Discovery's Big Score

Discovery Communications to purchase Scripps Networks for $12 billion. The deal puts the combined company in a strong position to draw more women viewers.

Other channels include Discovery's TLC and the Discovery Channel. Scripps owns HGTV and the Travel Channel, among others. The combined company will house five of the top pay TV networks for women and account for more than 20 percent share of women watching prime-time pay TV in the U.S.

The transaction is valued at $90 per share, about a 4 percent premium to Scripps' Friday closing price of $86.91. The per-share price includes $63 per share in cash and $27 per share in Discovery's Class C shares. The transaction also includes approximately $2.7 billion in Scripps' debt.

The companies said Monday that they expect about $350 million in cost savings.

The buyout, which still needs approval from the shareholders of both companies, is targeted to close by early next year.

Shares of Discovery Communications Inc. rose 2.6 percent before the market open, while shares of Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. edged up slightly.

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Gold and Silver continue to prosper.

Gold and silver futures moved higher Friday, scoring their third set of weekly gains and closing at fresh milestone highs of six weeks for gold and just over four weeks for silver.

Gold for August delivery advanced $8.40, or 0.7%, to settle at $1,268.40 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement is the highest since June 14.

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Start Up Businesses You can start NOW!

Due to recent shifts in the economic landscape many individuals are reconsidering their working models for making a living. There are many new and adventurous opportunities available for earning a living outside of the usual daily 9 to 5 grind. Business start ups are a newer option for those who dare to make a transition into self employment. A common misconception is that start-ups are too expensive or are complicated personal investments. The list linked in the following article will hopefully dispel the confusion and inspire people to venture into a endeavor.

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Bit Coin Bust!

Greece detains Russian Alexander Vinnik for bitcoin 'fraud.'
A Russian arrested in Greece on suspicion of running a money laundering operation through a bitcoin platform is 38 year old Alexander Vinnik, police sources said on Wednesday.

Greek police earlier said the suspect, who was picked up on a U.S. warrant, was thought to have used bitcoin to launder 'at least' $4 billion earned through illicit activities.

Unlike traditional currencies such as the US dollar, Bitcoin has no central bank and is not backed by any government.

This story is still developing. 

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‘Credit-repair’ firms pay $2 million to settle complaints of abusive practices

You’ve almost certainly seen or heard pitches for “credit repair” services promising to clean up your credit problems, reduce your debt or even raise your credit scores by 100 points or more.

Come-ons like these can be especially seductive for people seeking to buy a home and apply for a mortgage who have negative items in their credit reports. To qualify for a loan, they’re told, they need to make their credit look better — mainly by neutralizing the bad stuff in their files at the national credit bureaus, whether it’s accurate or not. But mortgage and credit-industry experts warn that repair services can be far more harmful to home buyers than they suspect — and even get them rejected on the spot.

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Pitfalls of Debt consolidation

Daniel Montville knew a debt consolidation loan wouldn’t solve his financial problems, but the hospice nurse hoped it would give him some breathing room. He had already filed for bankruptcy once, in 2005, and was determined not to do it again.

Montville took out the loan in 2015, but within a year he had fallen behind on its payments and on the payday loans he got to help his daughter, a single mother with four children. The payday lenders all but cleaned out his checking account each time a paycheck landed, leaving little money for necessities. Then his daughter lost her job, and the $5,000 tax refund she had promised to him as repayment went instead to supporting her kids.

“That’s when I wised up and realized this was a no-win situation,” says Montville, 49, of Parma, Ohio. Montville is now repaying his creditors under a five-year Chapter 13 bankruptcy repayment plan.

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Credit Unions Become Cops Under AML/BSA Rules

Credit unions are not police departments and they have limited resources to enforce the web of money-laundering and Bank Secrecy Act requirements, Faith Lleva Anderson, senior vice president and general counsel for the American Airlines Federal Credit Union told a House subcommittee Wednesday.

“Credit unions are deeply committed to the fight against crime, but it is important to recognize we are not law enforcement agents and we have certain fundamental limitations,” Anderson told the House Financial Services Subcommittee.

“While credit unions support laws and regulations that prevent terrorists and criminals from using their institutions to launder money or otherwise engage in illegal activity, the compliance burden of the current regulatory environment often unnecessarily takes away from our ability to serve our members,” said Anderson, whose credit union is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas and an asset size of $6.5 billion.

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Proof That Uber Adds Economic Value

Certain credit unions in New York City appear to be going bust as a result of the existence of Uber--this is useful proof that Uber is adding economic value. No, really, this is proof of added economic value. The insight being that economic rents are subtractions from the more general economic value of the citizenry, people manage to place themselves so as to gain value for not actually providing any and this is a subtraction, therefore--obviously, because the people gaining the rents are gaining while no one else is--from the value being enjoyed by everyone else. Eliminating such rents is therefore making all of the rest of us better off and that's just what Uber seems to be doing.

