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One fallout of the Greek debt crisis is lower interest costs in the United States.
Mortgage rates? So many investors are piling out of the euro and into US Treasuries that interest rates are falling. the average rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has fallen to 4.83 percent, its lowest level since November 2009, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
New car loans? interest rates fell in March after hitting a peak in February, according to the Federal Reserve.
Credit card rates? They’ve declined for five weeks running, according to CreditCards.com.
And the Federal Reserve is likely to lengthen the period it keeps interest rates exceptionally low because of the uncertainty caused by the euro crisis.
According to Fed minutes released Wednesday: “Nearly all members judged that it was appropriate to reiterate the expectation that economic conditions … were likely to warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period.”
And that consensus, reached in late April, “was before the recent escalation of the fiscal crisis in Europe, which forced the Fed to reopen its liquidity swap lines with the ECB [European Central Bank], the plunge in equity prices, the news of a slump in core inflation to a 44-year low in April, and a 20 percent decline in oil prices,” points out Paul Dales, a Toronto-based economist at Capital Economics, in a written analysis.
“It is clear that US rates will be on hold at near-zero for some considerable time, perhaps even until 2012,” he writes.
That should give buyers of homes, cars, and other consumer goods some time to take advantage of low interest rates.

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Euro debt panic will have deflationary impact on US

Fallout from Greek debt crisis: low interest rates in US

April was financial literacy month. did you learn anything?

The anecdotal evidence doesn’t look good. Americans are falling deeper into debt, and they are increasingly waiting too long to seek help, said David Jones, president of the Assn. of Independent Consumer Credit Counseling Agencies.

He ought to know. His group, based in Fairfax, Va., represents nonprofit credit counseling companies that provide free and low-cost consumer credit counseling, debt management and financial education services nationwide, and he said it was inundated with calls for help.

People calling in recent months typically are so deeply in debt that only a fraction can budget their way out of bankruptcy. A year ago, he estimates, less than 10% of credit counseling clients ended up in bankruptcy. Today, he said, it’s closer to 30%.

Statistics provided by the court system underscore the point. Nationally, bankruptcy filings have more than doubled since 2006 and are heading back into the record territory not seen since 2005, when the nation’s bankruptcy laws were overhauled.

“Even though the economy is getting better, people go into denial about their own situation,” Jones said. “We end up able to help fewer people because they’re coming to us in worse shape.”

How close are you to the financial edge? to help you find out, here’s a 10-question multiple-choice quiz, developed with some guidance from the National Foundation for Consumer Credit and Clearpoint Financial Solutions.

1. The amount I have socked away in savings to handle emergencies could pay all of my living expenses for up to: A) three months; B) six months; C) 8 months or more; D) about an hour and a half, if I cut back.

2. my spouse and I fight about money: A) frequently; B) sometimes; C) never; D) through court-appointed lawyers.

3. Payments on my consumer debts — auto loans, student loans, credit cards and home equity lines of credit — amount to less than: A) about 20% of take-home pay; B) 15% of take-home pay; C) 10% or less of take-home pay; D) considerably more than 20% of my monthly paychecks.

How close are you to the financial edge? Take this quiz

These days there are many ways through which you can shop for your credit card. Many reputed credit card companies sell these cards through their telemarketing service, where one can get all the information.

The best way though is searching for a new credit card, online. but make sure that you are aware of the vast differences between the cards. most of the credit cards look alike. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they offer similar services. the differences can be very costly over the years you will use your card.

To avail the best credit card is not all that complicated and doesn’t take too much time at all. the efforts put towards the search of the best one is well worth in the long run. A card has to fit the specified need of a customer and this is the quality, which makes it different and better from another one. some cards come with a zero introductory finance charge.

But once the grace period is over, these cards revert to very high rates. There are also some cards, which offer the introductory rate and offer a much lower rate after the initial rate expires.

People who enjoy great credit, they are offered outstanding offer that includes waiving organization fees and annual fees in addition to other benefits like waiving organization fees and annual fees in addition to other benefits such as product insurance, travel discounts etc. if your credit is less than perfect, you can expect to pay an organization fee and other charges that are added to project the company in the event you default.

The right credit card can be sought by taking a careful look at the charges, in either case. This is in fact the best way to find the right card.

One should also pay equal attention to the small print of the credit card even if you buy it online. This also applies for printing out the card terms. the good news is that even people with recent bankruptcies can also benefit from the best credit card offers. so go to several sites and look at the charges and add them up.

