Book Review: The Age of Reform by Richard Hofstadter

The Age of Reform by Richard Hofstadter

Richard Hofstadter, a prominent professor in department of history of Columbia University, published a classic book on the age of reform since the reconstruction to the Franklin Roosevelt New Deal. In The Age of Reform, Hofstadter attempted to explore the political tradition of reform in American history. According to him, the populism, the progressivism and the New Deal represented the political tradition of reform when Americans were in turbulent era.

We know that it is not easy to change readers' opinions and understanding of the American history. However, in this book, Hofstadter did it. Since I first read this book when I was just an undergreaduate, I was totally attracted by the writing style of Hofstadter. As far as I am concerned, it's an incisive critique of the populist and progressive movements that sprang up in the last quarter of the 19th century. Meanwhile, it greatly influenced my understanding of the American history.

In writing this book, Hofstadter was present-minded. Perhaps it was not so popular when he was writing this book at that time, but he did a good job in writing such an unbelievable book. It was Hofstadter's great contribution that he connected the three historical tide together, from which we could see American history in a new way.

For those who major in American history, I highly recommend them to read this classic. Perhaps you do not agree with Hofstadter's writing style, you can always learn something from him when you read it.

Happymeal Games

What’s Happymeal

When you open the official website of Happymeal, you will be surprised that it is so lovely a website that we should figure out what it is. So what is Happymeal? At Happymeal, there are a large number of online activities, which can help young children to enjoy themselves. At its homepage, there are games, puzzles, my happymeal, parents retreat arts & crafts, toys and online popular games. If you are interested in one blank, you can click it and continue your browsing at this website.

How to Play Games at Happymeal
When you click the pictures in its homepage, it will automatically turn you to another layout. There are several people in it, two kids and a parent, with four sentences to explain what they are saying and what’s their intentions. Also, you can notice that there is a lovely dog accompany with them. What a happy family!

If you want to know more about each person, just click a sentence, then it will turn you to another layout. In this layout, it will give you a game to play. Before playing games, it will explain the rules and tell you how to play it. If you like it, you can take part in it and enjoy your game with yourself.

Happymeal Account

If you are already registered your own Happymeal account, you can sign up or login with your own account and check your personal Happymeal information. If you are still not a member of Happymeal community, you can register it by following its instructions and fill the blanks with your correct personal information.

Why Do People Like Happymeal

For different people, they have their own reasons to play Happymeal. Some people may say that it creates a fantastic and virtual world at the McDonald Happy Meal Web Site. In this virtual world you can imagine and think again and again. No matter what you think and imagine, you can integrate yourself into it. Perhaps there are still other reasons for people to play Happymeal, but the most important reason, I think, is that it can make our life be funny.

Capital One Bank Credit Card

What’s the Capital One Bank

In America, like Bank of America, Chase Bank, TD Bank and other commercial banks, Capital one bank, as one of the most popular banks in the United States, provides excellent banking services to its customers. Since the establishment in 1929, headquartered in McLean,Virginia, Capital One Financial Corporation grew up bigger and bigger than ever.Till now, it has more than 720 branches, which locate in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Texas and Louisiana. 

Moreover, to make the brand of the Capital One much more famous, it opens several principal subsidiaries, like Capital One Bank, Capital One Auto Finance, Inc., Capital One, N.A., and North Fork Bank and so on, which offer a multitude of financial services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients.

If you are an investor in the stock market, you can also find it easily in the New York Stock Market. Capital One bank, as a Fortune 500 company, its quote at the New York Stock Exchange is “COF." If you want to know more about it, you can visit its official site and look for more information there.

Capital One Bank Credit Card

A credit card is issued by a credit card provider, like Capital One, and it is designed to customers and help them to pay for bills. If you go shopping in a shopping mall, or supermarket, credit card can provide you convenience immediately. Even you do not have money in your pocket, you can buy your stuff and products with the help of your credit cards. Moreover, you can also use credit cards for balance transfers and taking out cash from an ATM, also known as cash advance or cash withdrawal.

In order to satisfy its customers with these needs, Capital One bank issued its credit card, which helps people to apply for student loan, pay their bills or loans on time.

The Types of the Capital One Bank Credit Card

If you are curious about the types of the Capital One Bank credit cards, here are some answers for you. So far as I know, the Capital One Bank issues a range of credit cards to its customers, which provide them with various options. Which one is the best popular for you, nobody knows that. After all, it depends on your preference. Which one will you choose, it depends on how much money will you spend and how often do you use credit cards. At present, there are 4 different kinds of credit cards, which are issued by the Capital One Bank.

