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Eliminating student loans for low-income families: Amherst joins other colleges and universities in striving for economic diversity.(BEHIND the NEWS): An article from: University Business

Eliminating student loans for low-income families: Amherst joins other colleges and universities in striving for economic diversity.(BEHIND the NEWS): An article from: University Business

This digital document is an article from University Business, published by Thomson Gale on September 1, 2007. The length of the article is 426 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Eliminating student loans for low-income families: Amherst joins other colleges and universiti

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Developing Economic Flexibility without the need of Chance (Deon Beninati)

Many individuals ask me to reveal the REAL secret of my achievement on this organization . . . as though they assume that We’ve been keeping out the magic perception that adds an excess couple of zeros to my annual revenue.
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$700 Billion Bailout: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and What It Means to You, Your Money, Your Mortgage and Your Taxes

$700 Billion Bailout: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and What It Means to You, Your Money, Your Mortgage and Your Taxes

The book is an analysis of the controversial Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and explains in easy to understand language what the bailout bill means for individuals. $700 Billion Bailout answers questions such as:What does the bill say, exactly?Who is making decisions about how the $700 billion will be spent, and what does it mean now that the government is investing directly in our banks?Who’s footing the bill?What is the impact on homeowners, businesses, retirement, and taxes?Where do I

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Pell grant deficit: “the mother of all shortfalls”: Pell Grant faces a shortfall as more people head back to school in uncertain economic times.(washington … from: Diverse Issues in Higher Education

Pell grant deficit: "the mother of all shortfalls": Pell Grant faces a shortfall as more people head back to school in uncertain economic times.(washington ... from: Diverse Issues in Higher Education

This digital document is an article from Diverse Issues in Higher Education, published by Cox, Matthews & Associates on October 16, 2008. The length of the article is 893 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Pell grant deficit: "the mother of all shortfalls": Pell Grant faces a shortfall as more people head

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The Economic Appeal of the Occupy Wall Street Movement to Middle-Class Americans

Seemingly out of nowhere, economic inequality is no longer the political issue that dares not speak its name. Since the days of Ronald Reagan, politicians who talk about reducing disparities in incomes or wealth have been promptly charged with “class warfare.” The stunning success of the Occupy Wall Street movement in attracting adherents and sympathizers could change that, at least for the current political season. What lies behind the movement’s surprising middle-class appeal, however, isn’t high unemployment or slow economic growth. The real reason is that the 2008 meltdown and its economic aftermath have cut the wealth of millions of average Americans by up to half — and Washington has been unwilling to do anything about it.

There is little controversy among economists that the fabled U.S. land of opportunity has become one of the world’s most unequal societies. Using the standard measure (the “Gini Coefficient”), America now ranks 93rd in the world in terms of economic equality. That puts us behind places like Iran, Russia and China. The poverty in those places is much worse, but the concentration of wealth is much greater here. According to the Federal Reserve, the top 1 percent of us in 2007 owned nearly 35 percent of everything of value, net of debt — that includes savings, stocks and bonds, real estate, art, furniture, clothing, on and on. Perhaps more important, the top 20 percent of Americans owned 85 percent of the country’s net wealth.

Yet, such striking inequality still cannot explain the appeal of Occupy Wall Streeters — I’ll call it the OWS movement — because comparable disparities of wealth have been around for a generation. Go back to 1983, and the top 1 percent of Americans owned 34 percent of the country, and the top 20 percent claimed 82 percent.

The answer here lies in the particular way that the financial and housing meltdown has affected middle-class families. Consider the following: While the bottom 80 percent held only 15 percent of the nation’s wealth in 2007, most of it was tied up in the value of their homes. We know that, because when we break down that 15 percent figure, we find that the bottom 80 percent held just 7 percent of all financial assets in 2007 but 40 percent of all residential real estate assets. And the housing boom topped out in 2007.

The reason the OWS movement resonates so broadly today lies in the subsequent loss of so much housing wealth.  The 2008 meltdown and its aftermath have driven down the value of residential real estate by about 35 percent. And that 35 percent included most or all of the equity that millions of middle class families had in their homes in 2007.  America already was a place where 80 percent of the people held only 15 percent of the country’s wealth. Now, do the math. About half of that wealth was in financial assets like savings and pensions (the Fed’s 7 percent figure), and the rest was in home equity. So, since 2007, the bottom 80 percent of Americans have lost up to half of their net wealth.

