Christina's Economic Blog

Taxes- How Does The Government Spend Money?

2007-05-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

The government spends its money this way:

Medicare (17%): The national health insurance program for people age 65 or older and under 65 with disabilities and peole with permanet kidney failure.

Medicaid (16%): This is a program that pays for medical assistance to individuals and families who meet certain eligibility based on income. This is the largest source of medical and health resource.

Out of Pocket (13%): Payments are made directly by people receiving health care at the time services are used.

Genral Government: Education deparment, Food, nutrition, housing and urban development and other human resources.

Military (51%): This is used for veterans benefits, interest in national debt, Military personel housing, construction.

The 3% that is left over is used for special things like jails and other charities.

Savings and Debt

2007-05-21T05:54:00.000-07:00

You can easily get carried away with a credit card. Credit cards seem convenient when you are in need of money but its not in the long run. It gives you easy access to money when it is needed. You're able to get the money, spend but at the end paying it back is the problem. Its hard to resist. People are getting into debt because they need the money and it seems like a good idea. They dont think "oh im going to get into debt", they probably think they can afford to pay it back. Now before people think about applying for credit cards they have to think twice and long about it. I doubt if I will apply for many credit cards now. I probably will apply for only one and see if I can manage that, but more than one noooope! Financially in debt can make your life miserable and cause many problems with future credit crads and applying for other things.

Critique of GDP Podcast

2007-05-16T05:55:00.000-07:00

The GDP Podcast that I reviewed was Roshanjit and Franchesca's. At the beginning I think their podcast was a little shaky, but then it picked up and got good. They had good supporting evidence that lead to me knowing they knew what they were talking about. Although they rumble over a couple of words their podcast is clear and loud. I dont have to strain to hear what they are talking about, so thats a good thing. Also the pictures that are included in the podcast help me understand more of what the topic is about. They go right with the words and run smoothly throughout the podcast. The pictures are even colorful which holds my attention and are straight to the point.
The podcast isn't really orginal and doesn't have a bang to it but it is full of important information and it isn't boring. This podcast is a great tool for a study guide or just to know a little about the topic. If you dont know anything about GDP and you listen to this podcast, by the end of the lesson Im 100% sure you will learn something new.

US Trade Deficit: getting better?

2007-05-14T06:10:00.001-07:00

What is this article discussing? What is a trade deficit? Why is the US trade deficit likely to go down in the future? What kind of products is the US selling overseas? And what about the US dollar - how can a weak dollar actually help the US economy and the trade deficit?

Taxes - How Does The Government Get Money?

2007-05-09T05:54:00.000-07:00

There are three different types of taxes that the U.S pays for. One is the federal, Two is the state government taxes, and the Third is the government taxes and local government taxes. The government gets it's money from taxes and by deducting it from citizens of the U.S paychecks. The government deducts taxes by taking it out of our paychecks each week or every two weeks. One federal tax is the IRS. The state taxes is when you own a property or business you have to file taxes for that and pay your taxes for that property. Taxes charged on clothing are a state tax. At the end of the year though we can file our taxes and we basically get some of the money back that we paid in taxes.

"To Chef" Dreams Crushed-Student Loans

2007-05-08T06:13:00.001-07:00

1. I think because they thought they could afford to pay it back in enough time.

2. I think they suck. They try to trick you into "affording" it. They throw at you a stack of papers to sign, knowing its way to much to read and skimming through it you would miss certain things.

3.No I do not plan on taking out any student loans.

Critique of Federal Reserve Podcast

2007-04-16T06:18:00.002-07:00

I choose to review Ashley and Justins federal reserve podcast. I found thier podcast to be very entertaining. Instead of the traditional aproach of just spewing out facts - the approach I myself took, they decided to do a question and answer format, like a student asking her peer for advice. For the most part we had the same information, so unless we were all lied to, their information was factual. They also had many colorful pictures to match thier voices. Some of the pictures were slightly humours when paired with their voices. Overall, I found thier podcast to be very original.

Compound Interest and the Rule of 72

2007-04-16T06:18:00.001-07:00

Compound interest is interest that is calculated not only based on the initial, or principal investment, but also upon the accumulated investment. This is in contrast of regular, or simple interest, which is only based on the initial investment.
The equaltion to calculate compound interest is as follows:

Where:
P = future value
C = initial deposit
r = interest rate (expressed as a fraction: eg. 0.06 for 6%)
n = # of times per year interest in compounded
t = number of years invested

P = C(1+ r/n)nt

I remeber doing someething simular if not the same in SAT Prep class a year or so ago. However, we never talked about the rule of 72. The rule of 72 estimates the amount of time it would take to double an investment.

Insider Trading Scandal-What happened?

2007-03-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, March 1, 2007, thirteen people were arrested for insider trading dating back to the 1980’s. According to the New York Times, some Wall Street Journal employees have been secretly exchanging information with employees of USB and Morgan Stanley. These secrets allowed them to buy or sell stocks before the news is made public. Amongst these people included Mitchel Guttenberg, a executive director at USB, David Tavdy, Erik Franklin, and Randi and Christopher Collotta. They were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities fraud. If convicted guilty, they will serve about 25 years in prison.

Stock Market Game - 1 - Initial Investment Strategy

2007-03-06T06:20:00.000-08:00

In my economics class, we are playing the StockQuest stock market game. My plan to win is to invest in the most popular companies making the most money

Stock market down 416 points...why?

2007-03-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday February 27, the Dow Jones Industrial Average went down 416 points, or 3.29 percent, the biggest drop since Septermber 11, 2001. Invesors lost an estimated $613 billion on that day. The Dow actually feel to as low as 500 points but recovered to 416. Analysis speclate that the drop was a reaction to the huge market correction in the Chinese stock market. However, many believe that the drop was due to a computer glitch. A glitch prevented kept some trades from being immediately reflected in the index. Dow Jones & Co. blamed the problem on the record volume at the NYSE, and switched to a backup computer.

Despite its immediate servrity, the drop was not significant enough to make the top 20 list of drops since 1950. This drop is nothing in comparison to the stock market crash of 1987. On Black Monday, the Dow Jones lost 22.6% of its value, and in 2002, the market lost 4% of its value on two occations.

I think this is a good opertunity to buy stocks because they will sell at such a low price. Though no one will ever know when the stock market is about to crash its still good to put it a little investment because you never know when it will go up.

Opportunity Costs

2007-02-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

Opportunity Costs is the topic we discussed today in class. What opportunity costs is or means is that in everyday life you basically have to make a choice between two things...or maybe even more. For example after you finish high school are you going to go to college or or straight to work? If you go to college you have a great deal of becoming in debt but if you choose to work you have an ever greater deal of making the same amount of money that you'll be in debt in. So right there you have to make a choice, opportunity costs.

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2007-02-16T05:54:00.001-08:00