Thanks a Lot for the Disastrous Economic Legacy, Baby Boomers

baby boomersBaby boomers were handed the American dream.

They entered the workforce at the beginning of an economic boom. Income tax rates dropped as their careers (and incomes) progressed. All while the Dow Jones industrial average soared more than 1,100%.

The Economist calls it a "demographic dividend" possible through a perfect storm of better education, a massive workforce (as a majority of women sought employment for the first time in history), and boomer-friendly legislation.

Yet according to one columnist for The Atlantic, they are also "statistically and generationally speaking, ... parasite[s]."

Robbing Their Own Cradles

With all due respect to boomers (which include both my parents), I agree.

As a group, boomers (partly through the politicians they elected) didn't just take full advantage of the successful economic times they lived in. They went well beyond their ample means, leaving their children and grandchildren with over $16 trillion in federal debt. Compared to just $228 billion when the first boomer was born, that's an increase of 7,018%.

And despite their demographic dividend, this debt may be their unfortunate economic legacy, especially considering how horrible they've been at saving. (The average savings of someone nearing retirement -- i.e., baby boomers -- is roughly just $100,000.)

No matter how you look at it (and even applying experts' top tips to maximize their Social Security payout), this won't be enough for most boomers to retire comfortably.

In other words, they'll be living a "faith-based retirement," according to Joe Nocera of The New York Times. Or they'll demand even larger retirement handouts from the government -- further crippling their progeny.

And the Worst Part Is ...

Generations X and Y don't have any way to get out from under this crippling debt.

The workforce can't grow like it did for boomers because the birth rate has fallen since 1957. Taxes can't feasibly continue dropping because of the high level of federal debt.

Even the stock market -- despite its recent bullish run -- will likely experience a sustained bear market as boomers cash in on what money they do have invested to fund their retirements.

Even the Government Can't Help

This is true because boomers are both more active voters and make up the bulk of the members of both chambers of Congress. With political power firmly in hand, they're not likely to do anything against their best interests.

Yet even if Generations X and Y were politically involved, what could they feasibly change?

The only real solution would be either a period of complete austerity (meaning an immediate 35% hike in taxes and a 35% drop in entitlement spending, according to the IMF) or a period of sustained inflation (which may be an effective tactic to lower the real value of the amount of the federal debt, according to The Economist).

But neither of these is easy to vote in favor of (or to elect politicians to implement), especially when both would inevitably impact these generations for the worse.

So what do you think: Have baby boomers doomed America forever? Or will Generations X and Y map out a comfortable path between austerity and innovation to reverse the trend and to hand their children a debt-free America?

Sound off in the comments section below.

This article was written by Motley Fool analyst Adam J. Wiederman. To read Adam's report on how to boost your Social Security payouts by as much as 76%, click here.


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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/20/thanks-a-lot-for-the-disastrous-economic-legacy-baby-boomers/

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New Orleans Saints Receiver Flips A Defender Over His Head, Scores An Incredible Touchdown

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In the wildest play from a crazy Saints-Bucs game, New Orleans WR Joseph Morgan flipped a Bucs defender over his head en route to a 48-yard TD.

New Orleans now leads 35-21.

Unreal balance from Morgan to avoid the first tackle and stay on his feet, and holy cow what a flip:

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Obama Is Flooding Wisconsin Radio With This Brutal Ad On Romney's '47%'

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This radio ad provides a glimpse into how the Obama campaign is localizing its efforts to attack Mitt Romney's controversial comments on the "47 percent," breaking down who makes up the group in Wisconsin. 

I heard the ad for the first time shortly after I landed in Wisconsin on Thursday, and I decided to count. I heard it 22 more times from Thursday through Saturday across a wide variety of platforms on both AM and FM radio, though I did a fair amount of driving on each of the three days I was in the Badger State. 

Needless to say, people are taking notice in the state. Michal Lattomus, a self-described Republican who lives in Paul Ryan's neighborhood in Janesville, Wis., said the comments were "the single stupidest thing a presidential nominee could have done." She called the ad, which she said she had heard a fair amount of times, a natural, effective response from the Obama campaign.

