Well-traveled asparagus…and the US in recession…
Markets were closed in the US yesterday. We didn’t bother to look at what happened outside the US.
We were tired. After traveling to China, Switzerland, England and France…we had run out of gas.
But yesterday, Memorial Day in the USA, gave us a time to fill up the tank.
First, we fired up the lawnmower. Then, we got the weed whacker working. Next, it was time to start the tractor, attach the bush-hog, and begin cutting the fields.
Each of these devices requires oil and gasoline. So, we thought again about how our standard of living depends on the black goo…about which, more below…
First, let us look again at the state of the economy; to make a long story short, the US is probably in recession again.
While we were traveling around the globe, the data continued to come in.
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Six out of 10 parents provide or have provided financial help to adult children who are no longer students, according to an online poll for ForbesWoman and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE).
The survey, conducted by Harris Interactive in May, quizzed 1,074 U.S. adults, including non-students aged 18 to 39 and their parents.
The ways parents help or have helped financially:
- Providing a place to live: 50%
- Helping with expenses: 48%
- Helping with transportation-related costs: 41%
- Helping with insurance coverage: 35%
- Giving spending money: 29%
- Paying for medical expenses: 28%
- Making emergency deposits made to their child(ren)’s checking/savings account: 19%
- Helping to pay back loans: 16%
- Paying credit card debt: 16%
- Helping with a down payment for a home: 7%
- Providing some other type of assistance: 6%
Many of those helped felt that life is financially tougher for their generation, and many parents agreed. B
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When I realized that I was hosting the 282nd Festival of Frugality this week, I decided to do a Memorial Days theme to honor all of those who have fought and died in service of our country.
Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day, was started after the Civil War. After World War I, it was extended to commemorate the fallen of all wars. From Wikipedia:
Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May. Formerly known as Decoration Day, which was first recorded to have been observed by Freedmen (freed enslaved southern blacks) in Charleston, South Carolina in 1865, at the Washington Race Course, to remember the fallen Union soldiers of the Civil War. Today, what is now known as Memorial Day, commemorates all U.S. Service Members who died while in military service.
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The nationwide craft supply chain Michael’s reports that some of its locations, including about half a dozen in North Carolina, may have credit card PIN pads that have been tampered with or otherwise altered in order to allow thieves to surreptitiously obtain the credit card information of store customers.
The company, which is headquartered in Texas, has nearly 1,000 stores scattered across the USA, so the prevalence of this problem may be widespread. Of course the tampered PIN pads (which are those electronic pads that you sign in a store in order to complete a credit card transaction) have been removed and quarantined and the authorities have been notified so that they can conduct a thorough investigation of the potential credit card fraud problem. In a statement from the company released recently it explained that more than 7,000 of its PIN pads have been removed from its North American stores, and the company also plans to replace all of the pads in all of its USA stores before the end of May. <
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A new market-leading mortgage makes fixing for the long term even more attractive!
I have long argued the case for five-year fixed rate mortgage deals, despite the temptations of the extraordinary low interest rates on offer from many variable deals. And for me, the case for a five-year fixed rate deal just became even more compelling.
Last week saw a new market-leading five-year fixed rate mortgage launched by Chelsea Building Society. The deal allows borrowers with a deposit of 25% to fix their rate at an extraordinary 3.99%, albeit with a punishing product fee of £1,995.
So why are five-year fixed rate mortgages an attractive option for some borrowers?
When I bought my house two years ago, I knew from the outset what sort of mortgage I wanted. A five-year fixed rate.