Variable student loan rates drop to record lows

If you happen to have a federal Stafford or PLUS Loan issued on or after July 1, 1998 but before July 1, 2006, you’re in the golden window. That’s because starting July 1, 2009, the interest rates on these loans (which reset each July 1st) will drop to the lowest rates in the history of [...]

What do the numbers really mean?

The most recent weekly unemployment statistics show that the four-week average of new claims fell by 7,000, and continuing claims–people who have lost a job but haven’t yet found a new one–saw their first weekly decline since Jan. 3, to 6.687 million.
The stats might be a little more useful if the continuing claims number contained one [...]

Bring back 1933

Stock markets seem to be remarkably capable of shaking off any worries since the closing lows of March 9. Though it’s just shy of positive territory and continues to be the laggard year-to-date, the Dow is up 48.75% since its low, while the Nasdaq is up 46.13%. By contrast, the S&P 500 is up just shy [...]

Who would have thought it necessary

for the Section 409A regulations to address what happens when the US government obtains control of a US company… Well, the IRS didn’t back then, but it has now.
One of the events that can trigger a distribution from a nonqualified deferred compensation plan governed by Section 409A is a change in ownership of effective control [...]

Keep Big Papi or GM?

Red Sox former slugger, David (Big Papi) Ortiz is mired in a terrible slump. Former US auto making giant, GM is mired in a terrible slump. If you had to make a choice, who would you keep: Big Papi or GM? Both have histories of tremendous production. Then again, past performance is no indication of [...]

Getting the First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit to buy the house

The First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit is an IRS tax credit for qualified first-time homebuyers that purchase a principal residence before December 1, 2009. It’s for 10 percent of the purchase price of the home, up to a cap of $8,000. While this is a boon to many first-time homebuyers, it hasn’t been much of a [...]

The more things change, the more they remain the same

With GM dropping the other shoe today, I can’t help remembering a snippet of dialogue from Hitchock’s “Rear Window.” Here’s Thelma Ritter as a private nurse talking about a former patient:
“Kidney ailment, they said. Nerves, I said. And I asked myself, ‘What’s General Motors got to be nervous about?’ Overproduction, I says. Collapse. When General [...]