Doing this will help you to find a card that requires no deposit but will cost you $200 and $300 worth credit, keep looking. the reestablishment of your credit card is not easy as paying exorbitant fee, huge annual fee or credit in some cases credit.

Use our tools to compare and find the best credit card for you. thanks to http://www.credit-cards-4us.com/

Best Credit Cards – How to find the right One!

The business thinking business is ontogeny strongly and quickly. An initial field dynamical impact was the dominion oldness selection by the polity which crowd assets fund up incredibly. Financial planners are ofttimes wanted in gaining advice on how to equip in activity for withdrawal presented the requirement for direction is today mainly autarkical from polity contributions. When grouping do fling they also ofttimes requirement the skillfulness of business advisers.

Many individuals who hit initially chosen assorted professions hit thoughtful decent business thinking because of the opptiunities both in uncovering a employ and also the possibleness for a super remuneration erst they intend a job. PS146 / RG146 upbringing would be necessary for grouping making a modify of careers. these courses would generalized embellish in the modify of a Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning). the important players in this business are Kaplan, the International Institute of Technology (IIT), Finsea and PS 146.

The skills sets necessary to be a business individual includes an knowledge to colligate to people. People are ofttimes making a bounteous descion with their money and they module requirement to see that they crapper consortium a business planner. ASIC willing courses (PS146/RG14) allow skills upbringing and investigating for this reason. the fastidious planners also requirement to be healthy to see business relationships much as a between theoretical accumulation and a client’s information. PS146/RG146 requires students to see theoretical aggregation much as house accumulation requirements and administer them to clients’ circumstances. A business individual also needs to impact underway mart occurrences so as to colligate these backwards to a client’s aggregation so an pertinent selection crapper be prefabricated most where a computer should invest. the business recognizance discover of the USA’s Wall Street mart for happening module hit line on affects for clients which should be thoughtful by business advisers.

Professions that hit an inflection of theoretical communicating hit digit of the power sets required of business planners. Careers much as engineers, accountants and scientists would encounter the theoretical aspects of RG146 /PS146 upbringing rattling managble. There is a mathematical surroundings in the nationwide constituted Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) which typically contains most of the elements of ASIC deference but definitely the elements of PS146/RG146 necessary to embellish a business individual without the specialities much as managed investments, securities and shelter broking. the maths is not arduous in the instruction however; it examines much relationships as returns and investments or the turn of ordered that haw requirement to be paid. Engineers, whatever scientists and whatever academics ingest what strength be describes as arduous maths which does not administer to business thinking qualifications.

Professional that hit the power ordered of handling with grouping substantially also hit a enthusiastic nous move into the business thinking industry. Careers much as nurses, teachers, slope tellers and open relations officers would be healthy to administer their power sets in a rattling trenchant artefact in the business services industry. these skills would be adjuvant in fulfilling the RG146/PS146 courses which order a power categorization which crapper verify the modify of conducting an discourse or a persona play.

Career changes Into Financial Planning

by Sun News staff March 18, 2010, 10:35AM

THEFT, LARKFIELD DRIVE: An 85-year-old man who lives in the 14800 block said about $4,000 in cash and about $3,500 in jewelry were stolen March 3 from a bedroom after a “Hispanic” man came to the house, asking to look at the property line in the back yard, reports said.

it is assumed a second person entered the house during the distraction. But police said no one reported seeing a second person.

There was no additional description of the first suspect or of a suspicious car.

The incident occurred at about 1:15 p.m.

THEFT, MUSKINGUM BOULEVARD: An 86-year-old man who lives in the 15300 block said two men posing as “water department workers” stole about $10,000 in cash and $500 in jewelry from a bedroom dresser on March 7.

The homeowner described both suspects as white men, ages 30 to 40.

No descriptions of clothing, uniforms or a getaway car were provided.

The homeowner reported the incident to police one day after it occurred. No time of day was provided.

THEFT, GILMERE DRIVE: a 58-year-old woman who lives in the 6000 block said about $1,100 worth of jewelry turned up missing sometime between Feb. 8 and March 9.

The woman had been living in the house at the time.

ASSAULT, ENGLE ROAD: a girl said two girls and a boy assaulted her at about 9:25 p.m. March 8 in the 5900 block, near Snow and Glenway roads, and took a bag of clothing she carried.

