news of commerce

France: the problem of the euro countries is the lack of rules of procedure

2010-12-26T07:01:00.001-08:00

Paris, 26 December (EFE): said French Economy Minister Christine Lagarde said that the problem of the euro area does not lie in its currency, but the difference "excessive" among Member States, and the lack of rules of procedure.

According to Lagarde in an interview broadcast channel (Ieteli) television today that he was taking into account during the year that the problem is not the euro, which retained its value, but rather a "difference factor that has been tolerated far too within the region. "

For this reason, the French minister relied on "the need to develop a mechanism to assist and not for the solidarity with the struggling countries and be based on the principle of conditional aid so that every member of the reform of the shortcomings he has. "

Asked about the threat of war currency and how to face during the French presidency of the Group of Twenty, which began last month, Lagarde stressed "the need to not be vulnerable to manipulation of the euro between the Chinese yuan and U.S. dollar. " (EFE)

Oil-producing countries outside OPEC.

2010-12-26T06:11:00.001-08:00

Possible to divide the non-OPEC countries to (a producer / importer), led by the United States, China, Britain and India, and to some extent Brazil. And countries (producer / exporter) of Russia, Norway, Mexico, Kazakhstan, Canada, Oman, Azerbaijan and other countries. During the past two decades, boosted some countries, especially Canada and Russia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, Azerbaijan, Sudan, reserves significantly, offsetting the significant decline in reserves of other producing countries such as Mexico, Norway and Britain. With the start of many projects, would increase supplies from Brazil, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and the United States and Canada On the other hand will continue production in Mexico, Britain and Norway declined.States (produced / imported) non-OPEC countries.Studies indicate that the reserves of the States (produced / imported) did not achieve any remarkable increase during the past two decades. Have stabilized oil reserves in the United States at about 21 billion barrels, while oil production fell to less than 5 million barrels a day. , While the consumption to 20.7 million barrels per day, and in 2006 Britain stopped exporting oil and turn it into a net importer due to the depletion of reserves in the North Sea fields. The production of Brent crude dropped to around 1.4 million barrels after it had been about 2.5 million barrels in 2000.China has produced a total of 3.3 million barrels of oil per day in 2008, mostly from fields in three decades, Daqing and Shengli, east China, and thus is ranked third after Russia and the United States within the producing countries outside OPEC. But China is the second largest consumer of oil in the world (7.3 million barrels per day) and is expected to increase imports of oil accounting for 70% of the total requirements compared with about 50% currently. China recently announced plans to explore 16 Petrolia field by the year 2015, the reserves may exceed 10 billion barrels. So as to compensate for the shortfall in their reserves, which fell to 16 billion barrels by the end of 2008. India has suffered from its part, some increase in reserves of nearly a billion barrels, while the consumption to about 2.6 million barrels per day, while Brazil has achieved some balance between production and consumption at about 2.2 million barrels a day, and increased its reserves since 1995 for up to 13 billion barrels. And discovered Brazil recently a number of oil fields, the huge superiority reserves are 33 billion barrels, and it will take to begin production about ten years if there is the huge investments necessary because of the existence of these reservoirs in deep water, which can reach its production cost to about $ 90 a barrel.States (producer / exporter) outside OPEC.In addition to the list of the ten largest oil-exporting countries, there are additional countries beyond the President of Argentina, Yemen, Gabon, Malaysia, Syria, Chad, Denmark. The major countries Vtaatsderha Russia, which is the second largest producer and exporter of oil in the world after Saudi Arabia, has been able to Russia to develop its reserves of petroleum to reach more than 60 billion barrels in the fields north of the Caspian Sea, Siberia, and on the supplies arrived in Russian production to 9.8 million barrels per day and exports 6.9 million barrels per day in 2008.In the neighboring countries made Central Asia States bordering the Caspian Sea, particularly Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, a quantum leap in their reserves as much as 90 billion barrels, and production reached more than 2.3 million barrels per day, is exported more than three quarters of this amount through pipelines or tankers to refineries in southern Europe on the Mediterranean, and is characterized by the oil produced in the Caspian Sea that is a high quality and low specific weight and contains a small percentage of sulfur, due to high export dependence on domestic coal and natural gas as the main source of energy, particularly electricity generation.And occupy Norway and Mexico ranked second and the third between exporting countries outside OPEC capacity of up to 4.2 million barrels a day, but both countries have witnessed a significant decrease in the reserves and supplies, and some analysts expect the stop Mexico for export by the year 2015, the end of 2008, the exports of Norway to 2.1 million barrels, while the reserves recorded a decline to 6.7 billion barrels, but for exports to Mexico amounted to 1.6 million barrels per day, while reserves fell from 50 billion barrels in 1995 to 11 billion barrels currently.And Canada is at the forefront of producing countries - exporters in terms of reserves, which reached to 178 billion barrels, representing the oil can be extracted from the sands of oil about 95% of this reserve, and is concentrated mostly in the northern Alberta, and as a result of huge investment for a number of oil companies the world in the past the last, oil production reached from the sand to about 1.5 million barrels, was mostly via pipelines to nearby U.S. markets. According to the production conditions, it can cost up to draw oil from the sand to about $ 35 per barrel.For African countries, especially Sudan and other small-scale producers such as Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad, the reserves increased significantly, but there are some technical and operational constraints to raise production, which does not exceed one million barrels per day.

Risk factors of investing in securities.

2010-12-26T06:08:00.001-08:00

Perhaps the most important concepts, which means the investor at the foot on the employment of money is the return on investment and risk investment.What is the risk? The danger is if the decision where the decision to one of a number of possible results that are known to the potential of each. It is possible to define risk of investing in other ways. For example, the risk can be defined as the probability of loss. As well as the risk can be defined as the probability of getting a return on investment is less than the expected return. One of the best definitions of risk is viewed as a change in return on investment on the expected return on investment.But there are a number of factors that create the risk of investing in securities, and the factors are as follows:1 - the risk of defaults Default Risk.This risk arises from the deteriorating financial situation of the company issuers of securities and the stoppage of payment of financial obligations. May stop the company specifically for the payment of interest on the debt and repayment of debt. It can also stop payment of dividends on preferred shares, if any, and the deterioration of the financial situation of the company and the isolation of solvent down the value of securities issued by the Company. If it is not correct the financial situation of the company and the situation has been bad, this could lead the company into bankruptcy and liquidated if the value of the break is greater than its value as if it continued in operation. And distributed break-up value of the company usually according to priorities as follows: attorney fees and court costs relating to the question of bankruptcy, wages payable, taxes due, if any, creditors, attorneys general, preference shareholders, and finally the ordinary shareholders. If the value of the company remaining in operation greater than the value of the break, are the reorganization of the company to agree on a capital structure appropriate and distributed to creditors and owners. has become in such a distribution to creditors-general shareholders excellent, and the last two turns to ordinary shareholders. The ordinary shareholders may lose their ownership in the company in part or in whole. There in the sophisticated financial markets financial services institutions are constantly marking the quality of quality ratings for stocks and corporate bonds issued by companies such as Standard & Poor's standard and poors, Moody moodys.2 - the risk of change in interest rates.Affect change in interest rates on the prices of stocks and bonds in financial markets. For example, when rising interest rates in the market, bond prices fall because of the inverse relationship between the yield on the bond and the price of the bond. As well as rising interest rates to decline in stock prices. Rising interest rates also mean a rise in the rate of capitalization of property in the stock market that is discounted cash flow calculation for shares, price, and thus lower stock prices. On the other hand high interest rates makes bonds more attractive for investment due to higher revenues compared to mine-at least thus encouraging investors in the market to sell stocks and buy bonds and the result is a decline in stock prices.3 - change the status of the risk of the stock market.Changing market conditions, securities markets in general, expansionary increasing the values of securities in general and growing bull markets, to the markets of the deflationary decline in stock prices in general are going to decline and Bear markets. And track these changes in the stock market business cycles that affect the performance of companies. And carried out the performance of the overall market indicators to track stock prices.4 - the risk of merchantability.The part of the risk of investing in securities that may arise from a lack of liquidity and therefore some of the low usability on marketing. This means that you must pay brokerage commissions or high to give significant discounts to complete the sale. For example, there is no active secondary markets for some securities, which reduces liquidity (market), while there are active secondary markets in other securities make them very liquid (can be sold in the market at any time and at prices not much different from the previous sale prices).5 - risk management company.Supports the company's performance and therefore the prices of securities issued by it on the quality of decisions taken by the management company. The company, which managed to take investment decisions, operational and financing Kovh increase profits and grow as improving the value of its securities in the market. And vice versa in the case of the followers of non-Kovh policies in the management of the company.6 - risk of deterioration of the purchasing power of cash.Decline in the purchasing power of money as a result of monetary inflation. Known as inflation to rise in the price level. At any given time there are goods and services prices rise as there are other goods and services prices drop, this has nothing to do with inflation. But when there is a rise in the general price level, this is evidence of inflation, measured using the price index, retail or wholesale. And to determine the annual inflation rate calculated rate of change in the price index during the year. What matters to the investor when employment in the securities is the real return on investment and not a monetary return. Any return on investment after deducting inflation of it. The investor's goal should be to achieve rates of return higher than inflation rates in order to keep a positive real return.

QE enhance ascent up by 0.63%

2010-12-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

Club Business and Finance - Doha: continued stock market celebrating the victory of Qatar bid for the World Cup to boost earnings by the end of trading yesterday after adding the index about 53 points added to score accounted for 0.63% up to the level of 8530.6 points, took control of green screens on the market from the beginning of the meeting to an end With the purchase of selectivity by individual investors on the leading stocks, and it was natural in light of activity witnessed by the market, increasing the area of green color on the display, as the prices of shares of 20 companies were down stock prices of 10 companies and has maintained contributed 11 of the previous prices.The session saw a relative decline in values and volumes to reach volumes by the end of yesterday's 16.77 million shares compared to 32.87 million shares at the end of the session yesterday, and record the market values of trading to 600.11 million riyals compared to 1.23 billion riyals yesterday I, as have fallen to the 6271 deal compared to 10,051 transactions.The daily bulletin of the Stock Exchange that the sector index banks and financial institutions, which has seen circulation of 6,000,017 thousand and 668 shares, worth 247 million and 701 thousand and 177.40 SAR as a result of the implementation of the 1849 deal, recorded an increase by 105.39 points, or a rate of 0.80 percent for up to 13 alpha and 243 points.And maintained by the Insurance sector, which has seen circulation of 182 thousand and 811 shares worth $ 14 million and 286 thousand riyals and 802.90 as a result of the implementation of the 143 deal, the height of yesterday by 121.02 points, or 1.75 per cent to up to 7 thousands of 44.59 points. The index of the manufacturing sector which has seen circulation of 2,000,635 and 445 thousand shares valued at 107,000,298 thousand riyals and 919.10 as a result of the implementation of the deal in 1314, up by 30.28 points, or 0.38 percent rate for up to 8 thousand and 53.14 points.As well as the services sector index, which has seen circulation of 7,000,940 and 841 thousand shares valued at 230 million and 832 thousand riyals and 712.55 as a result of the implementation of the deal in 2965, up by 27.91 points, or 0.51 per cent to up to 5 thousand and 495.96 points.And kept stock prices, the gains made over the previous sessions, where the elevated heights recent prices to the tops of price not seen since the more than nearly two years in the recovery's great liquidity, compared to months past, and issued share medical elevations including rate of 5.29% to reach Real rate of 9.95 volumes amounted to 440.05 thousand shares and $ 4.3 million riyals, followed by cinema gains 3.67%, bringing the rate to 31.1 riyals registered trading volumes to 4.59 thousand shares traded and the values of 142.83 thousand riyals.On the other hand fell stores including rate of 1.74% up to the price of 22.6 Real sizes amounted to 254.72 thousand shares and $ 5.79 million riyals, followed by increased loss of 1.43% up to the price of 62.1 Real trading volumes 450 shares and $ 27.94 a thousand riyals. For the stock active Al Rayyan Bank shares are issued where the total number of shares traded was about 3.156 million shares, followed by Barwa Real Estate the number of shares amounted to 3.058 million shares, shares of Doha Bank said the number of shares amounted to 1.726 million shares, Vodafone shares were traded 1.502 million shares, Finally, shares of Qatar Gas Transport have been trading on 1.434 million shares. and with a market capitalization at the end of the trading session 453 billion and 527 million and 440 thousand riyals and 986.25 versus $ 450 billion and 375 million and 297 thousand riyals and 883.

Dollar on the Verge of Reversal as the Intensity in Fed Speculation Eases and Earnings Heats Up Read more at: Forex

2010-12-20T12:36:00.000-08:00

Dollar on the Verge of Reversal as the Intensity in Fed Speculation Eases and Earnings Heats Up
Euro Suffers its Biggest Decline in Two Weeks as the Dollar Perks Up
British Pound Traders Prepare for Financial, Interest Rate and Economic Updates Next Week
Canadian Dollar Little Moved by Manufacturing Sales Data but Upcoming BoC Decision is another Matter
Australian Dollar will have to Pay for its High-Yield Appeal with Scrutiny over Risk Trends and the RBA
Swiss Franc: A Safe Haven and Alternative as Reliable as Gold?

Dollar on the Verge of Reversal as the Intensity in Fed Speculation Eases and Earnings Heats Up
Perhaps a sign that the deeply engrained fundamental and technical trends are near a point of exhaustion, the dollar put in for its first advance in four days which also happened to be the biggest rally in over five weeks. That said, neither the benchmark currency nor the drivers that have put it into its tailspin have taken that critical step to confirm a reversal. For the greenback, we see that the trade-weighted index slipped low enough to test an obvious, rising trendline connecting lows from March 2008 to November 2009 and extending to 76. However, the subsequent reversal would fall short of breaking the consistent, descending trend channel that has confined the benchmark to a steady selloff that has held sway for more than a month now. Translating this performance to the majors, EURUSD would slip below 1.40, GBPUSD slid under 1.60 and AUDUSD fell 1 percent after nicking parity. And yet, all these liquid pairs are still under the stewardship of their anti-dollar trends. The same can be said of the benchmarks of the other major asset classes. The 10-year Treasury note is still holding up its steady six month rising trend (with support at 120), gold has yet to back of a pattern of acceleration into its record highs, and the S&P 500 continues to chug along.
This pseudo-bullish trend (pseudo because key safe haven securities are joining in the climb with their risk-based counterparts) is being fed by both risk appetite and Fed speculation. However, in Friday’s session, we can perhaps perceive a shift in influence between these two major catalysts. Over the past month, the fundamental interest has clearly centered on speculation surrounding the potential for the Federal Reserve to inject another round of stimulus into the US markets following the decision in August to put a floor under the current $2 trillion program. That being said, speculation can only reach so far before the market has priced in the more extreme scenarios and a reasonable level of fair value has been reached. As evidence that the influence of additional policy expansion has been accounted for, we saw Friday that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s comments were met with indifference. The highlights from the central banker’s remarks on monetary policy includes the suggestion that he sees a “case for further action” given a too low level of inflation and persistently high unemployment rate. Despite the seeming decisiveness in this assessment, it isn’t anything the market hasn’t heard from him before. The same passive appraisal was made of the high-level event risk on the docket. Headline inflation held at 1.1 percent, retail sales offered a slightly better-than-expected 0.6 percent advance and the October University of Michigan consumer sentiment survey slipped to its July low.
If the influence of stimulus speculation has reached a point over oversaturation, next week’s long list of Fed speeches may ultimately fall on deaf ears. That being said, there is a scenario in which it is easy to imagine where the market could produce a violent reaction: should the group give reason to believe they actually plan on waiting to evaluate conditions rather than act in November. Does this mean that the dollar is most likely fated to a week of congestion with a modest dovish drift? Not necessarily. Risk appetite, a somewhat ignored aspect of the greenback lately could come back into play as the 3Q earnings season really gets rolling. If bank profits collapse, financial risk may override stimulus hopes.
Related:Discuss the Dollar in the DailyFX Forum, John’s Analyst Picks: Dollar the Top Opportunity Next Week, Aussie Dollar a Close Second
Euro Suffers its Biggest Decline in Two Weeks as the Dollar Perks Up
Scheduled event risk was exceptionally light for the euro Friday; but that isn’t necessarily a sentence to inactivity these days. In fact, the shared currency was pitched into a significant selloff through the end of the week. If we were to attribute this move to a neat and tidy fundamental source, we could say that the final reading of the Eurozone’s September CPI numbers was disappointing in its stay at 1.8 percent or that ECB member Stark’s comments held some dovish edge. Yet, the truth of the matter is that the euro’s ties to dollar would weigh the currency down as the greenback itself put in for an aggressive advance. Going forward, this relationship shouldn’t be underestimated. With sizable moves in EURUSD, there is frequently spillover to other euro crosses. Crosswinds aside, the economic data could have a significant bearing on direction and momentum. Along with investor and business sentiment surveys, the market will have the GDP-proxy PMI numbers to work with.
British Pound Traders Prepare for Financial, Interest Rate and Economic Updates Next Week
The fundamental front was quiet for the British pound Friday; but that didn’t prevent high volatility in a 1.61 test for GBPUSD or a notable advance against the euro. Looking ahead to next week, we once again have the perfect mix of growth, interest rate and fiscal speculation. For growth, we have retail sales, mortgages and business activity. Interest rates will go by the BoE minutes. And, public borrowing will key finances.
Canadian Dollar Little Moved by Manufacturing Sales Data but Upcoming BoC Decision is another Matter
The 2 percent jump in Canadian manufacturing sales may have been the biggest pickup in 13 months; but this particular indicator doesn’t have much sway over the bigger themes guiding the loonie. Next week’s Bank of Canada rate decision will be far more influential. While no change to policy is expected, the market is still pricing in some kind of hawkish lean. Should the bank squash this hope, the currency could step back.
Australian Dollar will have to Pay for its High-Yield Appeal with Scrutiny over Risk Trends and the RBA
There are certainly benefits to being one of the most consistent high-yield and growth currencies; but you have to take the good with the bad. The more aggressive and consistent the run, the greater the risk of reversal. From a fundamental perspective, the Aussie could easily find its future wrapped up in the RBA’s minutes. If the assessment is more neutral than traders assessed from Stevens, the trend will looked taxed.
Swiss Franc: A Safe Haven and Alternative as Reliable as Gold?
Analyzing the fundamentals behind the Swiss franc has essentially become a practice of futility recently. An ideal safe haven for European capital, the franc is a natural sponge. Yet, there may be something beyond just the European connection. According to Bloomberg, private banks managed to draw in over 50 billion francs worth of capital since 2007 despite bank privacy issues. Is this also an ideal dollar alternative?
For Real Time Forex News, visit: http://www.dailyfx.com/real_time_news/
**For a full list of upcoming event risk and past releases, go to www.dailyfx.com/calendar
ECONOMIC DATA
Next 24 Hours

Currency	GMT	Release	Survey	Previous	Comments
NZD	21:30	Performance Services Index (SEP)		51.4	Sits below 2010 average of 53.8.
NZD	21:45	Consumer Prices Index (QoQ) (3Q)	1.0%	0.3%	New Zealand consumer prices rose less than expected in 2Q.
NZD	21:45	Consumer Prices Index (YoY) (3Q)	1.5%	1.8%	New Zealand consumer prices rose less than expected in 2Q.
GBP	23:01	Rightmove House Prices (MoM) (OCT)		-1.1%	U.K. home prices fell in September, erasing half of the 2010 gains.
GBP	23:01	Rightmove House Prices (YoY) (OCT)		2.6%
JPY	23:50	Tertiary Industry Index (MoM) (AUG)	-0.5%	1.6%	Index rose in July for second month.
AUD	0:30	New Motor Vehicle Sales (MoM) (SEP)		0.3%	New motor vehicle sales increased in August following 3-month drop.
AUD	0:30	New Motor Vehicle Sales (YoY) (SEP)		10.5%
JPY	5:30	Tokyo Department Store Sales (YoY) (SEP)		-3.4%	Tokyo department store sales fell annually in the last thirty months.
JPY	5:30	Nationwide Department Store Sales (YoY) (SEP)		-3.2%
EUR	9:00	Italian Current Account (euros) (AUG)		535M	July was first surplus in a year.
CAD	12:30	International Securities Transactions (C$) (AUG)	6.000B	5.480B	Likely increased for second month.
USD	13:00	Total Net TIC Flows (AUG)		$63.7B	Demand for long-term financial assets beat forecasts in July.
USD	13:00	Net Long-term TIC Flows (AUG)		$61.2B
USD	13:15	Industrial Production (SEP)	0.2%	0.2%	Industrial production rose in each of the past six months.
USD	13:15	Capacity Utilization (SEP)	74.8%	74.7%	Industrial production rose in each of the past six months.
USD	14:00	NAHB Housing Market Index (OCT)	14	13	Held at 13 in the last 2 months.

