Jan
10The Savings account interest rate at Hudson City Savings Bank has just changed from 0.9% APY to 0.7% APY with a minimum of $2,500 required. See the full details and rate info at Hudson City Savings Bank Money Market/Savings $1000 rate. Money Market Savings
Jan
07Inflation check: The December Consumer Price Index, or CPI, was released yesterday, meaning we can now put a tally on inflation for all of 2009. Drum roll, please. The 2009 increase in the Consumer Price Index was 2.8 percent, seasonally adjusted.
Oh, the chorus of economists and Federal Open Market Committee, or FOMC, members will say how inflation is “subdued” or “muted” and that this number is heavily influenced by the rise in oil prices over the past 12 months. This is where the core reading that excludes food and energy comes in handy. The core CPI increased 1.8 percent in 2009.
Neither the headline nor the core reading is deflationary and both are bumping up against the upper boundary of the Fed Reserve’s very own desired range of inflation. It wouldn’t take much in the way of price increases to put the Fed behind the curve — again.
Jan
02Toronto, Ontario –
The world’s advanced economies are entering a prolonged period of deleveraging after several decades of accumulating debt, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said today. “The direction may be clear, but the magnitude and abruptness of the process are not. It could be long and orderly or it could be sharp and chaotic.”
“In general, the more that households and governments drive leverage, the less the productive capacity of the economy expands, and the less sustainable the overall debt burden ultimately is,” the Governor told a joint audience of the Empire Club of Canada and Canadian Club of Toronto.
Excessive private debts usually end up in the public sector, he noted. “This means that the public debt of most advanced economies can be expected to rise above the 90 per cent threshold historically associated with slower economic growth,” the Governor said.
Excesses of leverage are dangerous, in part because debt is a particularly inflexible form of financing. “Hard experie
Jan
02
Montana residents pay the 4th highest auto insurance rates in the United States, according to KTVQ out of Billings. Des Toups’ article, “Montana ranked 4th-highest for car insurance cost,” says that the information was collected from Quadrant Information Services. The average yearly cost to insure a 2011 vehicle in Montana is $2,190. You should be able to get used car insurance for cheaper than that, but it will be difficult to find new car insurance for much less.
The three states with higher car insurance than Montana are Michigan at $2,541; Louisiana at $2,453; and Oklahoma at $2,197. One reason for steep car insurance costs in Montana is the vast size of the state. People have to drive more miles and that means that they incur a greater risk. Read more…
Dec
30Now that the holidays are over, there are probably two numbers in your life you currently aren’t happy with. One is the balance of your available funds, and the other is the set of digits displayed to you when you step on your bathroom scale. The beginning of the new year means it’s time to get this figures back to where they belong. But what seem like daunting tasks are a much simpler mission to aplish considering that by getting into shape and eating less, you’re likely to save quite a bit of money.
Consider for example the following six ways getting into shape will save you green this year:
Cheaper insurance: When ites to health insurance and life insurance, mostpanies calculate BMI into their determination of your available policies and the premiums that are attached. The healthier you are, the more likely you are to see cheap insurance quotes. You c
Dec
18Until recently even some well-informed tax attorneys assumed that short of disclosure under the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in 2013, the IRS would have a difficult time getting information from Swiss banks without litigation. As a result some owners of Swiss financial accounts assumed that they could avoid disclosure to the IRS by closing their offshore account prior to 2013. While there are various treaties which require Swiss banks to turn over account information with regard to individuals who have committed tax fraud or tax evasion, in the past this has been interpreted as requiring the IRS to provide among other things the name of the taxpayer it was investigating. Apparently not any more!
