During a recent online discussion, lots of people had questions about student loan debt. Here are my answers to a couple I didn’t get a chance to address. One person wanted to know whether when carrying student loan debt — in this case at 7 percent — you should dip into your savings to pay it off. The reader wrote: “The debt would be paid off in a year at my current payment rate. Since the interest rate is so high, I’d like to raid my savings to just be rid of it. My job is stable, so otherwise I’d keep my savings just in case I had a car repair, a needed new roof, etc. What do you think?” Read full article > >

Read more from the original source:
Student loans require homework

During a recent online discussion, lots of people had questions about student loan debt. Here are my answers to a couple I didn’t get a chance to address. One person wanted to know whether when carrying student loan debt — in this case at 7 percent — you should dip into your savings to pay it off. The reader wrote: “The debt would be paid off in a year at my current payment rate. Since the interest rate is so high, I’d like to raid my savings to just be rid of it. My job is stable, so otherwise I’d keep my savings just in case I had a car repair, a needed new roof, etc. What do you think?” Read full article > >

Continue reading here:
Student loans require homework

JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he wants to hold early parliamentary elections, a move intended to capitalize on his current strength as Israel builds its case for international action against Iran’s nuclear program. Read full article > >

View original post here:
Netanyahu signals support for early elections in Israel

Four current and former security screeners at Los Angeles international airport are arrested and charged with drug-trafficking and bribery.

Follow this link:
US air screeners ‘ran drug ring’

Eight flood warnings are in force in south-west England, which is in drought, but experts say the current rain will not be enough to replenish groundwater.

Read the rest here:
Heavy rain brings flood warnings

Only 42% of people are interested in politics and only 24% believe the current system of coalition government is working, an annual survey by the Hansard Society finds.

The rest is here:
Public ‘disengaged from politics’

Tolls on the Severn bridges are likely to continue at their current level for longer than expected after a new deal with the company collecting the charge.

Read the original post:
Longer Severn bridge tolls deal

The decision by BrightSource Energy to withdraw its initial public offering on Thursday highlights the current difficulties facing the solar market. Despite a vast increase in installation, profits remain scarce.

Continue reading here:
Clouds on Solar’s Horizon

LONDON — U.S. officials steered away Thursday from any commitment to help arm Syrian opposition forces, insisting that the current focus should be on funding humanitarian aid, unifying the political opposition to President Bashar al-Assad and increasing the world’s diplomatic and economic stranglehold on his government. Read full article > >

Visit link:
U.S. pushing for humanitarian aid, not arms, to Syrian opposition

IS THE FEDERAL Housing Administration the solution to the current housing meltdown or the cause of the next one? Formerly an obscure agency with a limited mission — insuring mortgages with low down payments for creditworthy but low-income buyers — the FHA has filled the gap in mortgage liquidity left by the collapse of private-sector housing finance since 2008. According to supporters of the FHA’s expansion, its $1 trillion balance sheet represents the difference between the distressed housing market we have and the destroyed one we could have had. To critics, however, the use of the FHA to prop up a downward-spiraling real-estate market has set the stage for an inevitable taxpayer bailout . Read full article > >

Read the original:
Editorial Board: Bailout the FHA?

VATICAN CITY — The world economy needs “new rules” to overcome the current financial crisis and to ensure that “all can lead a dignified life,” Pope Benedict XVI told Vatican diplomats on Monday (Jan. 9). Benedict’s New Year’s address to diplomats accredited to the Holy See traditionally presents the Vatican’s views on global affairs. The Holy See has diplomatic relations with 179 countries, and is a permanent observer at the United Nations. Read full article > >

Follow this link:
Pope tells diplomats that economy needs ‘new rules’

Have you ever seen a glummer or grouchier bunch of presidential aspirants than the current GOP crop? You’d be working those frown lines, too, I guess, if you thought, as Rick Santorum does, that this year’s race will decide “ whether we will be a free people .” Or believed, as Michele Bachmann told Sean Hannity on Monday, that Iran might go nuclear before Inauguration Day. Read full article > >

Read this article:
Republican candidates are glum and glummer

People who crave a cause often have selective hearing, and this is particularly true in the current debate about global warming, writes Lisa Jardine.

View original post here:
Climate change and craving a cause

Four quarterbacks are challenging Dan Marino’s single-season passing record of 5,084 yards, which says as much about his 1984 season as it does about the current N.F.L.

Read this article:
N.F.L. Fast Forward: Quarterbacks Bear Down on Marino’s 1984 Record

A committee of MPs is demanding changes to the way their expenses are handled saying the current independently run system is “damaging” parliament .

Follow this link:
MPs attack ‘untenable’ expenses