New Plan Ties College Loan Payments to Income

This is an important article for anyone who has student loan debt. The more your debt, and lower your imcome, the more important the article.

The new repayment option — the Income Based Repayment (IBR) plan — went into effect on July 1, 2009. It limits what borrowers have to pay to “15% of the difference between their gross income and 150% of federal poverty guidelines.”

What exactly that means, is up to your lender to determine, as I understand it. But it does appear that payments can be as low as $0.00. That’s bad, because interest accrues and is added to the outstanding balance, but it’s good because after borrowers “make payments on loans” for 25 years, the balance is forgiven.  (But what does “make payments on loans” mean?  What if those “payments” are $0.00?)

Bottom line is that everyone who feels burdened by their student loans should read this article, and its links, and figure out if this new plan is something for them. If it is, take action.

Problem is, how to figure all this stuff out? It may be so important, and complicated, that some people might want/need professional advice. That’s actually something I’ve long been interested in, but it’s been low on the priority list compared with my other projects. I would love to hear from any of you with the relevant knowledge, experience, and drive to setup a web- and phone-based business providing student loan consulting (in partnership with me). I’ve already got a good domain name: StudentLoanConsulting.com. I guess I could always sell or license that name as well. If you’re interested in any of this, just contact me.

Now on to the article:

Reboot 11 Pics, Videos, and Links

(click to watch the video)

Just time for a quick post to mark the end of another great Reboot. This year’s theme was Action (last year was Free).

I gotta keep this post short, but below are some interesting links and my pics.  Check back over time, as new and updated content will be posted.

Unity of Greater New Orleans

Unity of Greater New Orleans is a group of amazing people working to end homelessness (in New Orleans).

We all want to help reduce homelessness everywhere, so this is just one charity of interest in that department, but it’s a good one.  We have to help each other, one person at a time.

Read the following article and let me know what you think: New Orleans Times-Picayune: “Squatters hidden in N.O.’s abandoned houses often need more help than other homeless people”: http://bit.ly/TT3V1 (Google Doc) or http://bit.ly/gh72s (PDF).

So did you read that article? That’s why I just made a donation to them through the Network For Good. Here’s the link to Unity of Greater New Orleans’s donation page in case you’re inspired, too. Either way, maybe re-share this post? Thanks.

PS: Pics and video from my latest trip to New Orleans, in April 2009.

Barack Obama:
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

Ten Principles for a Black Swan-proof World

A year and a half ago, Nouriel Roubini gave us his recipe for financial meltdown, The Twelve Steps to Financial Disaster, each of which unfolded in sequence. Now Nassim Nicholas Taleb gives us his Ten Steps for a Black Swan-proof World (below).

Roubini’s steps were the inevitable outcome of a flawed system. Sadly, perhaps, Taleb’s steps are not inevitable.

Additional reading:

• Selected Roubini articles on this blog
• Nouriel Roubini’s Global EconoMonitor blog
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness blog

Now on to the article:

Market Update: Why I Closed My March Longs

Just time for a quick market update (here’s my prior update) and explanation of my May 6th tweet (the time stamp says 9:46 PM because I’m in Sweden, six hours ahead of USA ET, where it was 3:46 PM):

Just closed out all stock positions (long) I put on in the beginning of March: http://bit.ly/3299rF. Biggest gain: RIMM 89%; loss INTU -8%.

Comments on the chart below:

Article: The Quiet Coup

A long, but interesting and important article.

The Quiet Coup
By Simon Johnson
2009-05
The Atlantic

The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises. If the IMF’s staff could speak freely about the U.S., it would tell us what it tells all countries in this situation: recovery will fail unless we break the financial oligarchy that is blocking essential reform. And if we are to prevent a true depression, we’re running out of time.

One thing you learn rather quickly when working at the International Monetary Fund is that…

Miss. and La. Road Trip Pics: 1st Set: Leave DC, Drive, Arrive, First Day/Night in NOLA

UPDATE: Here’s a master page of New Orleans pics and videos: www.buzzpal.com/no.

Here’s the first batch of pics from my 9-day road trip down to Pearl River, Mississippi, and New Orleans, Louisiana.

Why/how’d I go on this trip?

To help my friend Alan move all his stuff down to his and his wife Amy’s organic blueberry farm, Pearl River Blues. Plus I absolutely love great road trips, and what could be better, especially if you love music, than a road trip to Mississippi and New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz, funk, and blues?

Market Update: Now and Zen

Just time for a quick follow up to my March 11th blog, which nailed the March 10th low. Since then, we’ve had multiple follow-through days, however volume has been suspiciously low, which could, actually, be interpreted bullishly (in a “double bluff” kind of way, to make a poker analogy).

Day 1 of New Rally Attempt

Just a quick post to mark the first day of a new rally attempt, lead by financials, lead by Citigroup (NYSE: C). Look for follow-through (or failure) next week. I am slightly exposed to this rally, but not “all in,” especially with me living out of a suitcase for the past month (and for another two months). Cheers!

Subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.
Check out the latest BuzPal t-shirts here!

“The Financial Crisis in Terms I Can Understand”

Not sure who wrote this (if you know, please put the credit in the comments), but I like it. Received it today from a friend in London.