"They really killed him for a while here, and they probably still are and will continue to," she said.

The ad's key line comes near the finish:

"Mitt Romney said those citizens — meaning Wisconsin veterans, seniors and middle-class families — call themselves victims. Victims?"

The Obama campaign's Wisconsin office provided us with the audio for the ad. Take a listen:

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Things Should Be Aware Of With Regards To Debt Consolidation Reduction Lending Options

At this time, most of us inhabit a good fast-paced, high-technology environment where all sorts of things comes and goes when rapid as being a blink of total eye. Right from e-mails that will messengers that will cards, these items realestatehomesbcseem to be whatever you call now when necessities. Even now, we quite often lose [...]

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Benefits of Credit Card Debt Consolidation

Consolidation Loans with Bad Credit Is debt consolidation a good solution for my credit card debts? Debtors, upon realizing that in a few years their credit cards would have accumulated thousands of dollars through interests ask the same question. Credit card purchases, in many instances are actually more expensive because of high interest rates. Someone [...]

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Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/06/29/benefits-of-credit-card-debt-consolidation/

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Argentina Is Evacuating A Navy Ship Seized In Ghana By A Hedge Fund

ARA Libertad

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina announced the immediate evacuation Saturday of about 300 crew members from the ARA Libertad, a navy training ship seized in Africa nearly three weeks ago as collateral for unpaid bonds dating from the South American nation's economic crisis a decade ago.

Only the captain and a few other members of the crew of 326 sailors will remain on the three-masted tall ship, a symbol of Argentina's navy.

Argentine President Cristina Fernandez decided to pull the rest out after failing to persuade authorities in Ghana to reverse a judge's decision to seize the ship. The judge also refused to allow the ship to be refueled, leaving it without power to maintain essentials and respond to any onboard emergencies, the foreign ministry said.

"That made clear the judge's intention to obligate a sovereign nation to negotiate with an entity dedicated to financial piracy from its fiscal hideaway in the Caribbean. This is the only unacceptable option for Argentina," Foreign Minister Hector Timerman said.

The Ghanaian judge acted on a claim by NML Capital Ltd., which is based in the Cayman Islands. Its owner, billionaire investor Paul Singer, leads a group demanding payment in full, plus interest, for dollar-based Argentine bonds bought at fire sale prices after the country's economy collapsed a decade ago, forcing a sharp devaluation of its currency.

The vast majority of bondholders accepted about 30 cents on the dollar years ago, which is roughly what the holdouts led by Singer initially paid for the bonds.

NML Capital has said Argentina owes it about $350 million, and offered to let the ship leave if Fernandez's government put up a $20 million bond to be forfeited.

Timerman called this "an attack that is nothing more or less than a kidnapping, an extortion and an act of piracy against a sovereign nation."

Argentina didn't say how it would manage to evacuate the crew, which also includes sailors from Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and South Africa. The bondholder group could potentially ask Ghana's courts to seize an airplane flown by Aerolineas Argentinas or the country's military.

Argentina argued that military vessels are immune from seizure as collateral, but Ghanaian authorities were not persuaded.

A lawyer in Ghana for NML Capital, Ace Ankomah, told The Associated Press earlier Saturday that Argentina never responded to the bondholders' offer to fly the crew home.

___

Associated Press writer Francis Kokutse in Ghana contributed to this report.

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The World's 20 Best Wine Country Hotels

l'auberge de sedona arizona wine country hotel

At Oregon’s Allison Inn & Spa, you can wake up to a view of Willamette Valley from your terrace, spend the afternoon sampling Pinot Noirs at local wineries, then retreat to the hotel spa for a “pinotherapy” treatment.

That kind of immersive experience has earned Allison Inn the No. 4 ranking among wine country hotels, based on Travel + Leisure readers’ votes in the annual World’s Best Awards survey. The winners come in lots of varietals, from opulent hotels to cozy inns, and turn up in established wine regions (South Africa’s Franschhoek, Argentina’s Mendoza) and less-expected destinations like Arizona’s Verde Valley and the Mount Etna area of Sicily, where that volcanic soil can work wonders.

