Filed under: Borrowing, Debt, Shopping, Tax

If George W. Bush wants to do something to stimulate the economy and cement a positive legacy for himself, I’ve his magic solution right here. If he could get this done, he’d salvage his entire presidency. I’ll warn you right up front though, Democrats won’t like this idea. So, if you’re of the progressive socialist ilk, you may want to move to the next blog post right now. Here’s my plan.

If even only temporarily, we need to make the interest charged on consumer debt tax deductible. If I’m not mistaken, didn’t they do away with that consumer perk sometime in the mid seventies? If I’m right, and that was part of the old tax code, we should reinstate it immediately. If it’s a new and original idea of my own, please leave a dollar in the hat on your way out.

By making consumer credit interest charges tax deductible (again), we’d get an economic triple play. First, consumers would get excited knowing they could finance stuff again, Second, they’d get those interest charges back as tax credits. Third, banks could get a helping hand because consumers might step up their borrowing activity again. The government would just have to bite the bullet and tighten it’s belt.

There are only two facets to this plan which would require some serious attention in order to make it work. First, we have a majority of society which needs to be schooled in responsible credit usage. That means we have to teach them how to understand budgeting and what it means to over extend yourself. Second, we need a complete overhaul of the tax code from top to bottom. In fact, the enactment of a “Fair Tax” system might render this entire blog post moot.

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Reversing course, Blagojevich agrees to release ag money - WPSD TV
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Governor Rod Blagojevich has now concurred to release millions of dollars in state money he’d been withholding from agriculture agencies. Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said this day that the governor concurred to release

The Accidental Renters - Wall Street Journal
The housing slump has created another type of pain: the suffering of people who find themselves navigating a tight rental market after losing their home to foreclosure. Hundreds of thousands of former homeowners have been scrambling to find a place

TODAY’S EDITORIAL: Open Sesame - Times of India
Ever since it came into effect, the Right to Information (RTI) Act has forced the Indian say, notorious for its stonewalling ways, to open up. Now political parties are facing the heat. In a recent order, the Central Information Commission (CIC

Witness accuses Blago of tying say job to campaign cash - KWQC
CHICAGO (AP) - A man who raised money for Governor Rod Blagojevich’s campaign told Tony Rezko’s trial this day that he was surprised to hear the governor be so blunt about getting him a say job. Ali Ata (AH’-lee AH’-tuh) states the governor discussed

Robbers kill baby as mom refuses to hand over money - Express India
New Dehi, May 1 Two robbers killed a 16-month-old girl in North Delhi today when her mother refused to hand over the cash in the home and raised an alarm. The incident occurred at 11.30 am in Shehzadabad village near Inderlok Metro station. Shano

Courtroom Wire: Notes From Tony Rezko’s Corruption Trial - FOX News
CHICAGO — Real estate developer Antoin “Tony” Rezko is on trial in a Chicago federal courtroom on political corruption charges for allegedly buying influence with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s administration. Rezko doesn’t deny his role as a high

Reversing course, Blagojevich agrees to release ag money - Chicago Tribune
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - Reversing course, Gov. Rod Blagojevich concurred Thursday to release state money to agriculture programs, although it wasn’t clear if agencies would get all of the $36 million that had been tied up in a state budget standoff. The

Mothers ‘want kids with good manners’ - Daily Telegraph
They are keen to instil the importance of saying please and thank you, telling the truth, table manners and giving up seats for the elderly, it says. Three quarters of women polled felt it was appropriate to begin teaching kids how to be on their

Lawmaker says conservation, extension money will be released - Rockford Register-Star
Illinois’ soil and water conservation districts, along with University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service offices, apparently will get the millions of dollars they need to stay open through June 30. Say Sen. Deanna Demuzio, D-Carlinville

Money crisis could derail NYC tunnel, lawmakers warned - Newsday
TRENTON, N.J. - More speak but still no answers Wednesday from lawmakers on solving the New Jersey ’s looming transportation financial crisis that could threaten plans to build a new train tunnel under the Hudson River to New York City

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Filed under: Budgets, Debt, Health, Travel

As I’ve mentioned before, I used to teach college. Although I still gripe from time to time about the downsides of teaching — the poor pay, the administration, the poor pay, the push for political correctness, the poor pay — I have to admit that there were a few bright aspects. I loved working with students, I enjoyed having a huge office, and I really, really appreciated the health care.

