26 October 2018
Question: According to MSN: Money, what are the financial benefits of getting remarried?
ECB stands firm on end date for easing – Pg. 2
– The ECB has signaled that market turmoil and mounting risks to the Eurozone economy will not deter it form withdrawing one of the most important parts of its crisis-era stimulus, as it confirmed plans to halt its quantitative easing programme by the end of this year
– The ECB’s governing council said still “anticipates” that it would end the expansion of its 2.5tn (euro) quantitative easing programme at the end of this year. The bank is buying 15bn (euro) of mostly government bonds a month
Yellen sounds alarm over plunging loan standards – Pg. 2
– The US needs to deal with a “huge deterioration” in the standards of corporate lending instead of focusing on deregulation,….
– …particularly alarmed by loosening standards in the $1.3tn market for leveraged loans, which are offered to companies with weaker credit ratings
– There was a risk that lessons from the crash were being forgotten, as banks embarked on an aggressive lobbying push to water down forms that were put in place at the start of the decade, …
– Ms Yellen said that while regulators were insisting banks hold appropriate capital against leveraged loans on their balance sheet, much of the debt ended up getting repackaged and sold on elsewhere
– Ms Yellen said the authorities should be doing more to fill in gaps in the regulatory framework. In particular, she was worried about the lack of “macropruential” tools in the US that regulators could use to rein in risk
Volcker sets a challenge for the next generation – Pg. 9
– As Fed chair in the 1970s he crushed inflation and, after the 2008 financial crisis, he helpe to craft reforms, as economic adviser to Barack Obama’s White House. His memoir explains in lively detail how he (and others) spend the second half of the 20th century experimenting with different policy tools, to deal with the crumbling postwar Bretton Woods global economic order
– First, he is uneasy about the 21st century central banking fashion – or obsession – for chasing 2% inflation target…he suggests central banks would do better to chase price stability, since deflationary dangers are overstated
– Second, he is uneasy about the risks to the financial system unleashed by the past decade of experimental quantitative easing policies
– …threat of another crisis is exacerbated by a third point: a decade after the credit crunch, financiers are slipping back into bad habits, he fears, chasing “chicanery” and lobbying to loosen regulation, such as the “Volcker rule” he authored to curb proprietary trading after 2008
Answer: (1) Split the cost of living for more disposable income; (2) Pay less in Taxes; (3) Earn discounts on insurance; (4) Take advantage of your spouse’s work perks; (5) Achieve more success at work; (6) Benefit from a better debt-to-income ratio; (7) Earn more money back from extra deductions