Thursday, March 31, 2011

Real price of nuclear power evident at Fukushima

nuclear power appeared on the brink of a renaissance, until the Fukushima disaster. However in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, nuclear reactors worldwide have been turned off and construction of nuclear plants has been put on hold. Safeguards to harden nuclear reactors from natural disasters, as well as clean up costs, could make nuclear energy too expensive to be profitable to investors in the future.

What it will cost with nuclear power

About 62 percent of the public was interested in nuclear power in a Gallup poll in 2010. This was because of the idea of nuclear power as a clean, reliable energy source. The Obama administration announced plans to provide $54.2 billion in loan guarantees for the construction of nuclear power plants. The Fukushima disaster was not the reason why it was unlikely that nuclear reactors would be built in the U.S. Mark Cooper of the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School explained it was already unlikely. Cooper gave a presentation at the House of Commons in Ottawa, Canada, where he said there was a U.S. nuclear industry bubble that was not going to last soon. In 2001, he said, the bubble started. Nuclear energy was given loan guarantees in billions of dollars by the Bush administration. In 2008, several were upset about the nuclear industry. It was not doing also as many hoped it would. It ended due to the recession, several other clean energy opt! ions and cheap natural gas.

Energy from nuclear power not as cheap as it used to be

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, building new reactors could become even more cost prohibitive. Cooper's research shows that there was a 95 percent increase in construction costs after the Pennsylvania Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Everyone had to pay 40 percent more in electricity due to this. There was also an incident in Ukraine at Chernobyl in 1986. This caused a 42 percent increase in electricity costs after an 89 percent increase in construction costs. The expense of construction goes up quite a bit after accidents occur for nuclear reactors. This is because the safety needs to be addressed causing a design change. Because of the Fukushima incident, the United States already has the Nuclear Regulatory Commission together to start figuring out what changed need to be made.

An unacceptable risk to investors

Going forward from Fukushima, investors will view clean energy alternatives for instance natural gas, wind and solar as more attractive than nuclear plants. Utilities might also pass on assuming the risk of nuclear plants. When it comes to energy sources, nuclear energy makes sense if you don’t want to pay much. Before taking into account the cleanup costs of a nuclear accident, onshore wind farms, for instance, are up to 35 percent cheaper than nuclear plants. In the future, alternative sources will become increasingly capable of helping meet the world’s energy needs without the financial and ecological costs of nuclear power. For savvy investors, clean energy alternatives promise more lucrative opportunities.

Articles cited

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/03/25/idUS423443138820110325

Fast Company

fastcompany.com/1742619/what-are-the-economics-of-nuclear-power-after-fukishima

The National

thenational.ae/lifestyle/personal-finance/japans-nuclear-woes-add-pressure-to-invest-in-green-energy



Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Frivolous tax arguments are entertaining, but the Internal Revenue Service penalty isn't

When it comes to frivolous tax arguments, the IRS hears new ones yearly. Probably the most popular unsubstantiated claims made by taxpayers annually are compiled into a compendium by the IRS. Certain arguments the IRS considers frivolous might draw a chuckle, but they may also draw a heavy fine.

Why you should not cheat on your taxes

The Truth about Frivolous Tax Arguments is an annual report the IRS has just released for 2011. The document was 87 pages long. It described several tax evasion scenarios that have been popular. The people would often get penalties based on the arguments which were integrated in the document. It also had the official legal policies used by the government to argue these cases. The philosophical, semantic, religious and moral reasons not to pay taxes are usually incorporated. These spread on the Internet to anybody hoping to evade paying taxes.

The cost of frivolous tax arguments

An argument some have is that they are not a "person." This is in accordance with the IRS definition. The taxes are unconstitutional, some argue. Others say it’s voluntary because of this. To some working class individuals, military income is exempt and only foreign income is taxable. According to estimates, several make an effort to keep away from paying taxes yearly. In fact, about 10,000 people will do this in the U.S. Many try to file frivolous tax return arguments. These individuals will get a $5,000 IRS penalty. Taxpayers who go to court with their frivolous arguments can receive an IRS penalty up to $25,000. Since the 2000 tax year, the Department of Justice has filed injunctions against more than 455 corporations and individuals for frivolous tax arguments.

