personal finance money management

A survey released today by Javelin Strategy & Research, which serves financial institutions, found in August that nearly one in five Americans doesn't monitor or manage their personal finances. That rate is double what it was just a year ago. Despite the fact the recession has made it more important than ever to carefully track our money, when it comes to personal finances, 19% of Americans stuck their head in the sand. A year before, another survey had the figure at just 8%.



More anxiety-induced news: The percentage of Americans who say they sometimes log onto their checking account balances with their banks' websites dropped to 46%, down 13 points from 59% a year ago. Even those who track their money by pen and paper dropped, from 50% to 46%.





"It's a natural human reaction to stress: 'Maybe if I don't look at it, it will go away.'" explains the study's co-author, senior analyst Mark Schwanhausser. "I think you have fewer people checking their finances online because they don't like what they're seeing. 'I'm going to be a financial sleepwalker. I'm not going to look.'"



Schwanhausser's prescription for the problem involves convincing America's major financial institutions that they're doing a lousy job helping make it easier and less stressful for their customers to track their money. "It's not enough to tell you how to fix the toilet," he says. "You've got to have the wrench."



Yet despite the fact that most Americans' money resides at a bank, few banks are interested in furnishing financial planning tools. Right now, Schwanhausser argues, most people are required to log into a wide variety of websites to track their money. For example, 75% of Americans who have a credit card get it from somewhere other than their primary bank, meaning their finances are scattered across many websites, unreconciled.



When people do turn to their bank's websites, he argues, the financial planning tools are nearly non-existent despite the fact our society increasingly demands greater personal control through technology. "Today's online banking is like having avocado green appliances from the 1970s. It just doesn't cut it," says Schwanhausser.



Schwanhausser is using the survey to convince banks that it will actually endear customers to them if they put personal finance tools front and center on their sites, helping customers paint a clear picture of their own financial habits. He's pressing them to develop systems, both on the Web and through mobile apps, that can draw in customers' information from other sites, such as credit cards and mortgage lenders, so financial care-taking can be a one-stop process.



So far, banks and lenders have been slow to use existing technology to make money management a less daunting chore. Part of the issue is that many banks don't want to acknowledge competitors by drawing in account balances from elsewhere. Banks also stand to make money off poor financial planning through penalties and fees. Like a doctor who makes money off treating disease, promoting financial good health does not on the surface appear to be in a bank's best interest.



"You can't manage what you don't measure," says Schwanhausser. "And if the bank's not going to provide it for you, you have to go get it in other places."



He recommends existing aggregators such as Mint.com, which pulls your data from multiple sources and lays it out in spreadsheets and in spending plans, as a model for what all the banks should be doing for their customers.



He also notes that Bank of America's "My Portfolio" and Wells Fargo's "My Savings Plan" are two fledgling, if little-known, bank-created features that are slowly reaching toward the sort of comprehensive personal finance planning features he advocates.



As long as it remains difficult or scary, though, when it comes to their finances, Americans will remain more likely to use the Ostrich Method.

Most of you might know about Mint.com, the premier online personal finance management service. Mint Data is a new service by the same site that shows real-time local spending data (US only) and helps consumers decide where they should spend their money.

The anonymous spending data is sourced from Mint’s huge user base. Using that data, this new service tells you the average amount of money that a consumer is likely to spend on a particular restaurant, or a shopping destination in US cities, in real-time.

You can check the popularity of restaurants and shopping spots according to the money spent by people there. There’s also a list of America’s highest spending cities according to the data from Mint’s users.

Features

• Check the real-time local spending data.
• Do a search for a destination and see how much consumers are spending there.
• Data sourced from Mint.com.
• Restaurants and shopping spots ranked by popularity.
• Similar tools: Bundle, VisualEconomics and TipJar

Check out Mint Data @ www.data.mint.com (via ReadWriteWeb By Abhijeet from GT Cool Stuff)

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Fox <b>News</b> &#39;12 - Wilshire &amp; Washington on Variety.com

I expect this is just the start of an ever-more rocky relationship between the news networks, but it may be a boon to the candidates. If they don't have to spend money to get exposure, doesn't it make more sense for them to wait until ...

<b>News</b> - Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie Pack on PDA on Red Carpet <b>...</b>

Ooh la la: Angelina Jolie joined beau Brad Pitt at the Paris premiere of Megamind on Monday -- and the two were more affectionate than ever! Not only did they pose for photos together, they held hands, greeted fans and shared a smooch ...

Fox <b>News</b> claims anti-fees protests were &quot;rebellion against big <b>...</b>

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has again been caught misrepresenting video footage, claiming the anti-fees protests were a rebellion against big government.

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People Making Money Online

In early February we wrote about Flavors.me, a simple, beautiful aggregator that lets you pull together all of your social media identities like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, Posterous, Netflix, LinkedIn, Blogger, Goodreads, Foursquare, YouTube, WordPress, Tumblr, Etsy, and RSS on a simple, personal splash page.

Just like Gmail replaced Hotmail and Facebook replaced MySpace, often times the second to the stage has the most talent. With an attitude that says, “I am your new virtual business card,” About.me is a service like Flavors.me but with more functionality, smarter options and it’s all free (for now).

Why it’s different

About.me focuses on personal branding and analytics, rather than just creating a simple online identity. With a free About.me account you can see how many people see your profile, where they’re coming from (your Twitter bio? your e-mail signature?) and what they are doing on your page.

About.me is FREE. “We don’t believe that people should pay money for a set of front end tools to set up a profile of themselves. We just dont think thats a long term business model nor do we think it’s interesting,” says About.me’s co-founder Tony Conrad.

The URL is better. It’s pretty clear that, particularly for professional cases, About.Me couldn’t be a better URL for its use. For example, let’s say you are making an e-tro. Instead of writing, “This is Courtney, the East Coast Editor of The Next Web who lives in Brooklyn and enjoys reading Russian literature….” You’d just say, “This is Courtney, and here’s her about.me.”

What’s cooking at About.me?

At first About.me limited the number of services you can connect to because “too many confuses users” but due to customer feedback, they’re adding YouTube, Vimeo, Pandora and Formspring soon. In the meantime, users can add any URL they wish to their About.me page.

They are planning to move towards a freemium model. “While we currently have a kickass free version, there’s a whole other class of users out there that will pay money for services that make sense,” says Conrad. For example, they may cater to small companies that need social media behavior analytics. Conrad also believes there’s money to be made in domain name management and providing people with About.me e-mail addresses.

Want a Beta invite? Go to the comments below and follow my instructions. Then please RT this story! :)

Co-founder Tony Conrad says, “Searching for people on Google is like dumpster diving, our site enables you to pull all of that information onto one page and that’s very powerful.”

The company was founded by Tony Conrad, Ryan Freitas and Tim Young in January 2010. Their investors include True Ventures, Radar Partners, Freestyle Capital, Scott Kurnit, AOL Ventures, David Mahoney, Founder Collective, & Ron Conway.

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Personality.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

In a world where social media and pop culture collide, 2009 might’ve been most remembered for a certain race to 1 million followers. While 2010 has had its share of popularity contests too, we’ve also seen a myriad of innovative uses of digital media that have both catapulted some previously unknowns to “must follow” status and re-invented the careers of others.

