The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday while leaving the door open to a future increase, a cautious stance at a time when rapid inflation is retreating but is not yet vanquished.
Rates have been on hold in a range of 5.25 to 5.5 percent since July, up from near-zero as recently as March 2022. Policymakers think that borrowing costs are now high enough to weigh on economic growth if they are kept at this level over time.
By cooling demand, the Fed is hoping to prod companies to raise prices less quickly. While the economy has held up so far — growth was unusually strong this summer — inflation has come down since 2022. Overall price increases decelerated to 3.4 percent as of September, down from above 7 percent at their peak.
Not realizing the impact of my actions, I accidentially turned on Google Ads Experiments which lead to 50% of page loads including those floating banner ads on the bottom. I find them incredibly annoying, and have turned them off. While I wouldn’t mind the extra 5% in ad revenue month, I am not going to go that far to uglify my blog for an extra $4 a month.
Many of the wind projects were bid several years ago before the COVID-19 pandemic, Reynold explained. Since then, the costs of cement, steel and wind turbines have all increased.
How much additional funding each project has requested from the PSC depends on when the projects were originally bid.
“Ranging from 27% for some, all the way up to 70% for some other projects,” Reynolds said.
For land-based wind projects, the state estimates that the increases would translate into an additional cost to consumers of $1.57 per month.
Reynolds didn’t comment on the additional cost to consumers of offshore wind projects.
The PSC may rule on the inflation adjustment as early as Oct. 12. If the adjustments are approved, the additional funding will be triggered when the project reaches the construction stage.
“So, if the prices go back down, the inflation adjustment would be less,” Reynolds said.
If the PSC denies the inflation adjustment, Reynolds said the situation would be “bad."
“Both offshore wind projects, and the land-based wind and solar projects, have demonstrated that the prices have gone up for these projects. And so, they can’t get built at these prices,” she said.
The petitions cover about 90 renewable energy projects.
“A lot of them will get canceled,” Reynolds warned. “Some of them may successfully rebid.”
1) Debt is evil, don’t make it. If you can’t afford to buy something with cash, you can’t afford it. Your poor. Be a grown up and accept that fact.
2) Live in poverty. It’s always bad to have money in your bank account, because it doesn’t earn much interest and means it will get spent on things that you’ll spend later to get rid of at the landfill. I rarely have more then a $1,000 in the bank, because I’d rather live paycheck-to-paycheck, knowing that every time I look at my bank account I can’t afford to buy junk. Lock the rest of the money up in investments and savings accounts, the later that offers more flexibility during emergencies and for buying bigger purchases after a few years.
3) Remember 90% of things you buyare going to either become poop or smell like burnt plastic in the burn barrel within 2 weeks of buying it. While we all like playing with fire, watching things melt, and colorful flames, buying things to set on fire is a waste of money. So in other words, don’t buy it.
4) Do antagonize over $20 purchases. Little things add up quickly. Do you really need it? Anything that is non-essential should not be purchased — even if you like watching plastic melt and burn.
5) Don’t take a raise — or at least the majority of a raise. Rather then taking a raise, use automatic deposits to savings accounts, 401ks, IRAs, or any other vehicle that defers the money to make raise never appear in your bank account rather then take it and spend it.
6) Always look for lower-cost ways of doing things. Does the government offer the service for free or low-cost? Public libraries, public transportation, and public forest lands are free (or low cost) for your use and enjoyment.
7) Try to save more then you spend each week. If you take home $1,300 then invest $700 of that check a wide variety of ways. It’s okay to withdraw money every few years for a big purchase, but at least you’ll be getting a better deal then most by buying it with money that has earned compounded interest rather then paying finance charges.
8) Sales are horseshit. Buying things on sale usually is a bad way to save money on the purchase, unless you’ve been deferring a necessary purchase for a number of months.
9) Celebrate when the stock market goes down. It means you can buy more stock for less money. Stock paper is just that — it has no value until you it cash it in. You shouldn’t give a rats ass about the stock market going down — except to look forward to the deals you are going to get. You shouldn’t be buying stock paper unless it’s for long-term goals, that can be sold when the market is booming.
10) Cheap, diverse investments are better then expensive ones. Self-investing in boring, uninteresting broad-based funds are better. If you don’t understand an investment, then you shouldn’t be investing it. Have a dozen different ways of investing with different banks, different funds, and different investment types. It’s good to bet against your own investments with mutually opposing investments. If one thing goes bad, you’ll have other things to fall back.
11) Keeping buying a little bit of your investments each week, when you get paid. The fancy financial types call this cost-based-averaging. It’s also not bad idea to wait until the market drops back down and convert some savings to stock, but be patient and wait for a good drop in the market. When people have been panicking on Wall Street for a week, that’s a good time to drop that $5,000 or $10,000 you don’t really need and toss it in the market for the hell of it — knowing that you might never get the money back — but you might also make out well.
12) Pretend money in retirement accounts and stocks, unmature certificate of deposits is totally inaccessible and for all intents and purposes does not exist. I mean I think have a ballpark idea what is in my investment accounts, but I don’t really give that much of dang, because it changes every day. I’m betting that in 20 years it will be a bigger amount. And for all intents and purposes, stock paper is an imaginary money — as stock paper has zero value until you cash it out.
