Financial Service Info

Did you know that an average of 23 manufacturing facilities were shut down every single day in the United States last year?  As World War II ended, the United States emerged as the greatest industrial power that the world has ever seen.  But now America’s industrial might is being gutted like a fish and both political parties seem totally unconcerned.  Yes, we will always need trading relationships that are fair and balanced with other countries that have economic systems that are similar to our own.  However, the truth is that most of our trading relationships are neither “fair” nor balanced.  For example, China manipulates currency rates so that Chinese products are much cheaper than they should be, they brazenly steal our technology and we let them get away with it, they deeply subsidize their most important industries and they exploit their citizens by allowing them to be paid slave labor wages.  How in the world does that resemble the “free market” at work?  Predatory nations such as China do everything that they can to distort the free market.  So why in the world would any rational economist ever recommend that we should keep trading with other countries that are cheating us blind?  After you read the facts in this article about the gutting of America’s industrial might, hopefully you will get very angry.  We need the American people to start getting very upset about these very important issues.

Both major political parties promised us that globalization would be wonderful for the U.S. economy. 

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Today, the House Judiciary Committee approved H.R. 1864, the Mobile Workforce State Income Tax Simplification Act, on a bipartisan vote. The bill sets a minimum threshold for states to subject individuals to their state income tax: presence of at least 30 days in the state. Currently, most states require tax payments and even tax withholding for workers in the state for much shorter periods of time, including as little as a day.

The vote occurred after an alternative (14 day threshold and no protection for those earning over $130,000) was defeated. Growing state efforts to raid revenue from business travelers who are in the state for only a few days have created needless complexity and threaten to harm interstate commerce. The Constitution empowers Congress to limit the power of states to tax interstate commerce. Prohibiting states from requiring payment or withholding of income taxes from someone in the state for less than 30 days is a fair balance.

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On my way in to the Treasury Building

Greetings from Washington, D.C.!  The President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability is meeting today, with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan attending. And on behalf of the Youth Subcommittee, I’m presenting one of the big ideas we’ve been working on. Very exciting! I’ll let you in on more details soon…

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Investors in government debt are sitting pretty. Prices of bonds soared in the economic chaos of recent years as fears drove up demand for safe havens.

Its the shockwinner – and it defies logic . But defying logic is what investors should do.

Two years ago, the consensus was growing that government debt would form the next stage of the crisis. It did and still does, with many Western governments making drastic cutbacks to cope with the crushing weight of their debts.

So who would throw more money at them?

With gold about the up striking in history levels, while silver appears either to be holding it’s or about the lower turn, you may question what the better investment is as well as the gold silver bullion prices coins.

As mentioned before, one step to consider when trading ought to be what you could afford. Even though much think gold might be the greater investment of these two because the cost appears to become trending greater and faster; 

the present cost of silver causes it to be a stylish investment for today so far as cost goes.But what things should you take notice of? Le

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Hey do you remember how all the municipal bonds were supposed to start defaulting in mass?    It was around 11 months ago that Meredith Whitney made a prediction that we’d see massive defaults on municipal bonds because governments simply couldn’t afford their debt levels.   She was on the show 60 Minutes and declared that

“There’s not a doubt in my mind that you will see a spate of municipal bond defaults,“  … “You could see 50 sizeable defaults. Fifty to 100 sizeable defaults. More. This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of defaults.” and later “‘ It’ll be something to worry about within the next 12 months,”

The prediction seemed to make sense to many people at the time given how our economy and state of municipal finances have been.   But its been nearly a year and we’ve seen nowhere near the amounts of defaults she predicted.  

In fact in the first half of 2011 the amount of defaults dropped significantly from what was seen in 2010.   see :

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I watched the new financial thriller Margin Call this weekend. Corporate dramas aren’t my go-to genre, but it had a heavy-hitting cast: Kevin Spacey, Demi Moore, Zachary Quinto and Stanley Tucci for starters. Despite taking place almost entirely in an office and focusing on the corporate world , the movie wowed me. It also reminded me of a few workplace and financial truths that could serve us all well—from behind the counter at a fast food restaurant to Wall Street:

1.    The chain of command is real. The movie unveiled a complex corporate ladder that continued to unfold. The takeaway? Know where you are on the ladder and remain in the good graces of the big wigs at the top.
2.    Sometimes you have to work late. The characters made incredible salaries but worked diligently. Showing your willingness to work hard can help you go places .
3.    Layoffs happen. No one is immune to losing his or her job. In the rough

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