augustus

What does that even mean?? There should be higher unemployment? That's a good thing?

Are you serious? Things are NOT "darn good economically"! People are drowning in debt trying to maintain their standard of living from this inflation that you seem to think doesn't even exist.

That 25% is spread out over the life of the contract. Barely keeps up with inflation unfortunately. This inflation has wrecked the country.

The new fixed rate for I-Bonds purchase from November 1, 2023 thru April 30, 2024 is 1.30% plus the inflation rate. At least your purchasing power is maintained and a 1.30% rate of return on top of that. Savings Bonds are really a long term investment IMHO. Treasury Department announces new Series I bond rate of 5.27% for the next six months WWW.CNBC.COM The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced the new rate for Series I bonds through April 2024.

I didn’t know there was rehab for a habitual liar.

Exactly! An insanity defense.

And you often have to hire a lawyer to get the insurance company to pay benefits. Hopefully we won't need long long term care. Maybe a year or less.

US 1-MO 5.418 US 2-MO 5.446 US 3-MO 5.516 US 4-MO 5.54 US 6-MO 5.603 US 1-YR 5.493 US 2-YR 5.248 US 3-YR 5.081 US 5-YR 4.976 US 7-YR 5.009 US 10-YR 4.968 US 20-YR 5.294 US 30-YR 5.057 These are the interest rates on Treasury paper this day. Rates are rising, especially the longer maturities, without the Fed taking action. Economists are calling this the "term premium" because investors want to be compensated more for unknown risks, the largest risk being the rising national debt. You can get 5.6% on a 6-month T-Bill and in a high tax state that's equivalent to about a 6% CD.

I'm not buying it. The National Debt and yearly deficits are too high and is starting to destabilize the financial system. The Fed could start printing money again.

You get the interest on the bonds or coupons. Bonds FLUCTUATE in value based on current market interest rates. Let's say you buy a 5-year Treasury bond today paying 4.5% annually, which is payable every 6 months. You paid 100 cents on the dollar for the face value of the bond and are guaranteed 4.5% interest and when the 5 years is up, you get 100 cents on the dollar back at maturity. The big problem is that bonds fluctuate in value based on CURRENT market interest rates, what you called the seesaw effect, before the maturity date. From the time you brought that 5-year Treasury to the maturity date it will fluctuate in value. The reason for this is say you brought a 5-year Treasury in 2020 when they were only yielding 1% and today, 2 years later, a 5-year is paying 4.5%, no one will buy your 5-year from 2020 paying 1% when they can buy a 5-year paying 4.5%. To make up for this discrepancy, your 5-year from 2020 can only be sold at a DISCOUNT to par value, or 80-85 cents on the dollar to make up for that difference in current rates. That discount to par value makes it equivalent for a buyer to purchase your old bond paying 1% and get a 4.5% interest rate available today. It works in reverse too. If you brought a 5-year paying the 4.5% today and market interest rates were to plunge, the par value of your bond would increase to 120 cents on the dollar (something like that) and you could sell it at a gain. But again, if you hold on to that bond to maturity you will get the face value of 100 cents on the dollar. The longer the maturity of the bond, the MORE fluctuation in face value of the bond. As an example of this fluctuation, there is that 20-year ETF that is down 46% in value from 2020 because of rising interest rates and their bond holdings consist of low interest rate bonds brought before the rise in the rates. This is the danger of buying a long bond, but also you could have a really good capital gain if interest rates were to drop. I personally don't like bond funds. I would buy individual bonds. Hope this helps.

The politicians are trying to protect themselves when they get busted.

You can get around 5% for a fixed rate annuity from NY Life and Mass Mutual (2 highly rated companies) through Fidelity. The terms are 3-4 years. It's not bad, especially if you are trying to defer income until you retire, as the interest accumulated in an annuity is tax deferred until maturity and you expect to be in a lower income tax bracket in the future. You can also continue the deferral by rolling it into another annuity.

Depends on the inflation rate and how the economy is doing. If the economy suddenly goes into a dive or there is a financial shock the Fed will cut rates quickly. This is borne out by history. Hard to predict though.

Well now we heard her version. There's more to it. Sounds like she was on a body sculpting vacation from her part-time studies as a husband seeker at Lehman Arts & Crafts U. You don't mess with airport security in the Middle East. You do exactly what they tell you and don't sass them. Especially if you're American. They don't like Americans. And they don't respect American women. Her "gentle push" was probably an angry shove. The young have learned how to spin the truth just like an old politician.

It is rough taking care of the elderly. They can be so difficult especially the women and their mouths. My aunt was a handful. Whatever their personalities were younger remains as they get older. God bless those people that work in Nursing Homes, they are way underpaid particularly the aides.

A gay oriented organization in Philly is the best way to start this journey. It's a slow process and you will probably have problems with some of your family members. This is a gradual process. Do not rush this process. Good luck!

Wow!! I'm glad you stood your ground for as long as you could, but better you ended it when you did. Probably an addict which makes for a dangerous situation.

You are quite correct! Rentboy went down because women staff, including prosecutors, were not happy that only female escorts were being targeted time after time.

True. But the majority of families have a few hundred thousand up to maybe a couple of million they get to keep now. You know granny is gonna get dumped in a facility asap since the family gets to keep the money.

According to this article, CA wants to waive asset verification for the Medicaid program (Medi-Cal), which apparently means no 5 year look back period or anything. Nursing home care to be covered by Medicaid no matter what your assets are. Wow. This is going to be costly for the taxpayers. https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/one-big-state-is-taxing-the-middle-class-nationwide-to-give-the-wealthy-free-healthcare/ar-AA1gSXTm?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=5ec0b72d50a5463c81bcf2d6493b378b&ei=8

It is not as bad as it appears. They have been getting profit sharing checks for years since then. The average profit sharing check for a GM worker in 2022 was $12,750. For every $1 billion in profits GM makes, they give the workers $1,000. In 2022, GM made about $13 billion. Stellantis paid out $14,670 per worker in profit sharing in for 2022. This is on top of their wages and other benefits. That chart is extremely misleading and doesn't tell the full story.

Irony bonus: EVs can't and won't move the needle on climate change one single iota, this was all a feel-good exercise for the wokester elites. Little do the poor dupes at the UAW and elsewhere know. Consumers have the choice to buy vehicles from non-union producers with lower prices and better value and not buy vehicles from UAW factories. People can barely afford groceries and now this nonsense!

The striking workers can’t sell new cars to Americans that are remotely affordable. Do they really think demanding outrageous wage increases will help them sell product or generate buzz from the public? At some point no one will buy their products or support their business. A stripped Dodge Ram is minimum 70K! Then they will look to the taxpayers for a bailout like in 2008-2009.

Agreed. Just look at many of them on the picket line. Many display physiques which have to tax the company’s budget for health insurance benefits.

The UAW just rejected a 21% pay offer. This strike is going to flop for the same reason the Hollywood strikes are flopping: Nobody wants to buy their products. A $80,000 pickup truck is just as unaffordable as a $20 movie ticket. Everything's unraveling, and we're entering the era of "smash and grab." The flash mob robberies in California and New York are metaphors for what's happening to our whole society. Everybody is grabbing what they can and running for the exits.