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WishingWealth
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Post by WishingWealth »

George, don't reading postings from that NYMag, it will make you mad like hell. your mascara will run and will stain those beautiful blonde hair.

WW
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Post by WishingWealth »

This may have been posted sometime in the past. Don't remember.
The kind of story that gets passed along and along and along...

..Well, for some comic relief, here's the story promised at the outset, via Bob Goldfarb. Pass it along to Ben Bernanke, and, most importantly, to your local banker.

It is August. In a small town on the South Coast of France, holiday season is in full swing, but it is the rainy season not much business is taking place. Everyone is heavily in debt. Luckily, a rich Russian tourist arrives in the foyer of the small local hotel. He asks for a room, puts a 100 Euro note on the reception counter, takes a key, and goes upstairs to inspect the room.

The hotel owner takes the banknote and rushes to his meat supplier, to whom he owes E100.

The butcher takes the money and races to his wholesale supplier to pay his debt.

The wholesaler rushes to the farmer to pay E100 for pigs he purchased some time ago.

The farmer triumphantly gives the E100 note to a local prostitute who gave him her services on credit.

The prostitute goes quickly to the hotel, as she owed the hotel for her hourly room use to entertain clients.

At that moment, the rich Russian comes back down to reception, informs the hotel owner that the proposed room is unsatisfactory, takes his E100 back, and departs.

There was no profit or income. But now no one has any debt and the residents of the small town look optimistically towards their future.
...
http://mytinyspot.blogspot.com/2009/05/ ... round.html
Note: Just googled for the story; don't know anything about that blog)


WW (Still trying to figure out the possibilities, my brain's in red-line zone)
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Percy
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Post by Percy »

But now the hotel owner is out 100 as he paid off a debt with money he now doesn't have. So he's overdrawn 100.
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adrian2
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Post by adrian2 »

I guess the moral of the story is don't trust the Russians, even if they bring gifts. :lol:
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Post by WishingWealth »

Moral 2: No matter how seductive they may appear, perpetual motion machines do not exist.

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Post by WishingWealth »

I ended up on that site from the gov:
http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/consumers/default.asp

Your hard earned taxes at work.

Ex:
Secured Credit Cards - http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/publicat ... ed-eng.pdf

Savings Accounts with a table for the rates: Updated on a monthly basis (I believe)
http://www.fcac-acfc.gc.ca/eng/publicat ... ts-eng.pdf

This could have gone into many diff. threads or perhaps in an intro sticky???

WW
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Gus
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Post by Gus »

It looks like the end of a free ride may be coming soon to a bank near you...

Credit Card Industry Aims to Profit From Sterling Payers
Credit cards have long been a very good deal for people who pay their bills on time and in full. Even as card companies imposed punitive fees and penalties on those late with their payments, the best customers racked up cash-back rewards, frequent-flier miles and other perks in recent years.

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”
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Nemo2
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Post by Nemo2 »

Gus wrote:
Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.
At the present time our Visa fees are waived by TD because we maintain an account balance above the minimum requirement, but there was a segment on Global TV News last evening regarding merchandiser dissatisfaction with the fees charged to vendors by credit card companies...........my lady & I currently charge 'everything', but we decided that, if merchants started offering discounts in line with those of our Travel Rewards program, we'd simply pay cash instead.

Likewise with any other 'bank inflicted' charges that might make card usage less attractive........our credit card use is for our benefit and can be easily curtailed.
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Post by Nemo2 »

Do you have a scam-proof personality?
a good background knowledge of the subject of a scam offer, such as previous investment experience, actually increased people's risk of being a victim as it made them over confident.
Victims of scams also typically spent far more time analysing the content of the scam than non-victims, indicating that they got drawn in by it.
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Bylo Selhi
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Post by Bylo Selhi »

So just pay your balance off in dollars ;)
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Post by WishingWealth »

Nemo2: "if merchants started offering discounts in line with those of our Travel Rewards program, we'd simply pay cash instead. "

The VISA/MC lobby groups is hard at work hacking at Interac and their communist schemes i.e. non-profit status*.
Coming soon to a merchant near you ( if The Lobby has its way*), a debit transaction with a $2.00 fee or whatever the market will bear.

