| Credit card industry tries to hook young people
All major banking institutions pay big money to colleges and universities for on-campus recruiting rights, offering students low initial interest rates and/or other sweetheart deals if they accept a credit card. The rest of us get solicitations through our phone or the mails.Seductive sales campaigns focus on high school graduates and for all kinds of items that TV, movies or society has told them they want, need, should have because they deserve it and others have, so why don't they? Car dealers offer "one-time sales events" to first-time wage earners, high-end electronic stores give 90-day-same-as-cash deals and guarantee that no one will be turned down, furniture showrooms offer newlyweds "no payments 'til next year," cell phones, Internet providers, cable companies, satellite dish outfits all make it sound as if you can't have a decent life without their help.All this has given birth to an additional parasite - the debt-consolidation, paycheck-cashing, payday-loan, instant-refinancing-of-your-car (and you get to keep your car - 'til they come to take it away) industry.Public schools teach kids how to drive, play sports, fit a condom, take birth control pills, find an abortionist or fill out a job application at McDonald's.
Credit card industry tries to hook young people
All major banking institutions pay big money to colleges and universities for on-campus recruiting rights, offering students low initial interest rates and/or other sweetheart deals if they accept a credit card. The rest of us get solicitations through our phone or the mails.Seductive sales campaigns focus on high school graduates and for all kinds of items that TV, movies or society has told them they want, need, should have because they deserve it and others have, so why don't they? Car dealers offer "one-time sales events" to first-time wage earners, high-end electronic stores give 90-day-same-as-cash deals and guarantee that no one will be turned down, furniture showrooms offer newlyweds "no payments 'til next year," cell phones, Internet providers, cable companies, satellite dish outfits all make it sound as if you can't have a decent life without their help.All this has given birth to an additional parasite - the debt-consolidation, paycheck-cashing, payday-loan, instant-refinancing-of-your-car (and you get to keep your car - 'til they come to take it away) industry.Public schools teach kids how to drive, play sports, fit a condom, take birth control pills, find an abortionist or fill out a job application at McDonald's.
Legislators discuss issues with public
Butler is advocating a no interest unsecured loan from Entergy's customers to Entergy. He is doing this at a time of severe credit problems. If you got a loan of this sort you would be asked to pay 20% or upwards, with fees and penalties. From the London U.K. Telegraph:"It is hard to imagine a more plain-vanilla outfit than the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages bridges, bus terminals, and airports. The authority is a public body, backed by the two states. Yet it had to pay 20pc rates in February after the near closure of the $330bn (£166m) “term-auction" market. It had originally expected to pay 4.3pc, but that was aeons ago in financial time." Loans to public bodies are usually considered the most secure loans of all, being guaranteed by the government's abilitly to use the future labor of taxpayers as collateral.
NBA All-Star Game: Duncan is a fixture despite his style
His four championships in nine years make him the No. 1 NBA winner of the past 10 seasons. Though his scoring average for six seasons has been on a steady decline from his career-best 25.5 points per game in 2001-02 — it slipped all the way to 18.3 in '05-06 before a jump to 20.0 last season — his consistent excellence has remained. "The better the team, the less important statistics are," said Hall of Fame center and ABC/ESPN analyst Bill Walton. "My guess is, as the team has gotten better and better and better, Tim's stats have gotten worse." Of far greater importance, Walton said, is how Duncan has put his stamp on games. Few players in NBA history have had greater bearing on the outcome. "In terms of impact and control, he has everything," Walton said.
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AT ITS BEST the online classifieds site Craigslist is an astonishing display of market economics, where bargains disappear moments after they are posted. With that in mind 32-year-old Kenneth Gomez leaped at the opportunity last October when he saw an irresistible real estate deal and got Craigslist at its worst. The one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan's East Village listed for $900 a month well below average in a neighborhood that defines downtown chic. After Gomez responded to the ad, a woman named Dani McGhie replied to say that Gomez was a good candidate to sublet her apartment, but she was in London and couldn't make it back to the States to hand over the keys. "Obviously, we need a way to complete this deal," she wrote. She proposed that Gomez wire one month's rent as a security deposit, and she would send the keys via two-day shipping.
SPEND/THRIFT: Think before you spend a tax rebate
The options seem endless: purchase a new television, build an emergency fund, invest in an IRA, pay on some of the bad debt you've accrued from too many impulsive buys. If Congress passes the national economic stimulus plan, many people stand to get rebates. The precise amount varies by proposal and by factors such as income and number of children. But let's say you're set to receive $600. Many Americans probably have multiple places they'd like it to go. So consider these thoughts from some experts to ensure wise spending. FIX YOUR FINANCES If you are living paycheck to paycheck, consider putting that $600 into an emergency fund, says Mike Peterson, financial expert and author of ''Reality Millionaire: Proven Tips to Retire Rich.'' Financial experts recommend three to six months of living expenses.
All eyes are on Sandler as Northern Rock splinters
Northern Rock customers whose mortgage deals are expiring are being sent letters pointing out that its rates are uncompetitive and suggesting borrowers look at the good rates available elsewhere. Small wonder that Ray Boulger of mortgage adviser John Charcol estimates that the bank is doing just a tenth as much business as this time last year. And, with last week's withdrawal of its Together mortgage, which allowed customers to borrow as much as 125 per cent of the value of their houses in a mix of secured and unsecured loans, that is likely to shrink even further. These actions were unsurprising given that Northern Rock's future has been uncertain since it sought support from the Bank of England last September. Controversy raged in the Commons last week over Granite, the special purpose investment vehicle (see below) that Northern Rock used to expand its business.
Update: Teenager stabbed to death in fight
The police are chronically under resourced in the area. Even the chair of the local Glyndon SNT says so. How many more young people will have to die before the police, and the local community for that matter get a handle on the knife and gun culture, so prevalent in the area? .
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