Currency	GMT	Upcoming Events & Speeches
EUR	8:00	ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet Speaks on Global Economy
EUR	14:00	ECB’s Carlos Costa Speaks on Financial Literacy
JPY	15:00	Japan Cabinet Office Monthly Economic Report
USD	16:55	Fed’s Dennis Lockhart Speaks on Economy

SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE LEVELS
CLASSIC SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE – 18:00 GMT

Currency	EUR/USD	GBP/USD	USD/JPY	USD/CHF	USD/CAD	AUD/USD	NZD/USD	EUR/JPY	GBP/JPY
Resist 2	1.4500	1.6375	89.00	1.0460	1.0922	1.0100	0.8230	127.60	146.05
Resist 1	1.4200	1.6000	86.00	0.9950	1.0750	1.0000	0.7650	120.00	140.00
Spot	1.3964	1.5983	81.43	0.9595	1.0135	0.9883	0.7538	113.71	130.15
Support 1	1.3800	1.5500	80.00	0.9500	0.9950	0.9100	0.6850	103.80	125.00
Support 2	1.3500	1.5300	75.00	0.9000	0.9700	0.8100	0.6585	100.00	119.00

CLASSIC SUPPORT AND RESISTANCE –EMERGING MARKETS 18:00 GMTSCANDIES CURRENCIES 18:00 GMT

Currency	USD/MXN	USD/TRY	USD/ZAR	USD/HKD	USD/SGD	Currency	USD/SEK	USD/DKK	USD/NOK
Resist 2	14.4500	1.6755	8.7915	7.8165	1.4945	Resist 2	7.7500	5.7800	6.2750
Resist 1	13.8500	1.4865	8.3675	7.8075	1.4655	Resist 1	7.5800	5.5400	6.1150
Spot	12.4454	1.4161	6.8435	7.7573	1.2975	Spot	6.6251	5.3398	5.8039
Support 1	12.0500	1.4070	6.6950	7.7490	1.2900	Support 1	6.4500	5.3000	5.7030
Support 2	11.7200	1.3665	6.4300	7.7450	1.2500	Support 2	6.1250	5.1000	5.5200

INTRA-DAY PIVOT POINTS 18:00 GMT

Currency	EUR/USD	GBP/USD	USD/JPY	USD/CHF	USD/CAD	AUD/USD	NZD/USD	EUR/JPY	GBP/JPY
Resist 2	1.4242	1.6156	82.05	0.9672	1.0223	1.0058	0.7649	115.22	131.01
Resist 1	1.4103	1.6070	81.74	0.9634	1.0179	0.9970	0.7594	114.47	130.58
Pivot	1.4020	1.6020	81.31	0.9559	1.0096	0.9917	0.7564	114.01	130.30
Support 1	1.3881	1.5934	81.00	0.9521	1.0052	0.9829	0.7509	113.26	129.87
Support 2	1.3798	1.5884	80.57	0.9446	0.9969	0.9776	0.7479	112.80	129.59

INTRA-DAY PROBABILITY BANDS 18:00 GMT
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Currency	EUR/USD	GBP/USD	USD/JPY	USD/CHF	USD/CAD	AUD/USD	NZD/USD	EUR/JPY	GBP/JPY
Resist. 3	1.4156	1.6169	82.46	0.9721	1.0265	1.0032	0.7653	115.38	132.08
Resist. 2	1.4108	1.6122	82.20	0.9690	1.0232	0.9995	0.7624	114.97	131.60
Resist. 1	1.4060	1.6076	81.94	0.9658	1.0200	0.9957	0.7595	114.55	131.12
Spot	1.3964	1.5983	81.43	0.9595	1.0135	0.9883	0.7538	113.71	130.15
Support 1	1.3868	1.5890	80.92	0.9532	1.0070	0.9809	0.7481	112.87	129.18
Support 2	1.3820	1.5844	80.66	0.9500	1.0038	0.9771	0.7452	112.45	128.70
Support 3	1.3772	1.5797	80.40	0.9469	1.0005	0.9734	0.7423	112.04	128.22

Essential Elements of a Successful Trader

2010-12-20T06:07:00.001-08:00

Essential Elements of a Successful Trader

by Jimmy Young
EURUSDTrader

Courage Under Stressful Conditions When the Outcome is Uncertain
All the foreign exchange trading knowledge in the world is not going to help, unless you have the nerve to buy and sell currencies and put your money at risk. As with the lottery “You gotta be in it to win it”. Trust me when I say that the simple task of hitting the buy or sell key is extremely difficult to do when your own real money is put at risk.
You will feel anxiety, even fear. Here lies the moment of truth. Do you have the courage to be afraid and act anyway? When a fireman runs into a burning building I assume he is afraid but he does it anyway and achieves the desired result. Unless you can overcome or accept your fear and do it anyway, you will not be a successful trader.
However, once you learn to control your fear, it gets easier and easier and in time there is no fear. The opposite reaction can become an issue – you’re overconfident and not focused enough on the risk you're taking.
Both the inability to initiate a trade, or close a losing trade can create serious psychological issues for a trader going forward. By calling attention to these potential stumbling blocks beforehand, you can properly prepare prior to your first real trade and develop good trading habits from day one.
Start by analyzing yourself. Are you the type of person that can control their emotions and flawlessly execute trades, oftentimes under extremely stressful conditions? Are you the type of person who’s overconfident and prone to take more risk than they should? Before your first real trade you need to look inside yourself and get the answers. We can correct any deficiencies before they result in paralysis (not pulling the trigger) or a huge loss (overconfidence). A huge loss can prematurely end your trading career, or prolong your success until you can raise additional capital.
The difficulty doesn’t end with “pulling the trigger”. In fact what comes next is equally or perhaps more difficult. Once you are in the trade the next hurdle is staying in the trade. When trading foreign exchange you exit the trade as soon as possible after entry when it is not working. Most people who have been successful in non-trading ventures find this concept difficult to implement.
For example, real estate tycoons make their fortune riding out the bad times and selling during the boom periods. The problem with trying to adapt a 'hold on until it comes back' strategy in foreign exchange is that most of the time the currencies are in long-term persistent, directional trends and your equity will be wiped out before the currency comes back.
The other side of the coin is staying in a trade that is working. The most common pitfall is closing out a winning position without a valid reason. Once again, fear is the culprit. Your subconscious demons will be scaring you non-stop with questions like “what if news comes out and you wind up with a loss”. The reality is if news comes out in a currency that is going up, the news has a higher probability of being positive than negative (more on why that is so in a later article).
So your fear is just a baseless annoyance. Don’t try and fight the fear. Accept it. Have a laugh about it and then move on to the task at hand, which is determining an exit strategy based on actual price movement. As Garth says in Waynesworld “Live in the now man”. Worrying about what could be is irrational. Studying your chart and determining an objective exit point is reality based and rational.
Another common pitfall is closing a winning position because you are bored with it; its not moving. In Football, after a star running back breaks free for a 50-yard gain, he comes out of the game temporarily for a breather. When he reenters the game he is a serious threat to gain more yards – this is indisputable. So when your position takes a breather after a winning move, the next likely event is further gains – so why close it?
If you can be courageous under fire and strategically patient, foreign exchange trading may be for you. If you’re a natural gunslinger and reckless you will need to tone your act down a notch or two and we can help you make the necessary adjustments. If putting your money at risk makes you a nervous wreck its because you lack the knowledge base to be confident in your decision making.
Patience to Gain Knowledge through Study and Focus
Many new traders believe all you need to profitably trade foreign currencies are charts, technical indicators and a small bankroll. Most of them blow up (lose all their money) within a few weeks or months; some are initially successful and it takes as long as a year before they blow up. A tiny minority with good money management skills, patience, and a market niche go on to be successful traders. Armed with charts, technical indicators, and a small bankroll, the chance of succeeding is probably 500 to 1.
To increase your chances of success to near certainty requires knowledge; acquiring knowledge takes hard work, study, dedication and focus. Compile your knowledge base without taking any shortcuts, thereby assuring a solid foundation to build upon.
Jimmy Young

Wisconsin Lemon Used Vehicle Law

2010-12-18T04:32:00.000-08:00

Read the fine print before buying a used car.

If you buy a used car from a Wisconsin-licensed dealership, it is covered under the Motor Vehicle Trade Practice Laws. A used car purchased from a private party is not covered under the law.

Wisconsin Buyers Guide

Dealerships are required to thoroughly inspect used cars before they sell them to consumers. They must test-drive the vehicle; inspect the exterior, interior and engine; and review all paperwork regarding the vehicle, such as the title. The dealer will then create a window label for the car called the Wisconsin Buyers Guide. The Wisconsin Buyers Guide must list all existing problems or important history about the car that the dealer discovered during the test drive, inspection and paperwork check. The Wisconsin Buyers Guide does not tell whether the car will have problems in the future due to its current age or condition.

Vehicle Condition

The Wisconsin Buyers Guide should accurately describe the car you are purchasing. If the dealer does not list a problem with the vehicle that it should have discovered during a test drive or inspection, you may have a legal case against the dealership. It is legal for the dealership to sell a car with general problems, or even one that is not legal to operate on the road, but it must document the problems on the Wisconsin Buyers Guide.

How to File a Complaint

If your used car has a problem, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's Dealer and Agent Section may be able to assist you. Before calling the Department of Transportation, you must give the dealership an opportunity to resolve the situation. If you are unable to resolve the dispute with the dealer, contact the Dealer and Agent Section at 608-266-1425. You can also mail a MV2338 Dealer Complaint form to:
Wisconsin Department of Transportation
Dealer & Agent Section
4802 Sheboygan Avenue, Room 201
P.O. Box 7909
Madison, WI 53707-7909

Tips

Keep accurate records and be sure to get promises made by the dealership in writing. All promises should be on the purchase contract. Oral promises are extremely difficult to enforce.

Considerations

The dealer is not required to tell you if the car has been in an accident. However, it is required to tell you about any existing structural damage discerned from the vehicle inspection and test drive.

Lemon Laws in Wisconsin

2010-12-18T04:29:00.000-08:00

Wisconsin protects consumers with a state automobile lemon law. The Wisconsin lemon law specifically determines the vehicles that the law covers. When the motor vehicle meets the lemon law requirements, the manufacturer must replace the vehicle or refund the price of the vehicle, minus an amount for the mileage.

The Vehicle

Wisconsin defines a lemon as a vehicle that is a year old or less and still covered by the manufacturer's warranty. The lemon law covers cars, trucks, motor homes and motorcycles. The Wisconsin law does not apply to mopeds and trailers that must be used with a truck, according to StateLemonLaw.org.

Defects

The defect must affect the ability of the user to operate the vehicle. The Wisconsin law requires that the defect must cause the vehicle to be inoperable for 30 days, which may not be consecutive. Minor defects that do not affect the use of the vehicle are not covered by the Wisconsin lemon law. For instance, a vehicle with brake or starting problems is covered, but a vehicle with a noise that does not affect the operation of the car is not covered. A defect or defects must occur before the expiration of the manufacturer's warranty.

Repair Attempts

The dealer has four attempts to repair the defect before a refund or replacement is allowed. The car owner should document the repair attempts each time the vehicle is brought to the shop, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The repair shop must have attempted four times to fix the same defect without success.

Wisconsin Lemon Law Notice

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation provides a lemon law notice for consumers to use when requesting a refund or replacement from the vehicle manufacturer. The form uses the language required by the Wisconsin law when making a request for a refund. The manufacturer has 30 days to respond to the notice. The state requires consumers to use the manufacturer's arbitration process if the Wisconsin Department of Transportation certifies the program. A consumer cannot sue the manufacturer if the certified arbitration process was not used.

Refund

Consumers are entitled to the cost of the vehicle, finance charges, and the collateral costs incurred because of the defect. Collateral costs include the cost of repairs, towing, and other transportation, according to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. The collateral costs are paid when the manufacturer provides a replacement vehicle.

Indiana Lemon Law for Used Cars and Other Indiana Laws that Cover Used Cars

2010-12-18T04:13:00.000-08:00

Indiana lemon law does apply to Indiana used cars, provided the problem was reported to the manufacturer or it's authorized dealer within the first 18 months or 18,000 miles from the vehicle's original in-service date/mileage.

Lemon Laws in Indiana: If the car you purchased is a recent model and meets the above mileage and time requirements of Lemon Law, Indiana will allow you to pursue a repurchase or replacement vehicle.

There are also many other laws that can help you obtain monetary damages if you have landed an Indiana lemon used car.

* The Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Used Car Rule: The FTC's Used Car Rule requires dealers to provide Indiana used car consumers with a Buyer's Guide indicating what warranties are being provided with the vehicle, if any, and other types of information. The Buyer's Guide is part of your sales contract and overrides any conflicting provisions in the contract. If the dealer fails to do so you may have the basis for a legal action

* The Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act: In the event the dealer has made any verbal promises and avoided disclosing issues that were already present in the used car he sold you, you may have a cause of action. These laws can often be used even if the used car is sold â€˜AS IS,' if the dealer is guilty of a verbal deception or a failure to disclose information about the vehicle
* The Uniform Commercial Code: When a dealer disclaims a warrant of merchantability, he can be challenged through the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). The UCC can also be used to cancel the sale of a used car
* The Truth in Lending Act and the Federal Odometer Act: They may also help you get protection from the Indiana lemon used car
* The federal Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act: if the Indiana used car purchase comes with written or implied warranties, or service contract (see below) the federal Act may be used when the vehicle suffers from excessive breakdowns

* Implied Warranty of Merchantability: A warrant of merchantability is an implied warranty and implies that a vehicle will function as expected but may not cover every component of a vehicle
* Express Warranties: Express warranties are those that are stated besides the verbal representations and advertisements made by a salesperson at the dealership
* The federal Truth in Mileage Act (TIMA): TIMA helps combat odometer fraud on used cars and will do so if your vehicle was sold with a false odometer statement

When does your used car qualify for cash or other lemon law benefits

The following warranties if breached are covered under special federal lemon laws:

* Any warranty left from the manufacturer when you purchased the Indiana lemon used car
* Your vehicle was â€˜Certified' by the manufacturer and comes with a short Manufacturer's Warranty
* An Extended Warranty backed by the manufacturer

If your Indiana lemon used car does not have any type of manufacturer's warranty you may still be protected and compensated for violations of consumer protection laws.

Keep an eye open for issues in your Indiana used car as the following:

* Laundered Lemon
* Odometer fraud
* History of stolen, stripped and rebuilt
* Salvaged from accident, flood or fire

Even if you had bought a car in â€˜AS IS' condition knowingly, it does not void your rights under applicable laws.
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Jun 29
The Indiana Lemon Law - Disclosure on File for Replaced or Repurchased Vehicles
Indiana Lemon Law No Comments Â»

Indiana Lemon Law, also known as the Motor Vehicle Protection Act provides protection to resident consumers with vehicles that do not meet certain standards or have nonconformities.

According to the Indiana Lemon Law a vehicle is considered to be a Lemon if the nonconformities:

* Substantially impair the use, market value, or safety of the vehicle
* Render the motor vehicle defective and breaches manufacturer's warranty

Vehicles covered by the Indiana Lemon Law

The Indiana Lemon Law protects

* A car bought or leased for personal use in Indiana
* Light truck bought in Indiana

Your car is an Indiana Lemon car if it

* Is not 18 months old yet and has travelled fewer than 18,000 miles
* Was subjected to at least four repair attempts for the same nonconformity by the authorized dealer and the problem is not remedied
* The car is out of service for a cumulative of 30 business days due to repairs

Steps you should take to get Indiana Lemon Law protection

* Report the problem within 18 months of purchase or before 18,000 miles, whichever comes first
* Save copies of every repair order when the dealership repairs or examines your car

Sale of Indiana Lemon Buyback and Title Branding

If the manufacturer has replaced your lemon car with a new one or had bought it back through a refund, the manufacturer is required to obtain a new title for it before the vehicle is resold as it is an Indiana Lemon Law buyback. The Indiana Lemon Law buyback should have a brand or stamp as â€˜The Manufacturer's Buyback-Disclosure On File'. This stamp or brand should remain on the vehicle's title for the rest of the servicing years of the vehicle.

When a dealer sells a vehicle that had previously been repurchased or replaced under the Indiana Lemon Law, the purchase should be accompanied by:

* A written notice that the vehicle was repurchased or replaced under the Indiana Lemon Law
* A 12-month or 12,000 mile manufacturer's warranty

Read more at http://www.articlealley.com/article_1677976_18.html?ktrack=kcplink

Instant Decision Payday Loans

2010-12-18T03:47:00.001-08:00

Instant Decision Payday Loans

A simple 1 minute application can get you cash. Yes, this is viable with instant decision payday loans. The instant decision payday loans are meant to support you when you need cash before the next pay cheque. The indispensable and unplanned financial crisis and emergency demands compel us to seek cash at the earliest. We, instant decision payday loans help you to get the required cash without any documentation process, credit checks and at marginal rates of interest.

If you need an instant payday loans, an instant decision payday loans will just do that. On applied with necessary details you get instant access to cash which you can payback according to your convenience. The instant payday loans let you grab cash between £100 and £1,200 and will be transferred to your given account number. We arrange the cash for you without any credit checks and it matter nothing if you have a poor or bad credit history. And interestingly, no faxing of documentation is required.

We can provide you cash on basis of your regular employee code and valid bank account that have a debit card. Moreover, there is no required of pledging collateral. The instant decision payday loans can be accessed by any person aged 18 years or older, currently working in the UK, that gets their salary direct into their bank. The benefits are open for both homeowners and tenants.

Considering the seriousness of the situation and cash necessity we adopted a simple and online application process. Through internet you can get the loan in quick and easy. Simply apply with us and you can approve the loan today.

However, we, instant decision payday loans can also arrange cash if you need to borrow more than £1,200, you need to apply for instant decision personal loan. We take care that repayment would not be a burden for you so we fetch the loan at cheap and lower rates of interest. So, apply with us and get your cash!!

How To find the Best Secured Loans ?

2010-12-18T03:42:00.000-08:00

Best secured loans are those loans, where a borrower requirements to place collateral against the loaned amount. The collateral might be within the form of home or any other valuable assets of borrower.

There are a number of lending options accessible in the mortgage marketplace. But how many stand up to your expectation? You require everything good in a loan but really few facilitate these.

Nevertheless these days you can access a mortgage, which is marked for providing innumerable facilities to a borrower. Moreover, because of its unique nature it earned the title ‘best’. Read these lending options as ‘best secured loans’, the most well-liked mortgage in USA.

Best secured loans provide a borrower low rate of interest. At the same time, these loans could be repaid over a period between 5 to 25 years. No problem if a borrower fails to repay the loaned amount in time. Because under best secured loans lenders offer a wider and extended period for repayment of the mortgage.

Best secured loans can be utilized to fulfill any of your personal needs. Be it your home improvement, buying a new vehicle or business improvement, you are able to use these lending options any time for something you want. These loans can even be used to consolidate all your unpaid debts.

Thus, best secured loans are remarkable for providing a number of advantages to a borrower. You can get these loans during your monetary urgency, you can utilize these for anything, and you can repay the loaned quantity easily.

Now as long as the availability of these loans is concerned, you are able to access these from World Wide Web. This method is considered fastest of all prevailing method and is the best way to meet trusted lenders.

As you already know now, the best secured loans on the marketplace could be yours, even if you have bad credit. Of course, precisely which are the best lending options depends entirely on your circumstances and the purpose from the mortgage.

A lender will take many things into account prior to deciding to pay out a mortgage. Similarly, you ought to look at many factors when you compare lenders. For example, you will have to know about:

The amount you would like to borrow.
The purpose of the loan.
Interest rates.
Terms and conditions.
Arrangement fees.

In hard financial times, lenders are frequently less likely to pay out loans. However, this does not mean that you won’t be able to discover the best bad credit loan for you personally.

