Archive for August, 2010
August 31st, 2010 | 
Author: 
will this program affect your credit ratings (score)
Natalie
Posted in 
Tags: 
1) Despite reaching 62% of GDP in 2003, the national debt in the United States isn’t a huge concern for some economists and policymakers.
1a) Some economists believe that one of the reasons not to worry is that the bulk of the public debt is “internal national debt”–the portion of the national debt owed to a nation’s own citizens and institutions.
Why isn’t the portion of the national debt owed to a nation’s own citizens and institutions a large concern?
A. Because the government can collect money from its own citizens anytime
B. Because an internal national debt does not affect economic growth
C. Because future generations always can shoulder the debt burden
D. Because paying internal debt is a matter of income redistribution, so overall purchasing power in the economy doesn’t change
1b) Which of the following is a reason why the U.S. government need not worry about going bankrupt?
A. Because the United States is an ally to most countries in the world, it never has to pay off the debt.
B. Governments remain solvent so long as they keep their debt as a percentage of GDP below 100%.
C. The government can refinance the public debt easily and has the authority to collect taxes.
D. All the public debt is held by U.S. citizens, firms, or government institutions.
2) Crowding out occurs when:
A. An increase in the tax rate leads to lower tax revenue
B. The public debt drives up real interest rates, leading to a reduction in investment spending and a lower future capital stock
C. An increase in taxes reduces the incentive to work and lowers real GDP
D. Investment spending drives up interest rates, discouraging government borrowing
Thanks
Carol
Two Danish pharmaceutical companies, the Leo Pharma and Novo Nordisk have announced their blackmail efforts targeting Greece!
Leo Pharma is withholding distribution of its anti blood-clotting drug, sending Greece’s pharmacies and hospitals into a panic and few days ago, the Novo Nordisk halted supplies of its insulin product, leaving Greece’s diabetics with few options.
In doing this, Big Pharma does shows its true character.
But why?
In order to cut costs during its severe debt crisis, Greece had announced it would pay drug companies 25 percent less for their products!
This loss of profit was enough to convince some pharmaceutical companies supplying key drugs to the country to initiate their own medical blockade where they simply refuse to deliver any more medicines.
“Greek government officials believe the Danish companies are blackmailing Athens because they monopolise the market with certain key drugs. Stefanos Combinos, the director general of the economy ministry, told the BBC that Greece was one of the three most expensive countries in Europe for medicines. He said pharmaceutical companies had enjoyed great profits out of Greece over the decades and had an obligation to accept price reductions.”
Isn’t that cute how Big Pharma Moloch shows its true character. When the profits are flowing and the companies making billions, they are your “best friend”. But when budgets get tight and everybody is asked to take a cut, the same “friend” betrays your country and its citizens,
With some sick game of withholding medicines in this thinly-veiled blackmail attempt to force your Nation to cough up more cash!!
I wonder how many people will die from lack of insulin drugs or anti blood clotting medicines because of this Big Pharma blackmail attempt?
This is what you get when you deal with the devil. You would have been better off favoring natural remedies over pharmaceuticals and the only pill to take, should be the one that makes us young again.
I wonder, how long it will take for Greek patients to simply turn to natural, alternative remedies that can accomplish the same thing as these drugs but without all the toxic side effects?
What action should we* take my beloved citizens of ???????? ???????????
————————————–…
*Left half of my family is a Greek diaspora.
http://www.ukwirednews.com/articles.php/63549-Second-firm-withdraws-drugs-from-Greece-over-cuts
Chris Colton
I’m going to go against the current here, but I’m wondering…
The problem was created by a culture of debt. Too many people took on too much debt and ended up defaulting.
Now, the federal reserve lowers interest rates, encouraging debt in order to encourage economic activity. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what kind of mechanism you would use to do this, but shouldn’t we be looking the other way? Shouldn’t a sound, long-term solution include not more debt, but the creation of a culture of living within our means? (I know that’s a heck of a swing, but it would seem the solution is more of the same).
I know what I’m saying goes against the current and it just dawned on me, so I haven’t really worked this idea through, but I’m just wondering if anybody else thinks it would make sense to think along those lines.
Wiley Reye
I have been through my school’s website, through the National Student Loan and OSAP websites, web forums… my question isn’t answered anywhere, and I need help!
In January I noticed that $250 had been taken from my bank account under a strange name I didn’t recognize. I figured out later that it was my OSAP payment, but I was still in school and didn’t even know they were going to start billing me. I was a part-time student, but had to switch to part-time studies at last minute due to a strike at my school which forced me to lose some of my courses. I was living in my own apartment (roommate bailed) and could barely afford my own expenses let alone an extra $250/month. I also have to pay for medication and see a psychiatrist regularly which is very expensive but necessary, which makes things even more difficult. I was working a part-time job, and also started doing some **** modeling and selling my stuff on the internet to pay off my loans. I figured I just had to live with it and I would find ways to come up with the money. Then I got a good job, but my contract recently ended and I am now unemployed, desperately seeking work that pays me enough to live on. (There are lots of jobs available that pay minimum wage at 10 hours a week, but its a joke — that barely covers just the lone payments!)
