Financial Schools Reviews

As a professional Realtor in downtown Chicago, there can be a lot of preparation that goes into showing a Streeterville high-rise condo or an immaculate Lincoln Park townhome. Whether it’s arranging a time that fits both mine and the buyer’s schedule or making sure the property is “show-ready,” I prefer to have every minor detail worked out well before it’s time to show off some of Chicago’s best real estate. Sure, it may sound a bit tedious but maybe that’s just my personality. So what about

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By mid-August the government coffers could be running dry if there isn’t some upward adjustment to the federal debt ceiling made by Congress in the next few days. One proposal to deal with the issue: Print more money.

But printing more money can mean several different things in government-speak. The first way for the nation to make money is to literally print it up at one of the money factories in Washington, D.C., or Fort Worth, Texas. Currency is printed year-round to meet both for increasing demand for more bills and to replace those that wear out and are pulled from circulation. Full Article…

Between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010, Americans paid $72 billion more to reduce their credit card debts than they spent on the cards, according to a study by the credit monitoring bureau TransUnion. As a result, the average credit card borrower saw their total debt obligations slip $601 to $5,165 from the previous year’s total of $5,776. That trend continued into the first quarter of this year, when the average borrower owed just $4,679 on their credit cards, a low not seen in 10 years.

“Many people in the financial services industry believe charge-offs have been the leading factor in declining credit card debt since the start of the recession,” said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “In fac

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Online retailing is big business these days, with the top 500 Internet retailers growing by an average of 18% in 2011. E-commerce currently makes up about 8% of all retail sales, and that number is growing. As retailers see their online storefronts grow from profitable little offshoots to major revenue generators, many are realizing the value of free shipping. A survey of merchants by E-tailing.com shows that free shipping is among the top promotional tactics to meet customer expectations 69% of the time, and that’s up from just 55% a year ago. Plenty of retailers that offer free shipping today actually weren’t doing so just a year or two ago. L.L. Full Article…

– South Africa’s central bank maintained the key interest rate unchanged for a fourth straight session on slowing economic recovery and high inflation.

The South African Reserve Bank Governor Gill Marcus announced that the Monetary Policy Committee decided to leave the repurchase rate unchanged at 5.5 percent. The decision was in line with economists’ expectations.

“The domestic economic recovery has continued, but in a hesitant manner,” Marcus said. “The strong performance of the economy in the first quarter of the year is unlikely to have been repeated in the second quarter, and growth prospects will also be dependent on global developments.”

Inflation accelerated to 5 percent in June from 4.6 percent in the previous month.

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