Napa Valley, CA, certainly has experience catering to the wine-focused traveler. “Our customers come here to experience wine country from head to toe,” says George Goeggel, managing partner of Auberge du Soleil in the Napa Valley, one of the area’s first boutique resorts. “We try to embody the wine country lifestyle in all aspects, from a glass of wine at reception to the local bottles on the menu to the crushed grapes in our spa treatments.”

That sentiment rings true in Santa Barbara, CA, as well. “We estimate that 94 percent of our guests are wine lovers,” says Seamus McManus, managing director of San Ysidro Ranch, whose 1,600-bottle collection features an abundance of local labels. To satisfy their expectations, the hotel offers winery tours, hosts dinners with nearby vintners, and stocks local wines in each of its cottages. 

Not to be left out, the East Coast has its own properties among this year’s winners. Virginia’s rolling hills nurture The Inn at Little Washington as well as Keswick Hall, decked out with hunt-club prints and Chippendale chairs and host of regular themed wine dinners.

Even select urban hotels have caught on to the interest in wine tourism and offer guided day trips to wineries within a short drive. The renovated Four Seasons, Firenze, occupies a glorious frescoed palazzo with a pool and an 11-acre park. It makes a refined base for guided excursions into Chianti, 40 minutes away, or for tastings at the hotel's Winery restaurant (nearly 400 bottles at last count).

No matter which wine-country hotel you choose, one thing’s for sure: you won’t go home thirsty.

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America's Best Hotels For Fall Colors

Hotel Crillon le Brave, Crillon le Brave, France

The tiny hilltop town of Crillon le Brave lends its name to this 32-room medieval stone property with gardens, terraces, and spectacular views of vineyards and olive groves.

The concierge can arrange for day trips to the wineries of Côtes du Rhône and Châteauneuf-du-Pape (about half an hour away), known for their Syrahs, Marsannes, and Grenache noirs. Or simply enjoy a local bottle and take in the sweeping scenery from the romantic terrace at the hotel’s restaurant.

Domaine des Hauts de Loire, Onzain, France

This handsome 19th-century hunting lodge is covered in ivy vines, furnished with antiques, and occupies 178 forested acres along the wine route in Loir-et-Cher. The restaurant, overseen by chef Rémy Giraud, serves the Loire Valley’s famed Vouvrays, Montlouises, and Touraines, though guests seeking a bird’s-eye view of the region’s châteaux can arrange for a private helicopter or hot-air balloon tour of neighboring vineyards, castles, and ancient cities.

Les Crayères, Reims, France

In the heart of the Champagne region, this 20-room Belle Époque château (a former family home) maintains an impeccable sense of classic style.

The wine cellar at the Michelin-starred restaurant counts 400 champagne labels, and the hotel can arrange visits to bold-faced sites like nearby Veuve Clicquot-Ponsardin or the Moët et Chandon cellars, as well as the Notre Dame Cathedral.

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The 13 Scariest Haunted Houses In America

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Haunted Houses have been making America scream for nearly 40 years, and now Haunted Houses have gone global. The haunted house industry is an American export.

100 percent made in America as haunt vendors design, build and install haunted houses all over the WORLD! Halloween is extremely popular within the US. However, it was not as popular worldwide.

Trick-or-treating is an American tradition, and for years it was the primary way most American’s celebrated Halloween, but many things have changed over the last twenty years. Halloween has become the second largest retail holiday grossing more than $8 billion. The industry of making people scream is now a WORLD WIDE industry. Today, you can find haunted houses in most countries. People of all nations pay top dollar to enter a haunted house…to be SCARED.

So what makes a haunted house one of the best and scariest in America 2012? There are several things a paying customer might look for in a haunted attraction prior to buying a ticket. There are so many established haunted houses, plus so many more that open new each year, and a lot of over the top (potentially false) advertisements promoting them all in every city across America.

