College Loan Consolidation Lead A Debt Free Life

Risk-free Interest Rate ... Why risk-free? One explanation for the assumption that no default risk exists is due to the nature of government debt... In this case, true default is theoretically impossible: owners of government debt can always be paid, but with money that may have substantially lower value...

Debt ... Debt is usually granted with expected repayment; in modern society, in most cases, this includes repayment of the original sum, plus interest... In finance, debt is a means of using anticipated future purchasing power in the present before it has actually been earned... The letter b in the word debt was reintroduced in the 17th century, possibly by Samuel Johnson in his Dictionary of 1755 – several other words that had existed without a b had them reinserted at around that time...

Income Inequality In The United States ... While post 1970s increase in inequality (sometimes called the Great Divergence) has not been caused by a widening gap between the poor and middle class, but between the middle class and top earners, with disparity becoming more extreme the further one goes up in the income distribution. A 2011 study by the CBO found that the top earning 1 percent of households gained about 275% after federal taxes and income transfers over a period between 1979 and 2007, (although this number has decreased somewhat since 2007 as a result of the Great Recession )...

Political Debates About The United States Federal Budget ... The extent to which the deficit and debt increases are a cause or effect of wider systemic problems is frequently debated...

Loan Origination ... There are many different types of loans. For more information on loan types, see the loan and consumer lending articles...

Bankruptcy ... Many city-states in ancient Greece limited debt slavery to a period of five years and debt slaves had protection of life and limb, which regular slaves did not enjoy...

Debt Levels And Flows ... Within mainstream economics, levels and flows of public debt (government debt) are a cause of concern, while levels and flows of private debt (especially households and corporations) is not seen as being of central importance... In measuring debt, stocks and flows are both of interest: stocks are amounts, levels of debt (e.g., $100) and have units of currency (such as US Dollars), while flows are changes in levels – in calculus terms, the derivative – (e.g., $10/year), and have units of currency/time (such as US Dollars/Year)... In order to make these stock and flows comparable between countries and across time, one may normalize these by some measure of the size of the country's economy, most often GDP, that is, compute the debt to GDP ratio...

United States Housing Bubble ... Any collapse of the U. S. Housing Bubble has a direct impact not only on home valuations, but the nation's mortgage markets, home builders, real estate, home supply retail outlets, Wall Street hedge funds held by large institutional investors, and foreign banks, increasing the risk of a nationwide recession...

Financial Position Of The United States ... The net worth of the United States at the end of 2008 was $75 trillion or 5.2 times GDP. Net worth Net worth is the sum of assets (both financial and tangible) minus liabilities for a given sector...

Deficit Reduction In The United States ... Measured as a percentage of GDP, debt held by the public ranged between 23% and 50% during the 1971-2007 period, then rose significantly in the wake of the financial crisis and recession of 2008–present, ending 2010 at 62.1% GDP or $9.0 trillion... Causes of recent deficits and debt increases Economic growth and employment are key factors driving recent deficits...

Insolvency ... A business may be 'cash flow insolvent' but 'balance sheet solvent' if it holds illiquid assets, particularly against short term debt that it cannot immediately realize if called upon to do so... Conversely, a business can have negative net assets showing on its balance sheet but still be cash flow solvent if ongoing revenue is able to meet debt obligations, and thus avoid default: for instance, if it holds long term debt... Consequences of insolvency The principal focus of modern insolvency legislation and business debt restructuring practices no longer rests on the liquidation and elimination of insolvent entities but on the remodeling of the financial and organizational structure of debtors experiencing financial distress so as to permit the rehabilitation and continuation of their business...

Nonrecourse Debt ... It is only used for residential mortgage loans in the United States, although most of Europe enforces mortgage debt forgiveness after eviction... Common uses Non-recourse debt is typically used to finance commercial real estate and similar projects with high capital expenditures, long loan periods, and uncertain revenue streams...

Foreclosure ... If the borrower defaults and the lender tries to repossess the property, courts of equity can grant the borrower the equitable right of redemption if the borrower repays the debt...

Gold Standard ... Similarly, the gold exchange standard typically involves the circulation of only coins made of silver or other metals, but where the authorities guarantee a fixed exchange rate with another country that is on the gold standard. This creates a de facto gold standard, in that the value of the silver coins has a fixed external value in terms of gold that is independent of the inherent silver value...

Fiscal Policy ... Contractionary fiscal policy occurs when government spending is lower than tax revenue, and is usually undertaken to pay down government debt... Consuming prior surpluses A fiscal surplus is often saved for future use, and may be invested in either local currency or any financial instrument that may be traded later once resources are needed; notice, additional debt is not needed...

Islamic Economics In The World ... The only significant distinction between the Islamic waqf and English trust was "the express or implied reversion of the waqf to charitable purposes when its specific object has ceased to exist", though this difference only applied to the waqf ahli (Islamic family trust) rather than the waqf khairi (devoted to a charitable purpose from its inception). Another difference was the English vesting of "legal estate" over the trust property in the trustee, though the "trustee was still bound to administer that property for the benefit of the beneficiaries." In this sense, the "role of the English trustee therefore does not differ significantly from that of the mutawalli." The trust law developed in England at the time of the Crusades, during the 12th and 13th centuries, was introduced by Crusaders who may have been influenced by the waqf institutions they came across in the Middle East...