In a strictly mathematical sense, no. Or rather, it depends what 'long run' means.  Say today the home average is $200K, and payment is $900/mo. The $900 today happens to be about 20% of the median US monthly income (which is approximately $54,000/yr). Housing rises 4%/yr, income 3%/yr. In 100 years (long enough?) the house costs $10M but incomes are 'only' $1.03M/yr, and the mortgage, even at the same rate is $45K/month, or, to be clear, it rose to 52% of monthly income.  My observation is that, long term, the median home costs what 25% of median income will support, in terms of the mortgage after downpayment. Long term. That means that if you graph this, you'll see trends above and below the long term line. You'll see a 25 year bubble form starting in the late 80's as rates dropped from near 18% to the Sub-4% in the early 00s. But once you normalize it to percent of income to pay the loan, much of the bubble is flattened out. At 18%, $1500/mo bought you a $100K mortgage, but at 3.5%, it bought $335K. This is in absolute dollars, wages also rose during that time. I am just clarifying how rates distort the long term trends and create the short term anomalies.


"Place your savings into safe interest-bearing accounts. Take out the loans.  Keep constant track of your net worth. Having 100,000$ and 80,000$ in interest free debt is better than having 20,000$.  You can always convert money + debt into less money and less debt, but you cannot always convert less money and less debt into more money and more debt. Now, there are risks; that is why you want an interest-bearing account to place your savings in to offset the debt.  This minimizes the risk.  It also reduces the return. It is arguable that you should be at your most financially risky at a young age.  I'd argue that your future earnings are your by far largest asset at this point, and as a high school student going into college those future earnings have extremely high variability. Your financial situation is extremely unpredictable; being conservative about your high-leverage student-loan + education investments is probably justified.  The fact you can manage arbitrage here means you should; and if you are careful, you can eliminate risk and get almost risk-free profit from the maneuver. If your money is in less than perfectly safe accounts, you are now doing leveraged investing and magnifying the risk and return of said investments. If your money must be spent on college or you'll be financially punished, then you may want to consider pulling it out before the last possible legal point just in case something goes wrong. Apparently 529 plans may not treat ""paying off student loans"" as a valid way to spend the money.  You may need to talk to a lawyer or accountant about the legality of using these plans to pay off student loans, and the tax/penalties involved."


The stock market is just like any other market, but stocks are bought and sold here. Just like you buy and sell your electronics at the electronics market, this is a place where buyers and sellers come together to buy and sell shares or stocks or equity, no matter what you call it. What are these shares?  A share is nothing but a portion of ownership of a company. Suppose a company has 100 shares issued to it, and you were sold 10 out of those, it literally means you are a 10% owner of the company. Why do companies sell shares? Companies sell shares to grow or expand. Suppose a business is manufacturing or producing and selling goods or services that are high in demand, the owners would want to take advantage of it and increase the production of his goods or services. And in order to increase production he would need money to buy land or equipment or labor, etc. Now either he could go get a loan by pledging something, or he could partner with someone who could give him money in exchange for some portion of the ownership of the company. This way, the owner gets the money to expand his business and make more profit, and the lender gets a portion of profit every time the company makes some. Now if the owner decides to sell shares rather than getting a loan, that's when the stock market comes into the picture. Why would a person want to trade stocks? First of all, please remember that stocks were never meant to be traded. You always invest in stocks. What's the difference? Trading is short term and investing is long term, in very simple language. It's the greed of humans which led to this concept of trading stocks. A person should only buy stocks if he believes in the business the company is doing and sees the potential of growth. Back to the question: a person would want to buy stocks of the company because: How does a stock market help society? Look around you for the answer to this question. Let me give you a start and I wish everyone reading this post to add at least one point to the answer. Corporations in general allow many people come together and invest in a business without fear that their investment will cause them undue liability - because shareholders are ultimately not liable for the actions of a corporation. The cornerstone North American case of how corporations add value is by allowing many investors to have put money towards the railroads that were built across America and Canada. For The stock market in particular, by making it easier to trade shares of a company once the company sells them, the number of people able to conveniently invest grows exponentially. This means that someone can buy shares in a company without needing to knock door to door in 5 years trying to find someone to sell to. Participating in the stock market creates 'liquidity', which is essentially the ease with which stocks are converted into cash. High liquidity reduces risk overall, and it means that those who want risk [because high risk often creates high reward] can buy shares, and those who want low risk [because say they are retiring and don't have a risk appetite anymore] can sell shares.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-22/wall-street-banks-warn-winter-is-coming-as-business-cycle-peaks) reduced by 87%. (I'm a bot) ***** > HSBC Holdings Plc, Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley see mounting evidence that global markets are in the last stage of their rallies before a downturn in the business cycle.  > Analysts at the Wall Street behemoths cite signals including the breakdown of long-standing relationships between stocks, bonds and commodities as well as investors ignoring valuation fundamentals and data.  > Citigroup analysts also say markets are on the cusp of entering a late-cycle peak before a recession that pushes stocks and bonds into a bear market.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6vkwv3/the_next_recession_is_nigh_how_are_you_lads/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~197088 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **market**^#1 **stock**^#2 **investors**^#3 **equity**^#4 **U.S.**^#5"


Yeah.  I agree about that last sentence.  It was silly but I was too lazy to edit it.  *Note that I'm not saying his representations of and predictions about Obama's policies are accurate*  I agree with you on that point as well.  I don't know how my familiarity with Obama's policies stack up with his and if either of us truly know the big picture.  I had to put the thought down to see how everyone else felt.  We can't argue that it's been, in the least, a good opportunity for discussion.  My other thought was the gumption he had to even throw this out there.  On some level he thinks he has a grip on how things will play out insomuch that he predicts the future if Obama was reelected.


I don't know; at 75k per year I can't travel for weeks at a time.  If I were making significantly more money to allow me to travel weeks at a time, I'm pretty sure I'd be happier.  I'd also bet I'm not the only one.


"This is actually a fairly hard question to answer well as much of the currency trading that is done in financial markets is actually done directly with banks and other financial institutions instead of on a centralized market and the banks are understandably not always excited to part with information on how exactly they do their business.  Other methods of currency exchange have much, much less volume though so it is important to understand the trading through markets as best as possible. Some banks do give information on how much is traded so surveys can give a reasonable indication of relative volume by currency.  Note the U.S. Dollar  is by far the largest volume of currency traded partially because people often covert one currency to another in the markets by trading ""through"" the Dollar.  Wikipedia has a good explanation and a nicely formatted table of information as well."


If you ever own a home (which sounds doubtful), or your parents sell their home after 20 years of ownership,  you will appreciate those capital gains taxes.   They don't just apply to the rich.     Now go,  shoo, scram.... back to your dorm room, you filthy college freshman.


I see some merit in the other answers, which are all based on the snowball method. However, I would like to present an alternative approach which would be the optimal way in case you have perfect self-control. (Given your amount of debt, most likely you currently do not have perfect self-control, but we will come to that.) The first step is to think about what the minimum amount of emergency funds are that you need and to compare this number with your credit card limit. If your limits are such that your credit cards can still cover potential emergency expenses, use all of the 4000$ to repay the debt on the loan with the higher interest rate. Some answer wrote that Others may disagree as it is more efficient to pay down the 26%er. However, if you pay it all of within the year the difference only comes to $260. This is bad advice because you will probably not pay back the loan within one year. Where would you miraculously obtain 20 000$ for that? Thus, paying back the higher interest loan will save you more money than just 260$. Next, follow @Chris 's advice and refinance your debt under a lower rate. This is much more impactful than choosing the right loan to repay. Make sure to consult with different banks to get the best rate. Reducing your interest rate has utmost priority! From your accumulated debt we can probably infer that you do not have perfect self-control and will be able to minimize your spending/maximize your debt repayments. Thus, you need to incentivize yourself to follow such behavior. A powerful way to do this is to have a family member or very close friend monitor your purchase and saving behavior. If you cannot control yourself, someone else must. It should rather be a a person you trust than the banks you owe money.


"Ive got a lengthy reply for you, but I forgot to hit send. Anyway...  Honest question without entrapment. Do you really believe this ""anti science"" rhetoric? You must see that a good bit of that comes from a liberal media pushing an agenda. What has he actually done that is oppositional to science?  As a data point the largest hit to NIH funding came during the Obama years. Granted they cleverly hid it in sequestration so they weren't left holding the bag, but they also didn't spend considerable political capital defending it. Not exactly a pro science move in any pragmatic sense.  NASA funding increased 800 million. NSF is up 100 million. Collectively agencies are up 14 million from 2015. Data here  https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/fedfunds/2015/html/FFS2015_DST_003.html  Ultimately you have to admit the rapid expansion of entitlements lobbied for by democrats will necessarily create budgetary pressure on non defense spending. The assumption being that budgets of grant agencies is the primary mechanism by which government exerts control over science."


