Leadpile's Blog» government

Privacy On Facebook?

Natasha Aronov — Thu, 20 May 2010 20:15:13 +0000

Is Facebook a friend or a fo? Recently there have been debates about the open privacy policy that the site has implemented. In Pakistan there have recently been public protests against Facebook due to content posted on a users page. The Pakistan government ordered Internet services to block Facebook recently over a user-posted page that promoted “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” – Islam’s Prophet Muhammad this act is prohibited by the religion and found offensive. According to Facebook, this page does not violate the site’s terms, but acknowledges that it may not be legal in some countries. Facebook’s terms and conditions make it hard to determine what is considered “hate speech” since the privacy has been adjusted and the profile information is no longer “private”.

Where do you think the line is crossed in free speech and hate speech? The first amendment leaves censorship to the province of the government, but also allows Facebook to govern what is posted. Knowing that your profile is no longer private, will this influence you to delete your information and no longer post?

Update: WI Governor Signs Payday Loan Bill

Mari Woods Holt — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:57:54 +0000

Payday loan lenders are not going to be happy with the Wisconsin governor because of a recent bill he just passed. Unfortunately, this governor felt the need to pass a payday loan bill that will put tighter restrictions on the payday loan industry. In addition, he even threw something in the bill that is also going to put restrictions on the auto title loan industry too.
Each of these states putting more and more regulations on payday loans is going to leave consumers with no resources to help them. Where are consumers going to go now, in order to get help with small unexpected bills that come up?

Social Security & The Current Economy

Natasha Aronov — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:10:00 +0000

The current economy has brought many changes to personal, business and government financial standings and now is showing effects on Social Security payouts as well. This year Social Security will have a flip in it’s financial balances, as it will begin paying out more in benefits than receiving in payroll taxes.
With the poor economic status many jobs have disappeared having 2 large effects on Social Security taxes collected. With jobs disappearing, many people applied for the benefits sooner than they had planned, as well as without as many people currently employed there are less paychecks to tax.
With the US debt rising and less taxes being collected due to unemployment it raises concern. By law, Social Security cannot pay out more than it’s balance in any year given. The often referred to “trust fund” that Social Security has serves as a way to track pay-as-you-go revenue and outlays over time, the “balance” is actually a history of its vast cash flows (a total of all past revenue minus outlays). In a year such as this, the “paper gains” from the interest earned on the securities will more than cover the difference between what it takes in and pays out.
Projections show the effects of the recession easing in the next few years with possible small surpluses reappearing in 2014 and 2015. In the following years as the baby boomers leave the work force, and start collecting rather than contributing, outlays will exceed revenue every year regardless of the economic status.

Solutions to this problem are few including raising taxes, lowering benefits, or pulling funds for general revenue.

LeadPile hopes to see bigger and better things with the economy in the future months coming!

Sad News For Home Buyer Tax Credit

Natasha Aronov — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 05:31:09 +0000

The home buyer credit which was expected to boost sales and encourage buying with an incentive of a $6,500 tax credit, is not performing like had been expected.
The tax credit which offered up to $8,000 for people who had not owned a home for three years, had increased sales in the summer and fall of 2009. This credit was extended past it’s initial limited time with a slightly lower credit of $6,500 in hopes of keeping the buying momentum going. Unfortunately, the new credit is not boosting sales as it was hoped to with the unemployment rate still high and the economy still uncertain. Many potential buyers also face the dilemma of selling the home they are currently in before being able to purchase a new home… and for many selling a home where they owe more on it than it is currently worth, this is not an option.
To qualify for the $6,500 credit:
*Buyers must have owned and lived in the same home for five consecutive years out of the past eight.
*Buyer must sign a contract by April 30, and close before June 30.
*The home’s purchase price can’t exceed $800,000 and it must be used as a main residence. *The income limit for single taxpayers is $125,000 and for a married couple $225,000.

Google Possibly Pulling Out of China??

Natasha Aronov — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 14:52:27 +0000

As a follow up to our recent post discussing China’s Internet censorship and regulations, Google has now pulled the plug on launching it’s cell phone in China. Google’s mobile phones equipped with Internet applications were decided by the company to be “not a good experience” for the consumer. Currently, China has over 700 million mobile phone accounts and consumers driven by the latest technology.
According to the Associated Press, it has been rumored that Google has threatened to shut its Chinese-based search engine if the restrictions are not eased. The Chinese government is standing strong on it’s decision that “Foreign enterprises in China need to adhere to China’s laws and regulations, respect and the interests of the general public and cultural traditions and shoulder corresponding responsibilities. Google is no exception,” as stated by a Foreign ministry spokesman at a new briefin
It will be interesting to watch this controversy unfold as many Chinese and foreign businesses rely on Google’s email and maps…If Google is blocked and access is restricted it could certainly disrupt things!

U.K Following The Footsteps of U.S?

