Taxes - How Does The Government Spend Money?

The US government spends peoples taxes on: The deparment of labor, department of education, department of commerce, department of homelland security, enviornmentak protecton agency, and many more. In the other hand THe State of New York spends its money in jails, community service, medicine, health plans, shelters for homeless people, public places such as parks or picking up the garbage. I did some research online and found out that the federal government spends an average of $22,039 on each household and that amount is divided into other groups that were mentioned above. in my opinion theres a lot of people that do not realize how much the government takes advantage and steals the money that we earn with our working sweat. Something must be done about this, because the taxes that are been taking off are going to places that we dont even know, and the other money goes to other things that we dont need.

Savings and Debt

As from i learned from this article only a couple people learn the high price of easy credit. It is just shoking. Interest rates practically makes any debt unpayble since its rates are extremely high. In America, it is so easy to get in debt. Just by buying a house, which is one of the American dreams, or just by buying stuff with their credit cards when their interest are so high. Finance charges can be so dangerous because their interest rates are extremely high, and if you miss a payment they will go even higher, making it harder for the person in debt to pay it off. Now days its almost impossible to save money, because people are more concern onn paying off their debts than in saving money.

Critique of GDP Podcast

As I started looking in the Informartion Technology High School website, I found some interesting stuff about the Gross Domestic Prodcut. Seniors who were involve in the Economics class, had to do a review about this topic. The teacher in charge, Moloney, asked his students from the second and Forth class to do a podcast about the Gross domestic product also known as the GDP. I decided to check one of the podcast from the second class, and I chose Lissette's and Gisellas podcast

In their podcast they discuss thorougly the aspects of the Gross Domestic Product and cover every question assigned to them, as I was listening to their podcast I was learning a lot about the Gross Domestic Product also know as the GDP. They also provided me with a lot of Information about their topic and therefore I learned a lot. My only concern was that. the podcast didnt seem natural, it was something they read from a paper and therefore it made it boring. A good podcast should be natural, it should be said with enthusiasm and not as if "I have to do it" and thats it. Myh advice for them is to read what they have and take little notes, so as when they are speaking they will read their notes and rembember what to say, in this way the podcast will seem natural and will catch peoples attention.

US Trade Deficit: getting better?

The article in New York Times, Rising Exports Putting Dent in Trade Gap by Jeremy W. Peter discusses the trade deficit and also the trading around the world. Trade deficit is a negative balance of trade in which a country imports more than it exports leaving it with a gigantic debt. The US trade deficit is more likely to go down since in the future we will have less trade and we'll have more imports, and this can cause a drop on job opportunities. A weak dollar makes the country look bad since its adversaries will know that the US is having a harsh time, but also we hav to take in mind that the US dollar goes up and down, just like a yo-yo, and the chances of it going up are high.

Taxes - How Does The Government Get Money?

There are different types of taxes that American citizens have to pay. There is Federal taxes, State taxes and also, local taxes. The government gets its money by deducting a partial amount out of your paycheck, and by doing so, people are left with almost half of their paycheck. Some people prefer working illegaly because of this issue. Let say that you get paid by week, 800$. out of those 800 bucks if you support members of your family, they will take little tax out, but if you are living alone, they will take about 300 to 400 on just tax. Its just incredible the amount of taxes that you have to pay and there is many people out there that have no idea on where that money is going, but there are some others that know where it goes. State taxes and local taxdes apply for clothing and any other items that are bought in a store that belongs to the state. Federal taxes, are the ones you pay every year to the government, income tax. It evaluates how much momney your earned through out the whole year, and out of that money they get money out. If you have children or someone depends on you, you might get money back.

Student Loans - Beware

The reason for this studetns to take such a deep amount of money for their studies was that their own schools promessed stuff that were not true. As said in the article"The story is always the same. The school convinces the student they are going to be the next Julia Child or Wolfgang Puck, and the student will sign anything.” said Alan Collinge, who founded the grass-roots lobbying group Student Loan Justice and collects information from people with student loan problems. Making this fake promises, students will sign papers without even looking at them, and also the fact that the majority of this students are the first one's to go into college from their families, its more easier for the college to trick them. In my personal opinion, i will never take a loan. The same education that its giving at a SUNY school, would be given to me at a CUNY. It is just a about a name in your diploma. Of course if you go to harvard, and you ask for a job at any place, its most likely for you to get it since Harvard its a prestige school. But no everything is just about the name of the school. It is also about the kind of education that you get, and how you applied towards your daily job. Many of my friends feel the same way as I do, Loans are not good whatsoever. The rest of your life you are going to be paying the governemnt the money that they lent you. You wont have money to buy house, a car, or anything because your debt will be so big that there will be no money left. Thats not having a life.

