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Pentagon begins planning for massive budget cuts

(AP) ? The Defense Department has begun planning for the roughly $500 billion in personnel and program cuts over a decade that will be needed if Congress and the White House fail to reach a deal that would avoid the double hit of tax hikes and automatic spending reductions dubbed the "fiscal cliff."

Department spokesman George Little said the cuts would be "devastating to our national defense."

As the White House and members of Congress continue to wrangle over how best to find as much as $1.2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years to avert the fiscal cliff, Little said the Pentagon started more detailed discussions this week on how to slash 9.4 percent of its budget across the board.

He said cuts that deep could force the department to throw out its new military strategy, and cut weapons and technology programs, and it could hamper the department's ability to provide for its troops and their families.

He added that the department also is beginning to figure out how it will prepare and inform about 3 million military, civilian and contract workers about the cuts, if they occur.

For months, Pentagon officials have insisted they were not planning for the massive budget cuts that would automatically kick in after the first of the year if the White House and Congress doesn't strike a deal. But with less than a month to go and no deal in sight, those evaluations have begun in earnest.

According to guidance sent out by the White House Office of Management and Budget, the Pentagon will have to slice nearly 10 percent off more than 80 accounts, including more than $4 billion off Air Force aircraft and maintenance, $2.1 billion off Navy shipbuilding; $6.7 billion off Army operations, $3.2 billion off health programs and $1.3 billion out of the Afghan security forces funding.

About $55 billion of the $500 billion in cuts would come in the first year.

The Pentagon would have some flexibility in deciding how to find the money in each of those broad categories; for instance officials could leave the aircraft carrier fleet intact and take the money out of other types of ships in the pipeline.

If the White House and lawmakers are able to avoid the fiscal cliff, the military still likely will be looking at as much as an additional $10 billion to $15 billion in cuts in projected defense spending each year for the next decade. It's a prospect that Republicans recognize is the new reality, with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ending and deficits demanding deep cuts.

Already this year, the Pentagon revamped its military strategy as part of last year's deficit-cutting law that ordered an initial $487 billion in spending cuts over the next 10 years.

A proposal that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and other Republican leaders sent to the White House this week calls for cuts of $300 billion in discretionary spending to achieve savings of $2.2 trillion over 10 years. The blueprint offered no specifics on the cuts, although the Pentagon and defense-related departments such as Homeland Security and State make up roughly half of the federal government's discretionary spending.

"Not too devastating," said Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"My job is to stop sequestration," McCain said, using the budgetary term for the automatic cuts.

Pentagon spending still has its congressional protectors, especially with job-producing weapons, aircraft and ships built in nearly every corner of the country. In the past decade, the base defense budget has nearly doubled, from $297 billion in 2001 to more than $520 billion. The amount does not include the billions spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The cuts Obama and Congress are talking about would be to projected spending that envisioned Pentagon budgets rising to levels of more than $700 billion a year in a decade. Tea partyers and fiscal conservatives recently elected to Congress have shown a willingness to cut defense, traditionally considered almost untouchable.

"We understand that in getting to an agreement that drives down the debt ... that there are going to be cuts," said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., president of the 2010 freshman class in the House. "Making cuts strategically makes sense. Doing it through sequestration does not make sense.

Any deal between Obama and Boehner that avoids the fiscal cliff and reduces the deficit will still face some resistance among rank-and-file lawmakers over defense cuts, especially in the House. The reductions will be particularly hard for GOP lawmakers who were counting on Mitt Romney to win the White House and try to reverse the cuts in defense.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-05-Fiscal%20Cliff-Defense/id-461379e4274b49faa1e1e33e5017686c

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Carbon pollution up to 2 million pounds a second

(AP) ? The amount of heat-trapping pollution the world spewed rose again last year by 3 percent. So scientists say it's now unlikely that global warming can be limited to a couple of degrees, which is an international goal.

