Money Matters - Part 10

The WH says that story is 100% false.

Looks like the MF Global investors may never see any of their $$.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/mf_global_client_money_feared_gone_cH697LFiURrTtKEQvrzjdI

the trading is done electonically - do not understand why there is not a trail left behind

I beleive AP tests require a class taken . THe grades for AP classes are getting younger and younger, making me think they're just being diluted too.

Then some sources extracurriculars are great, and say you have to have three years of one foreign language to be good college material. Its really hard to know what the heck to make of it all. I horribly regret urging our son to take the third year of SPanish (waste) instead of the first year of German (would have loved)

That was my thought, Bill. Same with all the Madoff crap. IRS gets sales proceeds info.

Rosemary, it's really bad to know that the teachers want to program their students and not let them think independently. This country is a long ways away from where it started out. Your son sounds like he'll go far, especially with you to encourage him to questions things and not just accept them at face value. How will kids really learn if they aren't given all the facts as to why things are done? Do they really think kids are lacking in smarts so that they have to 'dumb down' the curriculum? Awful...

I have never heard of that 'Frito Effect'. Interesting.

I love going on 'hopping' sprees, Victor. Wish I had 50K to drop...

Karen

Re AP credit.: Depends on test score not necessary to take an AP course.
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about_faq.html#faq1

AP courses taken in early high school years is now part and parcel of the "looking good" to colleges. Also, it is a way to insure that ones child will primarily associate only with college bound students and their aiming high parents.

MF Global...there are trails, but when like securitized mortgages the funds get mixed/co-mingled and traded via algorythms who owns or owes what can no longer be determined or separated out. It is the farmers who can't buy seed or stock this year that worries me as there are so many more mouths to feed.

My Mom told me that when the soup they ate during the Depression got too thin they added another potato unless they didn't have one .

Thanks for your thoughts, Cole and Karen. I admit I didn't understand the economics problem enough to ask DS.

Fitting into the school's requirements was easy for my daughters, very hard for my son. Spanish was a nightmare until recently. Since he couldn't do well enough to matriculate to the next level, he took a harder course at a private school over the summer, spent last summer doing nothing else, when he'd have liked to develop some science or programming skills. The language department changed their tune, gave him the grade he earned in summer school, and he's sailing through Spanish II. All necessary to be considered for the public colleges. He's proud of what he's overcome, so I can't complain.

I didn't have AP classes in my high school, but the way around it was to take the college's proficiency tests, which only amounted to the tests from the end of the course. It showed me there's always a way around a problem. Then it was possible to enter the graduate courses early, and they were the truly interesting ones. Our DS is saying he'll get a Ph.D., and we think graduate school may be where he gets to shine.

Rosemary, your son sounds like a winner to me and I hope he will shine long before grad school!

Am really liking this university level open course ware stuff as it is a work around to some of the problems you are writing about. Here is another link I found

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/12/13/stanfords-open-courses-raise-questions-about-true-value-elite-education

My HS (Catholic) only had two AP courses when I attended. They now have many more. I only took English because the history one, which I would have loved, conflicted with Physics. I scored a 5 on the test and received six credits in college. That helped a lot in freshman year.

Wish I could find some humor in this.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46194541

You and me both...

guess that just proves what "we" all have thought - those guys at the Fed are a joke.

That article is pretty disgusting.

By the way 5 is the highest on AP.
My friend who scored a 5 in English, did not get any credit her first year because the community college would not give it. I hope it has changed its tune since then.
CLEP is another test for college credit. I would look into it to get credit for say foreign language when that will be a college required class but not one's major. I got the French 1 practice booklet and tried the pretest. I think I might have squeaked by, even after 30 years since school.

Same thing happened with my daughter with a 5 in English and in Psychology. No credit from three CCs (MD, NY or Vermont) Not only no credit towards graduation requirements, but no credit in terms of required courses or prerequisits for advanced courses. She has had to take Intro English (College Board scores in top 1% in Verbal) at all three CC s because none, I mean NONE of her credits were accepted for transfer! So, she remains 3 credits shy of completing Community College unless she moves again or a 4yr institution sends her back to the beginning again! She has completed enough credits to be one semester shy of a BA degree and is $ 18,000.00 in debt on student loans outstanding beyond the 6K she's already repaid.

The whole student loan/debt thing is outrageous. I put in a private telephone line for my office about 2 months ago, and get dunning calls about student loan repayments several times a week for the gal who had this number before me. Apparently the collection agencies keep "selling" the loan, because seldom does the same agency call more than twice.

People just don't take responsibility. The non-payment and delinquency rates for student loans are sky-high, and they usually get some of the lowest rates.

Re the Fed, housing bubble, etc. - despite the obscene behavior of Congress in pushing these mortgages to people who could never afford them, banks, the Fed, etc., it still came down to the individual. They always had VETO power over all that crap. Seems no one remembered the saying, 'If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.' I always use the analogy of the sucker who plays three card monte and loses his money. Whose fault is it? The dealer? The cops? No - the moron who could not resist.

This message was edited Jan 31, 2012 2:22 PM

This message was edited Jan 31, 2012 2:23 PM

The CBO projects a fourth straight year of a trillion dollar plus deficit.