Critique of Federal Reserve Podcast

As I started looking in the Informartion Technology High School website, I found some interesting stuff about the Federal Reserve System. Seniors who were involve in the Economics class, had to do a review about this topic. The teacher in charge, Moloney, asked his students from the second and Forth class to do a podcast about the Federal reserve system also known as the FED. I decided to check one of the podcast from the second class, and I chose Lissette's and Gisella's podcast

In their podcast they discuss thorougly the aspects of the Federal Reserve System and cover every question assigned to them, as I was listening to their podcast I was learning a lot about the Federal Reserve System, also know was the FED. They also provided me with a lot of Information about their topic and therefore I learned a lot. My only concern was that. the podcast didnt seem natural, it was something they read from a paper and therefore it made it boring. A good podcast should be natural, it should be said with enthusiasm and not as if "I have to do it" and thats it. Myh advice for them is to read what they have and take little notes, so as when they are speaking they will read their notes and rembember what to say, in this was the podcast will seem natural and will catch peoples attention.

Compound Interest and the rule of 72

The rule of 72 is like a math formula. It helps to determine how long an investment takes to double. When I say the rule of 72 is like a math formula, is because investors divide 72 an amount of years to get an estimate of how many years it will take for the initial investment to duplicate itself. Interest which is calculated not only on the initial principal but also the accumulated interest of prior periods.

By using a compound interest calculator, we make money not only out of our initial amount of money, but also on the interest we made the first time. It sounds a little confusing but it is not.
Well I'm going to try to explain it in easier words. Let say I invest 100.00 dollars and the interest rate is 10% in one year I will make 200.00 dollars. The second year my interest rate of 10% will apply on the 200.00 dollars not on my initial amount of money.

Insider Trading Scandal-What happened?

On March 1, 2007 13 people were arrested under the chargesd of Insider Trading. This scheme involved four investements bankers, hedge funds, dasy traders, lawyers and also some supervisors who found out about the fraud that was occurring and blackmailed the traders inb order for them to keep their silence. According to the New York Times, this has been the most largest inside trading rings in Wall street since the 1980's. Some of this suspects are well known by society as big executives and stock brokers that worked for big companis such as "Bear Stearms" and "Bank of America." Over a 5 year period one of the accused men was said to have made over $5 million in illicit profits. Up to now 9 of the accused have been arrested and the other four pleaded guilty to crimes such as bribery and securitie fraud.

Dow down 416 pts! - Why?

Why did the Dow go down? How does this decline compare to other famous declines (Great Depression, 1987, 9-11)? What will you do with your stocks? Is this a time to buy since prices went down? Explain.

This apparent decline in global stock markets was due to the fact that in tuesday China's stock market went down by a 9%. This incident made this globes economy shake. This disaster brought 416 pts on the Jones Dow making many companies loose millions of dollars. This decline relates to the Great depression decline since during that time period brought devasting effects to indrustriliazed countries. Sine the stocks went down and also the prices of the shares of many companies, Im going to take this opportunity to buy more stocks for less money, since eventually the stocks are going to go up, and I will earn more money by investing very little.

Opportunity Costs

What are opportunity costs? Give some examples. And give some examples from your own life.

An oppurtunity cost is the decision you make in giving up something and buying something else. For example my opportunity cost is that if I go to college im going to lose four years of work where im going to get money, but if i graduate, Im going to earn more money since I have a better education.

Types of Economic Systems

1. Traditional Economies: is an economic system in which resources are allocated by inheritance, and which has a strong social network and is based on primitive methods and tools. It's found today mainly in underdeveloped, agricultural parts of South America, Asia and Africa.
2. Centrally Planned (Command) Economy: This is an enconomic system in which the state or government controls the factors of production and makes all decisions about their use and about the distribution of income.
3. Market Economy: is an economic systetm in which the production and distribution of goods and services takes place through the mechanism of free markets guided by a price system rather than by the state in a planned economy.
4. Mixed Economy: is an economy that has a mix of economic systems. It is usually defined as an economy that contains both private-owned and state-owned enterprises or that combines elements of capitalism and socialism or a mix of market economy and commnad economy

what is the difference between communism and socialism?
Communism is a political system basd on the sahirng of all work and property by the whole communiy. Instead Socialism is that the government should own and control all the major industries.

Stock Market Game

I plan on investing in some mayor companies since im not sure if whether small companioes are good or not. Some of the companies I have in mind are: UPS, AMT, SHA-WA, SNE and CSCO. Maybe ill consider joining a mutual fund but for now ill just be cosnervative and watch over my stocks to see how they go. If I see that one of my stocks go ratherly down than up i will sell it and buy a new one.