Whether it was playing a key role in shaping the news, creating online personas that went viral and became much more, or using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet to connect with fans in new ways, several personalities stood out in terms of leveraging social media in irresistibly catchy ways.

Below, we take a look at some of those people who have made a major splash in the online world in the past year.

1. Ben Folds

While it looks like Chatroulette’s 15 minutes of fame might be up, no one was a bigger part of that 15 minutes than musician Ben Folds.

Inspired by chatroulette improv piano guy “Merton,” the singer-songwriter began broadcasting improv piano tunes from his concerts onto the random video chat site, and quickly saw himself become a big part of one of the year’s top memes.

Because Merton rather closely resembled Folds, speculation ran rampant that the two were actually the same guy. Numerous YouTube videos — some of them originating here on Mashable — added fuel to the fire, though the fable was ultimately disproved once and for all (we think) in a video that the two created together last month.

What started as a clever play on a pop culture phenomenon ultimately became a blueprint for sustaining social media buzz.

2. Conan O’Brien

When Conan O’Brien took over as host of The Tonight Show in mid-2009, one of his first sketches poked fun at Twitter for its banality. Little did he know at the time that mere months later, he’d become the center of a massive user-created digital movement (“Team Coco”) as NBC pivoted to shift Tonight Show hosting responsibilities back to Jay Leno.

Following his ouster, Conan quickly moved to capitalize on his Internet momentum, establishing a Twitter account that would serve as his comedic outlet while he sorted out his next career move, which he ultimately decided would be a new show on TBS.

Whereas Conan’s Tonight Show played the traditional willfully ignorant-of-technology card, Conan’s new show has made social media the centerpiece of a campaign to try and get the masses to shift their late night viewing habits to cable. As a result, we’ll soon find out if digital loyalty translates to television ratings.

3. BPGlobalPR

This year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in recent times, and the company’s much-maligned handling of it had some speculating that bankruptcy might be imminent for the petroleum giant.

Providing comic relief through the whole ordeal, however, was @BPGlobalPR, a satirical Twitter account pretending to be BP’s public relations department. With updates like “Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe,” the account quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers.

As for his inspiration, the man behind the account, “Terry,” told Mashable in an interview that “They pay people like me a TON of money to make it look like they’re doing stuff, but really we don’t have to do much except talk. Our talking buys them time to figure out how they are going to sweep it all under the rug and go back to making lots of money.”

While BP eventually closed the oil leak and activity on the @BPGlobalPR account has slowed, the feed served the dual role of both entertaining and reminding the world that BP was not doing a very good job at either closing the leak or communicating effectively with the public.

4. Dan Savage

In recent months, one of the most prominent social issues in America has been the bullying of gay teenagers. In response, sex advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage launched the “Its Get Better” YouTube channel, where everyday people have uploaded hundreds of videos providing encouragement and inspiration to gay teens, telling them they have much to look forward to.

It didn’t take long for the channel to go viral with openly gay celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres contributing video messages. Within about a month of launching, the channel attracted a video from President Obama broadcasting the “It Gets Better” message.

The campaign has been nothing short of inspiring, and we will be following Savage to see how he uses his various social media channels –- which also include a popular blog, Twitter feed, and podcast –- to raise awareness for important LGBT issues going forward.

5. Darren Rovell

It’s been a spectacular year for stories about the business of sports, and sitting at the center of it has been CNBC’s sports business reporter Darren Rovell.

There was simply no better feed to follow on Twitter than Rovell’s as the world of Tiger Woods came crashing down following a car-accident-turned-sex-scandal turned tens of millions of dollars in lost endorsement deals.

Then, when LeBron James made the universally mocked decision of broadcasting “The Decision” on ESPN, Rovell again was the point man for assessing brand and consumer response as one of the world’s most highly paid and previously admired athletes suddenly became one of the sporting world’s biggest villains.

In between, Rovell’s Twitter feed and blog has broken news on everything from TV ratings to jersey sales to free agency moves. To an extent, he’s also made the business of reporting on sports sexy, as evidenced by some of the competitors he’s now attracting.

What’s Your Take?

Which personalities do you follow via social media? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Mashable Awards Gala Partner:

From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a global entertainment organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has over 5,000 employees, including more than 1,200 artists from close to 50 different countries.

Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to nearly 100 million spectators in 300 cities on five continents. In 2010 Cirque du Soleil, will present 21 shows simultaneously throughout the world, including seven in Las Vegas.

For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit www.cirquedusoleil.com

Mashable Awards Online Partner:

Have you ever wished for your own personal gourmet Chef?

The Fresh Diet is like having a Cordon Bleu chef prepare your meals in your own kitchen. There’s no cooking, cleaning, shopping – just fresh prepared delicious meals, hand delivered to your door daily! Whether you want to lose weight or just want to eat healthy, The Fresh Diet can help you meet your goals. The best news, we’re giving away a FREE week of The Fresh Diet every day on our Facebook page. Just click here to become a fan and you could be the next winner. Join now!

Mashable Awards Partner:

Join us at the 2011 International CES®, the global platform for inspired ideas and innovation. With 2,500 exhibitors, CES continues to be the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow and always reflects the dynamic consumer electronics industry. The International CES is not open to the general public and all attendees must be in the CE industry to be eligible to attend the show. Register FREE for the 2011 CES with priority code MSHB, an exclusive promotion for Mashable Readers.

Mashable Awards Category Sponsor:

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Win an iPad!

Join us on Facebook to learn how to enter Dynadot’s I Can Haz iPad Giveaway!

Dynadot is an ICANN accredited domain name registrar and web host where you can register the perfect domain name affordably, reliably, simply and securely. Whether you are a blogger, business owner, or planning on creating the next best Internet meme you need a domain that represents you. Let Dynadot help you establish your web identity today.

Mobile Future is a broad-based coalition of businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals interested in and dedicated to advocating for an environment in which innovations in wireless technology and services are enabled and encouraged. Our mission is to educate the public and key decision makers on innovations in the wireless industry that have transformed the way Americans work and play and to advocate continued investment in wireless technologies.

Our “Mobile Year in Review 2010” animation proves a glimpse into the most notable breakthroughs in the wireless industry this year.

Yahoo! is an innovative technology company that operates the largest digital media, content, and communications business in the world. Yahoo! keeps more than half a billion consumers worldwide connected to what matters to them most, and delivers powerful audience solutions to advertisers through its unique combination of Science + Art + Scale. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit the company’s blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

Mashable Awards Gala Silver Sponsor:

Aro Mobile is an intelligent mobile experience that includes better email, connected contacts, smarter calendar and improved browsing.

The Aro system automatically learns what’s important in your life—the people, places, dates and organizations you care about most. In your communications, Aro automatically identifies people, places, events, dates,organizations and locations. From any recognized term, Aro offers quick action menus to speed up your day.

The unique Aro experience is powered by advanced web services: next generation natural language processing and semantic data analytics services. Aro gives you the power to see through the clutter and focus your mobile life.