Recently I learned about debt reduction and interest relief, and I looked on line to see how to apply. After being referred from website to website, I found that one of the requirements to apply was that I have to have signed my Student Loan Consolidation forms. I never received these forms! I even checked my OSAP account and I am signed up for electronic notifications rather then mail notifications, but I searched back through my inbox and have received nothing from them. I cannot find anywhere how to apply for these forms. I haven’t called yet because I am really emotional about this and I know I’ll break down on the phone. I’m not even sure what to do, or what to ask for, or what I’m eligible for.
Has anyone been in this situation, or know if I have some chance of debt reduction? There is no family or spouse in my life who I can receive any support from. If anyone even has any information about where to get Consolidation Forms, that would be really helpful too.
Lemuel Jacquet
My soon to be husband makes $133,000.00 a year and after a very nasty three year divorce he was ordered to pay her (between Child support and alimony) $2990.00 every two weeks. The court has make it where he is not allowed to claim any of the three children so instead of being able to claim married 5 he has to now claim married 1 this brings his take home pay down to $3100.00. He did the math yeasterday and a man that makes 133000.00 is now allowed to keep a little over $5000.00. We live in a very small town and I really believe that the judge was bought off. The judge also gave him ALL of the marital debt. So in order to get out of the $1200.00 a month payment to pay off his wifes shopping habit he has now filed a chapter 13 and brought his pay ment down to $260.00. We have filed for an appeal and were told that we have a great appeal and that it sould come through fine. I believe that he should have to pay for the three kids that is not a problem but I just dont see why he should take all the debt and pay her $1700.00 every two week. while he is left with nothing. Someone somewhere must have made a mistake with the math. Do you think its possible to get a reduction in child support for the next year so that he can afford to live until the appeal comes through. We have the kids two days one week and 5 days the next… it cost more than what he is left with just to feed his kids,
1.Let me add… his Ex wife does infact have a job where she make $36000.00 a year.
2.For those of you bitter woman that said he should not take anything away from his ex wife or the children let me tell you this woman hasnt bought her children ANYTHING since the day he left. We have bought it all.
3. Before the last judgment he was paying her $2000 every two weeks… the new rulling was for $2990.00 so yes he has to pay back alimony.
4. He was seporated from her for 1 year befor we met and the divorce was three additional years in court.
ALSO…. she admited in court that she felt that *** was only needed once a year unless you were trying to have a baby. I was there… I heard it with my own ears…. He put up with that for 15years.
Alia Jach
I was contacted by this credit group who said they can eliminate my debt in 3 years. Are these companies legit?
Salley Salvant
I believe that Per-Capita Carbon Dioxide is currently unimportant, and that priorities should be set on National Debt, both in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Both are in massive debt, per-capita. The most rapid way to accelerate out of National Debt, is the burning of abundant fossil fuels such as Coal. It is advisable to reduce expensive-to-produce energy sources such as tidal power (developing dams costs massive amounts). If I had the power to do so, I would increase the Coal dependency of the United Kingdom, and the United States of America until there are sufficient funds to invest in pointless ‘low carbon’ technologies based upon unproven science and sketchy ideology.
Qatar currently depends on over 300 litres of oil per-capita per-day to survive, and they are thriving.
Jonah Grant
2-3 years ago I got a cat from the local pound and everything was fine until I moved into an apartment complex. I’m assuming it got into a brawl with another cat and it had a scab but my brother’s ex got very emotional and convinced me to take it to the vet because it could’ve gotten cat leukemia (Just for a diagnosis, mind you we were just going to put the cat to sleep if push came to shove). We get there and she tells me that she does not want to pay for it right now because she owed some kind of insignificant amount of money to the vets and that I should be the main signer for the bill supposedly they look at her funny too or some b/s. So unwittingly I signed a document for a credit company because I did not have a credit in the first place and maybe a waiver that I did not thoroughly inspect because, after all, it was just a diagnosis 40 dollars out and back into my finances again. We 3 took the same car and they were going to keep the cat at the office. It turns out my brother had an interview for a job and we 3 had several errands we needed to so we figured the cat will just stay put and no real apparent danger was going to happen to it anyways.
Well over the course of several hours I noticed I had recieved a call from the vet’s office and the voicemail said they needed to let us know they were going to do an operation on the cat so they’ll keep it overnight. I was going to call the vet office and tell them that wasn’t necessary but alas! They were already closed.
I spent all night freaking out about how much this bill was going to cost because for God’s sake I could barely afford gas with the job I had. I knew something was very wrong about this from the get go starting with her cries for mine’s & my brother’s empathy and pity.
