Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Economy

The economy is a tricky thing that at times makes perfect sense and others...well not so much. Articles here help you understand what is going on in the economy and how it affects your wealth.

Occupy Movement Protests: A Revolution or a Waste of Time?

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Unless you’re completely oblivious to all news outlets, chances are you’ve heard of the recent Occupy Movement protests in the U.S.

It all started on September 17, 2011 with the New York General Assembly.  Over one thousand people assembled and “occupied” in Liberty Square in the Manhattan Financial District to express their outrage and “a feeling of mass injustice” that the 1% of the richest people in America are making hard, selfish decisions, negatively affecting the other 99% of the country.  This commenced the Occupy Wall Street movement that we hear so much about in the news.

Some of these injustices include, but are not limited to: [Read more…] about Occupy Movement Protests: A Revolution or a Waste of Time?

Foreigners Could Get Visas for Buying US Homes – Does that Make Sense?

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We need to do what we can to stimulate housing and the economy.  Right?

That seems to be the overriding sentiment aimed at the new proposed bill authored by Senators Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) , the section titled, “Increasing Home Ownership by Priority Visitors,” who want to give foreigners a visa if they purchase $500,000 or more in American homes.

It can’t be just any real estate, either.  They can’t buy land, warehouses, or office buildings.  We’re talking about residential real estate like town houses, homes, or condos.  They’re free to use them as investment property but the minimum purchase is $250,000 per property.  If they want to purchase 10, $50,000 homes they can do that but they won’t qualify for the visa.
[Read more…] about Foreigners Could Get Visas for Buying US Homes – Does that Make Sense?

What is Occupy Wall Street and Should You Care?

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Occupy Wall Street has become something so un-American yet American all at the same time.  Mass demonstrations happen frequently in countries around the world but here in America, not so much.

In America we protest on talk shows, twitter, facebook, and for those “radicals”, letter writing campaigns and maybe a demonstration with a dozen others in front of an abortion clinic or government building.

But 20,000 people with tents and kitchens camped out in a public park in front of the world’s financial capital?

Not in our back yard.  OccupyWallStreet has taken off and now the movement is “occupying” cities all over the nation.  This just doesn’t happen in America anymore.
[Read more…] about What is Occupy Wall Street and Should You Care?

Three Lessons I Learned From High School Economics Class

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While I was in my senior year of High School I was required to take economics.  In this class as part of our curriculum we did two interesting things:

1) We split into teams and competed against each other in computer simulations based on business. We had to figure out the price as well as budget for R&D, advertising, etc… It was a little like the old Lemonade Stand game (which I mastered in elementary school), if you remember that, but obviously more complex.  We then wrote a collective group paper detailing what worked for our group and why based on economic principles.

2) We also had our own class-based business for the term. Our class product was little graduation stuffed animals (it was our senior year after all).  We all invested a small amount and put the product together and sold it to classmates and family. [Read more…] about Three Lessons I Learned From High School Economics Class

Hedging Against Inflation

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One of the realities of our economy is inflation. Inflation, which is a rise in prices (or a reduction in purchasing power) has a very real effect on your finances.  As inflation increases, your ability to get more for your money decreases.  This means that it takes more money to buy the same amount of product or service as you could buy a few years ago.  Unfortunately, there is almost no way to stop inflation.  Hedging against inflation, is something you can work on so that your wealth grows at pace with inflation — or beats it. [Read more…] about Hedging Against Inflation