General

Fed Bans Inactivity Fees on Credit Cards, Caps Some Penalties

The Federal Reserve announced a few more changes to the Credit CARD Act that will be effective August 22, 2010. Many of the changes included in this final rule represent a reaction to some of the practices that credit card issuers have recently adopted.

The new rule:

Memorial Day

Thank you to all the brave men and women who have given everything so that we may enjoy our freedoms. Often times the social and political discourse around the use of military force overshadows our utmost respect for the men and women put in harms way, hopefully that doesn’t happen on this day.
We won’t be publishing anything for the remainder of the day but will be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow morning.
(Photo: tonythemisfit)

Fed Makes Credit Card Agreements Available Online

As one of the provisions of the Credit CARD Act, credit card issuers are now required to post their account agreements online and to supply them to the Federal Reserve. This week, the Fed used this information to debut a searchable online database of credit card agreements at www.federalreserve.gov/creditcardagreements/.

Happiness Is Earning $60,000 A Year?

Nobel laureate and founder of behavioral economics Daniel Kahneman performed a TED Talk this year about how as humans our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently. Basically, he says that our memories of experiences differ from what really happened during the experience itself.

ING Direct Apologizes

ING Direct apologized for shutting my site down without warning or cause via e-mail today:

ING Direct Accuses Me Of Phishing, Shuts My Site Down, Then Apologies… Kind Of

MyMoneyBlog.com was unceremoniously shut down this morning by ING Direct and RSA Security when they sent a long, scary e-mail to my web hosting provider accusing me of phishing.

PSA: Monoprice.com Possibly Hacked; Credit Card Data Stolen?

Although relatively new, Monoprice.com has quickly become a very popular place to buy cheap but high quality audio/video cables and adapters online. I recommended shopping there if you’re trying to connect your laptop to your TV (and maybe drop your cable subscription?). I’ve probably bought from them five times in the last year, and I don’t even shop online that much.

Grocery Prices: Name Brand vs. Store Brand vs. Organic

Here are the results of a recent study by industry research firm IBISWorld that compared the price of an average grocery cart in Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago.

“Fear the Boom and Bust”: Hayek vs. Keynes Economics Rap

Ever heard the term “Keynesian economics” and wanted to learn more? Here’s a new rap video that explores the competing theories from the Austrian business cycles of Friedrich von Hayek and the interventionist theories of John Maynard Keynes. Yes, I said rap… and I actually learned something from it!

Help Me Represent PF Blogging in the Shorty Awards!

The Shorty Awards is an awards ceremony for the “best producers of short real-time content.” At the moment, in the Finance category, there are investing gurus, forex gurus, and stock trading gurus all over the top 20 list.
There isn’t a single regular personal finance blogger on the entire list… that just isn’t right!

BankFiesta is a social deal finding site that specializes in all things finance.
You can submit the latest deals and articles in Banking, Credit Cards, Mortgages and Personal Finance.

We like money saving deals and we want to share them with the rest of our community. BankFiesta is currently in beta and accepting new users.