Working for a state-supported university in Virginia, my health care was very cheap. In return for a premium of less than $100 a month, my wife, daughter, and I all received medical and dental benefits that, in retrospect, were pretty outstanding. To give you an idea, my daughter’s birth cost my wife and I less than $300; taking into account all the prenatal visits and whatnot, I think it still came out to under $500.

Recently, I’ve been having some dental work done. Now that I’m no longer employed by the say, I’ve come to realize just how great my deal was. As a further lesson, my sister has been in and out of the hospital for the past few months with a chronic liver problem that she has had since she was a baby. As an artist, she makes very little money, but, luckily, Pennsylvania’s Medicaid is outstanding, as are the programs at the Geisinger Clinic, the hospital that is treating her. Otherwise, she would probably be in debt for the rest of her life.

When I first heard about “Medical Tourism,” I thought that it was a adorable idea. However, now that I’m seeing some of the harsh realities of the U.S. healthcare system, I’m realizing that it’s a magnificent solution to one of the biggest problems currently facing America.

For a while now, many people have been traveling abroad to have elective surgery, dental work, fertility treatments, and other operations done. Given that the savings on these procedures can be 80% or more, it seems logical that uninsured individuals would choose to pursue this option.

To add to the high cost of health care, even people who are insured might find themselves being denied treatment for a variety of questionable reasons. For example, some patients have recently been denied places on the liver transplant list because they used medically-prescribed marijuana. According to the medical establishment, marijuana (unlike alcohol) has no direct effect on the liver; moreover, these patients were using marijuana under a doctor’s supervision. However, in an increasingly overburdened health-care situation, many insurers, medical boards, and even hospitals are latching on to any excuse to drop patients.

Some people reject the idea of medical tourism because they worry about the quality of the hospitals or the training of the physicians in other countries. Ironically, however, very few of my sister’s physicians were native-born Americans. Her primary surgeon was Indian, as was one of her endoscopic surgeons. Her interventional radiologist was from Germany, and another of her endoscopic surgeons was from England. Actually, of all her doctors, my sister’s only native-born one was her gastroenterologist, and he spent his winter vacation with his wife’s family in Germany! Moreover, while I can’t speak to the cleanliness of India and Singapore’s hospitals, many of the reviews that I’ve read have been complimentary. While we’re on the topic, I’ve been to some pretty filthy hospitals in the U.S. In fact, my wife and I elected to have my daughter born at a hospital located an hour from our home because the one in my town was infested with flies.

One interesting development in the Medical Tourism front is Hannaford’s current adoption of overseas surgery. A supermarket chain, Hannaford Brothers has begun offering employees the option of having hip replacements performed at a hospital in Singapore. This particular operation runs between $40,000 and $60,000 in the U.S., but costs about 75% less in Singapore, even record-keeping for the cost of airfare for two, hotel charges, and room and board for a traveling companion. Looking at the savings, it’s hardly surprising that 150,000 Americans elected to have medical procedures performed in other countries last year, nor is it shocking that Hannaford has started outsourcing some of its medical care. I wonder how long it will be before other companies follow suit.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. He’s thinking about going to Indonesia to have some Komodo dragon venom injected into the wrinkles on his forehead.

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Filed under: Internet, Web services, Social Software, web 2.0

While the Firefox 3 web browser is still in beta, it offers a ton of features that you won’t find in Firefox 2. There’s full page zoom, full history search, and vastly improved speed and performance with many web services. But there’s a downside: many add-ons designed for earlier versions of Firefox won’t work with Firefox 3 beta. This week that list got a little bit shorter as social bookmarking service del.icio.us released a beta version of a Firefox 3 plugin.

For the most part, the plugin works just like the Firefox 2 plugin, allowing users to quickly tag pages or open a sortable list of bookmarks and tabs in their Firefox sidebar. But there are a few new features includng a new layout for saving bookmarks, a status bar showing network activity, and the ability to jump to tags by pressing F2.