At Hauntworld, we suggest attending every haunt possible (of course), but for those of you on a budget, typically you’ll want to steer clear from the brand new haunted houses. New haunts have yet to establish themselves and build up an arsenal of experience to make people scream.

Rather, we suggest you visit the established haunted houses, the ones with years of experience, the ones who spend tens of thousands of dollars every year to renovate for each season, and the ones committed to making their haunted houses the best scream factories in America.

We look for many things when evaluating a haunt for our America’s best list. So many haunted attractions are quite different from each other. Many haunted houses like The Beast in Kansas City, Missouri are inside industrial buildings, while others like Headless Horseman in New York are outdoor haunts with massive hayrides, corn mazes and more.

How do you compare a scream park haunted attraction and an indoor haunted house? In most cases, the indoor haunted house will have the best attention to detail, sets and special FX. However, the scream park style attractions will offer more variety, longer attractions and typically more bang for the buck.

There are scary haunted houses, and then there are THE SCARIEST haunted houses in America. What’s the difference? Some haunts just want to make you scream, but some haunts go all out with over-the-top efforts trying to be the biggest, the baddest and the scariest haunted houses on the planet. The haunts that have that WOW factor can make their guests scream, PLUS they provide horrific atmosphere creating realism in every scare.

They provide a Hollywood movie quality punch to the gut! Who wants to watch horror movies anymore when you can visit a haunted house and be right in the middle of the action? Below is our list of the best haunted attractions in America.

These haunts will put you on stage inside a horror movie atmosphere and basically make YOU the scream queen! Before visiting a haunted house, use Hauntworld.com to find the best haunted houses in America, as we boast the largest and most informative database for finding haunted houses. Shop by city, state and zip to find a haunted house near you or around the World.

So which haunted houses are the best and scariest haunted houses in America 2012? Which haunts can make you scream more than any other, more than the best horror movie? Below you’ll read about the longest haunted houses, the oldest haunted houses, and even about the best rides with a Halloween theme? We have it all for you once again in our annual Top 13 best haunted houses in America List. Get ready, turn out the lights, and get ready to scream!

#13 Nightmare on the Bayou in Houston, TX

Located in the shadow of downtown Houston, TX next to Houston’s oldest graveyard, Nightmare on the Bayou is the name people think of when searching “HAUNTED TEXAS.”  Nightmare on the Bayou is entering its 12th year in operation and has grown even bigger, even better, and even scarier with every passing year. 

Featuring newly designed scenes, Hollywood quality props, professional animatronics and dozens upon dozens of the most well-trained and highly supervised actors, CRAZED ACTORS, whose sole purpose is to scare you to death.  Nightmare on the Bayou boasts, “the only haunted house in Houston with REAL ghosts,” and with its location right next to the graveyard…I believe them! 

Ghost sightings are frequent from both customers and employees alike.  Additionally, Nightmare On The Bayou is one of the only haunted houses in America with a WORLD CLASS Halloween retail store on site for your ease and convenience.

#12 13th Floor Haunted House offering 3 locations: San Antonio, TX, Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ

What is the terrible secret hidden within the 13th Floor?  Superstition? Conspiracy? Or something much, much worse?  As legend has foretold, The 13th Floor Haunted House provides a gut wrenching ride to untold nightmares STRAIGHT DOWN! 

The 13th Floor Haunted House is a franchise haunted attraction located in multiple locations.  These attractions are a true testament to high action, in-your-face premium production value among all haunted houses.  Each attraction offers a massive haunted event, one as big as 40,000 square feet and another as high as 3 floors up!  Through the wickedness of its massive Gothic cemetery and into its horrifically fantastic haunted hotel, 13th Floor customers get to experience a barrage of special effects, animatronic monsters and impeccably detailed sets. 

Add to that some of the most talented group of performers in the industry, and you’ve got a top notch, first rate haunted house that’s second to none.

