Yes and no. They can not do things related to work for periods of time, often long periods, but not if something big goes on or anything important goes on. They are responsible if anything, anything at all, that happens if shit hits the fan. The CEO is more responsible for strategy than anything else, not day-to-day, so yes, they can just leave...unless something happens.  Sure, 99.9+% of the time the COO or regional/segment managers at various levels are dealing with anything that comes up instead of them, just sending them updates, but CEOs are ultimately responsible for this. CEOs travel, get breakfast with customers/suppliers/investors and don't look at their phone for hours at a time. But someone knows where/how to find them or they are in contact soon enough. They can't go AWOL and be out of contact for long.


From every article I've encountered, the chicken and egg aspect suggests that IV is produced by looking at options pricing, and calculating the IV from that.  The implication is that whatever is known at that time is included in the price. And that when you see a particular option trade an unusual number of contracts at a given price, the implication is that someone thinks they know something that's not already priced in, i.e. that the current price is not accurate, they can profit on the future event.


Credit card companies charge merchants for accepting their cards.  They'll take their cut and give you some of the fee back as a reward.   So, in reality merchants have increased their prices to accommodate for the credit card processing fees. The credit card takes a bit of their fee and gives you back some of the money you wouldn't have spent if there were no fees for using a credit card.


"Senate vs. House Health-Care bills.  Summarized from bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-22/republicans-health-care-bills-boil-down-to-more-obamacare  1) Reduces  subsidies from eligibility from 400 percent of the federal poverty line which is a hair under $100,000 a year for a family of four to 350 percent of the poverty line which is about $86,000.  2) Reduces premium subsidies which determines the subsidy level which should cover about 70 percent of anticipated health expenses -- to one with an actuarial value of 58 percent causing people to opt for plans with higher deductibles. To offset effects on the elderly the bill  changes the subsidy formula to account for age.  3) Obamacare's  growth subsidy cap on premium subsidies  changed from 0.504 percent of GDP 0.4 percent of GDP meaning program cap  is more likely to hit cutting subsidies to some groups.  4) Eliminates the individual and employer mandates  may  destabilize the Obamacare exchanges and subsidies.  5) Restricts the already small abortion coverage.  6) Ends the cost-sharing reductions  that lowered out-of-pocket expenditures for people making less than 250 percent of the federal poverty line not  funded since Republicans took over Congress. The bill pays the insurers the money they’ve been owed. Ending the program makes Obamacare significantly less attractive for the folks whose policies are so heavily subsidized.  7) States given  a great deal more flexibility expedite waiver program with less interference from federal regulators.  8) Eliminates many Obamacare taxes on everything from tanning to high earners.  The “Cadillac tax” on pricey employer-sponsored insurance postponed until 2026 ending an attempt  to curtail our nation’s hog-wild tax subsidies for employer-sponsored insurance.  Presumably, senators are keeping the tax in after Doing so reduces the apparent cost of a full repeal.  9) Market stabilization funds designed  to keep the dreaded “death spiral” from happening by dealing with the major problem driving costs on the exchanges: very sick people.  Details on this are sketchy, because states are expected to design programs to meet the goal.  If it works, it has the potential to substantially improve the sustainability of the exchanges.  10) Winds down the Medicaid expansion funding … but not as fast as the House bill.   11) It also makes people below the poverty threshold eligible to buy exchange policies with subsidies. This coverage is not as generous as Medicaid; it will probably involve substantial deductibles and copayments. But the premiums are capped at 2 percent of family income, which for a single person making exactly the federal poverty line would be about $20 a month.   12) Converts Medicaid to a per-capita allotment rather than an open-ended entitlement.  Like the House bill, the Senate bill changes the program to a per-beneficiary grant based on previous spending levels.  It’s not the ""block-granting"" of supply-sider dreams, but it’s close. This will give states heavy incentives to keep program growth in check especially with future payment growth will be indexed to general inflation, rather than the higher medical inflation. States can also apply to switch to a block grant formula, or to implement a work requirement for Medicaid recipients."


"A reason to get an accountant is to avoid penalties for possible mistakes. That is, if you make a mistake, the IRS can impose penalties on you for negligence. If the professional makes the SAME mistake, the burden of proof for ""negligence"" shifts to the IRS, which probably means that you'll pay more taxes and interest, but NO penalties; hiring an accountant is prima facie evidence of NOT being negligent. I would get an accountant since this the first time for you in the present situation, when mistakes are most likely. If you feel that s/he did the same for you that you would have done for yourself, then you might go back to doing your own taxes in later years."


Pet peeve, but bananas and apples aren't GMOs. I have absolutely nothing against GE, and indeed, I think it's awesome in the abstract, but the term means more than just any genetically modified organism  (which is pretty much all of them).


"A few points that I would note: Call options - Could the bond be called away by the issuer? This is something to note as some bonds may end up not being as good as one thought because of this option that gets used. Tax considerations - Are you going for corporate, Treasury, or municipals? Different ones may have different tax consequences to note if you aren't holding the bond in a tax-advantaged account,e.g. Roth IRA, IRA or 401k. Convertible or not? - Some bonds are known as ""convertibles"" since the bond comes with an option on the stock that can be worth considering for some kinds of bonds. Inflation protection - Some bonds like TIPS or series I savings bonds can have inflation protection built into them that can also be worth understanding. In the case of TIPS, there are principal adjustments while the savings bond will have a change in its interest rate. Default risk - Some of the higher yield bonds may have an issuer go under which is another way one may end up with equity in a company rather than getting their money back. On the other side, for some municipals one could have the risk of the bond not quite being as good as one thought like some Detroit bonds that may end up in a different result given their bankruptcy but there are also revenue bonds that may not meet their target for another situation that may arise. Some bonds may be insured though this requires a bit more research to know the credit rating of the insurer. As for the latter question, what if interest rates rise and your bond's value drops considerably? Do you hold it until maturity or do you try to sell it and get something that has a higher yield based on face value?"


What are the consequences if I ignore the emails? That would depend on how much efforts the collection agency is ready to put in. I got a social security number when I took up on campus jobs at the school and I do have a credit score. Can they get a hold of this and report to the credit bureaus even though I don't live in America? Possibly yes, they may already be doing it. Will they know when I come to America and arrest me at the border or can they take away my passport? For this, they would have to file a civil case in the court and get an injunction to arrest you. Edit: Generally it is unlikely that the court may grant an arrest warrant, unless in specific cases. A lawyer advise would be more appropriate. End Edits It is possible that the visa would also get rejected as you would have to declare previous visits and credit history is not good.


For those without a couple hours to digest this - this paper describes how they've been able to measure the secondary effects of credit default swap agreements between banks, and how when the losses materialize in one bank, it can affect the creditworthiness of others protecting it.


The shareholders elect the board of directors who in turn appoint a CEO. The CEO is responsible for the overall running of the company. To answer your specific questions: Yes, Steve Jobs could make decisions that are harmful to the well-being of the company.  However, it's the responsibility of the board of directors to keep his decisions and behavior in check. They will remove him from his position if they feel he could be a danger to the company.


The thing that gets so many people is that multilevel marketing isn't inherently a scam. It has all of the potential that they try to sell you on. It just so happens that every friend you have doesn't have an infinite supply of friend networks completely unrelated to anyone you know, so once you get three or four people in the same area in on an MLM, or if you try to join not realizing that there are already people in on it, and ESPECIALLY if you get in on MLM without knowing ANYTHING about he product aside from the MLM opportunities for your potential marks, or without knowing anything about sales in general, then people start getting screwed.  MLM is cancer.


Whether it is Venetian lime based plaster, or polished plaster from Italy, Giorgio Graesan & Friends has been a well known brand. The products of the brand, previously only available in Italy, are now brought to consumers around the globe by Stucco Veneziano.


It looks more like someone is trying to pocket the spread.  The trades are going off at the bid then the ask (from what I can tell without any L1 and L2 data, but the spread could be bigger than what the prices show, since the stock looks pretty volatile given the difference between current price and VWAP...).  Looking through the JSE rule books I didn't find any special provisions on how they handle odd lots in their Central Order Book, but the usual practice in other markets is to display only round lot orders. So these 4 share orders would remain hidden from book participants and could be set there to trigger executions from those who are probing for limit orders. Or to make a market with very limited risk.


Cool.  I used Netflix for awhile and liked it also.  I stopped using it because the DVD content was limited.  Also I can't run their app's on linux.  So I can't do the streaming.  Anyway $10/month beats my comcast bill of $100/mo for cable.


In general, just make sure you are on the same page as them. For example, are they supplying the antlers at cost? If their product manager asks for too large a cut of the profits of the product line, they may decide it makes sense to sell the antler to the side business at a higher markup. Or they may find someone else willing to take the product manager job for a lower ownership stake.  Either way, good luck and be sure to get your agreement down on paper somewhere.


That's fine, I realized 50% in the first couple months of the year, sold.. bought back in when it dipped, and that's gained another 50%. I believe in the overall product, clean energy isn't going away, and Tesla is paving the way in many industries. It will compete with the likes of Amazon in the next 10 years, Elon is showing results in every market he enters.


"Previously (prior to Capital One acquisition -- it's kind of like K-Mart buying Sears) Sharebuilder offered 12 automatic (i.e. pre-scheduled) stock purchases per month if you subscribed to their $12/mo ""Advantage"" plan. So, 12 trades for $1 a trade. Great deal. Except then they flattened their pricing to everyone's acclaim (that is, everyone except for the non-millionaire casual investors) and jacked it up to $4 per automatic investment. As far as I know, Sharebuilder's 12 no-fee investments for $12/mo was rather unique in the online trading world -- and now it's very sadly extinct. They do have no-fee mutual fund investing, however, for what it's worth."


