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<title>It is the economy, stupid forum - dslreports.com community</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/economy</link>
<description>It is the economy, stupid forum current topics</description>
<language>en</language>
<copyright>Copyright 2007, dslreports.com</copyright>
<pubDate>Sat, 28 Nov 2009 07:26:54 EDT</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Toys R Us=Trouble in toyland</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23404765</link>
<description><![CDATA[http://video.foxnews.com/12000436/trouble-in-toyland

lol I like how he avoids answering the reporters questions. Guess the CEO wanted to be on national news so they get more customers? 

I guess WalMart is really taking a punch at them. 

We use to have a Toys R Us here..but they closed up shop lol, and that was before we had a super WalMart.
--
I am hotter than phone sex with a blind girl.]]></description>
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<pubDate>2009-11-27 22:36:11</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Dubai asks for 6mo debt moratorium</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23398770</link>
<description><![CDATA[Global stock markets tumbled Thursday on mounting anxiety over a debt default request by Dubai and tighter lending conditions in China, analysts said. 

 The government of Dubai shocked financial markets on Wednesday when it said it would ask creditors of its Dubai World conglomerate for a debt moratorium of at least six months.

The Dubai government announced that it would revamp the Dubai World group and wanted its lenders to extend its maturing debt until at least May 2010.

Dubai added that it had raised five billion dollars in a new bonds issue aimed at helping meet its debt obligations. 

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.172a2f217acbdb6e4e9b446773ee0f1c.a1&show_article=1

I rememberer a few months ago someone here said I was a loonbat in saying Dubai was in serious financial straights.  The reality is they're following the same pattern as Iceland with multi-currency sharing arrangements on debt owed, and no sustainable input or output on goods. If you've got money there I'd get it out soonish.]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23398770</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-26 11:14:11</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Can we discuss stock picks and trading in here?</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22786434</link>
<description><![CDATA[Just asking....

I would like to discuss (with some traders) if they are playing any earnings runs, or other stuff.  I do short term trading quite a bit with a select few stocks and would like to share ideas......]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,22786434</guid>
<pubDate>2009-07-29 21:16:38</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>wages and globalization</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23368051</link>
<description><![CDATA[Why is 1 hour of unskilled labor different around the world in the new global economy? Wouldn't trade guarentee that all commodities (such as unskilled labor) are equal in price?

Yes, this question is naive.]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23368051</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-19 22:25:16</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>credit card closed, how will it affect my credit?</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23396639</link>
<description><![CDATA[got this letter today telling me emerge mastercard has closed. called them but all i got was silence.

so, how will this affect my credit? i paid this account off months ago so there is no balance. but i assume having a card close is seen as negative on a credit report.]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23396639</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-25 20:13:54</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Ten States Face Financial Peril</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23326009</link>
<description><![CDATA[By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer

November 11, 2009: 1:00 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The same economic pressures that pushed California to the brink of insolvency are wreaking havoc on other states, a new report has found. 

And how state officials deal with their fiscal problems could reverberate across the United States, according to the Pew Center on the States' analysis released Wednesday.

The 10 most troubled states are: Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin.

.....

Pew, a left-leaning advocacy group, says the states need additional federal fiscal relief to avoid budget cuts that will hurt both the economy and people. State and local spending accounts for about one-eighth of the GDP.

States received billions of dollars in funding from the Obama administration's $787 billion stimulus package, including $87 billion for Medicaid and $48.3 billion for maintaining education and other key services.

Budget projections show that states could face deficits as large as $260 billion in 2011 and 2012 after stimulus funding is exhausted. State economies usually take up to two years longer to recover after the nation's fiscal health begins to improve.

New budget cuts and tax increases "will be a serious drag on the economy at just the wrong time," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/11/news/economy/states_economies/

Full report from the Pew Center:

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=55888
--
The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master. 
]]></description>
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<pubDate>2009-11-11 13:49:52</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Thank you Mr. President, and thank you too Congress</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23391721</link>
<description><![CDATA[For many many years I have been doing wonderful business with my credit union. Over the past 10 or so years the interest rate I've paid if I carried any balance on my credit card was fixed. From time to time the credit union would change it, usually once every few years. Interest rates have been 7.9%, 8.5%, 8.9% up or down, changes were made very infrequently for many years. I never carry a balance, but it was nice to know there was a fixed rate to protect me.

The old balance was always fixed at the old rate. I had agreed to lock in any old balance at the rate at the time. It wasn't a feature I've ever had to use, but it provided me some comfort to think I had a fixed rate to fall back on in the event of something unexpected.

Today, I get a letter in the mail, from my credit union. I'm notified that they are forced to make changes in our credit agreement to comply with the new Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (credit CARD Act?).

My rate which used to be fixed, is now going to be variable. It will be Prime Rate plus 5.25%. This means if the prime rate goes up, so does my previously fixed interest rate. Instead of being protected as I was with a fixed rate on my prior debt, it will all now be variable (if I don't pay it off every month).

I now have a rate floor (which is .25% below the rate I'm starting at) and a rate ceiling of 18%.

