Protecting Your Identity

These documents listed below are things you must keep track of. If identity theft occurs these are your only options to prove that you are YOU. Identity theft is becoming more common every year so watch your backs!

• Driver’s Licenses
  
• Birth Certificates
  
• Marriage Certificates
  
• Social Security Cards and Statements
  
• Insurance Paperwork (Home, Health, and Auto)
  
• Lease/Mortgage Paperwork
  
• Past Tax Returns
  
• Bank and Credit Card Statements
  
• Investment Paperwork
  
• Utility Bills

Leading Chain Affected by Economy?

While many franchises are feeling the affect on the economy, Starbucks is taking a hit. The Company claims that it will not hit rock bottom, however, they are feeling the affects as the economy worsens. Starbucks was an early success when first opened so they aren't in terrible shape yet. There is an expected profit it sight hopefully in the next year.

Reference: MSNBC

The New Generation

Generation Y, that would be us also known as “Millennials.” We are changing the way businesses are doing things every year especially with Web 2.0 technology. We are not only using blogs to get our point across, but we are also using different applications to get our voices out there. The internet is updated every second so you can get your point out there quickly.

Video: The Machine is Us/ing Us

Another $40 Billion?!

The government provided a new $150 billion financial-rescue package to AIG as well as a $40 billion dollar partial ownership.

The aid provided by the government was just increased to more than $150 billion, because the amount the government originally proposed in September is no longer enough to stabilize the company. The Government claims that they have a large amount of confidence that AIG will pay the money back to the tax payers.

The extra $40 billion dollars comes from the $700 billion dollar bailout package that was just recently approved.

Reference: ABC NEWS

Barack Obama's Insight on Financial Crisis

Job Losses

Who could have imagined how much debt our country could have accumulated let alone how many people would be left jobless this year. Just in this past month (October) 240,000 people were left without jobs, and the unemployment rate rose from 6.1% to 6.5%. This is the highest unemployment rate since March of 2004. It gets worse, this month economist believe that 200,000 more jobs will be cut. The last time out country was in this much trouble was after the September 11th terrorist attacks. It's also predicted that job losses will continue through the first half of 2009.

Where are we heading?

Reference: CNNMONEY.com

What does the Economy Crash mean to College Students?

The week of September 14th marked one of the worst weeks in stock market history since 9/11. The collapse of Lehman Brothers, the buyout of Merrill Lynch, and concerns about AIG have thrown our economy into a loop. As a nation we are over 400 trillion dollars in debt and the Federal government expects the economy to remain sluggish into next year. College students need to know the effect this will have on their future.

So what does this mean for college students? Because most of us rely on our parents for financial reasons while we are away at school we do not feel the need to have a credit card and usually that is ok, but due to the recent fall in economy getting a credit card has gotten a lot harder. In fact just a few months ago I was personally denied by Bank of America while trying to open a student credit card, so how exactly am I suppose to establish credit? Student loans will also become a problem for some people. As the economy weakens and credit tightens the number of education loans decrease because the credit requirement is becoming more strict. What about the job industry? There are many major companies in jeopardy not just the three I mentioned. This means that more and more employees are being laid off every day. Being a young inexperienced recent graduate it will be a lot harder for me and other college students to enter the job market.

Hello World

This is my first post! Hello World!