Not valid tax arguments, courts say

The IRS said there are three very popular arguments. These include that paying taxes is against the 13th Amendment, that it is against the Fifth Amendment and that it is against one's religion. "Paying taxes is against my religion" is one courts just rule against. The Fifth Amendment says a person shall not be "deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Still, the government can collect from U.S. citizens. This is part of the law. The 13th Amendment outlaws slavery, however the claim that paying taxes is servitude has been consistently rejected by courts.

Information from

Main Street

mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/taxes/tax-excuses-irs-won-t-buy?page=2

Portfolio.com

portfolio.com/views/blogs/resources/2011/03/21/irs-warns-taxpayers-about-excuses-for-not-paying-that-won

Christian Science Monitor

csmonitor.com/Business/2010/0415/Tax-Day-101-42-excuses-you-can-t-use-to-avoid-filing-IRS-forms



Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Money-saving methods to avoid online news subscription paywalls

If you are an internet news addict with limited funds, the move toward news paywalls could possibly be awful news. No news is bad news. But there is another way. With a few end-around, you can avoid those paywalls and get your news for free or at low cost. Post resource – Money-saving ways to avoid online news subscription paywalls by MoneyBlogNewz.

Everything you want from news at Google

The best part of Google News is access. A lot of news sites are brought to one place. It is a good place to get your daily news fix. there are local news and top news categories. Anybody loves the clear and simple format it has.

Read the newspaper in an app

Newspapers are an app at the Apple App Store that you pay $1.99 for to be able to get links to all online newspaper web sites. Read articles on your iPod, iPhone or iPad in Safari. You can download stories and read them later. Instapaper is an example of an app to do this with.

RSS feeds popular

RSS feeds are a fantastic way to keep up with the news that’s significant to you, and Reeder does it the clean and simple way. It reformats the page to make it easier to read the stories. The iOS app also has an interface that is newspaper style. Get it for Apple device for only $2.99.

Zite app

The free iPad app Zite acts as a kind of "personalized magazine," claims Business Insider. It recommends news you might like, via connections to your Twitter and Google Reader accounts. It can help to just pick articles in the app you might like.

Do not pay for Associated Press and CNN apps

Mobile apps by the Associated Press and CNN are good iOS and Android options for world, national and local news. The AP app allows users to pick a favorite broadcaster. Then, the stories can be followed of that person. there are great videos accessible in the CNN app. It also has an iReport feature that lets users submit photos of news events.

How to get free access to NYT and The Daily

Users on Twitter have had access to NYT Twitter feeds. They can create a list for this. There is a 20 article a month limit by the Times to stay free. The Twitter and blog posts do not count towards this. A similar process work with The Daily, which is indexed by the blog The Daily: Indexed.

Right now, there is a five per day limit on free referrals for NYT which may not apply to other search engines such as Bing, according to MediaMemo's Peter Kafka.

Why did the Times put up a speed bump for Google? Google might be used by users to get in without having to pay by simply typing in the article name.

Citations

AP

ap.org/mobile/

Business Insider

businessinsider.com/how-to-get-around-paywalls-2011-3

CNN

cnn.com/mobile/iphone/

The Daily Index

thedailyindexed.tumblr.com/

What to expect with the NYT paywall

youtube.com/watch?v=jOkvPOY3VKU



Monday, March 14, 2011

Those who win and losers of Google algorithm modification

The Google algorithm change on February 25 had an instant and significant impact on the internet writing industry. Google’s algorithm change impacted traffic, work, income and stock costs for internet writing companies. Google changed its search algorithm to stem the tide of worthless content that has been overwhelming its search engine results, a move that shifted a believed $1 billion across the content industry.

Google rewards quality content

Google’s search quality has not been that great in the past year with all the content accessible on the web. Several industry groups have publicly encouraged Google to take action to repair the quality of its search. As soon as Google made this quick algorithm change, the content farms got published and in-depth reports that have analysis in them were rewarded just as Google planned them to. Any websites that had original quality content material on them all the sudden got lots of traffic. All online websites that are there to lure traffic did terribly. The algorithm update has noticeably changed 11.8 percent of search queries, in accordance with Google. ComScore is an internet marketing research company that explained that the algorithm might modification 1.4 billion searches in just one month based off of the 12 billion search queries in Jan that Google had.

