By Harvey (email Harvey)You’re not gonna believe this but the Federal Reserve actually has good news for a change. (Yes, I don’t believe it). They just announced that a $600 billion bond program created to strength our weak-ass economy and help with job creation is ending on scheduled as it is has succeeded in lowering loan rates and rising stock prices. Fed Chairman and devil incarnate Ben Bernake announced that he did expect that on the strength of this bond program, economic growth is not far behind. And even though you can’t trust this snakes oil salesman any farther that you can chuck him down a well, stocks did rise and gained 95 points, the biggest rise in three years.
So how do you get your grubby hands on one of these little Treasury bonds? First, ask your grandmother.. You probably got some many of them from your Grandma or Nana growing up that you actually thought they were real money when you were a kid. If there’s two things grandmothers know, it’s buying federal bonds and making spaghetti sauce. If you don’t have access to a grandmother, log on to the website of the US Treasury here: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/
And remember to be patient. The current maturation rate for bonds bought after May 2005 is twenty years. So hey you might be a grandmother by then too!
 Arrivederci capital gains tax! By Harvey (email Harvey)
Real estate in grim right now, but anytime you can own an entire village for less than a million dollars, you need to jump on it and jump on it now. Sure, real; estate sales are plummeting, foreclosures are at all time highs, and the housing market is the biggest drag on the US economy right now according to experts, but when can you ever pass up the opportunity to own your own village! Valle Piola, a Italian village that pre-dates the Dark Ages, has hit the market and is priced to sell baby. While the doomsayer inside me is screaming “No, no, no – don’t push the people onto real estate now with the end of the world so close!”, the capitalist swine in me can’t afford not to want to take a drive-by at this piece of property.
So the fine print says it is 3,000 up a mountain, only accessible by a dirt road, and houses 11 stone buildings and a half dilapidated church. But what I see is a project dripping with potential. I see a local council and an elderly man who have ownership being easier pushovers than the Detroit Lions offensive line. I see sheep farming becoming prevalent in this region again with the right wool investor lined up. And more importantly – I see a real estate steal at a time with everyone is making deals left and right on our own deplorable housing market. If people are rushing for scraps on the US housing market, I say take my advice and go for the biggest steal you can – an entire village in one of the most wealthy countries in the world. Within 10 years you could turn that run down abandoned village into the most expensive, exclusive ski après resorts this side of the Alps. Stocked with cheap Italian labor and with no US regulatory laws, people will be saying Switzerland who? Exactly. Valle Piola can be your very own Medieval Manor for a low, low sale.
Move on this!
By Harvey Dent (Email Dent) Are you wondering where I’ve been for the last few weeks? You’re not alone because I have no idea where I am. The day after I wrote my last post, I went to sleep, only to have woken up the next day in what looks like an underground nuclear bomb shelter. I’m not sure how I got here or where my actual location is, but I managed to find this computer with an internet connection. I’m stocked with food and water, a computer, and an internet connection. Thank god for internet access. Without it, I'de probably strangle myself due to boredom. Yesterday, I came across an article that summarized the President’s speech on our future.
By Harvey Dent (email Harvey)
In efforts to identify ways to reduce our greater than $14 trillion dollar debt, the U.S. is debating on whether or not to adopt an ongoing practice accepted by our Poutine eating neighbors up North. The adoption of changing from $1 bills to $1 coins would reduce the debt by $5.5 billion over the next 30 years. The rationale is due to the fact that $1 bills disintegrate into dust after about 3 months in circulation and it takes 1,000 degrees or a tank to destroy a $1 coin.
By Harvey Dent (email Harvey) Flying has been around for decades and since 9/11, not only has the airport’s security changed, but so has the airline industry. Prior to 9/11, you could get on a plane with a 10-inch hacksaw and the lady next to you would pull out her 12-inch knife and give you a wink. These days, due to a small organization from Southwest Asia, combined with the power-hungry, delusional government, trying to carry a plastic butter knife on a plane will get you 10 years in a maximum-security prison, while spending nights and sharing your “fruit cup” with Nasty Nate. As the TSA security gradually continues to get tighter, as we see here when a TSA pedophile "searches" a little boy with his shirt off, the assholes of society got looser due to the severe ass raping of the airline industry and their fees.
