WE've heard a lot of news lately about the FDIC. The financial folks have given frequent reminders that we should make sure our bank accounts are federally insured by the FDIC. But what if your money is in a credit union instead of a bank?
The NCUA or National Credit Union Association is a government agency that insures credit unions in the same way that the FDIC insures banks. The current insurance level is $250,000. From the NCUA FAQ they say :
" NCUA -- short for the National Credit Union Administration -- is an independent federal government agency that charters and supervises federal credit unions and insures accounts in federal and most state-chartered credit unions across the country through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), a federal fund backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government."
So if you use a credit union then make sure they are NCUA insured. You can search the NCUA database here to check and see if your credit union is insured.
October 10, 2008
Check the NCUA to make sure your Credit Union is insured.
October 9, 2008
$25 Restaurant.com gift certificates for $3 until October 13rd
Another deal on Restaurant.com gift certificates:
Save 70% off $25 Gift Certificates. Pay $3 when you use the code SAVE. Valid 10/10/08 through 10/13/08.
Thats a $22 savings per meal.
I use these at my steak house and they work great. But if you're interested in getting them then first: Check the Restaurant.com site and see what restaurants in your area take the certificates. Second check out the rules and limitations for the gift certificates. For example my steak house requires a minimum purchase of $50 to use the $25 certificate and they require a mandatory 18% gratuity.
For more on saving money at restaurants see my older posts:
History of GDP growth.
GDP is the Gross Domestic Product and it is a basic measure of an economy's production. According to Wikipedia: Nominal GDP growth is GDP growth in nominal prices (unadjusted for price changes). and Real GDP growth is GDP growth adjusted for price changes.
The St. Louis Federal reserve has GDP data going back to 1947 at this page. The Data 360 website has this page that shows year to year % GDP growth based on the data.
A visual plot of the annual Nominal GDP % growth is below for 1947 to Q2 of 2008:
And the Real GDP growth for the same period is below:
Average Nominal GDP growth is 6.77% per year and average Real GPD increased 3.32%. Nominal GDP was negative only 12 quarters out of 245 or about 5% of the time and Real GDP was down 37 out of 245 quarters for about 15% of the time.
October 8, 2008
What are the definitions of recession and depression?
It seems that most Americans right now think we're either in a recession or a depression. According to a recent Gallup poll conducted Sept 26-27: 36% of Americans polled believe we're in a recession and 33% believe we're in a depression.
But what exactly constitutes an economic recession or an economic depression?
An economic recession is defined as 2 quarters of negative economic growth as measured by GDP.
An economic depression is when the economy has negative growth of 10% or more.
These definitions are common rules of thumb used. It appears that there isn't an official agreed upon technical definition for the terms. But these are the common definitions used.
According to the BEA: The 2nd quarter of 2008 the US economy grew 2.8% and the 1st quarter of 2008 we grew 0.9%. So we haven't yet hit a recession or depression as far as the current data shows. Its possible that in the 3rd quarter there might be negative growth but we won't know that until the figures come out. According to the BEA release schedule, the advance figures for 3rd quarter GDP growth are due out October 30th.
A depression is a pretty severe event and we haven't hit 10% loss in economic growth for over 70 years since the 1930's when the Great Depression occurred.
Resources:
- Wikipedia page on Economic Depression
- Difference between recession and depression on About.com
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