Don’t Quit Your Day Job – Personal Finance, Economics and Investing

Carnivals and links for the week!

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.

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.

A collection of links for the week.

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.

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.

Credit card issuance was down significantly in 2009. In hard numbers, through October issuance was down 46%. Simultaneously, debit card usage was up between 10 and 20% worldwide according to Visa and Mastercard’s Results. The trend is evident; consumers are moving away from debt and trying to make purchases out of funds they already have.

“If you have to ask…” is a phrase you may have heard before, once or twice, in conjunction with the price of some luxury item or service (the implication being: “you can’t afford it!”). Perhaps you’ve heard or said it inside a boutique store, where no price tags are present. For a silly example, perhaps you’ve noticed that many restaurants don’t list the price of alcohol on their menus. The internet is supposed to spur open competition and a free market for the retailing of goods. However, minimum price laws force many companies to keep the prices of good and services secret until an item is already in an online shopping cart.

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.

Carnivals and links, presented for your viewing pleasure!