The overwhelming majority of the increase was from China, the world's biggest carbon dioxide polluter. Of the planet's top 10 polluters, the United States and Germany were the only countries that reduced their carbon dioxide emissions.

Last year, all the world's nations combined pumped nearly 38.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and oil, according to new international calculations on global emissions published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. That's about a billion tons more than the previous year.

The total amounts to more than 2.4 million pounds (1.1 million kilograms) of carbon dioxide released into the air every second.

Because emissions of the key greenhouse gas have been rising steadily and most carbon stays in the air for a century, it is not just unlikely but "rather optimistic" to think that the world can limit future temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), said the study's lead author, Glen Peters at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo, Norway.

Three years ago, nearly 200 nations set the 2-degree C temperature goal in a nonbinding agreement. Negotiators now at a conference under way in Doha, Qatar, are trying to find ways to reach that target.

The only way, Peters said, is to start reducing world emissions now and "throw everything we have at the problem."

Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria in Canada who was not part of the study, said: "We are losing control of our ability to get a handle on the global warming problem."

In 1997, most of the world agreed to an international treaty, known as the Kyoto Protocol, that required developed countries such as the United States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 5 percent when compared with the baseline year of 1990. But countries that are still developing, including China and India, were not limited by how much carbon dioxide they expelled. The United States never ratified the treaty.

The latest pollution numbers, calculated by the Global Carbon Project, a joint venture of the Energy Department and the Norwegian Research Council, show that worldwide carbon dioxide levels are 54 percent higher than the 1990 baseline.

The 2011 figures for the biggest polluters:

1. China, up 10 percent to 10 billion tons.

2. United States, down 2 percent to 5.9 billion tons

3. India, up 7 percent to 2.5 billion tons.

4. Russia, up 3 percent to 1.8 billion tons.

5. Japan, up 0.4 percent to 1.3 billion tons.

6. Germany, down 4 percent to 0.8 billion tons.

7. Iran, up 2 percent to 0.7 billion tons.

8. South Korea, up 4 percent to 0.6 billion tons.

9. Canada, up 2 percent to 0.6 billion tons.

10. South Africa, up 2 percent to 0.6 billion tons.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2012-12-02-Carbon%20Pollution/id-2b96650bffbc43968754dafd5f403ea7

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Spotify Overhauls Its Player to Make Discovering New Music a Breeze (Updating)

Today's Spotify event, billed as "Discover what's next," is not so subtly supposed to be about how Spotify is going to one up its competition by helping you find music better than anyone else. The service is adding a new "Discover" and "Follow" tabs to its player that not only gives you recommendations, but also better context for what you're about to listen to and why its being recommended. The features will roll out in the new year. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/71JAoqRDRyU/spotify-overhauls-its-player-to-make-discovering-new-music-a-breeze

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Iran says Revolutionary Guard has captured another U.S. drone

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's state TV says the country's Revolutionary Guard has captured a U.S. drone after it entered the Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf.

Today's report quotes the guard's navy chief, Gen. Ali Fadavi, as saying that the "intruding" drone was captured, but gave no further details on the location or when the incident occurred.

Iran claimed in 2011 it brought down a CIA spy drone after it entered Iranian airspace from its eastern borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tehran later said it recovered data from the RQ-170 Sentinel, a top-secret drone equipped with stealth technology.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iran-says-revolutionary-guard-captured-another-u-drone-075153199.html

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Report: Unpaid wages inspired deadly China arson

(AP) ? A former worker told state media Wednesday he set the fire that killed 14 young workers at a Chinese undergarment factory because he was angry about less than $500 in unpaid wages.

The suspect, Liu Shuangyun, told the Guangdong TV broadcaster in a jailhouse interview that he started the fire "because I couldn't get my salary," which he had been owed since quitting the factory three years ago.

Asked whether he had thought about or regretted the loss of life the fire had caused, Liu said, "I didn't think about these things."

Fourteen people were killed and one was seriously injured in the fire Tuesday afternoon in Shantou city in Guangdong province, the provincial emergency department said on its microblog.