Yup, if I ever were to fall on a tough time and needed to use my credit card, I knew I was protected by my cards low fixed rate. Congress and our President have seen to it that all that has now changed. I'm now going to get a variable rate. All of which will change month by month, depending on the action of our government. Our government now has control of the interest rate charged by my credit union on my credit card.

This means I have less protection than before Congress protected me. 

I don't know if my credit union has ever charged 18%, it is possible. This is the first time I've seen anything like 18% mentioned in a document from them that I can recall.

I pay off the card every month, but felt it provided some security in the event I needed to borrow short term at a low fixed rate in the event of some sort of emergency.

I've read many horror stories of people having card rates increased to 30 and one to 40 percent. I guess this isn't as bad, but it changes the fundamental relationship between me and my credit union, a change for the worse.

Is there anyone responsible who is actually protected by this new law?
--
"People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use."]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23391721</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-24 21:44:19</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Do you think credit cards should replace USD?</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23367953</link>
<description><![CDATA[Imagine our country runs its own credit card company with a small APR charge. Basically, people that pay their bills late the APR is basically a tax that goes into our country. Also with this card you can open up bank accounts at national banks. Of course whatever is owed will have to be paid off to this one national credit card. If you have a negative balance you will not be able to establish a new account.]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23367953</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-19 22:08:16</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>China has long way to go to catch up with U.S. economy</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23352974</link>
<description><![CDATA[A good read.  Shows some of the strength of the US economy.  I'll just quote part of it:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/sburns/stories/DN-burns_15bus.ART.State.Edition1.3c92cf3.html

Scott Burns is a syndicated columnist and a principal of the Plano-based investment firm AssetBuilder Inc. E-mail questions to scott@scottburns.com. 
George Friedman held up a recent Fortune magazine, his face a portrait in incredulity. The cover declared that China is buying everything, much as the Japanese were doing nearly two decades ago. The inside story is titled "It's China's World. (We just live in it.)"

"If China is so healthy, why is everyone there not investing in China?" he asked.

"The obvious question is: Why are they doing this? Fortune doesn't remember that we saw this before. It's called capital flight."

Friedman, founder and prime mover at Stratfor, went on to point out some facts about the size of the U.S. economy relative to China.

While we bemoan the loss of industrial capacity in the United States, for instance, we still manufacture more than China and Japan combined. The United States still produces 25 percent of the world's output. And our output is larger than the combined gross domestic products of the next three largest economies, Japan, China and Germany. 

We simply don't know our own strength.

"If we grow at 2.5 percent a year, China would have to grow at 8.2 percent just to keep the absolute gap steady. It will take generations for the Chinese to catch up," Friedman said.

Nor do we understand the deep poverty of China. He pointed out that China has a population of 1.3 billion people. Of that number, 600 million have an income of less than $1,000 a year. And 440 million have incomes of $1,000 to $2,000 a year. Only 60 million people have incomes of $20,000 a year or more.

"In the U.S., we have ignored the numbers. So we say all industry has left the United States. That's rubbish," he said.

International news

Stratfor, which is short for Strategic Forecasting, is a fast-growing international intelligence-gathering organization in Austin. Its growth, based on subscription revenue and Internet-distributed content, dramatically underlines the failure of international news reporting by conventional media. Stratfor is growing as news bureaus disappear around the globe.

The Stratfor approach does not involve collecting disingenuous quotes from politicians and finance ministers. Instead, it is tough, geopolitical and rooted in history. More important, it starts from the premise that conflict is a constant. That pragmatism is also the foundation for Friedman's most recent book, The Next 100 Years.

Dramatic messages

Here are some of the major &#150; and surprising &#150; messages in the book, which is written with the immediacy of a thriller:

Al-Qaeda made its move and lost. While we worry about how the war in Iraq or Afghanistan will end, the blunt reality is that the Middle East continues to be fragmented. Keeping it so has been the major goal of U.S. policy.

The real victory isn't in winning the declared wars; it is in frustrating the radical Islamists' hope of restoring a united jihadist region.

China is not the threat it is made out to be. It has an Achilles' heel of bad debt. Both its employment and output depend on external demand. Worse, it has the same demographic issues that Japan has.

The difference is that Japan is having its population decline now, while China will have its population decline later.

read more]]></description>
<guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23352974</guid>
<pubDate>2009-11-17 09:34:08</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Millions will have to repay part of tax credit</title>
<link>http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,23348079</link>
<description><![CDATA[More than 15 million taxpayers could unexpectedly owe taxes when they file their federal returns next spring because the government was too generous with their new Making Work Pay tax credit.

Taxpayers are at risk if they have more than one job, are married and both spouses work, or receive Social Security benefits while also earning taxable wages, according to a report Monday by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Millions-will-have-to-repay-apf-3724344310.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=6&asset=&ccode=

Talk about kicking people in the face when they are down!
--
http://www.ip-adress.com/ip_tracer/]]></description>
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<pubDate>2009-11-16 10:55:15</pubDate>
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