ACCIDENT, BEREA FREEWAY: Two children, ages 3 and 4, of Cleveland, were treated at Southwest General Health Center, following a two-car accident on March 3, near Snow.

a 64-year-old Berea man who lives on Bryant Avenue also was treated at the hospital.

The Berea man was driving a Dodge Caravan that collided with a Dodge Ram carrying the two children and driven by a 35-year-old Cleveland man.

Police cited the Cleveland man for no assured-clear distance.

THEFT FROM AUTO, PIKE BOULEVARD: Someone on March 10 entered an unlocked Chevrolet Venture in the 16000 block and stole $30 in cash, plus credit cards and photography equipment owned by a 33-year-old woman who lives on Pike.

DRUNKEN DRIVING, SMITH ROAD: a Brook Park man who lives on Sandfield Drive was arrested shortly before 4 p.m. March 10 for drunken driving, having a suspended driver’s license, improperly having a firearm and endangering a child. a child was in the Chevrolet Impala that police said went through a red light on Smith, near Sylvia Road. in the car was a handgun, police reports say.

DRUNKEN DRIVING, SMITH ROAD: a 50-year-old Cleveland man was charged with drunken driving at 3:34 a.m. March 15 on Smith.

VANDALISM, SNOW ROAD: Someone on March 12 wrote graffiti at Car Wash Express, 14755 Snow.

VANDALISM, WESTBROOK DRIVE: Graffiti on a speed-limit sign and a no-parking sign was noticed March 13 on Westbrook. The graffiti wasn’t legible. it appeared to be made by a felt pen.

DRUG POSSESSION, BROOKPARK ROAD: Police on March 14 arrested a 29-year-old Lakewood man who was driving a car in which police found marijuana and prescription drugs. The car also had a photograph of a law enforcement emblem. for that emblem, police charged him with unlawful display of law enforcement emblem.

NUDITY, BROOKPARK ROAD: Police on March 13 cited a 26-year-old Medina woman for showing a nude breast at Amber’s Cabaret, 13311 Brookpark.

Police on March 13 also cited a 24-year-old Cleveland woman working at Amber’s for violating the city’s no-touch ordinance.

on March 10, police cited a 24-year-old Cleveland woman at Amber’s for violating the no-touch ordinance.

LEWD CONDUCT, BROOKPARK: on March 9, police cited a 19-year-old Independence woman at Amber’s Cabaret for violating the city’s no-touch ordinance.

About $7,500 in cash and jewelry allegedly stolen from a senior: Brook Park Police Blotter

March 11, 2010, 9:09 AM EST

(Adds share performance in the 11th paragraph.)

March 11 (Bloomberg) — Bank of America Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said the lender, the biggest in the U.S., can absorb losses on its $149 billion home-equity loan portfolio even after the four-year slump in housing prices.

“We’re comfortable that is not a huge issue for us,” Moynihan said yesterday at a new York investor conference. The business is “not pretty” and bad loans are elevated, “but it’s not a big issue for us in terms of write-downs,” said Moynihan, whose bank is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bank of America is rebuilding its brand after the company’s push for more sales left too many customers with products that didn’t work for them, Moynihan said. Defaults in 2009 caused the lender’s first annual loss for common shareholders in more than two decades. The bank said separately it’s curbing automatic overdraft fees that sometimes stuck customers with what Moynihan called a “$35 cup of coffee.”

Reviving profit depends in part on ending losses in the home lending unit, ranked second in the U.S. behind Wells Fargo & Co. Investors have speculated that all the bank’s home-equity holdings were impaired as prices plunged 28 percent from their July 2006 peak, and “that’s just not the case,” Moynihan said.

Moynihan, 50, said the bank held $43 billion of home-equity loans in which the debt exceeds the property’s value; of those borrowers, more than 80 percent are still making payments, he said. The bank is writing off home-equity loans at about $1.5 billion to $2 billion a quarter, he said.

“We feel relatively OK, it’s just not pretty,” Moynihan said. “We’re losing money on the home-equity business, and we will for a number of quarters.”

Barney Frank

House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank demanded this week that Bank of America and three more of the biggest lenders write down the value of more second mortgages to make it easier to restructure home loans. Banks should focus on permanent principal reductions to make payments sustainable, according to the Massachusetts Democrat.

“People don’t want to cut off their home-equity credit lines and are willing to pay,” said Richard Bove, an analyst at Rochdale Securities LLC, who has a “buy” rating on Bank of America. “Early-stage delinquencies on home-equity loans are coming down for the industry as a whole.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner praised Bank of America’s plan to prevent customers from spending more than they have in accounts linked to debit cards and avoid overdraft fees.