As usual, our vote and perhaps small contribution to a party pales in comparison to the power that those lobbies are wielding.

WW

* I'd have to take a look at something I linked some weeks ago for the details of their status.

** well that's what those millions paid by the consumers are doing, lobby for higher fees with our money.
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Nemo2
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Post by Nemo2 »

WishingWealth wrote:The VISA/MC lobby groups is hard at work hacking at Interac and their communist schemes i.e. non-profit status*.
Coming soon to a merchant near you ( if The Lobby has its way*), a debit transaction with a $2.00 fee or whatever the market will bear.
We don't/won't use debit cards either. :wink:
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Post by ghariton »

WishingWealth wrote:The VISA/MC lobby groups is hard at work hacking at Interac and their communist schemes i.e. non-profit status*.
Coming soon to a merchant near you ( if The Lobby has its way*), a debit transaction with a $2.00 fee or whatever the market will bear.

As usual, our vote and perhaps small contribution to a party pales in comparison to the power that those lobbies are wielding.
My bet is that, if they try, they won't be able to make a $2 charge stick for debit cards. I think that there is enough competition out there to bring charges back down to zero or near-zero.

Things are different for credit cards. Banks can give us freebies because many of us carry a balance and because the credit card companies can go to merchyants and say: "Look at the large number of cardholders I'm bringing. You should pay me for access to them."

But as noted above, the merchants are fighting back and want lower charges. That means customers per se will be less valuable to the credit card companies, and so they will give fewer freebies to keep them (us).

My takeaway: Those who are willing to shop around will continue to get pretty good deals. Those who can't be bothered, will pay through the nose.

It was ever thus...

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Bylo Selhi
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Post by Bylo Selhi »

Nemo2 wrote:We don't/won't use debit cards either. :wink:
Have you looked at what D+H charges for blank cheques these days? The per-cheque cost is almost as much as a debit card transaction fee.

As for using cash, we have folks ranging from KHS and BM to terrorists and fraudsters to blame for the decline of cash transactions as well as for the demise of larger bills like the G-note.
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Nemo2
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Post by Nemo2 »

Bylo Selhi wrote:
Nemo2 wrote:We don't/won't use debit cards either. :wink:
Have you looked at what D+H charges for blank cheques these days? The per-cheque cost is almost as much as a debit card transaction fee.

As for using cash, we have folks ranging from KHS and BM to terrorists and fraudsters to blame for the decline of cash transactions as well as for the demise of larger bills like the G-note.
We pay our bills online, I give my late wife's mother cheques for her birthday and Xmas, and that's about it...............basically we're not 'spenders', and if we have to call into our local Canada Trust and withdraw a couple hundred once in a while, so be it.
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izzy
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Post by izzy »

Bylo Selhi wrote:
Nemo2 wrote:We don't/won't use debit cards either. :wink:
Have you looked at what D+H charges for blank cheques these days? The per-cheque cost is almost as much as a debit card transaction fee.

.
Of course you can print your own--my local Credit Union is now doing so,less flashy but cheaper,as they get into it the quality and choice is bound to improve too!I don't think it will be long before charities start printing them to raise funds in addition to selling the usual X-mas cards.
D and H could be pricing themselves out of the market!
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Post by beluga »

Some pretty scathing analysis of CPPIB's recent performance:

http://pensionpulse.blogspot.com/2009/0 ... y2009.html
These comments should be read by everyone who is concerned about the shenanigans going on with gaming private market benchmarks at most of the large Canadian public pension funds.
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Post by George$ »

