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Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2012/03/12/inspirational-quotes/

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The Next Housing Bubble Might Just Be The Rental Sector


Typically when rents go up, more renters turn to home buying.

When home prices go up, more turn to renting, but today’s housing market is anything but typical.

Rents were up 3 percent nationally in January, year-over-year, according to a soon-to-be released new rental index from Zillow.com. Home prices, however, were down 4.6 percent annually.

When you look locally, the numbers are more dramatic.

In some markets, rents rose almost as much as home values fell. Take Chicago, for example, where rents were up just over 9 percent annually while home values were down just over 10 percent. The same is true for Minneapolis, where the divide is nearly the same. In San Francisco and Detroit, rents are up around 5 percent while home prices are down the same. It begs the question, as the rent vs. own divide grows, will the rental bubble suddenly burst?

Right now investors are rushing to get in on cheap foreclosures, hoping to turn them around for quick rental income. The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the FHFA, is in the midst of a pilot program to sell 2500 foreclosed properties to investors as rentals. The bulk of these properties are already rented, which means buyers get a turn-key investment with instant returns.

In the meantime, multi-family housing starts were up over 14 percent in January from December and have been rising steadily as developers look to cash in on high rental demand and relatively low supply. Multi-family REITs are seeing big returns.

So what exactly is the tipping point, given that mortgage availability is still tough, consumer confidence in housing is still weak, and employment, while improving, is still not where it needs to be to spur strong buyer demand?

“While it seems that rents are rising at the expense of home values, the opposite is true. A thriving rental market will stimulate home sales, as investors snap up low-priced inventory to convert to rentals. That, in turn, will lower the number of homes on the market, which will eventually help put a floor under the value of all homes,” says Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries.

More supply of rental homes, especially single family, could slow the upward trajectory of rent rates, which in turn would make renting more attractive and buying less so. It just raises a red flag to see home affordability at a record high, investors rushing in, and rents so strongly outpacing home values.

This post originally appeared at CNBC. 

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/0OD-eDyqfGw/the-strong-rental-market-should-help-put-a-floor-under-the-entire-housing-industry-2012-3

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The US Military's Plan To Go Green Has Been A Total Failure


Oil Tanker

Late last month, Bloomberg reported that British Petroleum continues to experience substantial growth in the amount of money it receives from the Pentagon for its oil services. From 2010 to 2011, Pentagon contracts with BP increased by one-third from about 1 billion to 1.35 billion.

This was presented by some in the media as a scandal, since presumably, BP should be punished by the Pentagon for it’s massive 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The larger story, however, should be about just how much the Pentagon spends on oil every year.

The BP contracts are just one small portion of total Pentagon spending on oil, and as Bloomberg reported earlier in February, Pentagon spending on oil surged 26 percent from 2010 to 2011, rising from $13.7 billion to $17.3 billion during that period. That’s about 117 million barrels of oil.

Indeed, the U.S. Department of Defense is the largest purchaser of oil on earth, and reportedly consumes more than any other governmental department or body worldwide. Obviously, the effect of such a huge driver of global demand on the global oil price certainly isn’t zero.

There have been talks in Washington of cutting the military’s budget by about 500 billion over the next ten years. In spite of the fact that this amount is laughably small, the military is claiming that the global oil price, which the military itself is pushing up, will make even a tiny reduction difficult.

We can consider this along side the much ballyhooed effort by the Pentagon to “go green” and slash its use of fossil fuels. It also promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions by ten percent. This cut, however,

"exempts the military’s bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the jets, ships, and ground vehicles that swallow up 75 percent of the military’s fuel supply."

So, the Pentagon will be cutting emissions except when it’s not. And by cutting its reliance on fossil fuels, it can presumably get to work driving up the price of non-fossil fuels. Whether or not the reduction of fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions should be a goal of public policy is debatable, but in typical fashion, the reality of the effort to “go green” hardly matches the PR.

The idea of the Pentagon becoming environmentally conscious is itself somewhat ridiculous. Governments worldwide have committed some of the worst environmental disasters in history, and government militaries tend to be among the worst perpetrators. Civilian functions of government can be environmentally disastrous, as in the case of the Soviets and the Aral Sea, but governmental war efforts seem to produce the lion’s share of the damage done. Even leaving aside all the fire bombing and the nuclear bombs and the depleted uranium bombs still being used by the Pentagon, we’re left with nuclear test sites, the myriad of polluted weapons production sites, such as Rocky Flats and the non-stop use of oil that is necessary to move around machines of war day in and day out across the globe. The U.S., for example, has essentially been at war nonstop since 1990. That sort of thing gets expensive in both budgetary outlays and in environmental impact.