While you will find several methods to get the best lender for your circumstances, using a broker may be one from the greatest. Guaranteed loans from hundreds of companies will be compared rapidly and very easily. On the other hand, you may wish to compare the various lending options and lenders manually.

Should you contact a single loans company, you will only be able to compare the various loans available from that one organization. Contacting numerous businesses, nevertheless, will rapidly become arduous, time-consuming and complicated.

A broker will do all the legwork for you personally, comparing each and every aspect from the deals available to get the very best secured mortgage for you.

When you’re applying for a mortgage, a lender will want to know what the purpose from the mortgage is. This could be almost anything, such as:

Home improvements.
A car purchase.
University and school fees.
A family holiday.
Wedding expenses.

The best bad credit mortgage for you depends on what the purpose of the mortgage is. Nevertheless, no matter what your mortgage is for, you ought to be able to find the right loan for you personally by working with a broker.

www.nineloans.com/

2010-12-17T13:07:00.000-08:00

Marketing and sustainable development: The case of tourism
CHAPTER I: OVERVIEW OF CONCEPTS
SECTION 3: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
II-GOALS AND CHALLENGES OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
1 / Issues
The challenges of sustainable development appear at all levels and affect virtually all aspects of society. Issues, we find from all sides and we can mention:
• Need to rebalance power between economic priorities and social and ecological imperatives. How? By integrating commitments to respect the environment and social standards in the mechanism of financial markets. And substituting for stock market speculation rapid economic projects for sustainable and equitable long term. Place man at the heart of the economy is a priority.
• We need a new practice of government decisions. Political decisions are still often determined in the short term to meet economic interests without taking into account the long-term impact for the entire population.
• The state is not solely responsible for the sustainable development. We need a commitment from all socioeconomic groups. The effective realization of the objectives of sustainable development, can only succeed if all stakeholders of society acting together: private companies, public associations, NGOs, unions and citizens.
• Need to balance economic forces between the South and North. The developing countries are too indebted and hampered in their trade and energy to devote sufficient resources to education, health and environmental protection. We must cancel the external public debt of the Third World, apply a Tobin tax (1) assigning revenues to sustainable development projects, and finally abandon the structural adjustment policies.
• To implement all agreements and multilateral agreements on the environment, create an international institution responsible for enforcing the obligations undertaken by States. Like the World Trade Organization (WTO), which manages the trade, it would take a World Environment Organization to manage environmental problems.
2 / Objectives
The definition of the report “Our Common Future, Brundtland said, was more or less abandoned in favor of an explanation based on three pillars: economic progress, social justice and environmental preservation

Figure 1 diagrams of sustainable development (2)
These three aspects need to be able to meet the goal of building sustainable development for both communities and businesses. In other words, the scheme should meet the following characteristics:
• Sustainable development or sustainable: the human being is at the center of economic, social and environmental. he alone is capable of acting on these tenants and allow the survival of our planet.
• Developing Livable: to take into account environmental and social factors, that is to say, to ensure acceptable living environment. This amounts to including the idea of reducing inequalities between the North and South.
• The sustainable development: it means that economic and environmental factors must be considered together, ie to allow long-term and self-sustaining economic growth based on renewable resources.
• Equitable development: the objective is to combine economic growth while respecting human rights, achieve greater equity in global trade in particular.
The challenge of implementing sustainable development is therefore to ensure that we were aiming to achieve simultaneous and balanced these three fundamental objectives in our behavior, our actions, our policies, our programs, our laws, regulations and all of our other interventions.
The implementation of these objectives relies on a number of which help us better understand the challenge they represent.
Maintain the integrity of the environment is integrated in all actions of human communities (governments, interest groups, businesses, citizens) the concern for maintaining the vitality and diversity of genes, species and entire ecosystems.
This involves measures of protection of environmental quality, management and maintenance of critical habitat for species and a sustainable management of animal and plant populations exploited.
Advancing social equity is to allow the basic needs of present and future human communities and improving the quality of life. This implies access for all to education, health care and social services, employment, decent housing, and respect the rights and freedoms, and participation for the all groups of society, the various decision-making process.
Improve economic efficiency: that promote optimal management of human, natural and financial, to enable the needs of human communities.
This means empowering businesses and consumers in relation to goods and services they produce and use, and the adoption of appropriate government policies (the principle of polluter pay, integration of environmental and social costs, taxation.
In all, sustainable development is a development process that balances the ecological, economic and social issues and establish a virtuous cycle between these three areas:
This development, economically efficient, socially equitable and ecologically sustainable. He is respectful of natural resources and ecosystems support life on earth, which ensures economic efficiency, without losing sight of the social objectives of development such as the fight against poverty, inequality and cons of equity research .
_____________________________________
(1) The Tobin tax, suggested in 1972 by Nobel laureate economist James Tobin is a tax on international currency transactions in order to create a disincentive to speculation
(2) www.wikpedia.org, patterns of sustainable development: the confluence of three concerns, saying the three pillars of sustainable development
defining sustainable development

The organization of brokerage firms

2010-12-17T13:04:00.000-08:00

The brokerage firms: “In principle broker in Morocco are composed of four departments.
In order to minimize conflicts of interest which may expose the broker, Circular No. 01/10 of January 4, 2010 said incompatible functions and put the bonds to set up an organization adapted to the size of the stock company, its activities at its specificities volume transaction processing including the circular has set up three systems across all brokerage firms.

§ 1: Departments:
These four departments listed below.
* The commercial department
This department is responsible for two areas:
The clerk-bargaining role to execute client orders and process transactions for consideration so that his client is served first.
The trader, whose role is to negotiate large blocks of shares in listed companies on the market for direct sales (market block is also responsible for causing movement to the purchase or sale by the intentional
* The research department
It is considered the victim of a brokerage firm, because he is allowing the brokerage firm to drain the fat levels of Moroccan and foreign institutional
Its main role is to conduct studies on listed companies
* The financial engineering department
The department’s role is to assist and advise companies that want:
Raise funds through the IPO and / or arguments of share capital
Achieve external growth through takeover (tender offers) or OPE (bids Exchange)
* The department back-office
It is responsible for the registration and settlement of transactions (for settlement for securities). So he is in relationship with the depositary. Also called “back office as it is not visible to the customer and the back office provides administrative and technical processing of transactions by the front office it is in customer relationship (Table trading)
§ 2 The systems put in place:
To improve the front office brokerage firms have three systems
* The information system
This system ensures an adequate level of performance and security. Article 19 of Circular No. 01 / 10 mentions in paragraph 2 features to be included in this system. is cited as an example:
-The formalization of the relationship with customers
-The processing of trading orders
-The assignment of the executions and, where applicable: securities custody and transaction processing to manage customer under a mandate.
The information system should also allow editing of regulatory documents and information relating to the areas mentioned in Article 19 of the Circular.
It should be noted that the brokerage firm, in case of malfunction of its information system is obliged to notify without delay to CDVM specifying the measures taken or to be taken to remedy
* The telephone registration system
Brokerage firms must have this system can automatically record and performance in all market orders placed by phone during or outside of the trading session.
The telephone registration system must allow for fast and multi market orders by telephone. These investigations must be at least by the following criteria
-The date and time
-The station ID has been received or the call
So any failure of the telephone registration must be notified without delay to CDVM.
* The time-stamping system
Brokerage firms must carry out orders from their customers as quickly as possible while informing them clearly and quickly. Hence the need for any brokerage firm to develop a time-stamping system installed at the whole range of jobs which are transmitted or received trading orders.
It is more than necessary to have a timestamp replacement to deal with any malfunction of this system.
In addition to the broker must ensure the time synchronization between different systems (system information, time stamp and telephone registration system) and time of the rating system of the Casablanca Stock Exchange.

The Berkeley hotel

2010-12-17T13:00:00.001-08:00

The Berkeley
The Berkeley is located in Central London
The Berkeley is a five star deluxe hotel, located in Wilton Place,
Knightsbridge, London. It is managed by Maybourne Hotel Group, who also manage Claridge’s and The Connaught in Mayfair, London.

Richard D’Oyly Carte purchased The Berkeley in 1900, and his family remained in control for the next century. In 2005, The Savoy Group, including The Berkeley, was sold to Quinlan Private, which sold off the Savoy Hotel and Savoy Theatre and renamed the group Maybourne Hotel Group.

Like other hotels in the group, the hotel features a connection to Gordon Ramsay who runs the Boxwood Cafe at the hotel.

The Blue Bar (designed by David Collins) is also situated in The Berkeley, as is Marcus Wearing. The Caramel Room within the hotel is home to the Pret a Portea, the world renowned ‘fashionistas afternoon tea’.

The Berkeley is unique in that it boasts London’s only rooftop swimming pool. Although The Savoy in the Strand also has pool open to the sky, that pool is located in an atrium on the third floor.

Recently released plans for the Berkeley show that the swimming pool on the roof will be closed and a new spa will be opened in the basement, with additional rooms being added to the roof area.

The Myths and Facts of Mesothelioma

2010-12-12T07:49:00.000-08:00

Mesothelioma is a severe disease that is thinning out its roots everywhere in the world especially in United States of America. It is a lethal form of cancer that is dreaded across the globe. For though there is medication to handle the disease’s symptoms, a cure to mesothelioma is still missing Excess confrontation of asbestos is posited as the primary cause of mesothelioma.

Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral that is used in insulation, clothing and fire-resistant materials. But its usage is often less significant than the disasters caused by it. For those who work with asbestos, breathe or inhale the infesting tiny asbestos particles that result in development of mesothelioma and other Asbestos Related Diseases (ARDs). Initially people were unaware of the damaging nature of these particles. It was discovered only lately through various tests such as X-Rays, MRI tests i.e. Magnetic Resonance Imagery and CAT scans or Computed Axial Tomography scans.
Mesothelioma’s very cause has become its bone of contention. This is because numerous asbestos workers and consumers who have been inflicted by this deadly disease claim that they were not intentionally forewarned of the perils of this material. Consequently lawsuits were and are till date filed on these companies. However, it is a myth to think that these court cases have driven many asbestos-manufacturing companies to bankruptcy. The facts reveal that many such companies have survived under the protection of Chapter 11 and that they have in turn used their insolvency to pay off their former debts and have reorganized themselves by it. But this is not the only myth associated with mesothelioma, there are countless others.

1. One universally known myth is that nothing can be done after a person is in the grip of mesothelioma. Though there is no cure for this unsympathetic form of cancer, some medicines can help with lifestyle quality and symptoms.

2. People commonly believe that working in mines and playing in piles where you are surrounded by asbestos and staying close to a person suffering from mesothelioma are the only factors responsible for its outbreak. But in reality, mesothelioma and any other ARD is not a communicable one and individuals who have never taken up any such tasks are even inflicted with it.

3. The next important thing hovering on people’s mind related to mesothelioma lung cancer is smoking. Some believe that smoking invokes this disease. But the truth is that those who smoke and are exposed to asbestos perhaps involve the highest risk of being infected by mesothelioma. But there are innumerable patients of this ARD who have never smoked even a single cigarette throughout their lives.

4. Those who think that an exposure to asbestos will result in an instant exhibition of its symptoms are even wrong. According to medical science, the effects remain latent and unknown for 10-40 years.

5. Generally it is deemed that even a slight exposure to asbestos particles leads to mesothelioma. So if these fibres are detected in your house or office, they should be removed as soon as possible and all the materials that came in contact with it should be thoroughly cleansed. But this is not what is actually required. An improper hurried removal can be extremely hazardous since these particles easily get mixed in the surrounding air and cause damage. The best technique to ward off the threat of asbestos particles is to properly cover the affected area. Moreover, this task should not be taken up by any naïve individual. Only the skilled certified asbestos abatement professionals should be called to do this job

6. A number of people are of the opinion that Chrysotile is a safe form of asbestos. But researches have shown that all forms of asbestos including the largely used Chrysotile are effective in causing Mesothelioma and other ARDs like lung cancer, asbestosis etc.

Starwood American Express Card: 2,000 Bonus Starpoints

2010-12-07T11:07:00.000-08:00

If you have the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card, they are offering up to 2,000 bonus Starpoints for adding two adding two additional cardholders to your account and $150 is spent on them the first three months. SSN should not be required. This is one of my favorite rewards credit cards.

1. This offer is available for up to two Additional Cardmembers. To earn 1,000 bonus Starpoints, the Additional Cardmember must have a total eligible spend of $150 within the first 90 days of their Cardmembership. Starpoints will be credited to the Basic Cardmember’s Starwood Preferred Guest account 8 – 12 weeks after they are earned, as long as the Basic Cardmember has no American Express® account in default. The Additional Cardmember must be 15 years or older, have never been an Additional Cardmember on this account before, and have never had an American Express Account in default.

Coinstar Promotion: $50 in Gift Cards for $40 in Coins (No Mail-in-Rebate Required)

2010-12-07T10:59:00.000-08:00

Coin-changing machine operator CoinStar is repeating a promotion where if you change $40 in coins into a gift card, you can receive an additional $10 gift card by mail at certain retailers. It’s actually better this year because it is no longer run as an annoying mail-in rebate. This time, after you exchange $40 in coins for a gift certificate, they provide a promotional code on the receipt that you redeem online. The $10 bonus certificate is still sent via snail mail, but this time “within 1-2 weeks” and without wasting time with mailing forms and postage.
The participating retailers include iTunes Store, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Borders Bookstores, and Regal-affiliated Movie Theaters. However, the page also says that Amazon.com will join the promotion on 12/9/2010. The page seems to hint that Gap and Starbucks will also join in eventually, but who knows. Personally, I like the idea of getting rid of my coins and getting a 20% bonus since I shop regularly at Amazon anyway.
By the way, if you convert your $40 into a gift certificate instead of cash, you’ll avoid their normal exorbitant 9.8% processing fee. Here is their kiosk locator.
I wrote about Coinstar and other things to do with loose coinage before and people shared some nice tips in the comments.

e-commerce and Internet industry in Canada

2010-11-27T12:41:00.000-08:00

Today we are talking about the country that occupies most of northern North America. The name of this country originally means “village” (translation from the word “kanta”). That is a country of a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth II as the head of state. Two languages are equally used in this country and both are official: English and French. Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia. With its closest neighbor the USA Canada has not only mutual borders but the world’s largest trading relationship as well. However, we are here to study the country’s IT and e-commerce infrastructure state.
Canada is definitely one of the world leaders in terms of the broadband penetration and IT infrastructure development. As for the January 2009 Canada ranks as the 12th country in the world for Internet usage, according to http://www.internetworldstats.com data. Thus the end of 2008 showed an enormous amount of Internet users in the country: 28.000.000 that made up 84.3% of the total population. This can be compared with the year 2000 statistic, when it was 12,700,000 or 40.3% users in the country. As for 2005, the growth was noticeable, and the amount of users that year exceeded 20 million making up 67,5%. So, the period of 2000-2008 reflected 120.5% growth. However, Canada’s Internet market share of 11.3% is far behind 88,7% in the US. Nevertheless this two are the only leaders in this region.
It’s an interesting fact, almost a half of countries Internet users (48%) connect at least three times per day. As for the type of Internet connection preference, 53.6% of Canadians use high-speed connection, compared to 33.8% of those in the US.
Canada occupies the 10th position among 30 most developed countries in respect of the Internet access speed and cost, as for the research conducted in 2007 by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Average download speed in Canada is 7.6 Mbit per sec (compared to Japan that has the highest speed of 61.0 Mbit per sec and Greece that has the lowest speed of 1.0 Mbit per sec). As for the Internet access cost in Canada, it made up $2.39 per 1 Mb. This price can be compared to the cheapest Internet access in Japan – just $ 0.27 and to the most expensive of $ 60.01 in Mexico. The Canada’s Internet top-level domain or ccTLD is .ca. But it has the number of sub domains: .bc.ca, .mb.ca, .nb.ca, .n. ca, .ns.ca, .nt.ca, .nu.ca, .on.ca, .pe.ca, .qc.ca. Two year registration agreement in the zone of Canada’s ccTLD will cost just $99. It’s cheap enough compared to, for instance, Luxemburg’s cost of $270, but it’s still more expensive than in the USA, where registration in the zone of country’s domain will cost you just $17.5 or $35 (as for http://www.rwgusa.com data).
Well, Canada has an Internet market that is very much attractive for users as well as for ISPs. Broadband service is driven by a government, aiming to establish in Canada the strongest information economy and make it an attractive country for investment. Cable modem and DSL services are reaching the highest level of penetration. The legal definition of broadband in Canada is 1.5 Mbit/s. However, over the recent years the competition between the major broadband Internet providers caused rapid growth in the volume of Internet services available to home users. Below the names of the main Canada Internet service providers, offering the variety of plans, are presented:
• Shaw – offers variety of Internet access speed: from 128 kbit/s to 25 Mbit/s
• Rogers Cable – 256 kbit/s to 10 or 18 Mbit/s
• Videotron – 128 kbit/s to 20, 30 or 50 Mbit/s
• Cogeco – 150 kbit/s to 16 Mbit/s
• Eastlink – 128 kbit/s to 15 Mbit/s
• Bell Internet – 500 kbit/s to 10 or 16 Mbit/s
• Telus – 28 kbit/s to 6 Mbit/s
• Sasktel – 64 kbit/s to 7 Mbit/s
• Colbanet – 800 kbit/s to 24 Mbit/s
• TekSavvy – 512 kbit/s to 5 Mbit/s
• ElectronicBox – 800 kbit/s to 5 Mbit/s
• Novus – 10 Mbit/s to 50 Mbit/s
• Velcom – 288 kbit/s to 64 Mbit/s

