Student Loans - Beware

When i read the article I felt bad for the people who took out student loans. I did not realize that student loans could be come such a burden on college students. The article woke me up and showed me that student loans might not be the best thing to take out. But student loans are also a good thing. I think student loans is a very convenient way of paying back money when you can't afford it at the moment. It gives the person an oppurtunity to go to college without paying much attention to the price rather the education the school has to offer.

Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

The Government spends the tax money they collect on many different things such as Human Resources, General Government, Past Military, and Current Military. Total Outlays (Federal Funds): $2,387 billion MILITARY: 51% and $1,228 billion NON-MILITARY: 49% and $1,159 billion.

Current Military
$727 billion:
• Military Personnel $136 billion
• Operation & Maint. $249 billion
• Procurement $111 billion
• Research & Dev. $70 billion
• Construction $10 billion
• Family Housing $4 billion
• DoD misc. $6 billion
• Retired Pay $52 billion
• DoE nuclear weapons $17 billion
• NASA (50%) $9 billion
• International Security $10 billion
• Homeland Secur. (military) $31 billion
• Exec. Office of President $1 billion
• other military (non-DoD) $1 billion
• plus ... anticipated supplemental war spending requests of $20 billion in addition to $141 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan wars already incorporated into figures above

Past Military,
$461 billion:
• Veterans’ Benefits $85 billion
• Interest on national debt $376 billion (80% est. to be created by military spending)

Human Resources
$748 billion:
• Health/Human Services
• Soc. Sec. Administration
• Education Dept.
• Food/Nutrition programs
• Housing & Urban Dev.
• Labor Dept.
• other human resources.

General Government
$295 billion:
• Interest on debt (20%)
• Treasury • Government personnel • Justice Dept.
• State Dept.
• Homeland Security (17%)
• International Affairs
• NASA (50%)
• Judicial
• Legislative
• other general govt.

Physical Resources
$116 billion:
• Agriculture
• Interior
• Transportation
• Homeland Security (17%)
• HUD
• Commerce
• Energy (non-military)
• Environmental Protection
• Nat. Science Fdtn.
• Army Corps Engineers
• Fed. Comm. Commission
• other physical resources

Savings and Debt.

When i read the article i was not schocked to see that families owed that much money many families take out money for houses car and other things. But there days the prices of everything is increasing and the only way to get money is to take loans the high expenses have caused average earning family to fall into a lot debt. But its also smart to pay off your debt and have good credit.

US Trade Deficit: getting better?

Trade deficit is the negative of the balance of trade. The balance of trade is divided into a goods and a services balance. It is the opposite of trade surplus. The article written by the New York Times talks about the trade deficit issue and money value in the United States. The American companies are making more money overseas and this is increasing the value of the American dollar.

Critique of GDP Podcast

The Podcast that I critiqued was Richard's and Ronald's Podcast. I thought there Podcast was very entertaing and it gave the listener a lot of information about GDP. In the Podcast it thoroughly explains GDP. Their recording was very clear and easy to understand. They put very good pictures in the Podcast so the listener could not only hear but see all the things they were talking about in the Podcast. But the thing that stood out the most about their podcast was the style they used and they also had a beat playing in the background but it was not to over powering so it made the podcast better. it was also interesting because they used a hip-hop style of speaking. In all i thought their podcast was very good i learned a lot and it was very educational.

Compound Interest and the Rule of 72

Compound interest is when you put money in the bank and then you leave it in the bank and the bank gives you a certain amount of interest. Then after a year the money you make from interest you take that new amount and then you get interest on the new amount. And then it keeps building over the years you leave it there.

Insider Trading Scandal - What Happened?

A insider trading scandal was discovered on thursday. It involved a group of current and former employees of U.S. banks they were charged for insider trading and accused of using leaked information and blackmail to make millions of dollars from the stock market. The case involves over a dozen people and four major Wall Street investment banks and over 15 million U.S dollars were made as profit over a long 4-year period. About 8 million dollars were found from the accused. Insider tips, kickbacks, blackmail, disposable cell phones, secret codes and clandestine meetings were all part of the plot. 13 people have been arrested in the criminal case. The SEC brought civil charges against 11 individuals and three entities. Many were pleaded guilty.