"People do not take the time to get to know you, and find out what you know (or not) before hiring you.  They are lazy.  And they are cowards.  They will hire only someone who appears to have the right credentials, got it?  There is no reason for them to put themselves on the line by telling corporate they ""have a hunch"" you'll be a good employee.  Almost guarenteed not to happen.  You have to make it easy for the person to hire you.  And that means you gotta get the degree."


Even if Tesla ends up breaking even or taking a small loss on their cars, they will still end up in the black selling batteries. Tesla wants people to believe they're a car company, and people have fallen for it. They are not though; they're a battery company. They will be making loads selling their batteries, not only to auto makers, but though Solar city as well.


Yoooooo you pissed??? At least have the courtesy of leaving a TL;DR cus that's exactly what I did.   I worry about myself and my family. We're capable of picking and paying for the insurance coverage that works best for us. I don't like the idea of being forced to buy something I don't want. Worse yet, I wouldn't like paying for some drug addict/lazy asshole who can't get a job to get medical care with my money indirectly   Anyway, thanks for the rant. Introduced me to some new ideas that I don't agree with, but I always like hearing multiple sides of the argument.


It's the maturation of the ads market. Ads are utilizing ML to become more targeted. In fantasyland we wouldn't have ads, but this is not how the real world works. Websites and content production cost money, and ads provide money. You don't seem to grasp this fundamental reality of the market. Until you are willing to either pay directly via subscriptions, or indirectly through pimping out your internet bandwidth and data caps (this one isn't going to happen, because websites fundamentally do not work through a fully-decentralized model), you are going to be targeted by ads. Full stop.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.alternet.org/food/some-government-programs-are-basically-slush-funds-beef-and-pork-industries-some-lawmakers-are) reduced by 84%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Two pairs of ideological opposites introduced bills in the U.S. House and Senate earlier this year-Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., in the Senate, and Dave Brat, R-Va., and Dina Titus, D-Nev., in the House-to reform a series of federal government programs that have too often taken on the character of slush funds for the beef and pork industries.  > Their legislation, the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming Act, would prevent the U.S. Department of Agriculture and agribusiness trade groups-including the National Cattlemen&#039;s Beef Association and the National Pork Producers Council-from diverting tens of millions of dollars a year to salaries, lobbying, and other inappropriate and impermissible activities through the national checkoff programs.  > &quot;Farmers should have guarantees these programs are working for them, and shouldn&#039;t have their hard-earned money going toward a slush fund for big ag.""   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/6onbzi/some_government_programs_are_basically_slush/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~172247 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **farm**^#1 **federal**^#2 **checkoff**^#3 **fund**^#4 **program**^#5"


> It's still free money from US to build a system for THEM so they can sell the power back to us at a profit.  Sure, because otherwise they can't make a profit and thus wouldn't build the system.  That's the point in subsidises.


"At first, I thought this might be too broad.  There are of course thousands of things that you can do with your money to ""help the economy"".  But I think that there is room to discuss some broad strokes without trying to list a thousand details.   Regular investing (as you are now) helps the economy in that companies obtain money by selling their stock.  They can then use that money to fund expansion, etc.  These things can help the economy permanently.  Of course, they can also use the money to pay executive bonuses, which don't help the economy so much.   Similarly, just spending money does not normally help the economy.  Unless we are in a recession, it is mildly harmful to spend wastefully.  Money that could be going to support long term improvements in production instead is used to buy a luxury that doesn't terribly interest you.  I.e. if you don't want a bigger house or a more luxurious car don't buy it to ""stimulate"" the economy.   Many charitable donations have the same problem.  They help short term consumption somewhere.  And of course the charity starts asking you for more money.  Many charities waste most of a donation trying to get another one from the same person or family.   Sir John Maynard Keynes proposed that the best thing that people could do to help the economy is to invest in things that cause economic activity in turn.  He was mostly talking about things like roads, bridges, and dams that are out of the investing range of most people, so he wanted governments to do it, particularly during a recession.   So we are looking for ways to invest in durable improvements that will support economic activity in the future.  A million dollars is a small amount for many things, but there are some activities that work.  I'm going to list a few examples, but there are certainly others:   Fund microfinance.  Basically loan your million dollars to people who need a small amount of money.  These programs often allow you to determine the initial recipient and then that person determines the next recipient.  A million dollars can finance hundreds if not thousands of these loans.  They may be in the United States or in a developing country.   Set up a scholarship.  My recommendation would be to find an existing scholarship with a few recipients and ask them to add one a year for the million dollars.  A million dollars should typically produce about a scholarship a year in returns after inflation.  Of course, that's just regular inflation.  Education inflation is higher.   Solar prize.  Fund a program that gives out one solar installation every year or five to a family that owns a house, is struggling to pay utilities, and makes a compelling case.  Basically, whenever the investment grows enough to support it, make a new prize.   Buy something that will help other people make money.   This is just six ideas off the top of my head.  The goal here is to create something lasting that will promote economic activity.  So a program that loans money forward.  Or a scholarship or free textbook, particularly in a STEM field.  A small piece of infrastructure that helps people move around to work or spend their money.  Solar is a bit of a stretch here, but it can be justified if you believe that an investment now is an investment in moving towards the future.   The key thing here is to make your money do double duty.  By spending your money during a recession or investing during the rest of the business cycle, you can get some value for your money.  But even better is if that spending has a societal return as well.  Microfinance, scholarships, and infrastructure do that.  There is the immediate spending, plus there is the effect of the spending.  A business is established.  A mind is trained and working at a high income job.  People can move, work, and spend their own money."


I am not a Republican conservative. I would begin cutting the budget at the Pentagon, the NSA, and the CIA. I would eliminate Homeland Security and give the salvageable parts to the FBI. You could easily cut 500 billion right there without touching social spending.  Then I would shutter the Depts of Interior, Education, Commerce and Agriculture. There you have another 100 Billion  At that point you demand 15% cuts of the remaing departments, another 75 billion and then you attack the 3 big problems, which are medicare, medicaid and SS. Medicare and Social Security should have the minimum age raised now to 67. Medicaid must be much more difficult to qualify for.   Problem solved. Budget balanced. Foreign adventurism terminated.


As I sat in my office viewing the Reside Feed from Facebook’s F8 Convention final week, I quickly saw the brand new Timeline being significantly like an [online scrapbook](http://www.scrapgirls.com/). I love to scrapbook and also have gotten with each other with friends to share stamps, templates and also other elaborations for by textbooks.


So you're fine with curtailing free speech just because you're unhappy with the way they're treating Trump? What kind of over-sensitive snowflake bullshit is this? Unfair? He's the leader of the nation, he should act like it and show some resilience and strength and instead of crying about 'waaah they don't like me!' and banning dissenting voices.  You think Reagan or Bush would do any of that?


BigBOX specialty stores can't compete with Walmart and Walmart can't compete with Amazon and Amazon won't be able to compete with China's Alibaba and Alibaba Express. Let Walmart and Amazon fold and you will see the rise of the independent retailers... we have to start producing our own products and taxing Chinese imports to level the playing field for American businesses. This is one MONOPOLY everyone in congress seems to NOT  recognize.


">I for one cannot understand why government workers (including Police, Sheriff, Fire, Highway Patrol, etc..) deserve a pension of 80% or more after working 20+ years.  Because (a) workers are pretty sure that government will be around N years down the road, so will accept pensions from it, and (b) it's usually cheaper in terms of political cost to give a government worker an IOU and say ""my successor will pay you the rest of what we agreed to pay you years down the road, and coming up with the funds will be his problem""."


"https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/01/18/study_finds_large_numbers_of_college_students_don_t_learn_much  Unfortunately modern liberal arts education isn't promoting critical thinking skills like it did in the past, especially for Education, Social Science, and Business majors.  Also, I know plenty of people with trade/vocational backgrounds who work for themselves, and are arguably less of a ""slave"" than many social science/humanities majors."


"Real estate ownership doesn't work the same way in China as it does in the West. Some significant difference I see:   * China doesn't have property tax, so empty apartments are treated as assets by individuals, no tax liability.  * A lot of people buy 2nd/3rd home and not rent them out. Their purpose feels more like buying preferred stock - ownership with expectation of neighborhood (~company) would prosper, but no direct contribution to the neighborhood (~no voting in the company) * Local governments raise funds by developing landing into real estate.  * Local government would collectivize old real estate for redevelopment, usually at some reasonable rate (tho less equitable in some ""corrupt"" areas) * Ownership is not permanent. It is on paper 50-70 years depending on the place.   Not saying there aren't problems with this system, just that signals that would cause US real estate to collapse might not do the same for China. I do want to see someone run some social behavioral model about how those differences would play out.   Source: my family owns 2 apartments in a 2nd-tier Chinese city."


