Unemployment benefits are back in the news: Senator Jim Bunning held up a $10 billion bill in the Senate because he felt it didn’t hold to the pay-as-you-go laws passed earlier this year (the law apparently doesn’t apply because of a technicality; the subjects of the bill were said to be ‘emergency provisions’). Unluckily for the senator, the provisions of the bill happened to concern the extension of unemployment benefits and the implementation of the so-called ‘Doctor Fix’ (preventing the pay cuts to doctors from Medicare). Even stranger to many politicians was the defense from Minority Whip Jon Kyl from Arizona stating that “… if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” Unemployment benefits preventing the unemployed from seeking work? Blasphemy!
Every once and a while I like to check in on the market’s inflation predictions. This is for my own personal curiosity, and possibly to entertain you, dear reader. You’ll be interested to know that inflation expectations have tempered somewhat over the last few weeks; it all goes to show that throughout all of the howling on raising debt ceilings and mudslinging in politics, the market still believes in the general stability of the United States dollar. My method is the classic “subtract real treasury yields from the yield curve rates”. All information is available at the U.S. Treasury’s web site.
For whatever reason, my articles recently keep coming back to charitable giving and volunteering. Here I am again with another post on the BLS’s recent release of volunteering statistics. Reader Patrick of Cash Money Life wondered if the reason that married parents volunteered in such high numbers was because many have children who open up volunteer activities. On the surface, this is a very good theory; younger kids play baseball, soccer and other sports, become Boy and Girl Scouts, and generally do things which occasionally ask people to volunteer to help (like go to school!). Let’s see if we can tease out the effect this has on overall volunteering rates!
One of the nice things about the Bureau of Labor Statistics site is the centralized location of employment and labor trends data which inspires interesting articles. Count today as one of those days; the BLS today released figures on the rates of volunteerism in the United States. In the midst of a recession, volunteer rates increased in the United States from September 2008 to September 2009. In fact, the percentage rate of volunteering by citizens in the United States is now .1% higher than it was in September 2006, after a falloff from that point in 2007.
A popular topic in the blogosphere, given new life after comments by Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman, is the relative success of the United States vs. the states that make up the European Union. The European Union is a loose confederation of 27 countries in Europe, ranging from Spain to Estonia. Krugman goes so far to suggest that “[y]ou should always bear in mind that when the question is which to believe — official economic statistics or your own lying eyes — the eyes have it.”
What would you say if someone offered you money to report your tax-evading friends? If you are staring at the screen incredulously, allow me to introduce you to Uncle Sam, who wants to make it worth your while to report on your loose-moraled tax cheat friends (and acquaintances!). If you know someone who is particularly dastardly, you could even make bank- the IRS will reward you 15% of the underpaid amount, up to a whopping $10 million!
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What would you say if someone offered you money to report your tax-evading friends? If you are staring at the screen incredulously, allow me to introduce you to Uncle Sam, who wants to make it worth your while to report on your loose-moraled tax cheat friends (and acquaintances!). If you know someone who is particularly dastardly, you could even make bank- the IRS will reward you 15% of the underpaid amount, up to a whopping $10 million!
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Unemployment benefits are back in the news: Senator Jim Bunning held up a $10 billion bill in the Senate because he felt it didn’t hold to the pay-as-you-go laws passed earlier this year (the law apparently doesn’t apply because of a technicality; the subjects of the bill were said to be ‘emergency provisions’). Unluckily for the senator, the provisions of the bill happened to concern the extension of unemployment benefits and the implementation of the so-called ‘Doctor Fix’ (preventing the pay cuts to doctors from Medicare). Even stranger to many politicians was the defense from Minority Whip Jon Kyl from Arizona stating that “… if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work.” Unemployment benefits preventing the unemployed from seeking work? Blasphemy!
More ...
Alot of noise has been made about how the United States won a majority (20) of their Olympic medals in events that didn’t exist the last time the Winter Games were held in Canada (1988, Calgary). Hopefully this point has been thoroughly dismissed by sites such as FiveThirtyEight. However, another valid point can be raised [...]
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For today, here’s a link to an article about the tax-exempt status of the United States Olympic Committee. Fresh off the American medal count win from the 2010 Winter Olympics (I’ll follow up with some numbers this week!), this is sure to cause some controversy – as the laws granting tax-exempt status are supposed to apply to amateur athletic organizations. The Olympics have become anything but an amateur event; witness the big team sports like basketball and hockey which field players from leagues like the National Basketball League and the National Hockey League. All of this might be under the spotlight soon if the USOC starts to ask the government for direct support.
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Like I mentioned in my article yesterday, this week ushers in the new credit card laws. On Monday, the provisions of the Credit CARD Act of 2009 took effect, to the joy of consumers everywhere. Well, not all consumers. Confused? Don’t be. The new credit laws will increase the cost of credit for people with worse credit scores.
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Happy Monday morning! Did you know that today is the day that the credit card rules enacted in the Credit CARD Act of 2009 go into effect? Most likely you have seen increased communication from your credit card companies already, as they attempt to predict the effect of the rules on their profit (and change your rates preemptively). However, I would like to concentrate on one area of the credit card laws which will probably shake things up right away – the new restrictions placed on credit cards for people under 21.
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As Chuck Klosterman writes in his book IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Minds, the phrase ‘guilty pleasure’ is culturally backwards. As he can take pride in his watching the Ashley Simpson Show, I can admit to the my audience that I’ve watched every episode of Jersey Shore. I was born in Boston and raised in Rhode Island; to be truthful, I could field a pretty decent cast for a new season. I must say, for the record, an article in CNN Money made me respect the entrepreneurial spirit of the cast of the Jersey Shore.
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Few things in economics and personal finance are better than looking back on the psyche of the consumer through the lens of special holidays. Luckily, Valentine’s Day just passed, and someone else has run the numbers for me! (What, you thought I was going to go over used car sales on President’s Day?). The site BillShrink made an interesting infographic which details the spending thatgoes into the just-passed Valentine’s Day. Without further ado, please enjoy this graphic.
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