Content material farms take a big hit

The Online Publishers Association said that the traffic changed to its website just a day after Google's algorithm changed. There was a 5 to 50 percent increase in members that went to the site. This caused "click bait" content material farms to get hit hard. The internet metrics firm Sistrix explained that this hurt the content material farms fairly badly. There was more than a 75 percent drop in Google search traffic for online websites like Mahalo.com, Wisegeek.com, Ezinearticles.com and Yahoo's Associated Content. Ten percent of Mahalo.com workers were terminated. This is what it did last week because of this modification. Another content material farm is Demand Media. It has quality and click bait on it though. The Google algorithm change actually ended up helping Demand Media even though the eHow.com stock that just had a $1.7 billion IPO went down. AnswerBag.com and Trails.com weren't so lucky. These Demand Media websites did not end up doing well.

Where Google can get a web page

The online writing industry changed quite a bit due to Google's algorithm. If a company is on the top list of the search motor, about 20 percent to 30 percent of traffic will go there. Second and third spots collect 5 percent to 10 percent. About 1 percent of traffic goes to all other outcomes on the page. More or less, a business becomes invisible when it gets to the second page. The new Chrome browser for Google called Personal Blocklist lets users cut off any offensive domains when they show up in search outcomes which Google algorithms tend to follow. Google said that although it does not use data gathered from Personal Blocklist, 84 percent of the domains blocked by Chrome users have been demoted by the algorithm modification.

Articles cited

CNN

money.cnn.com/2011/03/08/technology/google_algorithm_change/index.htm

CNN Money

money.cnn.com/2011/03/08/technology/google_algorithm_change/index.htm” target=”_blank

Adweek

adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/e3i0fcd39a826b5c1cd3b13fba6c2a9dfba” target=”_blank

International Business Times

ibtimes.com/articles/116434/20110225/demand-media-google-algorithms-content-farms.htm

Sistrix

sistrix.com/blog/985-google-farmer-update-quest-for-quality.html

Google blog

googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html



Thursday, March 10, 2011

Return to profit could possibly be in the future for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Despite the last few years being dismal, troubled home loan backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are slowly making headway toward being solvent again. The 2 troubled home loan banking firms were placed under government control in 2008, receiving more $130 billion in loans since that time. The pending foreclosures postponed by legal problems involving foreclosure practices loom on the horizon, which could hamper any progress the 2 firms have made. Source of article – Economic effect of biking vs. driving is astounding, experts say by MoneyBlogNewz.

Staying in business is the goal of Fannie and Freddie

Lots of bailout money went to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They were able to continue business this way. To be able to keep the real estate industry from collapsing, the mortgage houses got $130 billion between the 2 of them. ABC states that the corporations are starting to lose less money currently. During the last quarter of 2010, the period from Oct to December, Fannie Mae posted a loss of only $2.1 billion and Freddie Mac posted a loss of only $1.7 billion. In the very same period of 2009, Fannie posted a $16.3 billion loss and Freddie posted a $7.8 billion loss. Fannie has asked for $2.6 billion and Freddie has asked for $500 million in loans, even with these deficits decreasing.

Plans to wind down the home loan titans

For decades, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have played a crucial role in the real estate industry. Mortgages are purchased and then resold as investments through the companies. This means loan companies can lend more mortgages because capital is freed. Fannie and Freddie's involvement in the home loan sector is frowned upon in the government right now where ways to get them out of it are being looked into. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has admonished Congress to have a significant plan ready before trying to vote on anything, according to USA Today. Congress was warned by Geithner that there could be really terrible troubles by cutting out the 2 programs. The housing finance industry may be destabilized completely with this. Geithner has recommended a gradual program as the best course.

