Benny's Econ Blog

How To Save Money

2007-06-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

The article was giving advice top students on how to save money. What strucked me as interesting was how the person suggested that being married was cheaper. It makes sense but it was odd. It also suggested not to spend on bad habits and save early.I currently am making a plan to manage my expenses. Im writing down my budget and the expense I have. I waste a lot of money. I am planing to make some investments and save for retirement. This is important to start early because the earlier you start the less you have to save up, which the article explained.

Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

2007-05-23T06:14:00.001-07:00

Federal Taxes and Payroll Tax: collected from wages and salaries only

Income Tax= collected from wages, salaries, rents, interest on bank accounts and dividends

Corporate Income Tax= collected from a corporations net income

Excise Tax= collected from the sales of items like gas, alcoholic beverages and tobacco

Estate Tax= collected from a dead person’s estate

Gift Tax= collected during the transfer of property between peopleState Tax

General State Tax= collected from general sales

Excise Tax= collected from the sales of items like gas, alcoholic beverages and tobacco

Estate Tax= collected from a dead person’s estate

Inheritance Tax= collected from a person after they inherit something from a dead
personCity/Local Taxes

General Sales Tax= collected from general sales

Excise Tax= collected from the sales of items like gas, alcoholic beverages and tobacco

Property Tax= collected from assets like stocks, bonds, houses, cars and artworkMiscellaneous
Taxes

Pollution Tax= collected from companies that produce air, water, oil or water pollution.

Saving and Dept

2007-05-22T06:15:00.000-07:00

I believe that when you start to spend more then you make that is when you need to cut your credit cards, even if you haven't maxed out. In the article if the couple would have calculated all the charges they made to their credit card they may not be in this predicament. Many people get into debt by not calculating the costs of the items they buy. Majority of the time they keep charging it and saying "I'll be getting my check in a week." which can be true but they don't focus on the amount they are getting. Finance charges were put in so that the companies who technically loan you the money first will get something in return for their services. However if you fail to pay it off first time around the charges build up and you eventually pay more with your credit card then if you have paid with your money. Majority of the American people are in debt so they can't afford to save money, their busy paying off bills. The rest who are not in debt don't see the point in saving their money which gets them the most 5% which isn't a lot, compared to buying real estate. In general not only in America is saving rates declining, in France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Japan all dropped.

Critique of GDP Podcast

2007-05-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

I've decided to use Ronald and Richard's Podcast, right from the beginning the podcast caught my attention and kept it by being original. Although I had knew the information that was being presented the fact that it was different made me pay attention. It explained it fairly, the podcast itself was a little bit short compared to all others. The podcast is loud for anyone to hear and it is very ear catching. The images do match the information presented but a little more pictures would be better. The podcats is very creative and interesting it catches the visitor's attention. The style is very original I haven't seen another podcast like it. I didn't really learn alot because I had already knew the information but it was good re-explaination.

US Trade Deficit: getting better?

2007-05-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

This article is discussing the current standing of America's economy in relation to the dollar and the amount of exports. The article also explained why America's trade gap will narrow. A negative balance of trade is known as a trade deficit or a trade gap. A trade deficit occurs when a nation imports more than it exports. This was the case with America for the last decade. However, due to the fact that our dollar decreased in value we are now highly sought because with the exchange rate foreign countries are really getting a bang for their buck.Since our products are being sought and wanted, we are exporting more. This increases our GDP as well as increasing domestic jobs, but most of all our trade deficit will go down. There is a lot of growth in the rest of the world and so there is a lot of demand for products to support these thriving nations. Vehicles, Diesel, Fast Food, earth moving equipment, shovels, factory machinery and digital components to build a modern telecommunications back bone are just some of the American made products being exported to nations abroad.

Taxes

2007-05-15T06:08:00.000-07:00

A tax is a payment to the government that is required by the law. The IRS controls and maintains the taxes we pay. IRS is an acronym that stands for Internal Revenue Service. The was created by former President Lincoln in 1862 to cover the expenses of the Civil War. The IRS internal revenue service sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year. Laid end to end, they would stretch 28 times around the earth. American taxpayers spend $200 billion and 5.4 billion hours working to comply with federal taxes each year, more than it takes to produce every car, truck, and van in the United States. We pay a lot of different types of taxes. Income tax is a tax placed on the earnings we make at work and is deducted from our paychecks. If you earn $10 per hour, it turns out that you actually earn only about $8.90 after taxes. The more money you earn, the more money is deducted from your paycheck. Taxes eat up 38.2% of the average family's income; that's more than for food, clothing and shelter combined. It is a lose lose situation.

There are many people who commit tax frauds and fail to pay their taxes. However, in the end almost all get caught. A lot of people prefer to work off the books. With an off the books job, your employer does not report the fact that you are working and therefore no taxes are deducted from your earnings. Although you end up with more money in your pocket, social security is not being deposited for you when you retire. The money for Social Security is taken out on each check and is labeled FICA, which is an acronym for federal Insurance Contributions Act. It is also close to impossible to find a good and serious job that pays you off the books. If you decide to go off the books chances are that you are not recieving and healthcare coverage from you company.

Corporations also pay income tax. We pay sales tax which is a tax on merchandise we are purchasing at a store. Sales tax varies from state to state. In New York the sales tax is 8.25%. My favorite week is tax-free week which comes twice a year. We pay taxes so the government can keep funding and spending on our country. Whether it is to improve education or increase our arsenal. During some years the amoutn of taxes Americans pay amount for 85% of the Revenue for the federal government.