The more specific cause is that certain NYC credit unions specialised in lending into the NYC cab industry. In more detail, against the values of the taxi medallions:

Ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft have been so disruptive to New York City's taxi industry, they are causing lenders to fail.

Three New York-based credit unions that specialized in loaning money against taxi cab medallions, the hard-to-get licenses that allow the city's traditional cab fleet to operate, have been placed into conservatorship as the value of those medallions has plummeted.

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Credit union borrowing could soon get cheaper. Here’s why.

Credit union borrowers may get some relief in the form of lower interest rates — that is, if they’re lucky.

The National Credit Union Administration, or NCUA, in June authorized federal credit unions to securitize and sell loans they have originated. According to the agency’s legal opinion letter, credit unions had this power all along under NCUA rules and the Federal Credit Union Act.

If they’re federally-insured, state-chartered credit unions may have this authority, too, depending on state laws.

Bottom line: Your credit union may soon have more money to loan, and that could work to your advantage. If you’re in the market for a home loan now, don’t fear, mortgage rates remain incredibly cheap.

Additional details and guidelines will be available in three to four months. In the meantime, your credit union could begin issuing and selling securities now if it meets the NCUA’s expectations. What does this mean for consumers?

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Why Starting a Business in a Slow Economy Can Be a Smart Move

Many people incorrectly assume that a slow economy is a bad time to start a business. However, the evidence indicates that this is incorrect.

In fact, recessions have historically been excellent opportunities to launch a new corporation. Some examples are Disney and Microsoft. Here are some of the factors that permit an entrepreneur to profit with a startup in a slow economy.

Many new companies that start in recessions are home-based businesses. This structure permits entrepreneurs to avoid overextending their financial resources. That’s important because borrowing is limited in a slow economy.

By maintaining low costs as a startup, entrepreneurs utilize limited cash to excel at providing products or services to customers. Reasonable prices and efficient service are the top priorities. A slow economy is ideal for new businesses to find customers who appreciate low cost providers. It’s also an economic environment that permits entrepreneurs to make bargain purchases.

When money is tight, streamlined home-based businesses are likely to gain customers from larger competitors. In fact, few large competitors can arise during a recession. Entrepreneurs actually find prospective customers more easily in a tight economy.

New business concepts also take hold during recessions. For one thing, more large enterprises are looking to outsource some of their work. These represent opportunities for entrepreneurs to provide services. Moreover, a new business can cast a wide net to reach customers by using the internet.

In addition, many talented individuals lose their jobs during recessions. A new business therefore easily finds a pool of attractive business partners or employees. This opens avenues for starting a business with someone else possessing complementary technical expertise.

There are plenty of businesses that are resistant to recessions. Many are simple consultant services. By starting during a slow economy, these businesses can grow quickly with limited resources and small amounts of capital in an environment of few competitors.

   
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Credit Unions on the rise

In the past few years credit unions have been on the rise. Likely the greatest reason for this is a member services focused culture. Unlike banks that aim to make a profit from their customers, credit unions focus on providing a beneficial service because instead of customers credit unions have members. Moreover credit unions maintain a non-profit status and are able to pass the income tax exemption savings on to their members. This comes in the form of better interest rates for savings and checking accounts, as well as reimbursement for ATM fees. Recently the credit union growth has ceased as many have merged leading to an increase in available assets at the newly formed credit unions.

Banks often are massive corporations with specific quotas that they have to meet. Credit union members are safe from a corporate financial agenda and are participating in an important community experience.

>>Here is a great video about the history of Credit Unions.

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Billions of Dollars in student loan relief?

Over 10,000 student loan debts have been wiped out, and that number may rise as private lenders struggle not only to collect, but also prove their ownership of the loans. Potentially billions of dollars in debt could be wiped away due to poor book-keeping. At the center of all this is National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts, the United States largest owners of private student loans. National Collegiate has been filing suits against many borrowers in an attempt to collect the money owed. The trust has been winning many of their cases as the borrowers may not show up in case or chose debt settlement. Although it may be a better bet to fight the trust in court. Judges in many states have been tossing out many cases filed by National Collegiate due to their inability to prove they own any of the loans they attempt to collect.

Why is this happening? As it turns out National Collegiate is an umbrella name covering over 15 trusts that hold over 800,000 private student loans totaling over $12 billion. What many don't realize is that once a student successfully applies for a private loan that leads to a long and complex process. Most remarkably the loans are bundled together by a financing company and sold to investors through a process known as securitization. This process has caused many of the loans to pass through many different hands and the documentation regarding loan ownership in many cases is lost. By the time the loan is secured by National Collegiate all those critical documents are lost. This makes it difficult to for the trust to make a good case in court. Likely the biggest problem is that collecting on a loan that you do not own is fraud. 

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