[via Mashable]

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Choosing to go commando - News.com.au
WITH David Jones’ new darling, Miranda Kerr, dominating the fashion headlines this week, the store wars had gone a little quiet on the Myer front. That is until Jennifer Hawkins engaged commando tactics at an A-list party to launch the Jimmy Choo

New Report Forecasts Growth of 4.5% in the Polish Commercial Banking - Earthtimes
DUBLIN, Ireland - (Business Wire) Research and Markets ( http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c90562 ) has announced the addition of Poland Commercial Banking Report Q1 2008 to their offering. The Poland Commercial Banking Report provides

Morgan Stanley Expands Global High-Tech Operations with Center in - MSN MoneyCentral
Jim Rosenthal, a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley, said, “We are delighted to expand our internal operations in Montreal, one of Canada’s leading financial centers that is well regarded for its highly skilled talent base. We look forward to

Jen Hawkins no knickers frock shock - News.com.au
JENNIFER Hawkins frocked up to the Jimmy Choo store launch in Sydney wearing a see-through number - with no knickers. Well, what’s a girl to do, check it out. Despite banking a lucrative underwear endorsement deal, Jen confirmed, through her

UPDATE 1-Goldman converts $1.3 bln Sumitomo Mitsui shares - Reuters
TOKYO/NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N: Quote , Profile , Research ) converted a third of its preferred shares in Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (8316.T: Quote , Profile , Research ), Japan’s third

First National Lincoln Corporation Changes Name to The First Bancorp - Forbes
First National Lincoln Corporation (Nasdaq: FNLC), today announced its shareholders voted overwhelmingly at the 2008 Annual Meeting in favor of changing the name of the Company to The First Bancorp, Inc. “We feel this is in the best interest of the

Bank of America Launches Asiana Airlines Credit Card with American - MSN MoneyCentral
WILMINGTON, Del., Might 1 /PRNewswire/ — Asiana Airlines, Bank of America, and American Express this day announced the launch of the new Asiana American Express(R) Card from Bank of America. The card provides two miles per dollar on each day purchases

Mexico’s Banking System seen facing a challenging 2008 - S&P - Forbes
MUMBAI (Thomson Financial) - Standard & Poor’s stated 2008 is going to be a challenging year for Mexico’s banking system, following a good 2007 and stellar 2006, because of a global liquidity squeeze, slowdown in the U.S. and increasing non-performing

FTSE up as miners buoy and banks dip - International Herald Tribune
LONDON : The FTSE turned positive midway through Thursday, as miners rose and banking stocks headed south with major continental European stock markets shut for the Labour Day holiday. At 11:39 a.m. the FTSE 100 edged up 14.2 points, or 0.2 percent

Chinese banks report lowest ever NPL ratio in 2007 - Xinhua News Agency
BEIJING, May 1 (Xinhua) — The non-performing loans (NPL) ratio of Chinese commercial banks fell to its lowest-ever level of 6.2 percent in 2007, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC). The ratio was 0.93 percentage points lower

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Filed under: Banks, Budgets, Cards, Debt, Home, The Dolans

Ken and Daria Dolan, America’s First Family of Personal Finance, answer your money questions every Friday.

Dear Ken and Daria,

My husband and I’ve $7,000 in credit card debt. Should we take out a home equity loan?

Lyndajoy

Ken and Daria Dolan offer advice on all of your debt concerns at their Credit Resource Center.

Click here to ask Ken and Daria your question.

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Filed under: Debt, Home, Recession

I’ve had a couple close calls over the years, but happily, I’ve never had the experience of having anything repossessed. But if anyone reading this has had something hauled away, if it makes you feel any better, you’re obviously not alone on this.

In this almost-but-not-quite recession our economy is mired in, repo men have some enviable careers right now. Newspapers around the country have been publishing stories about local repo men raking in the bucks, taking away mostly cars, from vehicles to campers, and motorcycles to motor boats. According to KHOU, a Houston TV news station, $1.5 million cars were repossessed last year, a 15-percent increase from 2006. 2008 is expected to jump 10 percent from 2007.

But you can’t really blame the repo men. They didn’t create the current economic conditions, and they are just doing their job, and while I’m sure they’re glad to be making extra money (who wouldn’t want that?), I doubt these guys are getting their kicks off another person’s misery. Besides, somebody’s gotta do it.
But what is a little creepy is what Cesar Dias, a California real estate agent, is doing, no offense meant to the guy. Obviously, he’s a capitalist, and that’s great, but it’s not like his money-making venture was something the world was clamoring for. In any case… each Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., he takes three sold-out full-sized buses of interested buyers on a tour of all the repossessed homes in and around Stockton, California.

Meanwhile, Dias has been consulting other real estate agents at $5,000 a pop, so they have the ability to make an informed decision whether they should rent or buy a bus and get listed on his Web site, RepoHomeTour.com.

But it seems care about it would have to be one of the saddest bus rides and money-making ventures going, if you really think about it. Owning a home is supposed to be the American dream. The people on the bus will be easier able to fulfill their American dreams because a lot of others failed to make their own come true.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle’s Extraordinary Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).

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