Weekly Round Up – January 17, 2014

Before we get to the good reads!

Check out this beastly resource on Using Facebook as an Online Public Relation and Social Marketing Tool, and let me know what you think.

A Few Good Reads

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

1.How to write off debt and be debt free:

Finding a way to write off debt and become debt free is something that many people experiencing debt problems consider at some point in time. There are a number of formal and legal debt solutions that will enable you to write off your unaffordable debt and at the end of the process be debt free.

Whilst this is certainly an important consideration, and for many it may seem like the most important consideration to get free of debt, it isn’t necessarily the best way to think about resolving your debt problems. This is because there are downsides as well as upsides and you must take all your personal circumstances into account and consider all the options. This may involve taking expert debt advice. Open this article

2.Republicans Question Governor’s Debt Numbers:

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s budget office issued a new report Thursday that said the state’s long-term debt situation is getting better, but Senate Republican leader John McKinney said it was filled with distorted facts “in a disingenuous attempt to explain” the state’s large debts.

Malloy’s budget team said the overall long-term obligations have been reduced by $11.6 billion – as the amount owed in the future is projected to drop from $76.2 billion to $64.6 billion. Open this article

3. Surprise winner in frontier debt last year:

Which was the best performer in emerging bond markets last year? The sector had a pretty torrid year overall, with sovereign dollar bonds finishing 2013 almost 7 percent in the red. But there were exceptions.

The best returns were to be had – hold your breath — in little-watched Belize, a member of JPMorgan’s NEXGEM frontier debt index. Someone who bought Belize debt at the start of last year would have been in the money, with gains of 50 percent, though the returns were in fact down to the restructuring of Belize debt early last year. Open this article

4. Vocations Delayed by High Student Debt:

The increasing burden of student debt on Catholics has turned into a major roadblock for young people trying to fulfill their vocations: whether it be for marriage, priesthood or religious life.

Cardinal Seán O’Malley of Boston raised the alarm in November about student debt, saying that “people are postponing marriage are postponing a decision to go into the seminary or religious life — because they’re saddled under these tremendous debts which former generations didn’t have. Open this article

5. Sorry, Sen. Cruz, no Obamacare repeal fight over the debt ceiling this time:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) seems to be out there all on his own, the only elected Republican still insisting that he’s going to “fight even harder” to “repeal every word of Obamacare” in a debt ceiling fight. To hear the rest of the GOP tell it, Obamacare is imploding on its own, so they don’t need to hold it as a debt ceiling hostage anymore. That’s one of their stories, anyway, and they’re sticking to it.

Louisiana Rep. John Fleming, one of the most conservative House Republicans and a champion of the fall defund movement, said “Obamacare is cratering itself” and acknowledged that there’s no way to change the health care law without cooperation with the White House. Open this article