Jan 10
Austrian conservative Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Josef Pröll wants to nationalize Austria’s central bank completely. According to reports from Austrian state broadcaster ORF, Pröll offers the 30% private shareholders €50 million, a multiple for their €3.6 million in equity. Austria owns 70% of its Oesterreichische Nationalbank (OeNB), with the remainder held by banks, insurances and other privileged institutions under the system of Austria’s “social partnership.”Pröll made his comments after a high-level meeting of his party ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei).
The conservative led coalition from 2000 to 2003 looted more than half the gold reserves of the OeNB in order to present a phony zero deficit budget. As Pröll
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Jan 10
A lot of us have already heard that E*Trade has a lot to offer to investors, but today I’m going to take a look at E*Trade’s banking products. You can choose among checking and savings accounts, certificates of deposit, and various types of mortgages.
ETrade Bank: Complete Savings Account
If you need a high yield savings account (or what passes for one these days), then the benefits offered by E*Trade’s Complete Savings Account might appeal to you. Right now, the APY is 0.50% and there are no account fees or a required minimum balance for this account. If yo
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Jan 09
Credit card debt is one of the many foes consumers may face as they deal with budgeting and saving money, though a recent report shows that their debt fell in November.
According to the Federal Reserve System, the total amount of consumer credit fell at an annual rate of 8.5 percent in November, which translates to a total of $17.5 billion. That furthers a trend that has seen total consumer credit dropping since the fourth quarter of 2008.
Both revolving and nonrevolving credit decreased during the month, though the former made the more significant decline in percentage. Read more…
Jan 09
American Express is promoting a new charge card called the AmEx Premier Rewards Gold Card, which is different from their other Gold/Gold Rewards/Platinum/Precious Metal cards.
Since this is the new card being pushed, it has the best sign-up incentives for new cardholders:
* Earn 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 15,000 frequent flier miles in a number of programs (or 10 Southwest credits), or you can simply get $150 in gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, or Macy’s. I
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Jan 09
The selling of personal finance is overseen by many serious rules and regulations and of late most have been reformed in order to make sure the individual is buying safely. Within the market that deals with personal insurance policies (another field of personal finance that tends to be very complex) in depth reviews saw the need for serious revisions with regard to the selling of such insurance.
At least once during our lives every one of us should participate in a part from the world of personal finance. The area includes such a colossal range of policies and offers that it is difficult to cover them all without going into a great deal of long and taxing pages.
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Jan 09
Now that 2010 is here, it is time for me to start thinking about purchasing my tax software for 2009. I have been using TaxCut for the last decade (God I am old!), but it looks like the product name has changed to H&R Block at Home. A horrible name – but then what kind of branding creativity can you really expect from a tax accounting corporation?
But then I don’t buy the software for the name, I buy it for its functionality and price. Years of purchasing the software has taught me to pay attention to the calendar, sales, and rebates. Read more…