"From what I understand, they basically hold on to your money while you stop paying your debt.  They keep it in an account and negotiate on your behalf. The longer you go without paying, the less the debt collector is willing to take and at some point, they will settle.  So they take the money you've been putting into their ""account"" and pay it down.  Repeat the process for all your accounts. I basically did this, without using a service. I had $17,000 on one card and they bumped the interest rate to 29%, and I had lost my job. I didn't pay it for 7 months.  I just planned on filing bankruptcy.  They finally called me up and said, if you can pay $250 a month, until it's paid off, we will drop the interest to 0% and forgive all your late fees. I did that, and five years later it was paid off. Similar situation happened on my other cards.  It seems once they realize you can't pay, is when they're willing to give you a break.  It'd be nice they just never jacked up your rate to 30% though. So, forget the service, just do it yourself.  Call them up and ask, and if they don't budge, don't pay it. Of course your credit will be shot.  But I'm back in the 700s, so anything is possible over time."


"Wikipedia talks about the Chinese currency: Scholarly studies suggest that the yuan is undervalued on the basis of purchasing power parity analysis. so despite it appearing cheaper due to the official exchange rate, the price in China might actually be fair. There are also restrictions on foreign exchange (purportedly ""to prevent inflows of hot money""), which, in concert with any other legal obstacles to owning or trading on the Chinese exchange, may also explain why the high-frequency traders aren't tripping over each other to arbitrage away the difference."


It's self evident that you're shrieking and not making a salient point? I agree. No one said shit about apprenticeships. This is about formal secondary education which is not required by 5 states (as I said) to take the bar. I don't think I'm the one that can't read.   It's also fucking hilarious that you're accusing me of having no reading comprehension skills when you pulled out the 90% number like it was so sort of revelation when I'd already mentioned it in my original comment. Kinda pathetic if we're being honest.


Not much at all, especially an introductory level Microeconomics class. There are a few reasons for this: That's not to say that Economics isn't worth studying. I loved both my Micro and Macro class. But I probably got more useful investing knowledge from a class on linear regression.


Why would it not make more sense to invest in a handful of these   heavyweights instead of also having to carry the weight of the other   450 (some of which are mostly just baggage)? First, a cap-weighted index fund will invest more heavily in larger cap companies, so the 'baggage' you speak of does take up a smaller percentage of the portfolio's value (not that cap always equates to better performance). There are also equal-weighted index funds where each company in the index is given equal weight in the portfolio. If you could accurately pick winners and losers, then of course you could beat index funds, but on average they've performed well enough that there's little incentive for the average investor to look elsewhere.  A handful of stocks opens you up to more risk, an Enron in your handful would be pretty devastating if it comprised a large percentage of your portfolio. Additionally, since you pay a fee on each transaction ($5 in your example), you have to out-perform a low-fee index fund significantly, or be investing a very large amount of money to come out ahead. You get diversification and low-fees with an index fund.


From PayPal's website: PayPal offers discounted transaction rates for 501(c)(3) charities for   most products, and consistently low rates for all other nonprofits. No   extra fees for setup, statements, withdrawals or cancellation.   2.2% + $0.30 per transaction and no monthly fee for charities. There is a reduced rate if the donations total more than $100,000 (which they would for Wikipedia), but PayPal doesn't publish those rates. You have to call and ask about them. One forum I read indicates the rate drops to 1.9% + $0.30 per transaction.


The bottom line is to keep most of your money in accounts with no check privileges and to not give the account numbers for these accounts to anyone. Keep just enough in your checking account for the checks you are going to write.


Stop acting like a petulant 1L.   If you can't find consideration in a wedding contract then you can't read. The hotel will provide wedding services and leased space in exchange for money and certain promises. There you go, consideration.   This isn't a 1st ammendment issue, and it sure as shit isn't a consideration issue. It *might* be a liquidated damages issues,  maybe indefinite.


I am sure favoritism has a role to play in promotions - I don't know if the MIT research controlled for like-ability. The point to the research though I think is that when managers see someone show up at work and stay for the full day that creates the illusion that someone is productive, regardless of what they might actually be doing.


Buffet doesn't strike me as the kind of man who leaves himself vulnerable to technological changes, especially ones that are a part of a greater whole he's acknowledged as imminent. To think that self driving cars are coming, but self driving tractor trailers are not, is foolish. Buffet isn't a foolish man. If/when Tesla Semis take over, Buffet will still find a way to profit from the change.


I would also check into whether you can keep using your credit card instead of switching to a debit card tied to your checking account.  The credit card provides you protection from someone wiping your account out.  Most banks will help you get the money back if this happens while using a debit card.  But you are out the money while the bank figures out who is wrong.  In the credit cards case none of your money is actually taken from your account while you dispute the charge. I also agree with the others that having all your money in one account is more difficult to keep real spending money separate from emergency fund money.


From my understanding all HSA accounts are going to be limited to 6 transfers a month.  Have you considered using a credit card you earn rewards on and then writing yourself a check out of the HSA at the end of the month?


This refers to the shape of the yield curve. The greater the spread, the steeper the yield curve (difference between short term rates and long term rates).   The shape of the yield curve has huge impacts on bank earnings, as they borrow short term (deposits) and lend long term (loans). The greater the spread the bigger their margins.


You lack of perspective shows you haven't educated your self on the topic either (see, I can ad hominem too).  Have you ever run a business?  The fact that on average 34 year olds are on min wage and not young kids says alot about our economy. Instead of punishing employers for their employees' bad life decisions to lead them to want a min wage job at 34, how about we create more jobs and stop outsourcing then to 3rd worlders over seas?


Interesting thing is, the refusal to engage in a raw deal has been observed down to the level of less developed primates between cucumbers and grapes.  This fact puts a lot of the political and economic narratives being shoved down our throats into perspective.


...and charge it back to the customer.  So, I'm confused.  Are the fines designed to discourage future transactions or simply there to provide a cost to the client?  I guess the fact that no bankers have gone to jail over this answers that question.


Check with the manufacturer of the name brand medication.  Most of them have programs to help people who need their medication but can not afford it.  They may be able to send you coupons for discounted or free medication.  You can go to a free clinic.  If your income is low enough the free clinic will provide medicine until you can get back on insurance.   You can do what alot of people who work hard and do not have insurance do and pay for it outof pocket.  You can talk to your doctor and see if there is an alternative to the expensive medicine that your insurance used to pay for. It may not be as effective or may have other side affects but many people are forced to go with these alternatives.   You situation is certianly unfortunate but also not terribly uncommon.  You probably also have recourse against the former employer but if they commited fraud, and faked your insurance there probably is not alot of money to recoup.  If it was a person who commited fraud then you may be able to get a judgement against them that would survive bankruptcy and the business but it will probably be at least 5 years before you can recoup anything possibly much longer and your attorney will probably not take it on contingency.


I am not required to hold any company stock. I also have an ESOP plan carrying a similar number of shares in company stock.  So if it were to be sold, what would the recommendation be to replace it? I can move the shares into any option shown, and have quite a few others.  Not dealing with any huge amounts, just a 4.5% contribution over three years (so far).


I use Ad block in Firefox and almost forget that a lot of websites have ads on them. I sometimes use Chrome and I always amazed at the number of ads on a website that I visit with Firefox and Ad block. I do have it turned off for Reddit because I like the cut of there jib.


I suppose that there should be some sort of adjustment for inflation in the capital gains. That way those who exploit the short term volatility of the market and make money investing in real estate will be treated differently than the grandma who has lived in her house for 30 years.   I guess that is why they call inflation the invisible tax.


>  > The state has never, over 30 years, followed standard practice and used an actuary to determine how much to put into the pension funds each year. The legislators just pulled numbers out of the air each year. As a result the pensions have never been properly funded. The benefits are rich but, according to the people on this panel the main issue is this under funding.  This is a half truth.  Mr. Ingram, CPS and others are just as at fault for letting politicians kick the can down the road.  In contract negotiations, they don't pressure the legislature to come up with the money and keeping those pension accounts funded.    The state passed a law in 1988 changing the length of time the state needed to cover its pension debt, expanding it to 40 years, and the Teachers Unions never cared as long as they got as large a promise as possible.  As long as the payment promises are large, they never cared about having the accounts funded.  > 2/3 of the teacher's pension hole is for people already retired. Changing benefits for current teachers will not help enough.  A good chunk of these teachers are retiring with 6 figure salaries that grow at 3% per annum.  It's insane, whether they are already retired or not.  The math is insane.


"Affinity fraud. You see, Madoff really didn't have to sell himself, people recommended him to their friends.  In a similar way, it's easy once a scammer reels in one sucker to keep him on the hook long enough to get 10 friends to invest as well.  I've written about Mortgage Acceleration scams, and the common thread is that they are first sold to friends, relatives, neighbors. People tell their fellow church goer about it and pretty soon people's belief just takes over as they want it to work.  Edit - the scam I referenced above was the ""Money Merge Account"" and its reincarnated ""Wealth Unlimited."" It claimed to use sophisticated software to enable one to pay their mortgage in less than half the time while not changing their budget. The sellers of the product weren't able to explain how it was supposed to work, since it was nonsense anyway. You were supposed to be able to borrow against a HELOC at a rate higher than your mortgage, yet come out ahead, enough to cut the time in half or less. The link I posted above leads to a spreadsheet I wrote in a weekend, which was better at the math than their software and free. It also linked to 66 pages of accumulated writing I did over a number of months starting in 2008. In the end, I never saw any prosecution over this scam, I suppose people were too embarrassed once they realized they wasted $3500.  How can I get scammed buying S&P ETFs through Schwab? Easy, I can't."