Capital One World MasterCard

This credit card is exclusively for customers who have a perfect credit history. Otherwise, there is no need for you to apply for it. Even you apply for it, you may fail to get it. However, once your application is approved, you are going to have these advantages:
•    Unlimited Cashback - Earn 1% on EVERYTHING you buy
•    £10 bonus credit every January to say thank you
•    Annual Fee applies
•   
Capital One OneRate

Even you can not apply for Capital One World MasterCard, you can apply for Capital One OneRate Credit card, if you have a very good credit history. Here are its advantages:
•    9.9% p.a. variable on:
- Purchases
- Balance Transfers
- Cash Withdrawals
•    No balance transfer fee

Capital One Progress

If you are looking for a credit card, which can help you to spend less than 2500 money in a month. Capital one Progress credit card is the most suitable one for you. If you can get it, you are going to have these benefits as Capital One Progress credit carholoder:
        Your interest rates to as low as17.9% p.a. variable.
A credit limit of up to £2,500

Capital One Classic

If you do not have credit history, and you are building or rebuilding your credit points, Capital One Classic is very helpful for you. Let me introduce the advantage of the Capital One Classic to you:
Low, easy-to-manage credit limit from £200
Choose your own credit card design
Register for email alerts to help you stay in control

The Benefits of the Capital One Bank Credit Card

At the Capital One Bank, you can apply for debit card or credit card. Moreover, if you can successfully apply for your credit card, you can make your living much more convenient and comfortable.

World Savings Bank Online Banking

World Savings Bank Online Banking

World Savings Bank

Since its first establishment in Mandera, California in the year 1912, World Savings Bank expanded steadily eastward, reaching ten states rather than two, and entering the state of New York as recently as 2004. At present, World Savings Bank, a growing financial institution operating fully in ten different U.S. States: California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey and Florida, is very popular around the United States. According to its official statistics, World Savings Bank has a total of 285 savings branches and more than $125 billion in assets, which is a great progress since its foundation in 1912, almost 90 years ago.

Unlike Bank of America, Chase, Capital One and other banks, World Savings Bank did not compete with them directly. However, it slowly climbs to be one of the most important banks when it comes to checking accounts, savings accounts, personal loans and mortgages.
 

If you’ve paid any attention to their new line of commercials or opened a popular magazine lately, you’ll find that World Savings Banks is actively marketing their checking, savings and credit card accounts.

Since its establishment in the United States, World Savings Banks has hung in the background of the major financial institutions. At present, World Savings Banks have opened new banks all over the United States and have been pushing their free checking accounts, their mortgage home loans and their hassle-free customer service. They also have an online banking option for their customers, which is reported to have some of the “most advanced security systems in the world” as well as excellent anti-fraud teams.

World Savings Banks’s online banking service is free to customers with checking, savings and business accounts. Using this system, you can check your account balance, transfer funds, pay bills and review your account history details. World Savings Banks also allows customers to re-order checks and place stop-payments from the convenience of their home computers.

So far as I know, World Savings Banks is the leading provider of online banking because of the easy system they employ. When you visit the official site of the World Savings Banks , you don't have to download any software or learn any new programs, you can keep on to talk about how well-organized and accessible the online banking service it is providing to its banking customers.

World Savings Bank Online Banking:

•    Free checking with free checks for life and free worldwide ATM withdrawals
•    Instant credit card approvals
•    $1 minimum opening deposit when opening and checking and savings account together
•    Online CDs
•    Home equity lines of credit
•    Online bill pay
•    0.01% APY on World Savings Bank Savings Accounts

World Savings Bank Online Banking Fees:

•    $0 monthly charge for World Savings Bank Free Checking
•    $10 monthly service charge for World Savings Bank Interest Checking (0.01% APY) with balances below a daily average of $5000
•    $4 monthly service charge for savings accounts with balances of less than $300 on any given day
•    $15 monthly service charge for Money Market Savings accounts (0.10-0.75% APY) with balances below $25,000 each day
•    $30 stop payment fees
•    $0 online bill pay fees

World Savings Bank Customer Support:

My experience with World Savings Bank customer support was not everything I hoped it would be, although I have seen a lot of worse customer support from other banks. But generally speaking, World Savings bank provides its customers excellent customer support.

If you are looking for support from World Savings Bank, you can find your help through its official site, from which you can get services there. World Savings Bank also offers customer support via email and an extensive FAQ section. We submitted our support request via email and received a response within one business day. The FAQ section was equally impressive, covering topics ranging from choosing the right checking account to managing email alerts.

Tips for Choosing an Online Bank

Tips for Choosing an Online Bank

In the past, we have to go to the banks and join the long line to have our banking services there. But now, it seems that everything has changed. With the help of modern technologies and sciences, especially the technologies of internet, we can have online banking services with our online banking account and PIN passwords.

Today, if you are going to open an banking account in the United States, you are going to have banks that are online only, have online accounts, and you even have banks offering two totally different online bank subsidiaries (checking account and saving account). So, in this situation, do you have any idea of choosing one bank and open your banking account there?  How do you make your final decision to choose a bank and put your savings?

According to my personal experiences, here are several tips that I want to share with you and help you to find the best online banking service to you:

Tip 1: Are My Banking Accounts Safe?
if you want to make deposits for your money, you should firstly know whether is it safe for you to deposit your money there. Take myself as an example, I won't put my funds in a bank that does not offer me perfect and absolute security. If you want to know whether the bank can provide you safety services or not, you can confirm whether the online bank is FDIC insured. What you should do is just search for it in the FDIC's Bank Find tool and figure it out.