"Is investing a good idea with a low amount of money? Yes. I'll take the angle that you CAN invest in penny stocks. There's nothing wrong with that. The (oversimplified) suggestion I would make is to answer the question about your risk aversion. This is the four quadrant (e.g.,  http://njaes.rutgers.edu:8080/money/riskquiz/) you are introduced to when you first sit down to open your brokerage (stocks) or employer retirement account (401K). Along with a release of liability in the language of ""past performance is not an indicator..."" (which you will not truly understand until you experience a market crash). The reason I say this is because if you are 100% risk averse, then it is clear which vehicles you want to have in your tool belt; t-bills, CDs, money market, and plain vanilla savings. Absolutely nothing wrong with this. Don't let anyone make you feel otherwise with remarks like ""your money is not working for you sitting there"". It's extremely important to be absolutely honest with yourself in doing this assessment, too. For example, I thought I was a risk taker except when the market tumbled, I reacted exactly how a knee-jerk investor would. Also, I feel it's not easy to know just how honest you are with yourself as we are humans, and not impartial machines. So the recommendation I would give is to make a strong correlation to casino gambling. In other words, conventional advice is to only take ""play money"" to the casino. This because you assume you WILL lose it. Then you can enjoy yourself at the casino knowing this is capital that you are okay throwing in the trash.  I would strongly caution you to only ever invest capital in the stock market that you characterize as play money. I'm convinced financial advisors, fund managers, friends will disagree. Still, I feel this is the only way you will be completely okay when the market fluctuates -- you won't lose sleep. IF you choose this approach, then you can start investing any time. That five drachma you were going to throw away on lottery tickets? transfer it into your Roth IRA. That twenty yen that you were going to ante in your weekly poker night? transfer it into your index fund. You already got past the investors remorse of (losing) that money. IF you truly accept that amount as play money, then you CAN put it into penny stocks. I'll get lots of criticism here. However, I maintain that once you are truly okay with throwing that cash away (like you would drop it into a slot machine), then it's the same whether you lose it one way or in another investment vehicle."


Of course this ignores that fact the companies remit some pretty hefty VAT (Value Added Taxes) when they sell all there stuff. There is a  20% VAT on what they sell, then subtract the VAT of the stuff they buy, and I'll ballpark they are sending a good 10% of Gross (So 300 million Pounds) to Her Majesty's Treasury every year. Not bad for selling overpriced coffee.


A decade ago my main source of overdraft fees was due to the length of time between a purchase and the money actually being drafted out of my account; I just couldn't keep track of my balance at any given point in time without a ledger, which I wasn't going to keep. These days I have my bank account set up to text me whenever I make a purchase, and most of the time I receive that text within two minutes of receiving my receipt. It's much more up to the minute and I can keep easy mental tally.  Plus I'm much better off than I was when I was 20... #dictated


"The more I think about this the more I think you are actually better off letting it go to collections. At least then you would be able to agree an affordable repayment schedule based on your real budget, and having a big dent in your credit score because it's gone to collections doesn't actually put you in any worse position (in terms of acquiring credit in the future) than you are now.  Whoever is the creditor on your original loan is (IMO) quite unreasonable demanding a payment in full on a given date, especially given that you say you've only been made aware of this debt recently. The courts are usually much more reasonable about this sort of thing and recognise that a payment plan over several years with an affordable monthly payment is MUCH more likely to actually get the creditor their money back than any other strategy. They will also recognise and appreciate that you have made significant efforts to obtain the money. I'm also worried about your statement about how panicked and ""ready to give up"" you are. Is there someone you can talk to? Around here (UK) we have debt counselling bureaus - they can't help with money for the actual debt itself, but they can help you with strategies for dealing with debt and will explain all parts of the process to you, what your rights and responsibilities are if it does go to court, etc. If you have something similar I suggest you contact them, even just to speak to someone and find out that this isn't the end of the world. It's a sucky situation but in a few years you'll be able to look back and at least laugh wryly at it."


Why are they trying to demonize Seth Klarman. He's a value investor buying distressed assets, not some nefarious puppet master. Is having their bonds fail better for Puerto Rico or anyone? Seth Klarman didn't bankrupt Puerto Rico. You can't make someone take a loan, and a default is bad for all parties so why the finger pointing.


For aggregate demand:  we've built an economy that depended on credit to fuel demand so it should be no surprise that a correction in the market slowing down demand because its not easy to get credit as much as it used to.  Economic growth should be built on productivity and savings not endless credit.  For interest rates:  Companies are no longer expanding because they have already over expanded.  Over the past few decades companies have been enticed with cheap rates, encouraged by the fed and governments, to capitalize their productivity to supply an inflated/manipulated demand.  If it wasn't for all of this cheap rates, producers would not have incorrectly over capitalized.  For currency:  We live in a world where many of the products we buy/sell are made with imported and domestic parts.  So cheapening our currency will also increase the prices of the goods we buy at Walmart, Best Buy, Apple stores etc.  If we lived in a country/society where domestic products are truly domestic made and resourced then there would be some benefit to devalue our currency for gain of export.  Besides, like you said, I doubt other countries are just going to sit idle and watch us continue printing money to make our dollar worth less... they will respond the same way.  Regarding supply and demand, it is a circle... so supply needs to also be cheap enough to encourage people to demand it.  So giving money to people so they spend it is not going to fix anything.  For Gators:  Go Gators!


aptera got over 100 mpg and was not a hybrid.  it was available in gas or pure electric.  it needed no change infrastructure at all. It was classified as a motorcycle. (all three wheelers are and there are huge numbers of three wheelers onthe road.)


I'm going to diverge from most of the opinions expressed here. It is common for financial advisors to assume that your portfolio should become less risky as you get older.  Explanations for this involve hand-waving and saying that you can afford to lose money when young because you have time to make up for it later.  However, the idea that portfolios should become less risky as you get older is not well-grounded in finance theory.  According to finance theory, regardless of your age and wealth, returns are desirable and risk is undesirable.  Your risk aversion is the only factor that should decide how much risk you put in your portfolio. Do people become more risk averse as they get older?  Sometimes.  Not always.  In fact, there are theoretical reasons why people might want more aggressive portfolios as they age.  For example: As people become wealthier they generally become less risk averse. Young people are not normally very wealthy. When you are young, most of your wealth is tied up in the value of your human capital.  This wealth shifts into your portfolio as you age. Depending on your field, human capital can be extremely risky--much riskier than the market.  Therefore to maintain anything like a constant risk profile over your life, you may want very safe investments when young.  You mention being a hedge fund manager.  If we enter a recession, your human capital will take a huge hit because you will have a hard time raising money or getting/keeping a job.  No one will value your skills and your future career prospects will fall. You will not want the double whammy of large losses in your portfolio. Hedge fund managers are clear examples of people who will want a very safe personal portfolio during their early working years and may be willing to invest very aggressively in their later working and early retirement years. In short, the received wisdom that portfolios should start out risky and get safer as we age is not always, and perhaps not even usually, true.  A better guide to how much risk you should have in your portfolio is how you respond to questions that directly measure your risk aversion.  This questions ask things like how much you would pay to avoid the possibility of a 20% loss in your portfolio with a certain probability.


Hey man. First of all, having a firm understanding in SE is a blessing! Finance firms are actively looking to hire with software engineering skills from tech. The closer to your background skills, the easier it will be to get a job. If you don't want to be a programming drone for Goldman, i'd say algo trading or being a quant at a hedge fund would be an awesome gjg. If you definitely want to do investment banking (m&a/ibd), focus on spinning your story and background targeting tech companies.   Just make sure you know why you want to go into finance and that role vs SE. Make sure you truly try to understand what investment banking/algo trading is and can explain it to your grandma. Above all, network, network, network. Good luck.


As others have stated, it will be very difficult for you to turn your friend around. He has already demonstrated great commitment. What can I do? There may be other people (perhaps mutual friends of you and this man) who are in danger. He may try to get them into this (as he apparently tried to with you). If this was me, I would try to warn the mutual friends of me and him. It's easier to get to them before they have been exposed to the brainwashing. So I would: Yes, I realize this means you're going behind his back, talking to his friends, etc. But I believe these people also deserve to be warned. They are in danger of being adversely affected by what he is doing.


is There Anyway I can Avoid losing 6-10% per Trade. As My Current Investment House Has Charged & will Be taking 5% hit quarterly If Left Untouched  Stop trading penny stocks.  Take your investment elsewhere and put it in a low-fee index fund ETF.  You'll probably get a better return on your money.


The company's value (which should be reflected in the share price) is not how much money it has in the bank, but something along the lines of 'how much money will it make between now and the end of times' (adjusted for time value of money and risk). So when you purchase a share of a company that has, say, little money in the bank, but expects to make 1M$ profit this year, 2M$ for the following 3 years, and say, nothing after, you are going to pay your fraction of 7M$ (minus some discount because of the risk involved). If now they announce that their profits were only 750k$, then people may think that the 2M$ are more likely to be 1.5M$, so the company's value would go to ~ 5M$. And with that, the market may perceive the company as more risky, because its profits deviated from what was expected, which in turn may reduce the company's value even further.