You sold all shares? The potential wash sale effect goes away after 30 days from the dividend date. Selling all shares of a stock where a wash existed effectively negates the wash and you can take the loss.


> Taxation is theft.  No, and [we've already gone down this road](https://www.reddit.com/r/economy/comments/6leb2o/missouri_republicans_lower_st_louis_minimum_wage/dju1jjp/).  Are you familiar with US history and the time they had the [Articles of Confederation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Articles_of_Confederation)?  I would be curious to know why you think it failed.


We're in our fifth year of business.  We never had a business plan and never took out a loan.  We started tiny, and grew to be small.  Many of our competitors have left the field, mostly due to debt and a local market that can be very hard to predict.  I like this guy's focus on entrepreneurship for low-income people.  For most of us, if you can start a business that ends up being a fairly decent-paying job for yourself and maybe a couple other people, that's good enough.  Jobs for average people are disappearing, but those with the dedication and discipline can scratch out an alright living running their own show.


If I was you I would not borrow from my 401K and shred the credit card offer.  Both are very risky ventures, and you are already in a situation that is risky.  Doing either will increase your risk significantly. I'd also consider selling the rental house.  You seem to be cutting very close on the numbers if you can't raise 17K in cash to refi the house.  What happens if you need a roof on the rental, and an HVAC in your current home?   My assumption is that you will not sell the home, okay I get it.  I would recommend either giving your tenant a better deal then the have now, or something very similar.  Having a good tenant is an asset.


"Re. question 2 If I buy 20 shares every year, how do I get proper IRR? ... (I would   have multiple purchase dates) Use the money-weighted return calculation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rate_of_return#Internal_rate_of_return  where t is the fraction of the time period and Ct is the cash flow at that time period. For the treatment of dividends, if they are reinvested then there should not be an external cash flow for the dividend.  They are included in the final value and the return is termed ""total return"".  If the dividends are taken in cash, the return based on the final value is ""net return"". The money-weighted return for question 2, with reinvested dividends, can be found by solving for r, the rate for the whole 431 day period, in the NPV summation. Now annualising And in Excel"


"CDS spreads have little to do with the already issued debt itself. CDS spreads broadcast ""riskiness"" for current and future market participants.  Since existing debt is constantly bought and sold, higher CDS spreads mean the existing debt becomes ever more illiquid. It means that those who do hold that debt cannot price it accurately as a result of said illiquidity and cannot sell it without taking a haircut.  It also means that new debt cannot be issued without the existing debt taking a haircut or being defaulted on because at least part of the new debt would ostensibly be used to pay off the old debt.   If shares are used to securitize debt than a fall in those shares puts into question the ability to fully service that debt. The collateral is the balance sheet of the debtor.   MF global doesn't issue their own currency. They cannot devalue their debt."


It says Amazon has no profits (or very low profits) but the value of the company is very high and growing because of the high revenue. All of the returns to investors are in the form of increased share price which isn't realized or taxed until the shares are sold. This isn't a loophole. Anybody can run a business where they spend most of their revenue on operating costs and run on very slim margins with the goal of growing the revenue.


The meaning was plenty clear and that's why I pointed out you're simply arguing [semantics](http://www.fallacyfiles.org/etymolog.html). No reasonable bystander would read that and instantly jumped from humans, which with context implied human *labor*, to slavery.   Disconnecting a word from context does not enhance meaning, it distorts it. And completely derails the point from something productive to useless.


I sell gas to gas stations. Your profit isn't much in gas, it's in the convenience store. So if you're going to do it, focus on your store. Here in the Midwest we have a brand of stations called Quicktrip - everyone loves these gas stations and will go out of their way if they need gas. Because they're very clean and the workers are friendly.  Don't build a branded station. Right now branded gas is cheaper than wholesale in a lot of markets, but that's not usually typical. It's better to have options and not be locked into a BP station where you can only buy their gas no matter the price. Additives are BS - it's a commodity.   Operating capital will be fairly high.  Roughly 7500/gal per truck at say 3.00 cents/gal is about $22,500. In a high traffic area you could be pulling 1 truck per day to keep supply full (this is an assumption based on what we sell to customers). Do some math and that's quite a bit of operating capital, can you finance that? We set credit limits on our customers, but they're not high (think 50-100k for small stations, which is only a couple truck loads).  I don't think it's a terrible business to be in - but I would almost rather own the trucks hauling gas to your station and charging on the gallon. Or on the supply side of the equation where gas is more profitable.


"I cannot stand TV commercials...   If you take a basic lesson on advertisement tactics, then you learn how humans are predisposed to certain things, and that these things are used by advertisements to manipulate human emotion and attention.  These ""things"" being:  * humor * catchyness/rhyming * repetition  * emotion * a ton of other ones(patriotism, testimonial, bandwagon, generalities, etc.)  Now, when you aren't consciously thinking about these things, its a non-issue. You might laugh at the commercial, or hum along to the song, whatever. But when you are consciously aware that these tactics are being used to manipulate you as a consumer... quite frankly, it just annoys the hell out of you. It's like having a dead pixel on your brand new LCD screen. When you don't notice it, all is well, when you see it; it cannot be unseen.  There is another thing that is becoming more prevalent in advertisements that I have not really seen addressed at all... how should I describe it....""Anti-Reality"". I think this is the most disconcerting aspect of them all.  When you read a comic book or watch a superhero movie, you see Superman flying around and it is just totally natural and acceptable. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, it is entertainment. But watch these commercials, *and pay attention*. You will see the most unrealistic, fantastical, embellished nonsense that you could ever imagine. Even in the most basic commercials for the most mundane product. The thing is, you will not even think twice about the absurdity of what you are watching until someone points it out to you.  For the average Joe who is watching 5 hours of TV a day, every day, literally watching tens of thousands of commercials a week, for years!.... I honestly question if they can distinguish that the absurd shit they see in commercials IS NOT REALITY."


"**1973 oil crisis**  The 1973 oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo occurred in response to United States' support for Israel during the Yom Kippur War. By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12 globally; US prices were significantly higher. The embargo caused an oil crisis, or ""shock"", with many short- and long-term effects on global politics and the global economy.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.27"


"The entire purpose of it. They already had an online store and presence and have a far superior network of DC's and shipping. Not to mention a huge network of actual ""brick and mortar"" stores. Walmart's DC's  and their ability to be extremely efficient in supplying their stores is next to none. Not to mention they can use the same DC's they already have to fill online orders which far exceed what Amazon has let alone any other company in the same field. Hell Meijer as a larger physical presence than most in the midwest/eastern side of the states. People also discount company's such as Menards which I am actually confused how why they have not expanded more than they have. I just feel like a lot of the ""Amazon is taking over the world"" is complete horse shit much like how Kmart was going to back in the day. Amazon stock is the single most inflated and bloated pile I have ever seen and it will catch up to them.   It made little to no real sense. They did not need Jet.com to push what they were trying to do with online orders."


"Wow!  Look at that job description:  > ■ Job: Sleeping  > ■ Location: Akihabara (3 min walk from station)  > ■ Qualifications: High school age to 30s  > ■ Compensation: 3,500 yen/hour  > ■ Hours: Weekdays 15:00-22:00, Weekend/holidays 12:00-22:00  At today's exchange rate, that's $44.48 / hour to sleep.  Sounds like my dream job.  Of course, you also have to be a pretty girl to qualify.  I'll just have to wait until they open up a ""sleep with a fat old guy"" boutique shop.  Then I'm moving to Japan."


While iPhone ushered a smartphone market it is really Android which got us hooked to the Internet. Android with all its usability issues was a mass market product that empowered the bottom of pyramid with a low cost device offering the same capabilities as an iPhone.


Roth IRAs divide your withdrawal into 3 categories: Contributions, Conversions, and Earnings. This is significant, because each have different tax consequences and the order of withdrawal is dictated by tax law. You can withdraw your contributions in less than 5 years for any reason (home buyer or not). You cannot withdraw your conversions or earnings without waiting 5 years unless you pay the 10% penalty.  The home buyer exemption is only after the 5 years are met. Further detail found on the motley fool: home purchase exemption, distributions, early withdrawals.


Thanks for your informed perspective on this.  >Twitter is a massive time suck to market on  I'm curious if you happen to know if bot presence on Twitter makes advertising on the service even less advantageous.  Do you think Instagram has a long term strategy to keep their users interacting with the service? What do you think will drive this over time? I work for a game development company (on the side) and we tend to get a lot more interactions with our posts on Instagram, but are suspicious of the actual benefit these interactions have from a marketing perspective by comparison.


keep working on it, a lot of people lose momentum. Start small, and buy as many products as you can and flip them. Start growing a profit, then eventually you'll start having enough for a store. To get funds, just get a job as a busser somewhere and work as many shifts as you can, you can make around 300- 400$ a week, save up for a few months.


