As job losses continue to mount it is only natural that government programs continue to suffer from diminishing funds since unemployed people don’t pay social security or medicare taxes but don’t fret because there is a solution. Several proposals include raising social security taxes from 12% to 14% or cutting benefits by 13% which puts…
Month: May 2009
The Collapse of Complex Societies
Joseph Tainter’s The Collapse of Complex Societies epitomizes what I think has been a fundamental reason behind the decay of the economy. Tainter’s theory is that as societies become more complex, the costs of meeting new challenges increase, until there comes a point where extra resources devoted to meeting new challenges produce diminishing and negative…
Credit Card Losses Mount – Shrinking Credit Pool
After having one of my credit card accounts cut by 50% I’ve been keeping an eye out for stories along the same lines and lo and behold, Bloomberg is reporting that Advanta will cease issuing credit! By Sarah Mulholland and Cordell Eddings May 12 (Bloomberg) — Advanta Corp., the credit-card issuer for small businesses, may…
The Most Depressing Place On Earth: Nursing Home
Since I have plenty of free time lately, I’ve been visiting my grandfather who was placed in a nursing home a few months ago. My parents had been taking care of my grandfather until it became too burdensome for them to be able to work full time and take care of my elderly grandfather. While…
Which Blogs Do I Read?
I haven’t updated my links for a long while and I’m continuously searching for good blogs to read and while there are few true capitalist blogs out there I have found a few great intellectual finance blogs that have been intriguing me for the past few months. First up is Charles Hugh Smith’s Of Two…
The Demise of FICO
Yesterday I wrote about my credit lines being cut but it’s not important anymore because I’m predicting the demise of FICO.  I’m on record as having a great disdain for credit reporting agencies and I’m glad to see change is coming. We are clearly in a new banking & lending environment and will be so…
It’s Finally Happened, Credit Lines Cut and FICO is Irrelevant
Well it’s finally happened, one of the credit card companies cut my available credit by 50% and I suspect it’s only a matter of time before others follow suit.  I have about $150,000 in credit lines across multiple credit cards and a few months ago Capital One closed down some unused accounts as well for…
Your Career Is Not Your Most Important Asset
There are many people that believe that your career or job is the most important asset a person can have but I disagree.  The current economic crisis has demonstrated that careers that have taken years to build can be wiped out in an instant.  The current crisis has also illustrated that a career is a…
Will Someone Please Explain….Post Office
I’m starting a new series entitled, “Will Someone Please Explain…” which begs for an answer to life’s most complicated questions. While I spent 10 years in college studying three different majors, there are still many things in life that I just don’t understand. One of those enigmas that is currently perplexing me is why the…
Is Your 401k Being Held Hostage?
We’re continuing to see the “unintended consequences” of the financial crisis and the newest thing is companies holding 401k’s hostage. It’s stories like the one below that make me think the 401k era is over.  When I return to work, I seriously doubt that I will enroll in a 401k plan even if there is…