Mods decided to leave it here, so I'll summarize some of my answers on this question given @OnStartups. You can find them here, here and here. Your options are : You and your business are one and the same. You report your income and expenses for taxes on a Schedule C (for each sole proprietorship a separate schedule), and taxed at your personal rates. There's no liability protection or legal separation between you and your business, and you don't need to have any bureaucratic overhead of managing an entity. You can use your own bank account and have checks written to you directly. You can register for DBA if you want a store-front name to be different from your own name. Depending on State, can cost a lot or close to nothing. Provides certain liability protection (depending on State, single-member and multi-member LLC's may have different liability protections). You can chose to be taxed as either a sole-proprietor (partnership, for multi-member) or as a corporation. You have to separate your activities, have a separate bank account, and some minimal bureaucracy is required to maintain the entity. Benefits include the limited liability, relatively easy to add partners to the business or sell it as a whole, and provides for separation of your personal and business finances. Drawbacks - bureaucracy, additional fees and taxes (especially in CA), and separation of assets. Corporation is an entirely separate entity from yourself, files its own tax returns, has separate bank accounts and is run by the board of directors (which in some cases may require more than 1 person to be on the board, check your state laws on that). As an officer of the corporation you'll have to pay salary to yourself. S-Corp has the benefit of pass-through taxation, C-Corp doesn't and has double taxation. Benefits - liability protection, can sell shares to investors, legally distinct entity. Disadvantages - have to deal with payroll, additional accounting, significant bureaucracy and additional layer of taxes for C-Corp (double taxation). Selling corporate assets is always a taxable event (although in your case it is probably not of an importance). You have to talk to a lawyer in your state about the options re the liability protection and how to form the entities. The formation process is usually simple and straight forward, but the LLC/Partnership operating agreements and Corporation charters/bylaws must be drafted by a lawyer if you're not going to be the sole owner (even if you are - better get a lawyer draft something for you, its just easier to fix and change things when you're the sole owner).  You have to talk to a CPA/EA in your state about the taxes and how the choice of entity affects them.


/ in relative to the Tesla's performance, and current inflation.  They can split and reverse split at anytime the board decides without any regard to inflation or performance.   OP points to Tesla at 350- he doesn't point to PE. It makes no differences what the price of one share is. If they split 10 for 1 it would be 35- but what difference does that make- the PE remains the same. OP does not understand value- only price.


Probably, but it's almost certain that the legal and tax opinions really on assumptions of how the business was operated (without independent verification) and it sounds like they may have not actually been operating in the manner required for the tax structure to work.


"Google that ""valid for work..."" phrase. You'll find that you have a SSN;  it is valid for many purposes;  it is valid for obtaining work, only when accompanied by DHS authorization. Doesn't anyone know how to use commas anymore?"


"The common way to frame the ""should I sell"" question is ask yourself ""would you buy it today at the current price"".  If you wouldn't,  sell it. Is sounds like this may be a paper certificate.  You will have to research how to present the certificate to a broker to trade it, or if the company has a direct shareholder program.  I have periodically been offered to sell ""odd lots"" to shareholder programs which, if one exists, may be less hassle than other options.  As a part of this, your mother's estate administrator should decide if the estate is selling it's interest, or giving it's interest to heirs before the sale."


There are 2 parties when we say credit card companies: The bank that gives you a card & VISA/Mastercard For a Bank the revenues generally come from: For VISA/Mastercard the revenue is from: P.S. Have not covered American express here but in short it is a combination of the above 2 models


I would suggest the use of a management company to handle a rental property.  They will take care of things like collecting rent, coordinating repairs and all the little things that come up when dealing with a renters.    They typically charge a percentage of the rent or a flat fee, so make sure you include that in your rent calculation.  You take a little bit of a financial hit, but save a lot of head aches - especially if you decide to acquire multiple properties in the future.


While it's possible that the dollar could lose its grip as the global currency, it's unlikely that it will be quickly supplanted by another.  The world might simply see a a paradigm shift towards the use of whatever currency suits whichever counterparty at any given moment.


Only one of us has flown off the handle spewing silly accusations.  Take a look at what you wrote, read it. Take a look at what I wrote and read it.  One of us has gone into extreme assumptions about character and motive. The other made a snide comment at best then addressed the concerns listed.


There is a very steep learning curve in any area of finance. I have no idea what all goes into a PhD in a hard science but, if you're worried about the math and programming stuff, I would look at Pharma and Biotech coverage groups. Reach out to people in the space and see what they say. Also, leverage the Alumni network from your school as you can probably make some headway with the schools you named.


What if this was stacked on top of an across the board cut?   You'd cut speculative risk with the elimination of the internet deduction, get  tax relief, and allow the companies who are willing to take risks to have an advantage of those who don't want to innovate.


If you don't need leverage, then it's a better idea to just buy the underlying sock itself. This will net you the following benefits: Leverage is for speculating. If you don' want to be leveraged, then invest long term.


5 years is very short term, and since you are sure you'll need the money, investing it into the markets should probably not be done. You can toss it in Ally bank for 1% or consider a 5 yr raise your rate CD A decent write-up on time horizons: http://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/110813/using-time-horizons-investing.asp If you want to go the stock/bond route you can assess the benefits of using something like a vanguard target date fund, or a roboadvisor such as wealthfront or betterment. You need to assess whether you think you may move up your time horizon, say you want to buy a house in 4 years, or, if it is 5 years, are you ok with it being 6.5-7 if there is a market downturn.


What you are looking here is the cost of capital, because that is what you are effectively giving up in order to invest in those loans. In a discounted cash-flow, it would be the *i* in the denominator (1+*i*). For instance, instead of purchasing those loans you could have lent your money at the risk-free rate (not 100% true, but typical assumption), and therefore you are taking a slight risk in those loans for a higher return.  There are several ways to compute that number, the one most often used would be the rate if the bank were to lend that money. In this way, it would be the Fed Funds rate plus some additional risk premium.


There are a number of ways this can result. In a broad ETF, such as SPY, the S&P 500 spider, the S&P index will have 500 stocks no matter what, so a buyout would simply result in a re-shuffling of the index makeup. No buyout will happen so quickly that there's no time to choose the next stock to join the index. In your case, if the fund manager (per the terms of the prospectus) wishes to simply reallocate the index to remove the taken-over stock that's probably how he handle it.  Unless of course, the prospectus dictates otherwise. In which case, a cash dividend is a possible alternative.


Amazon sells 65% of *all new books* sold on the internet, print or digital. When you control that much of the market, it's easy to use your size to extort your suppliers to agree to your terms. It's more similar to how Comcast is using it's market position to force Netflix to agree to their pay them extra money in order to have adequate performance on their network.  Regardless of their size, a disagreement about *ebook* pricing should not affect the sale, price, or visibility of Hachette's *print* books already on their site. But Amazon has removed the ability to preorder Hachette's print books, raised prices on existing books, and decreased the visibility of the publisher's books.


For accounting purposes, consider the costs of acquisition as part of the cost of the asset as opposed to expensing.  This will be important to consider if you need to amortise the asset for reporting or tax purposes. Dr. Land $250,000 Dr. Building: $250,000 Cr. Cash $500,000 The acquisition of the land from previous owners. And Dr. Land $12,500 Dr. Building $12,500 Cr. Cash $25,000 Fees paid to auctioneer who helped acquire the land. The basis for dividing the cost should be done at appraised prices.  These appraised prices will appear in the first entry and should help you along.


"Or here's a better idea: don't have a credit card at all.  They offer no real benefits and plenty of dangers.  Don't take my word for it, though: ""I tell every student class I get, high school students, university   students, you know, they'd be better off if they never used credit   cards""   - Warren Buffet (Net worth: $44 billion) Before anyone says anything about using credit cards ""wisely"" and getting the rewards points, I can save 15% on many kinds of large purchases ($100+) using cash.  You won't find a reward system offering that level of incentive.  Two recent examples of cash discounts: After I bought my house I needed a lawnmower and a my wife wanted a new vacuum cleaner.  Went to Lowe's and found the ones we wanted.  They were $600 combined.  Found the manager, stuck five $100 bills in his hand and said ""this is what I have, and that is what I need.""  16.6% saved. Bought my daugher a bed recently. Queen box spring and mattress were on sale for $300 but it didn't come with the rails, which they wanted $50 extra for.  Went to the bank and got $320 in cash from the bank, walked in, set it in his hand and said, ""I need the bed box spring and rails, tax included.""  He replied, ""Sorry man, I can't.  I'm already taking a loss on..."" Then he stopped mid sentence, looked down at the cash again and said ""Hold on. Let me ask my manager."" Manager walks over, guy explains what I said, manager looks at the cash and says ""Make it happen""  14.3 % saved. As for purchasing a home, it is a myth that you need a credit score to obtain a mortgage for a home.  Lending institutions can do manual underwriting instead of just relying on your credit score.  It is a little tougher to do and banks usually have stricter requirements, but based on the information the OP has given in this and other questions, I think he can easily meet them."


"> I'm sure if you post an ask reddit asking about people who smoke and what they do for a living you will be outright amazed at the cross section you find.  And you'll be amazing at home many kids that are 30 and living at home there are as well. Its known to cause a lack of motivation.  The thing is, the daily smokers are the problem and most professionals aren't daily smokers.   > Now, that anecdotal evidence is not super compelling as there are confounding factors. But it's far more compelling than ""This is how it is because this is how I feel it is"", which seems to be the gist of your responses.   My undergrad degree is in psychology and the whole field agrees with what I'm saying. Like you said, the data set (you and your friends) you are using is too small AND who said you couldn't make more money if you didn't smoke? I'm not saying you would or wouldn't, but you can't use your argument unless you can prove that you wouldn't make more money if you didn't smoke. You would need to compare you to you.   There are many other important factors as well you are ignoring. Do I want a happy employee or one that is so broken he needs to use drugs to take the edge off and make it from one day to the next?  And why should I risk millions in lawsuits from an impaired employee? I would also get sued for negligence if I have impaired employees working with machinery or anything that can hurt them or others and I don't test them.   > But it's far more compelling than ""This is how it is because this is how I feel it is"", which seems to be the gist of your responses.  Like I said, there is a whole field of science that supports what I'm saying. I'm not making an argument based on feelings, its based on data."