The next day we call them and it turns out that they did some kind of surgery, neutered it, and de flead and de-wormed it. The total cost was over SEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS! But since they neutered it, it went down to 500 STILL ASININE. I was there for just a diagnosis. They did not receive my permission because I had absolutely NO INTENTIONS on spending that ridiculous amount of money. They just did everything without my permission. I don’t even have the damn cat anymore SHE has it. Now since the recession is among us I’ve been out of work for 2 years now and the interest hemorrhaged the money up to TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!!!
I was wondering I need some kind of third party advice before I can go to the courts or perhaps get some kind of justice to this insanely asinine situation.
My question to you: Is there anyway possible to get some kind of amnesty or some kind of massive amounts of reduction done to this? I refuse to pay more than the 40 dollars I was there and gave my permission for them to do the diagnostics.
Can I go to court? Can I just refuse the payment? Can I get some kind of justice??
Thank you for any kind of help
tl;dr – I got severely eff’ed over by the vet’s office because they did NON AUTHORIZED work on a cat that I used to own now I’m spiraling in debt and bad credit.
I think whitefan and LegallyDrunk have both good points. The reason I’ve waited so long is because I have been dirt poor and have assumed I have no case. Two things I find wrong with this a.) they could’ve held on at least a day before they started work for my permission and b.) there is something terribly wrong just in general… I feel like I’ve been robbed.
Actually what I signed was the new Credit card company’s membership
Norman Woolverton
http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/blog/2009/02/waterloo-of-keynesianism-military-and.html
While it is perilous for any historian to predict the future, we may well be headed for the Waterloo of Keynesianism (both military and domestic) and that is a good thing.
Crudely put, Keynesianism (so named for the British economist John Maynard Keynes) is the theory that government’s can speed long-term recovery by running high deficts so as to stimulate aggregate demand or investment. It is the entire basis of Obama’s stimulus plan. To some extent, Keynesian ideas were the basis of Bush’s massive bailout and big spending policies, most especially his now forgotten “stimulus checks.”
The popularity of the Keynesian theory is something a puzzle (at least to me). Few ideas more defy ordinary common sense. Taken in today’s context, it seems akin to telling an individual who has recklessly run up a hundred thousand dollar credit card debt to spend even more on fixing a driveway or garage (infrastructure). For some reason, such advice (which would be considered utter lunacy when applied to individuals) is widely accepted as the best method of economic recovery when taken by governments.
Probably no event is more commonly cited as a Keynesian spending success story than World War II. Variants of this thesis can be found among across the political spectrum. On the right, neocon Conrad Black argues that World War II “had restored prosperity after the free market had failed.” On the left, Paul Krugman similarly writes: “There’s nothing magic about spending on tanks and bombs rather than roads and bridges. The reason World War II worked more effectively than the WPA [in terms of promoting economic growth] as that it was *bigger.*”
While Krugman might prefer that this “bigger” spending be on roads and bridges, rather than bombs, this does not change the fact he still accepts the overall premise that spending on wars can be good for the economy. If this is true, one wonders why he never praised Bush’s bloated military budgets. If anyone should have greater reason to call this theory into question, it is antiwar historians. Fortunately, one has.
In a seminal article for the Journal of Economic History, Robert Higgs convincingly challenged the Keynesian theory of World War II as put forward by Krugman, Black and others.
While unemployment disappeared during the war, it was hardly a step forward. Moving men and women from the unemployment lines to the killing fields of Anzio did not represent economic progress in any meaningful sense. During the war, Americans at home suffered from rationing, shortages, more accidents on the job, longer hours, and many other measures of economic deprivation. Moreover, as Higgs points out, “real personal consumption declined. So did real private investment. From 1941 to 1943 real gross private domestic investment plunged by 64 percent; during the four years of the war it never rose above 55 percent of its 1941 level; only in 1946 did it reach a new high.”
According to Higgs, genuine prosperity did not begin to return until the last months of 1945 and 1946. This prosperity occurred under a policy of reverse Keynesianism which included massive reductions in spending because of demoblization, rapid steps toward price decontrol, and scaled back deficit spending.
Higgs sums it up:
World War II, the so-called Good War, has been a fount of historical fallacies. One of the greatest – and one of the most pernicious for subsequent policymakers – is the notion that prosperity prevailed during the war. Although Americans might have been dying in the Pacific and European theaters of war, people on the home front actually benefited from the war, because it propelled the economy at long last out of the Great Depression. This view of the war would be sufficiently egregious if it were true, but despite the claims of historians for the past half century, it is not true.
In my view, Obama’s best hope to bring lasting recovery is to let the economy go through a short, but sharp, readjustment. He needs to remove the malivestments not, contra Krugman, perpetuate them. Obama can facilitate this readjustment to a more sustainable level by cancelling the bailout, cutting spending, and pruning deficits. Another worthy goal would be to dismantle the Federal Reserve which helped to create this mess through its easy credit policies.
Most of all, however, Obama should end our costly empire by closing down our overseas bases and bringing home the troops. Only then, can we start to get our financial house in order and move towards genuine economic well being.
Toby