Tip 2: Will I Be Charged High Interest Rate?
when an online bank offer your banking services, they want to charge you interest rate in order to earn money for the bank. Some banks will charge you the high interest rate, while there are still other banks do not charge you high interest rate. If you can find a bank which charge you low interest rate, you probably should choose it. After all, you can save money in the future. Otherwise, you have to pay for more money to the banking service of the bank you will choose. So far as I know, the top rate is the Washington Mutual's checking & savings account, and they charge you 3.75% APY without consideration. That’s to say, you should choose other bank with charges you less.

Tip 3: Do I Need to Pay for the Fees? Should I Have Minimum Money in My Account?
just compare the banks you like best, and figure them out whether they have fees or minimums. If they do, then compare them with each other and choose the one offer you no fee and no minimums. It is easy to say, while in fact, it is implausible for you to choose the best one in a short time. But be sure to remember, fees and minimums are good lens for you to make your decision to open a bank account.

Tip 4: Locations and Convenience
If you want to open an account, you probably want to have their services as soon as possible. After all, people do not like to take a 3 hours bus and join a line waiting for their banking services. So you have to compare the banks and find whether they can offer you convenience. What you should do is to find whether they offer you locations as many as possible. If they can, that’s means that you are convenient to get your money and make deposits there. If so, it might be a good bank that can offer you excellent services.

Tip 5: Read Reviews and listen to the Suggestions of the Professional Experts
For ordinary people, they lack of professional banking knowledge and do not know which bank to choose. If so, you’d better read some reviews from some professional experts. They are knowledgeable and experienced in this field. If you follow their suggestions, I am sure that you can benefit a lot. At least, it is much better than you to choose an online bank. By reading all the online banking service reviews, you are going to get a better idea of which online bank is better for you.

It is always a good idea for us to save money and have better online banking services. But it is a real fact that not all of us can have the better services than the others. These are my personal tips of choosing a bank and saving money, I hope you will like it.

TD Bank Online Banking

TD Bank Online Banking 

TD Bank, a saving bank in the United States, offers online banking to all of its customers and allows customers to access to their TD Bank accounts 24 hours a day from any location. 

Moreover, it enables customers to experience the safety and convenience by providing mobile banking services to its customers. Whenever you visit a branch of the TD Bank, you can access to a variety of services at any local branch. For many customers, they prefer to choose TD Bank, because it could provide them excellent and professional banking services to them. 

Comparing with other commercial banks, like Bank of America, Chase Bank, Citi Bank and other banks, TD Bank has its own advantages that people trust it and like to have its online services. It is an undeniable a fact that TD Bank becomes an indispensable part in people’s daily life that people want to know more about its online services. In this article, I am going to introduce the TD Bank  online services to you. 

TD Bank Online Banking Features
When you visit the official site of the TD Bank, you will be informed that it could provide you various online banking services. With the help of the TD Bank  online banking services, you can find its bank locations and find the services you can have at the TD Bank.

If you are a customer to the TD Bank, you are going to have these online banking services from the TD Bank:
Track and manage expenditures
View and print past statements
Transfer funds between accounts
Pay bills online
Receive alerts
Monitor account for suspicious activity
Update personal details and contact information
Manage a credit card account
View and handle mortgage details
Access account 24 hours a day from any location
And so on.

TD Bank Online Banking Login and Enrollment
If you want to have online banking services from the TD Bank, you must create your banking account. For customers who want to enroll their online banking account,  TD Bank needs your account number, ATM number and PIN, or social security, and email address. If you are business customers, you must enroll your account at a physical branch, if  there are no options for them to enroll online. Once your applications are approved, you can login with your online banking account and password to access all the services TD Bank providing to its customers. 

If you have questions or problems for accessing to your account, TD Bank includes helpful information on how to access and use many of the features they provide with their online banking services, including a video demo to familiarize customers with all the options available to them online. 

TD Bank also includes instructions on an FAQ page which include system requirements, access issues, how to transfer funds, how to pay bills, and many of the other most common functions customers use when accessing online banking. If you are in need of help, you can visit its homepage and find more information there. 

TD Bank Online Banking Safety
For most customers who want to have banking services from a bank, they are worry about whether their accounts are safe or not. At TD Bank, you do not need to worry about your safety. 

TD Bank includes a variety of measures designed to ensure customer safety when using TD Bank online banking, including encryption codes to make sure the data transfer cannot be read by outside sources, and firewalls to prevent outside access from potentially malicious sources. Customers use a unique ID and password, which must be protected from loss or theft. TD Bank also automatically logs customers out of their session after a period of no activity.

But if you are still not sure about the safety of your banking account, you can consult TD Bank and ask it to take further precautions to protect your accounts from any potential problems. You can use anti-virus software and other spyware programs, which can greatly help your to protect your account information.
If you are looking for a bank from which you can open an account, TD Bank might be a good option for you.