Welcome to the first edition of the weekender - DQYDJ's weekly update. Previously I had tossed these things out like flyers in Vegas, but this format should allow me to make things a little more interesting for your reading pleasure. Truth is... blogs don't update as much on weekends. Well, we like to refer to DQYDJ as a web site (Aristocrats!). What's the difference? There is none, really. Call us whatever you want. Just remember we update on weekends.
If you've been reading our stuff for a while, you know that we here at DQYDJ are one of the more cynical feeds in your RSS reader. Well, today we'd like to share with you one more piece of evidence on why our cynicism is justified.
A recently released survey from lab42 went where you only dared to dream: Lab42 asked 550 social media users about their digital life and how it related to their personal lives. One sign of the times: 33% of social media users had broken up with someone by Text, Email or Facebook. Slightly more depressingly, 40% of users would consider using that method to ditch their significant other.
Last time I angered all of you by asking if certain majors should pay higher rates for their student loans. Now I ask you a subtly different question: Should some majors pay more in tuition? I ask you this question on the weekend, as it is lighter on math (for reasons that will be explained), and the fact that I'm likely highly biased, being a Software Engineer and all. Let's not let that affect the daily editions of DQYDJ, okay?
From Occupy Wall Street to Bank Transfer Day it seems like every time I turn on the TV there is another protest. Occupy Wall Street began in New York City and has gone viral around the globe.
A guest post from Paul at The Frugal Toad, the newest featured link on DQYDJ!
As we occasionally point out here at Don't Quit Your Day Job, inflation expectations are an interesting indicator that can be calculated from market data. They become even more interesting when we combine them with other measures. It becomes yet more interesting if you are in the market to refinance a mortgage or purchase a home. Read on for an interactive chart on the 30 year mortgage and the market's 10-year inflation expectations.
“Good morning class. Today we’ll discuss some things that anyone who has passed 6th grade already knows (sorry for those of you that didn’t). Darwinism: Survival of the Fittest (ironically laughing to myself now at those who didn’t). This concept is believed to be what drove life from tiny micro-organisms which emerged spontaneously eons ago to the amazing diversity of life that Earth possesses today. This process appears to be what designed us, what makes us humans the cream that rose to the top. The ironic twist that we run into after the millions of years that it took for us to evolve is the concept of ‘Morality’.”
Sorry to pick on the Art Majors, but all of this discussion about President Obama's Executive Order on student loans has pointed the country down an interesting path. Perform this thought experiment with me... The vast majority of student loans in the United States are federally backed. There are also $1,000,000,000,000 in student loans outstanding. This means that, in the event student loans aren't paid, the debt will be borne by the general fund of the United States (read: taxpayers paying private and public colleges). Should taxpayers demand lower paying majors pay higher student loan rates?
I recently came across Jodi Beggs's awesome (and tongue in cheek, and that's a compliment from a site called DQYDJ!) economics site, "Economists Do It With Models". Perusing her recent history, I came across an article entitled "Adventures in Fact-Checking, GOP Debate Edition" where Jodi fact checked some statements made by Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich and found them, on the surface, to be false. Fair enough - the candidates both made statements to the effect that Ben Bernanke is the most inflationary Fed Chair ever. Playing fast and loose with the facts is wrong, but I don't entirely like how Ms. Beggs ranked the Chairmen - by annualized inflation during their term. To explain why I'll turn to an unlikely (yet, strangely appropriate) place- baseball.
In a recent article here at DQYDJ I posted a chart which graphed worldwide interest in 'Frugality' and 'Personal Finance' based upon the amount of interest registered by Google. There's actually another interesting takeaway from that picture - interest in the term 'Personal Finance' is losing steam in the United States. Interest understandably grew during the recession, and it spikes in the beginning of every year, but interest is definitely trending downward. It opens up an important discussion: Are Americans losing interest in personal finance?
Last year I emailed Len Penzo about doing a "paper vs. plastic?" post for one of his "Letters, I Get Letters" articles. Len, as you know, is a plastics guy at heart, but he loved the idea so he sent me something awesome - his band's CD, "In Retrospect". You see, Len is more than an awesome blogger, his talents run much deeper. He was in a band, The Relics, which released an album on Blind Dog Records back in 1995. He also had an awesome haircut, which I have evidence of in the article!