Posted August 4, 2009 - 05:00 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
I got a notice from one of my credit cards a bit ago, announcing that they were raising the interest rate. It's only of theoretical interest to me, of course--I use credit cards for transactions, not to borrow money--but looking at the rate they're charging reminded me that there are really three interest rates.
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Posted June 11, 2009 - 06:39 by Philip Brewer
Personal Finance
When I went off to college in 1977, inflation was high and rising, but the maximum interest rate you could earn on a savings account was capped by the government at a fraction over 5%. The conventional wisdom was "It's dumb to hold cash when inflation is over the rate you can earn." I absorbed that conventional wisdom, and it led me to make some dumb decisions.
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Posted December 1, 2007 - 22:32 by Paul Michael
Consumer Affairs
Have you ever wondered about the validity of those "special offer magazine subscriptions" you get in your mailbox? As someone who gets most of his magazines for free through various free subscription sites, I never really gave it much thought. But then I read an article by Chris Anderson, of Wired magazine, and he exposes some ugly truths about subscriptions.
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Posted September 3, 2007 - 03:39 by Philip Brewer
Green Living
Low interest rates generally lead to inflation, which is bad for everybody. But if inflation were really low, then low interest rates would tend to follow, and in that situation, low interest rates just might save the world.
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