I am for this.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/01/31/senators-seek-to-phase-out-dollar-bills/?mod=e2tw

I am for having more money of any kind in my pocket.

Monopoly??

Next bailout??

http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2012/01/controller-state-to-run-out-of-cash-in-march-without-action.html

I'm betting in favor of a bailout, too.

The CBO finally said what most private economists have been saying for months - the REAL unemployment rate is and has been over 10% once you factor in all the people who have given up. Duhh.

Of course 'the public' wants paper dollar bills. "The public' is stupid. Case in point: the mortgages. Even in 1989, the bank would have been happy to give us twice the mortgage we thought we'd be comfortable with.

Sally, when I sold my house there in 1980, mortgage money was very tight. The best mortgage rate my Buyer could get was 17½%, and he was willing to pay it. Of course, he went belly-up within a couple of years.

Now take college finances. There is a lot of encouragement around to take out a home equity loan as part of financing the education. There is no end to how much families could build a house of cards with their finances.

rosemary i know many people that have done that for thier kids - a very bad decision in my opinion - especially with the rates on college loans.

A line of credit is, I believe, cheaper interest than a current student loan. I wonder if we should have taken the student loan when it was just a couple percent, I believe I read it went to about six now.
Its hard to get the old savings 'paradigms' out of ones head. DH started to tell the kids they should start on retirement savings as early as possible. WHY? There's no interest!! No longer assume growth almost every year. Only the IRA tax break could be enticing, I don't foresee them reaching a taxable income for awhile. The only lesson is to "save for a rainy day." Cuz its raining a lot.

Duh - the opposite of what they had just reported. Good news for the victims.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-01/mf-investigators-trace-90-of-client-money.html

On the news a guy didnt want to pay the money he would owe. He had a girlfriend and he adopted her as his daughter.
He was like 55 and her 53 and she is leagally his daughter. - good grief.

I'm in favor of having paper dollar bills over coins in my wallet. Dollar coins would just put a lot of extra weight in my wallet, which I keep in my pocket, as I hate carrying my purse around everywhere. I don't like it when I get too many coins in my wallet. I try to spend them, or I put them in donation boxes or tip jars.

Karen

I once weighed the loose change I was carrying around in my shoulder bag...18 pounds!

Dollar bills last about 15 months and then are too worn out and have to be replaced.

More could be saved by eliminating the penny as it costs 1.7 cents to make.

Dollar bills can harbour germs longer than metal coins.

If dollar coins are a bother to tote around , that is another force towards consumers using "electronic wallets" via cell phone or credit/debit cards. All those little transactions add up to profits .

One of the times I was down to my last two dollars, I felt strongly that I should be able to eat my dollar or dip it in hot water , then drink and get the Minimum Daily Requirement in calories and nutrition for one day.



Even a house of steel can fall if it is built on a house of cards foundation! Judy

True, Judy! I would love 100% electronic commerce using the cell phone.

" 100% electronic commerce using the cell phone "

Hmmmm... imagine the control over the spent or earned dollar.
There would not be a transaction that couldn't be documented and thus taxed.
'tis the wave of the future ~ Heaven forbid!

Perhaps I feel that way as we are remote and have little and no cell service.
Obviously it isn't because I pay enough taxes.

I

I use cash very infrequently these days.

"To shorten winter, borrow money due in spring." W J Vogel

Great quote!
I think Phil has no shadow- early spring?

coleup, watch that heavy bag, it can hang on your arm nerve. Some small independent business might like to hook up with your loose change. One told me how he has to pay more for change at the bank. Course, 18 lbs, that's way more than a little loose change.

I personally say yes to dollar coins. I usually have only a few dollars at any time. If I get cash its in 20s and they just go so fast. My biggest cash use is at ALDIs which takes cash or debit, no credit. We've never used the debit card, afraid of fees.

If I was really hungry and had one dollar I would get a dollar menu item and lots of mayo packets for more calories.

speaking of elec cash - anyone reading about bit coins?

Florida businessman, 48, adopts adult girlfriend, 42, as his daughter

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/01/florida-businessman-adopts-adult-girlfriend-as-his-daughter/#ixzz1lENphrTK

Got a DUI and killed someone. This is all for MONEY

What a total creep.
If she's testified to a relationship, shouldn't they threaten him with incest charges?
It's all too creepy. Sadly there are minor children.

Sally, Phil did see his shadow this morning so 6 more weeks of winter. Must say phil is looking a lot less rotund than in his movie heyday. No sign of my resident prognosticator here yet. Staten Island Sammy did not see his shadow so Staten Island will see an early Spring. Guess it all depends on when our loans are due!

Fortunately, I learned my heavy shoulder bag lesson back in 1972. Unfortunately, after rolling it all and putting it on the seat of my small sailing dinghy, on the way into shore I nearly capsized and all of my coinage ended up somewhere at the bottom of the Miamarina anchorage, After I finish salvaging the platinum off Cape Cod, I'll head to Miami!

Sadly the "dollar menu" suggestion would only work if there were no tax on that purchase. Mustard seems the least adulterated choice at the free condiment bar.