American taxpayers aren’t just paying once for the Pentagon’s spending spree on oil. They’re also paying through higher prices at the pump. Worldwide, private citizens continue to pay for government militaries through lost limbs thanks to leftover land mines, or polluted soil and groundwater due to depleted uranium, through unexploded munitions, or through just old-fashioned air pollution.

Yet governments continue to lecture private citizens for the crime of driving an automobile to the grocery store or failing to recycle a few aluminum cans.

This post originally appeared at The Christian Science Monitor.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/vJ5qQwJ9TCk/the-us-militarys-plan-to-go-green-has-been-a-total-failure-2012-3

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Apple Says Demand 'Off The Charts' For New iPad (AAPL)

BNY Mellon Still Worth $26 Despite Tough Quarter

Not all is grim for the custody banks, as Goldman also estimates an improvement in core custody fees driven by a healthy growth in assets under management & custody for the period.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/03/09/bny-mellon-still-worth-26-despite-tough-quarter/

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Men Are Spending More On Suits As The Recovery Ramps Up


lapel-cufflink-fashion-menswear-men-suit-tieIf you weren't part of the "mancession" yourself, you probably know a man who was or is still affected by the economic downturn of the past few years. Reportedly, the downturn hit men especially hard with unemployment.

A CNBC.com article yesterday, however, mentioned that menswear apparel sales were beginning to rebound because men were finally getting back to work and needing the clothes to go with it.

"The competitive landscape for employment is tough," Durand Guion, the Macy's men's fashion director, said in the article. "People perceive that they are getting a leg up by being dressier." He also explained that work styles are a little more formal now than last decade's dressed-down "casual Fridays."

Is it true? Do you have a better chance at nabbing a job and doing better once you get it depending on what you wear? Women have believed this for a long time, but I decided to get an expert opinion.

"It's much better to be a little overdressed than underdressed," says Judi Perkins, a Connecticut-based career coach and founder of Find the Perfect Job. "A well-tailored suit is never out of place. It affects, often unconsciously, how people perceive you: your skills, your demeanor, your communication skills and your competence in general."

She further explains that it changes how you feel about yourself also, especially if you're feeling discouraged from being unemployed for a long time. "You'll feel more put-together, more accomplished in a well-tailored suit or new outfit," Perkins says. "Dressing up and spending a little on yourself  gives you back a feeling of self-respect, of feeling deserving."

So the verdict is in: Make room in your budget for a new suit, shoes and maybe some accessories to go with it. "I do believe that a well-dressed man with an air of competence and confidence could nail a position over a guy wearing Dockers and a sports coat," Perkins says, "even if the guy with the suit isn't quite as qualified. The suit makes a strong psychological impression in the wearer's favor."

Here are Perkins' smart-spending shopping tips for the well-dressed man.

  • Take advantage of specialty menswear stores and department store promotions such as BOGOs (buy-one-get-one) and 2-for-1 deals, one-days sales and dollars-off coupons.
  • Take your wife or significant other with you, if you're embarrassed about whipping out coupons.
  • Make use of the tailor so clothes fit impeccably.
  • Upgrade any scuffed shoes, outdated tie styles and stained or worn items.

Do you think clothes make the man? Have you upgraded your attire recently or landed a new job?

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  4. Rewards for saving, not spending
  5. UGG markdowns online Dec. 12

This post originally appeared at Bankrate.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/XbfhDQVzcP8/men-are-spending-more-money-on-suits-as-the-recovery-ramps-up-2012-3

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They Just Released The Bracket For The NCAA Tournament, Here It Is


They just released the bracket for the NCAA Tournament. Kentucky is your No. 1 overall seed.

Here are the top four teams in each region:

South: Kentucky, Duke, Baylor, Indiana

East: Syracuse, Ohio State, Florida State, Wisconsin

West: Michigan State, Missouri, Marquette, Louisville

Midwest: North Carolina, Kansas, Georgetown, Michigan

At first glance, the South looks pretty stacked while the Midwest is as soft as they come.

2012 ncaa tournament bracket for division 1 basketball

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/e_a4N85-TFA/ncaa-tournament-bracket-2012-3

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