TimothySaffles.com

I’m no economist, but if I put on my “anyone but the morons” hat, I feel that inflation is going to get ugly in the next couple of months/years.

I first read it in an old Kiplinger letter. Save on Asacol Cost Generic. Compare Asacol prices from every licensed pharmacy & save 20 to 85%. Buy Asacol Asacol 400mg 100 tabs only $55 Over 2 Million Prescriptions Filled. Learn about the prescription medication Asacol (Mesalamine Delayed-Release Tablets), drug uses, dosage, side effects, drug interactions,Answers to frequently asked questions about Asacol, also called Mesalamine, including dosage and other medical conditions which could contraindicate itsFind information about the safety and tolerability of Asacol (mesalamine), maintenance of remission, and factors affecting patient adherence. Basically it said that Dick Cheney moved a massive percentage of his personal wealth into European-backed investments. A quick google search found a reprint on MSN Money here.

Whether or not this article angers you is another story (yes it should in a Pete Rose betting against his own team sort of way). The quick and dirty of the article:

“Vice President Dick Cheney’s financial advisers are apparently betting on a rise in inflation and interest rates and on a decline in the value of the dollar against foreign currencie ElavilRead the reviews and link to mind health and enhancement products like ElavilTablets ELAVILHow to article - how to use elavilBuy Cheap ElavilYou may have thoughts about suicide when you first start taking an antidepressant, especially if you are younger than 24 years old. Tablets ELAVIL 75 mg also contain FD&C Yellow 6. Buy Elavil From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Tablets ELAVIL100 ELAVIL should then be initiated cautiously with gradual increase in dosage untilI was originally placed on Elavil as a treatment for Fibromyalgia pain. s. That’s the conclusion we draw after scouring the financial disclosure form released by Cheney recently. “

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So where does that leave the middle class, wage earning, small savings, hoping for a better future average American?

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http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SimpleStrategies/InflationProofYourPortfolio.aspx?page=1

For the last year and a half or so, I have been working on the idea of opening a retail coffee shop in Chandler or Gilbert, AZ. As a matter of fact, just before I was about to make a move on a retail space that I really liked, I noticed a sharp market move (and subsequent economic move for the worse) and decided to hold off on opening the shop.

Thrillingly, my foresight (and, to be fully honest, some combined personal circumstances fortuitously thrown in), worked out very well.

I just read an article in our local Gannet Corporate Rag entitled:

Tough economy taking toll on Chandler restaurants

…that got me to thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t actually set the coffee shop into motion.

I would like to go into further detail as to why the retail idea is a poor one, but let’s just sum up: online businesses are much better. Less overhead, no long-term contracts, more flexibility, relatively new and growing markets, easy and cheap advertising, global and local market reach and much more that I’m not thinking of right now.

So, unless you are already established and have about $1 mill in the bank, start off small online.

(Also, I read somewhere that rising fuel prices are adding to the bottom line of online stores because people are less willing to drive in order to make purchases. Now I can’t find the link. Don’t you hate it when that happens?)

As we find ourselves on yet another verge of spring/summer time driving boom and the gas prices are hovering around averaging about $3.16/gallon of unleaded, I often get to thinking about oil, its refinement into gasoline or heating oil, and its effect on consumers.

Oil and Oil Refinement

I am no economist and I surely have no training in the massive inner workings of the oil industry, but it seems to me that we regularly have 2 times a year in which gas prices, for no other reason than “Hey, it’s that time of year”, seem to go up. This happens fairly regularly around Fall for the heating oil switchover, and around Spring for the Summer driving season.

I can pretty much understand the laws of supply and demand and understand that, more homes using more heating oil equals less supply and higher prices. Easy. More cars on the road in the summer equals more full tanks equals higher demand and lower supply thus an increase in prices at the pump.

Driving Solutions

Needless to say, at $3+ per gallon(and likely increasing to $4) and living in a city with zero public transportation opportunities (try living in/around PHX and not having a car, good luck), I find myself toying with different ideas of how to get around and/or how to reduce my driving time.

(more…)

If you’ve seen this already…then I apologize.

But you absolutely must go here and look for the United States in this list.

CIA WORLD FACT BOOK

I wonder where all of our tax dollars are going then?

For a little perspective, this means that we are in debt roughly equal to the TOP THREE positive account balance countries in the world. Yet another massive problem that the next 3 generations will be stuck dealing with.

Also, the top 3 countries are also the largest owners of our bonds/national debt etc.

Further reading:

International Investment Position 2006

Doc on the United States as a Debtor Nation (written by a Specialist in International Trade and Finance for the US embassy in Italy)

I’m sure that by now most people have heard of the relatively new phenomenon colloquially referred to as “jingle mail”.  For those who haven’t, JM is a term describing an instance where people who purchased a property at the market peak, and are subsequently seeing large decreases in property value due to current market conditions, are, instead of paying the $400,000 mortgage on a property worth $300,000, walking away from the house and allowing it to go into foreclosure.  The property owners drop the keys in and envelope and send them back to the bank.  Thus “jingle mail” was born.

No people probably don’t actually put the keys in the mail.  It’s a euphemism. Get with it people.

What is the advantage of allowing a foreclosure to appear on your record? Foreclosure will taint your credit for 7 years (some say up to 10).  Essentially, with a foreclosure, you can expect to not get another home loan from another bank for 7-10 years without a massive down payment and a very significant premium on the interest rate.

Perhaps, in just crunching some quick numbers, the difference in monetary value vs. the time lost is heavily favored in one direction.  In keeping with our example above, if the customer were to lose $100,000 in value and, assuming that is the housing market value bottom and values stay relatively the same for an extended period of time, there is likely no way the customer would ever be able, nor would they want, to pay off the $100k difference within the 10 years time.   Add to this the problem that after paying the $100k off they are essentially at zero and just now beginning to gain equity, the jingle mail option does start to look enticing.

Granted, people make large purchases all the time and don’t mind the immediate financial loss (people buy new cars all the time and lose 20% off the top immediately).  But people look at houses differently than automobiles.  Autos are not looked at as an investment in most instances.  In contrast, for most Americans, the house purchase is their only major investment and only source of real savings.  Thus when the housing market took a dive, it wiped out a large portion of the already meager American savings.

I don’t suppose many people would pay $100,000 to start a savings account either.

Reread this Oct. 2006 bankrate.com article for a little painful perspective on the current economic situation.

Then read the 12 Steps to Economic Meltdown by the guy who predicted the current economic problems.

I think we’ve just begun to run down this rabbit hole.