Geithner’s Remarks

“After years when we saw financial companies competing to exploit vulnerable borrowers, it is good to see banks competing to benefit their consumers,” Geithner said.

The bank rose 1.9 percent to $17.11 in yesterday’s new York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have more than tripled in 12 months.

Bank of America is focusing on operations after former CEO Kenneth D. Lewis spent more than $120 billion since 2004 to give the lender larger stakes in credit cards, home lending, stock brokerage and investment banking. much of the bank’s growth will come from overseas opportunities as it adds employees outside the U.S. through selective expansion, Moynihan said.

“All that stuff is done,” Moynihan said about the bank’s takeovers. “If we can’t do it from here, we’re not doing our jobs.”

–Editors: Rick Green, William Ahearn

To contact the reporter on this story: David Mildenberg in Charlotte at dmildenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alec D.B. McCabe in new York at amccabe@bloomberg.net; Rick Green in new York at rgreen18@bloomberg.net.

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BofA 'Comfortable' Bank Can Absorb Home-Equity Losses

Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. Designed to keep the software simpler but still effectively help users to manage their finances. Buddi is released a free opensource software released under GNU GPL license. Buddi will run on almost any computer which has a Java virtual machine installed. this can include Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux, and many other operating systems.

Install Buddi in openSUSE
To install Buddi in openSUSE, click this for Buddi from Packman. this YaST Metapackage is supported on openSUSE 11.0/10.3/10.2 & SuSE 10.1/10.0. Clicking the 1-click installer will download the YMP file and launch Yast Package Manager.

Click Next in the Buddi install welcom page. Click Next again in the installation summary page. Enter the password for root if you are not a admin user. this will let YaST to add the required repositories and download and install packages and dependencies for Buddi. Once installation is complete, click Finish.

This adds Buddi under “Applications – Office – Financial” as “Buddi”

Click Buddy to launch buddi. this will take you to the home (Accounts page). there are 3 tabs “My Accounts” , “My Budget“, “MyReports“. Based on the tab you are in, the edit menu option changes. for instance, when in the default My Accounts tab, edit menu allows you to create, modify different types of Accounts.

When in the “My Budgets” tab, it allows you to create, edit different budget categories and entries.

Run reports from the My Reports tab.

You can always edit your personal preferences from “Edit – Preference”

One of the features is the fact that Buddi has a nice plugin interface where addons written by author or 3rd parties to interface and provide addon features. to install a plugin, download the plugin from here and unzip it. Now, from Edit – Preferences, click Plugins tab, click Add. You may need to restart Buddi. here I add Dashboard plugin to provide realtim dashboard feature to buddi.

Click here to visit Buddi homepage

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Buddi – Personal Finance & Budgeting Program for openSUSE

Published: February 28, 2010

NEW PORT RICHEY – the Indianapolis 500. the Daytona 500. now comes the Florida Legislature 2010.

If legislation is compared to an auto race, then some proposals on a fast track might be ready to take the checkered flag soon after lawmakers gather Tuesday for the first day of the Legislature’s 2010 session.

State Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, has been guiding three of his bills toward speedy approval – changes to the Florida Public Service Commission, reverse mortgage safeguards and public employee collective bargaining.

First out of the legislative gate could be Senate Bill 1034, which would strengthen the ethical code for PSC officials and the top staff of the agency.

Fasano and state Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, have been hammering away on this topic since revelations last fall about cozy relationships between regulators and utility executives. the reform bill is ready to go Tuesday, the first day lawmakers gather. the Florida House version, HB 565, also is gathering steam.

“The senator intends to bring transparency and accountability” to the regulatory agency, Greg Giordano, Fasano’s chief legislative assistant, said.

Since the PSC functions as a quasi-judicial body, the changes would require the PSC members to follow rules similar to the code for judges, Giordano explained. It’s unacceptable for a judge to have private conversations with attorneys about an ongoing case, for instance. so changes would raise the threshold for PSC commissioners against what is known in legal circles as “ex parte” communication.

Another amendment would toughen penalties that could be imposed on utilities trying to curry the favor of PSC officials. If found guilty, the company could be liable to pay a fine of one-tenth of 1 percent of operating revenue, based on the most recent fiscal year.

“That’s a pretty good incentive for them not to engage in these activities,” Giordano said. Complaints would be heard first by the Florida Commission on Ethics.

