Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

The federal government spends tax money on different things, including transportation, education, military and medicare.

• 51% of the money goes for veteran benefits, the military personel housing construction, the development of the new weapons, and the interest in the national debt.


• 17% of the money goes to health insurance programs.


• 16% of the money goes to medicaid. Medicaid pays for medical assistance to people with a certain income.


• 13% of the money goes to the payments for people receving health care and for government projects.

Savings and Debt

Personally I think that if you know how to manage all your expenses you won't get to the point where you don't know where else to get money from. A credit card is not a card you can use to buy all you want or need and never pay it back. I mean you must have money in your bank account, in order to use a credit card because you have to pay it back. If you don't have money then don't use a credit card, so you won't have any debts.

In the article, if the couple would have maneged and calculated all the charges they made, they may not be in this situation. A lot of people get into debt, because they don't calculate the costs of the items they buy. Most of the time, people keep using their credit cards, thinknig that they will pay it in a week or two, when they will be getting their checks, but they don't calculate other expenses they have, so that's how they probably end up with debt. If companies loan you money, ofcourse they charge you. And if you fail to pay it the first time, the charges build up and you will end up paying more with your credit card then if you have paid with your money.

The majority of American people are in debt. Since they are too busy paying off bills, they can't afford saving money. The rest of the people who are not in debt don't save moeny. This problem doesn't only face United States, but also Japan, Germany, Britain, France and Italy.

The saving rates is declining each year that passes by.

Critique of GDP Podcast

I've decided to use jared and mari's podcast
I really liked their podcast, because it caught my attention. Their podcast is not original and that's what makes it unique. Even though the topic wasn't interesting at all, they presented the information in such a way, that made me pay attention.
The information they gave out was pretty informative, even though I already knew the content, they explained it well. The podcast was about 3 minutes and I really liked the pictures, they matched it well with the info, even though, they used some pictures more than once. The podcast is very very creative, I liked how they made a scene of two students, talking about a test and going over the information.

US Trade deficit: getting better?

The New York Time article is discussing the trade deficit of the U.S. The U.S. is decreasing the trade deficit and is coming closer to the large gap that they got themselves into.
A trade deficit is when the value of a nation's imports exceeds the value of its exports. For example if a country has more imports then exports it makes the country loose the profit it makes from exporting.
Since the dollar value is weak, the trade deficit is likely to go down in the future. If the value of the dollar decreases, more companies will tend to produce products here and sell them abroad. The country is selling products such as shovels, engines, cars, poles to foreign countries. By having the value of the dollar less then it used to, it allows production to take place in america and not overseas.

Taxes

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT- Federal Income Tax is one of the most important income taxes. They are taxes put on our earnings and the earnings of companies and corporations (corporate taxes).

STATE GOVERNMENT and LOCAL (city) GOVERNEMTS are personal tax, property and sales.

Americans pay other taxes, such as real state tax, property tax, medicare tax, and sales tax.
Real state tax and property tax are imposed to people who own property. In less words the federal government collects money more on personal income and social insurances.

This money is use usually use to fund war expenses and other things.

"Top Chef" Dreams Crushed

The article "Top Chef" Dreams Crushed, is an article that makes everyone think twice before taking out student loans. I understand that a culinary school is an expensive school since they need all the kitchen utensils and accesories, but $80,000 of student loan is way too much. Some students take out a lot of money for loans because they think that once they finish college they are going to earn a big amount of money, but that's not true, it depends.
I am thinking of taking out student loans, but probably less than $10,000. I can't really predict how much I'll take out, you'll never know until you 're there. What I'm sure about is that I don't want to spend the rest of my life paying back a big sum of money.

Critique of Federal Reserve Podcast

I'm analyzing Sharon and Monica's Federal Reserve Podcast. This is the link to the podcast.

After viewing Sharon and Monica's Podcast I have to say that it was very good and I enjoyed it because they just didn't give out information about the Federal Reserve System, they made it interesting. They made a scene, where monica was the teacher, and her audiance was a classroom. It's creative and unique because they came up with somethnig different. The picture contribute to the creativity and goes with what they say.
I think that it wasn't too long...and the content was good just that they didn't discuss everything.
But overall it was a good podcast.

Compound Interest and the rule of 72

The rule of 72 is like a math formula. It helps to determine how long an investment takes to double. When I say the rule of 72 is like a math formula, is because investors divide 72 an amount of years to get an estimate of how many years it will take for the initial investment to duplicate itself. Interest which is calculated not only on the initial principal but also the accumulated interest of prior periods.

By using a compound interest calculator, we make money not only out of our initial amount of money, but also on the interest we made the first time. It sounds a little confusing but it is not.
Well I'm going to try to explain it in easier words. Let say I invest 100.00 dollars and the interest rate is 10% in one year I will make 200.00 dollars. The second year my interest rate of 10% will apply on the 200.00 dollars not on my initial amount of money.

Insider Trading Scandal - What Happened?

Everything started in 2001 with two friends. The two of them were discussing a debt of 25,000 dollars. After five years the federal authorities discovered one of the most far-reaching insider trading schemes on Wall Street. In this were involved four investment banks, a web of hedge funds, day traders, lawyers and even a few supervisors, who on discovering evidence of insider trading, blackmailed the traders to keep quiet about it.
The illegal part in this story is the insider trading. They were giving informations about upgrades and downgrades of stocks, and also the access to hot deals by the hedge fund traders.
This information was taken from the New York Times newspaper article, written by Jenny Anderson and Michael J. de la Merced.

Dow down 416 pts! - Why?

The Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 416 points on Tuesday. Explain what happened. Why did the Dow go down? How does this decline compare to other famous declines (Great Depression, 1987, 9-11)? What will you do with your stocks? Is this a time to buy since prices went down? Explain.

Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum hedge fund with George Soros in the 1970s said that China stocks descent because there are problems developing. Also the world is surprised by
China's plan to clam down on illegal stock market investiments.
The Dow went down because many people decided to sell their stocks and not as many people bought the stocks that were being sell. Therefore the price went down.
put picture...compare

Opportunity Costs

Opportunity costs is the cost of doing an activity instead of doing something else. We have a choice between two or more alternatives, but we will choose the best alternative for us. Opportunity cost is the best alternative that must be sacrificed in order to get something else you want.

• If a gardener decides to grow carrots, his or her opportunity cost is the alternative crop that might have been grown instead (potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, etc.).
• A person has to decide whether to buy a house or live in an apartment and pay the rent, the opportunity cost to buy a house is that the person will pay the mortage but one day the house will be his or hers. Instead if he/she decides to live in an apartment, she/he will pay the rent and the apartment will never be his/hers.
  

Types of Economic Systems

Traditional Economies are found in rural and non-developed countries. It is an economic system in which resources are inherited, and it is based on primitive methods and tools. Economic decisions depend on tradition and custom not market activity. Today it is found mainly in agricultural parts of South America, Asia, and Africa.