Perhaps you take it a step further and go cash only.  Cash only will make it just another step harder to spend your cash. Also split your money into multiple accounts.  Checking that auto pays bills, a savings, and an investment account. You have to want to change to change.  Post a blog and public calendar with your expenses and that might make you think twice about spending your money.  If you don't want to tell everybody else, maybe you don't spend it. Perhaps see a shrink too.  You need help identifying patterns before you do them, and having insight into your motivations could help.  I am not saying go forever, but perhaps a few sessions or a couple of months.  You might be addicted to spending.  Join a group and talk about it.


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/03/netanyahu-backs-annexation-of-west-bank-settlements) reduced by 76%. (I'm a bot) ***** > Israel&#039;s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has backed legislation that would in effect annex settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories that are home to between 125,000 and 150,000 Jewish people.  > Observers have noted an increase in visits by Netanyahu to settlements in the occupied territories since Donald Trump was sworn in as US president in January.  > The Palestinians seek the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, as part of a future independent state, and consider all of Israel&#039;s settlements to be illegal - a position that is widely shared by the international community.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/74gfm2/netanyahu_backs_annexation_of_19_west_bank/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~222602 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **settlement**^#1 **Netanyahu**^#2 **Israel**^#3 **Jerusalem**^#4 **Adumim**^#5"


"Its a broker fee, not something charged by the reorganizing company. E*Trade charge $20, TD Ameritrade charge $38. As with any other bank fee - shop around. If you know the company is going to do a split, and this fee is of a significant amount for you - move your account to a different broker. It may be that some portion of the fee is shared by the broker with the shares managing services provider of the reorgonizing company, don't know for sure. But you're charged by your broker. Note that the fees differ for voluntary and involuntary reorganizations, and also by your stand with the broker - some don't charge their ""premier"" customers."


In addition to what has been said, gift cards with a credit card logo (which is what I am assuming you mean here) do not have an address associated with them. That means that if you try to use one at a merchant that users address verification (common in online purchases), the transaction will fail.  In my experience with an American Express branded gift card, I was able to call the number on the back and they added an address to the card so that it would work. It seemed like this was a common and well known issue.  Because the gift card is not associated with any person, no verification is needed to add that address, you can give them any address you want.  Also I believe that the card numbers in use for gift cards are specific, that is you could tell that a card is a gift card based on the number alone. That means it is likely possible for a merchant to reject those gift cards while still accepting other cards from that network.  This is likely for certain transactions. For example,  a hotel or car rental agency requires a credit card for incidentals, and it's likely that the system itself will outright reject a gift card even if it has enough on it for the initial hold.  As for debit cards, I think there are far fewer issues with acceptance, other than the aforementioned hold issues described in another answer.


Perhaps where we are losing touch is in how income inequality is being measured. What I'm saying is how much more wealthy the top 10% is than the bottom 10%, in real numbers, not by ratio. The United States, and other modern democracies with free markets, absolutely annihilate these smaller less free nations. Although places like Honduras, South Africa, and Bolivia have gigantic inequality by ratio, that primarily because the poor are SO poor in those nations.  For instance, if one man makes $100 a year, and another makes $100,000, the difference is $99,900 in real numbers, but 1000 *times* as much. However, If a man makes $10,000 a year where another makes $1,000,000, it is only 100 times as much, but the real number difference is $990,000. Although, by ratio, the poorer nation has greater income inequality, the wealthier nation has a far greater real gap between the upper and lower class. Measuring income inequalities both ways has it's purpose, but to judge by only the ratio often gives false impressions. Often, the false impressions given are intentional, as in the case of the UN which has a markedly anti-Capitalism lean in its bureaucratic membership.  Try rereading my original statement with how I am measuring income inequality in mind.


"The profits that the corporation had to earn to be able to pay you ""eligible"" dividends for the dividend tax credit were already taxed, and at a somewhat high corporate rate, in the case of large public companies with big profits. The dividend tax credit, which permits an individual to earn a lot from dividends and not pay any personal income tax, essentially recognizes that the profit making up the dividend was already highly taxed to begin with via corporate income tax.  It aims to eliminate double-taxation. FWIW, if you own and run a small private business in Canada and pay yourself a dividend, such dividends are considered ""non-eligible"", i.e. you don't get as much a benefit from the dividend tax credit, since small business corporate income tax rates are much lower."


Ideally, you would be correct.  There is an inverse correlation between wages and turnover rate... to a point.  We live in an economy where, unfortunately, there is a ready supply of labor to take the place of those who quit or otherwise leave the company.  This brings the value of your current employees down.


> if the government had access to that capital that this guy is clearly withholding by not paying his fair share, *they would engage in more productive ventures*.  I don't know if that's necessarily true.  Government doesn't always spend money better than private entities, and private entities don't always spend money better than government.  I'd much rather see this research going on than more money going to beef up our military, but I also think this guy should pay his fair share of taxes like everyone else.


I'm confused.  Is it that the DRM prevents you from freely distributing the books after you've bought them or what?  My wife and I share an account so we can share books.  There's  a lending feature with Amazon that lets you lend many books.  Many libraries already have lending programs that Amazon (and other e-readers) work with.  Amazon has a fledgling lending program (which my wife is actually using for the first time).  DRM is really really not a big deal for me or anyone else I know with a kindle.  Add to that I'm largely reading books that cost less than four dollars from new authors who aren't writing full time.  I want to support them so they'll keep making content I want.  Some DRM helps keep their work from being freely distributed.


Since you ask.... How do I do it? My frugality doesn't come from budgeting or even half so much from keeping money away from myself (though mostly-one-way retirement accounts help). It's a matter of world-view. Spending and shopping for things you don't need is a vice. Limit your indulgence in it. I've also made wasteful purchases in my life. When I find myself considering buying something that I don't really need, I ask myself whether it will end up like... like the stupid eyeglass cleaner gadget from the Sharper Image that I used twice. Or the Bluetooth earpiece that spent 98% of its time lost and .02% of its time in my ear. Or the little Sony VAIO laptop which was great on the train, but probably cost 8 times as much as an EeePC and didn't do way too much more. (In my defense on that one, it was just before netbooks were really taking off... but I still felt bad about it the next year). I've also got two savings goals. The first is responsible and very big (financial stability: a year's expenses plus money for a down payment on a house. a California house. in a good neighborhood.) The second is personal and just medium-big (a large musical instrument). I've decided not to spend money on the second until I'm financially stable and I have enough money to take care of the first... so that makes me more willing to scrimp and save to pursue the first than I would be otherwise. Advice for others? Ask yourself: Why are you buying that thing? You can survive without it, can't you? You didn't need it a week ago, did you? Does the old one have holes in it or something? Or will you at least use it regularly, for years? Why aren't you buying the cheaper kind? Or buying it used?


Get the Aromatherapy Necklace at the cheapest price that gives you a unique look. These necklaces are made of high quality material which is durable for long time. The Izzy Bell Boutique has a large collection of necklace and pendants, you will feel better after wearing these necklaces.  The Aromatherapy diffuser necklace made by Izzy Bell Boutique is unlike others you will find anywhere else.  The aromatherapy necklace diffuser pendant made by Izzy Bell Boutique is unlike others you will find anywhere else.  We offer a large selection of diffuser necklaces, diffuser bracelets, earrings, and accessories. You can choose stainless steel, leather, and lava stone options. The diffuser Jewelry for women, men, and kids.


"I don't think she learned it ""on the job"" and she can't learn it... if your your main interest is composing music, for a bachelor and master's degree.  As an IT professional, with a bachelor and master in IT areas, I cannot and would not learn ""on the job"" how to compose music.  Do you understand what I am trying to say?"


I'm surprised nobody else has suggested this yet: before you start investing in stocks or bonds, buy a house. Not just any house, but the house you want to live in 20 years from now, in a place where you want to live 20 years from now - but you also have to be savvy about which part of the country or world you buy in. I'm also assuming that you are in the USA, although my suggestion tends to apply equally anywhere in the world. Why? Simple: as long as you own a house, you won't ever have to pay rent (you do have to pay taxes and maintenance, of course). You have a guaranteed return on investment, and the best part is: because it's not money you earn but money you don't have to spend, it's tax free. Even if the house loses value over time, you still come out ahead. And if you live abroad temporarily, you can rent out the house and add the rent to your savings (although that does make various things more complicated). You only asked for options, so that is mine. I'll add some caveats. OK, now here are the caveats:


"If you look at the biotech breakdown, you'll find a lot of NAs when it comes to P/E since there are many young biotech companies that have yet to make a profit.  Thus, there may be something to be said for how is the entire industry stat computed. Biotechnology can include pharmaceutical companies that can have big profits due to patents on drugs. As an example, look at Shire PLC which has a P/E of 1243 which is pretty high with a Market Capitalization of over a billion dollars, so this isn't a small company.  I wonder what dot-com companies would have looked like in 1998/1999 that could well be similar as some industries will have bubbles you do realize, right? The reason for pointing out the Market Capitalization is that this a way to measure the size of a company, as this is merely the sum of all the stock of the company.  There could be small companies that have low market capitalizations that could have high P/Es as they are relatively young and could be believed to have enough hype that there is a great deal of confidence in the stock.  For example, Amazon.com was public for years before turning a profit.  In being without profits, there is no P/E and thus it is worth understanding the limitations of a P/E as the computation just takes the previous year's earnings for a company divided by the current stock price.  If the expected growth rate is high enough this can be a way to justify a high P/E for a stock.  The question you asked about an industry having this is the derivation from a set of stocks.  If most of the stocks are high enough, then whatever mean or median one wants to use as the ""industry average"" will come from that."


