invest new money (which the bank in turn can then mortgage out). They also may offer higher rates for online handling only. Overall, there are many different ways to make money as a bank, and they diversify into different niches with other focuses, and that comes with offering quite different interest rates.


Ha, I thought you would backpeddle. An indefensible stance is indefensible unfortunately, sorry bro.   I can't imagine how your mind works if you don't see this clearly. Life must be rough seeing it through shit stained glasses. Get some help, boy.   Look, if muslims weren't running around fucking people up, I wouldn't give a fuck about them. I'd leave them in peace. But that's not the case and we both know it. Trying to hide it is insanity.   And if you happen to be one of the good muslims, I feel bad for you. I really do. But you have to realize you are part of a terrorist organization, not a religion, and you need to get out and find something else to worship if you really need it.


ETFs trade on specific exchanges. If your broker deals with those exchanges, you should have access to the ETF. If your broker does not deal with that exchange, then you will not have access through that broker. This is different than, say, mutual funds, which don't trade on the exchanges are proprietary to certain brokerages or financial institutions.


gross profits 2011 31 billion http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Wal-Mart_(WMT)/Data/Gross_Profit/2011/Q1  Net income 16.99 income http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Wal-Mart_(WMT)/Data/Net_Income/2011  The simple truth is that companies that post these sort of net profits are basically off loading the cost of their labor onto the taxpayer by paying a non-livable wage.  And we let them. Americans need to remember why they unionized a hundred years ago and grow some balls again. Corps are able to do shit like this only because we (the people) let them.


The only reason I can think of is that the bonds are bought automatically by some investment pools, groups or institutions. That will stop very quickly once the management finds some other place to put the money.