Student Loans-Beware

2007-05-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Culinary School Students take out such large loans to cover the expensive tuition. They coerce themselves into thinking that taking out large loans will be worth it in the end. Once they graduate from their prestigious expensive culinary schools they are expecting to secure a good position in a five star restaurant making a huge chunk of change...an ample amount to live off of and pay back. Student loans are convenient for instant necessity purposes, but in the long run they are an annoying pain in your backside. I am trying to stay away from taking out loans for my college education just because I dont feel like paying anything back when i start working. I just want to earn my money, cry over the taxes they took out and then spend it quicker than a New York minute. However, realistically speaking If it comes to having to take out student loans what can I do? I'm going to keep pushing it on my mother and grandparents.
If I take out loans I'd take out $6,000 per year so it would be roughly $24,000. I personally hate the reality of paying for school. I wish education was free. I believe it should be free and so the whole concept of paying for school frustrates me.

Economic Podcast Critique

2007-03-19T06:01:00.001-07:00

The podcast i reviewed was Ivona and Corina. This podcast was very informal , educational and entertaining. The podcast was in the form of a conversation style. Corina was informing Ivona about The Fed System by answering her various questions. I learned about the first and obvious question which was what the fed system. During the podcast Ivona added her own information from what she knew. It was pretty funny and productive at the same time. They made it so it wasn't very complex and that anyone could can understand it. Aside from that they only provided the basic information and didn't get into the details of the The Fed System and how it works. It was more like a introduction but it's fine because the podcast wasn't suppose to be long.

Compound interest and the rule of 72

2007-03-16T06:05:00.000-07:00

Compound Interest is the act of interest sort of "piling up" over time. For example, should you deposit $100 in the bank, with a 10% interest rate. Next year you'll have $110 in the bank right? Now the following year your investment will be $121 because your interest rate gave you 10% of the previous year's interest, so it was COMPOUNDED. Now that this has been explained, the next thing I would like to get into is the Rule of 72. At first its principles were a bit unclear to me, but now I understand them. The Rule of 72 is used to determine the time in which your deposit will be double of the amount you put in. An example of this would be, if you put in a $100 deposit with an interest rate of 9% a year. Using the rule of 72, [72/9=8] it would take 8 years for the $100 to become $200.

Insider Trading Scandal-what happened?

2007-03-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

There were 13 people arrested on March 1, 2007 accused of trading as insiders. The scheme involved 4 investment bankers, hedge funds, day traders, lawyers and even some supervisors who found out about the trading and blackmailed traders in order for them to keep quiet about the scheme. Nine of the defendants have been arrested and 4 pleaded guilty to crimes including bribery and securities fraud. The tactics that these traders used were all too familiar to the investigators: tipping traders about potential up/downgrades of stocks, leaking information about stock prices moving and potential stock mergers. Two of the men arrested met in Grand Centrals "Oyster Bar" to discuss debts owed to one another and exchange cash made from the profits of insider trading. One of the men would give his partner tips on rating changes and in return his partner would make quick changes to his funds and gain a huge profit. Over a 5 year period one of the accused men was said to have made over $5 million in illicit profits.

Dow Down 416 pts! - Why?

2007-03-05T09:51:00.000-08:00

Two reasons why the stock market crashed yesterday, was 1st, the recent drop of the chinese stock market of 9% overnight, damaged the global economy. Also the 2nd reason is we've never had a dramatic loss since 9-11. Therefore the economy's been growing and not decreasing, and inorder to keep everything balanced the stocks must decrease maybe even by 416 points to get us back on track.

Opportunity Cost

2007-03-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

Economist analyze all the different aspects of a transaction or trade. By doing one thing you limit yourself from doing something else. For example, if you choose a career then you will limit yourself from taking on another job. A personal opportunity cost that i'd had to choose, is withdrawing myself from the extra curricular activities from school to start my own company. By doing so I obtain more knowledge about the business world and gain the fanancial benefits but in return I spend less time having fun and less time with friends

Types of economic systems

2007-03-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

A traditional Economy is dominated by methods and techniques that are strongly supported socially wise, but are out of date and old fashioned. Resources are inherited. A traditional economy is environment friendly, fosters the sense of community. However, there is no competition and technology is limited.A Command Economy is planned and controlled by a central administration. The government dominates the direction in which the economy will go, but the people own the means of production. A command economy is found in a communist country or even sometimes in a capitalist nation in a state of emergency.A Market Economy is the complete opposite of a command economy. A market economy works on supply and demand. There are barely any government interventions or price fixing. Production, Exchange and Distribution is controlled by private corporations and individuals. Capitalist economies are market economies which are also known as free market economy.A mixed economy is an economy that has a mix of economic systems. It contains both private owned and state owned enterprise. America's economy is a mixed economy. You have plenty of freedoms such as to hire, fire, protest but there are restrictions such as the Sherman anti-trust law.Socialism is a cooperative society in which the means of production are owned collectively by the people or the government.

strategy for stocks

2007-03-02T06:02:00.000-08:00

My strategy is to watch the news and look at the wall street journal. I will also be looking into the cnn web site to help me see which stock is good to buy.

Test Blog

2007-02-02T06:33:00.001-08:00

Test