This would be governed by bankruptcy law... there is no reason a healthy company would take such action. This would be a long drawn process generally amongst debtor the taxes have higher claim, then Sunday debtors (payable), then bank loans... This is followed by loan raised by company deposits then debentures... even among share holders there can be special shares...  More often most shares are equal and the balance is distributed to all.


Interesting article. I know that this might not be a popular opinion here but here goes....  It can be argued that retarding the economy was a major goal of the Fed in the first place. To prevent the unrestrained runs that 1913-1929 saw which resulted in thousands of investors losing everything.   Its true that JP saved the day before the Fed existed but having a government institution do so is an attempt to prevent favoritism from occurring in times of crisis.  Yes it could be argued that even in this last crisis favoritism existed as firms like Lehman and Bear were left to die while others were backstopped but I think that has more to do with the interrelationships of those in politics with those in banking.    Our global banking system relies on the assumption that not every depositor will want to want to withdraw their funds at the same time. Having a depositor of last resort (the Fed) ensures that even when the population at large panics and withdraws funds the loans that those deposits funded will continue to exist and the broader funding of the businesses that drive the economy will continue.   Yes the governance is not always perfect and I would agree that on some level the Fed's policies are capable of handicapping the economy but by and large I think the institution has been a success as evidenced by the continued functioning of our banking system despite a large swath of the population losing wealth in the housing market.


If you want to decrease economic inequality:  1. Decrease and eventually eliminate funding the government with debt. This borrowing is pushing exaggerated growth beyond what is sustainable causing money to be put into the economy that doesn't have enough places to go except trickle up to the top without the repercussion of increased inflation.  2. Eliminate software patents, and decrease the ability of patents, copyrights and trademarks from creating artificial government enforced monopolies. This will let the regular person compete with big money.


What the chart does not show  * Type of product exported (lead toys vs. luxury cars) * Damage to environment and workers in the production process * Size of lablourforce  In a related discussion I really don't get why it is supposed to be a good thing to bring dirty, low paying labour back to the USA.


"Although now there are ""welcome"" banking packages when I landed in 2008 I couldn't find any and Vancity gave me a secured visa nonetheless. Let me emphasize: I didn't have a credit history, score at all. I doubt this changed much. The bank has zero risk."


">histrionic  Holy shit that is a great word. Nice one!  >I never said ACA was perfect.  The ACA is designed to fail within 10-15 years. It is, and was, completely insolvent from the beginning. For Progressive Democrats, the end game has always been a 'single payer' system that entirely neuters free choice for patients and practitioners. The fact that the ACA warranted a ""mandate"" of coverage by law and threat of penalty is a dead give away that they knew this all along and did it anyhow.  >They've lied about it since ... when Reagan ... was telling everyone how communist Medicare was.  Medicare is socialist/communist. Reagan was not wrong. Now that is not to say that ensuring citizens over 65 and ensuring a social safety net is not a good and righteous endeavor. The problem is that the system has been revised and co-opted to provide service to so many individuals that were never intended or designed for. At this point, the system is overburdened and ~~its~~ *the* expansion of Medicaid by Democrats in the ACA legislation was irresponsible and a detriment to the overall effectiveness of Medicare services for our vulnerable and elderly.  >the GOP is absolutely far worse.   That, my friend, is a matter of opinion that we will just have to disagree on.  >I spend a lot of time in these nations we're told whose ""socialized"" medicine is failing the people.  I have spent a lot of time in ""actual"" Socialist nations and I can assure you that the free market system that puts an emphasis on choice and freedom is a vastly superior option regardless of who or what you come from.  >Loud or long posts don't make you right. Just makes you more wrong.  Trying to cast disparity against an opposing viewpoint does not make you correct, it just makes you a condescending ass hole."


"Yes, it can be a good idea to close unused credit cards.  I am going to give some reasons why it can be a good idea to close unused accounts, and then I will talk about why it is NOT necessarily a bad idea. Why it can be a good idea to close unused accounts ""I'd like to close the cards.""  That is reason enough.   Simplifying your financial life is a good thing.  Fewer accounts let you focus your energy on the accounts that you actually use. Unused accounts still need to be monitored for fraud. You mentioned that you have high credit card balances that you are carrying.  This may indicate that you have trouble using credit responsibly, and having more credit available to you might be a temptation for you. If these unused cards have annual fees, keeping them open will cost money. Unused cards sometimes get closed by the bank due to inactivity.  As a result, the advice often given is that, in addition to not closing them, you are supposed to charge something to it every month.  This, of course, takes more of your time and energy to worry about, as well as giving you another monthly bill to pay. Why it is NOT necessarily a bad idea to close unused accounts Other answers will tell you that it may hurt your credit score for two reasons: it would increase your utilization and lower your average account age.  Before we talk about the validity of these two points, we need to discuss the importance of the credit score. Depending on what your credit score currently is, these actions may have minimal impact on your life.  If you are in the mid 700's or higher, your score is excellent, and closing these cards will likely not impact anything for you in a significant way. If you aren't that high in your score yet, do you have an immediate need for a high score?  Are you planning on getting more credit cards, or take out any more loans?  I would suggest that, since you have credit card debt, you shouldn't be taking out any new loans until you get that cleaned up.  So your score in the mean time is not very important. Are you currently working on eliminating this credit card debt?  If so, your utilization number will improve, even after you close these accounts, when you get those paid off.  Utilization has only a temporary effect on your score; when your utilization improves, your score improves immediately. Your average account age may or may not improve when you close these accounts, depending on how old they are compared to the accounts you are leaving open.  However, the impact of this might not be as much as you think. I realize that this advice is different from other answers, or other things that you may read online.  But in my own life, I do a lot of things that are supposedly bad for the credit score: I only have two credit cards, ages 2.5 and 1.5 years.  (I closed my other cards when I got these.)  My typical monthly utilization is around 25% on these cards, although I pay off the balance in full each month, never paying interest.  I have no car loan anymore, and my mortgage is only 4 months old.  No other debt.  Despite those ""terrible"" credit practices, my credit score is very high. Conclusion Make your payments on time, get out of debt, and your score will be fine.  Don't keep unwanted accounts open just because someone told you that you should."


AAAA Quality Garage Door installs, repairs, replaces, and maintains garage doors and garage door openers for customers throughout Contra Costa County. The family-owned and operated company has experience working on all types of garage doors, but it has special expertise in carriage house, metal, home entry and commercial garage models.


">""When the city raised minimum wage for large employers from $9.47 to $11 we see an increase in wages, but don't see a statistically significant decline in hours worked,"" he said.  Thanks bot, you just countered the headline!"


Imagine how out of touch you have to be to say that no one is forced to work there.  Not only do you have to ignore a little something called the unemployment rate (after all, you need money to eat and live in capitalist society), but it also requires ignoring what was Wal-Mart's business model for so long: moving into small towns, putting everyone out of business.  I suppose maybe some workers could go get jobs in the local prison...


This is a junk article with a junk assumption. We have higher levels of debts today, but we have low rates of defaults. We don't have NINJA loans coming to an end in 6 months where the default rate suddenly doubles and triples. We don't have massive amounts of swaps against mortgages or even other forms of private debt skyrocketing. Moody's and S&P review process was totally revamped.  If this article could get beyond basic theory and talk about specifics, it might be able to make a point, but instead it lost me after 2 paragraphs.


Here are some plausible reasons why markets might continue to close:


"Bernie: From what I read, I thought it was something like a fixed % on each.  You are right, there does need to be an enforcement agency, however, I do not believe it has to be government.  I think SROs like FINRA and SEC need to exist. However, there is no reason to believe that they couldn't exist without government.  Please don't even get started on Kansas. Trust me I know it far too well. I do not like Brownback, but his ""tax experiment"" was by no means what he was claiming/republicans claim.  He lowered taxes (sounds great) on businesses (wrong policy) mainly LLCs and LPs. While it was nice for some farmers and smaller business owners to not have to pay those taxes. However, there was an actual increase is KS sales tax from 6.15% to 6.5% which will obviously further disincentive buying. It wasn't much of a detaxation for regular people.  Here is what I do not understand, if you are going to stimulate growth, it should be done with the consumers. The consumers are what creates the demand for business products/services. I've always been a proponent of expanding the standard deduction, perhaps even adding back county and local sales tax deductions (or other regressive taxes), etc.  To all of my knowledge, I don't know of really any big deregulation they have done here. They did not shut down schools, there were schools that had to at some points but that option on the table but I do not believe any ever did.   Since the DOE has been created, test scores have virtually been flat despite increasing education spending nationwide by 4-5x.  My high school spent tens of thousands of dollars on Macbook Pros and iPads the same year they started having these ""big"" paper shortages. The students screwed around on the computers and tablets, we didn't use them for anything, and besides even if we did. Studies show that using them doesn't really help anyway. Schools/school boards do not know how to appropriate funds whatsoever.  There is no reason to believe that increased school funding helps students learn any more than others. In fact more funding per student goes to a lot of inner city schools than rural in the state of KS and they actually school a slight negative return.  I agree, and I will if become rich enough to first sustain myself I will, or perhaps I will move to Peter Thiel's seasteading island"


The share-price weighting of the DJIA is a historical artifact.  The DJIA remains share-price weighted today because that's the way it has always been done, and we're talking about an index with more than a hundred years' history.  The DJIA was first calculated on May 26, 1896. Perhaps, back then, price-weighting was the most straight-forward & feasible way to calculate it each day.  You're right that it doesn't make a lot of sense, and that's why the S&P500 and other indexes are better barometers.


