[ucodegen]

@flu
I hope you are not carrying a balance on that card. Some of the banks are jacking up the rate to try to squeeze you.. and hoping that you don’t notice or protest on the rate. It happened to my S.O. and she called in an complained literally with.. “whats up with this rate change“. They lowered her back down near to where she was. If you have a good FICO and have not been late, they are likely to lower it if you call in and complain.

NOTE: The banks are trying to give themselves headroom before the new credit laws take effect.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/credit-cards-gouge-consumers-ahead-of-new-law-2009-11-06

[ucodegen]

@flu
I hope you are not carrying a balance on that card. Some of the banks are jacking up the rate to try to squeeze you.. and hoping that you don’t notice or protest on the rate. It happened to my S.O. and she called in an complained literally with.. “whats up with this rate change“. They lowered her back down near to where she was. If you have a good FICO and have not been late, they are likely to lower it if you call in and complain.

NOTE: The banks are trying to give themselves headroom before the new credit laws take effect.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/credit-cards-gouge-consumers-ahead-of-new-law-2009-11-06

[ucodegen]

@flu
I hope you are not carrying a balance on that card. Some of the banks are jacking up the rate to try to squeeze you.. and hoping that you don’t notice or protest on the rate. It happened to my S.O. and she called in an complained literally with.. “whats up with this rate change“. They lowered her back down near to where she was. If you have a good FICO and have not been late, they are likely to lower it if you call in and complain.

NOTE: The banks are trying to give themselves headroom before the new credit laws take effect.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/credit-cards-gouge-consumers-ahead-of-new-law-2009-11-06

[ucodegen]

You wouldn’t use tungsten to ‘salt’ the bars. To much of a pain to work with. You can’t pour molten tungsten into hollowed out gold bars because it would melt the hollowed out gold bar. Melting point of tungsten is 6192°F while gold is 1947°F. Machining tungsten to shape is also a pain. It is a tough metal.. so tough that it is used as the cutting bit in metal machining equipment.

If you are going to fill the bars, you would probably use a combination of lead and aluminum (621°F, 3632°F) respectively to get the weight right (aluminum centered within lead, centered within gold). Hollow out gold bar, suspend small aluminum bar within hollowed out segment and fill remainder with lead.

[ucodegen]

You wouldn’t use tungsten to ‘salt’ the bars. To much of a pain to work with. You can’t pour molten tungsten into hollowed out gold bars because it would melt the hollowed out gold bar. Melting point of tungsten is 6192°F while gold is 1947°F. Machining tungsten to shape is also a pain. It is a tough metal.. so tough that it is used as the cutting bit in metal machining equipment.

If you are going to fill the bars, you would probably use a combination of lead and aluminum (621°F, 3632°F) respectively to get the weight right (aluminum centered within lead, centered within gold). Hollow out gold bar, suspend small aluminum bar within hollowed out segment and fill remainder with lead.

[ucodegen]

You wouldn’t use tungsten to ‘salt’ the bars. To much of a pain to work with. You can’t pour molten tungsten into hollowed out gold bars because it would melt the hollowed out gold bar. Melting point of tungsten is 6192°F while gold is 1947°F. Machining tungsten to shape is also a pain. It is a tough metal.. so tough that it is used as the cutting bit in metal machining equipment.

If you are going to fill the bars, you would probably use a combination of lead and aluminum (621°F, 3632°F) respectively to get the weight right (aluminum centered within lead, centered within gold). Hollow out gold bar, suspend small aluminum bar within hollowed out segment and fill remainder with lead.

[ucodegen]

You wouldn’t use tungsten to ‘salt’ the bars. To much of a pain to work with. You can’t pour molten tungsten into hollowed out gold bars because it would melt the hollowed out gold bar. Melting point of tungsten is 6192°F while gold is 1947°F. Machining tungsten to shape is also a pain. It is a tough metal.. so tough that it is used as the cutting bit in metal machining equipment.

If you are going to fill the bars, you would probably use a combination of lead and aluminum (621°F, 3632°F) respectively to get the weight right (aluminum centered within lead, centered within gold). Hollow out gold bar, suspend small aluminum bar within hollowed out segment and fill remainder with lead.

