18 ways to beat inflation

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Cut out some waste and take advantage of a few overlooked deals, and you can rein in your budget without feeling like a penny-pincher.

Housing: It’ll get worse

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With home prices plunging by more than 30% in some markets, bargain-hunters are ready to pounce.
But it may pay for buyers to wait. Many housing experts say that the worst-hit metro areas have even farther to fall, and could see total drops of as much as 50%.

Discount fliers: Your days are numbered

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As the battered airlines cut flights to save on fuel-related costs, passengers can bid bon voyage to discount flights to sunny vacation destinations like Florida, experts say.
Continental has eliminated service to airports big and small all across the nation, meaning that fliers will have less options when booking air travel.

Weekly Economic Update for the Week of June 9, 2008

These views are those of Peter Montoya Inc., and not WealthStrong, and should not be construed as investment advice.
Quote of the week. “Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Sir Richard Steele

Spike in joblessness. The Labor Department announced 5.5% unemployment for May on Friday, up from 5.0% in April. Part [...]

Social Security debit cards debut

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“No bank account? No problem. Now you can have your Social Security benefits loaded directly onto an electronic debit card that works like a gift card from Uncle Sam,” the Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery writes Tuesday.
The card is a move by the Treasury Department to get the 10.5 million who still get paper [...]

New York Fed Chief Urges Global Bank Framework

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Banks and investment banks whose health is crucial to the global financial system should operate under a unified regulatory framework with “appropriate requirements for capital and liquidity”, according to Timothy Geithner, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Writing in Monday’s Financial Times, Mr Geithner, a key US policymaker throughout the credit [...]

So Just How Did ‘Core Inflation’ Come About?

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‘Core inflation’ takes food and energy out of the inflation index. Many mainstream economists and Fed members pray at the ‘core inflation’ altar. So what economist came up with the wacky notion. Was it some Einstein type creating a concept that few other earthlings can understand? No.
‘Core inflation’ was created at the behest [...]

Credit crisis expands, hitting all kinds of consumer loans

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The credit crisis triggered by bad home loans is spreading to other areas, forcing banks to tighten credit and probably extending the credit crisis that’s dragging down the economy well into next year, and perhaps beyond.
That means consumers are going to have an increasingly difficult time getting bank loans for car purchases, credit [...]

Traders predict house prices will fall by 50% in four years

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The slide in house prices will continue for at least three years and crush the value of a home by almost 50% in real terms, according to a key index of property price futures. Indications from futures trading on long term property prices shows that the average UK home will recover its current [...]

Executricks… Or How to Retire While You’re Still Working

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People in the high flush of a successful but sometimes frenetic business career often look with envy at those who have entered their golden years. Ah! they think. To be retired! Free to wake when you wish, to have the time to reflect on the deeper things in life, play golf or quoits, [...]