You can use Google Finance Stock Screener for screening US stocks. Apparently it doesn't have the specific criterion (Last Price % diff from 52 week low) you are (were!) looking for.  I believe using its api you can get it, although it won't exactly be a very direct solution.


I would not be overly concerned unless they started contacting you directly on your personal time or it showed up on your credit report.  It is very likely that you are listed simply for their own records. This is correct for them to do, since you spoke to them in the past as an agent of your company. There should not be any legal connection to your personal finances.  If it continues to be a concern, I would question whether I wanted to work for such an employer. I do not know your entire situation, but this kind of misbehavior is a red flag if not addressed.


Amazon certainly won't have a monopoly. Monopolies can rarely exist without one or two things. Government support or limited geographic area.   Amazon can't kill Walmart so at a minimum we will have a duopoly.  FedEx and UPS will adjust their business models and maybe even merge.   Amazon won't have a monopoly on self driving fleets. Uber and Lyft will increase freight. Google will probably buy an auto manufacturer and have their own fleet.  What we are seeing form are a handful of Titans that will fight this out for a very long time. Oligopoly here we come.


Well that depends on how far down it goes. If someone calls for a 75% decline in the market next year, and instead it happens in 3 years, well it's still a good call in my books. If you listend and moved your money out of the market until that 75% fall hit, then invested in the market as it was very low, you'd be looking at an overall return of at least ~30% as the market rebounded which is decent for a 4 year return.  On the other hand if the market rose up 60% over 3 years, then fell 25%, the return on sitting on the sidelines wouldn't be worth it.  **EDIT** Appreciate any comments onto why I was downvoted. When I'm wrong I like to learn why!


I've worked on numerous restructurings in the o&g space. I assure you that bankruptcy is not a magical process of wiping away debt. It's been extremely common over the last 3 years in the energy industry. It'd be far more aggressive to say that a business is valued at $5 billion when in reality they have $5 billion in debt that traded at pennies on the dollar.


Pretty much the same thing that happened to target with their CIO. She was a former director of guest contact centers and vice president of guest operations at Target. She earned a bachelor's degree in retail merchandising from the University of Minnesota. CIO is a little different, but i feel you need to have a technology background to understand when someone is bullshitting you


"BTW - there are other areas that are ""more"" big 4 accounting centric:  - Tax.  Tax strategy, tax compliance, etc.  - Compliance/Reporting.  SEC compliance/report.  SOX 404 compliance, etc.  And still others in finance that are more investment related:  - Treasury.  Management of cash balances, securities, hedging (currency, interest rates, short-term/overnight lending/borrowing functions).  Function is under the CFO.  - Pension fund mgmt.  Sometimes there is a pension fund within a company and they have hired investment managers to manage the fund."


"In the US: In the UK: You can set up a CAF (Charities Aid foundation) Charity Account. This allows you to donate to charities anonymously, while still allowing the recipient to benefit from Gift Aid (where they can reclaim the income tax you'd paid on the donation). You can even use this account to donate to overseas charities if you're donating at least £250. Or you can use a different intermediary such as BT MyDonate or The Big Give or another intermediary. See the Wikipedia article ""Comparison of online charity donation services in the United Kingdom"". In Canada: If there's a United Way charity in your country, it may have a donor choice program which may be able to forward a designated donation to any other charity in your country.  The United Way probably charges a fee for this service.  I'm not sure whether or not the United Way would be willing to keep you anonymous, and I'm not sure whether or not the United Way would add you to its mailing list.  More details may be available elsewhere online."


> If young Americans knew what was good for them, they would all be in the Tea Party.  The Tea Party is not a party. Its a faction of the Republican Party and on the FAR right side of the Republican Party.   If you are fiscally conservative and socially liberal, there really is no home for you in American politics.


"Business coaching can actually bring the much-desired changes to your business. Coach is a word which is from ""USA"", a Hungarian name that means news. Today, however, the word has a wider use and it basically means transportation of people from one point to the other where they desire to be succeeds"


"I would not trust Zillow for an appraisal. The numbers I see on there vary a lot from real prices. I'm not sure I'd get a full appraisal either, as that means you ""know"" the value of the house and may be obliged to reveal it. I'd ask for the loan amount and see what the previous owner says."


Note that this kind of entry on your credit record may also affect your ability to get a job. Basically, you're going on record as not honoring your commitments... and unless you have a darned good reason for having gotten into that situation and being completely unable to get back out, it's going to reflect on your general trustworthiness.


I was joking--I thought you meant the freemium model so many publishers use.  Places like Facebook don't do it for two reasons:  1. They can make more money without it.  2. People aren't willing to pay for Facebook.  Other sites that offer real value--Pandora, for instance--offers subscription alternatives.


I can't see how this is in the same category as the other B&M disasters. Every time I go there to get a present for some kid my son knows last minute...there are lines to check out. I mean sure, that is a pretty simple observation, but stores are clean and busy, they don't appear to be on life support.


Are you sure about that? I'm not saying this case falls into this category, but I also think there is a definitive right and wrong. The reaction is definitely subject to perception, but that doesn't necessarily mean there is no universal right and wrong.


The warehousing services in Gurgaon are calculated solution to help you run your business competently. Here, we have a big network which will reach out to your business and provide you the most essential service which is paramount for the growth of your business. The team of professionals is very experienced at our company. They work to perform beyond the


Well, I was about to ask a similar question. Unless you get into stocks/mutual funds it seems like returns on less risky items such as CDs (certificate of deposit) are terrible. I don't think it is a good use of folks time to ask what a Roth IRA is.  We were considering buying a new car (~$20000 with zero down and 0.9% interest rate) but we drive maybe 6000 miles per year. We would be paying ~$550/month to park something in our garage. Our current car is sexless but absolutely reliable.  I am now looking elsewhere and may either invest the money in our house (i.e., refinishing upstairs) or paying down our debt. We have a home loan - $132,000 at 3.5% - and a student loan - $12,675 @ 3.375%.  Depending on the loan rate on your car, I would pay that down first. Alternatively, find a fee-only broker and drop around $500 for them to come up with a financial plan for you. They will probably recommend a Roth IRA with a specific mutual fund in mind. You'll need $2500 or so to open the Roth, contributions from there should be such that you can start/stop them on demand without fees.


>Other large retailers are reportedly requesting that service providers move away from AWS, the Journal said, citing technology vendors that work with retailers. Adding to the many growing conflicts of interest, Amazon has confirmed a number of retailers it competes with use AWS, for example GameStop.  This is actually a really solid point as Amazon enters literally every facet of life. It gets tougher and tougher to sell as conflicts of interest arise. It's difficult to see Amazon screw up anything, except that maybe there's a tipping point where large corporations (like say, Walmart) take extremely aggressive stances towards who it does business with.


That's the nice thing.  You can read the details and even ask the requester questions just as a loan officer would.  You can also filter based on criteria.    For me, I filter out wedding expenses, trips, home improvement (not repair), vacations and most major purchases.  I tend to invest in refinancing (carefully), business expenses, renewable energy project, and educational expenses.  That's the nice thing about it, I can support the initiatives that I choose to support.


"I think it's hard to say. Companies are going to be much more likely to fail, but every now and then one will be knocked out of the park and become the next pintrest.  I do worry it will attract confidence men. It's easy to ""lose investor money to incompetence."""


Given that you have your emergency fund, and no other high interest rate debts (credit cards, etc.) you will want to put down at least enough to not have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI).  PMI is solely to protect the lender if you default.  It has no benefit to you.  It generally means that you will need at least 20% down.  After that, its a personal decision, depending on what else you are going to do with the money.  If you are the type to spend money frivolously if you have it, it might make sense to put as much down as you can.  If you think that you can invest the money and over the long-term make more than the historically low mortgage interest rates, it might make sense to invest.   One thing to keep in mind is that money that you put into the down-payment is relatively illiquid, meaning that it is hard to turn back into cash.  If you have large expenses in the future, like health problems or college for the kids, it might be better to have the money in something easier to turn into cash.


Yes, money is created out of thin air, and it is a good and necessary thing. All money, even commodity money such as gold, is given value only by what can be traded for it. So in that sense *all* money is created out of thin air, because it represents the payment of a future debt. Money merely serves as IOUs between traders.  Who do you think should be responsible for adding money to the system? Inndividuals? Been tried, doesn't work so well. Individual banks? Been tried, doesn't work so well. Nation states? Works a lot better, although can still fail.  So far having a central bank issue money as an economy needs it for trade has been the most successful method to deal with who gets to issue the IOUs.  EDIT: see my post above on a little how and why it works as it does.