The 14 victims were all women aged 18 to 20, the Southern Metropolis Daily said in an online report. The official Xinhua News Agency said the victims were 13 women and one man. It said Liu, a 26-year-old migrant worker from Hunan province, had been arrested, but it didn't specify what charges he faced.

The case has underscored the hand-to-mouth existence of many young Chinese migrant workers and raised questions about basic fire safety awareness at the countless small factories that churn out clothes, toys and other goods and have helped power China's dizzying economic growth for decades.

Xinhua said the suspect spent 40 yuan (US$6) on petroleum used to start the blaze and fled the scene after his alleged crime.

"The whole time, I've been very impulsive, very angry about this," Liu said during the television interview. "So I did these things."

Sitting on a chair, his hands in handcuffs, Liu said the factory boss owed him 3,000 yuan (US$461). The reporter said that after Liu quit the factory, his former boss had only given him excuses for why he couldn't pay the back wages.

A photo accompanying the Guangdong TV report showed a four-story building, lined with windows on each floor, its front completely blackened. The fire had not spread to an adjacent building.

Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based worker's rights group, said that judging by the photo, the factory looked like "a fairly typical manufacturing workshop" in southern Guangdong.

"In many of these places health and safety is not a priority," he said. "Many of these factories are very unpleasant places to work in."

Senior provincial officials set up a team to investigate and step up safety measures to avoid similar fatal fires, Guangdong's emergency department said. The factory made underwear, it said.

Crothall said unpaid salaries are a major source of worker discontent in China.

"A lot of this is related to the current economic climate, a lack of credit in the system, a lack of capital in circulation," Crothall said. "If companies are not getting paid for their products, then they're not going to pay their workers."

Building fires are common in China because of lax safety codes and unsafe construction work.

A fire in April 2011 at an unlicensed garment factory in Beijing killed 17 people. The fire happened in the middle of the night and anti-intrusion bars over the factory's dormitory windows were blamed for trapping victims inside.

Last month, a fire at a clothing factory in Bangladesh killed 112 people and highlighted dangerous workplace conditions. Survivors and authorities there said exit doors were locked and the building lacked emergency exits.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-12-05-AS-China-Factory-Fire/id-a911d7a41f9a430a8d072816896551d1

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Women can tell a cheating man just by looking at them - study

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Women can tell with some accuracy whether an unfamiliar male is faithful simply by looking at his face, but men seem to lack the same ability when checking out women, according to an Australian study published on Wednesday.

In a paper that appeared in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers found that women tended to make that judgement based on how masculine-looking the man was.

"Women's ratings of unfaithfulness showed small-moderate, significant correlations with measures of actual infidelity," wrote the team, led by Gillian Rhodes at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Cognition and its Disorders at the University of Western Australia in Perth.

"More masculine-looking men (were) rated as more probable to be unfaithful and having a sexual history of being more unfaithful."

Attractiveness was not a factor in the women making the link.

In the study, 34 men and 34 women were shown colour photographs of 189 Caucasian adult faces and asked to rate them for faithfulness.

The researchers compared their answers to the self-reported sexual histories of the 189 individuals and found that the women participants were better able to tell who was faithful and who was not.

"We provide the first evidence that faithfulness judgements, based solely on facial appearance, have a kernel of truth," they wrote in the paper.

Men, on the other hand, seemed to have no clue. They tended to perceive attractive, feminine women to be unfaithful, when there was no evidence that they were, the scientists noted.

Faithfulness is seen as important in the context of sexual relationships and mate choice, the scientists wrote in the paper. Men with unfaithful partners risk raising another man's child, while women with unfaithful partners risk losing some, or even all, parental and other resources to competitors.

(Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn, editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/women-tell-cheating-man-just-looking-them-study-040117769.html

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US reacts with joy to royal baby news

FILE - In this July 10, 2011, file photo, Prince William and wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are photographed by fans during a visit to the U.S. in Culver City, Calif. The palace announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, that Prince William and wife Kate are expecting their first child_ and it seems at times that Americans may be more enthralled by the news than the Brits. There are several reasons for the American public?s pleasure in Kate?s news, manifested not only by the good wishes sent by President Obama but also by the breathless news coverage and the general good will toward the couple. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - In this July 10, 2011, file photo, Prince William and wife Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are photographed by fans during a visit to the U.S. in Culver City, Calif. The palace announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, that Prince William and wife Kate are expecting their first child_ and it seems at times that Americans may be more enthralled by the news than the Brits. There are several reasons for the American public?s pleasure in Kate?s news, manifested not only by the good wishes sent by President Obama but also by the breathless news coverage and the general good will toward the couple. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - In this April 29, 2011, file photo, Sandy Weimer, wearing tiara, and Cathy Dettman, left, attend a royal wedding "hat and pajamas" party at the Cameo Cinema in St. Helena, Calif., where more than150 people filled the theater in the middle of the night to watch a live broadcast of the royal wedding of Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton. The palace announced Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, that Prince William and wife Kate are expecting their first child_and it seems at times that Americans may be more enthralled than the Brits. There are several reasons for the American public?s pleasure in Kate?s news, manifested not only by the good wishes sent by President Obama but also by the breathless news coverage and the general good will toward the couple. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

(AP) ? An heir to the British throne is on the way ? and Americans may be as enthralled as the Brits.

This former colony has been riveted by the royal news that the former Kate Middleton is pregnant ? perhaps as much as Britain, where such regal developments are taken in stride.

"We don't really have a princess here," said Kathy Gitlin, an elementary school teacher in Connecticut who was thrilled to hear that Kate is with child. "I'm an Anglophile, I love England, and I think it's wonderful that two people in love wanted to get married and start a family. It's great."

There are several reasons for the American public's pleasure in Kate's news, manifested not only by the good wishes sent by President Obama but also by the breathless news coverage and the general good will toward the actually not-so-young young couple, who have both now reached 30.

First, and least complicated, is the fact that Kate seems a likeable and sensible young woman who married one of the world's most eligible bachelors without letting the power, prestige and A-plus jewelry go to her head.

Then there are the long ties between the two countries, so alike and so maddeningly different.

When Americans proudly declared their independence, they swore off sovereign kings and queens forever, yet several centuries later they find themselves drawn to the royals' pomp and pageantry, embracing the more colorful aspects of a system whose substance they had eagerly overthrown.

Finally, hardest to quantify, is the fading, almost ghostly, image of Princess Diana, who died so young. Americans want Diana's sons to flourish, and Kate seems to have made William very, very happy.

"I remember when Diana died, it was such a shock," said Gitlin, 52. "No one can ever take her place, but it's nice to have another person, someone this generation can look up to, and someone who William can love."

There's no doubt that many Britons are thrilled as well, and the country's embattled tabloid press certainly views a royal pregnancy (at Christmastime no less!) as a surefire circulation booster and a welcome diversion from a series of press scandals.

But some on Monday expressed a rather blas? attitude to the prospect of a new generation of Windsors seemingly bound for the throne. In the chill of early evening in north London's Camden market, young couples strolling among the stalls received the news of Kate's pregnancy with a shrug.

"I'm happy for them, but I don't really care," said Enya Lonergan, 19, who was visiting from Canterbury, south of London, with her friend Will Nichols, 20.

They could muster little enthusiasm for the news, noting that they had little in common with the royals, particularly in these bleak economic times.

"I don't think about them," Nichols said, adding that ? naturally ? he'd send them a gift. Or not.

Others said they were not interested and questioned the need for a royal family in the 21st century.

"I don't think it's a good thing," said Stephen Jowitt, 63, as he ambled down Camden High Street. "It reinforces a class system."

The news did provide a boost to one of Britain's national pastimes ? finding new ways to wager money. Bookmakers are now taking bets on the gender of Kate's child, what the infant will be named and the color of his/her hair.