The causes of the current financial crisis

2010-11-27T12:40:00.000-08:00

“The global economic crisis resulting from the combined effect of several factors, some are familiar to previous crises, others are new. It is primarily a crisis of American finance. Caused by excessive household debt in the U.S., deceleration, then the fall of property prices. It was exacerbated by reckless risk-taking financial intermediaries Americans seeking yields unreasonable in the context of deregulation and financial innovation at risk. This crisis is also [...]
THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS: THREATS AND CONSTRAINTS
Part1: the causes of the financial crisis
Chapter 1: The emergence of the current financial crisis
Section1: Clarification on the crisis
in a context of deregulation and financial innovation at risk. This crisis is also a crisis of global finance.
The years preceding the crisis, have been characterized by strong global growth and relatively low inflation and stable in most countries. Growth was driven by significant increases in productivity in many countries, which, combined with the increased integration of developing countries into the global economy and a booming trade, also allowing prices to remain relatively stable for several years. The various forms of growth, coupled with weak regulation, eventually resulted in financial institutions, businesses and households over-indebted, a situation that proved untenable. Of consistently low interest rates have prompted investors to try to get higher yields of securities, real estate and commodities, financial instruments and increasingly risky. Asset prices have been pushed up through a wide range of industrial and emerging economies and many developing countries have benefited from high prices of commodities.
A. The subprime, what is it?
In recent years, abundant liquidity, the corresponding weakening of the sensitivity to risk and financial innovations have led to a sharp increase in the distribution of mortgage credit in the United States, especially in the components “subprime” and “Alt A”. This allowed an increase in the proportion of households own their homes (64% in 1995, 69% last year). The subprime lending are made to borrowers for which the ratio of debt to income (D / R) exceeds 55% and / or the LTV of the property (P / V) exceeds 85%. Distribution reached some 150 billion the year earlier this decade, it exceeded 600 billion in 2005 and 2006. These loans accounted for 13% of total outstanding mortgage credit in 2006 (10,000 billion). Appropriations called “Alt A” consist of loans for which the above ratios are not exceeded, but are made to borrowers for which we have only incomplete references. Loans called “jumbo” is a value above the ceiling (417,000 dollars) provided for loans eligible for the Government Sponsored Housing Enterprises (GSEs), Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. They reach nearly 15% of total outstanding mortgages. All these loans are frequently accompanied by features that make them easily accessible (“affordability products”), and they spread with the loosening of requirements in a context where rising prices made the homeownership more difficult. This is the adjustable rate mortgages (ARM) made up two-thirds of “2 / 28″: These are loans to fixed rate lower than market rates on the first two years (teaser rates) and are processed at the end of this period in variable rate loans. This rate change (reset) a natural consequence of increasing the debt burden for borrowers, resulting in a potential increase in default rates (two-thirds of subprime loans are ARM). The “interest-only loans” includes a deferred (typically 2 or 3 year ARM and the 10-year fixed rates). The “negative amortization loans” allow up to a certain proportion of the loan (15-25%) to capitalize the interest payments, once this proportion reached, the loan becomes a normal loan. Again, the burden of debt it is so much greater.
Speculation has played, loans have tended to be more frequently made based on anticipation of higher house prices rather than on the basis of the ability to properly serve the debt, in anticipation, in case of failure the borrower, as production of the property would cover the repayment of principal, not worth it of course if prices continue. The rise of recent difficulties stems from the thrust faults. The default rate on loans (ARM seizures and arrears over 60 days) rose by 2.6% on the premium segment and 0.5% knew about the Alt-A segment of mid-2005 to 13% and 2.5 % at the end of 2006. The phenomenon is even more pronounced for the generations of the most recent loan, after a year in October 2007 Business cycle 5, the proportion of payment periods over 60 days was 6% for subprime ARM made in 2005 but more than 10 % of those awarded in 2006.
Graph 1 Source: Fitch
Given the characteristics of these loans, the surge in defaults is likely to continue in the coming quarters. In fact, as shown by the statistics of Inside Mortgage Finance, the rate adjustments provided for ARM loans will rise to power in late 2007 and early 2008, before beginning a slight decrease from the fourth quarter of next year . They hit a total of sixty billion in Q1 2007 and a hundred in Q2, but will cover more than $ 120 billion in Q3 and Q4 2007 and Q1 2008 (including about two-thirds for the subprime) . The peak will be reached in Q2 and Q3 2008 with amounts over $ 140 billion, they fall to around $ 70 billion the following quarters.
Graph 2 Source: Fitch
B. The phenomenon of “securitization”
Securitization is a technique that is housed in an ad hoc company a series of loans granted to households for example, then sell the securities of the company to investors for whom this is an investment. They somehow bought the bank’s debts. These products developed by investment banks have been placed outside their balance sheets, as if the banks were only intermediaries. They resold the products of securitization investors, which can be both on Wall Street, as Tokyo or Paris. These financial institutions are saying, I buy a thousand of loans and to reduce the risk, I mix with credits issued in very different regions: Florida, California, Texas … the problem is that neither banks nor rating agencies had considered a drop in real estate throughout. The banks have seized assets of insolvent households and have tried to sell them. The swelling losses caused investor wariness. Nobody knew what was the value of the securities. And transactions have been frozen.
More accurate Securitization is a process that occurs in two stages.
1) In a first step, a bank sells credits arising out of mortgages (or consumer loans, such as the purchase of car) to a body that will turn them into financial stocks. Two parastatals can redeem the claims of U.S. banks “: governments sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
2) The latter in turn sell to investors (banks, hedge funds, mutua funds, etc.). These claims turned into mortgage-backed securities, that is to say literally collateralized mortgage loans. These mortgagebacked-securities aggregate a large number of these mortgages. This securitization is at the origin of the secondary market for mortgage debt, which is now in larger volume than the market for treasuries (bills) U.S.!
The isseurs to invest that are sold mortgage-backed-securities affecting the flow of repayments paid by borrowers on loans and support in exchange for aggregate and the risk of non-repayment of loans in proportion to their investment. Securitization can thus dilute the credit risk.
But Credit institutions have abused the system. They have shamelessly sold loans at usurious rates to households with poor credit knowing that the risk could in any way be easily transferred to the market.
Schematically:
Schemes proposed by Mr. Leullier, Mr. and Ms. GOLIAS Triems VIET TONG – trainee teachers PLC2 SES.
C. Of the housing crisis in the global financial crisis.
Nobody anticipated this crisis, yet it has been brewing for several years. The U.S. housing market has experienced a steady increase, and property prices have risen steadily. To compensate for the lack of housing and to the promise of significant benefits related to higher prices, developers have stepped up construction sites. The number of housing has increased significantly. According to some statistics, 4 million homes have been built in recent years in the U.S., while the need was only 2 million. Thus, there are about 2 million empty homes in the United States. And since the supply is greater than demand, so prices have fallen. Those who were unable to guarantee their loan. Banks have therefore increased the interest rates but borrowers who have low incomes or no, were unable to honor their debt. Direct consequences: the end of July 2007, credit institutions have failed.
o Linking the housing crisis and declining stock values.
Bankruptcies of certain credit institutions can not explain the drop in the stock market. In reality, an attempt to limit the risks, most lending institutions had turned these loans into securities on the stock market (securitization: a sophisticated financial technique, which involves the transfer of assets or credits related form structure to third party investors. It gives rise to an issue of securities to capital markets, backed by underlying assets and aggregate per slice).
They found themselves backed securities market without anyone really knowing if he had. The financiers were involved in various funds such securities so that the origin of the titles became blurred. A force to sell and sell and issue debt securities on other debt securities, all became opaque. The rating agencies themselves have said that these investments were not risky. They were deceived.
Some institutions, to overcome their lack of liquidity, had only one solution: to sell their stocks and bonds. Reacting in number and in a short period of time, these banks therefore cause a sharp drop in stock prices: the CAC 40 (Continuous Assisted Quotation) is hit, all European stock markets loosen, followed closely by Asian bourses .
In one week, major stock indexes are experiencing sharp downward correction:
• DAX (Germany): -4.42%
• Dow Jones (USA): -5.95%
• Nasdaq (USA): -6.16%
• FTSE 100 (United States): -8.37%
• CAC 40: -8.42%
• Nikkei (Japan): -10.3%.
_______________________
- Philippe D’Arvisenet; From subprime to the real economy, trends, economic-October 2007 p.5 research.bnpparibas.com
- Philippe D’Arvisenet; From subprime to the real economy, trends, p.5-6 October 2007 economic-research.bnpparibas.com
- Philippe D’Arvisenet; From subprime to the real economy, trends, p.5-6 October 2007 economic-research.bnpparibas.com
- Philippe D’Arvisenet; From subprime to the real economy, trends, October 2007 p.10 economic-research.bnpparibas.com
- Philippe D’Arvisenet; From subprime to the real economy, trends, October 2007 p.10 economic-research.bnpparibas.com
- ELBADAOUI MOUSAPHA and ABDELHAK ELMIKLINI. The impact of financial crisis on Morocco, My Ismail University P31-32/2008-2009
- Montialoux Claire and Gabriel Zucman, understand the subprime crisis, page 14 www.rce-revue.com/files/Subprime3.pdf
- Hedge funds: hedge funds taking paris on the future as opposed to prevailing market trends
- Montialoux Claire and Gabriel Zucman, understand the subprime crisis, page 14 www.rce revue.com/files/Subprime3.pdf
- Memorial High School published by Charles Gide; the financial crisis; Edition January 2009.p 7 http://www.lyc-gide-uzes.ac-montpellier.fr/Pedagogie/Ses/subprimes3.pdf
- Memorial High School published by Charles Gide; the financial crisis; Edition January 2009.p 8 http://www.lyc-gide-uzes.ac-montpellier.fr/Pedagogie/Ses/subprimes3.pdf
- ELBADAOUI MOUSAPHA and ABDELHAK ELMIKLINI. The impact of financial crisis on Morocco, P 31-32; 2008-2009 University My Ismail
ELBADAOUI MOUSAPHA and ABDELHAK ELMIKLINI. The impact of financial crisis on Morocco, P 31-32; 2008-2009 University My Ismail
ELBADAOUI MOUSAPHA and ABDELHAK ELMIKLINI. The impact of financial crisis on Morocco, P 31-32; 2008-2009 University My Ismail
The types of causes of the crisis
The current financial crisis, which some already beginning to describe the most serious since 1929, is the result of an accumulation of factors.
A. The theoretical reasons
a) U.S. economist Milton Friedman, nothing in the economic system is no more important than the quantity of money. From there, he believes that regulating the money supply should not be abandoned in the trial of the authorities of the central institution of issue, understand and there, the central bank – despite their good intentions, “he said These characters will never fit exactly in the money supply needs of the moment.
He says that in this way, the money will adapt to the need for higher wages, stocks and loans on the one hand, and secondly, the maintenance of the increase will keep the economy on the path growth. This is essentially what advocates the Nobel Prize in Economics, listened to the Republican Party USA. It is in the heart of liberalism guided by monetary policies with the blessing of the market. The state has no role to play.

THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS THREATS AND CONSTRAINTS

2010-11-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS, THREAT AND CONSTRAINTS: “The word” crisis “is often used as a synonym for disease, it can be used in several areas, but what interests us is the economic origin which brings together temporarily crises under one umbrella concept, that of “an imbalance of a crack followed by a fall, fall of productive activity, trade, profits, wages, stock prices, but rising bankruptcies, unemployment, suicide. ” It was on this downward path that is suffering symptoms declare that the accident [...]”
THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL CRISIS THREATS AND CONSTRAINTS
Introduction
I. Definition of crisis
[...] Down the route that is suffering symptoms declare that the accident is indicative of cyclical dysfunction affecting structures and that the worst premonitions arise.
But the economic crisis is the result of a series of breaks and economic imbalances such as imbalances of the financial system that causes a financial crisis type.
The word crisis is used to designate a rather broad, including these currency crises, banking crises and stock market crises. But the term is also used to refer to public debt crises. A financial crisis may affect only a few countries or initiated in one country can spread by contagion and become international, thereby slowing down the global economy. A financial crisis does at first that the financial markets, the widening will lead to adverse effects on the rest of the economy, causing an economic crisis or recession. These effects are usually a credit crunch and therefore a decline in investment, a crisis of consumer confidence.
Financial crises are repeated, showing each accession, a fundamental similarity of their origins and their conduct, but their specific character. Every financial crisis is taking at least one of the three canonical forms that history has taught us regularly since the 19th century.
The first of its forms, and the oldest, is the crisis of speculation. Why heritage assets (stocks, real estate, gold …) can they be subject to speculative bubbles? Because their prices, unlike that of a good or service industrial or commercial reproducible, does not depend on their cost.
As long as the information is not shared well (between the lender and the borrower, shareholder and management, or between market players themselves) and that the future is difficult probabilisable, these asymmetries of information and this fundamental uncertainty promote actors mimicry. It is then, indeed, very difficult to know the fundamental value of the asset, and thereby to bet on it. In this case, the direction of the market is given by others, because it is the pure product of expression of the majority opinion that emerges then. Therefore rationally imitate the actors to try to anticipate and play market trends, totally self-referential. So, can develop strong and lasting bubbles. Thus, these bubbles burst, they suddenly, with the turning of the majority opinion, in a move even stronger than that which characterized the previous phase.
The second form, the credit crisis, meanwhile, comes from the fact that in a long period of growth, all (banks and borrowers) gradually forget the possibility of occurrence of crises and eventually anticipate an expansion without limit. In the euphoric phase, the level of leverage (debt to wealth or income for households or net assets for business) people increased unreasonably. The financial situation of economic agents is very vulnerable when the next downturn. Often during this phase, lenders dangerously low sensitivity to risk and accept the competitive game, margins that will not cover the cost of future credit risk.
Also, lorsqu’advient the next crisis, lenders (banks and markets) they suddenly reconsider the level of risk, and a symmetrical effect of precedent, they strongly reverse their practice of granting credit to cause a “credit crunch”, which will itself strengthen the economic crisis that has caused.
Third canonical form of crisis: the crisis of liquidity. At some dramatic sequences of financial crises, distrust is contagious, as in the financial and banking crisis that we know today. This distrust led some banks to a fatal stroke of their customers to withdraw deposits. It can also lead to a scarcity or even disappearance, of the intention of banks to lend to each other, by the fear of bank failures in the chain. But the liquidity of interbank funding market – without intervention of central banks as lenders of last resort – Product dreaded bankruptcy. In addition, other forms of liquidity may occur.
Some financial markets, yesterday liquids, may be illiquid suddenly, as the concept of market liquidity, as analyzed by Andre Orlean, is again highly self-referential. A market is liquid if all the players think it is such. If suspicion settles on its liquidity, as the ABS market recently for example, all players will find themselves out of this stock market, causing the same token, endogenously, its liquidity.
These three types of crises intertwine often and train each other in a situation that becomes very critical. The great crisis which emerged in 2007 is the combination of these three forms. A real estate bubble first, including the U.S., UK and Spain.
Then a credit crisis due to a dangerous increase in the rate of household debt in these countries, and a very high leverage investment banks, LBO firms and hedge funds in particular. A liquidity crisis, finally, product markets securitization and wholesale funding.
One of the greatest historians of finance is an American economist Charles Kindleberger, which lists the financial crises since the 17th century in “A history of finance”. He argues that the financial cycle is divided into five phases: development, enthusiasm and excitement, fear and disorder, consolidation, reorganization.

TD Ameritrade Offers 100+ Commission-free ETFs

2010-11-14T12:37:00.000-08:00

TD Ameritrade recently announced that they will be offering a list of over 100 ETFs that can be traded with no commission if you hold them for at least 30 days. Supposedly, they asked Morningstar to pick 100 ETFs that would be most useful for long-term investors to build a ETF portfolio.
The current 100 ETFs that make the list include 47 from iShares, 32 from Vanguard, and 12 from State Street. You can view the entire list here. You must enroll and accept the terms, because if you don’t hold the ETF for 30 days, they will charge you a short-term trading fee of $19.99. Their standard price for other trades remains at $9.99.
Going over the list, it does appear to include all the most popular ETFs, including just about all of the ETFs that I have been interested in investing in. However, it doesn’t include all the ETFs from any particular family.
Selected Vanguard ETFs: Total Bond (BNS), Small Cap Value (VBR), FTSE All World ex US (VEU), Total Stock Market (VTI), and Emerging Markets (VWO)
Selected iShares ETFs: Barclays TIPS Bond (TIP), Barclays 1-3 Year Treasury Bond (SHY), and S&P SmallCap 600 Value Index (IJS)

11/2 Only: 6 Movie Tickets from Fandango For $30

2010-11-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

Today 11/2 only: Groupon is offering 6 movie tickets on Fandango.com for $30. Valid for any movie up to $10, including first-run movies but not IMAX. Must redeem Groupon at WeeklyCinema.com by 12/18/10. Tickets must be redeemed via Fandango within 90 days of Groupon redemption.
If you don’t have a Groupon account already, please use my sign-up link first. It’s free for you, and I’ll get some Groupon credit. Groupon is a popular group-buying site where in major metro areas you get one deal per day from a local retailer as long as enough people sign up for it, along with occasional nationwide offers.
The offer is by WeeklyCinema, which usually offers 6 tickets for $29.99 but requires signing up for a subscription. This Groupon does not require a subscription. The six tickets can be split up for different movies or used all at once. The deal is for Seattle, but anyone can buy it and you redeem online. I already purchased mine from a previous Groupon, it should last us for the holiday movie season.

American Express Gold Card: 25,000 Point = $250 Signup Bonus

2010-11-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

American Express has temporarily brought back their 25,000 Membership Rewards point offer for their AmEx Premier Rewards Gold Card, which is one of their upscale-oriented charge cards where you must pay off the balance each month. Offer expires November 8th.
* Earn 25,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $1,000 in your first 3 months of Card membership. MR points are very versatile, and can be converted to 25,000 frequent flier miles in a number of programs in various increments, or you can simply get $250 in gift cards at several stores like Home Depot, Crate & Barrel, Banana Republic/Gap/Old Navy, or Macy’s. (The usual offers are for 10,000 or 15,000 bonus points.)
* No annual fee for your first year. Another important feature, you can get the sign-up bonus and also try out this card for free for a year. If you keep the card after that, there is a $175 annual fee.
* Offers 3X points on airfare, 2X points on gas and groceries, and 1X points on everything else. The traditional versions only offer 1 point per $ spent, so these are an extra perk for those that spend a lot on airfare.
* Earn an additional 15,000 Membership Rewards bonus points when you spend $30,000 per calendar year. This means that if you spend $30,000 in a year ($2,500 per month) that you’ll get at least 25,000 for sign-up + 30,000 on spending + 15,000 bonus = 70,000 points total, plus any extra for gas/groceries/airfare.
For those that charge a lot, especially with reimbursed airfare, that’s enough for 70,000 frequent flier miles (possibly two flights to Hawaii) or $700 in gift cards. If you don’t, there’s still that $250 upfront bonus with only $1,000 minimum spending. If you can spend $10,000 in four months, there is still the bigger 50,000 points offer for the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card.
If you don’t see the 25k offer, clear your cookies or use the Private Browsing / Incognito / InPrivate mode of your web browser.
American Express Mandated Disclaimer: This content is not provided or commissioned by American Express. Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of American Express, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by American Express. This site may be compensated through American Express Affiliate Program.

Chart: The S&P 500 Stock Index Priced In Terms Of Gold

2010-11-14T12:32:00.000-08:00

I don’t know what if anything this chart tells me, but for some reason I was compelled to post it here for posterity. Below is the S&P 500 index priced in terms of ounces of gold, from 1971-2010. Via BusinessInsider.

It has become popular to refer to gold as “real money” these days (and thus mock paper currencies like the dollar and euro). I don’t know about that. As a non-correlated asset to own as a certain percentage of your portfolio (and rebalance regularly), then maybe. But as a way of pricing things, gold values are way too volatile, and while the price of gold does relate to the falling dollar, it also relates strongly with speculation and fear.
I also feel that the newly found ease of buying gold in a brokerage account via an ETF like GLD has helped the price skyrocket. Click, click, and now you own gold. If you haven’t heard, gold ATM machines are coming here as well. Hmm.
In any case, if you do think of gold as money, then according to this chart the S&P 500 is at a reasonable historical price.