"The point is that government controlled institutions could do the lending instead. Right now banks are able to lend and create money out of ""thin air"" by loaning more than they have. These banks make lots of money doing this. What if that money was used to lower taxes instead of line the pockets of old banking families?  It is not totally ludicrous"


"Federal tax refund is taxes you've overpaid. What you're saying is that this year you overpaid less than before. I don't understand why you see this is as a bad thing. Optimal situation is when you have no refunds and no taxes due on tax day, but it is really hard to get there. But the closer you can get - the better, which means that reducing your refund should be your goal. In any case, ""Federal Tax Refund"" is meaningless, what you need to look at is your actual taxes due. This is the number you should be working to reduce. Is it possible to shift the amounts on a W-2 (with correct adjustments) to tax all of your wages, instead of leaving some of it deducted pre-tax? Why would you want to pay more tax? If your goal is to have a refund (I.e.: it is your way of forcing yourself to save), then you need to recalculate the numbers and adjust your W4 taking the (pre-tax) FSA into account. If it is not the goal, then you should be looking at the total taxes owed, not the refund, and adjust your W4 so that your withholding would cover the taxes owed as closely as possible. And to answer your question, after all this - of course it is possible. But it is wrong, and will indeed likely to trigger an audit. You can write whatever you want on your tax return, but in the end of it, you sign under the penalty of perjury that what you filled is the correct information. Perjury is a Federal felony, and knowingly filing incorrect tax return is fraud (especially since your motive is to gain, even though you're not actually gaining anything). Fraudulent tax returns can be audited any time (no statute of limitations)."


As of now in 2016, is is safe to assume that mortgage rates would/should not get back to 10%? What would the rates be in future is speculation. It depends on quite a few things, overall economy, demand / supply, liquidity in market etc ... Chances are less that rates would show a dramatic rise in near future. Does this mean that one should always buy a house ONLy when mortgage rates are low? Is it worth the wait IF the rates are high right now? Nope. House purchase decision are not solely based on interest rates. There are quite a few other aspects to consider, the housing industry, your need, etc. Although interest rate do form one of the aspect to consider specially affordability of the EMI.  Is refinancing an option on the table, if I made a deal at a bad time when rates are high? This depends on the terms of current mortgage. Most would allow refinance, there may be penal charges breaking the current mortgage. Note refinance does not always mean that you would get a better rate. Many mortgages these days are on variable interest rates, this means that they can go down or go up. How can people afford 10% mortgage? Well if you buy a small cheaper [Less expensive] house you can afford a higher interest rate.


YES I have been there as a kid on field trips. I still have nostalgia just thinking of all the good times I had back in the 90s at Sea World. Shamu was my favorite animal, me and my mom got wet from the show and its one of the best memories I have as a kid. I still have the souvenirs somewhere in my garage.


Your maximum risk is 100%. If you buy the stock 15% off and your company goes bankrupt tomorrow, you've lost everything. It also sounds like you have foreign exchange risk. One can debate how much risk this is in terms of expected outcomes, but that was not your question. However, if you purchase the company stock and buy put options at the same time, you can lock in a sale price ahead of time and absolutely limit your risk. Depending on the amount of stock we're talking about, you can buy currency futures as well to hedge the exchange risk. You don't necessarily have to buy the break-even strikes, you can buy the ones that guarantee a positive return. These are probably fairly cheap.  Note that a lot of companies have policies that prohibit beneficiaries from shorting the company stocks, in which case you might not be able to hedge yourself with put options.


I will ask again since you are an expert in economy:  > Explain me why Bezos, a retail and technology guru would waste his time on WaPo, and old-fashion media? Is it to make money? Yes or no?  Yes, you reduce your tax bill if your profits go down due to a losing business. It's not debatable.


As per Wikipedia of right now, here are unemployment figures for Switzerland and surrounding countries: Liechtenstein, unfortunately, does not have a large job market, given its total population of about 37,000 people. And note that the German figure of 4.5% is the lowest it has been for decades - I'd expect this number to go up and the Swiss one to stay constant. Bottom line: you will have an easier time finding a job in Switzerland. (Plus all the other good points the other answers raised: great mountains, great chocolate, low taxes, clean streets etc.)


I mean, when the federal government can pull your bank charter and the FDIC can revoke your government insurance, it's not worth the benefit just to support some small town pot grower. It's likely to be this way until the federal government legalizes it or gives outright approval to the banks.


The standard approach is to reach an agreement and put it in writing. What you agree upon is up to you, but in the US if you want to avoid gift taxes larger loans need to be properly documented and must charge at least a certain minimal interest rate. (Or at least you must declare and be taxed upon that minimal income even if you don't actually charge it. Last I looked, the federal requirement was somewhere under 0.3%, so this isn't usually an issue. There may also be state rules.) When doing business with friends, treat it as business first, friendship second. Otherwise you risk losing both money and friendship. Regarding what rate to charge: That is something you two have to negotiate, based on how much the borrower needs the money, how much lending the money puts the lender at risk, how generous each is feeling, etc. Sorry, but there is no one-size-fits-all answer here. What I charge (or insist on paying to) my brother might be different from what I charge my cousin, or a co-worker, or best friend, or... If both parties think it's fair, it's fair. If you can't reach an agreement, of course, the loan doesn't happen.


Before you decide on moving into trading, whether you have experience or not, you need to sort out a couple of questions. How much do you really understand about the markets ?  How much money you have and what would be the maximum loss you may be able to take ?  What supporting Eco-system you have to help you in terms of trading i.e. hardware, software, research, connections who can provide you with solid information and sorts of it ? Are you really prepared to take on institutions who have billions to spend and take losses i.e. amounts which might break you will be peanuts for them ? I am assuming you are in US, so this website  may help you a bit, trading websites where you can open an account.  Even if you reply in affirmative to the above questions, you should still be wary about making money by trading. It is a field where even the best people have been smacked in the face without any mercy. And above all don't expect any person will take mercy on your hard earned cash. They will take you to the cleaners if they have to. There are some websites which allow you to participate in trading, not involving real money. Try that out and see where you get to ? That should give you some pointers on where you are headed.  And realize that it is human nature to assume, when you hear news that such and such trader make loads of money in such and such trades, trading is easy, unless you do it for yourself. The truth is such traders would be on their desk for 18-20 hours at a stretch, 6-7 days a week, without a life to make such money. And they have loads of support staff i.e. analysts, IT guys who makes it easier for them. Do you have such help ? If no, then look the other side.  But giving up without trying at all will be cowardly, but do it in limits which you can bear and not to get carried away when things are good.


Not really, but it's not hard though. If you have a gmail account though, go to the top where it says 'more', click it, then go down the pop-down list and click Reader. I think they give you instructions right there. Once you're set up you'll have notifications for new articles on all the sites you want to keep track of (assuming they do RSS, which most do). It's really handy.


You can depreciate equipment as a valid expense, even for a sole proprietorship.  The concept is simple, but the details are pretty complicated (and probably even more so given the added complexities of agricultural economics).  Definitely speak to an accountant who specializes in the field.


You sold a call, and have a risk if the stock rises.  You bought a put and gain when the stock drops. You, sir, have a synthetic short position.  It's Case 3 from your linked example: Suppose you own Long Stock and the company is going to report earnings   but you’re going on vacation. How can you hedge your position without   selling your stock? You can short the stock synthetically with   options! Short Stock = Short Call + Long Put They conclude with the net zero remark, because the premise was an existing long position. A long plus this synthetic short results in a neutral set of positions (and the author's ability to go on vacation not concerned about any movement in the stock.)


"If you are the type of person that gets drawn in to ""suspect"" offers, then it is conceivable that if you are not signing the services offered your credit would be improved as your long term credit strengthens and the number of new lines of credit are reduced. But if you just throw it all away anyway then it is unlikely to help improve your score.  But there is no direct impact on your credit score."


Yeah, the company has less than 18 months left before total collapse imo.  I wouldn't be surprised if it goes under around Christmas tbh.  Their suppliers no longer give merchandise on credit but the only reason I give the enterprise that much time is because they might have overstock from all their recently closed locations flooding the still-open ones, lol.  From wiki: >Since 2010, Sears has gone from more than 3,500 physical stores to 695 US stores.


"STUDY FINDS...  Just LOL. Let me guess, the group that suddenly had more money relative to their peers experienced a wealth effect?  Now see if you can find the logical flaw in applying that same math to an entire group rather than a subset of a group. These ""studies"" on basic income are so logically challenged it's hard not to laugh at these ignoramuses.  There have always been a large percentage of economists who actually suck at economics, but recently it seems the rest of the establishment has just taken to ignoring them rather than telling them that they are intellectual children, as they would in the past.  Where are the adults?  Now mod me into oblivion kids. Remember: don't respond. Just use that down arrow to silence anyone who says something that upsets you. It's the millennial way. LOL"


This is hyperbole that makes assumptions about engineering details that are easily addressed: Use a system analogous to marginal tax rates to solve this problem.  Have 0-tax cutoff values a few times larger than expected pension/retirement fund savings values for individuals.


LC WebPros is a famous name in IT sector,  which provides the amazingly great IT solutions service in all over the world. We develop the best multi-functional websites based on the latest technology platforms. We also provide a business card, digital marketing, search engine optimization, Social media marketing and many more services related to IT sector. Our employee synchronize needs with our clients to make a better digital force. We build products that vary based on the needs of the client.


I use and recommend barchart.com. Again you have to register but it's free. Although it's a US system it has a full listing of UK stocks and ETFs under International > London. The big advantage of barchart.com is that you can do advanced technical screening with Stochastics and RS, new highs and lows, moving averages etc. You're not stuck with just fundamentals, which in my opinion belong to a previous era. Even if you don't share that opinion you'd still find barchart.com useful for UK stocks.


