Weekly Round Up – December 06, 2013

Before we get to the good reads!

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A Few Good Reads

Here are a few of my favorite reads from the past week.

1. There is no debt ceiling crisis – just an erroneous fixation with the West Wing:

The way the Coalition has carried on in recent weeks, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Australia was in the grip of a US-style debt ceiling crisis threatening to shut down our government and our very way of life.

But it only takes a fairly superficial analysis to uncover what a bunch of codswallop this imagined crisis really is. The Coalition’s hysteria is designed to create a false feeling of crisis and brinkmanship in order to get their way through the parliament and secure their preferred half a trillion dollar limit. Open this article

2. A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Out of Debt:

You’re reading this because somewhere along the lines, you spent more than all of your money. You may have failed to control your impulses. Or maybe you were unprepared for the unexpected and ended up with so much debt from medical expenses that you’re struggling to get by. Whatever the case may be, you have debt, and it needs to be eliminated.

I used to suck with money. It wasn’t until I was about 25 years old when I started giving a shit about my finances. My wife and I had made some poor financial decisions—who hasn’t?—all before we were officially deemed “The Moneyseeds,” of course. We ended up with a mountain of debt, big enough to warrant its own ski lodge, and if it sold us season passes, we probably would have just added that to the pile as well. Open this article

3. Many Young Americans Blame Colleges For Rising Student Debt:

A majority of young Americans say student debt is a major issue facing the nation, a new poll finds, and many blame colleges for the problem.

Fifty-eight percent of adults ages 18 to 24 consider rising student debt levels in the United States a “major problem,” according to survey results released exclusively to The Huffington Post on Tuesday by the Harvard University Institute of Politics. Only 3 percent said it’s not an issue at all, while 22 percent called it a “minor problem.” Yet even among people who weren’t enrolled in college, 54 percent still considered student debt a major issue. Open this article

4. A debt offering first for Tim Hortons:

It’s not a first by a Canadian issuer but it’s a first for Tim Hortons, which on Friday received the proceeds from its latest 10-year offering of senior unsecured notes, an offering that was sold via a private placement.

The breakthrough, for one of the country’s best known brands, is the language that was added in the change of control provisions for the $450-million offering that will pay investors 4.52% a year for the next 10 years. Open this article

5. UN independent expert suggests Argentina audits foreign debt and improves social conditions:

Following his first visit to the country, the UN independent expert on foreign debt and human rights, Cephas Lumina, said that the audit should be in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Foreign Debt and Human Rights, which call for every State to conduct transparent and participatory periodic audits of their debt or lending portfolios.

“Such an audit will help promote accountability in public debt management and can usefully inform future borrowing decisions by the State as well as its debt strategy, expenditure on development plans and the realization of human rights,” Mr. Lumina said on Friday. Open this article