Hopefully the worst is almost over

It’s anticipated that Freddie and Fannie will not get much better. They’re expected to get hurt even more soon. Until "robo-signing" cases are solved, several foreclosures cannot be completed while about 50 percent of mortgages in the United States are owned by Freddie and Fannie while 90 percent were created in the last few years. In the next few years, Treasury Secretary Geithner thinks that housing prices will go up in the next few years, no matter what occurs with Freddie and Fannie, Reuters states. He also recommended that given housing conditions over the past few years, home buyers put larger amounts of money down to ensure greater stability.

Citations

ABC News

abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=12995329&page=1

USA Today

usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2011-03-01-fannie-freddie-geithner_N.htm

Reuters

reuters.com/article/2011/03/01/us-usa-housing-geithner-idUSTRE72000P20110301?pageNumber=1



Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Bill goes through Wisconsin Assembly reducing collective bargaining

The bill that would controversially deny the right of collective bargaining to Wisconsin state staff has been passed by the Wisconsin Assembly. The Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin state legislature. The Wisconsin U.S. Senate still has to sign off on the bill before it goes to the governor for approval. Post resource – Wisconsin Assembly passes bill curtailing collective bargaining by MoneyBlogNewz.

Too few members of the Wisconsin State U.S. Senate means the bill can't pass

Collective bargaining rights will be taken away from the state unionized employees with the Wisconsin Assembly SB11 bill that has approved. There isn’t enough Wisconsin Senate present to vote on the bill though. MSNBC states that this will mean the bill can be stuck not going anywhere. There has to be 20 individuals minimum to vote on the bill while right now only 19 members are present. The capital was left by 14 Democrats that did not want to vote on the bill. These are the ones missing for the Wisconsin U.S. Senate. No voting on any legislation can occur until the Senators return.

Assembly Democrats cry foul

The questionable bill was approved in a manner that Wisconsin Democrats view as dishonest. Wisconsin Assembly Republicans voted for a roll call vote after killing the debate after there were 60 hours of debate with Democrats filibustering with additional amendments for the bill. Before Democrats even realized what had occurred, the bill approved 51 to 17 with 28 not even having a chance to vote, Bloomberg states. Tries to reach out to the absent U.S. Senate Democrats by sending Wisconsin state troopers to their homes have been for naught, as they remain in exile in Urbana, Ill. for the moment.

There was not going to be a bargain with the governor there

There was a phone call done recently as a prank to Scott Walker where the caller pretended to be campaign donor Koch. In the call, Walker said he wouldn't work with any unions when attempting to determine how to balance the Wisconsin state budget. Unions agreed to absorb more costs for pension and health care plans which the bill demands. Walker does not want unions to have collective bargaining privileges though, which the unions want. There are a couple of specific unions that can keep collective bargaining privileges. This involves unions for firefighters and police in Wisconsin.

Articles cited

MSNBC

msnbc.msn.com/id/41774667/ns/politics-more_politics

Bloomberg

bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-25/wisconsin-assembly-passes-bill-curbing-unions-collective-bargaining-power.html



Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Gasoline prices not likely influenced by using United States oil reserve

As gas and oil costs rise, Congress is using Middle East turmoil as a reason to utilize the U.S. strategic oil reserve. Politicians are urging the Obama administration to open the spigot, despite a worldwide surplus of oil production capacity. United States supplies of oil and gas are also far above average seasonal levels. Tapping into the strategic oil reserve could have the opposite effect, energy analysts say, and the administration does not think gas prices have raised high enough to warrant such a drastic measure. Resource for this article – Why tapping U.S. strategic oil reserves will not lower gas prices by MoneyBlogNewz.

Oil reserve tapped by Congress/span>

The U.S. strategic petroleum reserve, the largest in the world, contains 727 million barrels of oil, its full capacity. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of gas has risen 28 cents in the past 10 days. To be able to stabilize oil costs and keep oil supplies from being disrupted, Senator Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has suggested as Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee chairman that a major portion of the oil reserve be sold. Other politicians suggest that not only would gas prices be helped by this sell, however billions might be elevated to help work on the deficit and to help give tax breaks for electric automobiles and hybrids reducing oil consumption.