"To understand the Twist, you need to understand what the Yield Curve is.  You must also understand that the price of debt is inverse to the interest rate. So when the price of bonds (or notes or bills) rises, that means the current price goes up, and the yield to maturity has gone down.  Currently (Early 2012) the short term rate is low, close to zero. The tools the fed uses, setting short term rates for one, is exhausted, as their current target is basically zero for this debt. But, my mortgage is based on 10yr rates, not 1 yr, or 30 day money. The next step in the fed's effort is to try to pull longer term rates down. By buying back 10 year notes in this quantity, the fed impacts the yield at that point on the curve. Buying (remember supply/demand) pushes the price up, and for debt, a higher price equates to lower yield. To raise the money to do this, they will sell short term debt. These two transactions effectively try to ""twist"" the curve to pull long term rates lower and push the economy."


Being from a working class background l found tipping repulsive but I can see benefits after seeing more and eating out with age but one thing still pisses me off: how unfair it is that breakfast and lunch servers get lesser tips while those overpriced dinner places get so much more tips for servers who work even less than the breakfast wait staff.


No, and that's my point. In the absence of totally cost-ineffective daily urine testing, it's not readily evident whether someone coming into work is high via marijuana, so they could operate machinery while impaired. On the other hand, being drunk has much more consistent physical symptoms and can be discovered before the person operates heavy machinery.  If you're talking about other drugs, like meth and heroin, the way those are handled now are with semi-frequent random drug tests. I work for a refining company and our operators are tested on an irregular basis several times a year.


> Finally, she found notice from PayPal that a new e-mail address had been successfully added to her account! As far as she can tell, nothing was stolen, and she's changed and increased security for all her passwords. What's really weird is that PayPal looked into it, and reported that the request to add the new address came from (or had been well spoofed to look that way) our ISP, and our address. PayPal could say to within a few seconds when it happened, and it was at a time when all the humans here were asleep. The cats disclaim any interest in the computers  Any hackers out there?  If this was the doings of the insurance company, how would they have done this?


##National Housing Act of 1934 The National Housing Act of 1934, Pub.L. 84–345, 48 Stat. 847, enacted June 28, 1934, also called the Capehart Act, was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).  The Act was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes during the Great Depression. Both the FHA and the FSLIC worked to create the backbone of the mortgage and home building industries, until the 1980s.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/economy/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.2


TravelGuysOnline is the largest online hotels and flight booking website in the United Kingdom. We also provide adventure tour and car hire service. If you want to cheap car hire for any destination, then you can search on our website and book your car at the cheapest rent. It is hard to convey the value of reputation and good service. However, with car hire, this comes in the form of quality cars that do not break down, 24/7 service and availability.


The difference is pretty important here- it's the difference between wage slavery and actual, literal chattel slavery. *Show me* an instance where that difference is minimized without the person doing so ignoring the horrors of people being owned and having their children treated as someone else's property being minimized. Exploiting people is the common root of modern suffering- owning them as we own animals is unthinkable. The world would be a MUCH better place if exploitation were similarly reviled, but we can see from our own instincts that we're at least not as horrified of wage slavery as we are of real, literal slavery.


It may also be that as the employment numbers don't count people who have left the workforce, full employment isn't really, because people are getting jobs who have been in the large group of uncounted 'not in workforce' people, so there is no upward pressure on wages - exactly as it would be if actual unemployment was much higher than the government claims.


"Many years ago, I worked on software that had to print the date, payee, and amounts on pre-printed checks.  Other than the MICR line (which had a particular placement with respect to the bottom edge and required a particular font in a particular point size), most aspects of the check layout and format were up to the particular check provider. Then there was a desire to start using optical character recognition to further automate check handling.  A standard came out, that most checks I see now seem to follow.  The standard dictated the exact dollar sign glyph to be printed to the left of the amount box.  This glyph was used by the OCR to locate the amount.  There were specific tolerances for where you could print/write the amount relative to that dollar sign.  There were also some requirements for the box containing the amount to have some clearance from the noisy backgrounds pre-printed on many checks.  But what font you used inside the amount box was, as far as I could tell, unspecified.  After all, customers could always hand-write the amount. Interestingly, the part of the check where you spell out the amount is known as the ""legal amount.""  If the amount in numerals and the amount in words don't match, the spelled version takes precedence, legally.  (The theory being that it's easier to doctor the numerals to change the apparent value of the check than it is to change the words.)  I always found it ironic that the layout standard to enable OCR standard was focused on reading the numerals rather than the legal amount.  OCR has come a long way since then, so I wouldn't be surprised if, nowadays, both amounts are read, even on hand-written checks. A little search shows that current (voluntary) standards are put out by the ANSI X9 group."


Since the 2 existing answers addressed the question as asked. Let me offer a warning. You have 10,000 options at $1. You've worked four years and the options are vested. The stock is worth $101 when you get a job offer (at another company) which you accept. So you put up $10k and buy the shares. At this moment, you put up $10K for stock worth $1.01M, a $1M profit and ordinary income.  You got out of the company just in time. For whatever reason, the stock drops to $21 and at tax time you realize the $1M gain was ordinary income, but now the $800k loss is a capital loss, limited to $3000/yr above capital gains. In other words you have $210k worth of stock but a tax bill on $1M.  This is not a contrived story, but a common one from the dotcon bubble. It's a warning that 'buy and hold' has the potential to blow up in your face, even if the shares you buy retain some value.


You don't pay any interest until a few weeks after you receive your statement, when the payment is due. Simply set up a direct debit with Halifax for the statement balance and they will take the correct amount (whatever you spent that month) from your bank account on the payment due date. Problem solved!


This will not happen anytime soon. Majority of businesses no matter how advanced automatization is will not be able to replace workforce. Automatization is ideal for major firms and big players who can cut costs and make more profit. For majority of population automatization is not a good thing. It's the best thing for those who can use this as a means to earn more profit. It will create even more inequality. Basic income will not be able to fix this problem because people will then become liability.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.mercatus.org/publications/build-nafta-further-integrate-north-american-market) reduced by 92%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Since NAFTA&#039;s passage, America&#039;s two-way trade with Canada and Mexico has more than tripled, with trilateral trade flows within NAFTA topping $1 trillion in 2011.  > Prior to NAFTA, Mexico imposed a 20 percent duty on US automobile exports compared to the 2.5 percent duty imposed on Mexican automobiles imported to the United States.  > NAFTA is a major reason why, despite other challenges, the three major North American economies have generally outperformed those of the European Union and Japan in the past two decades.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6hq364/build_on_nafta_to_further_integrate_the_north/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~146187 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **NAFTA**^#1 **Mexico**^#2 **States**^#3 **United**^#4 **Trade**^#5"


"A living wage =/= ""giving them everything""    I really don't think anyone disagrees with you that entry level positions result in lower wages than more advanced/skilled positions. I think the notion of this thread is more ""pay people enough to eat, have a roof over their head, and be able to afford transportation."" That's what I mean by livable wage."


If you aim to help the middle class (business) change the fact a middle class business pays 39.9% and a Fortune 500 pays 35%. Or supposed to pay that is. What waste is going to be found that adds up to the loss of hundreds of billions? You might as well say none when it comes down to it. Taxing apple 90% after 10 billion profit would help the economy. It would either force them to pay 40b extra in wages or give it to the government so they can hire people.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.technologyreview.com/s/608707/the-myth-of-the-skills-gap/) reduced by 95%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The basic strategy is to ask: what skills do employers demand, and do the employers that demand high skill levels have trouble hiring workers?  > The data imply that we should be careful about calling for more technical skills without specifying which skills we are talking about.  > Proponents of the skill-gap theory sometimes assert that the problem, if not a lack of STEM skills, is actually the result of a poor attitude or inadequate soft skills among younger workers.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6wpqgl/the_myth_of_the_skills_gap_all_the_dirt_youve/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~200316 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **skill**^#1 **work**^#2 **more**^#3 **hire**^#4 **demand**^#5"


Its $5000 to add a feature that no car in that price range has. If it was $5000 to add something like AC that most cars include standard, that would be one thing. Charging $5000 for something only ultra luxury models offer is another.


"So perhaps what people mean when they say ""bankrupt"" is that, if the government were any other group of citizens, it would be bankrupt.  Otherwise, we are left with the definition that the government can never be ""x"" if it says it isn't, which is a strange way to qualify a corporate body's acts."


Since we are talking about retirement accounts, I wouldn't worry too much about what your income will be in the next 10 years or so. I'd recommend basing your contributions primarily on what your likely income/tax bracket at or near retirement age will be compared to 25% today. I don't think that optimizing for the next three years will make a significant difference, given the uncertainty of the tax code as well as your income in the future. However, it may make a difference to your planning whether you are going to grad school for an M.D. compared to an MSW, however, as to what your expected income/tax bracket will be.


Hmm, others are hating on the article, but from my experience, there is truth there. Every single tiny company that's trying to hire you as a young coder will dangle the possibility of a massive upside later on - the founder/CEO believes that success is just around the corner, and a good one has the ability to charm everyone else into believing it, too. Alas, this is not a guarantee of success.  So I think if you're in that position - young coder trying to pick a job, or decide whether to stick with one - the advice is this: if you're not sure whether you know what you're doing, you probably don't, in which case look at the base odds (1 in 100 startups succeed, the rest crater) and act accordingly. If you *are* sure you know what you're doing, then more power to you.


