A New Year brings New possibilities

NewYear

 

A new year is often a very exciting time, it offers for a fresh start. With the new year many people often start a new years resolution. Often its to lose weight or save more money or some other goal of theirs. A new year is often when the government resets and implements tax changes on its citizens and in that manner this year is no different. Gone is the 2% reduction in Social security taxes holiday and depending on your income your tax rates could have gone up either through the resent changes as a result of the tax deal or because of the affordable health care act that will be implemented this year, the majority of people will see some of their taxes increase. While taxes increasing in a strong economy wouldn’t be so bad its much harder to swallow when the economy is weaker as it is now.

As a result people have turned to many creative ways to save money, as we mentioned in our other post, people are using coupons to purchase baby supplies such as formula, while others are holding off from having children. Which is being reflected in the nations birth rate. Others have cut back on eating out.

Another method to save money is through purchasing items in bulk or looking to make purchases if those purchases are accompanied by free gifts.  One such program is the Clinique Bonus Time. What Clinique Bonus Time does is offer free gifts with the purchase of a certain dollar amount of makeup, the dollar amount vary from store to store. Its often held by higher end department stores like Macy’s and Nordstorms. Another store to often offer free items is Target. They often have deals where they offer a free gift card if you purchase a certain number of a certain product. The values of the gift card vary but are generally in the ballpark of $5 to $10. Which can come in handy when cash is short.

A New year brings new possibilities, along with new goals. If one of your goals is to save money in this tough economy you can do it through the programs that offer a free gift with a purchase like the program that Clinique offers. Hopefully this will be a very prosperous new year for everyone.

Student Debt Bubble

 

According to the numbers released by the Consumer Protection Agency Student Debt quadrupled from 2001 to 2008.  A recession in early in the decade had lead to many state governments  cutting funding for higher education as a result colleges and universities raised tuition and fees faster then the rate of inflation. A weak labor market had forced many more individuals to enter institutes of higher education. As a result over a 7 year period, the level of debt carried by current and former students has quadrupled.

The reason that there is even talk of a student debt bubble is because of another recession and weak labor environment has lead many students to be unable to pay the minimum payment for their student debt, possible the first cracks of the student debt bubble to emerge.  There have also been talks and demands for the federal government to provide a bailout to students, while some arguing that they would just encourage more reckless borrowing by students. What students need is for an improving economy and labor prospectus in order to obtain employment and be able to make student loan payments.

What many people don’t know is that there are options available for students, which would allow the government to forgive or cover a portion or all of their student debt, click here to learn more about Student Loan Forgiveness and the options available.  Overall, there hasn’t been a major out pour by the public to forgive student debt, one thing is certain the student debt can’t keep quadrupling forever, as the housing bubble has shown, bubbles have major consequences on the economy, the popping of the student debt bubble depending on when it pops will also be reverberated through the U.S. economy

NetFlix Starts a PAC

According to Politico, Netflix is starting a PAC, (FLIXPAC) The most likely target of their PAC spending will likely be directed towards the next version of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) There are a number of cybersecurity and piracy bills working their way through congress and Netflix wants to be part of the discussions and have input in the final results.
Since 2009 Netflix has increased political spending from $20,000 to over $500,000 in 2011, the creation of the FLIXPAC will only increase their political spending.
Netflix Official line during the SOPA debates was that its stance was neutral, however, any anti-piracy bill will help cut off free/cheap entertainment and by default make Netflix an attractive avenue for entertainment. It will be interesting to watch how the pac spends its money on capitol hill.

The BGA gets a little payback from the Governor

It is safe to say that the BGA isn’t exactly a huge fan of Governor Blagojevich. I’m pretty confident that he is not part of the BGA fan club.

Recently, the BGA successfully complete two years of Freedom of Information Act litigation with the Governor in which we forced him to release federal grand jury subpoenas issued to his office in the first half of 2006.

After winning at the trial court level in early 2008, we sent in a second Freedom of Information Act request asking for a broader range of subpoenas. Although we were denied at the time, after winning an appeal related to the litigation we reminded the administration early in January of this year that our second request was outstanding.

We made it clear that if our second request wasn’t complied with by the close of business on January 23, 2009 we would sue them again and the result would be the same. Thankfully the Blagojevich administration decided a second beat down in court wasn’t in their interest and gave us copies of more subpoenas.

However, before giving us the documents on the 23rd the administration helpfully gave the records many media outlets before giving them to us. In an even more generous gesture, they gave the media an even broader range of subpoenas than they gave to us (our early 2008 request only asked for subpoenas through served on the administration through January 4, 2007).

I can’t really claim to be too upset. We have been very critical of the administration and beat them in court. It is probably a bit much to expect them to extend us a courtesy. Besides, in a few days we will be rid of the Governor and that is far more important than his tweaking the BGA.

Coupons for Baby Formula

Coupons for Baby Formula

 

There are times when nursing mothers can’t or are unable to provide their babies with natural breast milk. A great solution during these times is Baby Formula.  It’s quick and easy, just add water and warm it up and when you have a baby that’s hungry and crying, especially during the middle of the night, quick and easy is your friend.   One downside to baby formula is the cost, while prices of baby formula vary by size, store and maker, they tend to average around $40 for a can.  One solution to help ease the cost of purchasing baby formula is COUPONS FOR BABY FORMULA. In order to win over buyers of baby formula, the makers over coupons, sometimes as much as 15% off the cost. Finding coupons for baby formula isn’t as hard as it used to be as there a numerous websites that now either provide coupons that can be printed and taken to the store or provide links to where you can download coupons for baby formula.  Never has there been a time where it’s been easier to find coupons for baby formula, it’s just a click of the mouse away.

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