New York Times book review
School for Scoundrels By PAUL KRUGMAN

in reference to these two books

THE MYTH OF THE RATIONAL MARKET

A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street.By Justin Fox

By 382 pp. Harper Business/HarperCollins Publishers. $27.99


THE SAGES

Warren Buffett, George Soros, Paul Volcker, and the Maelstrom of Markets

By Charles R. Morris

199 pp. PublicAffairs. $23.95
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Norbert Schlenker
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Post by Norbert Schlenker »

A very interesting paper at http://idei.fr/doc/conf/jjl/papers/71gabaix.pdf
...In the current paper, we derive conditions under which this competitive price cutting and educational advertising will actually not arise in equilibrium. Educational advertising will not arise when either (i) sophisticated consumers have inexpensive substitutes for overpriced add-ons (Propositions 2 and 11) or (ii) naive consumers drop out of the market altogether when the true cost, inclusive of add-ons, is revealed to them (Proposition 3). When these conditions apply, firms will not able to profitably attract naive consumers by teaching them about shrouded high-priced attributes. Since, the second reason is straightforward, we focus most of our analysis on the first one.

We show that when inexpensive add-on substitutes exist, “educated” consumers paradoxically prefer to give their business to firms with high add-on prices because these consumers end up with an implicit cross-subsidy from the naive customers at those firms (cf Della Vigna and Malmendier 2003, 2004). Educating consumers won’t be a profitable competitive strategy. Advertising (efficient) marginal cost pricing won’t attract consumers...
It's hard to believe that either Vanguard or ishares exist.
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Post by Shakespeare »

It's hard to believe that either Vanguard or ishares exist.
And the posters on this board are figments of our own imaginations, running in ever-decreasing circles. :wink:
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Post by BRIAN5000 »

Shakespeare wrote:
It's hard to believe that either Vanguard or ishares exist.
And the posters on this board are figments of our own imaginations, running in ever-decreasing circles. :wink:
People just don't care ! They would rather pay someone 1% plus a 2 % Mer then work on there finances themselves if they have any to work on.
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Post by George$ »

Interesting read from Jack Gray
Rethinking Investment Beliefs in a Time of Crisis: The Calming Hand of Philosophy

Three insights from philosophy are helpful in this time of financial and economic
crisis.

First, philosophy is designed to inspire a state of calm, meditative reflection.

Second, only during crises are personal, political, and investment beliefs seriously
tested.

Third, philosophical beliefs underpin much of the debate about the crisis
and its solutions.

These are, in turn, underpinned by personal beliefs about society,
politics, ethics, and human behaviour. Exposing some of these hidden paradigms
gives investors an opportunity to test, adapt or even abandon their investment
beliefs.

All of this supports the Tao-like challenge that to be useful, investment
beliefs must be flexible and firmly held at the same time.
“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” Albert Einstein
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Norbert Schlenker
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Post by Norbert Schlenker »

In my inbox today from CFA Institute was an indirect pointer to this 88 page PDF on life cycle saving and investing. This is basically the proceedings of a conference on the subject held about a year ago. Bodie and Siegel (Laurence, not Jeremy) ran the show, which had numerous leading lights speaking on topical subjects.

Unlike many CFAI publications, I didn't need to login to grab this one. Maybe it's free for now, maybe it's free for good, I don't know. I do know that there's a lot worth reading.
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Post by peter »

Norbert's link doesn't work for me because of the cookieset part. This seems to work: http://www.cfapubs.org/doi/pdf/10.2470/rf.v2009.n4
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Post by Gus »

The Economist has an article comparing the ways the big economies raise taxes.

There were a few surprises, for me, at least:

*Canada raises more tax than any of the BRIC economies, in absolute terms.
*The US raises a bigger proportion of its tax revenue through personal income taxes than almost any other country. If income taxes are a more progressive system of taxation than, say, consumption taxes, then the US has arguably the most progressive taxation system of all.
*European countries raise proportionally less money by taxing corporate income than Australia, Canada, USA, Japan or South Korea do.

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