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) Student Loan Network Announces Private Student Loan Consolidation Services
The Student Loan Network announces the addition of another student loan consolidation product to its portfolio of Student Loan products in time for the end of many students' grace periods. The Student Loan Network Private Consolidation Loan is designed to help students refinance private alternative, non-federal education-related debt, and rounds out Student Loan Network's consolidation package, which also includes Federal Student Loan Consolidation.. More>>
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) Moody's Upgrades Japanese Government's Rating For Domestic Debt Securities To A1
(RTTNews) - Japanese government's rating for domestic debt securities was upgraded to A1 from A2, the Moody's Investors Service said Thursday. The rating agency expects continuity in fiscal policy under the new government of Prime Minister Fukuda.
The report added that the leveling off this year of Japan's government debt trajectory supports the stable outlook. Further, the agency said Japan's Aaa foreign currency country ceilings, government's Aaa rating for internationally issued bonds, the Prime-1 short-term foreign-currency ceiling, the Aaa local currency guideline, and the Aaa local-currency bank deposit ceiling upgrade were unaffected by the upgrade of Japanese government's rating for domestic debt securities.
Moody's Senior Vice President, Thomas Byrne said "The commitment by the new government of Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to continue a policy of fiscal consolidation, mainly through capital expenditure cutbacks, will likely lead to narrower general government budget deficits and the attainment of the government's objective to achieve a primary surplus on the general government budget balance by the targeted year of 2011."
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) As hedge against inflation, safest investments are Tips
Today I've got answers to questions from readers about tax preparers, inflation hedges and student loans.Q: Jonathan P. asks, "Between the increasing national debt, looming Social Security insolvency, out-of-control Medicare expenses, Iraq war costs and the falling dollar, I have a fear that we will eventually face high or even hyper-inflation. Where is a good place to invest to protect yourself from this contingency?"
A: Stephen Cecchetti, a professor at Brandeis International Business School, disagrees with Jonathan's premise - that inflation is going to be a problem. However, if an investor did want to hedge against inflation, the safest way to do it would be with Treasury Inflation Indexed Securities, he says.
These are U.S. Treasury bonds whose return is partly linked to inflation. More>>