2010-11-12T13:45:00.000-08:00

Microfinance is the provision of financial services to low-income clients or solidarity lending groups including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.
More broadly, it is a movement whose object is “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.” Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help
poor people out of poverty.
The challenge
Traditionally, banks have not provided financial services, such as loans, to clients with little or no cash income. Banks incur substantial costs to manage a client account, regardless of how small the sums of money involved. For example, although the total gross revenue from delivering one hundred loans worth $1,000 each will not differ greatly from the revenue that results from delivering one loan of $100,000, it takes nearly a hundred times as much work and cost to manage a hundred loans as it does to manage one. The fixed cost of processing loans of any size is considerable as assessment of potential borrowers, their repayment prospects and security; administration of outstanding loans, collecting from delinquent borrowers, etc., has to be done in all cases. There is a break-even point in providing loans or deposits below which banks lose money on each transaction they make. Poor people usually fall below that breakeven point. A similar equation resists efforts to deliver other financial services to poor people.
In addition, most poor people have few assets that can be secured by a bank as collateral. As documented extensively by Hernando de Soto and others, even if they happen to own land in the developing world, they may not have effective title to it. This means that the bank will have little recourse against defaulting borrowers.
Seen from a broader perspective, the development of a healthy national financial system has long been viewed as a catalyst for the broader goal of national economic development (see for example Alexander Gerschenkron, Paul Rosenstein-Rodan, Joseph Schumpeter, Anne Krueger ). However, the efforts of national planners and experts to develop financial services for most people have often failed in developing countries, for reasons summarized well by Adams, Graham & Von Pischke in their classic analysis ‘Undermining Rural Development with Cheap Credit’.
Because of these difficulties, when poor people borrow they often rely on relatives or a local moneylender, whose interest rates can be very high. An analysis of 28 studies of informal moneylending rates in 14 countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa concluded that 76% of moneylender rates exceed 10% per month, including 22% that exceeded 100% per month. Moneylenders usually charge higher rates to poorer borrowers than to less poor ones. While moneylenders are often demonized and accused of usury, their services are convenient and fast, and they can be very flexible when borrowers run into problems. Hopes of quickly putting them out of business have proven unrealistic, even in places where microfinance institutions are active.[citation needed]
Over the past centuries practical visionaries, from the Franciscan monks who founded the community-oriented pawnshops of the 15th century, to the founders of the European credit union movement in the 19th century (such as Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen) and the founders of the microcredit movement in the 1970s (such as Muhammad Yunus) have tested practices and built institutions designed to bring the kinds of opportunities and risk-management tools that financial services can provide to the doorsteps of poor people. While the success of the Grameen Bank (which now serves over 7 million poor Bangladeshi women) has inspired the world, it has proved difficult to replicate this success. In nations with lower population densities, meeting the operating costs of a retail branch by serving nearby customers has proven considerably more challenging. Hans Dieter Seibel, board member of the European Microfinance Platform, is in favour of the group model. This particular model (used by many Microfinance institutions) makes financial sense, he says, because it reduces transaction costs. Microfinance programmes also need to be based on local funds. Local Roots
Although much progress has been made, the problem has not been solved yet, and the overwhelming majority of people who earn less than $1 a day, especially in the rural areas, continue to have no practical access to formal sector finance. Microfinance has been growing rapidly with $25 billion currently at work in microfinance loans. It is estimated that the industry needs $250 billion to get capital to all the poor people who need it. The industry has been growing rapidly, and concerns have arisen that the rate of capital flowing into microfinance is a potential risk unless managed well.
Boundaries and principles
Poor people borrow from informal moneylenders and save with informal collectors. They receive loans and grants from charities. They buy insurance from state-owned companies. They receive funds transfers through formal or informal remittance networks. It is not easy to distinguish microfinance from similar activities. It could be claimed that a government that orders state banks to open deposit accounts for poor consumers, or a moneylender that engages in usury, or a charity that runs a heifer pool are engaged in microfinance. Ensuring financial services to poor people is best done by expanding the number of financial institutions available to them, as well as by strengthening the capacity of those institutions. In recent years there has also been increasing emphasis on expanding the diversity of institutions, since different institutions serve different needs.
Some principles that summarize a century and a half of development practice were encapsulated in 2004 by Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) and endorsed by the Group of Eight leaders at the G8 Summit on June 10, 2004:
1. Poor people need not just loans but also savings, insurance and money transfer services.
2. Microfinance must be useful to poor households: helping them raise income, build up assets and/or cushion themselves against external shocks.
3. “Microfinance can pay for itself.” Subsidies from donors and government are scarce and uncertain, and so to reach large numbers of poor people, microfinance must pay for itself.
4. Microfinance means building permanent local institutions.
5. Microfinance also means integrating the financial needs of poor people into a country’s mainstream financial system.
6. “The job of government is to enable financial services, not to provide them.”
7. “Donor funds should complement private capital, not compete with it.”
8. “The key bottleneck is the shortage of strong institutions and managers.” Donors should focus on capacity building.
9. Interest rate ceilings hurt poor people by preventing microfinance institutions from covering their costs, which chokes off the supply of credit.
10. Microfinance institutions should measure and disclose their performance – both financially and socially.
Microfinance is considered as a tool for socio-economic development,and can be clearly distinguished from charity. Families who are destitute, or so poor they are unlikely to be able to generate the cash flow required to repay a loan, should be recipients of charity. Others are best served by financial institutions.
Debates at the boundaries
There are several key debates at the boundaries of microfinance.
Practitioners and donors from the charitable side of microfinance frequently argue for restricting microcredit to loans for productive purposes–such as to start or expand a microenterprise. Those from the private-sector side respond that because money is fungible, such a restriction is impossible to enforce, and that in any case it should not be up to rich people to determine how poor people use their money.
Perhaps influenced by traditional Western views about usury, the role of the traditional moneylender has been subject to much criticism, especially in the early stages of modern microfinance. As more poor people gained access to loans from microcredit institutions however, it became apparent that the services of moneylenders continued to be valued. Borrowers were prepared to pay very high interest rates for services like quick loan disbursement, confidentiality and flexible repayment schedules. They did not always see lower interest rates as adequate compensation for the costs of attending meetings, attending training courses to qualify for disbursements or making monthly collateral contributions. They also found it distasteful to be forced to pretend they were borrowing to start a business, when they were often borrowing for other reasons (such as paying for school fees, dealing with health costs or securing the family food supply). The more recent focus on inclusive financial systems (see section below) affords moneylenders more legitimacy, arguing in favour of regulation and efforts to increase competition between them to expand the options available to poor people.
Modern microfinance emerged in the 1970s with a strong orientation towards private-sector solutions. This resulted from evidence that state-owned agricultural development banks in developing countries had been a monumental failure, actually undermining the development goals they were intended to serve (see the compilation edited by Adams, Graham & Von Pischke). Nevertheless public officials in many countries hold a different view, and continue to intervene in microfinance markets.
There has been a long-standing debate over the sharpness of the trade-off between ‘outreach’ (the ability of a microfinance institution to reach poorer and more remote people) and its ‘sustainability’ (its ability to cover its operating costs—and possibly also its costs of serving new clients—from its operating revenues). Although it is generally agreed that microfinance practitioners should seek to balance these goals to some extent, there are a wide variety of strategies, ranging from the minimalist profit-orientation of BancoSol in Bolivia to the highly integrated not-for-profit orientation of BRAC in Bangladesh. This is true not only for individual institutions, but also for governments engaged in developing national microfinance systems.
Microfinance experts generally agree that women should be the primary focus of service delivery. Evidence shows that they are less likely to default on their loans than men. Industry data from 2006 for 704 MFIs reaching 52 million borrowers includes MFIs using the solidarity lending methodology (99.3% female clients) and MFIs using individual lending (51% female clients). The delinquency rate for solidarity lending was 0.9% after 30 days (individual lending—3.1%), while 0.3% of loans were written off (individual lending—0.9%). Because operating margins become tighter the smaller the loans delivered, many MFIs consider the risk of lending to men to be too high. This focus on women is questioned sometimes, however. A recent study of microenterpreneurs from Sri Lanka published by the World Bank found that the return on capital for male-owned businesses (half of the sample) averaged 11%, whereas the return for women-owned businesses was 0% or slightly negative.
Microfinancial services may be needed everywhere, including the developed world.[citation needed] However, in developed economies intense competition within the financial sector, combined with a diverse mix of different types of financial institutions with different missions, ensures that most people have access to some financial services.[citation needed] Efforts to transfer microfinance innovations such as solidarity lending from developing countries to developed ones have met with little success.
Financial needs of poor people
Financial needs and financial services.
In developing economies and particularly in the rural areas, many activities that would be classified in the developed world as financial are not monetized: that is, money is not used to carry them out. Almost by definition, poor people have very little money. But circumstances often arise in their lives in which they need money or the things money can buy.
In Stuart Rutherford’s recent book The Poor and Their Money, he cites several types of needs:
* Lifecycle Needs: such as weddings, funerals, childbirth, education, homebuilding, widowhood, old age.
* Personal Emergencies: such as sickness, injury, unemployment, theft, harassment or death.
* Disasters: such as fires, floods, cyclones and man-made events like war or bulldozing of dwellings.
* Investment Opportunities: expanding a business, buying land or equipment, improving housing, securing a job (which often requires paying a large bribe), etc.
Poor people find creative and often collaborative ways to meet these needs, primarily through creating and exchanging different forms of non-cash value. Common substitutes for cash vary from country to country but typically include livestock, grains, jewellery and precious metals.
As Marguerite Robinson describes in The Microfinance Revolution, the 1980s demonstrated that “microfinance could provide large-scale outreach profitably,” and in the 1990s, “microfinance began to develop as an industry” (2001, p. 54). In the 2000s, the microfinance industry’s objective is to satisfy the unmet demand on a much larger scale, and to play a role in reducing poverty. While much progress has been made in developing a viable, commercial microfinance sector in the last few decades, several issues remain that need to be addressed before the industry will be able to satisfy massive worldwide demand. The obstacles or challenges to building a sound commercial microfinance industry include:
* Inappropriate donor subsidies
* Poor regulation and supervision of deposit-taking MFIs
* Few MFIs that meet the needs for savings, remittances or insurance
* Limited management capacity in MFIs
* Institutional inefficiencies
* Need for more dissemination and adoption of rural, agricultural microfinance methodologies
Ways in which poor people manage their money
Saving up
Rutherford argues that the basic problem poor people as money managers face is to gather a ‘usefully large’ amount of money. Building a new home may involve saving and protecting diverse building materials for years until enough are available to proceed with construction. Children’s schooling may be funded by buying chickens and raising them for sale as needed for expenses, uniforms, bribes, etc. Because all the value is accumulated before it is needed, this money management strategy is referred to as ‘saving up’.[citation needed]
Often people don’t have enough money when they face a need, so they borrow. A poor family might borrow from relatives to buy land, from a moneylender to buy rice, or from a microfinance institution to buy a sewing machine. Since these loans must be repaid by saving after the cost is incurred, Rutherford calls this ‘saving down’. Rutherford’s point is that microcredit is addressing only half the problem, and arguably the less important half: poor people borrow to help them save and accumulate assets. Microcredit institutions should fund their loans through savings accounts that help poor people manage their myriad risks.[citation needed]
Saving down
Most needs are met through mix of saving and credit. A benchmark impact assessment of Grameen Bank and two other large microfinance institutions in Bangladesh found that for every $1 they were lending to clients to finance rural non-farm micro-enterprise, about $2.50 came from other sources, mostly their clients’ savings. This parallels the experience in the West, in which family businesses are funded mostly from savings, especially during start-up.
Recent studies have also shown that informal methods of saving are unsafe. For example a study by Wright and Mutesasira in Uganda concluded that “those with no option but to save in the informal sector are almost bound to lose some money – probably around one quarter of what they save there.”
The work of Rutherford, Wright and others has caused practitioners to reconsider a key aspect of the microcredit paradigm: that poor people get out of poverty by borrowing, building microenterprises and increasing their income. The new paradigm places more attention on the efforts of poor people to reduce their many vulnerabilities by keeping more of what they earn and building up their assets. While they need loans, they may find it as useful to borrow for consumption as for microenterprise. A safe, flexible place to save money and withdraw it when needed is also essential for managing household and family risk.[citation needed]
Current scale of microfinance operations
No systematic effort to map the distribution of microfinance has yet been undertaken. A useful recent benchmark was established by an analysis of ‘alternative financial institutions’ in the developing world in 2004. The authors counted approximately 665 million client accounts at over 3,000 institutions that are serving people who are poorer than those served by the commercial banks. Of these accounts, 120 million were with institutions normally understood to practice microfinance. Reflecting the diverse historical roots of the movement, however, they also included postal savings banks (318 million accounts), state agricultural and development banks (172 million accounts), financial cooperatives and credit unions (35 million accounts) and specialized rural banks (19 million accounts).
Regionally the highest concentration of these accounts was in India (188 million accounts representing 18% of the total national population). The lowest concentrations were in Latin American and the Caribbean (14 million accounts representing 3% of the total population) and Africa (27 million accounts representing 4% of the total population). Considering that most bank clients in the developed world need several active accounts to keep their affairs in order, these figures indicate that the task the microfinance movement has set for itself is still very far from finished.
By type of service “savings accounts in alternative finance institutions outnumber loans by about four to one. This is a worldwide pattern that does not vary much by region.”
An important source of detailed data on selected microfinance institutions is the MicroBanking Bulletin, which is published by Microfinance Information Exchange. At the end of 2009 it was tracking 1,084 MFIs that were serving 74 million borrowers ($38 billion in outstanding loans) and 67 million savers ($23 billion in deposits).
As yet there are no studies that indicate the scale or distribution of ‘informal’ microfinance organizations like ROSCA’s and informal associations that help people manage costs like weddings, funerals and sickness. Numerous case studies have been published however, indicating that these organizations, which are generally designed and managed by poor people themselves with little outside help, operate in most countries in the developing world.
Help can come in the form of more and better qualified staff, thus higher education is needed for microfinance institutions. This has begun in some universities, as Oliver Schmidt describes. Mind the management gap
“Inclusive financial systems”
The microcredit era that began in the 1970s has lost its momentum, to be replaced by a ‘financial systems’ approach. While microcredit achieved a great deal, especially in urban and near-urban areas and with entrepreneurial families, its progress in delivering financial services in less densely populated rural areas has been slow.
The new financial systems approach pragmatically acknowledges the richness of centuries of microfinance history and the immense diversity of institutions serving poor people in developing world today. It is also rooted in an increasing awareness of diversity of the financial service needs of the world’s poorest people, and the diverse settings in which they live and work.
Brigit Helms in her book ‘Access for All: Building Inclusive Financial Systems’, distinguishes between four general categories of microfinance providers, and argues for a pro-active strategy of engagement with all of them to help them achieve the goals of the microfinance movement.
Informal financial service providers
These include moneylenders, pawnbrokers, savings collectors, money-guards, ROSCAs, ASCAs and input supply shops. Because they know each other well and live in the same community, they understand each other’s financial circumstances and can offer very flexible, convenient and fast services. These services can also be costly and the choice of financial products limited and very short-term. Informal services that involve savings are also risky; many people lose their money.
Member-owned organizations
These include self-help groups, credit unions, and a variety of hybrid organizations like ‘financial service associations’ and CVECAs. Like their informal cousins, they are generally small and local, which means they have access to good knowledge about each others’ financial circumstances and can offer convenience and flexibility. Since they are managed by poor people, their costs of operation are low. However, these providers may have little financial skill and can run into trouble when the economy turns down or their operations become too complex. Unless they are effectively regulated and supervised, they can be ‘captured’ by one or two influential leaders, and the members can lose their money.
NGOs
The Microcredit Summit Campaign counted 3,316 of these MFIs and NGOs lending to about 133 million clients by the end of 2006. Led by Grameen Bank and BRAC in Bangladesh, Prodem in Bolivia, and FINCA International, headquartered in Washington, DC, these NGOs have spread around the developing world in the past three decades; others, like the Gamelan Council, address larger regions. They have proven very innovative, pioneering banking techniques like solidarity lending, village banking and mobile banking that have overcome barriers to serving poor populations. However, with boards that don’t necessarily represent either their capital or their customers, their governance structures can be fragile, and they can become overly dependent on external donors.
Formal financial institutions
In addition to commercial banks, these include state banks, agricultural development banks, savings banks, rural banks and non-bank financial institutions. They are regulated and supervised, offer a wider range of financial services, and control a branch network that can extend across the country and internationally. However, they have proved reluctant to adopt social missions, and due to their high costs of operation, often can’t deliver services to poor or remote populations. The increasing use of alternative data in credit scoring, such as trade credit is increasing commercial banks’ interest in microfinance.
With appropriate regulation and supervision, each of these institutional types can bring leverage to solving the microfinance problem. For example, efforts are being made to link self-help groups to commercial banks, to network member-owned organizations together to achieve economies of scale and scope, and to support efforts by commercial banks to ‘down-scale’ by integrating mobile banking and e-payment technologies into their extensive branch networks.
Microcredit and the web
Due to slow progress in developing quality savings services for poor people, peer-to-peer platforms have developed to expand microlending through individual lenders in the developed world. The volume channeled through Kiva’s peer-to-peer platform is about $87 million as of August 2009 (Kiva facilitates approximately $5M in loans each month). In comparison, the needs for microcredit are estimated about 250 bn USD as of end 2006. Rang De is another organization that gives microcredit loans and was started in India in 2008. Still in its nascent stage, Rang de has made social investments of more than $600,000.
Most experts agree that these funds must be sourced locally in countries that are originating microcredit, to reduce transaction costs and exchange rate risks.
There have been problems with disclosure on peer-to-peer sites, with some reporting interest rates of borrowers using the flat rate methodology instead of the familiar banking Annual Percentage Rate. The use of flat rates, which has been outlawed among regulated financial institutions in developed countries, can confuse individual lenders into believing their borrower is paying a lower interest rate than, in fact, they are.[citation needed]
Evidence for reducing poverty
Some proponents of microfinance have asserted, without offering credible evidence, that microfinance has the power to single-handedly defeat poverty.[citation needed] This assertion has been the source of considerable criticism. Research on the actual effectiveness of microfinance as a tool for economic development remains slim, in part owing to the difficulty in monitoring and measuring this impact. At the 2008 Innovations for Poverty Action/Financial Access Initiative Microfinance Research conference, economist Jonathan Morduch of New York University noted there are only one or two methodologically sound studies of microfinance’s impact.
The BBC Business Weekly program reported that much of the supposed benefits associated with microfinance, are perhaps not as compelling as once thought. In a radio interview with Professor Dean Karlan of Yale University, a point was raised concerning a comparison between two groups: one African, financed through microcredit and one control group in the Philippines. The results of this study suggest that many of the benefits from microcredit are in fact loaned to people with existing business, and not to those seeking to establish new businesses. Many of those receiving microcredit also used the loans to supplement the family income. The income that went up in business was true only for men, and not for women. This is striking because one of the supposed major beneficiaries of microfinance is supposed to be targeted at women. Professor Karlan’s conclusion was that whilst microcredit is not necessarily bad and can generate some positive benefits, despite some lenders charging interest rates between 40-60%, it isn’t the panacea that it is purported to be. He advocates rather than focusing strictly on microcredit, also giving citizens in poor countries access to rudimentary and cheap savings accounts.
To further the point stated by Prof Karlan, microfinancing, though not at its best still, begets the general tendency of a small business initially supported on credit to gain profits with time and generate micro savings. In his latest study, the famous two time pulitzer prize winner, Nicholas Donabet Kristof states that there is no evidence of any negative influence of micro financing but countless examples of people now looking at the bigger picture and saving for better things have come up. The example of BancoSol(Bolivia) where number of savers grew twice as the number of borrowers further strengthens his theory that majority of such cases would prove true.
Sociologist Jon Westover found that much of the evidence on the effectiveness of microfinance for alleviating poverty is based in anecdotal reports or case studies. He initially found over 100 articles on the subject, but included only the 6 which used enough quantitative data to be representative, and none of which employed rigorous methods such as randomized control trials similar to those reported by Innovations for Poverty Action and the M.I.T. Jameel Poverty Action Lab. One of these studies found that microfinance reduced poverty. Two others were unable to conclude that microfinance reduced poverty, although they attributed some positive effects to the program. Other studies concluded similarly, with surveys finding that a majority of participants feel better about finances with some feeling worse.
Microfinance and Social Interventions
There are currently a few social interventions that have been combined with micro financing to increase awareness of HIV/AIDS. Such interventions like the “Intervention with Microfinance for AIDS and Gender Equity” (IMAGE) which incorporates microfinancing with “The Sisters-for-Life” program a participatory program that educates on different gender roles, gender-based violence, and HIV/AIDS infections to strengthen the communication skills and leadership of women “The Sisters-for-Life” program has two phases where phase one consists of ten one-hour training programs with a facilitator with phase two consisting of identifying a leader amongst the group, train them further, and allow them to implement an Action Plan to their respective centres.
Microfinance has also been combined with business education and with other packages of health interventions.A project undertaken in Peru by Innovations for Poverty Action found that those borrowers randomly selected to receive financial training as part of their borrowing group meetings had higher profits, although there was not a reduction in “the proportion who reported having problems in their business”.
Other criticisms
There has also been much criticism of the high interest rates charged to borrowers. The real average portfolio yield cited by the a sample of 704 microfinance institutions that voluntarily submitted reports to the MicroBanking Bulletin in 2006 was 22.3% annually. However, annual rates charged to clients are higher, as they also include local inflation and the bad debt expenses of the microfinance institution. Muhammad Yunus has recently made much of this point, and in his latest book argues that microfinance institutions that charge more than 15% above their long-term operating costs should face penalties.
The role of donors has also been questioned. The Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) recently commented that “a large proportion of the money they spend is not effective, either because it gets hung up in unsuccessful and often complicated funding mechanisms (for example, a government apex facility), or it goes to partners that are not held accountable for performance. In some cases, poorly conceived programs have retarded the development of inclusive financial systems by distorting markets and displacing domestic commercial initiatives with cheap or free money.”
There has also been criticism of microlenders for not taking more responsibility for the working conditions of poor households, particularly when borrowers become quasi-wage labourers, selling crafts or agricultural produce through an organization controlled by the MFI. The desire of MFIs to help their borrower diversify and increase their incomes has sparked this type of relationship in several countries, most notably Bangladesh, where hundreds of thousands of borrowers effectively work as wage labourers for the marketing subsidiaries of Grameen Bank or BRAC. Critics maintain that there are few if any rules or standards in these cases governing working hours, holidays, working conditions, safety or child labour, and few inspection regimes to correct abuses. Some of these concerns have been taken up by unions and socially responsible investment advocates.
For example, BusinessWeek reported that some Mexicans are stumbling with terms of newly available funding.
Other criticism was raised by the IPO (Initial Public Offering) of a Mexican MFI Banco Compartamos in 2007. As the company put its shares on Mexican Stock Exchange it was able to generate very high profits that were achieved by rising interest rates on their micro-loans that at some point reached 86% per year. In July 2010 India’s biggest MFI, SKS Microfinance also went public. In both instances Muhammad Yunus publicly stated his disagreement, saying that the poor should be the only beneficiaries of microfinance.
______________________
Bibliography
* Adams, Dale W., Douglas H. Graham & J. D. Von Pischke (eds.). Undermining Rural Development with Cheap Credit. Westview Press, Boulder & London, 1984.
* de Aghion, Beatriz Armendáriz & Jonathan Morduch. The Economics of Microfinance, The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2005.
* Branch, Brian & Janette Klaehn. Striking the Balance in Microfinance: A Practical Guide to Mobilizing Savings. PACT Publications, Washington, 2002.
* Christen, Robert Peck, Jayadeva, Veena & Richard Rosenberg. Financial Institutions with a Double Bottom Line. Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, Washington 2004.
* Dichter, Thomas and Malcolm Harper (eds). What’s Wrong with Microfinance? Practical Action, 2007.
* Dowla, Asif & Dipal Barua. The Poor Always Pay Back: The Grameen II Story. Kumarian Press Inc., Bloomfield, Connecticut, 2006.
* Gibbons, David. The Grameen Reader. Grameen Bank, Dhaka, 1992.
* Helms, Brigit. Access for All: Building Inclusive Financial Systems. Consultative Group to Assist the Poor, Washington, 2006.
* Hirschland, Madeline (ed.) Savings Services for the Poor: An Operational Guide. Kumarian Press Inc., Bloomfield CT, 2005.
* Khandker, Shahidur R. Fighting Poverty with Microcredit, Bangladesh edition, The University Press Ltd, Dhaka, 1999.
* Ledgerwood, Joanna and Victoria White. Transforming Microfinance Institutions: Providing Full Financial Services to the Poor. World Bank, 2006.
* Mas, Ignacio and Kabir Kumar. Banking on mobiles: why, how and for whom? CGAP Focus Note #48, July, 2008.
* Raiffeisen, FW (translated from the German by Konrad Engelmann). The Credit Unions. The Raiffeisen Printing & Publishing Company, Neuwied on the Rhine, Germany, 1970.
* Rutherford, Stuart. The Poor and Their Money. Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000.
* Wolff, Henry W. People’s Banks: A Record of Social and Economic Success. P.S. King & Son, London, 1910.
* Sapovadia, Vrajlal K., Micro Finance: The Pillars of a Tool to Socio-Economic Development. Development Gateway, 2006.
* Maimbo, Samuel Munzele & Dilip Ratha (eds.) Remittances: Development Impact and Future Prospects. The World Bank, 2005.
* Wright, Graham A.N. Microfinance Systems: Designing Quality Financial Services for the Poor. The University Press, Dhaka, 2000.
* United Nations Department of Economic Affairs and United Nations Capital Development Fund. Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development. United Nations, New York, 2006.
* Yunus, Muhammad. Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. PublicAffairs, New York, 2008.