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Mashable Awards Gala VIP Lounge sponsor:

Influxis specializes in the deployment of creative streaming solutions. Services include large scale deployment, mobile streaming, turn-key applications, and enterprise support with custom network options. With the unique combination of a worldwide network, knowledgeable developer support and nearly a decade of streaming media experience, Influxis is an essential partner to businesses, advertisers, developers, educators, and others who seek expertise in innovative streaming.

Mashable Awards After Party Sponsor:

Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications including the BlackBerry® wireless platform and the new BlackBerry PlayBook. For the latest on the BlackBerry PlayBook visit the Inside BlackBerry Blog.

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, jgroup

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.

Xtina&#39;s New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com

Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

bench craft company scam

Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.

Xtina&#39;s New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com

Although she´s only been separated from hubby Jordan Bratman for three months, Christina Aguilera is head over heels for her new man Matthew Ruther - and she may be in for a while ride! ...

Portland terrorist bomb plot: <b>News</b>, opinion from The Oregonian and <b>...</b>

Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

bench craft company scam

In early February we wrote about Flavors.me, a simple, beautiful aggregator that lets you pull together all of your social media identities like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Last.fm, Posterous, Netflix, LinkedIn, Blogger, Goodreads, Foursquare, YouTube, WordPress, Tumblr, Etsy, and RSS on a simple, personal splash page.

Just like Gmail replaced Hotmail and Facebook replaced MySpace, often times the second to the stage has the most talent. With an attitude that says, “I am your new virtual business card,” About.me is a service like Flavors.me but with more functionality, smarter options and it’s all free (for now).

Why it’s different

About.me focuses on personal branding and analytics, rather than just creating a simple online identity. With a free About.me account you can see how many people see your profile, where they’re coming from (your Twitter bio? your e-mail signature?) and what they are doing on your page.

About.me is FREE. “We don’t believe that people should pay money for a set of front end tools to set up a profile of themselves. We just dont think thats a long term business model nor do we think it’s interesting,” says About.me’s co-founder Tony Conrad.

The URL is better. It’s pretty clear that, particularly for professional cases, About.Me couldn’t be a better URL for its use. For example, let’s say you are making an e-tro. Instead of writing, “This is Courtney, the East Coast Editor of The Next Web who lives in Brooklyn and enjoys reading Russian literature….” You’d just say, “This is Courtney, and here’s her about.me.”

What’s cooking at About.me?

At first About.me limited the number of services you can connect to because “too many confuses users” but due to customer feedback, they’re adding YouTube, Vimeo, Pandora and Formspring soon. In the meantime, users can add any URL they wish to their About.me page.

They are planning to move towards a freemium model. “While we currently have a kickass free version, there’s a whole other class of users out there that will pay money for services that make sense,” says Conrad. For example, they may cater to small companies that need social media behavior analytics. Conrad also believes there’s money to be made in domain name management and providing people with About.me e-mail addresses.

Want a Beta invite? Go to the comments below and follow my instructions. Then please RT this story! :)

Co-founder Tony Conrad says, “Searching for people on Google is like dumpster diving, our site enables you to pull all of that information onto one page and that’s very powerful.”

The company was founded by Tony Conrad, Ryan Freitas and Tim Young in January 2010. Their investors include True Ventures, Radar Partners, Freestyle Capital, Scott Kurnit, AOL Ventures, David Mahoney, Founder Collective, & Ron Conway.

As part of the ongoing Mashable Awards, we’re taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is “Must-Follow Personality.” Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

In a world where social media and pop culture collide, 2009 might’ve been most remembered for a certain race to 1 million followers. While 2010 has had its share of popularity contests too, we’ve also seen a myriad of innovative uses of digital media that have both catapulted some previously unknowns to “must follow” status and re-invented the careers of others.

Whether it was playing a key role in shaping the news, creating online personas that went viral and became much more, or using the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet to connect with fans in new ways, several personalities stood out in terms of leveraging social media in irresistibly catchy ways.

Below, we take a look at some of those people who have made a major splash in the online world in the past year.

1. Ben Folds

While it looks like Chatroulette’s 15 minutes of fame might be up, no one was a bigger part of that 15 minutes than musician Ben Folds.

Inspired by chatroulette improv piano guy “Merton,” the singer-songwriter began broadcasting improv piano tunes from his concerts onto the random video chat site, and quickly saw himself become a big part of one of the year’s top memes.

Because Merton rather closely resembled Folds, speculation ran rampant that the two were actually the same guy. Numerous YouTube videos — some of them originating here on Mashable — added fuel to the fire, though the fable was ultimately disproved once and for all (we think) in a video that the two created together last month.

What started as a clever play on a pop culture phenomenon ultimately became a blueprint for sustaining social media buzz.

2. Conan O’Brien

When Conan O’Brien took over as host of The Tonight Show in mid-2009, one of his first sketches poked fun at Twitter for its banality. Little did he know at the time that mere months later, he’d become the center of a massive user-created digital movement (“Team Coco”) as NBC pivoted to shift Tonight Show hosting responsibilities back to Jay Leno.

Following his ouster, Conan quickly moved to capitalize on his Internet momentum, establishing a Twitter account that would serve as his comedic outlet while he sorted out his next career move, which he ultimately decided would be a new show on TBS.

Whereas Conan’s Tonight Show played the traditional willfully ignorant-of-technology card, Conan’s new show has made social media the centerpiece of a campaign to try and get the masses to shift their late night viewing habits to cable. As a result, we’ll soon find out if digital loyalty translates to television ratings.

3. BPGlobalPR

This year’s BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was one of the biggest environmental catastrophes in recent times, and the company’s much-maligned handling of it had some speculating that bankruptcy might be imminent for the petroleum giant.

Providing comic relief through the whole ordeal, however, was @BPGlobalPR, a satirical Twitter account pretending to be BP’s public relations department. With updates like “Sadly we can no longer certify our oil as Dolphin Safe,” the account quickly amassed tens of thousands of followers.

As for his inspiration, the man behind the account, “Terry,” told Mashable in an interview that “They pay people like me a TON of money to make it look like they’re doing stuff, but really we don’t have to do much except talk. Our talking buys them time to figure out how they are going to sweep it all under the rug and go back to making lots of money.”

While BP eventually closed the oil leak and activity on the @BPGlobalPR account has slowed, the feed served the dual role of both entertaining and reminding the world that BP was not doing a very good job at either closing the leak or communicating effectively with the public.

4. Dan Savage

In recent months, one of the most prominent social issues in America has been the bullying of gay teenagers. In response, sex advice columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage launched the “Its Get Better” YouTube channel, where everyday people have uploaded hundreds of videos providing encouragement and inspiration to gay teens, telling them they have much to look forward to.

It didn’t take long for the channel to go viral with openly gay celebrities like Neil Patrick Harris and Ellen DeGeneres contributing video messages. Within about a month of launching, the channel attracted a video from President Obama broadcasting the “It Gets Better” message.

The campaign has been nothing short of inspiring, and we will be following Savage to see how he uses his various social media channels –- which also include a popular blog, Twitter feed, and podcast –- to raise awareness for important LGBT issues going forward.

5. Darren Rovell

It’s been a spectacular year for stories about the business of sports, and sitting at the center of it has been CNBC’s sports business reporter Darren Rovell.