Lots of U.S. oil still accessible/span>

About $500 million of oil from the reserve would be sold to fund projects with the 2012 budget although the Obama administration is saying no to sell a part of the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve as part of the spike in gasoline and oil costs. What the administration believes is that, when the U.S. isn’t at all running low on oil, it would send a panic that is false to consumers. You will find record inventories in the Oklahoma major oil storage facility. There is production in North Dakota right now. Also, the United States has a pump from Canada getting some of the fuel. United States crude oil inventories, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, are at 346.4 million barrels. There are 9.86 billion gallons of U.S. gasoline in the inventories. For this time of year, the amounts of the inventories are both higher than normal.

Fixing oil costs that rise and drop/span>

The Obama administration is making a good decision, oil industry analysts suggest. It would make individuals driving up the gasoline costs more fearful while doing nothing else to oil and gas costs. Those who oppose tapping the reserve believe that instead of an oil supply shortage, a shortage in surplus production capacity is the real issue. Speculators are betting that spreading Middle East unrest will reduce surplus oil production capacity. The oil price problem would become a severe problem if the surplus oil production capacity perished off. Adding the capacity to produce more oil rather than a temporary infusion from the strategic oil reserve will put the international oil markets at ease.

Information from/span>

New York Times

nytimes.com/2011/03/04/business/energy-environment/04oil.html?_r=1

Foreign Policy

oilandglory.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/04/the_weekly_wrap_march_4_2011

UPI

upi.com/Business_News/2011/03/03/Crude-oil-supplies-fall-slightly/UPI-22221299189942/



CFPB may have its funding stripped by House GOPs

Here’s news that will not shock anybody: Elizabeth Warren and the CFPB don’t rank high among the favorite things of House Republicans, writes the Huffington Post. Dodd-Frank Act opponents Majority Whip Eric Cantor, Rep. Bachmann and House Financial Services Chair Spencer Bachus have already voted to cut the Federal Reserve-funded budget of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from $ 143 million to $ 80 million. If the trend continues, the CFPB – which is scheduled to open on July 21, 2011 – will be the only federal financial institution regulator in the U.S. subject to political budget cuts.

CFPB helps customers out a bit

The way that banking has hurt U.S. families is something that has been studied by Harvard Law Prof. Elizabeth Warren who helped co-author the book "Two-Income Trap." It seems the middle class is slowly dropping down to the poor classes. In order to make up for lost salaries and to pay bills, these families have to borrow. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s goal is to unify the following seven federal agencies, per the Federal Register:

  • Federal Reserve Board of Governors
  • Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
  • This includes the Federal Trade Commissioned
  • Next is the National Credit Union Administration
  • Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
  • Office of Thrift Supervision
  • Last is the Department of Housing and Urban Development

Customer protection hasn't been a goal of these agencies. Now it’s the primary focus. The reason of the CFPB is to serve the middle class. The personal bankruptcies can be focused on.

"The numbers are sobering," Warren said at a Feb. 23 Chicago lecture. "Since the late 1970s, (personal) bankruptcy filings have doubled and doubled again. Women have been hit particularly hard. Over the course of 20 years, the number of women filing bankruptcy petitions increased by 662 percent. By the early 2000s, a woman was more likely to file for bankruptcy than to graduate from college."

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau needs support

Things for instance credit cards with high interest rates, financial institution overdraft loans which have high rates of interest, military loan businesses that try to get over the 36 percent Annual Percentage Rate cap that is federally mandates, and payday advance loan outlets with additional fees can be protected against with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , states the Consumer Federation of The United States.

What is being done with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is something that consumers should be paying attention to, states John Wasik who writes for Reuters.

"I believe everyone with a credit card, bank loan or savings account needs to back Warren now," writes Wasik. "Contact your senators and congressmen and urge them to leave the bureau's funding alone, which is tied directly to the budget of the Federal Reserve."

Information from

Consumer Federation of America

consumerfed.org/pdfs/PR-CFA-CFPB-6-months.pdf

Federal Register

edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-23487.pdf

Huffington Post

huffingtonpost.com/ed-mierzwinski/iin-the-public-interesti_b_829659.html

Reuters

blogs.reuters.com/prism-money/2011/02/28/why-elizabeth-warren-needs-your-help-to-police-the-banks/

‘I’m not here to support criminal schemes,’ said Rep. Maxine Waters

youtube.com/watch?v=TUVxcNxULyU