Joe Crilly, a spokesman for the William Hill bookmaker, said a high level of betting interest is expected, with favored names including Diana, Philip, Elizabeth and Sarah.

In America, ABC News even offered a poll, asking people to rate likely baby names.

Baby thoughts have been found in some less-than-fully-credible supermarket tabloids for months. They've been trumpeting "stories" about Kate's pregnancies for months, without any apparent basis in fact.

But that didn't keep the public from gobbling them up ? the British royals, with their haughty glamour and slightly tragic air, have long captivated Americans.

"I'm always looking for any news of William and Kate," said 19-year-old Stacy McFacken, a clerk at a grocery store in Mentor, Ohio, in August when a number of tabloids offered screaming headlines about Kate's purported pregnancy.

"There's nothing like this in the States," she said. "It's just like all the fairy tales we read about as kids. We all want to be Kate."

Word of Kate's condition, including her hospitalization for complications, was top news on websites throughout the world. Her condition requires specialist treatment but if diagnosed early, it is unlikely to have long-term consequences for the mother or baby, and does not raise the risk of a miscarriage.

But while the parents might be anxious, world leaders stepped in to wish her well. The news was featured prominently on front pages in Argentina, India, France, South Africa and other countries. It sent Twitter into a tizzy, with the hashtag "royalbaby" trending worldwide and used more than 28,000 times in the first few hours following the official announcement. U.S. media websites such as People, Vanity Fair and the Daily Beast provided extensive coverage, with the Huffington Post launching a live blog to track developments.

"The whole wide world is excited," said Shao Hua Huang, a surgical nurse who practices in New York and Connecticut. "We're really happy for her. It's because of England and all the tradition. We Americans followed in their footsteps."

___

Associated Press writers Paisley Dodds, Danica Kirka and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-04-US-Royal-Pregnancy/id-1e1c6f86de324e3bafaa069eac26c022

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Carnival of Wealth, Lazy Journalists Edition | Control Your Cash ...

It?s hard to grease your palm with those gloves on

?

It?s December, therefore it must be time to read lighthearted but poignant ?news? stories about how much it would cost to buy all the gifts given during the 12 Days of Christmas. Again. This wouldn?t be so bad if the same news outlets didn?t do the same piece every freaking year. And we?re pretty sure you can find some lords willing to a-leap for next to nothing.

That, and the other story about how much you should tip the service workers in your life. There?s always a recommendation to tip ?your doorman? a certain amount. The New York-centric journalists who recobble these stories every year forget that well over 99.9% of Americans don?t have a doorman. CNN would provide a more helpful service if they told you how much to tip your emergency room check-in nurse, or the guy who installs your satellite dish, each of whom is a more central figure in most people?s lives than a doorman. Or an ?elevator operator?, another totally relevant service worker in post-1950s America.

Welcome to the Carnival of Wealth, the greatest blog carnival in the history of the format. Personal finance blog posts in an easy-to-digest whole. Here we go:

Batting leadoff this week is Ken Faulkenberry at AAAMP Blog. Ken appeals to both hemispheres of your brain this week, telling us that there?s no greater risk to an investor than losing your principal. Ken believes there?s a good chance that if you invest more conservatively, you might increase your returns. But you won?t know until you read his post. (And try to ignore the homonym confusion. The man has an MBA.)

JB at Young & Thrifty?says if you?re young and professionally mobile, you don?t need to buy a house. Say you close on a fixer-upper bungalow in Anchorage, complete with 30-year mortgage, and then get offered the job of your dreams in Key West. Now what? More closing costs, that?s what.

Why aren?t you just doing everything Paula Pant at Afford Anything does? Cut-and-paste her life onto your own and you?d be debt-free, building passive income, traveling the world and not destroying your life by having children. This week she graces us with a story about how she bought a rental property at 25% below asking price, spruced it up for a mere $6,000, and made it look so good that even we and our discriminating tastes would be happy to call it home (if we, you know, lived in Atlanta and wanted to rent.)

