Our First Marriage Counseling Session (pfblogs.org)

Last week we attended our first session of marriage counseling, it was primarily to discuss issues that we are having regarding our finances, children , etc. During the session we were given a book and CD set called Marriage on the Rock by Jimmy Evans. He and his wife, Karen, are the hosts of MarriageToday with Jimmy & Karen, a marriage ministry and a national award-winning broadcast television program.When I glanced over the title of the book and read the highlights on the back cover, the first thought that came to my mind was, "what does this have to do with finances?". Being over 43 years old and married for many years I thought I understood everything I needed to know about my wife and how to please her and finances in marriage but, after reading this book and listening to the CD I had to admit that I really didn't have a clue.While reading the book about his previous attitude towards his wife and how he was raised made me realize that we had a lot in common. Just like him, I was raised watching my mother, grandmother and other women "serve" their husbands. So, I came into my ...

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Rent-Stabilzation War: Tenants Strike Back (pfblogs.org)

Even though the first of three Rent Guidelines Board hearings into rent increases for stabilized apartments was a little restrained, the annual battle is still getting a little chippy. Landlords are demanding their customary double-digit increases because of escalating operating costs, and while they won't get that, the range of increases proposed by the RGB is fairly high given previous years' rates. Tenants need a momentum shift, and today, they've got one. The Times' Gretchen Morgensen files a story on the recent trend of private investment firms buying up rent-stabilized buildings, which becomes an exposé on how tenants are being harassed until they leave their apartments. The developers and their investment firm partners claim they are just enforcing the rules, and that's the case in many of these situations. But of course, that's not the truth everywhere, and the Times does a bit of hammering on the "predatory equity" topic. It ain't pretty for Vantage Properties, which has been in the news about harassment before and gets the dreaded Times chart treatment (right). They've purchased 9,200 rent-regulated units in Queens and Upper Manhattan with co-investor Apollo Management in just the past two years, and in one Queens complex with 2,124 ...

What If We'd Been on the Gold Standard? (pfblogs.org)

James Hamilton submits: If the U.S. had decided to go back on the gold standard in 2006, where would we be today? That's a question my friend Randy Parker recently asked me. Here's how we both would answer. Many things might have been different had the U.S. decided to promise to exchange dollars for gold at the 2006 price of $600 per ounce of gold. But let's start with some of the things that wouldn't have changed. I contend that we'd be no less worried today about geopolitical events in places like Nigeria, Iraq and Iran. The phenomenal growth of the Asian economies would presumably have continued. The bad mortgage loans made prior to that time would still be on the books and still be problematic, with attendant worries about the financial soundness of many institutions. All of this would have meant an increase in the demand for gold. Equilibrium would then require an increase in the relative price of gold compared to what it had been in 2006. That is, the number of umbrellas, or cars, or chairs that people would be willing to surrender in order to obtain an ounce of gold would have gone up relative to what it had been in 2006.Complete Story » ...