Seconding u/AgentScreech, I would suggest to do some serious research and putting together a business plan before engaging in a venture like this. A bowling alley is not exactly an agile business, there are plenty of fixed costs.    You have to know exactly why the place is closing, and figure out a way to reverse the situation.         In addition to leverage you local community, you can also try to diversify the business model. Find new streams of income from products/services, change the place to engage new potential clients, etc.


Having an interview next week with a few companies, one of which is a bank as a financial analyst. Now the main job description is on detailed financial analyst, audit firm experience, 3 yr exp and review of customer/segment. Was it investment banking? Interview wise what I need to prepare for? I have prepared my project experiences and examples relevant to what they are finding for in power point. What else should I be prepared for?


We have custom software written in mostly C# for the long term strategies. Day trading is done on multiple platforms. Currently using ToS scripts for some futures and equities strategies to great success, and sierra charts for a few futures exclusively. I just moved into a position to work with day trading so I'm still learning more about the systems he uses


How is this not criminal? How is it possible that all the chief executive faces is a lost bonus?   You see poor people going to jail for stealing a trivial sum of money, yet these guys have done something hugely fraudulent on an international scale and are able to keep their jobs and their freedom.  How can this ever be fair or just?


"##Adidas: Early years and rivalry with Puma Puma SE and Adidas entered into a fierce and bitter business rivalry after the split. Indeed, the town of Herzogenaurach was divided on the issue, leading to the nickname ""the town of bent necks""—people looked down to see which shoes strangers wore. Even the town's two football clubs were divided: ASV Herzogenaurach club was supported by Adidas, while 1 FC Herzogenaurach endorsed Rudolf's footwear. When handymen were called to Rudolf's home, they would deliberately wear Adidas shoes. Rudolf would tell them to go to the basement and pick out a pair of free Pumas.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/business/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.2"


"There are two kinds of engagements in an IPO. The traditional kind where the Banks assume the risks of unsold shares. Money coming out of their pockets to hold shares no one wants. That is the main risk. No one buying the stock that the bank is holding.  Secondly, there is a ""best efforts"" engagement. This means that bank will put forth its best effort to sell the shares, but will not be on the hook if any don't sell. This is used for small cap / risky companies.  Source: Author/investment banker"


"How physically fit & what age are your coworkers? How does it affect how much you like the workplace environment?   I'm 24 and not even ""athletic"" in build. A lot of the traders on my floor are ~50, have families, and are frankly fat, if not obese. They're great people, but the thought of looking like them one day is a profound turnoff."


FASFA financial aid formulas determine 'expected family contribution'.  For example my alma mater now has a 'list price of over $65k/year.  The average student today actually pays $42k/year after grants.  Students with rich parents pay more than that.  Students with poor parents pay less than that.  Lets say list prices for my kids colleges average $110k/year while they are in school.  If we 'only' make $200k then based on our income alone, EFC would start in the low $50ks per year.  If we have $1M saved in taxable accounts, 529s, rental properties, etc, then we also have to pay 5.64% of the value of those every year for the eight years my kids will be attending - an *extra* $56.4k/year every year for 8 years.  If that $1M is in assets that don't count such as retirement accounts and equity in primary residence, then it doesn't increase the price my kids are billed.  That's a pretty big incentive to put everything I can in home equity, Roth IRA, Spousal Roth IRA, traditional 401k, after-tax 401k, and HSA.  If I could afford to save more I'd switch from traditional to Roth 401k and pre-pay retirement taxes at a higher marginal rate rather than have the savings on the side subjected to the college wealth/income taxes which are effectively a much higher difference between the 25% (now) and 15% (later) federal tax brackets.  Profile and consensus formulas have slightly different percentages and count some home equity if you have an expensive house, but the general idea is the same.


"If you dig deeper and look at the original study, what's being measured is ""retirement-plan participation"": specifically, money in 401(k) plans and IRAs.  This omits every other possible source of retirement money: things such as general savings, non-retirement investments, property ownership, pensions, etc. As an extreme example, I know someone who's retired with property worth a million dollars, another million dollars in stock, a pension providing thousands of dollars a month plus health insurance, and not one penny of what the study would consider ""retirement savings"". Yes, the average American family is under-prepared for retirement.  But it's nowhere near as bad as the article makes it sound."


Houston water damage  --Triton Renovation has been the authority on Conroe water damage for over a decade. With their team of experts, they have the ability to handle any renovation or repair you would need whether it be commercial or residential.


"It's mine, dude. And it has resonated.  You know what I'm angry about? Watching smart people I know -- friends, even -- be duped and fucked over by their VCs. I have personally known quite a few ""famous"" startup founders and watched them get dicked around and have their companies destroyed. They don't blog about it. Why? They're scared. Or they're under NDA.   Obviously my blog post seemed totally worth reading to the nearly 500 people who tweeted it (and founders who reached out to me privately), so let's just say that a few angry redditors won't exactly keep me up at night.   This is what resonance looks like: http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Funicornfree.com%2F2011%2Ffuck-glory-startups-are-one-long-con%2F"


With the current models, yes.  With the upcoming low-cost Tesla it would be a real boon to people who drive constantly, especially for taxis, transplant delivery companies, city-to-city messenger services, etc.  Tesla needs to be very careful and perhaps exclude commercial vehicles/commercial use or they may wind up paying for repairs for a lot of taxicabs.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20171013-the-surprising-damage-smart-workers-can-cause) reduced by 89%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Overqualified workers can develop negative attitudes, such as a sense of entitlement about their skills or resentment through boredom, that can ripple out to every cubicle in an office, warns Berrin Erdogan, a professor of management at Portland State University.  > A study conducted earlier this year by researchers at the Florida Atlantic University showed that younger workers tended to be those who believe they are more talented than the position they have and often felt frustrated and disillusioned at work.  > A recent study by Erdogan and Hong Deng, an associate professor at Durham University&#039;s Business School, identified certain personality traits among overqualified workers that are crucial to help them fit cohesively into any workplace.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/778f41/the_suprising_damage_smart_workers_can_cause_if/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~230722 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **overqualified**^#1 **work**^#2 **employee**^#3 **job**^#4 **lead**^#5"


Long term gains are taxed at 15% maximum.  Losses, up to the $3K/yr you cited, can offset ordinary income, so 25% or higher, depending on your income. Better to take the loss that way. With my usual disclaimer: Do not let the tax tail wag the investing dog.


Have you ever used a proper e-reader (not an iPad)?. The screens are generally e-ink, which pretty much just looks like paper behind a matte screen. There's no backlight, no eyestrain, and you quickly forget you're not reading a real book. It honestly just looks and feels like reading a real book.   The Kindle lets you 'lend' ebooks to a friends account. I'm not sure about other ereaders, but in either case it's absolutely trivial to strip the DRM and loan a friend a book anyway. Reselling is obviously still an issue that many feel strongly about, and I'm not sure this will change.  Because of the passive screen, I can get through several novels (over a couple of weeks) before needing to plug my kindle into the charger for a whopping 30 minutes to fill it back up. Unlike a smartphone there's no battery anxiety, because it lasts so long.   That said, I completely understand wanting the tactile book reading experience and having a bookshelf of books. It's not for everybody, but if you're an avid reader and you haven't used an ereader before I'd recommend at least trying one out in a store.


"It seems like this was a ""stock for stock"" transaction. That is, your company was acquired, not for cash, but for the stock of Company X in a deal that your company's board of directors ""signed off"" on.  Your company no longer exists, and that's why your stock was cancelled. The acquirer will be sending you an equivalent amount of stock in their Company, X. You don't need to worry about taxes, only accounting, because this is a ""non-cash"" transaction. What this means that your cost basis in the stock of Company X will be what you paid for the original company's stock (not its value on the day of the merger, which may be higher or lower than what you paid)."


It's a power of stereotypes. Software industry is among top priorities of Belarusian economic development and the share of this sector in the national export makes up to 3%. The universities are offering excellent opportunities for those students interested in IT and Belarus has some projects that are recognized worldwide: Viber, World of Tanks, MSQRD and MAP.ME.


Lol you moron. Chip and pin significantly reduced physical retailer fraud when we introduced it in Europe (a decade ago? 15 years?) - a signature is absurdly easy to fake and retailers have little to no way of protecting against it.


Advans Industry Company Limited is a very trustworthy company that engaged in offering the long lasting Pvc mesh tarp. If you want to know about our fabrics and Vinyl woven placemat then you can browse our website and can have a look at our collection.


At MyBusinessOnlinePortal.com, Andrew Barnes sets out in a short and succinct introduction his no-nonsense ethos for professional, ethical home business. Followed by a sentence or two on his select choice of top opportunities, the page is framed with all his networking and contact info. His tagline is - Ready to share 8+ years experience to help all succeed. you would do much worse than to take him up on his offer.


I would check to see what the fee schedule is on your previous employer's 401k. Depending on how it was setup, the quarterly/annual maintenance fee may be lower/higher than your current employer. Another reason to rollover/not-rollover is that selection of funds available is better than the other plan. And of course always consider rolling over your old plan into a standard custodial rollover IRA where the management company gives you a selection of investment options. At least look at the fees and expense ratios of your prior employer's plan and see if anything reaches a threshold of what you consider actionable and worth your time. Note: removed reference to self directed IRA as vehicle is more complicated account type allowing for more than just stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Not for your typical retail investor.