Natasha Aronov — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 04:08:54 +0000

Unless you have been living under a rock, you know all about what has been going on in the U.S housing market. With houses being foreclosed left and right, it has put house values at an all time low. Most believe that this was due to large mortgage companies writing bad home loans and giving loans to individuals who clearly could not afford to own a home (or at least the one that they wanted to purchase).
Now until March the U.K government will be offering “A No Money Down Mortgage”. It basically is exactly what it says it is. People who normally could not afford to buy a house because of the down payment, now can. There has been a very split reaction on whether this is going to help or hurt the U.K economy. People are going to be buying houses, putting house sales and values on the rise, and the housing market will be booming. But what happens when the home owners realize that they are in over their heads and can not pay the payments? First they miss one payment, then two, until before they know it their house is being foreclosed.
It almost seems that somehow people do not listen to the world news over there. The same effect that happened to the U.S is going to happen to the U.K. You think that they would have learned from our mistakes. What is almost more shocking is that people think that the government is actually trying to help them. According to Alastair Stewart “Every scheme in history the government has tried to implement in the housing market has gone completely toes up,”. I don’t know why people think that this is going to be any different. All I know is that I hope the U.K does not come to us asking for money when they are in our position two years from now.

Homes Prices Heading Up????

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:29:04 +0000

The idea of seeing home prices going up is something all of us continue to wish would come. The housing market appears it might have some positive momentum going on, and we will all need to cross our fingers that this is not too good to be true. There have been home value increase teasers in the past that did not stick, but maybe this is actually going to be the time when we see positive changes continue. According to the S&P/Case-Shiller national index, “Its 20-city index was up 1.4 percent in June compared with May, and up 0.5 percent in May over April – the first incidence of two consecutive monthly gains in more than three years. Eighteen of the 20 markets, including San Francisco, experienced monthly price gains.”
So do we know what is possibly fueling this housing price increase? I would guess that investors out there buying a lot of these homes, that were in foreclosure etc, has helped to create a bidding war on homes. Once you have a high demand and lower supply that creates pricing increase. This is great news for those in the neighborhoods that are hoping to see homes in their area selling for more. This will ultimately help them with their values. How about the government giving a tax credit for those purchasing a home? That has to help, however from what I heard about this program there are some stipulations on this program that eliminate some from getting the tax credit because they make too much. Is that fair? Time will only tell if these two things help to fuel the positive momentum we have going on with our housing market. I think a lot of us are hoping this is the beginning of the end of a struggling housing market. You never really realize how much an impact our housing market has on all sorts of industries, till going through it like we all have.

Cash For Clunkers Says Goodbye

Mari Woods Holt — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:20:56 +0000

Sad news in the auto finance industry today….. Cash For Clunkers will end today. This program has fueled great success in our nation’s dealerships, however that is ending today. I am curious to see the reported end results of this short lived program and see if this is something that be continued on in the future. Ask the dealerships and they say that this brought people into their dealerships that would never have come. Ask consumers and they say this was great because they earned more money for their cars, than they ever would without the program. Ask the government and they say???????
This program we know has brought more traffic to the online auto finance industry, and Leadpile loves the idea of this. Can we all say “let’s keep Cash for Clunkers” going?

Government Trying To Offer Customer Protection

Mari Woods Holt — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 14:05:48 +0000

With everything that has happened in the financial market in the last few years, many question if the responsibility falls on the consumer or the lenders (or both)? Is the responsibility of the lender to make sure the customer 100% know what they are signing, or it is the responsibility of the customer to ask questions if they do understand what they are signing? There are advocates on both sides, however the government now feels it needs to step in. NPR is reporting that Congress has drafted legislation that would allow the government to oversee all consumer financial products such as credit cards, mortgage loans and payday loans. This measure would prevent consumers from getting any sort of “loan” that they did not fully understand what they were signing. I am not quit sure how something like this can be regulated, but the government wants to step in and try to protect consumers in these sorts of situations. Many legislatures feel that the past behavior of our banks was that they would shop around till they found a lender that would take on their “unique” client situation. Unfortunately, what this caused was those “unique” consumers to then fall behind on their mortgages because they really can’t afford that mortgage.
No matter what, if you agree with government intervention in our financial market or not, the bottom line is our country needs something to change. The right answer is not always that easy to figure out, however one thing I do know is that to change our financial market there needs to be a combination of many people/groups that need to come together to protect customers…and sometimes protect the lenders (the good ones).

Massive Cyber Attack Linked Possibly To North Korea

Mari Woods Holt — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:25:29 +0000

In recent news it was announced that there was a widespread cyber attack that hit dozens of government websites, and some nongovernment websites. While Treasury Department and Federal Trade Commission Web sites were shut down by the software attack, which lasted for days over the holiday weekend, others such as the Pentagon and the White House were able to fend it off with little disruption. These sort of cyber attacks are known as “denial of service” attacks. Websites are inidated with so much internet traffic that they are forced to be taken offline. It is not confirmed that this is 100% related to North Korea, however fingers are being pointed their way. This brings up the question about security on the internet and also with our government agencies. How can occurances like this be prevented with all the sophistication of these sort of hackers? One thing I do know is that the internet is a revolving “monster” that all agencies and companies need to constantly be upgrading their systems to keep protected.