Forums: Money Dummy

A billionaire has pledged to donate his entire fortune to charity after his death, becoming the first in China to do so. Chen Guangbiao, chairman of Jiangsu Huangpu Renewable Resources Utilisation, took the decision to give up his mammoth wealth on a charity call made by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investment baron Warren Buffett. Chen said in an open letter to Gates and Buffett posted on his company website on Sunday that he would donate his entire fortune of more than five billion yuan ($735 million) to charity when he dies, the China Daily reported Tuesday. Since they launched...

I know it’s commonplace to read in the latest issue of Time or Newsweek that Obama is a god, that Islamophobic Americans are collectively prejudiced against Muslims, that the response after 9/11 was overblown and unnecessary (over 30 subsequent terrorist plots have been foiled, and, for some reason, renditions, tribunals, Guantanamo, Predators, intercepts, etc., have all been embraced by the Obama administration), but the recent Time piece on Israel by a Karl Vick is probably the most anti-Semitic essay I have ever read in a mainstream publication. Among Vick’s interviewees is Heli Itach, a modern-day Shylock who brags about the...

Previous to the current meddling by Congress, stores were technically not allowed to require a minimum purchase for credit cards. If you wanted to charge ten cents or ten dollars merchants were supposed to accept the charge. But the Durbin Amendment (Sen. Dick Durbin, D of Ill.) to the credit card "reform" bill passed by Congress will change all that by allowing stores to set a minimum charge amount of $10 before you are allowed to use your credit card to purchase something. This is just one more way that Congress is reaching into your pocket and taking your money....

British graphic design firm Dowling Duncan has come up with a series of controversial ideas for the Dollar Redesign Project, an open competition run by New York designer Richard Smith (and not associated with the US government). According to their ambitious PR spiel: “we want to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy.” The new garish multicolour notes conceived by the firm bear a striking stylistic resemblance to the Euro, and remove America’s Founding Fathers altogether. The company has proposed replacing George Washington with Barack Obama on the new dollar bill, and Benjamin Franklin with...

The good news: They’re fighting amongst themselves already. The bad news: They managed to raise 10 grand from Somali street vendors. The disgusting truth: They’re desperately trying to limit media access – what are they hiding? Sounds like a total Islam-o-cluster*** to me. The abrupt fund-raising effort followed religious services Friday and came at the end of a muddled event that drew a media mob, police officers and sign-wielding protesters and supporters to the site. Mr. El-Gamal pleaded with the worshipers leaving the Park51 center for funds for the $100 million project. “Who’s going to be the first person that’s...

"The White House says it has saved or created about 3 million jobs, helping avoid a depression and end a recession."

Local governments are in declining fiscal health that many top administrators believe will get worse in the coming year, according to a University of Michigan report. The report states that "declining state aid, federal aid, and revenue from fees and licenses are also problems across the state." The survey was conducted by the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy, which does the survey every two years. The center is located at U-M's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. According to a press release, the survey was conducted in the spring of 2009 and 2010 and about 1,300 "top...