To answer your question, plugins aren't cross-platform, so if you need Bloomberg or other third-party vendor data feeds, you're probably out of luck.  Now, for the rant:  Hot keys, hot keys, hot keys. Using Excel on a Mac is like working with your fingers glued together if you use Windows Excel all day at work.  I have a windows laptop at home just for Bloomberg + Excel. If you make money using Excel, you need to consider at least getting VMWare Fusion or Parallels and running windows on your Mac.  Once you are decent in Excel, you'll hate the lack of page up/down and home/end keys on your Mac, as I do with mine. The Fn+Ctrl+Left/Down/Up/Left just isn't the same.


Your dividend should show up in one of a few methods: (1) Cash in your trading account (2) A check mailed to you (3) A deposit to a linked bank account (4) As additional new shares in the stock, as the result of a DRIP setup.


If you're looking for an alternative, HSBC also has an online only savings account that used to be called HSBC Direct, but is now called HSBC Advance. They offer high interest savings (currently 1.1%) with no minimum balance, CDs and give you an ATM card. I've been a satisfied customer for a few years. https://www.us.hsbc.com/1/2/1?code=MIW0000431


Yes you should take in the expenses being incurred by the mutual fund. This  lists down the fees charged by the mutual fund and where expenses can be found in the annual statement of the fund. To calculate fees and expenses. As you might expect, fees and expenses vary from fund to fund. A fund with high costs must perform better than a low-cost fund to generate the same returns for you. Even small differences in fees can translate into large differences in returns over time. You don't pay expenses, so the money is taken from the assets of the fund. So you pay it indirectly. If the expenses are huge, that may point to something i.e. fund managers are enjoying at your expense, money is being used somewhere else rather than being paid as dividends. If the expenses are used in the growth of the fund, that is a positive sign. Else you can expect the fund to be downgraded or upgraded by the credit rating agencies, depending on how the credit rating agencies see the expenses of the fund and other factors. Generally comparison should be done with funds invested in the same sectors, same distribution of assets so that you have a homogeneous comparison to make. Else it would be unwise to compare between a fund invested in oil companies and other in computers. Yes the economy is inter twined, but that is not how a comparison should be done.


Each country would have to go back to its own currency, or the rich countries would just kick the poor ones out of the EU.  It would be bad for the poor countries, and the global economy would suffer, but it really wouldn't be a big deal.


It's too bad the mods at /r/aviation have such thin skins.   One comment one of them doesn't like and you are toast.  Same thing with /r/cars.  *Reddit* sucks in just a few ways.  Mods are my beef.   Too powerful.  No appeals or challenges mechanism or user representation advocates. You are forced to be your own lawyer which Abe Lincoln said was a fool's game.  Censorship will prevail over free speech.  If you ran a business this way, customers would go to the competition.


"Yeah, that's all I could really think while I read this.  ""This sucks I'm going to have to actually pay full price to have things delivered overnight.  Why can't the post office keeps sending stuff for less than it costs to ship?"""


"I like how it said at the very end of the article ""the SEC declined to comment on if it was going to investigate"". Shouldn't the answer be an automatic ""yes"" since they are the ones tasked with investigating insider trading.   This situation is extremely disheartening and concerning."


Jason I think your doing a great thing.  Based on what your describing I would look further into a 501(c)(3). Chapter 3 from the IRS Publication 557 offers information. This Wikipedia gives a quick understanding of 501(c)(3) and how to apply.  Here is a great article from ehow it has some suggestions for someone who is just starting out. Maybe going through an organization already existing within your community might be a better, perhaps a church or some religious organization.


Let's base teacher performance off of student value added growth scores!  Surely nothing bad will happen when we create incentivize teachers to make sure that student performance continuously rises.   I mean, Campbell's law is just a load of horseshit, right?  It's not like these policies led to widespread test cheating in Atlanta and Washington, DC, and several other cities.   In all seriousness, look at what happened in Washington, DC.  Student performance was used as the metric by which the district meted out both the carrot and the stick: the $160k paycheck or dismissal.  103 schools out of 200 or so were found to have statistical indicators of cheating, in some schools nearly 100% of tested classrooms were found to have wrong-to-right erasures in statistically aberrant levels.  This wasn't found out until years after these test scores were used to evaluate a whole crop of teachers. Suppose you were the teacher whose children had previously been scored by cheating teachers or administrators.  The model used to evaluate you expects that these children will see test score growth of *x* percent each year. If you don't cheat, you will get fired.  If you do cheat, you become eligible to get a shitton of money.  All that aside, the debate shouldn't even be about using student performance to evaluate teachers.  The debate shouldn't be about who gets laid off.  The debate should be about how we prevent teachers from getting laid off.


True.  What really triggered it was anti-competetive practices that harmed consumers.  In the current administration and appointments, with their pro-business stances, I don't see anything actually being done about it.      It's also arguable that Wamart no longer has enough retail market share to meet the bar for action, even under other administrations.


One estimate is to sell today, estimate the taxes, and determine how much cash you need to set aside over the next 12 months. The is no way to calculate what impact dividends and capital gains the funds will have, because unlike interest they aren't guaranteed. The other complexity is that the funds themselves could drop in value. In that case the dividends and capital gains may not even be enough to get you back to even. I use mutual funds to invest over the long term, with the idea of spending the funds over decades. When needing to save for a short term goal, I use banking products. They are guaranteed not to lose value, and the interest changes are slowerand thus easier to predict.


"Which just demonstrates even further the fact that entities like the Federal Reserve, and the various Federal government all too often have ""unexpected"" and detrimental results -- converse to what they are purported to achieve.  Per example the whole ""everyone should go to college"" meme -- was supposed to:  1. INCREASE people's employability. 2. IMPROVE their financial status. 3. BOOST the overall economy.  Unfortunately (but for many\*... not all that surprisingly), it has achieve the OPPOSITE in each of those cases.  So of course... the mainstream policy makers insist that what is really needed is... even MORE of the same.  \*Those who reject the mainstream neo-Keynesian garbage."


"Yeah, that's pretty much propaganda.  I am of the ""fuck Mitt Romney"" persuasion, but you're reciting campaign ad ""factoids"" described by the very factchecker associated with the article under discussion as "" misleading, unfair and untrue, from the use of “corporate raider” to its examples of alleged outsourcing"" ""on just about every level""."


Bill was the founder of Microsoft, so he did indeed have a large number of shares as the company was growing exponentially.  He has previously donated a large share of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, so his fortune would be even greater were it not for the philanthropy.  He is still a large holder of Microsoft stock at about $12B according to your link, but it wouldn't be wise to hold his entire fortune in one company, so he has diversified.   You can see that his investment portfolio at Cascade includes ~$28B in Televisa and ~$7B in Berkshire Hathaway. http://www.tickerspy.com/pro/Bill-Gates---Cascade-Investment And you can keep track of whether he stays at the top by watching the bloomberg billionaires list. http://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/


"So, once you own a business, you're 100% excused from treating people like, well, people, because hey, that's business?  You no longer need to have any allegiance or loyalty to your fellow Americans because hey, that's business?  No wonder people on Wall Street have no problem in gambling away million and billions and treating their customers like prey animals instead of people to provide a service to.  Fuck you, I'm a businessman, that justifies me doing anything anywhere for any circumstances, as long as I say, ""That's business!"""


Shinmaywa submersible pumps Submersible pumps play an important role in making sure water doesn’t pool in a home’s basement or is transported to the proper location throughout a building. Sta-Rite pumps are used in both residential and commercial construction and they have some very important features that make them popular among contractors today.


We understand that not everyone enjoys viewing advertising. We view advertising on TV (not actually opted in for), on billboards, etc. All I'm mearly doing is correcting your comments that A. It's illegal and B. You have never agreed to such service. If you use Android KitKat 4.4 or above then you can receive these nearby notifications. You can dismiss a single notification or turn the feature off altogether. As a coffee shop owner, I believe this to be mostly useful to customers


What is the question? Are you just trying to confirm that for self-employed, a Solo 401(k) is flexible, and a great tool to level out your tax rates? Sure. A W2 employee can turn on and off his 401(k) deduction any time, and bump the holding on each check as high as 75% in some cases. So in a tight stretch, I'd save to the match, but later on, top off the maximum for the year. To the points you listed - Your observation is interesting, but a bit long for what you seem to be asking. Keep in mind, there are 2 great features that you don't mention - a Roth Solo 401(k) flavor which offers even more flexibility for variable income, and loan provisions, up to $50,000 available to borrow from the account. My fellow blogger The Financial Buff offered an article Solo 401k Providers and Their Scope of Services that did a great job addressing this.


You are making an assumption that may not be true: Unbeknownst to me, some apartment debt I paid had already been sold to a collections agency before I actually paid it. Typically debts are sold to a Debt Buyer, whereas a Collection Agency works on commission to collect debts on behalf of the creditor. If your debt was actually sold, you should have been notified in writing of this fact, and who the new creditor was. I suspect your debt was not sold, because if it was the apartment complex would not have been legally allowed to cash your check when you finally paid them. Therefore, it is most likely that the collection agency was working on commission, and the apartment complex never informed them that you had settled your debt. As for what to do about it, here are 3 options, ordered by likelihood of success: Good luck, and if you don't mind, please update us later on what you did and what the result was. Your experience will be helpful for others having this issue in the future.


