The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is set to open next month in spite of attempts by Republican Senators to stop it. The bureau, which is the result of last year’s Dodd-Frank Act, is seeking input as to which financial entities it needs to regulate in addition to banks.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, which created the bureau, states that it will regulate banks with more than $10 billion in assets as well as payday lenders and non-bank providers of home and student loans. The act does not define, however, what other “larger participants” of the financial markets it should cover.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is a federal statute that President Obama signed into law July 21, 2010. The law seeks to regulate the financial services industry to an unprecedented degree. From it, the CFPB was born, under White House adviser Elizabeth Warren. The s
BEST SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR KIDS
The children’s Online Privacy Protection Act prevents websites from collecting information on children younger than 13 without parental permission, which is the minimum age for membership on most sites like Facebook and Twitter.
But there are plenty of networks designed just for kids that place the biggest priority on protecting children from creeping adults and cyberbullies, while letting kids play and interact with their peers online.
CLUB PENGUIN
Disney’s Club Penguin is a virtual frozen world where kids guide their penguin avatars around, playing games and collecting coins to buy clothes and decorations for their igloos.
Penguins can talk to each other in two ways: Ultimate Safe Chat mode lets them choose predefined phrases and emoticons; Standard Safe Chat mode lets players type messages. Messages are filtered to block innappropriate words, and adult moderators monitor the site constantly for bad behavior.
Kids must enter a valid parent’s email address to sign up, which, of course, can be faked. But once on, there’s not much to do besides throw a few snowballs and play arcade games. Moderators are quick to ban penguins who break the rules.
Ages: 6-14. Free to sign up, but many features, like buying igloo decorations, require a membership ($5.95 for 1 month).
EVERLOOP
One of the newest sites designed just for tweens, users can create and customize a profile, play games, chat, email, and update from their phones with the new EverText feature. Loops are like Facebook groups, where kids can meet together and discuss common interests, as well as upload videos and photos.
Each kid is signed up under a parent’s account, verified by a credit card or Social Security number, and adults control whether kids can chat, email, or make friends outside of the ones parents designate. Filters block personal information like addresses and phone numbers, as well as foul language, from being posted.
The site’s EverGive program also connects kids to nonprofit organizations and charities, like Pencils of Promise, which will send Justin Bieber on a visit to their school with the kid that raises the most money for the charity.
Ages: 7-13. Free to sign up with a parent’s Social Security number, or a $1 credit card charge.
TOGETHERVILLE
Parents sign up with their Facebook accounts, but kids never see anything from Facebook. Everything on the site, from games to YouTube videos, are selected by the staff, with nothing linking to the outside Web where kids are unprotected.
Unlike Everloop, parents are active on the site with kids, and select who else kids can interact with. There are no uploads or private chats, and messaging and comments are monitored.
Ages: Under 13. A $.01 credit card charge is required to verify a parent’s identity.
A Consumer Reports investigation found that consumers who shop at rent-to-own retailers can end up paying two to three times the amount it would cost to buy an item outright from a traditional retailerwith some equivalent interest rates as high as 311 percent.
The rent-to-own industry has more than 4 million customers, and its approximately 8,600 stores in the U.S. and Canada generate about $7 billion annually in sales, according to its data.
Stores such as Aarons and Rent-A-Center typically attract low-income customers who can rent goods right awayoften without a credit checkfor payments on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis. While customers can often walk away at any time without damaging their credit score, those who make all the payments and eventually own the item can end up paying far more than the original retail price, the investigation found.
For the full findings, check out the Consumer Reports Investigation.
Money, cash, legal tender or paper blood whichever you want to call it is the bloodstream that keeps the economy going similar to human beings that needs blood to survive. Just like any other commodity, the supply and demand is the determinant on the value of a currency. Economic factors and such as imports and exports directly affect the supply and demand of a currency for payment and receipt of goods. Currency trading is a means for an importing company to exchange local denominations to a currency that is accepted by the exporting country or company. The US dollar denomination is the widely spread currency accepted by majority of the exporters for payments in services rendered or goods that were sold. This is the reason why banks like central banks have enormous dollar reserves for settlement due to and demanded by the exporters. The economy will slow down when necessary imports are halted such as outsourced mechanical parts or computer chips that cannot be manufactured locally. Read more…
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