A near the end of the year celebration and some cyber security stuff.

HOORAY, SCHOOLS IS ALMOST DONE! And now that I have expended my daily allowance of enthusiasm, on to the topic of the day, fraud. There are two major types of fraud (to me anyway), corporate fraud and scamming. Corporate fraud is when you are given an unfair deal or otherwise taken advantage of by a corporation or business that ends up in you losing money, personal info, or just about anything else. Then there is the usual fraud we always hear about. Nigerian princes asking for meager sums of money ($500) in return for larger sums of money. Although fairly obvious (Nigeria doesn't actually have a royal family IIRC), some are more subtle. Getting an Email from skype asking you to download their new client, or microsoft giving free upgrades for your PC (even though you are using a Mac or Linux). Usually, they have you download either an .exe or a .jar file that they have you run. It runs, and the virus is in and is doing what it pleases.

Thankfully, most people don't really pay attention to those emails (skype auto updates, and microsoft offers a prompt when you boot up or auto updates). Sometimes you get viruses disguised as legitimate software that try to sneak in that way. Pop ups or "free_arcade_games.exe" can be signs that you may have gotten something suspicious.

You can always download an antivirus software (don't download free ones unless you can verify that it is legitimate) like McAfee or Norton (shudder). If you are too cheap for those (in which you shouldn't be), then just being smart or taking the hands on approach of "sniffing" your own network is always another option to add on top of your existing options. Basically, if it looks suspicious, it is probably dangerous and should be reported, verified, or deleted. Hope I didn't make you paranoid, and stay safe out there.

Well I have quite the credit score to live up to...

So, when I asked my parents what their credit score was, I was expecting it to be high (2 star in the USAF and no debt) but I was not expecting it to be 780 high. That is well into the Excellent range, almost guaranteeing that my parents could get almost any loan or credit card that they wanted to. I hope some that transfers into me in some form or another. If that is even possible.

One of the ways you can get a credit score like this is to join the military and join the officer corp. Higher paygrade, more job security, and you get invited to at least a million different events a year (which can vary between socials and funerals so be prepared for that). Housing and utilities is covered by the military since you will likely live on base. If you get high enough in the ranks they will give you a staff car for official business (you have to pay for gas). You also have access to some of the best banks available for military service members. Insurance is in the benefits (can't have out maintainers and pilots getting sick can we?). The downside is probably that no matter where you live, you always wake up in the middle of the night hearing the "SCREEEEE" that is jet engines. The disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages, and people love and respect you for what you do.

[Insert witty title involving investments here]

Although I am missing a good title, an interesting thing we did today is we looked at investment. Investing is when you put money into an account and the account (over time) generates more money than what was put in it in the first place. Investing with more risk grants a larger return but investing with less risk gives you return with less of a chance of losing everything. Its a great way to make money by literally doing nothing (in a sense).

It makes sense to invest early, you have a few more years to fix your mistake before you retire. You could invest $50 now (which is around 10 lattes if I recall) in a high risk fund and eventually degrade the fund till it is a far safer investment. Oh, and 401ks/IRAs are always a good option once you get employed (Starbucks is surprisingly generous for a national chain, especially compared to Walmart).

I have realized how hard it is to be an adult 0_0

No seriously, we haven't even gotten to taxes and already I don't like it. Checks, bills, losing money over trivial things such as super tag days... Being an adult is harder than one expects. I can't imagine it will be that much different with real dollars. Today some people even went into the negatives on their weserville accounts. I stayed positive with 67 dollars left, others could only pay a bit of their bill on order to stay afloat. It was interesting, but as stated earlier, I stayed out of debt and with spare money. I do kind of regret buying $15 of bathroom passes, but I got $4 back for running the shop.

It will be interesting, see who comes out on top in all of this. Hopefully I do, but we will see.

WOAH-OH, LIVING ON A DOLLAR. WOAH-OH, POOR GUATEMALA

As per the title, I found the dollar a day concept enthralling. Just my lunch today costed me $4.50. The micro finance system was also an interesting concept. Small loans that were not associated with formal banks or loan sharks benefit the community far more than a traditional loan would. Less cost to take the loan and more money for the village.

So, in some relation to the thought question, how much is your everyday in dollars, and what would you have to give up to get it down to $1 spent?

Witty Titles are up 5.1%, Invest now!

This week we ended our chapter(s) on markets and started up on types of businesses. We also invested $100,000 money in to the stock market. Well, some of us did. I started off with a loss, but with several exchanges planned and stock in Google (always a safe bet) virtually nothing could go wrong, hopefully. If it does go wrong, I can sell those stocks and buy more into Google and Walgreens, which are my two bets for being the best to invest in. But I shouldn't reveal too much since I do plan to try and win this (or at least get in to the top 5). Gentleman/Woman/Goat, the stock race is on! And may the best living organism win!

Supply Reflection

We learned this week all the wonders of supply. Supply is the other part of demand and judges how much the supplier is willing to supply for at a current price. Naturally, the supplier would want to sell a product at a higher price, but a consumer would want to buy a product at a lower price. So if you put the curves of both of them together, you get the price that people would actually buy them at if they were also supplied at that price. This is fundamental to how a product is produced, marketed, and sold.