Marine insurance

2010-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:00

Marine insurance covers the loss or damage of ships, cargo, terminals, and any transport or cargo by which property is transferred, acquired, or held between the points of origin and final destination.
Cargo insurance—discussed here—is a sub-branch of marine insurance, though Marine also includes Onshore and Offshore exposed property (container terminals, ports, oil platforms, pipelines); Hull; Marine Casualty; and Marine Liability.

Origins of formal marine insurance

Maritime insurance was the earliest well-developed kind of insurance, with origins in the Greek and Roman maritime loan. Separate marine insurance contracts were developed in Genoa and other Italian cities in the fourteenth century and spread to northern Europe. Premiums varied with intuitive estimates of the variable risk from seasons and pirates.^[1]
The modern origins of marine insurance law in English law were in the law merchant, with the establishment in England in 1601 of a specialised chamber of assurance separate from the other Courts. Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice in the mid-eighteenth century, began the merging of law merchant and common law principles. The establishment of Lloyd's of London, competitor insurance companies, a developing infrastructure of specialists (such as shipbrokers, admiralty lawyers, and bankers), and the growth of the British Empire gave English law a prominence in this area which it largely maintains and forms the basis of almost all modern practice. The growth of the London insurance market led to the standardisation of policies and judicial precedent further developed marine insurance law. In 1906 the Marine Insurance Act was passed which codified the previous common law; it is both an extremely thorough and concise piece of work. Although the title of the Act refers to marine insurance, the general principles have been applied to all non-life insurance.
In the 19th century, Lloyd's and the Institute of London Underwriters (a grouping of London company insurers) developed between them standardised clauses for the use of marine insurance, and these have been maintained since. These are known as the Institute Clauses because the Institute covered the cost of their publication.
Within the overall guidance of the Marine Insurance Act and the Institute Clauses parties retain a considerable freedom to contract between themselves.
Marine insurance is the oldest type of insurance. Out of it grew non-marine insurance and reinsurance. It traditionally formed the majority of business underwritten at Lloyd's. Nowadays, Marine insurance is often grouped with Aviation and Transit (ie. cargo) risks, and in this form is known by the acronym 'MAT'.

Insurance Fraud

2010-11-12T13:09:00.000-08:00

Insurance Fraud: Following the adoption of the French law of July 13, 1930, the doctrine had a habit of mind that the insurance contract is a contract in good faith, not only must it have been concluded according to this frame of mind but it must continue all the time of the execution of this Agreement will. Good faith got on at that time mostly from the insurance required to declare all circumstances that allow the insurer to get an accurate view of the risk it intends to take care of later texts including law Joint development of the Consumer Code and the Act specifically yal’assurance French 31 December 1989 may have can be made a Guelder this implied obligation of the insured pence as attention focused on the actions of the Insurance latter is considered in a situation of superiority to the insured because it has information element which it does not benefit. If this concern is generous and happy, it does not encourage mésistimer the ability of imagination of some policyholders whose integrity is questionable. In other words, all ill-gotten gains and attempt to save not be excluded. Yet it should not give these terms more broadly than that prevailing in the insurance say that the concept of fraud is constantly in search of its own limitations. Basically the first step is to define “Insurance Fraud” for this work. “The insurance fraud” within the meaning of this text will be “a deliberate act to take advantage of an insurance contract. This act requires the insurance bad faith. It does therefore not fraud if the insured to act by mistake or in the legitimate belief that he committed no impropriety. ” It is interesting to note that definition of the civil code. (This 2563 s. 2).
The insurance fraud is a vague term, or at least generically to describe the practices of certain policyholders for obtaining the completion of the presentation of the insurance they are not entitled. The concept of fraud encompasses several attitudes on the part of the insured. Two attitudes can be distinguished. Or the insured creates a disaster so artificial and voluntary. In many fraud consists of misrepresentation in the valuation of the loss. In other words, the insured often organizes a scam. Indeed the latter defined in section 313-1 of the French Criminal Code and Article 405 of the former Criminal Code could still be explained as the offense of violating the property of others in obtaining it he who possesses the delivery of property by deception characterized.
If any insurance fraud is not a scam, any fraud is a fraud. Without statistical rigor, it is also possible to consider that the misrepresentation of the actual value of a property will be less likely to often be described as fraud while the declaration of a disaster that seems to be fictitious qualifications.
Like other economic sectors, the insurance fraud if it is old, not an evil being eradicated, far from it. Despite the qualification and penalties incurred by the insured, they are it seems increasingly likely to be fraudulent.
And the Insurance Code provides no definition of fraud that is only mentioned in two or three articles essentially Articles L113-8 L121-3, L121-4, Force is to help the general theory fraud to locate the insurance fraud and outline its originality.
The Civil Code does not define himself fraud he occasionally cites. Fortunately, remarkable doctrinal studies have yielded a general theory.
There are two aspects to the legal notion of fraud, the first relates to the definition of acts may characterize a fraud, the second the punishment of fraud.
In its general aspects, fraud always intended either to exclude or to claim unfair application of a rule of law. It is a disturbance and a violation of law, that it can tolerate. This concept refers mainly fraud statute: the concealment of income to escape taxation, marriage fraud for claiming the French nationality for example. This seems not to understand the insurance fraud that takes place within the framework of a contract.
But in reality, it is still there in violation of a rule is mandatory, not an act but a contractual rule.
In entant able to get the compensation to which he is not entitled, by believing in imaginary or caused an accident, the insured violated. Don Rule contractual, binding upon the parties and commits fraud.
But it does not breach the contract for there to be fraud. The breach of contract by the legal rule is the object of fraud is the goal pursued in the case of attempted fraud or result if fraud was implemented.
The fraud involves two more elements that allow the characterization.
It should be a part of the maneuvers performed by the insured (or accomplices) to circumvent the rule and to conceal the truth (false statements, in series of camouflage in an arson accident etc ….) It the material element of fraud.
And above all we must fraudulent intent, or the subject’s will to evade or violate the rule of law.
But fraud is a sanction mechanism. This is to prevent the operation succeeds or correct the effects of fraud when it was successful. That is to say in the insurance fraud when compensation has been paid. The legal and moral prohibit bad faith and would save not tolerate a law be evaded or acquired by dishonest. In addition it is desirable to protect the victim of fraud here is the insurance company. And originality of the theory of fraud is that it can punish the maneuver, where all the sanctions have failed.
Fraud acts as a corrective mechanism of that illegality expressed by the adage, “omnia-fraus corrumpit” what received as a principle of law. “Fraud corrupts everything” means any act committed by fraud must be annulled or declared unenforceable, even if there is no provision that penalty.
This theory obviously applies to insurance fraud. She did every time an application receives indirect subsidiary, since the insurance law, contract law and organizing themselves in acts of fraud penalties are invalidity or revocation as appropriate.
After explaining the concept of insurance fraud, and his relationship with the offense of fraud it is important to consider that notion could be the latter? What is its impact in the insurance field? And what is its variety in the different branches of insurance? That is what we will try to demonstrate through the following titles:
>> The criminal offense of fraud (introductory chapter)
>> Scope and search for fraud in the insurance sector (Chapter I)
>> The variety of scams in the various branches of insurance (chapter II)
REFERENCES:
1) The French-language works:
* D. SORO “Fraud in Health Insurance: Diagnosis and Therapy”, Institut National Polytechnique, Yamoussoukro (Ivory Coast) – Engineering Diploma of Higher Studies in Insurance, 2003, p: 83
* Caron L. “The insurance fraud.” Paper presented at the economics department to obtain the degree of Master of Science (M.Se.) in Economics, University of Montréal.1996. p: 50
* Publication of the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at the University of Poitiers “The fight against insurance fraud.” Proceedings of the Symposium organized at Niort 28 and 29 June 1990 by the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences Poitiers, The ISEUP and ALFA Insurance Française.1991. p: 201
* J. BIGOT “deals with insurance law,” Tom3, the insurance contract. L.G.D.J. 2003, point Bookshop, Beirut, p: 1365
* R. VOUIN and M. Rassat L, “Special Criminal Law, 6th ed, 1988. p: 1037
* P PICARD “the insurance fraud some elements of analysis” might Jul. September 1996. p: 276
* R AND MERLE A. Vitu Treatise on Criminal Law II “1989. p: 842
* G. and J. FRAY Barbancey; the “insurance fraud” Gaz.Pal, October 3, 1978; JGATZI, “the insurance fraud: state of play”, Small Posters, 24 June 1996,
2) Articles:
* Cass. 1civ June 4, 1996 Contracts Bellaloum cons Allianz Life and other Bull civ. No. 233.
* Crime June 14, 1977 D 1978. 127 note ROBERT JM.
* JM ROBERT, note under Crime June 14, 1977 No. 127.
* Crime May 27, 1959, Bull No. 282 Crime Add Crime Science Rev. 1979 No. 539, observed J. Larquier and 1985 No. 63 observed A. Vitu
* May 3, 1974 View Crime Crime bull No. 157 May 1979 crime bull No. 175.
* Crime October 10, 1957 D 1958 p 386 notes 28 February 1967 Bull MEURISSE crime.
3) Websites:
Www.assrance-info / life insurance / life insurance fraud.
Www.ibc.ca / en / Insurance Crime / staff-in-jury fraud.
Www. On-line memory. Com.
SUMMARY:
INTRODUCTION
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER: THE VIOLATION OF CRIMINAL FRAUD
1 § The elements of the crime of fraud
§ 2 The judicial delimitation of the contours of the scam
3 § Sanctions
CHAPTER I: SCOPE AND RESEARCH FRAUD IN THE FIELD OF INSURANCE
Section 1: Identification and quantification of fraud
1 § The measurement difficulties
I-proof of insurance fraud
A-The purpose of the evidence
B-the burden of proof
C-How to prove fraud?
II-the difficulties of police investigation
III Examples of difficulties
2 § The assessment of insurers
Section 2: The methods of investigation and control
1 § The control organizations
ALFA-A agency
B-linkage group (Glafira).
2 § means of action
3 § The effectiveness of the fight
A-prevention has several forms
B-sanctions are becoming more varied
CHAPTER II: THE VARIETY OF SCAMS IN THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF INSURANCE
Section 1: The fraud and Casualty Insurance
1 § The maritime insurance fraud
2 § The insurance fraud theft
3 § The insurance fraud fire
4 § Insurance fraud material accidents
Section 2: The fraud and insurance people
1 § The insurance fraud on life
I-Definition of Life Insurance
II-The fraud insurance in case of life
III-The fraud insurance for death
2 § The insurance fraud accident and illness
I-Personal accident insurance
1 – Definition
2-what is the injury?
3-L’escroquerie for injury
II health insurance
1-Definition of Health Insurance
2-L’escroquerie health insurance
CONCLUSION.
APPENDICES
___________________________
- J. BIGOT “Trafficking of insurance law” volumes 3, the insurance contract. LGDJ 2003 p: 1027.
Caron L. “The insurance fraud.” Paper presented at the economics department to obtain the degree of Master of Science (M.Se.) in Economics, University of Montreal .1996. p: 6
- Cass. 1civ June 4, 1996 Contracts Bellaloum cons Allianz Life and other Bull civ. p: 233.
- P-PICARD “the insurance fraud some elements of analysis” might Jul. September 1996 p: 27 – 171 and S
Also in the Moroccan legislature article Dahir No. 1-02-238 41du of 25 rejeb 1423 promulgating Law No. 17-99 concerning the insurance code. (RB, 7 November 2002) of the Insurance Code as: “Where an insurance contract has been agreed for a sum greater than the value of the insured, if there was fraud or fraud of a party the other party may demand the nullity and claim further damages. ”
Mr Jean-Beauchard “Suppression of insurance fraud” 1991 in the fight against insurance fraud, colloquium at Niort on 28/29 June 1990 by the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at Poitiers the ISEUP and ALFA p: 61 ff
- J. Beauchard. “The repression of insurance fraud aspects of civil law” 1991 in the fight against insurance fraud, colloquium at Niort on 28/29 June 1990 by the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at Poitiers ISEUP ALFA and p: 63.
- J. Beauchard. “The repression of insurance fraud aspects of civil law” 1991 in the fight against insurance fraud, colloquium at Niort on 28/29 June 1990 by the Faculty of Law and Social Sciences at Poitiers ISEUP ALFA and p: 64.

How to Make Easy Money Online with Affiliate Marketing

2010-11-02T04:59:00.000-07:00

One question I often receive from my website visitors is this:

"I want to work from home and learn how to make easy money online. How do I accomplish this?"

Well, to be honest this question is hard to answer. While there are a ton of different ways to make money online, it's level of ease depends on each individual user.

But in my humble opinion, if you want to learn how to make easy money online, then the best place to look is affiliate marketing.

So what is affiliate marketing?

Well basically affiliate marketing referring paying customers to a business in exchange for a sales commission. In essence you act as a liaison between a website and the end user.

Now you might be wondering, what makes affiliate marketing so great? Well in this article, I'll give 4 reasons why you should look into affiliate marketing right now!

1- It's easy to start

Affiliate marketing is one of the few businesses where you can literally start for almost no money and make money within a few days. Unlike other business ideas, you don't need to spend weeks doing research.

All that's required is an internet connection and you'll be in business!

2- You don't need a product

Unlike creating your own information business or selling on eBay, you don't need to create or house a product that you'll sell. All you need to do is find a great website and know how to direct traffic to it.

3-A website is not required

Now I'll be the first to say that your success in affiliate marketing will increase if you have a website. However, it's not required that you purchase a website when you initially start.

In fact, there are a number of ways (ie: PPC, web articles and social network sites) which provide an opportunity for you direct traffic to an affiliate marketing website and earn money at the same time.

4- You can set your own income level

My favorite thing about affiliate marketing is the fact that you can literally set your own income level. With other "business opportunities" there is a definite limit on how much money you can make. This is not the case with affiliate marketing.

If you know how to manage your time and take FULL advantage of a market, you could easily earn a full time from affiliate marketing.

Well if you're trying to find out how to make easy money online, then highly recommend that you look into affiliate marketing. If you take the time to do a little research and work, you'll find that it's easy to pull in a full time income.

Ten Things to Consider Before Starting an e-Commerce Website

2010-11-02T04:56:00.000-07:00

With the current Internet boom in the face of the recession, many people are ready to jump into the online world and see if they can make their own cut of the millions that are coming out of e-commerce. It is only fitting that you may want to try your hand. But the world of e-commerce is more complicated than it may seem at first glance, which is why you should take a moment to look over the ten things to consider before starting an e-commerce website.

1. Purpose of your website- At the very top of the list is what you want the purpose of your website to be. While this may seem basic, many people jump into building a website that they have glorified in their head only to find weeks later that the idea looked better in their head than on paper when it comes to actually making money.
Before purchasing a hosting service, domain, or constructing your website you need to have a clear idea of the purpose of your website and what you want from it, otherwise there is a good chance that your website will fail.

2. Payment options- Next, if you decide that you are going to build an e-commerce website that offers goods, products, or services you need to decide how to accept payment. After all, it is easy to set up a website that shows off your product, but unless you have a way for customers to pay, there is no use in doing so. Keep in mind that e-commerce is just that, commerce in the virtual world, so accepting cash payments is not going to be your fall back while you get set up.

3. Security- At the same time, as you will be forced to take important security information from your clients such as their addresses, names, credit details, bank account details, etc, you need to figure out a way to protect their privacy. On the internet it only takes one instance of losing data or compromising security to sink a website, because word travels fast in the cybercrime world. Keep in mind that it is very hard to recover once you have lost your customers trust, even for well established web giants.

4. Site Layout- More basic is the fact that you will need to consider how you want to lay your site out. This includes everything from templates, text, color schemes, general themes, navigation, etc. While it may seem simple at first, you need consistency and simplicity in your site layout if you want to retain browsers, so do not take this lightly.

5. SEO- You will also need to think about SEO or search engine optimization, given the fact that your website will only perform well if you have regular visitors. There are dozens to thousands of different SEO techniques that can be utilized to increase your search ranking and overall amount of visitors. However, the trick is either investing a large amount of time in SEO yourself or hiring an SEO professional to do it for you.

6. Generating leads- Just like in every other business once you get your website up you need to start generating leads. This means getting out on the internet and spreading the word using Internet marketing tools which are similar in theory, but in an entirely different concept than traditional marketing tools

7. Hosting- In order for your website to go live you will need to choose a hosting service (and a domain). You want a reliable hosting service that is affordable, that will offer you enough space to house your website. Thus, you need to have a realistic sense of how large your website will be and how much you plan to expand within the next few years.

8. Coding- In the world of e-commerce you will need to put your website together at some point, which will mean learning to code or hiring someone to do it for you. While it may seem as if your ideas should just be able to jump onto the screen, this is the farthest thing from the truth so keep this in mind as coding is the architectural basis for your website.

9. Web design- Web design is important given the fact that the internet has a modern style the same way any magazine or newspaper does. You want your website to fit into this style and also stand out which can be tricky to figure out but rewarding in the long run.

10. Time investment- Finally, after reading through the other nine points, think about how time each of these components are going to take out of your day. The amount of motivation and determination combined with the amount of time you are willing to spend on your website closely relates to the success of an e-commerce website.

Auto Insurance: How to Shop for Car Insurance?

