Archive for the ‘Economics’ Category
How to Eliminate A Credit Card Debt
Posted by Kente Wallman in Economics on May 10th, 2012
The United States consumers are all asking the same question, “How can I eliminate credit card debt?” This question is sparked by the fact that Americans are currently in debt trillions of dollars. How did this ridiculous amount of financial liability come about? It came because banks and creditors are issuing out unprecedented amounts of credit to consumers who cannot afford it.
Consumers are running into problems when trying to eliminate their credit card obligations. These problems are originating with the banks and creditors that lent them money in the first place. The same bank or creditor that lends a consumer money knows fully well that the consumer will often not be able to make the large payments required. They also know that the debt could potentially ruin the consumer’s life. Does this top the banks and creditors from lending? Of course not.
When consumers get in the situation of having unmanageable liabilities, the bank or creditor will intimidate the consumer into continuing payments. By giving into this intimidation, consumers are in for an extremely difficult payment plan that can last for decades.
Debt consolidation firms that provide appealing plans to pay down debt often trick consumers. These plans often offer the convenience of one monthly payment instead of multiple payments, and on occasion provide lower interest rates. These new payments plans can seem appealing when a consumer comes from paying multiple creditors at ridiculously high interest rates. However, most consumers are so excited about making one payment at a lower interest rate that they do not realize that they are once again signing up for years of monthly payments.
Many consumers are still wondering, “How can I eliminate credit card debt?” The answer is actually less complex than most people imagine it to be. Consumers need to decide that they will not make any more payments to their creditor or bank on the ridiculous terms that banks and creditors set.
As a consumer, before you make any decision about your bad economic state, I would strongly recommend researching out the whole process. This applies especially to making the decision to not pay your credit card balance. Making this decision is quite serious because it is not an easy road to go down. However, making payments on your financial obligations for the rest of your life is not very easy either!
If you would like to learn more and find help making the decision to stop paying your credit card liabilities, I would strongly suggest seeking out the help of a debt elimination firm. These firms are few and far between but offer far better help and services than any debt consolidation group. Another benefit is that these firms charge only small fees to help you eliminate your financial obligations. This is much different than the massive payments consolidators require of you.
Maybe you are wondering how in the world you can legally stop paying your creditor or bank. If this is the case I want to share with you how banks and creditors often set themselves up for voided contracts because of unethical behavior.
It is true, banks and creditors actually do cut corners and abuse their debtors on a daily basis. The trick is figuring out how to expose this illegal and unethical treatment. The best way I can suggest is by taking advantage of the expertise offered by debt elimination consultants. They will know all the laws to exercise to protect you and help you get free from financial obligations.
I do not want to see any more consumers fall victim to the abuse and illegal treatment that banks and creditors are engaging in. I encourage you to find as much information as possible in your efforts to answer the question, “How can I eliminate credit card debt?”
Kente Wallman has been in the field of legal debt elimination for a long time and maintains a website that answers your question How will I Eliminate Credit Card Debt?
Learning About Superior Filing Services And Its Advantages
Posted by Ilene Daugherty in Economics on August 11th, 2011
Justice system itself is complex process and depends largely to various factors for the system to speeds up. All legal participants in the legal systems are all key players and legally required to provide all the documentation in all its format needed by the court in all types of case. This can be very time consuming and often causes delay, hence superior filing services will be useful for this.
Almost all lawyers are heavily loaded with different cases, this is the reason they hire the services of superior filers to work for them in the submission of documents for the case. Producing these documents are already time consuming and they are left with no more time to submit the papers to the court.
These professionals can hasten everything up in a proficient manner since they know the ins and outs of the legal community. Also, they are knowledgeable on what documents are needed for every requisite and ensure that it is forwarded, served and filed timely.
Doing the conventional approach will result to a lots of people touching lots of paper. Every hand that touches it means an opportunity for mistakes, delays and worst, the documents are mishandled and increases the potential for liability. As a result, it fails to meet the court deadline or the opposing counsel will claim it was not really served on time.
If you take advantage of these professionals, you can be sure that all documents are delivered timely in the right courthouse supported by the proof of service and filing receipts to attest that it was really delivered right on time. You can also avail of their other service which is to locate and deliver documents to all parties involved, also show proof to the court that it was truly served.
At some point in time, some documents will be asked by court to be presented due to its significance in a case, the superior filers can easily produce it since they have an orderly storage for all documents. Unlike the traditional method where it takes time since legal assistants have to look into several files of boxes.
If retrieved, it is now easy for the court to view all the essential documents such as motion, orders and summons and documents coming from the opposing counsel. Certainly, with all the help and how they make things easy for the lawyers, then they are also key persons in the judicial system.
There are plenty of documents needed before a case can be filed, this alone requires more time of the lawyer and often they are left with no time to look into the real issue of the case which is also incredibly important. But with superior filing services, it can unload the burden of the lawyer while guaranteeing that all required documents are well-provided
Looking to find the definitive source of information on superior filing services?