Paula?s cap rate is a hair under 12%, and that?s not even close to her highest-performing property. (She has 3.) She did some simple calculations to determine what rent she should charge. She got a fantastic rate on an interest-only loan from a private lender because, hey, her credit is good. In our book we bang on the concept of a ?spread? ? borrow money at x%, receive a return of x+y% and you?ll build wealth no matter how dumb you are. Paula discusses ?arbitrage?, which is essentially the same thing (and, as she describes it, her favorite word.)

See how one good decision sets up the next several? If the rich get richer, it?s because they deserve to. Paula could have lamented her life station, decried the job market and lashed out at the world. She could have said ?I hate math, it?s so hard! Especially since I?m a girl!? and not bothered figuring out the likely cap rate before buying the property. Instead, she?s buying assets, selling liabilities, and living about as exciting a life as one can lead without benefit of psychotropic drugs.

Hey, CYC!

Yes?

Did you trademark your gimmick of talking to yourself via italicized questions??

No, it?s not copyrightable. Why?

Paula does it. Better than you, in fact.?

That?s OK. The great ones can borrow.

Speaking of buying houses, a new entrant: House Mouse, ?a site with the aim to make home buying simple.? This week?s post is about how you can deduct mortgage interest from your federal tax bill. The deduction is supposed to give you incentive to buy a house (well, to finance a house) and turn us into a nation of non-renters. (JB at Young & Thrifty shakes his head. Then again, he?s Canadian.) We welcome House Mouse aboard, and remind its staff that they?re probably looking for comments from people who?ve had their interest piqued, not peaked, but it?s still early. Here to help.

Governments have certain legitimate duties ? defending the country, providing courts of law, and not a whole lot else. Everything beyond that ? making cars, selling insurance, running a television network?and about a million others ? is an intrusion onto that holiest of holies in a free society, the individual taxpayer?s wallet. From David De Souza at TaxFix UK?comes a post showing where British taxpayers? hard-earned dollars go; almost all of it in places where government functionaries have disenfranchised the private sector.

Harry Campbell at Your PF Pro buried the lede, and it?s a pretty shocking one. He claims that buying vacation days from your employer can have financial benefits.

Good God. We don?t go looking for this, we swear:

I only get 10 days of vacation a year? so (getting the option to buy more) definitely peaked my interest.

Ever visited Pikes Pique? You can see downtown Denver from there. Also, we used to use Quaker State motor oil at CYC World Headquarters, but that Pique brand is something else. It offers pique performance. Sheesh.

Alright, now the submitters are just screwing with us. At least ?pique? and ?peak? sound exactly alike. Teacher Man at My University Money?writes about how college students can save money on food, and spelled pizza ?piazza? 3 times. ?Piazza? is not a typo. It?s not a phonetic approximation. Nor is it some variant Canadian spelling (cf. favour, offence, centre etc.) It?s a retired future Hall of Fame catcher, and the Italian word for ?square?.

The grammatically capable Liana Arnold at Card Hub to the rescue. If you have a prepaid credit card because you applied for American Express platinum and they laughed at your single-digit FICO score, that?s one thing. If you have a prepaid credit card just because you want to improve said score, cancel it now. Get a secured card instead. It?ll help you build a credit history*, and it won?t line the pockets of manipulative celebrities like Russell Simmons and Suze Orman.

Neal Frankle has a special treat for you this week. The handsome and forthright founder of?Wealth Pilgrim?has a guest post from one of personal finance?s legitimate titans. It?s entitled ?Why You Are Not Rich Yet?, and regarding both form and content, it fits perfectly with Wealth Pilgrim?s demanding standards of excellence.