I apologise for the late post. The Internet at the hotel was choppy at best. Thank you for understanding. 

Supply and Demand Reflection

In any modern Economy, there will be want for a product and then there will be the product itself. I might have the want (demand) for a pie, but if there are only a few places to get pies (lack of supply) then I would pay more for a pie than I would otherwise if there were more pies (more supply). Getting the Pi day reference out of the way, Supply and Demand is crucial to any economy. Without either, it is hard to have an economy since either nobody is providing or nobody is buying causing stagnation in the economy.

Supply is interesting as it is the most judged by physical limitations. We only have so many gallons of oil and therefore supply is limited for it. But, we may have a nearly infinite demand of oil so long as there are vehicles or goods that require oil to run. That is why people are slowly integrating sustainable energy into the energy market as you could have a theoretical infinite supply of solar energy or wind energy.

Demand is what really drives the need for a supply of an item. A lack of demand will lead to a lack of supply. If nobody wants the previous generation of phones, then nobody will buy them and production of them will grind to a halt. So demand is necessary for a product to be successful.

A reflection on Demand

Supply and demand are integral parts of any economy, and no less so to our national economy. Being a market economy, supply and demand is determined from the consumer base and not by a government. The greatest part of supply and demand is the numbers behind it. Seeing all the graphs and number charts really cause you to step back and look at how truly huge and intertwined it is. If steel became an incredibly expensive item, then many industries would suffer from a lack in this incredibly widely used metal. Stocks would fall and almost every aspect of life would be changed if steel became rarer.

What goods or services do you think that could lead to a massive chain reaction in the economy? What aspects of life do you think would affected by this good or service being changed from the norm?

How do Balance a Budget for Dummies (all 535 of them)

During class, Mrs. Weser had given us a link to a game called "Budget Heroes." The game gives you a challenge to balance the budget of the US economy by eliminating and adding "cards" which either add or contribute to the debt. I played this game and I have to say that I am quite impressed by it. It works by simulating the possible outcomes of your descisions in subtracting/adding cards. I took away luxury items (travel budgets, wealthy senior healthcare etc.) and put some of the money (about a tenth of what I cut) into DARPA, NASA, and education (specifically college tuition rates). Eventually, I had about a 50B surplus compared to the -600B deficit that I started with. I cut the Interest payed on debts down to about half of it's former size and still managed to keep many discretionary spending programs intact.

I am literally better at balancing budgets than 535 professional politicians. I would make a great dictator I suppose.

Refection for 02-19-2014

This week, we discussed and debated about whether or not a Wal-Mart would be beneficial to the town. We eventually decided that the Wal-Mart was good to go and could begin building in Weserville. Some of the points that were brought up in the defense of Walmart coming to Weserville were the number of jobs created, additional source of revenue for the town, and an attraction to the town from other local towns. The downsides would be the loss of one of our small town businesses, the Dandy Mini-mart. But, I feel that the benefits outweigh the downsides.

Candy Crush Saga v. Candy Swipe: A Trademark Battle

Link
Recently, a game called candy swipe has spoken up saying that its rival, King.com, is trying to use trademark laws to remove Candy Swipe's copyright of the word "candy". Candy Swipe has been in the market for about 2 years whilst Candy Crush has just pooped up. But, King.com threw a curve-ball when they bought the rights to the game "Candy Crusher", another bejeweled clone from 2004.

This is an interesting case as many people like Candy Crush. But, now people may come to question the legal morals of King.com, especially since Candy Swipe was created in honor of the Developer's mother who passed away at 62 with Leukemia. They are likely to trade blows over this for the next  few months.

Evolutionary Theory vs Creation Theory

In case you missed it, here are the opinions of the Evolutionary Theory vs. Creation Theory. Bill Nye and Ken Ham debated the two dominant theories of origin. The live stream of the debate was a whopping two hours and thirty minutes.

Bill Nye is a popular TV scientist and an advocate of science in education. Ken Ham is the founder of Answers in Genesis and the owner of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. Ken Ham noticed a lack of debates since 1980 on this topic, so he decided to create one.

Now that the basics are out of the way, lets get to my opinions. The debate, which I watched most of, was comparable to the Broncos and the Sea Hawks. It is no wonder why they stopped doing these in the 80s. The creationists are forced to use their imagination and a book, where as the evolutionist has the ability to use a database of facts and research. Even so, it goes to a problem I feel that all debates of religious theory vs. scientific theory have and will run into. Logic.

Conventional logic is simple. If you can prove it, it is proven. But religious logic runs inversely. If you can't prove it, there can't be a final decision. Somehow, it is better explained by this image here. Even so, I feel that Ken Ham was not the right person to debate creation v. evolution. He is a fundamentalist who believes in Fundamental Christianity. Maybe not even Bill Nye was right to debate evolutionary theory either since he is not an evolutionary scientist (on the other hand, he is a great public speaker).

Please keep all comments as far away from inflammatory as possible as this can always be a touchy subject.

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-Jake Z.