There was simply no better feed to follow on Twitter than Rovell’s as the world of Tiger Woods came crashing down following a car-accident-turned-sex-scandal turned tens of millions of dollars in lost endorsement deals.

Then, when LeBron James made the universally mocked decision of broadcasting “The Decision” on ESPN, Rovell again was the point man for assessing brand and consumer response as one of the world’s most highly paid and previously admired athletes suddenly became one of the sporting world’s biggest villains.

In between, Rovell’s Twitter feed and blog has broken news on everything from TV ratings to jersey sales to free agency moves. To an extent, he’s also made the business of reporting on sports sexy, as evidenced by some of the competitors he’s now attracting.

What’s Your Take?

Which personalities do you follow via social media? Let us know in the comments or nominate them for the Mashable Awards.

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)/>

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week)/> Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT/> Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas/> Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations/> Socialize: Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Thanks to our sponsors:

Mashable Awards Gala Partner:

From a group of 20 street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is now a global entertainment organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has over 5,000 employees, including more than 1,200 artists from close to 50 different countries.

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.

Xtina&#39;s New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com

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Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

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Small Business <b>News</b>: Small Biz Bonanza

On this day after Thanksgiving, we thought we'd create a feast of small business resources ourselves. Please dig in and enjoy every tasty morsel. This bonanza.

Xtina&#39;s New Man Is Bad <b>News</b> | PerezHilton.com

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Return to OregonLive later today for more from The Oregonian on the terrorist arrest.

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Police <b>News</b> at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the <b>...</b>

1 Tweets that mention Police News at Steven Landsburg | The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics, and Physics -- Topsy.com. Pingback on Nov 19th, 2010 at 3:23 am. 2 Police News at ...

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Participants in a study were far more likely to “remember” a fictional news event when a headline was accompanied by a tangentially relevant photograph.

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Nico Rosberg doubts the new Pirelli tyres will do anything to ease the difficulties Mercedes suffered with front-tyre grip on the 2010 Bridgestones, after the Formula 1 teams tried the 2011 rubber for the first time in Abu Dhabi today.

<b>News</b> Corp developing a tablet-exclusive publication

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Fox <b>News</b> Decoded - Swampland - TIME.com

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how to manage personal finances

In the digital age, nobody likes carrying a lot of cash around – I know I don’t, anyway. This can be especially frustrating when you go to keep track of your expenses, who you owe money to, who you lent some to and just where it all goes over the month.

As always, there are a lot of apps out there to help you do various things with your money. There are apps to figure out how to manage your money, oversee expenses, send money to people, keep track of who owes you, and more.

In this article, I’ll show you some of the applications you can take advantage of to do everything I’ve mentioned here, leaving you free to pick and choose the apps that will make your life easier.

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How to Manage Your Money

I’m beginning to learn just how difficult managing your expenses can be. For the most part, I use my debit card tied to my checking account to make purchases. I use it at the grocery store, when I go out to lunch with my coworkers and on the weekend when I’m out exploring the city.

At the end of the month, my bank statement looks pretty ridiculous. All of these small transactions make it difficult to sift through. I still know what everything is, but if I wanted to see where I could be saving some money I wouldn’t know the first place to look.

Sounds like you? Even if it doesn’t, you could still reap the benefits of visually being able to manage your money. These apps make the process a lot easier.

Mint

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Mint has been on our radar since back in 2007 when Karl wrote about it. Plain and simple, if there is one app I want you to keep in mind it’s this one.

Mint is a free personal finance application that can help you compare your bank accounts, credit cards, CDs, brokerage and 401(k) to the best products out there. It offers a visual representation of your finances and is very easy to set up. Use it to manage your budget, get credit card advice and understand investing.

Here’s a great video showcasing an overview of Mint’s features:

For some helpful tips on how to use Mint, check out Bakari’s article on How To Use Mint To Manage Your Budget & Spendings Online.

Thrive

Thrive (directory app) is also a great application if you’re looking for a simple way to keep track of your spending. With Thrive, you get an overall Financial Health score, which is one number that shows you how financially fit you are. It also shows you scores in other areas and offers you advice on how to make improvements.

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Thrive breaks down your spending for you and shows you where you can save. Compare your current budget to last month’s, as well as view a six month average and target budgets to follow.

Texthog

Looking for an even simpler way to track expenses? Texthog (directory app) lets you easily store, organize and access your receipts, expense reports and more via text message, the web, your email, iPhone and even Twitter.

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A Texthog free account gives one user the ability to track expenses, view unlimited reports and get budget/bill reminders. Take a photo of your receipts and utilize tags and categories to keep track of everything.

To check out Texthog on your iPhone, you can find the application on iTunes.

Venmo

Speaking of text messages, have you heard of Venmo? Venmo (directory app) is a nice little app that lets you pay and charge friends with your phone. Send and receive secure payments by linking your card to your account. This allows you to settle small loans you give/get by eliminating paper transactions for small amounts of money.

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To use Venmo, all you do is create an account. You can then send and receive money to other accounts simply by using text commands in SMS. Accept a “trust” request from your friends and make transactions without having to authorize them by texting a 3 digit code.

This is a pretty solid application that I have been using a lot lately with my friends/coworkers. It’s great for when a bunch of you are out to lunch and not everyone has cash on them. “I’ll just put it on my card and Venmo you all afterwards.”

Owe Me Cash

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Owe Me Cash is a nice app I found recently that is also very easy to use. If someone owes you money, you just sign into Owe Me Cash with your Twitter, Facebook, OpenID, or regular account and tell the app about the debt. The app will send automatic reminders to those that owe you money by phone, text and email, so you can get paid!

This app is more fun than serious, but it doubles as an easy way to keep track of who owes you what. Let the app bug your friends to pay you so you don’t have to do it yourself – it’s a win-win.

Conclusion

With these applications, your finances will never look better. Say goodbye to paper money and change.

What do you think of these money-managing applications? Will you be using any of them?

Image Credit: marema

This guest post is by Kiesha of WeBlogBetter.

Have you ever wondered how some bloggers never seem to run out of post ideas? They always manage to escape the dreaded writer’s block unscathed; they’re always full of inspiration. Ideas overflow and pour onto the page as they type feverishly. They’ve tapped into a mystical stream of never-ending stories.

What if I told you that you could tap into the same power?

Everything you’ve already learned and experienced can be used to create infinite and original ideas for your blog. If you can turn on the analytical and creative juices in your brain, you’ll never run out of ideas.

Almost anything you’ve learned in school, on the job—even life’s lessons in general—can be turned into useful analogies or comparisons. Music, television shows, movies, or videos can also be used as fuel for unique and engaging blog posts.

There are almost no limits to this technique. In fact, the more unlikely and unusual the comparisons you make, the better.

Using my personal experience to blog better

Whenever something evokes an “Aha!” moment for me, I immediately think about how I can use that principle for blogging.

For example, late one night, I was watching The Karate Kid. At the point when young Dre finally realizes that all those days and weeks spent picking up his jacket had really been preparing and strengthening him, my mind immediately connected that experience to blogging.

When Mr. Han said, “Kung Fu lives in everything we do … Everything is Kung Fu”, I jumped up like a hot coal had landed in my lap. I grabbed a pen and wrote:

“Blogging lives in everything we do … Everything is blogging! Every experience is potential blogging material!”

