Savings and Debt

I believe that when you start to spend more then you make that is when you need to cut your credit cards, even if you haven't maxed out. In the article if the couple would have calculated all the charges they made to their credit card they may not be in this predicament. Many people get into debt by not calculating the costs of the items they buy. Majority of the time they keep charging it and saying "I'll be getting my check in a week." which can be true but they don't focus on the amount they are getting. Finance charges were put in so that the companies who technically loan you the money first will get something in return for their services. However if you fail to pay it off first time around the charges build up and you eventually pay more with your credit card then if you have paid with your money.

Majority of the American people are in debt so they can't afford to save money, their busy paying off bills. The rest who are not in debt don't see the point in saving their money which gets them the most 5% which isn't a lot, compared to buying real estate. In general not only in America is saving rates declining, in France, Britain, Italy, Germany, and Japan all dropped.

Critique of GDP Podcasthttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

1.) How strong is the content of the podcast? Does it thoroughly explain GDP? (Link to the original GDP podcast lesson.)
2.) How is the recording? Is it loud, clear, and listenable?
3.) How are the images? Do they contribute to and match the verbal content?
4.) How effective is the style of the podcast? Is it interesting and creative; or not?
5.) Did you learn anything from the podcast? Is it educational?

I've decided to use Ronald and Richard's Podcast, right from the beginning the podcast caught my attention and kept it by being original. Although I had knew the information that was being presented the fact that it was different made me pay attention. It explained it fairly, the podcast itself was a little bit short compared to all others. The podcast is loud for anyone to hear and it is very ear catching. The images do match the information presented but a little more pictures would be better. The podcats is very creative and interesting it catches the visitor's attention. The style is very original I haven't seen another podcast like it. I didn't really learn alot because I had already knew the information but it was good re-explaination.

US Trade deficit: getting better?

The New York Time article is talking about the us decreasing the trade deficit and coming closer to bridging the gap that they got themselves into. A trade deficit is when a country has more imports then exports which makes the country lose any profit it makes from exporting. The trade deficit is morel ikely to go down in the future because of the weaker value of the dollar. As the value of the dollar decreases more companies will produce products here and swell abroad. The country is selling products such as shovels, engines, cars, poles to foreign countries. By having the value of the dollar less then it use to allows production to take place in america and not overseas.

Critique of Federal Reserve Podcast

This review will be about Ritu and Franchesca's podcast. Overall, the descriptive details and solid choice of topics to focus on, improves the overall effectiveness of the podcast. Both Ritu and Franchesca spoke clearly and at such tone and speed that it was relaxing to obtain the information as well as understanding it. Although some images were repeated, majority of the images does assist the viewer in picturing all the information that was given. The pictures were not all in tune with the information, one example was the description of the banks which was actually the name of the school which is banks. Although I personally found the podcast topic of a MTV talk show to be a little corny, it does allow all the information to be given and have a good excuse to do so. However realistically MTV wouldn't be airing an interview about the federal reserve.
The viewers who do watch this podcast would more then likely learn some of the information given, although it was informative because there were so much information that it wasn't possible for them to remember all of the details. Some recommendations for the creators of the podcast, they need to choose whether or not their main intention is to be comedic or informative. By combining both type it not only decreases the effectiveness of the podcast but it also decreases the trust of the information given. Overall I believe that they were informative and come what humorous however they should take side on whether or not they want their podcast to be humorous or informative.

Compound Interest and the rule of 72

Compound Interest is when the amount of money you deposit or invest in a bank or institution gains interest. However you do not touch the money and the interest that was collected is then in turn calculated and increases the next interest amount. The rule of 72 is basically a formula that can tell you how long it would take to get a certain amount you are striving for, what percentage of interest you would need if you had a time limit and what is your outcome money when you calculate the interest rate and the time. Einstein said "The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest" the reason why I believe that Einstein chose to say that it is the most powerful force in the universe is because in general, if you have money your powerful. That is why he believed that compound interest is powerful because you leave your money alone and don't do anything and you gain money which is considered power in any language.

Insider Trading

What happened was people who worked for the company gets information that their stocks ae going down. Once they know that it will go down and they tell others about it, they would sell their stock and miss a loss of profit when the stock does go down. That is why its illegal and is insider trading. Information that shouldn't be given out but is, like the Martha Stewart case, she had insider information about a company that was going out of business and she sold her shares before it closed down.

Dow down 416 pts! - Why?

Two reasons why the stock market crashed yesterday, was 1st, the recent drop of the chinese stock market of 9% overnight, damaged the global economy. Also the 2nd reason is we've never had a dramatic loss since 9-11. Therefore the economy's been growing and not decreasing, and inorder to keep everything balanced the stocks must decrease maybe even by 416 points to get us back on track.