| January 2006 - December 2006
Bush Fred Barnes attempts to paint Dubya as a political outsider. Were that only so, responds Bernard Chapin The man who defined the world: Steve Martinovich found Henry Hitchings' Defining the World: The Extraordinary Story of Dr Johnson's Dictionary a marvelous account of the first modern English-language dictionary Freedom isn't free: Americans once shed their blood to earn their freedom. These days, writes Henry Lamb, they gladly give it away in exchange for very little The rat snake and the hamster: News that a rat snake decided to befriend a hamster rather than eating him prompted Michael Moriarty to think about the future of humanity The changing constellations in democracies: Is America gaining new allies in nations which have lately been hostile? Bruce Walker seems to believe so Gonzales v.
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So while the prime rate moves in lock step with any Fed action, credit card rates don't do the same. You may get a future balance transfer offer that's better, but I wouldn't use my energy worrying about that. It would be smarter to weigh whether this is a good deal at all. Questions to ask: What is the fee for the transfer? Is there a cap? Do you have to make a minimum monthly purchase in the future (which would be at a higher interest rate). Can you be sure that you won't make a late payment or go over your limit or do something that would cause the company to call off its 5.99 percent deal? If you use the card for other purchases, will payments be applied to the higher-rate balance or the lower 5.99 percent one? Almost surely, the payments will be applied to the lower-rate balance.
Gordon Brown's Black Wednesday
Mr Brown handed over the keys to the Treasury to Sir Richard Branson and Goldman Sachs, destroying in the process the entire economic and political framework that he created as Chancellor in 1997. With Britain's foreign policy still firmly in the hands of the White House and European policy managed from Brussels, it is hard to see why Mr Brown bothers to turn up to work. Financial upheavals so powerful that they topple the whole machinery of government seem to strike Britain about every 15 years - Black Wednesday in 1992, the Winter of Discontent in 1979, the 1967 and 1949 devaluations, the 1933 collapse of the Gold Standard. So far, no government has survived one of these earthquakes. I thought at first that Mr Brown, with the help of the Bank of England, might defy the odds and pass the test this time.
Lenders' pitches aiming higher
Despite the mortgage meltdown, the blizzard of advertising for home loans continues.
With the subprime market in tatters in the wake of record defaults and foreclosures, fewer pitches scream "Bad credit? No problem!" Instead, lenders struggling to remain profitable are targeting people who have good credit and plenty of home equity.
With fewer homes being sold -- and, therefore, fewer loans taken out to finance purchases -- mortgage firms that have survived the subprime shakeout are focusing their marketing on persuading homeowners to refinance.
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