Houses under 1,000 ?

http://local.botw.org/articles/Houses-Under-A-Grand.html
I found this to be extremely interesting and relative to a discussion that we had in class this week. In class we talked about why somebody would want to buy a house that is cheap and run down in a market that may be rising. The reason somebody would do this is because if they buy the house for cheap and fix it up just enough that it is maintained and suitable to live in, they can rent the house. If the area starts to grow, the houses that have been fixed up will be filled with tenants and the person who bought the house for cheap will start to make a profit off of the house. All of the houses shown are under $1,000 and the funny thing is that they are all in places that are pretty well known. I have heard of all of the towns and areas that are mention on this site. This means that the area must be pretty built up and that there is definitely an opportunity for profit if people buy these places and then rent them out. I know this is a short blog but the link attached is more of what I wanted to focus on.

Debt/Consumer Based

This post is more of a question/story post. About two months ago my debit card number was stolen and somebody was able to order things online using my card number. The person using my card was then able to keep using my card until they got to an account balance of -$500. The question that arose was, how could they spend money that I did not have? Well the bank gave me an interesting explanation. I was told that in case I was using the card and i purchased something that was for example, $100, and I only had $75 in my account. Instead of the card being denied, the bank would let the charge go through to..."save embarrassment". This answer really made me think, why would a bank care if you were embarrassed. Then I was told about the over withdrawl charges, and the interest that I would have received if this were really me that made these purchases. The bank "lends" money to their customers so they aren't embarrassed? No the bank lends the money so that they can then make a profit when the customer pays them back. I would have never realized all of this if it weren't for somebody getting ahold of my card number and getting my balance so low. Another question that I had was, why did they let it get to -$500? This is still an unanswered question that I have. This story plays into the lesson taught in class about debt and the consumer based economy. With banks being able to lend the money and then charge their customers with fees and interest, they are actually putting the customer even more in debt. The idea of the bank lending money sounds like a good idea at first but then it comes back to haunt the customer in the end. The link that I have attached is an article from msnbc.com about how debit cards are being targeted more because of their PIN numbers. The article is very informative and those with debit cards should definitely take a look because you don't want to end up like me. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11731365/page/2/

Inflation

The inflation rate in the year of 2008 was the highest that it has been in years. Because the economy has been taking a major hit the past couple of years, inflation rates have sky rocketed. Inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. Inflation occurs when people spend more and the dollar starts to be worth less and less. The problem with inflation is that it is not helping the economy. The price of gas in the year 2008 reached about $4 a gallon. When the price of something goes up, the value of the dollar lessens. It isn't that the dollar is not worth a dollar anymore, it is that the dollar can't buy you what it used to. With inflation, people tend to invest money and lend money, to make more. This way they can charge interest and the money will end up more valuable when inflation goes down. Inflation keeps getting higher and higher and it is one reason why the economy is doing poorly. For the economy to start to get better, it is necessary for inflation to go down and deflation to rise so that the dollar can start to regain it's value.
http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/

Ghettos vs. Enclaves

A ghetto is defined as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live; especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure." An enclave is defined as a territory whose geographical boundaries lie entirely within the boundaries of another territory. The similarities between the two are that they both tend to be small in size. Not only are they small in size but they tend to be densely populated and overcrowded. They also both tend to have the same kind of economic situation. Ghettos and enclaves both tend to be on the lower end of the economical ladder. The major difference between a ghetto and an enclave are that a ghetto tends to be people that are almost forced or threatened to live there. Enclaves are usually people of the same culture, social, or economical status that voluntarily choose to live together. Ghettos are viewed as threatening and undesirable areas to live. Enclaves tend to be places for tourists such as China Town and Little Italy. So although both are the same in parts they are also very different.
http://http://blog.lib.umn.edu/zerot001/architecture/ghetto.jpg
http://www.cepolina.com/freephoto/f/eUSA.S.Francisco/China.town.road2.jpg

Reversal of Fortunes Article

The Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. was a global financial-services that declared bankruptcy in 2008. Until then they did business in investment banking, equity and fixed-income sales, research and trading, investment management, private equity, and private banking. The Lehman Brothers Inc. is an example of a major global business going bankrupt. Mr. Bloomberg held a conference to talk about hopes for financial revival and to subsidize garage-sized offices as hatcheries that would start to change the market around. The article discusses the financial exchanges and the Chicago Climate Exchange. The Chicago Climate Exchange is North America’s only voluntary, legally binding greenhouse gas reduction and trading system for emission sources and offset projects in North America and Brazil. With the talk about all the new ways to help the market and economy Mr. Bloomberg believes that actions will actually be able to make these changes. A lot of different companies are trying to change their tactics to reverse their all time low numbers. In this article it talks about Apple and Yahoo and their ups and downs. http://http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10074501-92.html

Satellite Cities

Satellite cities are a concept of urban planning referring to a small or medium-sized city that is near a large metropolis, but predates that metropolis' suburban expansion and is at least partially independent from that metropolis economically. Satellite cities are different from subrbs because they have distinct employment bases, commutersheds, and cultural offerings from the central metropolis. Satellite cities tend to have hard boundries when it comes to security. The hard boundries are specific rules and blunt discrimmination against certain groups or things. Satellite cities tend to have problems with security though because there is a mixing of public and private police. Some examples of satellite cities in New Jersey are Atlantic City, Jersey City, Newark, Paterson, and Trenton. I found this topic interesting because satellite cities are needed in the economy to feed into the major cities. I think that the satellite cities are what keep the economy running.