My husband thought I was going mad as I frantically scribbled this on an already over-filled piece of paper. It was a major “Aha!” moment!

Yes, everything in my life — even those experiences that I thought were useless wastes of time — had been preparing me for blogging.

You might not be able to see the similarities between blogging and manicuring nails, but what I learned years ago as a nail technician helps me blog better today. I was known for my creative airbrush designs and 3D nail art. I had more customers than I had time. It sounds like I should be rich by now, right?

Here’s the problem: I loved the design/art part of the process, but I hated the chemical aspects of the job. I also hate feet, which wasn’t the best of news for customers who wanted their toes to match their fingers. I suffer from the exact opposite of a “foot fetish.” Would that be a foot phobia? What I learned is that no amount of money justifies doing (or smelling) things you hate.

How does that translate to blogging?

Nothing, not even money, should be the reason for blogging about something you’re not passionate about.

I can see many parallels between applying acrylic nails and blogging.

They both require preparation

When applying acrylic nails, the surface must be adequately prepared. Skimping on this step creates the prime condition for the growth of fungus or other harmful pathogens that, if left untreated, could create medical problems for the customer.

With blogging, if you don’t take adequate time to prepare with research and fact checking, you could potentially steer a reader in the wrong direction. They may not be physically harmed, but advice you offer on your blog could harm a person’s business or their blogging efforts—and maybe even adversely impact their finances.

They Both Require Good Design

If I tried to put a beautiful design on a malformed nail, it only made the malformation more apparent. On the other hand, a well-formed nail with an ugly or bland design would be a waste of sculpting efforts. In other words, the nail had to be both well formed and display a beautiful design.

The same is true for a blog. You can have the most beautiful blog design, but if your site lacks valuable content, no one’s going to want to return. You need both good design and great content.

So you see, yes there is much to learn about blogging from doing nails. There is much to learn about blogging from everything—from all of your experiences.

Over to you

Have you ever thought about how your own abundance of personal experiences relates to your own niche? And how you can use that to create a blog unlike any other?

1. Start by listing some of the most vivid experiences you’ve had, or lessons you’ve learned over the years.


2. Then instead of thinking about how different they are from blogging, think about how similar they are.


3. Use those points of intersection to highlight those similarities.


4. Then mesh those ideas together to create something new.

What you’ll get is something totally unpredictable and extremely insightful.

Which pieces of your personal experience and life lessons could you use to create an interesting analogy or comparison in a blog post? Which could you use to help you improve your blogging in general?

Kiesha blogs at WeBlogBetter, offering blogging tips and tricks. She’s a technical writer, writing instructor, and blog consultant for small business owners. Connect with her on Twitter @weblogbetter.

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The Inevitable Taiwanese <b>News</b> Animation about the TSA&#39;s Touching <b>...</b>

Does anyone know if this animation, or any of these CGI clips from NMA.tv, actually appeared on TV news in Taiwan? Because their website seems more like it's mostly an online thing - I would love to see video of this actually being ...

Was Tony Parker Cheating? Mystery Teammate&#39;s Wife Revealed... Erin <b>...</b>

The father of San Antonio Spurs star Brent Barry -- whose wife Erin is reportedly the other woman in a Tony Parker love triangle -- tells TMZ he's worried that Brent will be "devastated" by the news. Tony Parker Cheating With Brent ...

Google <b>News</b> experiments with metatags for publishers to give <b>...</b>

One of the biggest challenges Google News faces is one that seems navel-gazingly philosophical, but is in fact completely practical: how to determine authorship. In the glut of information on the web, much of it is, if not completely ...

foreclosure agents

Such investors are like "people who come back and say,
'I bought a Chevy Vega, but I want it to be a Mercedes with a
12-cylinder ,'" Mr. Moynihan said in October. "We're not putting
up with that."

One-third of its subprime business is in default and Mr. Moynihan
thinks Countrywide was selling Vegas? If one third of Vegas crashed and
burned within three years of being purchased the metaphor might be apt
and completely incriminating. We argued that putting Bank of America
into receivership is the proper remedy for its substantial violations of
the law and for its continuing reliance on unsafe and unsound
practices. Outside reviews have documented the most extensive and
financially harmful violations of law and unsafe banking practices and
conditions in history.

As argued in a recent article by Jonathon Weil, the bank is nearing a
"tipping point" as markets recognize it is "cooking the books," vastly
overstating the value of its assets as it refuses to recognize the true
scale of losses on its purchase of Countrywide. Ironically, it still
carries on its books $4.4 billion of fictional "goodwill" value created
by overpaying for Countrywide (a notorious control fraud), as well as
$142 billion of home equity loans that are worth far less. A more honest
accounting of "good will" and of the value of home equity loans would
take a big bite out of Bank of America's market capitalization ($116
billion), which has lost 41 percent
of its value since April 15. The markets are moving ever closer to
shutting down the institution, but Moynihan is not "putting up with" the
demand by investors for Bank of America to come clean on its fraudulent
practices.

Ms. Mairone's Response Verifies Our Claims

Rebecca Mairone replied on behalf of Bank of America to our two-part
post. Step back for a moment and consider the context of Bank of
America's response. We cite evidence that the bank has committed
massive fraud, explain that this provides a legal basis for placing it
in receivership, and call on the FDIC to do so. Bank of America chooses
to respond publicly, but its response never contests its massive fraud
or our demonstration that there is a legal basis for placing it in
receivership.

Instead, Bank of America complains that we "do nothing to illuminate
the challenges [BofA's home mortgagees] face." This is not our task;
nevertheless, the claim is incorrect. We illuminate the problems posed
by the fact that nonprime borrowers were frequently victims of mortgage
fraud perpetrated by lenders as well as many other operatives in the
unprecedented criminal lending and securities fraud of the past decade.
This problem is typically ignored -- at least by the financial sector
and the mainstream media -- so we did "illuminate" the problem and the
cause of action borrowers could bring for "fraud in the inducement."

We showed that the fraudulent senior officers that controlled home
mortgage lenders created "liars," and NINJA loan programs designed to
induce millions of Americans to take out loans they could not afford to
repay. The endemic underlying fraud in the origination and sale of
nonprime loans is critical to understanding why loan defaults are
massive, why borrowers were typically the victims of the fraud and lost
their meager savings due to the frauds, why loan modifications typically
fail, and why foreclosure fraud has been so common. The endemic fraud
also hyper-inflated the bubble and helped cause the economic crisis and
severe loss of employment. Over a million Bank of America borrowers
face these "challenges" that we "illuminated."

Bank of America's response is guilty of what it criticizes; it
ignores the fraud by nonprime lenders and sellers, particularly Bank of
America's frauds in both capacities. It does not seek to "illuminate"
the frauds or the problems that arise from endemic mortgage fraud. We
did not invent the "epidemic" of mortgage fraud. The FBI began
testifying about that in 2004. The FBI predicted that it would cause a
"crisis" if it were not stopped -- and no one claims it was stopped.
The mortgage industry's own fraud experts opined publicly in 2006 that
the type of loans that Countrywide decided to elevate to its favored
product was an "open invitation to fraudsters" and fully deserved the
phrase that the lenders used to describe the product: "liars' loans".
(Bank of America chose to purchase Countrywide at a time when it was
notorious for the awful quality of its mortgage loans.) It is the
lenders and their agents, the loan brokers, that directed the lies in
these liar's loans and appraisals and it was the lenders that made
fraudulent "reps and warranties" in order to sell the fraudulent loans
on to others in the form of securities. Economists and white-collar
criminologists share a belief in "revealed preferences." The senior
officers that control lenders provide an "open invitation to fraudsters"
in the midst of an "epidemic" of fraud because they intend to profit
from those frauds.