[ucodegen]

You wouldn’t use tungsten to ‘salt’ the bars. To much of a pain to work with. You can’t pour molten tungsten into hollowed out gold bars because it would melt the hollowed out gold bar. Melting point of tungsten is 6192°F while gold is 1947°F. Machining tungsten to shape is also a pain. It is a tough metal.. so tough that it is used as the cutting bit in metal machining equipment.

If you are going to fill the bars, you would probably use a combination of lead and aluminum (621°F, 3632°F) respectively to get the weight right (aluminum centered within lead, centered within gold). Hollow out gold bar, suspend small aluminum bar within hollowed out segment and fill remainder with lead.

[ucodegen]

Capitalist, free market economies only work when everyone makes rational financial decisions for themselves, ideally within the confines of the law.

Not correct. They work when the economies ‘tampered’ with to eliminate consequences to individual actions. Think economic Darwin’s Law. Those that make the rational decisions are rewarded.. those that don’t get penalized. Right now, we have something that is almost opposite of that. Those that made irrational decisions are being rewarded and those that made rational decisions are being penalized.

[ucodegen]

Capitalist, free market economies only work when everyone makes rational financial decisions for themselves, ideally within the confines of the law.

Not correct. They work when the economies ‘tampered’ with to eliminate consequences to individual actions. Think economic Darwin’s Law. Those that make the rational decisions are rewarded.. those that don’t get penalized. Right now, we have something that is almost opposite of that. Those that made irrational decisions are being rewarded and those that made rational decisions are being penalized.

[ucodegen]

Capitalist, free market economies only work when everyone makes rational financial decisions for themselves, ideally within the confines of the law.

Not correct. They work when the economies ‘tampered’ with to eliminate consequences to individual actions. Think economic Darwin’s Law. Those that make the rational decisions are rewarded.. those that don’t get penalized. Right now, we have something that is almost opposite of that. Those that made irrational decisions are being rewarded and those that made rational decisions are being penalized.

[ucodegen]

Capitalist, free market economies only work when everyone makes rational financial decisions for themselves, ideally within the confines of the law.

Not correct. They work when the economies ‘tampered’ with to eliminate consequences to individual actions. Think economic Darwin’s Law. Those that make the rational decisions are rewarded.. those that don’t get penalized. Right now, we have something that is almost opposite of that. Those that made irrational decisions are being rewarded and those that made rational decisions are being penalized.

[ucodegen]

Capitalist, free market economies only work when everyone makes rational financial decisions for themselves, ideally within the confines of the law.

Not correct. They work when the economies ‘tampered’ with to eliminate consequences to individual actions. Think economic Darwin’s Law. Those that make the rational decisions are rewarded.. those that don’t get penalized. Right now, we have something that is almost opposite of that. Those that made irrational decisions are being rewarded and those that made rational decisions are being penalized.

[ucodegen]

Thanks for the real numbers, seems charts can be very deceptive. I didn’t really think I was buying more Canadian stuff than Chinese stuff, but sometimes I can get a little local and forget about all those other states on the Canadian border.

The numbers for Canada includes both the US’s exports to Canada and Canada’s exports to the US. It could be considered ‘total’ cross border trade. The net trade (‘balance of trade’) is much closer to zero. With China, the numbers you see are primarily their export to the US, there is a net outward ‘balance of trade’ or deficit.

This is the detailed data:
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/current_press_release/exh14.pdf
You can see imports/exports relative to the US broken down by country and net balance of trade.

By the way, for those of you worrying about the US sending all of its money out to the OPEC country’s for oil, take a look at the net balance of trade of China compared to all of OPEC (4th column across.. follow down the left on the country column and there is a whole section for OPEC)

[ucodegen]

Thanks for the real numbers, seems charts can be very deceptive. I didn’t really think I was buying more Canadian stuff than Chinese stuff, but sometimes I can get a little local and forget about all those other states on the Canadian border.

The numbers for Canada includes both the US’s exports to Canada and Canada’s exports to the US. It could be considered ‘total’ cross border trade. The net trade (‘balance of trade’) is much closer to zero. With China, the numbers you see are primarily their export to the US, there is a net outward ‘balance of trade’ or deficit.

This is the detailed data:
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/Press-Release/current_press_release/exh14.pdf
You can see imports/exports relative to the US broken down by country and net balance of trade.

By the way, for those of you worrying about the US sending all of its money out to the OPEC country’s for oil, take a look at the net balance of trade of China compared to all of OPEC (4th column across.. follow down the left on the country column and there is a whole section for OPEC)

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