2010-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Car Insurance: Vehicle insurance (also known as auto insurance, car insurance, or motor insurance) is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability that could be incurred in an accident.
Public policy :
United Kingdom
In 1930, the UK government introduced a law that required every person who used a vehicle on the road to have at least third party personal injury insurance. Today UK law is defined by the Road Traffic Act 1988, which was last

modified in 1991. The Act requires that motorists either be insured, have a security, or have made a specified deposit (£500,000 as of 1991) with the Accountant General of the Supreme Court, against their liability for injuries to others (including passengers) and for damage to other persons’ property resulting from use of a vehicle on a public road or in other public places.
The minimum level of insurance cover commonly available and which satisfies the requirement of the Act is called third party only insurance. The level of cover provided by Third party only insurance is basic but does exceed the requirements of the act.
Road Traffic Act Only Insurance is not the same as Third Party Only Insurance and is not often sold. It provides the very minimum cover to satisfy the requirements of the Act. For example Road Traffic Act Only Insurance has a limit of £1,000,000 for damage to third party property – third party only insurance typically has a greater limit for third party property damage.
It is an offence to drive a car, or allow others to drive it, without at least third party insurance whilst on the public highway (or public place Section 143(1)(a) RTA 1988 as amended 1991); however, no such legislation applies on private land.
Vehicles which are exempted by the act, from the requirement to be covered, include those owned by certain councils and local authorities, national park authorities, education authorities, police authorities, fire authorities, health service bodies and security services.
The insurance certificate or cover note issued by the insurance company constitutes legal evidence that the vehicle specified on the document is insured. The law says that an authorised person, such as the police, may require a driver to produce an insurance certificate for inspection. If the driver cannot show the document immediately on request, and proof of insurance cannot be found by other means such as the Police National Computer, drivers are no longer issued a HORT/1. This was an order with seven days, as of midnight of the date of issue, to take a valid insurance certificate (and usually other driving documents as well) to a police station of the driver’s choice. Failure to produce an insurance certificate is an offence. The HORT/1 was commonly known – even by the issuing authorities when dealing with the public – as a “Producer”.
Insurance is more expensive in Northern Ireland than in other parts of the UK.[vague][citation needed]
Most motorists in the UK are required to prominently display a vehicle licence (tax disc) on their vehicle when it is kept or driven on public roads. This helps to ensure that most people have adequate insurance on their vehicles because an insurance certificate must be produced when a disc is purchased.
The Motor Insurers’ Bureau compensates the victims of road accidents caused by uninsured and untraced motorists. It also operates the Motor Insurance Database, which contains details of every insured vehicle in the country.
United States
In the United States, auto insurance covering liability for injuries and property damage done to others is compulsory in most states, though different states enforce the requirement differently. The state of New Hampshire, for example, does not require motorists to carry liability insurance (the ballpark model), while in Virginia residents must pay the state a $500 annual fee per vehicle if they choose not to buy liability insurance. Penalties for not purchasing auto insurance vary by state, but often involve a substantial fine, license and/or registration suspension or revocation, as well as possible jail time. Usually, the minimum required by law is third party insurance to protect third parties against the financial consequences of loss, damage or injury caused by a vehicle.
Several states, like California and New Jersey, have enacted “Personal Responsibility Acts” which put further pressure on all drivers to carry liability insurance by preventing uninsured drivers from recovering noneconomic damages (e.g. compensation for “pain and suffering”) if they are injured in any way while operating a motor vehicle.
Some states, such as North Carolina, require that a driver hold liability insurance before a license can be issued.
Some states require that insurance be carried in the car at all times, while others do not enforce this law. For example, North Carolina does not specify that you must carry proof of insurance in the vehicle; however, NC does state that you must have that information to trade with another driver in the event of an accident. Whether a state specifies you must have proof of insurance in the car or not, it’s always advisable to have the information on hand in case an officer should request it.
Arizona Department of Transportation Research Project Manager John Semmens has recommended that car insurers issue license plates, and that they be held responsible for the full cost of injuries and property damages caused by their licensees under the Disneyland model. Plates would expire at the end of the insurance coverage period, and licensees would need to return their plates to their insurance office to receive a refund on their premiums. Vehicles driving without insurance would thus be easy to spot because they would not have license plates, or the plates would be past the marked expiration date.
Canada
Several Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec) provide a public auto insurance system while in the rest of the country insurance is provided privately. Basic auto insurance is mandatory throughout Canada with each province’s government determining which benefits are included as minimum required auto insurance coverage and which benefits are options available for those seeking additional coverage. Accident benefits coverage is mandatory everywhere except for Newfoundland and Labrador. All provinces in Canada have some form of no-fault insurance available to accident victims. The difference from province to province is the extent to which tort or no-fault is emphasized. Typically, coverage against loss of or damage to the driver’s own vehicle is optional – one notable exception to this is in Saskatchewan, where SGI provides collision coverage (less than a $700 deductible, such as a collision damage waiver) as part of its basic insurance policy. In Saskatchewan, residents have the option to have their auto insurance through a tort system but less than 0.5% of the population have taken this option.

BANK AUDIT

2010-10-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

The bank audit is an important step for all banks who seeks a better optimization of its overall management. [...]
FACULTY OF LAW: ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL
Economics and Management
Option: Money, Finance & Banking
BANK AUDIT
Editor:
Mr. Prof. Driss FREJ & Ms. Iman AZAM
Prepared by: G. Nissrine & E. Iliasse
Academic Year: 2005-2006
The parts of memory: The bank audit

* The bank audit / Option: Money, Finance & Banking
* The bank audit: General Introduction
* The banking / Why a bank audit? / Chp1/PI
* The need for a bank audit / Why a bank audit / CHP2-PI
* The standards of a bank audit / Which practice of internal auditing Bank / chp1_PII
* Types of Internal Audit / Which practice of internal auditing Bank / chp2_PII
* The bank audit / General Conclusion
Contents: General Introduction: Part 1: Why would a bank audit?
Chapter 1: The banking sector
Section: The importance of banking in the financial system
1) The bank’s role in financing the economy
2) The banking reforms and their contributions to the economy
Section 2: The banking risks
1) Financial risks:
a) Interest rate Lerisque
b) Currency risk
c) Liquidity risk
d) The risk on variable-income securities
2) The counterparty risks
a) Potential Customer
b) Risk Interbank
c) Country risk
3) The technical and operational risks
a) IT risks
 IT risk “computer studies”;
 IT Risk 2 “computer processing;
 IT Risk 3 “telecommunication”
4) Commercial risks
a) Market risk
b) The risk in goods and services
5) The internal risk management
a) Regulatory risk
b) The risk of Ethics
c) Strategic risk
d) The risk of renal functional
e) Risk management staff
f) The risk of outsourcing
g) The risk of external communication
Chapter 2: The need for a bank audit
Section: Different types of bank audit
1) Internal Audit
2) The external audit
Section 2: Differences and complementarities
1) The differences between internal audit and external audit
2) complementarities and reconciliations
a) complementarities
b) Reconciliations
Part 2: What practice of internal auditing bank?
Chapter: The standards of a bank audit:
Section: Qualification Standards:
1) The duties, powers and responsibilities
2) The independence and objectivity
a) The organizational independence
b) Individual Objectivity
c) interference with the independence and objectivity
3) The skills and professional awareness
a) Skills
b) The professional consciences:
4) The program of quality assurance and improvement
a) An assessment of the quality program
b) The reports on program quality
c) The use of the word”standards”led
d) The indication of non-compliance
Section 2: The performance standards
1) The management of Internal Audit
a) Planning
b) Communication and Approval
c) Resource management
d) The rules and procedures
e) Coordination
f) Reports to the board and senior management
2) The nature of work:
a) Risk management
b) Control
c) Corporate governance
3) The mission planning
a) Considerations in planning
b) Objectives and Scope of the mission:
c) The resources allocated to the mission
d) The work program of the mission
4) The completion of the mission
a) Identifying information
b) Analysis and Evaluation
c) Documentation of information
d) Supervision Mission
5) A statement of results
a) The quality of communication
b) The indication of non-compliance:
c) Dissemination
Chapter 2: Types of internal audit:
Section: The operational audit:
1) The approach of the total audit
2) The strategic management
3) Management control
Section 2: The audit risk
1) The function and definition of audit risk
2) The objective of the audit risk
General Conclusion
Bibliography:
Publications:
Azzedine BERRADA Mohammed, Report of the Institute of the Mediterranean to FEMIS, Chapter 3, “the necessary evolution of the financial system”, July 2004
Bécours Jean-Charles and Henry BOUQUIN “Audit operational effectiveness, efficiency or security” ECONOMIA Edition 1996.
IFAC (French Institute of Audit and Internal Control) “Professional Standards of Internal Audit in June 2004, MPA (practicalities) 1000 – MPA 1300.
Jacques RENARD “Theory and Practice of Internal Auditing”, editions of organizations 2002.
ROUACH Michel Gérard Naulleau and “control of banking and finance, Statistical Bank, 1998.
Thesis and Dissertations:
ASSNI Abderrahim, “The concept of audit risk in the deposit banks’ memory of graduation in the senior management ISCAE Casablanca, February, 1993.
CHOW Naima, “Communication and audit within SMEs Moroccan’s Thesis PhD Economics, Dept.: Economic Strategy and Business Economics, FJESS – Agdal – 2001-2002.
Journals:
LAURETOU Denis “an opportunity and a challenge for the Internal Audit review bank, No. 666, February 2005.
Law, Order and circulars:
Banking Act of July 6, 1993.
Order of the Minister of Economy, Finance and Privatization and Tourism of October 6, 2000.
Circular No. 3/G/2001 coefficient on the minimum risk division.
Circular No. 4/G/2001 relating to minimum solvency ratio of credit institutions.
Webliography:
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing in: www.ifaci.com / audit / pdf / normespdf
Map Bibliography
Introduction:
Part 1: Why would a bank audit?
Chapter 1: The banking sector:
Section 1: The importance of banking in the financial system:
Article I of the Banking Act of July 6, 1993
1) Role of the bank in financing the economy;
Mohammed Berrada Azzedine, Report of the Institute of the Mediterranean to FEMIS, Chapter 3, “the necessary evolution of the financial system”, July 2004, pages 97-99, 101-102.
2) The banking reforms and their contributions to the economy;
Mohammed Berrada Azzedine, Report of the Institute of the Mediterranean to FEMIS, Chapter 3, “the necessary evolution of the financial system”, July 2004, pages 104-105, 121-122.
Article 45 of the Banking Act of July 6, 1993
Article 45 of the Banking Act of July 6, 1993
Circular No. 4/G/2001 relating to minimum solvency ratio of EDC
Circular No. 3/G/2001 coefficient on the minimum risk division
Order of the Minister of Economy, Finance and Privatization and Tourism of October 6, 2000
Section 2: The banking risks:
1) Financial risks:
Gerard Michel Rouach and Naulleau “the control of banking and finance, banking edition, 1998. Page: 310.
a) The interest rate risk;
b) Currency risk;
c) Liquidity risk;
d) The risk on variable-income securities.
2) The counterparty risks:
Gerard Michel Rouach and Naulleau “the control of banking and finance, banking edition, 1998. Page: 312.
a) The customer risk;
b) The interbank exposures;
c) country risk;
3) The technical and operational risks:
MichelRouach and Gérard Naulleau “control banking and financial, banking edition, 1998. Page: 315
a) risks:
Ø IT risk a “computer studies”;
Ø 2 IT risk “computer processing;
Ø IT Risk 3 “telecommunications”.
4) Commercial risks:
Gerard Michel Rouach and Naulleau “the control of banking and finance, banking edition, 1998, pages 313-314.
a) Market risk;
b) The risk in goods and services.
5) The internal risk management:
Gerard Michel Rouach and Naulleau “the control of banking and finance, banking edition, 1998, pages 316-317
a) The regulatory risk;
b) The risk of ethics;
c) Strategic risk;
d) The risk of renal function;
e) Risk management personnel;
f) The risk of outsourcing;
g) The risk of external communication.
Chapter 2: The need for a bank audit
Section 1: The different types of bank audit
1) Internal audit:
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1100, pages: 1-2
2) The external audit:
LAURETOU Denis “an opportunity and a challenge for the Internal Audit review bank, No. 666, February 2005, page 66.
Jacques RENARD “Theory and Practice of Internal Auditing, Organizational .2002 editions, page: 68
Section 2: Differences and complementarities
1) The differences between internal audit and external audit:
Jacques RENARD “Theory and Practice of Internal Auditing”, editions of organizations, 2002, page: 67
CHOW Naima, PhD thesis Es economics: “Communication and audit within SMEs Moroccan, Dept.: Economic Strategy and Business Economics, FJESS – Agdal – 2001-2002. Pages: 63-64-65.
2) complementarities and reconciliations:
a) complementarities;
Jacques RENARD “Theory and Practice of Internal Auditing”, editions of organizations, 2002, page: 71
International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, page: 7
b) Reconciliations;
Jacques RENARD “Theory and Practice of Internal Auditing”, editions of organization 2002, pages: 74, 75.
Part 2: What practice of internal auditing bank?
Chapter 1: The standards of a bank audit:
Section 1: Qualification Standards:
1) The duties, powers and responsibilities;
2) The independence and objectivity:
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1100, pages: 3
a) Independence in the organization;
b) Objectivity individual;
c) interference with the independence and objectivity;
3) The skills and professional awareness:
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1130.A1, page: 4.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1130, page 4.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1130.C2, page: 4.
a) skills;
b) The professional conscience;
4) The program of quality assurance and improvement:
a) An assessment of the quality program;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1200, pages 4 and 5.
b) The reports on program quality;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1300, pages 5 and 6.
c) The use of the term”conduit”standards;
d) The indication of non-compliance.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 1300, page 6.
Section 2: The performance standards:
1) The management of internal audit:
a) Planning;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities, 2000, page 7.
b) Communication and Approval;
c) The management of resources;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2030, page: 7
d) The rules and procedures;
e) Coordination;
f) Reports to the board and senior management.
2) The nature of work:
a) Risk management;
b) Control;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practical arrangements for implementing 2120. A1, page: 9.
c) Corporate governance.
Professional Standards of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2130, Page: 20
3) The planning of the mission:
a) Considerations in planning;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2201, page 10
b) Objectives and Scope of the mission;
c) The resources for the mission;
d) The work program of the mission.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2200, page 10.
4) The completion of the mission:
a) Identifying information;
b) The analysis and evaluation;
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2300, page 11.
c) The documentation of information;
d) The oversight mission.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2300, pages 11 and 12.
5) Communicating the results:
a) The quality of communication;
b) The indication of non-compliance;
c) The dissemination of results.
Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing, published by the French Institute of Audit and Internal Control, 2004, practicalities 2400, pages 12 and 13.
Chapter 2: Types of internal audit:
Section 1: The operational audit:
Jean-Charles and Henry Bécours BOUQUIN “Audit operational effectiveness, efficiency or security” ECONOMIA Edition 1996, pages: 11-18
1) The overall audit approach:
Jean-Charles and Henry Bécours BOUQUIN “Audit operational effectiveness, efficiency or security” ECONOMIA Edition 1996, Page: 33
2) Strategic management:
Jean-Charles and Henry Bécours BOUQUIN “Audit operational effectiveness, efficiency or security” ECONOMIA Edition 1996, pages: 81-85.
3) Management control:
Jean-Charles and Henry Bécours BOUQUIN “Audit operational effectiveness, efficiency or security” ECONOMIA Edition 1996, pages: 89, 104-105.
Section 2: The audit risk:
1) The function and definition of audit risk:
Assni Abderrahim “the concept of audit risk in bank deposit” Memory graduate management ISCAE 1993, pages: 32-36.
2) The objective of the audit risk:
Assni Abderrahim “the concept of audit risk in bank deposit” Memory graduate management ISCAE 1993, pages: 52-60, 61-69.

Make money online and reduce risks, Forex playing versus HYIP investment.

2010-10-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

Forex: Make money online and reduce risks, Forex playing versus HYIP investment.

Making money online is an exciting experience that may bring you much joy and content from the very process to the final profit earning. If you really want to achieve success in this life you should not fear risking or losing because the fear prevents a person from developing into personality and advancing to new horizons. While online financial operations may implicate some hardships and problems you may cope with them and may manage them with good preparation, accurate information and right view, as we have said previously.
Today we are talking about two money making schemes commonly practiced by many people around the world. We would like to show what is better: forex trading or online investment projects – so that every person who considers to start earning money on the Internet could see what risks they face and what is the most optimum choice for them if they want to earn extra cash for their needs and desires with few losses. Below we present you a comparative analysis of both investment industries with advantages and disadvantages shown per specific categories.