Instead of contesting its issuance and sale of massive numbers of
fraudulent loans, Bank of America writes to provide data on
delinquencies and foreclosures in support of its claim that it is the
victim of Countrywide's deadbeat borrowers who it tries in vain to help.
Bank of America's data, however, add support for the evidence of
widespread mortgage fraud, particularly by Countrywide. Accounting
control frauds maximize their (fictional) reported income by lending
routinely to those who cannot afford to repay their loans. It is this
aspect of the fraud scheme that is most counter-intuitive to those that
do not study fraud, but to criminologists it provides the most
distinctive markers of fraud. The senior officers that control
fraudulent lenders maximize the bank's reported short-term income, in
order to maximize their compensation, by growing extremely rapidly
through making loans at a premium yield. This strategy creates a "sure
thing" (Akerlof & Romer 1993). The lender is sure to report record
(fictional) profits in the short term and suffer enormous (real) losses
in the longer term.

The Evidence Supports Our Claims of Fraud

If we are correct that Countrywide operated as a fraud we would expect to find the following:

1. disproportionately large rates of loan delinquencies and defaults
2. huge losses upon default, and
3. fraudulent representations and appraisals.

We would also predict widespread fraud in the "reps and warranties"
that Countrywide and Bank of America provided to purchasers of nonprime
loans originated by Countrywide. As we emphasized in our initial posts,
a wide range of financial entities have confirmed the widespread fraud
in the reps and warranties. This is why Bank of America is being sued.
The data they provided in its response to our blogs supports the first
three predictions.

First, Bank of America admits to a 14 percent delinquency rate on its
mortgages. That percentage is roughly seven times greater than the
normal delinquency rate for prime loans. It is roughly three times the
traditional rule of thumb for a fatal delinquency rate (5 percent) for a
home lender. Losses upon default during this crisis are dramatically
greater than the historic percentages, and loss reserves were at
historic lows, so the traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses is
unduly optimistic in this crisis.

Second, Bank of America's response states that Countrywide-originated
loans have caused 85 percent of total delinquencies. Bank of America
was a massive mortgage lender before it acquired Countrywide, so taken
together these data suggest that the delinquency/foreclosure rate for
Countrywide-originated mortgages must have been well over 20 percent --
over ten times the normal delinquency rate and four times the
traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses. These exceptionally large
rates of horrible loans, defaulting so quickly after origination, are a
powerful indicator that Countrywide was engaged in accounting control
fraud. Unfortunately, lenders that specialized in making nonprime loans
were typically fraudulent. The result was a massive bubble and economic
crisis.

Our conclusions are well-supported by many other analyses, many of which were conducted long ago. For example, Reuters reported in January 2008 that one-third of Countrywide's subprime mortgages were already delinquent:

« Fed Confirms Debt Will Be Monetized |

Main

| Moonbats Reject Personal Hygiene »

November 4, 2010

India on $200 Million a Day

Posted by Van Helsing at November 4, 2010 9:29 AM

Pre-guillotine Louis XVI had nothing over the Moonbat Messiah where arrogance and self-indulgence are concerned. While we struggle to pay our taxes and still avoid foreclosure, our historic First Adolescent President is spending $200 million a day of our money to see the exotic sights of India:

"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

Airspace for the entire city of Mumbai will be closed for everyone but the Anointed One and his massive contingent. That ought to repair any damage his still more massive ego sustained on Tuesday. In case it doesn't, 34 US warships, including an aircraft carrier, will be patrolling off the Mumbai coast.

There's more:

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

We're paying $200 million a day, and we don't even get a chance to see a coconut bounce off Obama's swollen head.

benchcraft company scam

Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Activision closes Guitar Hero dev.

Pulse Brings You <b>News</b> and RSS in an Elegant Flow

Android/iOS: Blogs and news sites put all that effort into making their posts graphically appealing, so why not see what they've got? Pulse, a nicely different kind of news reader, pulls your news in through side-scrolling, ...

Nintendo hasn&#39;t discontinued Wii Speak Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our Wii news of Nintendo hasn't discontinued Wii Speak.

benchcraft company scam
Such investors are like "people who come back and say,
'I bought a Chevy Vega, but I want it to be a Mercedes with a
12-cylinder ,'" Mr. Moynihan said in October. "We're not putting
up with that."

One-third of its subprime business is in default and Mr. Moynihan
thinks Countrywide was selling Vegas? If one third of Vegas crashed and
burned within three years of being purchased the metaphor might be apt
and completely incriminating. We argued that putting Bank of America
into receivership is the proper remedy for its substantial violations of
the law and for its continuing reliance on unsafe and unsound
practices. Outside reviews have documented the most extensive and
financially harmful violations of law and unsafe banking practices and
conditions in history.

As argued in a recent article by Jonathon Weil, the bank is nearing a
"tipping point" as markets recognize it is "cooking the books," vastly
overstating the value of its assets as it refuses to recognize the true
scale of losses on its purchase of Countrywide. Ironically, it still
carries on its books $4.4 billion of fictional "goodwill" value created
by overpaying for Countrywide (a notorious control fraud), as well as
$142 billion of home equity loans that are worth far less. A more honest
accounting of "good will" and of the value of home equity loans would
take a big bite out of Bank of America's market capitalization ($116
billion), which has lost 41 percent
of its value since April 15. The markets are moving ever closer to
shutting down the institution, but Moynihan is not "putting up with" the
demand by investors for Bank of America to come clean on its fraudulent
practices.

Ms. Mairone's Response Verifies Our Claims

Rebecca Mairone replied on behalf of Bank of America to our two-part
post. Step back for a moment and consider the context of Bank of
America's response. We cite evidence that the bank has committed
massive fraud, explain that this provides a legal basis for placing it
in receivership, and call on the FDIC to do so. Bank of America chooses
to respond publicly, but its response never contests its massive fraud
or our demonstration that there is a legal basis for placing it in
receivership.

Instead, Bank of America complains that we "do nothing to illuminate
the challenges [BofA's home mortgagees] face." This is not our task;
nevertheless, the claim is incorrect. We illuminate the problems posed
by the fact that nonprime borrowers were frequently victims of mortgage
fraud perpetrated by lenders as well as many other operatives in the
unprecedented criminal lending and securities fraud of the past decade.
This problem is typically ignored -- at least by the financial sector
and the mainstream media -- so we did "illuminate" the problem and the
cause of action borrowers could bring for "fraud in the inducement."