Top PSC officials also would be barred for four years from taking a job with a utility regulated by the agency or lobbying on behalf of a utility they used to oversee.

Some senior citizens have been stung by reverse mortgages on their homes, which prompted Fasano’s S.B. 1532.

Reverse mortgages are loans designed for people ages 62 and older who have a significant amount of equity in their homes, Giordano said.

“My primary concern is that not one senior citizen be taken advantage of by an unscrupulous lender of reverse mortgages,” Fasano said about his bill.

“Reverse mortgages can be a very good product when sold by reputable lenders to properly educated borrowers,” Fasano added. “In the hands of unscrupulous people, it could be a nightmare for a borrower.”

A company offering reverse mortgages will be required to provide a list of five, federally authorized counseling agencies to a potential borrower, Giordano said. Fasano’s bill would require a certification of completion from a counseling class before the loan can be finalized.

Disclosure requirements would be toughened, Giordano said.

Fees would be capped at 2 percent of the value of the loan. some dishonest firms have imposed costly origination fees and other charges.

Collective bargaining

Senate Bill 610 has stirred some controversy among some unionized deputies, yet the measure is moving swiftly through committees.

If collective bargaining reaches an impasse, the proposal would declare sheriffs, tax collectors, property appraisers, supervisors of elections, and clerks of the circuit court as the “legislative body” for their respective employees.

Some Fraternal Order of Police state officials fear the bill could usurp the authority of Florida Public Employees Relations Commission in resolving disputes.

Pasco Sheriff Bob White and many other Florida sheriffs, however, expressed support for the bill during a Feb. 16 hearing in Tallahassee. they argue that contract disputes could wind up before county commissioners in some cases instead of the sheriff and other constitutional officers.

Carl Orth can be reached at (727) 815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

Legislation races toward finish line

(Adds details, quotes) by Laurence Norman DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- a key committee of U.K. lawmakers has urged the government to provide greater clarity on its debt-reduction plans, adding to the pressure on the treasury to step up its fiscal-consolidation efforts.

in its report published Wednesday, the Treasury Select Committee, which is made up of lawmakers from all major parties, said “it may be difficult for any current consolidation plan to command universal support.”

However, “it will therefore be very important to add greater detail and clarity to the plan sooner rather than later.”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has set a target of at least halving the deficit over the next four years and has said attempting to reduce the debt burden more quickly could upset the frgaile economic recovery.

The U.K. is expected to run a deficit of some 12.6% of gross domestic product in the current fiscal year, among the highest of any advanced economy. The opposition Conservative party has called for deeper and faster budgetary consolidation.

in their report, the lawmakers noted that most of the expert witnesses they had called up criticized Darling’s pre-budget report for not providing enough information on how the government would pare back the deficit.

The committee said that in the future, the treasury should provide more detailed estimates of departmental expenditure and said there is a case for the treasury to publish estimates of debt-interest-payment forecasts.

It also said the treasury should consider providing details on the downside risks to their deficit forecasts.

The chancellor refused to provide detailed breakdowns of departmental spending and debt-interest payments, citing the uncertainty about the economic outlook. The Conservatives said Darling was simply trying to avoid the political embarrassment of having to spell out the size of likely budget cuts.

Financial markets have grown more concerned about the U.K.’s fiscal situation in recent weeks, with government bond yields rising and the spread between U.K. borrowing costs and those of other major economies, like Germany, widening.

On Tuesday, Scott Mather, Pacific Investment Management co.’s head of global portfolio management, told Dow Jones Newswires that the U.K. faces an 80% chance of a credit-rating downgrade if its deficit-reduction plans remain as they are. Ratings agencies have warned the U.K. to step up its fiscal-tightening efforts.

However, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson on Wednesday hit back at the government, saying the chancellor’s debt-reduction plan was “bold” and “tough” and gave more detail about tax increases and spending cuts than most other governments’ plans.

The Treasury Select Committee, whose job is to monitor economic policy, also urged the government to “remain vigilant” to the possibility that the labor market could weaken further this year. The rise in the jobless level has so far proven less than expected in the recession.

The lawmakers urged the government to keep pressure on banks to maintain the flow of lending, and offered only qualified support for the tax on bankers’ bonuses Darling introduced in his pre-budget report.

“We…very much hope the payroll tax will be successful. However, there is skepticism about its effectiveness,” said committee chairman John McFall, a lawmaker from the governing Labour party.

UK Lawmakers Seek Clarity On Government Debt Reduction Plan