"I took a chance on a 2015 Volt after swearing off American cars back in the 90's. It's a great car. The reason I took the chance was that the Volt was a project that was supposed to ""save GM"" back when American auto makers were about to go under a while back. They poured a ton of R&D money into it, and it paid off. I'm very satisfied with mine."


"The other answer has mentioned ""factual resident"", and you have raised the existence of a U.S./Canada tax treaty in your comment, and provided a link to a page about determining residency. I'd like to highlight part of the first link: You are a factual resident of Canada for tax purposes if you keep   significant residential ties in Canada while living or travelling   outside the country. The term factual resident means that, although you left Canada, you   are still considered to be a resident of Canada for income tax   purposes. Notes If you have established ties in a country that Canada has a tax treaty   with and you are considered to be a resident of that country, but you   are otherwise a factual resident of Canada, meaning you maintain   significant residential ties with Canada, you may be considered a   deemed non-resident of Canada for tax purposes. [...] I'll emphasize that ""considered to be a resident of Canada for income tax purposes"" means you do need to file Canadian income tax returns. The Notes section does indicate the potential treaty exemption that you mentioned, but it is only a potential exemption. Note the emphasis (theirs, not mine) on the word ""may"" in the last paragraph above. Please don't assume ""may"" is necessarily favorable with respect to your situation. The other side of the ""may"" coin is ""may not"". The Determining your residency status page you mentioned in your comment says this: If you want the Canada Revenue Agency's opinion on your residency   status, complete either Form NR74, Determination of Residency Status   (Entering Canada) or Form NR73, Determination of Residency Status   (Leaving Canada), whichever applies, and send it to the International   and Ottawa Tax Services Office. To get the most accurate opinion,   provide as many details as possible on your form. So, given your ties to Canada, I would suggest that until and unless you have obtained an opinion from the Canada Revenue Agency on your tax status, you would be making a potentially unsafe assumption if you yourself elect not to file your Canadian income tax returns based on your own determination. You could end up liable for penalties and interest if you don't file while you are outside of Canada. Tax residency in Canada is not a simple topic. For instances, let's have a look at S5-F1-C1, Determining an Individual’s Residence Status. It's a long page, but here's one interesting piece:  1.44 The Courts have stated that holders of a United States Permanent Residence Card (otherwise referred to as a Green Card) are   considered to be resident in the United States for purposes of   paragraph 1 of the Residence article of the Canada-U.S. Tax   Convention. For further information, see the Federal Court of Appeal's   comments in Allchin v R, 2004 FCA 206, 2004 DTC 6468.   [...] ... whereas you are in the U.S. on a TN visa, intended to be temporary. So you wouldn't be exempt just on the basis of your visa and the existence of the treaty. The CRA would look at other circumstances. Consider the ""Centre of vital interests test"": Centre of vital interests test [...] “If the individual has a permanent home in both Contracting States, it   is necessary to look at the facts in order to ascertain with which of   the two States his personal and economic relations are closer. Thus,   regard will be had to his family and social relations, his   occupations, his political, cultural or other activities, his place of   business, the place from which he administers his property, etc. The   circumstances must be examined as a whole, but it is nevertheless   obvious that considerations based on the personal acts of the   individual must receive special attention. If a person who has a home   in one State sets up a second in the other State while retaining the   first, the fact that he retains the first in the environment where he   has always lived, where he has worked, and where he has his family and   possessions, can, together with other elements, go to demonstrate that   he has retained his centre of vital interests in the first State.” [emphasis on last sentence is mine] Anyway, I'm acquainted with somebody who left Canada for a few years to work abroad. They assumed that living in the other country for that length of time (>2 years) meant they were non-resident here and so did not have to file. Unfortunately, upon returning to Canada, the CRA deemed them to have been resident all that time based on significant ties maintained, and they subsequently owed many thousands of dollars in back taxes, penalties, and interest. If it were me in a similar situation, I would err on the side of caution and continue to file Canadian income taxes until I got a determination I could count on from the people that make the rules."


The big question is whether you will be flexible about when you'll get that house. The overall best investment (in terms of yielding a good risk/return ratio and requiring little effort) is a broad index fund (mutual or ETF), especially if you're contributing continuously and thereby take advantage of cost averaging. But the downside is that you have some volatility: during an economic downturn, your investment may be worth only half of what it's worth when the economy is booming. And of course it's very bad to have that happening just when you want to get your house. Then again, chances are that house prices will also go down in such times. If you want to avoid ever having to see the value of your investment go down, then you're pretty much stuck with things like your high-interest savings account (which sounds like a very good fit for your requirements.


Who has the throwaway? Does reddit take everything so serious that a throwaway is needed anytime something doesn't go along 100% with popular opinion? Shit, I wasn't even challenging that it's lower.  > The statistics may be rock solid,  Sure, just as any possible hypothesis I could come up, no? John Smith *might* have been right, and the smell coming from my kitchen *might* be the old tuna (I think it's the bananas, though).   Frailties may have been poor wording, but bear with me, it was a sarcastic comment on reddit - the amount of time I spent thinking about word choice was shorter than the amount of time I spent thinking about whether I wanted another cup of coffee (I did, I always do.)  Listen, the whole point of my comment was to be a sarcastic point out that Redditors (read: humans) shouldn't just take things for face value, just because it agrees with what you think. You should still always be diggin'.  It might be 40%, or might be 90%.   Although, personally, I like to be conservative with estimates, so I would have worded this entire title differently, or used 25% with this title, not 40%.  The article clearly says:  > 40% admitted they are generally *wary*  Sure, I'm wary that my second cup of coffee will give me the runs - but it doesn't hold me back.  And   > A quarter said they would rather hire a man to get around issues of maternity leave  So, 25% *might* avoid hiring them, not 40%. I thought 40% seemed a bit high... didn't think that many would put THAT much stock in that one 'metric' of potential hires.


I know this question has a lot of answers already, but I feel the answers are phrased either strongly against, or mildly for, co-signing. What it amounts down to is that this is a personal choice. You cannot receive reliable information as to whether or not co-signing this loan is a good move due to lack of information. The person involved is going to know the person they would be co-signing for, and the people on this site will only have their own personal preferences of experiences to draw from. You know if they are reliable, if they will be able to pay off the loan without need for the banks to come after you.  This site can offer general theories, but I think it should be kept in mind that this is wholly a personal decision for the person involved, and them alone to make based on the facts that they know and we do not.


A factor I've not heard anyone mention is the much cheaper airfare than existed in AC's heyday. There's no reason to go to AC when you can get a round-trip flight to Vegas for a couple hundred bucks. If you just want to gamble there are plenty of other options now as well.


I do know the business connection, but this article seems more political than business oriented. I'm just sick of the cesspool of anti-trump stuff on reddit leaking out of the typical subs.  Everything policy wise can have an affect on the business climate, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a business topic.


Lol, thanks for that.  All you are saying is that electric motors struggle at an arbitrary high speed.  All motors struggle at high speeds.  Just stating that electric motors aren't suited for speeds > 100 MPH  isn't convincing.  I think it's more of a trade-off between transmission design and top speed / acceleration.  You can get an electric car with top speed of 125 mph and world-class acceleration.  This car would blow a Camaro away.


Yes, depending on the timing.  You generally can make a tax-free withdrawal of contributions if you do it before the due date for filing your tax return for the year in which you made them. This means that even if you are under age 59½, the 10% additional tax may not apply. These distributions are explained in Pub. 590-A.  I believe any growth is subject to the 10% penalty: The 10% additional tax on distributions made before you    reach age 59½ does not apply to these tax-free withdrawals of your contributions. However, the distribution of interest or other income must be reported on Form 5329 and, unless the distribution qualifies as an exception to the age 59½ rule, it will be subject to this tax.


Without government intervention there's always people willing to buy to lower standards.  I'm not saying that we shouldn't have government intervention but airliners have some of the biggest government intervention so I don't think it is an example of a natural monopoly.


"This is most likely protecting Square's relationship with Visa/Mastercard/AMEX/etc. Credit card companies typically charge their customers a much higher interest rate with no grace period on cash advances (withdrawals made from an ATM using a credit card). If you use Square to generate something that looks like a ""merchandise transaction"" but instead just hand over a wad of banknotes, you're forcing the credit card company to apply their cheaper ""purchases"" interest rate on the transaction, plus award any applicable cashback offers†, etc. Square would absolutely profit off of this, but since it would result in less revenue for the partner credit card companies, that would quickly sour the relationship and could even result in them terminating their agreements with Square altogether. † This is the kind of activity they are trying to prevent:  1. Bill yourself $5,000 for ""merchandise"", but instead give yourself cash.  2. Earn 1.5% cashback ($75).  3. Use $4,925 of the cash and a $75 statement credit to pay your credit card statement.  4. Pocket the difference.  5. Repeat. Note, the fees involved probably negate any potential gain shown in this example, but I'm sure with enough creative thinking someone would figure out a way to game the system if it wasn't expressly forbidden in the terms of service"