Quote of The Day
April 16th, 2009 9:01 am
Archive
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
The Cockroach Survives
April 15th, 2009 2:02 pm
The Cockroach
The economy is slowly starting to inch itself out of the hole it dug itself. As surely as cockroaches survive anything, the U.S. economy is beginning to scuttle away from the wreckage that was.
Or is it? We keep hearing better and more hopeful statements by bureaucrats, but is that all they are? Statements? In a recent statement by President Obama (does it matter whether its prose or poetry?) slightly more confident overtones about the Economy crept through. Not to say that President Obama did not play it safe, as he always does, saying, “The severity of this recession will cause more job loss, more foreclosures and more pain before it ends.” Indeed, with 650,000 jobs being lost monthly, it’s hard to ignore. In order to prevent this happening in the future, President Obama has been pushing for financial regulation. Read more…
Ask the Taxpert: O standard deduction, how I love thee
April 7th, 2009 12:13 pm
The standard deduction is a beautiful thing in the world of personal income taxes. According to the IRS, the standard deduction is “a dollar amount that reduces the amount of income on which you are taxed.” Here are my top three reasons why:
1. $5,450. That’s how much less income that you (U.S. citizen/permanent resident, single filer you) can be taxed on in the blink of an eye with this little puppy for 2008. For the eternally low-funded college student like many of us out there, the ability to not be taxed on a substantial amount of your income, thereby increasing your refund check from the IRS, is a wonderful power to have. Even if you were a hotshot i-banker this summer, that amount can represent upwards of 20%, if not more, of your summer wages that magically go “poof!” Read more…
News Updates
April 6th, 2009 10:23 am
News
The best thing about Mondays? Lots of interesting news to read! Below are links to some articles that caught my eye.
AT&T and Union Talks Continue Past Deadline
HSBC Raises $17.7 Billion in Stock Sales
Google and Music Labels Bet on Free Downloads in China
New G.M. Chief doesn’t Rule Out Bankruptcy
Officials Prepare to Analyze Stress Tests
Quote of The Day
April 6th, 2009 10:11 am
“What you see is news, what you know is background, what you feel is opinion.”
Lester Markel, American Journalist
Your childhood piggy bank…online
April 4th, 2009 2:55 pm
Remember when we were little and had those plastic or ceramic piggy banks? Remember how we were told to save the random change and dollars received for doing chores or being good in that inanimate little swine? What happened to the good old days of piggy banks, where we saved up to buy that new toy?
Piggy banks now exist for adults, AKA “big kids.” Hello, smartypig.com.
The premise is pretty simple: save a little bit here and there, via predated and predetermined monthly bank account deductions, towards a fund designated for the purchase of some good or service, such as a Wii or next year’s spring break trip. Sounds familiar, right?
The New York Stock Exchange: Biggest Prostitute Of Them All
April 3rd, 2009 8:49 pm
The Sex Sector of The Economy
The New York Stock Exchange is a whore.
Let’s go with this analogy: back in 2008, all of NYSE’s customers kept telling her to slow down. She had money, security and regular customers. Life was good. That is, until she got gonorrhea.
As with any busy bee prostitute, NYSE ignored the symptoms. They could be anything: maybe an infection that’ll just go away. But when the fevers (housing market) got worse and boils (toxic assets) began to develop, NYSE could not ignore it anymore.
Despite the best efforts of all her doctors (economists) and even the Center for Disease Control (Federal Reserve), things kept getting worse for NYSE. If only she hadn’t slept with those guys with bad background checks (credit reports). Read more…
Quote of The Day
April 3rd, 2009 6:50 pm
“The desire for success lubricates secret prostitution in the soul.”
Norman Mailer, American Author
Hold on to your internships, kids
April 2nd, 2009 12:39 pm
Recently resigned GM CEO Rick Wagoner: your new competition
Here at Penn, the quest for the summer internship is institutionalized into three little letters:
O. C. R.
The underlying reason for students to get an internship is to eventually secure full-time employment after graduation. The side benefit of having something to do during the summer days doesn’t hurt, nor does the extra money.
For employers, hiring interns can create long-term cost benefits. Interns are not only cheap and relatively skilled labor; they are also a great pool from which firms can draw their first-year classes, saving on repeat recruiting expenditures.
This model implicitly assumes that interns are college students or the freshly graduated who are economically able to work for lower wages because they have the safety net of parents to fall back on.
That was in the old, pre-recession days. Read more…
Revenge = (Do Unto Others) – (As You Would Have Them Do Onto You)
April 1st, 2009 11:44 pm
The difference between economics students and finance students is very simple. Those who study finance apply, mechanically, all the genius that is the result of the study of economics. In fact, in a glowing testament to the glory that is economics, Craig Damrauer has launched his site New Math, which brings light to the world every Monday.
The new plan for the auto industry?
Disappointment = Expectation / Reality
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