By Harvey (email Harvey)
Seriously, who doesn’t love food? To me, food is on my top 3 list of “things I enjoy” and if you’re like me, someone who lives to eat, your number 1 monthly expense, other than rent, is groceries. The average family of 3 spends about $7,000 a year or almost $600 a month on grocery bills.
 Moustachia, the land of the Free, only if you have a moustache. By Harvey Dent (E-mail Harvey)And so it begins, the start of secession and the break-up of the United States of America. The days of “one” country are starting to dwindle and the times of 50 countries in place of the United States is what the future holds for all of us.
By Harvey Dent
Every year, during tax season, I find myself cringing when I get stuck in a conversation where people tell me about “a large refund check” they’re waiting for in the mail or to be deposited into their bank account. No, I’m not cringing at the point of someone bragging about “a large refund check.” I cringe at the utter stupidity of the people who think that getting a large refund check is “great.” Do you not understand that you’re letting the government take too much money out of your paycheck, use your money to "stimulate" the economy, at no cost, return it back to you in the form of a refund check, and that you should have had this money during the prior year to do with it as you wish? I understand with the current savings rates of .25%, you would have received $1.16 of interest on the $2,500, but it’s the pure principle of it all. Wouldn't you feel much better if you had that extra $200 of take home cash a month? Wouldn't it be easier to pay your bills and save for an emergency fund if that $2,500 was given to you throughout the previous year instead of a day in April or May of the following year? I understand that you grew up in the United States education system and anything involving calculating numbers scares the living shit out of you, but take a minute and try to understand how you can reduce your tax refund for next year and receive the cash in your paycheck this year.
At the beginning of an employment, an employer will provide a W-4 for the employee to fill out. Within this W-4, it asks how many dependents the employee would like to claim. This is the first important input. It is not asking how many dependents the employee has, but how many would that person like to claim. In this instance, I like to claim 30 dependents, that way I know that $0 will be taken from my paycheck for Federal Withholdings from this one input.
By Harvey Dent
In the days of this tough economic environment, where unemployment is hovering around 10%, it’s tough for recent college graduates, as well as the recently laid off to find work. These are the days where unemployment filings and layoffs are about as common as Lindsay Lohan being in the news for some sort of drug related event. But what if I were to tell you that you could make at least $100,000 this year? You’re probably thinking, “Well I don’t want to accumulate tens of thousands of dollars in school loans, as well as the time and effort it will take to attain a doctorate degree.” The reply to that would be that you don’t have to! All you need is a high school diploma, capable to push some buttons, look like a huge creep, and work for the Department of Transportation (DOT).
Many of us like to take vacations that involve traveling on a plane to somewhere warm or to international destinations for cultural exposure to the rest of the world; however these days the volatility in airline ticket prices can be very frustrating. One day a plane ticket can be $400 and the next, $1,000! Is there a rhyme or a reason to the huge swings in this market? For the first time, we finally have the answer on when to purchase a flight ticket. FareCompare is an organization that gathers fare data from major travel agencies and analyzes it to determine when the best time to purchase a plane ticket actually is. They’ve determined that 3PM, Tuesday afternoon is the best time to purchase a plane ticket. To validate this finding, The Wall Street Journal did a similar analysis and identified that prices for tickets tend to drop mid-week, with the highest prices at week’s end. One major variable that was not included in the analysis was how far in advance you should purchase your ticket. Through analysis by Guardian, booking at least 8 weeks in advance is optimal for purchasing the cheapest fare. What have we learned? When purchasing a flight for your next vacation, purchase at least 8 weeks in advance on Tuesday at 3PM. Or you can pay 40% more for the exact same thing at a different time, I guess that's up to you.
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