"I'd argue the two words ought to (in that I see this as a helpful distinction) describe different activities:   ""Investing"":  spending one's money in order to own something of value.  This could be equipment (widgets, as you wrote), shares in a company, antiques, land, etc.  It is fundamentally an act of buying. ""Speculating"":  a mental process in which one attempts to ascertain the future value of some good.  Speculation is fundamentally an act of attempted predicting.   Under this set of definitions, one can invest without speculating (CDs...no need for prediction) and speculate without investing (virtual investing).  In reality, though, the two often go together.  The sorts of investments you describe are speculative, that is, they are done with some prediction in mind of future value.   The degree of ""speculativeness"", then, has to be related to the nature of the attempted predictions.  I've often seen that people say that the ""most speculative"" investments (in my use above, those in which the attempted prediction is most chaotic) have these sorts of properties: And there are probably other ideas that can be included. Corrections/clarifications welcome! P.S. It occurs to me that, actually, maybe High Frequency Trading isn't speculative at all, in that those with the fastest computers and closest to Wall Street can actually guarantee many small returns per hour due to the nature of how it works.  I don't know enough about the mechanics of it to be sure, though."


"**2017 Shayrat missile strike**  The 2017 Shayrat missile strike took place on the morning of 7 April 2017, and involved the launch of 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles by the United States from the Mediterranean Sea into Syria, aimed at the Shayrat Airbase controlled by the Syrian government. The strike was executed under responsibility of U.S. President Donald Trump, as a direct response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack that occurred on 4 April.  The strike was the first unilateral military action by the United States targeting Ba'athist Syrian government forces during the Syrian Civil War. Trump stated shortly thereafter, ""It is in this vital national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons.""  The Syrian Air Force launched airstrikes against the rebels from the base only hours after the American attack.  ***  ^[ [^PM](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=kittens_from_space) ^| [^Exclude ^me](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiTextBot&message=Excludeme&subject=Excludeme) ^| [^Exclude ^from ^subreddit](https://np.reddit.com/r/finance/about/banned) ^| [^FAQ ^/ ^Information](https://np.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/index) ^| [^Source](https://github.com/kittenswolf/WikiTextBot) ^| [^Donate](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiTextBot/wiki/donate)   ^] ^Downvote ^to ^remove ^| ^v0.28"


My daughter is two, and she has a piggy bank that regularly dines on my pocket change.  When that bank is worth $100 or so I will make it a regular high yield savings account.  Then I will either setup a regular $10/month transfer into it, or something depending on what we can afford. My plan is then to offer my kid an allowance when she can understand the concept of money.  My clever idea is I will offer her a savings plan with the Bank of Daddy.  If she lets me keep her allowance for the week, I will give her double the amount plus a percentage the next week.  If she does it she will soon see the magic of saving money and how banks pay your for the privilege. I don't know when I will give her access to the savings account with actual cash.  I will show it to her, and review it with her so she can track her money, but I need to know that she has some restraint before I open the gates to her.


I wouldn't count on the hardware just disappearing.  Someone is going to capitalize on the business device market; microsoft just announced their new stuff, but they could pick up the hardware division anyway. There are rumors of Facebook moving into the hardware market, and the hardware engineers and research has to be worth something to someone to just buy out.  The market value of the company is dropping so much that it's be crazy to not chance it just to have a chance to get the engineers that have already been vetted by RIM. A lot of smart people were picked up by RIM in Waterloo; although I hear a lot went to Amazon and other biggest successful companies.  Tl;dr Just because there's no RIM doesn't mean blackberry style devices are extinct.


Keep Your Passwords Updated - Passwords are at the core of hacking. Hackers either try to hack your password or exploit some other vulnerability to gain access to passwords, so make sure that all your passwords are completely random and not simple like 123456 or password. Log on http://tellemgrodypr.com/


That is false. If you obtain a judgment against the debtor then you have the legal right to recoup your money through liquidation of their assets. You can freeze their bank account, garnish wages, or even file a lien on their car or home.


In the US we have social security taxes, where for a full time employee the company pays half and the employee pays half.  When you work as a business, what we call 1099 for the form that the wages are reported on, then the contractor pays the full amount of social security tax. There are times when a contractor can negotiate a higher rate because the company does not have to pay that tax.  However, most of the time the company just prefers to negotiate the rate based on your value.  If you are a 60K year guy, then that is what they will pay you.  From the company's perspective it does not matter what your tax rate is, only the value you can bring to the company.  If you can add about 180K to the bottom line, then they will be happy to pay you 60K, and you should be happy to get it. Here in the US a contractor can expect to make about 7.5% more of an equivalent employee because of the social security tax savings to the company.  However, not all companies are willing to provide that in compensation.  Some companies see the legal and administrative costs of employees as normal, and the same costs with contractors as extra so they don't perceive a cost savings.  There are other things that would preclude employers from giving the bump although it is logical to do so. First you will really have to feel out your employer for the attitude on the subject.  Then I would make a logical case if they are open to providing extra compensation in return for tax savings.  If I am an employee at 60K, you would also have to pay the government 18K.  How about you pay me 75K as a contractor instead? That would be a great deal for all in the US.


The initial and overnight margin requirements are set by the exchanges (who calculate them using the Standard Portfolio of Analysis of Risk, or 'SPAN' system), and positions are market to market according to these at the end of the trading session. To find these margin requirements you will need to consult the website of the exchange on which the contract you are trading is issued (i.e. if you're trading on the London Metal Exchange it's no good looking at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange's margin requirements as a previous answer suggests!). However, for positions entered and exited within the same day, the daytrade margin rate will apply. This is set by your broker rather than the exchange, and can be as little as 10% of the exchange requirement. You can find a useful comparison of different margin types and requirements in the article I have published here: Understanding Margin for Futures Trading.


What area of finance? Institutional finance (equity research, investment banking) is a non-starter with no experience unless you're Jesus.  And if CFA level 1 material is intimidating, reconsider, as those are the basics of a finance undergraduate degree.   PM me your prospective employer if you like. I'm probably twice your age and have the CFA charter and several other finance qualifications, so I'm not going to be applying there.   I will be able to give better insight as to preparation and your chances.


It looks good.    Only thing that I see as lacking is funding and then how you would recover those costs (cause let's be real, if you give things away, that isn't sustainable) other than selling to the government.  Is that a feasible method?  Per kilowatt-hour to the customer maybe?  Regarding the education, I would look at some of the electrical installations they have (the bundles of wires hanging off the pole) and see if your solution would help that problem.   Jobs - great.    Sustainability - good.  As long as you have microgrids.  I thought the benefit to a microgrid was, well, less excess energy.    I like expansion also.


From what I can tell, the book talks about the current economic crisis is going to lead to a burst in the dollar market and government debt market. And how the current financial policies and the financial policies enacted by the previous administration, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan are going to lead to hyperinflation, devaluation of the dollar, and a massive spike in the national debt. And then it is supposed to provide financial strategies and ideas to weather the storm. That's all I can gather without buying the book.   Link: http://www.amazon.com/Aftershock-Protect-Yourself-Financial-Meltdown/dp/0470918144/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323897637&sr=1-1


"This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](http://www.baldingsworld.com/2017/10/23/everything-we-think-we-know-about-chinese-finances-is-wrong/) reduced by 96%. (I'm a bot) ***** > We do not know what these assets hold other than three broad categories comprised of guarantee, commitment operations, and financial asset services which even then only comprise 79% of the total 253 trillion.  > Chinese citizens and firms have a very real interest in switching into similar foreign assets while foreigners have very little interest in switching into Chinese assets.  > I have long noted that there is fundamentally, absent controls, a much larger structural non-cyclical interest in purchasing foreign assets by Chinese than in purchasing Chinese assets by foreigners.   ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/78e60t/everything_we_think_we_know_about_chinese/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ ""Version 1.65, ~233958 tl;drs so far."") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr ""PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome."") | *Top* *keywords*: **asset**^#1 **Bank**^#2 **financial**^#3 **China**^#4 **balance**^#5"


"Stock has value to the buyer even if it does not currently pay dividends, since it is part ownership of the company (and the company's assets). The owners (of which you are now a part) hire managers to make a ""dividend policy decision.""  If the company can reinvest the profits into a project that would earn more than the ""minimum acceptable rate of return,"" then they should do so. If the company has no internal investment opportunities at or above this desired rate, then the company has an obligation to declare a dividend.  Paying out a dividend returns this portion of profit to the owners, who can then invest their money elsewhere and earn more. For example: The stock market currently has, say, a 5% rate of return. Company A has a $1M profit and can invest it in a project with an expected 10% rate of return, so they should do so. Company B has a $1M profit, but their best internal project only has an expected 2% rate of return.  It is in the owners' best interest to receive their portion of their company's profit as a dividend and re-invest it in other stocks. (Others have pointed out the tax deferrment portion of dividend policy, so I skipped that)"


"Because they just to make an excuse for piracy. The current meme is that it's not cheapness that is causing them to pirate, it's a ""convenience"" thing. And it's not their fault that media uses a ""dead business model.""  What they really mean is that they want a Netflix with everything, for 10 bucks MAYBE 12.   Just be honest. I pirate cause I'm cheap."


Actually it's the cable companies that are losing out on revenue. If they unbundled the channels, then people like me could pay the same amount as now, get more channels they want, and the cable company would be taking home a bigger margin of the money I'm spending because those other channels don't cost nearly as much to license.


Your bank does not know about any SEPA Mandat you declare, until it gets in use. When the optionees withdraw money from your Account, they have to authenticate with the given Mandat and at this point your bank knows about that Mandat wich has an expiry date. According to the guidelines of the European Central Bank, your bank is not in duty to bookmark the expiration date. However, I'd assume they do anyway due they are allowed to and it makes things easier. Additional, if you can tell who the optionee is, you can block the withdraw before it happened. In any case, you have to call your bank.