Todays economic news.

I just bought my car last year, so I'll probably stick with it during school, even though I might not use it much. I do want the diesel cars though, but not sure if I want to buy the first year models (usually it takes 1-2 years before they get all the kinks out).

I'm probably listing in April, since that's probably around the time I'll quit. Hopefully sell it by then, and then travel in May and June. I'll probably try to sell it myself to save the 6% fee (which is upwards of $30K), since that means almost a year's tuition! I heard people have had success selling without agents (a friend of mine did that), so I'll have to call them up.

The VW's are out in Europe, so everything will be worked out over there hopefully.

We thought of trying to sell ourselves but its a huge amount of work at times. I would be far more stressed about selling it that way too. I just want to move it fast and will pay the 5-6% fee. There is room to haggle on that fee too, I know someone who listed their house well below market value...had it appraised and sold it for like 90% of appraised value which made it easier to move because then people have equity and can pay full list price and not have to put money down. Their agent took a lower rate because they knew it was going to be an easy sale relative to most.

Also you need to remember that if you are selling it to someone with a buyers agent then you are going to have to pay their 2.5-3% commission. A lot of buyers agents really dont like showing for sale by owner homes too. I have heard too many horror stories about it for it to be worth while. Even if someone comes to an open house without their agent, and decides to buy without the agent doing work...if they are signed you are going to pay the 3%. So in reality you will only save 15K and think about advertising it, buying signs, wasting time hosting open houses, answering questions, showing it to people that want to see it. Thats also assuming you will get a price as high as you would with an agent, which you may not...especially if they use an agent that thinks they can bully you.

My wife and I are planning on offering 5% vs 6% for the commission since our house is completely renovated, in a very desireable area, has 4beds/3baths, and we plan on pricing it to move. It should be an easier sell than a house with all outdated stuff that is priced high. We also plan on buying the address domain name and putting up a site with a lot more pictures and info than is available on the listing sites. I know when we were house shopping if a house had no pictures or bad pictures we never wanted to even look at them...we were busy and narrowed it down that way. My wife didnt even want to look at the our house cause she thought it looked ugly in the pictures. A $25 site and a few hours of work might make for a huge difference in foot traffic.

Unless this has changed recently, I'm pretty sure a lot of states (New York, Connecticut, Massachussetts and Vermont are a few) don't allow new diesel passenger cars to be registered in them because of pollution concerns and the still miniscule availability of Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel in the US.

In addition, diesel per gallon is more expensive than a gallon of gasoline in several states on the East Coast.

Northeast and Cali emissions will be met by the new "50 state legal" VW TDIs (MB and BMW also will have 50 state legal diesels in the future). ULSD is required soon, dont remember the date but its very soon.

50mpg at $3.75 is still a lot cheaper than 30mpg at $3.00...besides diesel = #2 home heating oil. So you can fill your car up with that. The only difference is the dye in the fuel to show that its untaxed...as long as you dont get into a car accident that ruptures your oil tank no one will know . I would probably run it on B20 biofuel anyways (20% bio)...the lubricity of bio is a lot better which is important with ULSD, which has crappy lubricity.

50% of the car market in Germany, and even more in France, is Diesel. So I would say they have some experience producing diesel cars.

yes, except I think there are still some modifications needed to bring it to the US, even if it has been in Europe for a while.

As for selling the house, we'll see. I'll have to do some investigation on selling myself to a buyer without an agent. For $30K difference, it's worth looking into it and spending 1 month of my time (since I won't be working anyways, I can consider that month's pay to be $30K. I know a good friend has done it with a condo nearby in the past year, so it's not going to be insanely difficult.

But as you said, if it turns out to be a nightmare, then I'll just sell it with an agent, and push for a higher sale price.

I want my next Audi 2.0TDI! Maybe after B-school as a gift to myself

I don't drive (no license). Will probably have to get my license before i go to the USA, if i end up going there. Will have to look into changing a Japanese license into an International license and seeing how long that is eligible in the USA.

Dude, the new A4 Limousine is just awesome!

https://microsites.audi.com/a4microsite/html/popup.html

That's an interesting thought. I really wonder how many people do this? Must be a real bonehead to do this, cause then your MBA degree value drops to zero - school will simply recall your degree; and delist you from alumni list, etc.

Also, I am sure they can make their claims internationally as well. You would have to run somewhere really remote to not be held accountable, I assume. I would hope that loans for internationals at prestigious schools will still be available.

SOROS SAYS CRISIS IS END OF ERA OF DOLLAR AS RESERVE CURRENCY.

Soros doesn't make big calls like this very often in his career.

This will get interesting.

Got gold?

I'm not exactly a huge fan of all of Soros' statements, he's got a point that the Fed isn't helping itself here. It almost seems like penny wise, dollar foolish.

The real question is how long can the countries that are pegged to the dollar hold out while the Fed cuts its rates in the face of inflationary pressures? My bet is that we're getting closer to that straw that breaks the camel's back. You have to wonder if it would be better if the fed let the US economy have a real correction and cure a little more naturally...

You could play devil's advocate and say that the cuts are to prevent a catastrophe. Which may be a legitimate concern. But at what point does all this loosening of monetary policy create a bigger and worse monster (things like the loss of US Dollar as world reserve currency - and perhaps world transaction currency, rapid inflation, etc.).

Bring back the gold standard.

Vote Ron Paul for sound money!

I agree that the cuts themselves won't save the problem. However, it's like you have a patient and he got a heart attack; the FED is with the defibrillator just shouting: CLEAR!
They must keep the heart beating, and the cuts will be for this, but the patient needs a very deep surgery and treatment…

Today, many rumors about French banks, namely SocGen, getting big hits from write-downs came up; it’s just like August/September all over again. I really fell exhausted and I have just returned from vacation. If this go for long, as I expect; I will need more than 1 month before B-school, to stress things out.

soooo... how does one buy gold cheaply?