Congressman Joe Sestak is planning to run against Senator Arlen Spector in the 2010 Democratic primary election. Sestak is currently working as a representative of the 7th District in the state of Pennsylvania. It has been reported that Sestak is planning a major announcement for Tuesday morning that will be held at a VFW Hall in the state of Pennsylvania in Delaware County.

Sestak will then embark on a two-day tour of the state of Pennsylvania which will end with an appearance on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report show. This announcement doesn’t come as a surprise to many people in the industry since Spector switched to the Democratic party back in the month of April. Sestak is a former Navy vice admiral.

Sestak has been in office since January 4, 2007 after an award winning career in the Navy. He is a graduate of the Naval Academy and Harvard University. He resides in Edgmont Township and was born in the town of Secane in 1951. Sestak also graduated from Cardinal O’Hara High School in Springfield, a suburb of the city of Philadelphia in Delaware County.

The awards presented to Sestak during his time in the United States Navy include three Defense Distinguished Service Medals, two Navy Distinguished Service Medals, two Legion of Merit awards, two Meritorious Service Medals and a Joint Service Commendation Medal. Sestak retired from the Navy as a two star Rear Admiral because he did not serve long enough as a Vice Adminral in the Navy to retire as a Vice Admiral in the US Navy.

The stock market and the home value crisis was just the tip of the iceberg. These homeowners that owe more than their houses are currently valued have another problem in their portfolio. The last couple of years have been ones of free credit for consumers. Stores, credit card companies, and banks gave out credit like candy. We are about to the see the horrible affects of those loans in 2009-2010.
Credit cards offered o% cash loans to consumers who ate them up. Now these companies have decreased their credit lines and jacked their rates as they realize that their offers were not warranted. They know that many defaults are likely and that they must recoup as much money as possible with higher rates now before the Obama administration makes it easier to get away from these debts.
It is very important for us to get out of debt in any way possible. Their are many unsecured debt relief programs out there that can help you drastically reduce your payment and crawl back into the black. Sure you may have a small blemish on your credit report but it’s much better than carrying huge balances that will never be paid off. If you have a lot of this debt, please seek credit card debt help.

April 15th has come and gone. However, some of us still have our lovely extensions to carry the obligations forward for a few months. Taxes can become quite complicated for people as they gain more wealth, luck, and family. We all know that our new tax laws severely affect us small business owners that make over $250,000 a year. Let’s just say that a lot of successful small business owners are now saving every receipt possible to stay south of that mark.
Having a family or dependents is another way to ease your tax gains. Children give significant deductions as they should. It is no secret that it isn’t cheap or easy to raise children. The new stimulus package also allows recent homeowners to get significant tax credits in an effort to stimulate the housing market.
I feel as if the one part of taxes that most people get killed on or forget to claim is gambling winnings. Casino winnings taxes can be significant. In addition, if you choose to defer taxes at time of payout, be aware that government knows that you have won and will call for the taxes eventually. What I didn’t know is that International visitors can receive taxes back for winnings they accumulate while in the States.

It seems as the economy is finally on the upswing. After all of the hoopla about Obama’s first 100 days in office and his progress, many like myself wonder when the stimulus bill will actually trickle down and start helping the middle class. Our taxpayer money has invested millions into banks to keep their liquidity up. These banks in return are supposed to be giving homeowners and businesses access to credit they deserve.
However, I think the banks have taken advantage of the bailout and have tightened their lending criteria compounding the original issue. It’s just another way the consumer is held accountable for a greedy industry. One point that I agree on with Obama is his fight to end senseless credit card rate hikes. Many companies, fearing new legislation to ban increases, have started notifying good customers that their limits have been slashed and their rates have been increased.
I guess being a small business owner that takes responsibility for his original terms and agreement won’t ever understand how corporations can hide behind their customer service and take advantage of lengthy terms that their lawyers so masterfully created for situation like this.

The stock market has posted positive gains for the 4th consecutive week. The stocks rallied Friday despite a negative March jobs report. Ever since the market hit a 12 year low on March 9th, all three major indexes have risen more than 20%.
The job market doesn’t scare investors as much as company failures because it has always been a lagging factor during recessions. Basically, even though employers cut 650,000 jobs, many investors feel that the governments infusion of money may start having an effect on the economy in 2009. The G-20 summitt of countries last week pledged over $1 Trillion for the International Monetary Fund. I feel as if the bottom of the recession is here and that the economy will not start fully recovering until 2010. I think the country has seen part of the mortgage problem; however, I feel as if the consumer credit card problem will come more into play during the latter part of 2009.

The American consumer wants dirt low prices.  However, they also want domestic, helpful customer service.  I hate to say it, but it’s not feasible with a U.S. Median wage nearing $14.00/hr.    The average call from a consumer to U.S. based customer service rep costs about $7.50.  Call centers in India average $2.30 a call.   As a result, the next time you decide to racially punish the foreign accented person on the other side of the line, channel your anger towards yourself for being cheap.

The other option for customer service is Julie, the infamous celebrity voice from Boston.  Julie Stinneford is the voice of Amtrak and handled over 18.1 million calls last year.  About a third of those required no human interaction.  She saved Amtrak over 100 million dollars last year.  She has actually become famous with stints on “Saturday Night Live” and more.

The Bush administration is being considered responsible for about 1-2 million Americans losing money last year.  First Madoff, now the government?  The administration changed legislature that gave companies the ability to automatically enrolls employees into a tax-free 401k retirement fund.  The stipulation is that the mandate required the company by law to invest them heavily in stock related portfolios when they failed to identify their own strategy.

The administration also quelled a more conservative approach that would have seen the assets rise about 4.7 percent.  In contrast, the assets from close to two million workers dropped at least 25 percent in every case.  The change in legislation came before the market crash and is sure to be on our socialist regime’s agenda.