The State of New York accepted a $340 million payment from Standard Chartered bank to settle charges it laundered money for Iran.

This surprisingly big news has already been moved to “old news” in the financial press.

Here is why this is a big deal: first, the state of New York has almost a $1 billion budget shortfall this year.  A big payment of $340 million will definitely help fill part of that gap.

Second, it goes to show how impossible it is to monitor every single transaction and track every last cent even from countries under economic sanctions from the United States.

Third, is shows that — at least for now — leadership at this bank can do something incredibly wrong and pay a fee, only to live another day.  (I say at least for now because only the state of New York has settled.  The FBI, SEC, Federal Reserve, and many other government agencies have not, so they aren’t out of the clear yet.)

I never thought a state could solve part of its budget problem by settling charges from people who have done something wrong.  It’s brilliant (and also ticked off the other agencies that were likely still negotiating settlements of their own).

Unfortunately you and I probably can’t settle our budget problems this way, so here are some articles to help you do it the old fashioned way:

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Mitt Romney announced Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential candidate in the run for the White House this year.

The move is a savvy one — Paul is popular with the tea party, Romney is more mainline Republican.  It is sizing up to be quite the race and as always, quite the nasty one with Super PACs spending millions of dollars on misleading advertising.

There is one guaranteed winner this fall: media outlets like radio stations and TV networks.  They’ll bring in a ton of revenue this year thanks to the election.

Not running a media outlet but still want to get ahead financially this fall?  Here are some articles to help you on your way:

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The Olympics kicked off on Friday night with great fanfare.

Thousands of spectators, teams, and athletes have flown across the pond to compete and witness the games at great financial cost.  London has spent billions of dollars to host the games in hopes of reclaiming that money in the future from tourism, use of the created venues, and tax revenues from development around the new complexes.

Here are some great financial tips this week that you might find useful even if you didn’t go to the Olympics:

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Will the summer heat ever wane?

Blistering heat has encompassed a majority of the United States.  The drought we are currently experiencing is being called the worst drought since 1956.  This will surely impact food prices as the basic economic principal of supply and demand kick in.  With less supply due to crops failing, and normal demand, food prices should go up.

Preparing for rising costs in any part of life is important.  Here are some articles to help you get better with your finances:

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With the 2012 Olympics about to start I found something very interesting in a CNN Money article this week.

In “Olympic athletes face financial hardship“, writer Charles Riley informs us that American Olympians are often earning little or no money from their athletic endeavors.  Unlike other countries that sponsor and pay their athletes, USA Olympians are mostly on their own in terms of income.  They have to hope to land a sponsorship deal or be at the very top of the sport to get any kind of income.

I found this quite interesting.

You see all of these amazing athletes in the top 10 or 20 in their sport in the entire world, and a majority of them on the US side aren’t making any money.  Yet the Olympic committees and broadcast companies will earn millions or billions in advertising revenue and licensing fees.

Even if you’re not an Olympian you may be struggling financially.  Here’s are few tips to get you racing in the right direction:

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America turned 236 years old this week, but in the financial markets that news was nothing compared to the scandal rocking London financial markets.

It came to light this week that Barclays — and potentially other mega banks — helped prop up or inflate the LIBOR rate over the past several years.

Why is LIBOR important?

It stands for London Interbank Offered Rate.  It is the rate that major banks can expect to be charged when they borrow money from another bank.  If a bank’s cost of borrowing was artificially higher than it should have been they would then have to charge their customers higher interest rates on loans.

In short, we all may have been paying slightly higher interest rates on every type of lending product because a few banks conspired together to artificially keep rates higher than they needed to be.

That’s big financial news.

The LIBOR scandal won’t provide any relief from your current loans and debts, but these articles just might help you:

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The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that, for the most part, they were siding with the healthcare law commonly referred to as Obamacare.

However, in an interesting twist they only agreed because Congress has the ability to create taxes, and to the Court, clearly the mandate was a tax increase.  Anything that you have to pay if you don’t pay something else in, at its core, a tax.

Of course Democrats in Congress never wanted to call it that because it never would have passed.  Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the law as constitutional it will be one of the largest tax increases in American history.

But that’s why we have a democracy: the branches of government that balance each other out.

Most of us are better served in watching our own finances that worrying about the Supreme Court. Here are some articles to help you do that:

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It is expected that the Supreme Court will deliver a ruling on the healthcare reform commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Whichever side gets a majority of the nine votes from the Justices — just five votes — can substantially impact healthcare costs across the  country.

Obama’s signature piece of legislation is on the firing line, and no one is sure how it will come out.  The only thing known is this: the result, to keep or to nix the law, will have a huge political and economic impact in America.

Are you ready?

Find yourself needing to prepare for higher costs (like healthcare)?  Here are some tips:

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China sent its first female astronaut into space this weekend (along with two male astronauts).

This signals growing competition in the space arena; China also has its own orbiting laboratory.  The team of astronauts will attempt to dock with the lab.  If they are successful, China will become the third country (behind the United States and Russia) to successfully dock with an orbiting space facility.

Will this signal something bigger for China’s growing economy?  And how will this impact relations with the United States and other democratic countries?  Or will we all be able to get along and work toward a greater goal of growing the global economy?

While you ponder these worldwide economic questions, be sure to check out some solid reads for your personal finances:

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