Austin Condos Offer Convenient Living
Posted by Lillian Powell in Economics on August 10th, 2011
If looking to have the security of one’s own home as well as the conveniences and amenities often found with apartment life, consider Austin Condos. These homes offer the perfect lifestyle for people of all ages.
The condominium is often a great starter home. Prices are generally less expensive than a single family home. They have a lower down as well as monthly payment. This can make qualifying for a loan easier as well. Equity is built in the home and it can eventually be sold to have a down for a larger home as the family grows.
Single adults often find that condominium life is a perfect choice. Many of the communities offer several public areas such as pools, community rooms and exercise rooms. The single adult is not responsible for maintenance of these public areas like he would be if he had purchased a single family home. Adults that find themselves single again also enjoy living in these homes.
For senior adults a condo offer carefree living. Smaller floor plans means easier upkeep. Lawn care and exterior maintenance is provided by a homeowners association. This gives the senior the freedom to travel without worry about who will care for the lawn. These units are an excellent choice for snow birds that want to be able to escape the heat of summer or cold of winter in another location.
Investment buyers may choose to invest in a condominium as a part of their rental portfolio. The unit may be leased in a long term contract or if located in resort areas may be used as a vacation rental. One of the advantages of the vacation rental is that the owner may choose to block out certain weeks for use by his own family.
Whether looking for a first time home, a place to meet other people, a place to retire or an investment property, Austin condos are an excellent choice. These properties build equity like a traditional home buy do not require homeowners to take care of building maintenance or landscaping of the units. Read more about: austin condos
Looking to find the definitive source of information on austin condos?
What is Time Preference?
Time preference is the economist’s assumption that a consumer will place a premium on enjoyment nearer in time over more remote enjoyment. A high time preference means a person wants to spend their money now and not save it, whereas a low time preference means a person might want to save their money as well.
The time preference theory of interest is an attempt to explain interest through the demand for accelerated satisfaction. This is particularly important in microeconomics. The Austrian School sees time as the root of uncertainty within economics.
In his book Capital and Interest, the Austrian economist Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk built upon the time-preference ideas of Carl Menger, insisting that there is always a difference in value between present goods and future goods of equal quality, quantity, and form. Furthermore, the value of future goods diminishes as the length of time necessary for their completion increases.
Böhm-Bawerk cited three reasons for this difference in value. First of all, in a growing economy, the supply of goods will always be larger in the future than it is in the present. Secondly, people have a tendency to underestimate their future needs due to carelessness and shortsightedness. Finally entrepreneurs would rather initiate production with goods presently available, instead of waiting for future goods and delaying production.
Hans-Hermann Hoppe elaborates on time-preference as a gauge of the degree of civilization of a given society in his book Democracy: The God That Failed. Laws in a society in violation of property rights increase time-preference, whereas a tradition of respect for property rights decreases time-preference.
What is Business?
The term business refers to activities or interests.
By extension the word became (as recently as the 18th century) synonymous with “an individual commercial enterprise” and has also sometimes taken on the meaning of “the nexus of commercial activities” or of “the representatives of commercial activity”.
Specifically, business can refer, collectively, to individual economic entities. In some legal jurisdictions, such entities are regulated by law to conduct operations on behalf of entrepreneurs. A manufacturing business is commonly referred to as an industry: for example: the “entertainment industry”, or the “dairy industry”, or the “fishing industry”.
What is a Store of Value?
To act as a store of value, a commodity, a form of money, or financial capital must be able to be reliably saved, stored, and retrieved – and be predictably useful when it is so retrieved.
This is distinct from the standard of deferred payment function which requires acceptability to parties one owes a debt to, or the unit of account function which requires fungibility so accounts in any amount can be readily settled. It is also distinct from the medium of exchange function which requires durability when used in trade, and a minimum of opportunity to cheat others.
When currency is stable, money can serve all four functions. When it isn’t, such as during times of hyperinflation or when complex and volatile forms of financial capital are involved, it becomes important to identify alternative stores of value, of which common ones are:
- real estate – actual deeds in protectible land
- gold – once the basis of the gold standard
- silver – once the basis of the silver standard
- precious stones, and other precious metals
- more stable currencies, e.g. Swiss franc or digital gold currency
- collectibles, e.g. original art by a famous artist or antiques
- livestock (see African currency)
While these items may be inconvenient to trade daily or store, and may vary in value quite significantly, they rarely or never lose all value. This is the point of any store of value, to impose a natural risk management simply due to inherent stable demand for the underlying asset. It need not be a capital asset at all, merely have economic value that is not known to disappear even in the worst situation. In principle, this could be true of any industrial commodity, but gold and precious metals are generally favored because of their demand and rarity in nature, which reduces the risk of devaluation associated with increased production and supply.
What is Credit Money?
Credit money is any future claim against a physical or legal person that can be used for the purchase of goods and services . Examples of credit money include personal I.O.U.’s, and in general any financial instrument (such as a treasury bond, savings bond, corporate bond or bank money market account certificate) which is not immediately repayable (redeemable) on demand. In certain cases, banknotes which are not legal tender may be seen as credit money, inasmuch as they are simply promisory notes issued by the bank (for example, see Pound Scots).
