New Legislation You Need to Know About
You’ve heard of the “Cash for Clunkers” government program that recently ran out of the original $1 billion. The Senate just approved an additional $2 billion for the program last night to extend the popular program and President Obama is expected to sign it into law as early as today. But just because it’s popular [...]
Madoff Made Off With Billions – Now Sentenced to Jail
So the largest financial swindle in history ended Monday. The judge proclaimed, “Bernard L. Madoff shall be and hereby is sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 150 years.” Bernie Madoff is the perpetrator of a $65 billion Ponzi scheme that spanned several decades and took thousands of victims. The 150-year sentence is essentially a [...]
GM Should Have Gone Bankrupt 6 Months Ago
As you may or may not have heard, GM recently declared bankruptcy this past Monday to become the fourth largest bankruptcy in U.S. business history. The General obviously had way too much debt on the books. Over $172 billion worth! But what’s the problem? Well, GM should have gone bankrupt much sooner than Monday. It [...]
New Credit Card Laws Protect Consumers
President Obama signed into law today credit card reform that was long overdue (no pun intended). The legislation had bipartisan support in the House and Senate and President Obama has been pushing it for a while. The legislation passed despite opposition from the credit card industry and I’m glad it did. These credit card companies [...]
Chrysler Declares Bankruptcy
You’ve probably heard about it now, but Chrysler LLC earlier today filed for bankruptcy protection. The company will continue to operate and has an agreement with Italian carmaker Fiat to utilize some technologies, cars, etc. to help Chrysler going forward. As far as I’m concerned, it was about time, and probably a little too late. [...]
What Piece of the $787 Billion is Yours?
You could read the entire stimulus bill (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) online at the Library of Congress that President Obama signed into law today. Or…you could just find out how it affects you right here on Christian Finance Blog! First things first. You’ve probably heard that the new bill has a [...]
Black Friday Violence
Well, I arrived at 12:30 am at a local Super Wal-Mart on Black Friday and didn’t expect anything different than any other year. I’m a Black Friday veteran, having done this for the last five years. I normally camp out at Best Buy, but this year’s deals weren’t appealing to me. So I decided to [...]
Lower Online Savings Rates Roundup
Just got an email from FNBO Direct saying that their rate for their online savings account went down to 3.25% from 3.50%. WaMu (JPMorgan Chase) also quietly lowered the online savings rate to 3.00% from 4.00%. ING Direct is at 2.75% (instant $25 bonus for new accounts with at least $250). HSBC Direct is currently [...]
What Does the Bailout Mean for Me?
By now, most of us have heard about the news of the $700 billion bailout signed into law by President Bush on October 3rd, 2008. The bill is designed to bailout the numerous banks throughout the country that were making bad mortgage loans. The government (read: we, the taxpayers) are now going to own $700 [...]
WaMu Taken Over by JP Morgan Chase
As many of you know, I bank at Washington Mutual (WaMu). As many of you also know, WaMu actually failed and the government sold it to JPMorgan Chase for $1.9 billion on Friday. This was the largest bank failure ever in the United States. So what caused the downfall of the nation’s largest bank? The [...]
Kansas Bank Shut Down
The FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.) shut down the Columbian Bank of Topeka in Kansas yesterday which had about $752 million in assets and $622 million in deposits. This is already the ninth bank failure this year. There were $46 million in uninsured deposits by 610 accounts at the bank that exceeded the $100,000 insurance [...]
More Bank Failures This Year
Since I blogged about the IndyMac Bank failure a little while ago, there have been several banks to go under with First Priority Bank in Bradenton, Florida being the latest casualty. It was closed last Friday, August 1, 2008 and is being taken over by SunTrust Bank. Two banks were also closed on July 25 [...]
WaMu Increases Savings Rate to 3.75%
Washington Mutual (WaMu) recently upped their online savings interest rate to 3.75% from 3.50%. It’s one of the highest rates going right now and a great place to park that emergency fund. I use WaMu as my main bank because of the numerous branches and ATMs in my area. Here’s my full review of the [...]
Another Bank Bites the Dust (What Happens if a Bank Fails)
The latest bank to “bite the dust” is IndyMac Bank in Pasadena, California. Earlier today, the FDIC took over the failed IndyMac Bank. This is already the fifth bank to fail this year alone compared to “only” three in 2007 and none in 2006 or 2005. This is also the second largest bank failure in [...]
New Online Savings Rate Bumps!
HSBC Direct recently bumped up their online savings rate to 3.50% until August 15, 2008. FNBO Direct also announced today via email that they were bumping their online savings rate to 3.50%. They also increased some of their CD rates. These are great places to park that emergency fund. You can also earn 3.90% at [...]