In Washington, people are having trouble coming to terms with the nation's numerous social and economic troubles. It is a bad idea for our government to leave our limited public resources to the hands of wealthy and politically well-connected corporations like the Export and Import Bank.

Those who are in favor of the current status argue that the bank benefits taxpayers because it protects jobs and promotes US exports. However, these are unsubstantiated arguments that will not stand up to further inquiry. As a matter of fact, less than 2 percent of US exports are supported by the bank yearly, and the usual beneficiaries are huge businesses like Caterpillar and Boeing.
Moreover, the bank's claim of supporting 205,000 jobs in 2013 was disputed by the Government Accounting Office, stating that the bank did not consider the number of jobs that would have been available if the bank had not been present among other arguments. In addition, the Congressional Budget Office reported that over the next decade, the bank is estimated to yield losses to taxpayers.

Job Losses and Casino Bankruptcies Do Not Concern Donald Trump

On August 31, the Showboat Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City closed its doors as did the Revel Hotel some days prior. This resulted in the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs which included dealers, waitresses, bartenders, security guards and other personnel in the casino. The Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City is also poised for closure in late September, which will bring the number of laid off workers to 6,000.

Donald Trump has a lengthy history in Atlantic City and this includes him leaving his business deals in the area before the collapse of the local economy.

It was during the early 1980s when Trump first bought properties on the Atlantic City boardwalk after having received approval from the state's gaming and control board. This resulted in his forming a partnership with Holiday Inn and building Trump Plaza. The deal that Trump negotiated allowed him to collect 50% of all profits without assuming any liability for casino losses throughout the casino's first five years.

H&R Block jumped higher yesterday by 6% at the open after the company posted a smaller loss and better revenue than anticipated. The company also announced a stock buyback program of $3.5 billion in addition to closing its banking business a month ahead of schedule.

The company’s adjusted gross earnings for the first quarter came in at a loss of $96 million with revenue of $138 million. Analyst were looking for $108 million loss, the same as last year, and revenue of $134 million.

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Bill Gross, owner and co-chief investment officer for Pimco is in the  monthly Economical Times .  On this occasion he isn't attempting to clarify why increased rates of interest are ideal for investment and growth, but rather he's attempting to assist investors in deciding on foreign currency trading markets.  His point would be that the classic ideas of change rates do not make a difference very much nowadays, what is important will be the actions of core banking institutions with regards to quantitative easing.

Bill Gross is actually a bond industry celebrity: Following 4 decades of directing his way in the fixed income world and producing top-tier results for his shareholders, he continues to be Morningstar’s ruling “bond fund administrator of the decade.” The situation?

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Trulia Is On The Stock Market

Trulia Inc. is riding the housing recovery well and has just gone public. With only one week of trading, it is now valued at over half a billion dollars.

The online real estate company opened on the New York Stock Exchange at $22 per share which was well above the asking price. Its offering is a test for how much people have overall interest in IPOs since Facebook's bad debut. Many companies are happy that it went so well the first day of Trulia's debut. Trulia makes money by selling subscriptions and advertisements to realtors. It has not returned a profit yet but its revenue has nearly doubled in the last year. If they lose those realtors, then their company will hurt so they must make sure that there is a demand for houses.

English: Marcus Agius, British financier and businessman and Chairman of Barclays, speaking at the Confederation of British Industry's Climate Change Summit 2008 at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Barclay bank president resigns according to news sources. A CEO of one of the biggest banks has stepped down because of a scandal the bank reported on Tuesday. The resignation of Bob Diamond goes into effect right away.

This comes as no surprise since Diamond has always been viewed a very controversial figure in support of giving bankers large bonuses.

Donations (Photo credit: Matthew Burpee)

While some people are just catching on to crowdfunding, others have been savvy to it for years.  The idea behind crowd funding is quite brilliant: raise small donations from a high number of people to fund your project.  Most people don’t mind throwing in $5 to a project they find intriguing. Or at least if it’s someone they care about.  Thousands of films, documentaries, books, games etc. have successfully been funded. Sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are raking in the money by being the platform for these artists to fundraise.  Kickstarter has hit over a million dollars for a single project more than once.  So why isn’t everyone using crowd funding for projects? Well, it’s starting to look like small business and inventors are.

Banks: they’re a necessary evil. They pretend to look after our financial interests but really they’re just looking after their own. Some banks are worse than others. For example, in South Africa, banks charge people to deposit money, withdraw money, transfer money (even between accounts in the same name), and make payments, and that’s not counting monthly bank charges and other ‘admin fees’. By and large, the interest rates that banks all over the world charge on loans also borders on criminal. So, who is on the consumer’s side? Who monitors banks and ensures that they behave as ethically as possible?

Enter bank examiners.

Bank examiners are the watchmen of the banking world. They poke around behind the scenes to determine whether banks operate within the rules and regulations, whether their policies are fair and ethical, whether their procedures run smoothly and whether staff follow these procedures, protocols and keep proper records of all transactions. Bank examiners all check to see that staff are properly trained and qualified for their jobs.

Bank examiners can work for governmental departments, regulating bodies and banks themselves – to ensure that financial institutions don’t incur any penalties owing to dodgy practices.

Loan (Photo credit: Philip Taylor PT)

There are several categories of loans small business owners can pursue while trying to fund their start-up company. Before choosing which type of loan to capitalize on, you should know the advantages and disadvantages of the two most common categories of business loans.

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There are many online broker firms today that allow their users to personally conduct their own trading ventures for a small fee. This appeals to many individuals because it gives them a sense of control over their own portfolios. However, the process for placing a trade through an online brokerage is not as simple as clicking a button or an icon.

With the company Scottrade there are three different steps to perform for a basic stock or ETF trade. First there is the market trade, where the security is traded at the current price in the market. To accomplish this type of transaction the user clicks on the trade button found on the ‘Quick Quotes’ page. Next, select whether the action is to buy or sell and the total number of shares for the transaction. Follow this with the stock symbol of the company or the ETF symbol. Now the trader should click on the ‘Type Order’ button and select ‘Market.’ After the type of order has been selected, duration for the 'time in force' needs to be chosen. Market orders are only valid for the trading day that they are placed; therefore the time in force needs to reflect this stipulation. At this point, the trader will be asked to review the order. If everything is how it should be, then the user should place the trade.