In terms of the money supply, credit money is generally associated with that part of M2 which is not M0.
During the Crusades in Europe, precious goods would be entrusted to the Roman Catholic Church’s Knights Templar, who effectively created a system of modern credit accounts. Over time this system grew into the credit money that we know today, where banks create money by approving loans – although the risk and reserve policies of each national central bank set a limit on this.
Sometimes, as in the United States during the Great Depression, trust in bank policies drops very low, and there is the risk of a bank run without government or other intervention. In the United States, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was created in 1933 to prevent bank insolvency from affecting depositors.
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What is Risk?
Risk is the potential future harm that may arise from some present action. It is often combined or confused with the probability of an event which is seen as undesirable. Usually the probability and some assessment of expected harms must be combined into a believable scenario combining risk, regret and reward probabilities into expected value. There are many informal methods which are used to assess (or to “measure” although it is not usually possible to directly measure) risk, and (for some applications) formal methods such as value at risk.
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What is Usury?
Usury (from the Latin usus meaning “used”) was defined originally as charging a fee for the use of money. This usually meant interest on loans, although charging a fee for changing money (as at a bureau de change) is included in the original meaning. After moderate-interest loans became an accepted part of the business world in the early modern age, the word has come to refer to the charging of unreasonable or relatively high rates of interest.
Usury laws are state laws that specify the maximum legal interest rate at which loans can be made. This makes most loansharking, another name for usury, illegal. Often, loansharks use illegal “scare” tactics to ensure that the lent money is paid back.
Usury (in the original sense of any interest) is scriptually and doctrinally forbidden in many religions. Judaism forbids a Jew to lend at interest to another Jew. It’s forbidden in Islam. The most recent Catholic teaching on usury is by Pope Benedict XIV in his Vix Pervenit from 1745 which strictly forbids the practice, though many Jews, Catholics and Muslims break their own laws in this matter.
While Jewish law forbids the charging of interest to another Jew, Jews are not forbidden to charge interest on transactions to non-Jews. Throughout history, the interest attached to loans by Jews to non-Jews is widely considered to have been a central issue in causing a perception of usury, and contributing to a climate of anti-Semitism: Forceful confiscations of property, and discrimination toward Jews in business practice. Ethnic-based distinctions surrounding the application of interest charges are often perceived as pronounced, discriminatory and unjust, and can inflame existing ethnic divisions.
Usury has been denounced by almost every major spiritual leader and philosopher of the past three thousand years. Plato, Aristotle, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Plutarch, Aquinas, Jesus, Mohammed and Moses are just a few.
Cato in his De Re Rustica said:
“And what do you think of usury?”
“What do you think of murder?”
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What is Interest Rate?
An interest rate is the “rental” price of money. When a resource or asset is borrowed, the borrower pays interest to the lender for the use of it. The interest rate is the price paid for the use of money for a period of time. One type of interest rate is the yield on a bond.
When money is loaned the lender defers consumption (or other use of the money) for a specific period of time. The lender does this in exchange for an expected increase in future income. The expected increase in real income (relative to the amount loaned) is the real interest rate. Note that the real interest rate is calculated by adjusting the actual rate charged (known as the money or nominal interest rate) to take inflation into account. (See real vs. nominal in economics.) A first approximation for the real interest rate for a one-year loan is:
-
- ir = in — pe
where:
- in = nominal interest rate
- ir = real interest rate
- pe = expected or projected inflation over the year.
After the fact, there is the realized or ex post real interest rate:
-
- ir = in — p
where p = the actual inflation rate over the year.
Thus, if the (expected) inflation rate is 5% and the nominal interest rate is 7%, the (expected) real interest rate is 2%.
If financial markets have adjusted for the effects of expected inflation and the real interest rate is given, then the nominal rate approximately equals:
-
- ir + pe
Thus, if the real interest rate is 3% and the inflation rate equals 5%, the nominal interest rate = 8%. The theory of rational expectations is sometimes applied to say that this equation applies in most cases. Most economists would agree that it applies over several years, as financial markets adjust: higher inflation leads to higher nominal rates, all else being equal.
Irving Fisher proposed a better approximation of the relationship between nominal interest rate, inflation and real interest rate. For a one-year bond, the expected real rate equals
-
- ir = [(1 + in)/(1 + pe)] — 1
Using the first numerical example above, the expected real rate equals [1.07/1.05]-1 = 0.19 or 1.9%, which is similar to (but not the same as) the 2% calculated above.
When comparing different interest rates on different kinds of loans, a different kind of formula is used. For the nominal rate on a single type of asset,
- in = i*n + d + mrp + lp
- i*n = the nominal interest rate on a short-term risk-free liquid bond (such as U.S. Treasury Bills).
- d = default premium (reflecting the likelihood of default by the borrower)
- mrp = maturity risk premium (risk factor for length of borrowing period)
- lp = liquidity premium (reflecting the perceived difficulty of converting the asset into money and thus into goods).
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