Those losses also aren’t distributed evenly:  Households in their 30’s and 40’s, for example, usually have almost everything they own tied up in their home equity, and which typically adds up to less than one-third of their homes’ value.  They’ve been wiped out, wealth-wise.  Older households, on average, have larger home equity, so they still have some modest increment of wealth. But if they’re approaching retirement or already retired, there’s also little they can ever do to make up their losses.

When middle-class Americans turn to Washington, they see the resounding success of the government’s efforts to stabilize the financial markets – where the top 1 percent derive most of their wealth. The rich are back to becoming even richer. That’s the way America has operated for at least the last generation. What grates on middle-class Americans this time is that they’ve been getting poorer. And Washington has done little to stabilize the market from which they derive most of their wealth, which is housing.

To be fair, President Obama can claim a little credit here, since he has proposed a series of initiatives to support housing, mainly by giving banks incentives to refinance more mortgages at favorable terms.  But the largest force driving down housing prices and wiping out middle-class home equity is sky-high home foreclosure rates.  The President hasn’t yet taken on those foreclosures, but he still has time to champion a new initiative.  For instance, he could call for temporary loans for families whose mortgages are in trouble, financed through lending by the Federal Home Loan Banks.

Mitt Romney, Obama’s most likely challenger, can’t call for anything.  Last week, Romney went to the state with the highest foreclosure rate in the country, Nevada, and made what may turn out to be a very costly mistake.  Embracing GOP dogma that “the right course is to let markets work,” he declared that Washington should let the foreclosure process “run its course and hit the bottom.”

Yet, this is the very process now hollowing out a good-sized slice of the American middle class.  Given Romney’s position, the issue provides a new opportunity for the Obama campaign.  Much more important, however, the problem itself presents a critical challenge for economic policy makers. If they and the next President ignore it, inequality in America almost certainly will enter a very nasty, new phase.

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IBSA: Coverage of Economic Body Vital for Development

As the India Brazil and South Africa Summit of heads of state and government
starts Tuesday, editors from the respective countries have resolved to provide
better coverage of the economic body.

Southern Africa – INTER PRESS SERVICE

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Easy Ways to Protect Your Personal Finances From Further Economic Contraction

While the economy has already certainly softened, there may be further economic contraction for American consumers to face.  Increasing job losses, higher inflation rates, and the growing food and energy costs are making personal finance budgeting difficult for most American families to achieve.  The variable interest rate of recent mortgages makes critical, and the prospects for personal finance do not look bright for the next several years.

 

 

However, an ounce of personal finance planning is certainly worth more than a pound of monetary cure.  It is not too late to start preparing your personal finance budgeting efforts to brace yourself for further economic contraction – ensuring that when America does recover from its economic weakness, your personal finance will be intact and still healthy.

 

Debt management strategy: watch your interest rates

 

When economic uncertainty is on the horizon, interest rates are the first to react – making debt management critical.  Powered by both the Federal Reserve rate and each banking institution’s tolerance, interest rates can either soar or plummet, depending upon several factors.

 

Whereas our interest rates were at historical lows, the Fed Chairman Bernanke made adjustments to the rate in order to curb inflation, while attempting to simultaneously stimulate economic investment.  What does this mean for your debt management?  In essence, banks will now offer you great interest rates if you have good credit, making your debt management easy.  If you have bad credit, then banks will increase your interest rates, as the risk of a default grows greater during an economic contraction.

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Therefore, for debt management that will prepare for further economic contraction, you want to lock in low interest rates, which will be easy for those who already have good credit.  You can refinance your credit cards by consolidating your debts, or you can even renegotiate your interest rates with your existing credit card company.

 

For those who have less than stellar credit, you want to carefully watch your mortgages, loans, and credit cards to ensure that they are not raising your interest rates.  You may be particular susceptible to interest rate hikes in further economic contraction.

 

Smart personal finance budgeting

 

Keep in mind that regardless of how much income you earn, the key to maintaining financial stability is through intelligent debt management and personal finance budgeting.  Even if you earn millions, your spending habits and debt are what determine your financial stability.  In preparing for a further economic contraction, it is important that you take several personal finance budgeting steps:

 

•               Tally all of your required expenses including your mortgage or rent payment, car payment, health insurance, and utilities.  There are the bills you must pay each month, and therefore, are part of your mandatory personal finance budgeting process.