#11 The Bates Motel in Philadelphia, PA

For more than 20 years, The Bates Motel Haunted Hayride at Arasapha Farm has been making Philadelphia SCREAM! 

This event is one of the biggest haunted house events in America featuring amazing props, digital FX, terrifying actors, professional makeup, pyrotechnics and multiple attractions in one location including a massive corn maze, an infamous hayride and a horrific haunted house. 

The Bates Motel has been featured on multiple television shows and ranked as high as THE BEST haunted house in the nation by multiple media outlets including Hauntworld.com.  The Bates Motel dominates the Philadelphia market as well as every surrounding area.  People travel from miles away just to attend this haunting event.

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3 Overvalued Utilities You Shouldn't Buy

David is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

With the economy picking up and the possibility of dividend taxes more than doubling, utilities are becoming increasingly unattractive. Limited growth prospects and high multiples are just some of the most disconcerting signs. Below, I highlight stock by stock why I have this viewpoint.

Dominion

: A Stock To Avoid For Now

I have been a bear on this stock for some time now. For the year to date, it was more or less flat - underperforming the S&P 500 by around 1,500 bps. Despite this weakness, the stock is still comparatively elevated against the market, at a respective 22.5x and 15.7x past and forward earnings. While the company does offer a 3.9% dividend yield, this will become less appealing should the Obama administration successfully hike dividend taxes by 164%. And it's not like the company has stellar growth opportunities if it decides to reinvest the cash that would have otherwise been paid out to shareholders - analysts only forecast 5.7% annual EPS growth over the next 5 years.

The unregulated utilities business was relatively strong in the most recent quarter, as operating maintenance costs were cut by the equivalent of $0.08 per share. But hedges will roll off and earnings have been less that consistent; in fact, in the last 5 quarters management has only beaten expectations once. The company missed forecasts 2 times, and the other two were merely in-line, despite solid macro progress.

When you consider that the company has grown EPS by only 2.4% annually over the past 5 years and has a beta of 0.5, it is hardly unlikely that the company will somehow turn around and outperform fast-moving markets. Accordingly, I recommend holding out and backing higher-growth peers.

NextEra (NYSE: NEE)

& Exelon (NYSE: EXC) Also Expensive

Compared to Dominion, NextEra and Exelon are relatively cheap. The former trades at 14x past earnings, versus 15.2x for Exelon. NextEra has beaten expectations in 4 of the last 5 quarters; Exelon has beaten expectations in only 3 of the last 5 quarters. This has led to NextEra outperforming Exelon by 1,600 bps with a return of 14.3%.

Results have been so weak overall that UBS recently downgraded Exelon to a "sell" from "neutral." Part of the rationale included weakened power prices and margin compression. The company's 5.7% dividend yield will also come under pressure from weak growth prospects. Over the next 5 years, analysts forecast EPS to decline by 2.7% annually. With a beta of 0.5, I also would not expect the tide to drastically change in Exelon's favor.

I further expect NextEra and Exelon to suffer from rising natural gas prices. Consolidation efforts for both producers have also forced them to make concessions to regulators that will limit the amount of subsequent value accretion. I am also very skeptical about NextEra's position in renewable energy. As the largest producer of domestic wind energy, it is exposed to cheaper and more consistent alternatives. As one analyst correctly recalls, "wherever wind development was put in place, natural gas demand went up." Accordingly, I recommend keeping out.

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Source: http://beta.fool.com/takeoveranalyst/2012/10/20/3-overvalued-utilities-do-not-buy/14897/

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FedEx Office Requires Business ID To Pick Up Package, Says I Can Just Make One Up

Stepping into Consumerist reader Steve’s local FedEx Office outlet is like falling down the rabbit hole into Wonderland, where a package is simultaneously delivered and en route and where security measures require you to show ID in order to pick up a package, but anyone is free to fabricate that ID even though FedEx knows it’s fake.

It all began … [More]

Source: http://consumerist.com/2012/10/19/fedex-office-requires-business-id-to-pick-up-package-says-i-can-just-make-one-up/

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