Jan 27
BRUSSELS – Investors participating in a deal to slash Greece’s massive debt would face an overall loss on their bond holdings of more than 70 percent, a person involved in with the negotiations said early Tuesday.
European leaders at a summit in Brussels said a final debt deal could be signed off in the coming days, together with a second multibillion-euro bailout package designed to save the country from a potentially disastrous bankruptcy.
Athens and representatives of investors holding Greek government bonds over the weekend came close to a final agreement designed to bring Greece’s debt down to a more manageable level. W
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Jan 25
The USD came off a six-week high against the euro in trading today, after news that Greece had once again failed to come to reach a debt swap deal with its creditors. Earlier in the day, the EUR/USD reached as high as 1.3231 before investors began selling off the pair. The AUD/USD also saw a substantial drop, falling well over 100 pips during the European trading session. The greenback failed to move up against the yen, as investors chose to keep their funds with the safe-haven Japanese currency.
Turning to tomorrow, dollar pairs are likely to be influenced by any announcements out of the euro-zone which may lead to further risk aversion.
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Jan 19
Adriano Dutra Teixeira, a Brazilian economist, sent us this photo from a restaurant. As he translates:
Social Responsibility: 50% discount on meal for clients over 70 or bariatric surgery (stomach reduction).
He adds:
I thought it was hilarious! So I wrote a blog post with a microeconomic approach to the promotion, using price discrimination.
I had to chuckle, in part because were finishing up a podcast about commitment devices, in which Levitt offers some bizarre alternatives to bariatric surgery (which we wrote about here), since it is such a drastic commitment.
Further thoughts:
- I wonder what proof, if any, the restaurant requires to prove bariatric surgery a doctors note?
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Jan 19
Banks that consider hitting customers with a new fee should take a hint from Bank of America, which revealed that the bank experienced a 20% increase in account closings after a (now-scrapped) debit card fee became the talk of the nation.
The consumer action that filled the last quarter of 2011 represented quite a hurdle for banks that tried to institute a new fees in a post-Durbin environment.
For Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), the headliner of the debit card fee debacle, plans for a $5 debit card fee led to higher rate of account closings.
“We saw an elevated level of account closings in the quarter elevated from last year fourth quarter, but frankly by, I’d said, about 20% versus last year fourth quarter 2010 to 2011,” said Bank of America chief executive Brian Moynihan during last week’s earnings call.
“Once we pulled [the debit card fee] back, we saw that mitigate,” he added. “So I’d say
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Jan 15
How much information do you give your kids about your finances?
Kids listen. We don’t always think they do, but they pick up on a lot. Getting out of debt has been a major conversation in our house recently, and our kids have had quite a bit to say about it. When we made the decision to get out of debt in 2012, we didn’t even think about what we should tell the kids. It quickly became obvious that the changes in our lifestyle were going to affect them, though – so we decided it was only fair to warn them what was coming.
We are trying to balance giving them enough information without worrying or overhwleming them. Our k
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Jan 13
ASTANA/AKTAU, Kazakhstan, Jan 16 () – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev described his victory in a weekend election as an endorsement of national unity after unrest by oil workers cast a shadow over a vote that Western monitors said had excluded any genuine opposition.
Two parties, both sympathetic to the president, will for the first time join Nazarbayev’s victorious Nur Otan in parliament after Sunday’s vote to add a veneer of democracy in the face of growing frustration over unequal distribution of oil wealth.
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