We showed that the fraudulent senior officers that controlled home
mortgage lenders created "liars," and NINJA loan programs designed to
induce millions of Americans to take out loans they could not afford to
repay. The endemic underlying fraud in the origination and sale of
nonprime loans is critical to understanding why loan defaults are
massive, why borrowers were typically the victims of the fraud and lost
their meager savings due to the frauds, why loan modifications typically
fail, and why foreclosure fraud has been so common. The endemic fraud
also hyper-inflated the bubble and helped cause the economic crisis and
severe loss of employment. Over a million Bank of America borrowers
face these "challenges" that we "illuminated."

Bank of America's response is guilty of what it criticizes; it
ignores the fraud by nonprime lenders and sellers, particularly Bank of
America's frauds in both capacities. It does not seek to "illuminate"
the frauds or the problems that arise from endemic mortgage fraud. We
did not invent the "epidemic" of mortgage fraud. The FBI began
testifying about that in 2004. The FBI predicted that it would cause a
"crisis" if it were not stopped -- and no one claims it was stopped.
The mortgage industry's own fraud experts opined publicly in 2006 that
the type of loans that Countrywide decided to elevate to its favored
product was an "open invitation to fraudsters" and fully deserved the
phrase that the lenders used to describe the product: "liars' loans".
(Bank of America chose to purchase Countrywide at a time when it was
notorious for the awful quality of its mortgage loans.) It is the
lenders and their agents, the loan brokers, that directed the lies in
these liar's loans and appraisals and it was the lenders that made
fraudulent "reps and warranties" in order to sell the fraudulent loans
on to others in the form of securities. Economists and white-collar
criminologists share a belief in "revealed preferences." The senior
officers that control lenders provide an "open invitation to fraudsters"
in the midst of an "epidemic" of fraud because they intend to profit
from those frauds.

Instead of contesting its issuance and sale of massive numbers of
fraudulent loans, Bank of America writes to provide data on
delinquencies and foreclosures in support of its claim that it is the
victim of Countrywide's deadbeat borrowers who it tries in vain to help.
Bank of America's data, however, add support for the evidence of
widespread mortgage fraud, particularly by Countrywide. Accounting
control frauds maximize their (fictional) reported income by lending
routinely to those who cannot afford to repay their loans. It is this
aspect of the fraud scheme that is most counter-intuitive to those that
do not study fraud, but to criminologists it provides the most
distinctive markers of fraud. The senior officers that control
fraudulent lenders maximize the bank's reported short-term income, in
order to maximize their compensation, by growing extremely rapidly
through making loans at a premium yield. This strategy creates a "sure
thing" (Akerlof & Romer 1993). The lender is sure to report record
(fictional) profits in the short term and suffer enormous (real) losses
in the longer term.

The Evidence Supports Our Claims of Fraud

If we are correct that Countrywide operated as a fraud we would expect to find the following:

1. disproportionately large rates of loan delinquencies and defaults
2. huge losses upon default, and
3. fraudulent representations and appraisals.

We would also predict widespread fraud in the "reps and warranties"
that Countrywide and Bank of America provided to purchasers of nonprime
loans originated by Countrywide. As we emphasized in our initial posts,
a wide range of financial entities have confirmed the widespread fraud
in the reps and warranties. This is why Bank of America is being sued.
The data they provided in its response to our blogs supports the first
three predictions.

First, Bank of America admits to a 14 percent delinquency rate on its
mortgages. That percentage is roughly seven times greater than the
normal delinquency rate for prime loans. It is roughly three times the
traditional rule of thumb for a fatal delinquency rate (5 percent) for a
home lender. Losses upon default during this crisis are dramatically
greater than the historic percentages, and loss reserves were at
historic lows, so the traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses is
unduly optimistic in this crisis.

Second, Bank of America's response states that Countrywide-originated
loans have caused 85 percent of total delinquencies. Bank of America
was a massive mortgage lender before it acquired Countrywide, so taken
together these data suggest that the delinquency/foreclosure rate for
Countrywide-originated mortgages must have been well over 20 percent --
over ten times the normal delinquency rate and four times the
traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses. These exceptionally large
rates of horrible loans, defaulting so quickly after origination, are a
powerful indicator that Countrywide was engaged in accounting control
fraud. Unfortunately, lenders that specialized in making nonprime loans
were typically fraudulent. The result was a massive bubble and economic
crisis.

Our conclusions are well-supported by many other analyses, many of which were conducted long ago. For example, Reuters reported in January 2008 that one-third of Countrywide's subprime mortgages were already delinquent:

« Fed Confirms Debt Will Be Monetized |

Main

| Moonbats Reject Personal Hygiene »

November 4, 2010

India on $200 Million a Day

Posted by Van Helsing at November 4, 2010 9:29 AM

Pre-guillotine Louis XVI had nothing over the Moonbat Messiah where arrogance and self-indulgence are concerned. While we struggle to pay our taxes and still avoid foreclosure, our historic First Adolescent President is spending $200 million a day of our money to see the exotic sights of India:

"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

Airspace for the entire city of Mumbai will be closed for everyone but the Anointed One and his massive contingent. That ought to repair any damage his still more massive ego sustained on Tuesday. In case it doesn't, 34 US warships, including an aircraft carrier, will be patrolling off the Mumbai coast.

There's more:

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

We're paying $200 million a day, and we don't even get a chance to see a coconut bounce off Obama's swollen head.

benchcraft company scam

Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Activision closes Guitar Hero dev.

Pulse Brings You <b>News</b> and RSS in an Elegant Flow

Android/iOS: Blogs and news sites put all that effort into making their posts graphically appealing, so why not see what they've got? Pulse, a nicely different kind of news reader, pulls your news in through side-scrolling, ...

Nintendo hasn&#39;t discontinued Wii Speak Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our Wii news of Nintendo hasn't discontinued Wii Speak.

bench craft company scam

benchcraft company scam

bench craft company scam

Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Activision closes Guitar Hero dev.

Pulse Brings You <b>News</b> and RSS in an Elegant Flow

Android/iOS: Blogs and news sites put all that effort into making their posts graphically appealing, so why not see what they've got? Pulse, a nicely different kind of news reader, pulls your news in through side-scrolling, ...

Nintendo hasn&#39;t discontinued Wii Speak Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

Read our Wii news of Nintendo hasn't discontinued Wii Speak.

bench craft company scam
Such investors are like "people who come back and say,
'I bought a Chevy Vega, but I want it to be a Mercedes with a
12-cylinder ,'" Mr. Moynihan said in October. "We're not putting
up with that."

One-third of its subprime business is in default and Mr. Moynihan
thinks Countrywide was selling Vegas? If one third of Vegas crashed and
burned within three years of being purchased the metaphor might be apt
and completely incriminating. We argued that putting Bank of America
into receivership is the proper remedy for its substantial violations of
the law and for its continuing reliance on unsafe and unsound
practices. Outside reviews have documented the most extensive and
financially harmful violations of law and unsafe banking practices and
conditions in history.

As argued in a recent article by Jonathon Weil, the bank is nearing a
"tipping point" as markets recognize it is "cooking the books," vastly
overstating the value of its assets as it refuses to recognize the true
scale of losses on its purchase of Countrywide. Ironically, it still
carries on its books $4.4 billion of fictional "goodwill" value created
by overpaying for Countrywide (a notorious control fraud), as well as
$142 billion of home equity loans that are worth far less. A more honest
accounting of "good will" and of the value of home equity loans would
take a big bite out of Bank of America's market capitalization ($116
billion), which has lost 41 percent
of its value since April 15. The markets are moving ever closer to
shutting down the institution, but Moynihan is not "putting up with" the
demand by investors for Bank of America to come clean on its fraudulent
practices.