 

•               Allocate a set amount each month for groceries.  Keep in mind that you should try to purchase everything “on sale” for smart personal finance budgeting.  Research shows that simply by purchasing the brand that is on sale, you can save approximately 20% each time you go to the supermarket.

 

•               Minimize your entertainment expenses.  Smart personal finance budgeting means limiting how frequently you eat out, or spend money on entertainment.  For example, if you have a four-person family and you typically watch a movie at the theater each week, cutting this expense out could save up nearly 0 each month.  Or, brown bag your lunch instead of eating at the local sandwich shop.  This small change in your personal finance budgeting can save you conservatively 0 per month.   Just these two small changes alone in your entertainment expenses can give you an extra 0 per month for your personal finance budgeting.

 

•               Set money aside for your savings.  In a further economic contraction, the greatest, yet most probably fear, is losing your job.  Therefore, by taking conservative approaches with your personal finance budgeting now, you can still set aside emergency funds that will help your family if times are difficult.  Saving 10% of your income each month is a healthy, yet reasonable, amount to save in your personal finance budgeting. 

 

The key to protecting your personal finance against any additional economic contraction is through smart debt management and intelligent personal finance budgeting.  By taking several preventative measures now, you can ensure that your financial situation will remain healthy – regardless of what happens to the economy.

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Grants or Loans: A Survey of Opinion on the Finance of Maintenance Costs of University Students (Institute of Economic Affairs, London. Resear)

Grants or Loans: A Survey of Opinion on the Finance of Maintenance Costs of University Students (Institute of Economic Affairs, London. Resear)

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Businesses Along The Border: Valuing The Economic Importance Of Proximity To Mexico

Speaker of the House John Boehner, and many who oppose engaging on Immigration Reform in Congress, have said that they cannot move forward on the issue until the violence on the border is secured. As we have since learned, border communities in places like El Paso are actually much safer then the speakers own home state of Ohio.

What has been missing from the current debate over the Border, has been the very real economic benefits that come from being next door to our 2nd largest trading partner. Richard Dayoub, of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, does an excellent job of outlining the important economic benefits that Mexico provides to his city:

Money from Mexican nationals has also had real effects on the value of the retail market in El Paso. Some studies estimate that the percentage retail value of Mexican nationals’ purchasing power in El Paso is 18 to 22 percent of the total market. Our proximity to Mexico has also created huge trade dividends nationally. Last year, alone, more than $ 71 billion in trade passed through El Paso. Texas is the largest trade partner with Mexico, but it is not just states along the border that benefit.

Dayoub also notes that Mexico was the United States largest trading partner for five of the U.S. States last year:

Mexico was the top trading partner for five of the 50 U.S. states last year — Texas, California, Arizona, New Mexico and New Hampshire. Mexico ranked as the No. 2 trading partner for 17 states and No. 3 for six. Thirty-seven of the states have experienced growth in exports to Mexico over the last five years, 28 of which realized growth of at least 25 percent. Fourteen additional states experienced more than 50-percent growth in exports to Mexico during this period.

What’s more trade with Mexico has proven to be a job grower for individual states in America:

Another example of the importance of our trade relations with Mexico is job creation. It is estimated that 11,500 jobs in North Carolina and 13,000 jobs in Pennsylvania are directly attributed to trade with Mexico. Mexico ranks No. 3 in total trade with the United States behind Canada and China. Our proximity to Mexico has created enormous economic benefits for El Paso, the state and the national economy. The single most important thing that the president said in his remarks is that we can no longer afford to not fix our immigration policies.

What all of this important economic data underscores is the fact that the border is safe. It is difficult to advance the notion that the border is a war zone, or intrinsically dangerous place when there is in fact billions of dollars of goods moved thru ports of entry daily. The more the economic reality of our ports of entry and the border itself enter into the national debate on immigration, the harder it becomes to advance the notion that the region is out of control.

The full op-ed can be read here.

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$700 Billion Bailout: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and What It Means to You, Your Money, Your Mortgage and Your Taxes

$700 Billion Bailout: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and What It Means to You, Your Money, Your Mortgage and Your Taxes

The book is an analysis of the controversial Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and explains in easy to understand language what the bailout bill means for individuals. $700 Billion Bailout answers questions such as:What does the bill say, exactly?Who is making decisions about how the $700 billion will be spent, and what does it mean now that the government is investing directly in our banks?Who’s footing the bill?What is the impact on homeowners, businesses, retirement, and taxes?Where do I

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