It wouldn?t be a CoW without PKamp3 at DQYDJ.net, who reminds us (well, not literally ?us?, but rather ?those of you who don?t understand how cash flow and wealth-building work?) that getting your debt as low as possible is not the ultimate objective of personal finance. Some people think that mortgages by definition are bad, because they involve borrowing a lot of money at a positive interest rate. These people don?t have to borrow to make their rent payments, and they?re also making their leveraged landlords rich.

Mark Twain said to put all your eggs in one basket, and watch that basket.?Dividend Growth Investor?has a more diverse investment strategy, but still acknowledges the importance of watching the basket(s). Whether you?re a dividend investor or one of some other stripe, don?t check your portfolio?s value every day, but don?t check it once a decade either.

Say your bank screws you over. You can sue it, right? If only. John Kiernan at Wallet Blog?points out that if you have an account at any of the 100 largest banks in the country (or many of the smaller ones), there?s a decent chance you signed away your rights and left mandatory arbitration as your only recourse. Even better, should it get to that point you wouldn?t even unlimited discovery ? the bank can conceal information from you until it?s time to present it to the arbitrator. And if you think the arbitrators are impartial?well, that?s adorable.

Finally, Free Money Finance bought some smoke detectors.

Check out our latest on Investopedia, too. And join us back here tomorrow. It?s never the same site twice!
*Assuming you use it wisely, but do we really need to say that??

Related posts:

  1. Carnival of Wealth, Chief Executive Edition
  2. Carnival of Wealth, End of November Edition
  3. Carnival of Wealth, Tim Duncan Edition

Source: http://www.controlyourcash.com/2012/12/03/carnival-of-wealth-lazy-journalists-edition/

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Fed officials laud stimulus, quibble over future plans

NEW YORK/LITTLE ROCK (Reuters) - Central bankers appear satisfied with the impact of their latest monetary stimulus, though there is some disagreement over how forcefully to continue purchasing bonds, remarks by two top policymakers on Monday showed.

Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren, one of the most vocal proponents of Fed asset purchases, said there was a "strong case" for the Fed to stay the course on accommodative policies next year and continue buying a total of $85 billion in bonds each month.

In September, the Fed announced an open-ended bond buying scheme that began with $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed securities.

That new effort to boost the economy comes on top of a separate program in which the Fed was buying $45 billion of longer-term Treasury securities per month with proceeds from sales of a like amount of shorter-term debt.

The latter plan, known as Operation Twist, is set to expire at the end of this month, and most analysts expect the central bank to substitute an equal amount of long-term Treasury buying.

However, James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, argued the central bank should not replace its expiring 'Operation Twist' program on a dollar-for-dollar basis. He said the impact of outright purchases that expand the Fed's $2.8 trillion balance sheet further would be more pronounced than those in Twist, where the funds for long-term buys come from sales or redemptions of short-term maturities.

"If the goal is to keep policy on its present course, the replacement rate should be less than one-for-one," Bullard told the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce. In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal, Bullard suggested $25 billion as an adequate monthly amount.

The U.S. economy grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter but is expected to have slowed in the final months of the year. Unemployment remains elevated at 7.9 percent.

William Dudley of the New York Fed argued the Fed's mortgage-backed securities purchases have provided much-needed support to the economy, even if their benefits in easing financial conditions have not been fully passed through from financial institutions down to customers.

"Our policy has been and continues to be effective - though it is certainly not all-powerful in current circumstances," he said at a conference on mortgage finance at the New York Fed, at which his Boston Fed counterpart Rosengren was the keynote speaker.

The conference was aimed at exploring some of the blockages in the transmission of Fed policy to American consumers, Dudley said.

"We are focusing on ... the significant widening of the spread between yields on mortgage-backed securities and primary mortgage rates," he said.

In response to the financial crisis and deep recession of 2007-2009, the Fed had already slashed official rates to zero and bought some $2.3 trillion in government and mortgage-backed bonds prior to the launch of its latest stimulus.

(Writing by Pedro Nicolaci da Costa; Editing by James Dalgleish)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fed-officials-laud-stimulus-quibble-over-future-plans-202045409--business.html

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