Ms. Mairone's Response Verifies Our Claims

Rebecca Mairone replied on behalf of Bank of America to our two-part
post. Step back for a moment and consider the context of Bank of
America's response. We cite evidence that the bank has committed
massive fraud, explain that this provides a legal basis for placing it
in receivership, and call on the FDIC to do so. Bank of America chooses
to respond publicly, but its response never contests its massive fraud
or our demonstration that there is a legal basis for placing it in
receivership.

Instead, Bank of America complains that we "do nothing to illuminate
the challenges [BofA's home mortgagees] face." This is not our task;
nevertheless, the claim is incorrect. We illuminate the problems posed
by the fact that nonprime borrowers were frequently victims of mortgage
fraud perpetrated by lenders as well as many other operatives in the
unprecedented criminal lending and securities fraud of the past decade.
This problem is typically ignored -- at least by the financial sector
and the mainstream media -- so we did "illuminate" the problem and the
cause of action borrowers could bring for "fraud in the inducement."

We showed that the fraudulent senior officers that controlled home
mortgage lenders created "liars," and NINJA loan programs designed to
induce millions of Americans to take out loans they could not afford to
repay. The endemic underlying fraud in the origination and sale of
nonprime loans is critical to understanding why loan defaults are
massive, why borrowers were typically the victims of the fraud and lost
their meager savings due to the frauds, why loan modifications typically
fail, and why foreclosure fraud has been so common. The endemic fraud
also hyper-inflated the bubble and helped cause the economic crisis and
severe loss of employment. Over a million Bank of America borrowers
face these "challenges" that we "illuminated."

Bank of America's response is guilty of what it criticizes; it
ignores the fraud by nonprime lenders and sellers, particularly Bank of
America's frauds in both capacities. It does not seek to "illuminate"
the frauds or the problems that arise from endemic mortgage fraud. We
did not invent the "epidemic" of mortgage fraud. The FBI began
testifying about that in 2004. The FBI predicted that it would cause a
"crisis" if it were not stopped -- and no one claims it was stopped.
The mortgage industry's own fraud experts opined publicly in 2006 that
the type of loans that Countrywide decided to elevate to its favored
product was an "open invitation to fraudsters" and fully deserved the
phrase that the lenders used to describe the product: "liars' loans".
(Bank of America chose to purchase Countrywide at a time when it was
notorious for the awful quality of its mortgage loans.) It is the
lenders and their agents, the loan brokers, that directed the lies in
these liar's loans and appraisals and it was the lenders that made
fraudulent "reps and warranties" in order to sell the fraudulent loans
on to others in the form of securities. Economists and white-collar
criminologists share a belief in "revealed preferences." The senior
officers that control lenders provide an "open invitation to fraudsters"
in the midst of an "epidemic" of fraud because they intend to profit
from those frauds.

Instead of contesting its issuance and sale of massive numbers of
fraudulent loans, Bank of America writes to provide data on
delinquencies and foreclosures in support of its claim that it is the
victim of Countrywide's deadbeat borrowers who it tries in vain to help.
Bank of America's data, however, add support for the evidence of
widespread mortgage fraud, particularly by Countrywide. Accounting
control frauds maximize their (fictional) reported income by lending
routinely to those who cannot afford to repay their loans. It is this
aspect of the fraud scheme that is most counter-intuitive to those that
do not study fraud, but to criminologists it provides the most
distinctive markers of fraud. The senior officers that control
fraudulent lenders maximize the bank's reported short-term income, in
order to maximize their compensation, by growing extremely rapidly
through making loans at a premium yield. This strategy creates a "sure
thing" (Akerlof & Romer 1993). The lender is sure to report record
(fictional) profits in the short term and suffer enormous (real) losses
in the longer term.

The Evidence Supports Our Claims of Fraud

If we are correct that Countrywide operated as a fraud we would expect to find the following:

1. disproportionately large rates of loan delinquencies and defaults
2. huge losses upon default, and
3. fraudulent representations and appraisals.

We would also predict widespread fraud in the "reps and warranties"
that Countrywide and Bank of America provided to purchasers of nonprime
loans originated by Countrywide. As we emphasized in our initial posts,
a wide range of financial entities have confirmed the widespread fraud
in the reps and warranties. This is why Bank of America is being sued.
The data they provided in its response to our blogs supports the first
three predictions.

First, Bank of America admits to a 14 percent delinquency rate on its
mortgages. That percentage is roughly seven times greater than the
normal delinquency rate for prime loans. It is roughly three times the
traditional rule of thumb for a fatal delinquency rate (5 percent) for a
home lender. Losses upon default during this crisis are dramatically
greater than the historic percentages, and loss reserves were at
historic lows, so the traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses is
unduly optimistic in this crisis.

Second, Bank of America's response states that Countrywide-originated
loans have caused 85 percent of total delinquencies. Bank of America
was a massive mortgage lender before it acquired Countrywide, so taken
together these data suggest that the delinquency/foreclosure rate for
Countrywide-originated mortgages must have been well over 20 percent --
over ten times the normal delinquency rate and four times the
traditional rule of thumb for fatal losses. These exceptionally large
rates of horrible loans, defaulting so quickly after origination, are a
powerful indicator that Countrywide was engaged in accounting control
fraud. Unfortunately, lenders that specialized in making nonprime loans
were typically fraudulent. The result was a massive bubble and economic
crisis.

Our conclusions are well-supported by many other analyses, many of which were conducted long ago. For example, Reuters reported in January 2008 that one-third of Countrywide's subprime mortgages were already delinquent:

« Fed Confirms Debt Will Be Monetized |

Main

| Moonbats Reject Personal Hygiene »

November 4, 2010

India on $200 Million a Day

Posted by Van Helsing at November 4, 2010 9:29 AM

Pre-guillotine Louis XVI had nothing over the Moonbat Messiah where arrogance and self-indulgence are concerned. While we struggle to pay our taxes and still avoid foreclosure, our historic First Adolescent President is spending $200 million a day of our money to see the exotic sights of India:

"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

Airspace for the entire city of Mumbai will be closed for everyone but the Anointed One and his massive contingent. That ought to repair any damage his still more massive ego sustained on Tuesday. In case it doesn't, 34 US warships, including an aircraft carrier, will be patrolling off the Mumbai coast.

There's more:

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama's stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Mani Bhavan's executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

We're paying $200 million a day, and we don't even get a chance to see a coconut bounce off Obama's swollen head.

benchcraft company scam

bench craft company scam

Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

Read our news of Activision closes Guitar Hero dev.

Pulse Brings You <b>News</b> and RSS in an Elegant Flow

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Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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Activision closes Guitar Hero dev <b>News</b> - Page 1 | Eurogamer.net

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Nintendo hasn&#39;t discontinued Wii Speak Wii <b>News</b> - Page 1 <b>...</b>

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