Nkodas Travel site

Archive for September, 2009

With continuing record foreclosure rates, more people, pundits, and politicians are calling for more direct involvement by the government in the market. Freezing rates, punishing banks, and offering rates as low as 0% to borrowers have been proposed. But holding the banks themselves accountable through government intervention will not serve the overall purpose of convincing banks to begin making prudent lending decisions again. In fact, it was government intervention in lowering interest rates and offering cheap credit that significantly contributed to the real estate bubble to begin with.

Rate freezes and low interest rates

The problem with creating rate freezes or giving extremely low interest rate loans to those with poor credit is that many of the largest banks that would be making these loans are owned by shareholders who are attempting to capitalize on the highest returns and lowest risk that banks can offer. Many of these investors include pension funds, mutual funds, insurance companies, individual investors, and other institutional investors.

If the government got involved and started regulating interest rates and lending programs directly, many of these large investors would take their money out of the financial institutions, looking for better returns in other markets. How happy would any person be if their 401(k) was returning 0% for18 months with a low interest loan with a freeze? Probably not very pleased at all. What if it was returning a negative rate, because collecting 0% interest does not pay for the direct costs banks have when making loans, and profits would have to be taken out of the principal amounts coming in? This would be even worse, because no one wants a negative investment return.

Fewer Foreclosures? Doubtful

Furthermore, these programs would not even prevent foreclosures from occurring. Homeowners fall behind on their loans for a variety of reasons, including job loss, medical illness or disability, and financial mismanagement. Freezing mortgage rates at a low level would not prevent weaknesses in other industries and contributing to job losses if firms close or are shipped overseas. The responsibility having a plan to provide for an emergency and finding solutions to stop foreclosure rest squarely with the homeowners and the banks. If they can not come together to work out plans, the government will have a tough time bridging the gap.

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Air travel is more popular than ever and with popular travel comes cheaper ticket prices. Discount airfares from the USA to Germany, for example, costs less than ever before. Germany is a great country with lots of culture and history and anyone traveling there will be amazed at how much there is to experience. If you can get your hands on discount airfares from the USA to Germany, it’s recommended that you do so that you can experience it all yourself, or you can take your entire family for a European vacation and experience Germany during a trip that is sure to bring the entire clan closer. Just make sure that you take your camera because you will likely take home many memories that you will want to preserve forever.

Have You Ever Been Overseas?

For those people who have never traveled outside of the United States, a German vacation can seem scary. The first thing people usually consider is that they don’t speak German, they don’t know their way around Germany and they don’t even know how to go about making reservations for hotels, and more. These thoughts often cause a person to put off indefinitely any overseas travel. However, there is help available to alleviate all your fears so that you can have a relaxing vacation to this beautiful European country.

You have your choices when purchasing discount airfares from the USA to Germany. For instance, you can go through a travel agency, you can buy your tickets online or you can call the airlines directly. No matter which avenue you try, you are sure to find discount airfares from the USA to Germany. The problem comes when trying to book rental cars, hotels, and so on. This is where a travel agent or online travel site might work better than just calling the airlines.

Travel agents and online travel sites help you book rental cars, hotels, and even tour groups to help you get around better. The only thing these avenues can’t help you with is speaking the language. However, many Europeans speak English so your language barrier might not be such a barrier after all. You can always pick up an English to German dictionary or phrase book to help you out.

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Do you tend to travel a lot via airlines? If you’re shaking your head yes, the next question I want to ask you is if you’re getting rewards every time you fly? If you’re shaking your head no, you should pay attention right now so I can show you exactly how you can get the most out of your next flight. Did you know that some airlines out there will give you a free airline ticket just for signing up for their credit card? If that sounds good, what if I told you that you can keep getting these tickets if you continue to fly? Sound good? If so, let’s continue.

A travel credit card is very similar to any other credit card on the market. Instead of a regular card, a travel card focuses more on travel related purchases such as airline travel. Every time you travel, your card will give you points or miles. Once you get enough miles or points, you can turn around and cash them in for a free airline ticket.

What are things I should look out for?

If a travel credit card sounds good to you so far, you will want to continue reading because there are things you’re going to want to look out for on the application and the terms and conditions.

Annual Fee – Travel cards are notorious for having an annual fee. As you know by now, this fee will have to be paid each year regardless of how much you use your card. Make sure you do your research and see if that would be a card you really want to apply for. Yes, there are great cards out there that have an annual fee but there are other cards out there as well that don’t have an annual fee at all. It will all depend on what airline you want to affiliate yourself with.

The airline – The next thing you’re going to want to look out for is what airline you can use this credit card with. Some cards will allow you to get points and miles for any airline while a specified airline card will only allow you to use your card with that particular airline company. If you tend to fly with one company a lot, I would advise that you apply for a card that is associated with that airline. If you find yourself flying with everyone, you’ll want to apply for one that is accepted by all.  Read more...

My wife and I never got a honeymoon. This year we will have been married for five years, so we thought we would do something special. We are leaving Mini-Gear and the house in the care of my parents and are heading down to Key West, Florida for a few days. I’m bringing my Spec-Ops Brand Pack-Rat Drop-In Organizer with me. I think it will work as a lightweight EDC organizer for adventure travel. Stay tuned for vids! www.specopsbrand.com Our website: tacticalgearhead.com

Is adventure travel getting expensive for the family? The good news for adventure travel and wilderness hiking trails is that the USA has some of the most unique and incredible places to see on earth. Our National, State Parks, Monuments and Wilderness Areas are awesome, but for years there have been reduced number of visitors. Many citizens have said that a four-year program to increase national parks entrance fees to make them more uniform may discourage some Americans from visiting their national parks such as the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Zion and Yellowstone.

The National Parks have been faced with a budget crisis. The parks are struggling to protect the historic, cultural and natural resources that the parks were created for. The parks are short of funds for operating facilities, repairs to roads, bridges, trails and buildings. There was an 814 million dollar shortfall in 2006. There are almost 400 areas of protection covered by the National Parks Service. Almost every park has fewer full time employees now than in 2001, while there were over 273,000,000 visitors to the parks in 2005. The park service needs more funding to provide education, interpretive and for the safety requirements of their visitors. This is a time of controversy about park fees, current plans for oil, gas and mineral exploration in our parks and of course removing the O’Shaughnessy Dam to restore the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite.

Recently the federal government has moved to replace the National Park Service’s $50 annual pass with a new $80 multi-agency pass. Some people think that the fee increases are getting out of line. The park service raised entrance fees at 34 parks over the past two years and plans to raise them at another 124 parks in 2008 and 2009. At Glacier National Park in Montana and Joshua Tree National Park in California, the fees will go up twice, and beginning in 2011, park officials plan to increase fees every three years, based on inflation. There is a proposal to double entrance fees next year at Crater Lake National Park, now $10 per car. Will it drive the local visitors away? In 1997, when the park service began raising fees, the number of national parks visitors has fallen 1% while entrance fee revenue has gone up almost 16%. Many of them are from outside the United States and love to visit the American protected lands.  Read more...