Related

• CDO Fantasy (to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody)
• Chuck Norris on the Credit Crisis
• The Sub-Prime Mess (PowerPoint download)

“The Financial Crisis in Terms I Can Understand”

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Berlin. In order to increase sales, she decides to allow her loyal customers – most of whom are unemployed alcoholics – to drink now but pay later. She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around and as a result increasing numbers of customers flood into Heidi’s bar.

Life Is Beautiful

Rob and Hugo

Fourteen months have gone by since I wrote the following letter, on December 21, 2008, the day after my wife Susanne’s godfather, Hugo, died, at his home in Gothenburg, Sweden.

I’ve wanted to share it for a long time as a memorial to Hugo and to remind myself, and maybe help others remind themselves, that life is beautiful, that we need to cherish it, be kind, pay it forward, live in the present, and generally try to do no harm and leave this earth better than we found it.

The reason I publish this letter today is two fold:

Snow Falling on Dog

Snow Falling on Dog

Today at my parents’ house in Cambridge, Maryland, USA. Looks pretty, but the snow is wet, heavy, nasty!

BTW, for those of you who don’t know Izzie, she is my parents’ dog, a 9-year-old Doberman. She is extremely sweet. Here’s a pic I took of here a few years back.

Subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.
Check out the latest BuzPal t-shirts here!

First Post From the USA and First Post From the New MacBook

Just time for a quickie:

1. NYT: Bailout Plan: $2.5 Trillion and a Strong U.S. Hand
2. NYT Graphic: The Government’s $8.8 Trillion Bailout Tab
3. Nouriel Roubini: Treasury’s Financial Stability Plan: Will It Work?
4. Nouriel Roubini: It Is Time to Nationalize Insolvent Banking Systems
5. Video and My Comments: Obama and Henrietta Hughes at Town Hall Meeting

UPDATE: Two additional articles:

1. NYT: Stopping a Financial Crisis, the Swedish Way
   (September 2008)
2. Matthew Richardson and Nouriel Roubini: Nationalize the Banks! We’re all Swedes Now (current)

Gearing up for Obama-Rama-Palooza in DC

Yesterday, sitting here in Sweden and emailing my friends back home in Washington, DC, is when the adrenaline-pumping excitement really hit me (for the second time – this was the first).

We are at:

1. The end of a dark era that spread fear, turned “us” against “them,” and “we” into “me.”
2. And the beginning of a new era!

While I know it won’t be easy, I believe Obama and his team represent the best — by far — that we could hope for right now.  It’s a tough job, and I know it’s not possible to please everyone inside America, let alone also outside America, but I believe he can/will do better than any of the others could have.

Two Excellent Michael Lewis and David Einhorn Articles

I’ve posted a bunch of stuff from these guys over the years:

• Here’s an especially good David Einhorn speech from October 2007: What’s Wrong With the Credit Ratings System?
• And at the end of my 11/21/08 market update are two Michael Lewis articles: Hank, Let Me Help You Help This Great Country and The End.

Here’s the latest:

Titles:

1. The End of the Financial World as We Know It
2. How to Repair a Broken Financial World

By Michael Lewis and David Einhorn
2009-1-4
New York Times

In the past year there have been at least seven different government bailouts, and six different strategies. And none of them seem to have pleased anyone except a handful of financiers.

New Year’s Eve Fireworks in Gothenburg, Sweden

This was one of the best displays I’ve ever seen — and I’ve seen a bunch of good ones on the National Mall in Washington, DC on July 4th. These Swedish guys rocked it! See this video of the grand finale (click “watch in high quality” mode, expand to full-screen mode, and turn up the sound).

The last pic is from our balcony about 8 minutes after midnight, after a 15-minute barrage of fireworks from everywhere (all over the city). The fireworks were going all night up to the midnight finale (video clip shot from our balcony).

The four  bonus pics after that are from our New Year’s Day walk.

Overall, it was a great New Year’s Eve with Annica and Henrik and a great New Year’s Day with Birgitta and Roy!  Happy New Year to you!

BASE Jumping With Skis and Wingsuits in Norway

(Wingsuit BASE Jumping from Ali on Vimeo.com)

If you haven’t heard of wingsuit BASE jumping (aka wingsuit flying), you gotta check it out! To get you started, check out the video above, shot in Norway.

According to my friend Todd, who lived in Tahoe back in the day, the video is narrated by JT Homes, “a youngster from Tahoe I skied with a handful of times. We went to Alaska the same year and I remember he said he was nervous! Doesn’t look like he’s nervous anymore! Crazy shit!”

If you like this video, also check out this blog post Freeskiers Make Sport Cool Again and this YouTube video: Peak 7601 Alaska (Terje on a snowboard).

Cheers!

PS: I never got as extreme as these guys, but I hucked myself off some rocks back in the Colorado dayz (1989 to 1993). Good times (except for two nasty accidents, both of which resulted in broken bones and surgeries and could have killed me).

Subscribe to this blog via RSS or email.
Check out the latest BuzPal t-shirts here!

Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town?

Just a quick update on last week’s post noting the high and tight downward-sloping handle (in indexes and stocks).

Today (December 16th), we got the upside breakout/follow-through, and it came  on increased volume, but the volume was below average, which is a question mark, perhaps the kind of question mark that leaves some doubt/worry, which is what can sustain rallies.

The news of the day was the U.S. Fed cutting continuing to push on it’s little string, cutting its Fed Funds target rate to a record low 0% to 0.25% (Washington Post article and LA Times article).  Now that it’s out of bullets there…