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March 2011 Miscellaneous Economic Fundamentals

Ally

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News articles for March 2011.
 

Ally

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Today's news, brought to you by your friends at the CIA



ALEXANDRIA, Va.`Now that the revolution is over, Egypt's newly free press will make a fascinating read`if you happen to know Arabic. How the Libyan crisis plays in the newspapers of oil-rich Azerbaijan might be intriguing, too`if your Azeri is up to snuff.



If it isn't`and if your Urdu is as rusty as your Mandarin`you might check out the biggest news service in the U.S. that almost nobody has ever heard of. It's called World News Connection.






WNC delivers the news online from 1,750 newspapers, broadcasts and blogs in 130 countries. It employs a host of translators`human beings, not machines`who turn foreign arcana into fluent English every day. The production cost is surely huge`but it's a secret. That's because WNC's staff is paid from the classified budget of the CIA.





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Ally

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How I cut my credit card rate in half





I decided to take the advice of fellow blogger and Mom on Money Madhavi Acharya- Tom Yew and tried to negotiate a lower rate on my RBC VISA credit card.




I didn't have a balance on the card when I called but over the years, I've charged tens of thousands on this card. My current balance was zero. My only leverage was to cancel my card if they wouldn't help me and when they turned me down, that's what I did.







The card I canceled carried a 24.99 per cent interest rate. The rate had gone up from 19.5 per cent because I missed two payments in the last 12 months. I didn't actually pay the higher rate because I didn't make that same mistake a third time.




I asked the agent for a lower rate because I had been a customer for 25 years with a good credit rating who had missed two payments with very low balances (under $200) simply because I forgot the due dates. They were paid in full within days. Recently, however, I charged $4000 on the card, and paid it in full, on time, two days before I called for a lower rate. When the agent held firm, I canceled the card.




I have a second card, a no-fee, Airmiles BMO Mastercard. I made the same call and asked them for a lower rate. I've been a customer for 10 years and have no other accounts with them. It has a 19.5 per cent rate Immediately, I was offered various deals, including one where I could pay an annual $20 fee and have 12.5 per cent rate which isn't bad.





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Ally

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The most rational choice isn't always easy to live with




Rationally speaking, the time to jump into the stock markets was any point in 2009 or even 2010.




And yet, we had a big surge of money last month into mutual funds that invest in the stock markets. Apparently, a lot of people don`t feel comfortable about buying stocks until the markets have already gone way up.



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