Amounts

When you decide to earn money on the Internet it is the question of how much you can spend and how much you want to gain. If you are quite satisfied with 10 to 30 extra bucks you may feel free to participate in any of the two investment businesses we are considering here. HOWEVER, there is a significant difference in how much you invest with forex and how much you spend with a hyip to earn these plain ten dollars.
Forex markets are markets for people who have sufficient (if not HUGE) funds to waste them for playing with money. Usual “micro” lot on forex is 1,000 units. For example, with USD/CHF the base currency is US dollar, therefore if to trade 1 micro lot of USD/CHF it would be worth $1,000. Yeah, your real deposit may be much smaller than that amount, but do not be so stupid and forget about the fact that you will repay the lots you used in case of your loss.
On the other hand a typical HYIP program usually starts with amounts as little as $10. Even if you invest $200 you will lose only $200 when the program fails. But with forex you lose more than you deposit otherwise you will face criminal charges.
Reputation and credibility
Dealing with forex brokers or with HYIP traders you absolutely rely only on their honesty and due diligence. You don’t know these people and they are not your close associates whom you can trust with closed eyes. Still you participate in the game.
You are mistaken if you think that as long as forex market is regulated by some rules and over the recent time it has been cleaned up of swindlers and fraudsters its reputation will save you from crashes. If a broker fails whatever a reputed person he is you will lose all your money the same way you lose it with a HYIP project which some people view as scam programs.
The funds deposited for trading forex contracts are not insured and never get a priority in case of bankruptcy. Even customer funds deposited by a dealer in an FDIC-insured bank account are not protected if the dealer faces bankrupt.
Besides, when trading on forex the forex dealer determines the execution price, so you are relying on the dealer’s honesty for a fair price. Meantime, with a HYIP program everything is clear and transparent at the very beginning. The project does not unveil its trading strategies and you don’t care for the whole process of money making, you just make a deposit and walk doing your everyday chores. There is no need of your participation in trading and close monitor of transactions. While at forex you have to participate, consult, ask, control and monitor. This brings us to our next category: Education.
Education
The investment industry as a global financial institution is meant only for top qualified, well-trained and skilled individuals and companies. An ordinary person with no specific education cannot participate at stocks exchange, for instance. Neither he can deal with forex if he has no knowledge of the market instruments, its trends and laws.
In order to participate in forex trading you should take some preliminary training courses to learn basic concepts and ideas. You should be a business-oriented person who has good skills of controlling sophisticated financial processes. Because the dealers and brokers with who you work are not your mother to care for your wellbeing and if you do not ask something you SHOULD know it will be all your fault if you fail. But how can you ask something if you are not qualified and skilled in the industry and you are not aware of every single issue that you must clarify in advance.
With a HYIP program you need know nothing about the industry where the program makes its business except a general explanation every project gives. You just should determine the successful program and make a deposit of some funds. The whole work including the allocation of your funds with the proper investment markets and monitoring will be performed by the HYIP itself. You just gain your interests and walk away with cash. Only questions that may arise are related to withdrawals, interest delays and problems with the website access. Website access and the Internet related issues is our another important category.
System breakdowns
When you who have some Internet issues with connection or your PC you won’t lose anything with a HYIP because your deposit remains safe at the account and continues accumulating percents paid by the project.
Even if a website of a HYIP project goes down due to a DDoS attack or deliberate demolition caused by the owners so as to run away with investors’ money, a user only loses the money deposited because in fact the interests are not your real money – these are your gains, your bonuses. So, if you deposited $1,000 you will lose this amount when there is massive system failure of a HYIP. BUT, the problem may be resolved and it would turn out that there was some minor issues with the company servers. In this case you lose nothing at all.
The situation with forex trading is quite different. In case there are connection problems or issues with your computer machine so that you cannot access the trading and participate in it monitoring your transactions you will lose incomparably more than there is in your account. Because at forex people trade not with their actual balance money but they borrow huge amounts from their dealers and trade. After the trades a player should give back the amount he/she had borrowed. Thus, if due to technical issues you cannot place new orders, execute running orders, or alter or cancel orders that were entered before, you may get into a pretty hole! You will pay dearly for YOUR minor Internet problem.
Market volatility
Forex market is bound to many conditions that cannot be controlled by a single individual. While being a skillful and qualified trader you may control your dealer you cannot prevent the events related to the government policies and global changes in the world that greatly impact the currency rates. Changes in the foreign exchange rate between the time you place the trade and the time you close it out influences the price of your Forex contract and the future profit and losses related to it.
You always hear the news that the currency markets react to the governmental and other important financial and economic reports like US payroll report or the statement of Bank of England on further supporting low interest rate.
Sudden crashes at stocks exchanges, the change in the life of a large company or corporation, panic perception by investors of certain events may also greatly affect forex trading. These conditions you cannot control. Every ordinary person cannot sit and trace all these conditions and changes. If you want an investment with little headache you should take into account the fact of the constant efforts to follow all the news and reports so that on the basis of a logical analysis take a quick decision whether to place a new order or withdraw the old one.
On the other hand, a HYIP provides a customers with a flexibility of a don’t-worry investment. You just inject your deposit and continue your usual life while your interests go to your account. It is the HYIP traders who have a headache about how to trace the funds they allocate to bonds, stocks, or the much talked forex markets.
Other force majeure
There also other risks involved by forex trading like interest rate risk and credit risk. Interest Rate Risk is based on differences between the interest rates in the two countries represented by the currency pair in a Forex quote. Credit Risk is a possibility that one party in a Forex transaction may not honor their indebtness when the deal is closed. This can occur if a bank or financial institution goes bankrupt.
HYIPs bear all these risks themselves. Investors are not involved in the sophisticated processes. As the project remains viable and strong it continues bringing money. The only thing that may happen can be alleviated if you have enough information about the definite HYIP. We talked about how to determine a relatively viable and serious investment project in our previous articles on this subject.
Life situations
There are many stories on the Internet that report the cases of tremendous losses people suffer at forex trading. While the largest amount investors lose with HYIPs may account for $10,000 or maximum $20,000. Forex traders lose hundreds of thousands of dollars, remember HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. This is again because your lots exceed your initial deposit.
Here is one such failure story:
John, who did not want his real name published, works as a technical consultant in an investment firm.
He claimed that he was not aware that he suffered so much in losses until it was too late.
The reason: He had trusted his bank’s relationship manager and the bank’s services, and had relied on that to keep him posted on his investment.
However, one investor coach we spoke to said that it can be hard to pin blame on the relationship manager. The investor is responsible for his investments. (See report on facing page.)
John said that every time before he made a transaction, he would call his relationship manager to check on his account balance.
On top of that, the bank would usually post a notice to him to let him know how much he had made or lost in a particular transaction after it was completed.
He would receive it in about a week.
However, it now appears that these were insufficient measures.
The coach investor we spoke to called such manual tracking ‘primitive’.
But for John, this had worked well since 2006, when he started investing in foreign exchange trading through his ABN AMRO wealth management account.
He had set aside $50,000 of his savings to open his account. Over time, he traded in higher amounts as his returns from each trade increased.
Then, things started going wrong in August this year.
From August to October, John, who had hoped to get bigger returns with the volatile markets, placed several trades of more than US$100,000 ($149,000) each time in the US dollar and the Australian dollar.
On 15 Aug, he said that his trades made a US$129,000 loss, and John is now claiming that he did not know about this until a month later.
He claimed he did not receive the weekly notice on that transaction, and found out only in the monthly statement, which states the profits and losses made during the month.
He also claimed that he had been calling his relationship manager before he found out about the loss, but was not given the information earlier.
He said: ‘When I called, I wasn’t informed of the losses. I presumed that the profits from my other transactions had managed to cover my losses. I was told there was still an excess in my account.’
This led him to mistakenly believe that he had more money in his account than he really had, John said.
After the loss in August, he placed another trade, which resulted in a US$190,000 loss on 19 Oct.
He said he knew the risks of forex trading, and he had a ‘stop-loss level’.
‘I had a buffer amount of losing no more than US$150,000,’ he said.
‘By neglecting to tell me that I had made such a huge loss, the bank exposed me to a very risky situation and caused me to over-extend myself.’
He said: ‘If I had known I had to top up my account with US$129,000, I would have lowered my trading limit.
‘What was the possibility that they missed out such a huge transaction? I even called them regularly to check.’
Frustrated, he wrote in to the bank demanding an answer.
He said the bank apologised for the error, but he was not satisfied.
When approached, a spokesman for ABN Amro said: ‘As (part of) the bank’s policy, we do not comment on individual client matter due to client confidentiality.
‘We have taken the issues raised very seriously and conducted a thorough investigation and review.
‘We believe that our current processes and the steps we have taken are in line with market’s best practices. We will continue to actively address any further concerns the client may have.’
This is not the isolated case, there are many such cases when not only ordinary players but brokers and dealers themselves lose huge amounts of money.
HYIP industry is less unpredictable than forex market as with the stable investment project that you have chose with thorough research will surely bring you profit and in many cases will pay your interests even at times unprofitable for the program itself. Because, many HYIPs keep the so-called emergency funds while there is no such option for you with a forex dealer. Besides, on account of its complexity and sophistication the forex trading cannot offer you multiple participation, in other words you cannot afford to work with many dealers because you won’t manage it on a physical level – forex, as we have said many times today, needs much time, concentration and monitoring. Meanwhile, HYIP industry allows you to participate in a number of investment projects without your direct control.
In the end
You may have heard that forex brings great opportunities for making huge profits. Yeah, we may say with confidence forex indeed is a highly profitable market, but huge money may turn to huge losses. And while with HYIPs you lose just YOUR money, with forex you lose not yours but you should cover these expenses.
Among other things forex does not provide players with such flexibility in deposit options like HYIPs who offer a wide range of ecurrency and other payment methods. With forex you should have your bank account which is not affordable for many people today. With a HYIP you needn’t to have a bank account. You just need an ecurrency wallet which will allow you to easily enter and withdraw your money from the investment project.
If you got interested with a HYIP industry after reading the article we advise you to go to Hyip.com, HyipBanker.com, Hyipmonitor.com, Hyipexplorer.com and HyipNews.com websites to learn more about current investment projects that you may select to deal with.
Money will never be too much. As one wise person said with the growth of the wealth there is the growth of people consuming it. Besides, there is the growth of things you supposedly “need” to have. Anyway, people have always been trying to earn extra cash to pay for both the items they need indeed and the items they want. Well, that is not bad in fact as it reflects the natural quest of the humanity for the perfection and good life. Be sure to make the right choice of a road to your happiness and fortunes.

FNB & PayPal Bring Global E-Commerce to South-Africa

2010-09-25T06:50:00.000-07:00

OHANNESBURG, Mar 25, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — First National Bank (FNB) and PayPal today announced that customers in South Africa can now sell to PayPal’s global customer base of more than 81 million active accounts in 190 markets around the world and move the proceeds to their FNB accounts. This new service allows customers to top up and withdraw funds to their qualifying FNB accounts from their PayPal accounts.

“We are especially pleased to make this announcement on the eve of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, as South Africans will be able to join the global e-commerce marketplace. Our agreement with PayPal also enables international businesses and individuals to transact with South African service providers via a secure and convenient payment service,” says Michael Jordaan, FNB’s chief executive officer.
“The exclusive top up and withdraw service with PayPal allows South Africans to make payments and receive money internationally without sharing their financial or personal information,” adds Jordaan.
FNB Customers can simply open a PayPal account and link it to a qualified FNB account and receive PayPal payments in 21 different currencies. FNB will convert the currency to South African Rand when the money is transferred into their accounts.
“FNB and PayPal have a similar focus on innovation, so it makes sense that we would work with FNB to make online payments even easier for merchants and consumers in South Africa,” said Oded Zehavi, regional director of PayPal Israel and South Africa. “With South Africa’s solid financial infrastructure and its status as the continent’s largest economy, we’re optimistic about the future of e-commerce in this market and look forward to working with FNB on the opportunities ahead.”
“The launch of PayPal sees FNB take another step forward as South Africa’s most innovative financial institution. It responds directly to our ‘how can we help you?’ brand promise,” concludes Jordaan.
The PayPal service will be offered in partnership with FNB and has received approval from the Exchange Control Department of the South African Reserve Bank.
For more information, visit www.fnb.co.za or https://www.paypal.co.za.
About FNB
FNB is a division of First Rand Bank Limited – An Authorised Financial Services Provider.
First National Bank (FNB) is a division of FirstRand Bank Limited. FirstRand Bank Limited is listed on the South African Stock Exchange (FSR). In line with South African legislation, FNB is an Authorised Financial Services and Credit Provider (NCRCP20).
FNB is viewed as a leading innovator with over 6.6 million customers and 30 000 employees across South Africa and Africa. FNB has a strong African footprint with subsidiary operations in Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho.
FNB is a National Supporter of the 2010 FIFA World Cup(TM). More information about the company can be found at www.fnb.co.za.
About PayPal
PayPal is the faster, safer way to pay and get paid online. The service allows members to send money without sharing financial information, with the flexibility to pay using their account balances, bank accounts or credit cards. PayPal is an eBay company. With more than 81 million active accounts in 190 markets and 24 currencies around the world, PayPal enables global e-commerce. The company’s open payment platform, PayPal X, allows developers to build innovative payment applications on multiple platforms and devices. More information about the company can be found at www.paypal.com.
PayPal is headquartered in San Jose, California and its international headquarters is located in Singapore.
SOURCE: PayPal

E-Commerce Web Hosting, Hosting For ECommerce

2010-09-25T06:48:00.000-07:00

E-Commerce Web Hosting: It will take you a lot of time to start an online store (sometimes referred to as a web shop or an ecommerce website). Eventually it will take a lot of money too since you will need to invest in web designers and programmers. You are going to need to have all of these things in order to create a user-friendly website. Of course, you will have to think about all of the legal issues that also go along with starting your own online business. This is why you will have people telling you that it is difficult to start a website business today.

One of the nice things about the Internet is that once you have decided that you want to start a website, there are already a lot of different ways in which you can get help with getting started. While you will find a lot of articles available, that isn’t all there is. There are also a lot of free services that will install an ecommerce website for you. These services can take care of all of the technical details that go along with creating a website and they can do it in just a few hours for you. This is why one of the most popular niches right now is ecommerce hosting.
This type of web hosting will include a lot of free services, tools and software that will help you set up your website. There will also be numerous templates available, as well as SSL certificates and database installation and management. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that is offered by every web host though. So, you will want to make sure that these things are included in your web hosting package before you choose to host with a company.
Oftentimes, you will also be able to have WordPress installed for you. With these web hosts all you have to do is sign up for hosting, install a blog and choose a theme. Now you can begin blogging and earning money from your website.
There are a lot of people who will tell you that this is the best website hosting to have since you won’t have to worry about any of the technical issues. Instead, you will have the luxury of focusing on filling your website with your content and concentrating on building your online business.
So, if you need some help setting up your online business, don’t waste your time with developers and designers at first. Instead, use one of these web hosts to get your business designed and off the ground. Even if you want to design your own unique online store, you should at least start out here instead of spending a lot of money that you don’t have.
Web E-commerce Web Hosting | Hosting For ECommerce: People are intimidated when they think about hosting, but with a little time and effort, you can share a good website with the World Wide Web. Before you start shelling the money for a domain and web space, you must decide what you have a website and see how they have to.
For most users, there are many free resources for personal sites. When shopping for web hosting, it is important to consider the main purpose of a website. Is it for business or personal? How many visitors can expect each month? Any web hosting company offers a range of packages, each with a bandwidth limit. The number of visitors that access your site on a monthly basis and the price of your accommodation can be largely determined by these and other factors.
Many companies are offering free web hosting services in exchange for placing their banners on the website owner of the site are s. Most free hosting web services, however, for use in personal or small business. The reason, because it is a small amount of MB of space and the availability of the site offer is not a URL that is easy to remember.
In today’s climate of online business websites as many online shops and online services, resources, customers or clients are feeling is used navigation in an office or a real shop as surfing website related business.
This means websites can also benefit from the “basket” of the online sales features that practically to order on the net, meet their needs through the selection and purchase of products that want to buy. Traditionally, Web-Hosting-Service maintains a website for online content to a specific URL, making the content available to Internet users. But today many of these e-commerce applications can be grouped in a low-cost, e-commerce web hosting plans, cheap hosting provider.
The role of electronic commerce in their lives and their influence is almost beyond measure, and therefore it is essential that the company must obtain an online presence. Electronic commerce is the key to the development of a number of companies, especially in the future. eCommerce Web Hosting packages should be created for them and to increase sales and profitability of a valuable online business. E-commerce further reduced overheads and can play an important role to play in the revolution in customer service. And if the e-commerce web hosting is at a reduced price, no doubt about the value of these benefits.
However, there are certain things that must be met if we get the full potential value of e-commerce hosting. They are: Registration Web Hosting, Web Design, Web Promotion, creating links, database solutions and marketing, software development and other additions, including the Privacy Policy. Web hosting packages with e-commerce solutions at a discount, you can secure resources for its customers and you start online trading, where the company less time before the end. After all, e-commerce or business development on electronic media is the future of the commercial world.

Electronic commerce

2010-09-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

Definitions Electronic commerce, commonly known as (electronic marketing) e-commerce or ecommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage. The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at some point in the transaction’s lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail as well.
A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way. Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on the World Wide Web.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties (e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such as Amazon.com.
Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of the business transactions.

Early development
The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years. Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s, allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK.
Online shopping is an important component of electronic commerce. From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing.
An early example of many-to-many electronic commerce in physical goods was the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computers launched in 1982. An early online information marketplace, including online consulting, was the American Information Exchange, another pre Internet online system introduced in 1991.
In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on the Internet was strictly prohibited until 1991 .[1] Although the Internet became popular worldwide around 1994 when the first internet online shopping started, it took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then people began to associate a word “ecommerce” with the ability of purchasing various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment services.
Business applications:
1.   E-mail: Electronic mail, most commonly abbreviated email and e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages. E-mail systems are based on a store-and-forward model in which e-mail computer server systems accept, forward, deliver and store messages on behalf of users, who only need to connect to the e-mail infrastructure, typically an e-mail server, with a network-enabled device for the duration of message submission or retrieval. Originally, e-mail was always transmitted directly from one user’s device to another’s; nowadays this is rarely the case.
An electronic mail message consists of two components, the message header, and the message body, which is the email’s content. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator’s email address and one or more recipient addresses. Usually additional information is added, such as a subject header field.
2.   Instant messaging: Instant messaging (IM) is a form of real-time direct text-based communication between two or more people using shared clients. The text is conveyed via devices connected over a network such as the Internet.
IM falls under the umbrella of chat, as it is a real-time text-based networked communication system, but is distinct in that it is based on clients that facilitate connections between specified known users (often using “Buddy List”, “Friend List” or “Contact List”), whereas Chat includes web-based applications that allow communication between (often anonymous) users in a multi-user environment. (an analogy would be comparing a telephone and a bar-room. With the telephone, you have to know the contact information to reach the other person, whereas you just show up at the bar and see who is there to chat with)
3.   Online shopping: Online shopping is the process consumers go through to purchase products or services over the Internet. An online shop, eshop, e-store, internet shop, webshop, webstore, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping mall.
The metaphor of an online catalog is also used, by analogy with mail order catalogs. All types of stores have retail web sites, including those that do and do not also have physical storefronts and paper catalogs. Online shopping is a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions
Commerce Industry Framework:
The basic framework of e-commerce enables doing business online. The framework consists of a comprehensive structure beginning with the based technology layer to the general service layer. E-commerce has, to a certain extent, changed markets structure. Traditionally, market ties were created through the exchange of goods, services, and money. E-commerce has brought in an essential element: information. Market ties are now based on information services, information goods and electronic money. Although the nature of exchanging products remains unchanged, the channel and the format of doing business have changed. To better understand the basic framework of e-commerce, the following paragraphs explain the features of the major layers in the environment of e-commerce.
Basic Framework
1.   The First layer: Network Infrastructure
Also known as the “Information Superhighway”, network infrastructure is the foundation layer of hardware infrastructure. It is a mixture of many forms of information transport systems, which include telecom, cable TV, wireless and the Internet. These systems, in particular the Internet, provide various types of telecommunication channels for transmission of contents used in e-commerce.
2.   The Second Layer: Multimedia Content and Network Publishing
While the Information Superhighway is the transportation basis that allows content such as text, sounds and images to be transmitted, the second layer provides an architecture that enables the content to be developed in a programming language know as Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) for publishing on the World Wide Web (WWW). Another programming language in use is Java, which enables multimedia content to be transmitted to end users’ personal computers via various networks such as cable, wireless, fiber optics and satellites.
3.   The Third layer: Messaging and Information Dissemination
Messaging transmission is usually done by the following technologies:
a.   Communicating non-formatted data: by using facsimile, electronic mail, which mainly directs to individuals.
b.   Communicating formatted data: by using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) without human intervention. It is mainly used for business documents such as purchase orders, invoices and packing lists. Messaging transmission technology has encouraged business process automation.
c.   Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP): HTTP is an information dissemination tool generally used on the Internet. It uses a common display format to publish non-formatted multimedia messages in various environments.
d.   Uniform Resource Locator (URL): URL is at present used by many web surfers to search for information.
4.   The Fourth layer: Security Protection in Business Services
This layer is regarded as the essential facilities for doing business because it is required by both business corporations and individuals in business transactions. The facilities include standardized product catalogues, price lists, electronic payment methods, secured transmission of business information, and the authentication of identity of both trading parties. The ultimate goal of e-commerce is that the seller gets the payment and the buyer obtains the product. To ensure transaction security, e-commerce needs to ensure content reliability, integrity, non-repudiation, and to provide the relevant evidence in case of disputes. Therefore, payment security on the web is crucial to ensure smooth completion of a transaction. The prevailing method of security measure is by electronic certification which provides ‘end-to-end’ security protection.
5.   The Fifth layer: Practical Application of E-commerce
E-commerce is widely employed in supply chain management, electronic marketing, electronic advertising, online shopping, online entertainment, pay-information service and network banking.
Network Infrastructure for E-Commerce:
Network infrastructure is required for e-commerce to transport content. I-way is a high-capacity, interactive electronic pipeline used to transfer content in case of e-commerce. I-way can transfer any type of context like, text, graphics, audio, video. In other words, multimedia contents are
Easily transported through I-way.
Components of I-way: – Consumer access equipment. – Local on-ramps,and – Global information distribution networks.
Consumer access equipment are devices used by consumers to access the multimedia interactive contents of e-commerce. In this segment, hardware and software vendors are also included.
Local or access road, or on-ramps: This segment of I-way simplify linkages between businesses, universities, and homes to the communications backbone. There are four different types of provider of access ramps: – telecom-based – cable TV-based – wireless-based and – computer-based online information services. These providers link users and e-commerce application providers.
Global information distribution networks are the infrastructure that is connecting countries and continents.
There are seven major issues to be discussed about I-way: cost, subsidies, allocation of scarce resources, regulation, universal access, privacy and social issues. Cost: Who will pay for constructing the I-way? Subsidies: Who are to be given subsidies? Allocation of scarce resources: Investment of the allocation of different scarce resources would be wasted or not. Regulation: Who will fund for the highway and who will write and enforce the rules to use the highway? Universal access: who can access and at what cost? Privacy: Is using online activities secure? Social and religious barriers: In cyberspace, everybody has right to write anything or publish.

FOREX: Forex scam, Forex Bank, Forex swap, Foreign exchange market

2010-09-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Forex scam
A forex (or foreign exchange) scam is any trading scheme used to defraud traders by convincing them that they can expect to gain a high profit by trading in the foreign exchange market. Currency trading “has become the fraud du jour” as of early 2008, according to Michael Dunn of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.1 But “the market has long been plagued by swindlers preying on the gullible,” according to the New York Times.2 “The average individual foreign-exchange-trading victim loses about $15,000, according to CFTC records” according to The Wall Street Journal.3 The North American Securities Administrators Association says that “off-exchange forex trading by retail investors is at best extremely risky, and at worst, outright fraud.”4

“In a typical case, investors may be promised tens of thousands of dollars in profits in just a few weeks or months, with an initial investment of only $5,000. Often, the investor’s money is never actually placed in the market through a legitimate dealer, but simply diverted – stolen – for the personal benefit of the con artists.”5
In August, 2008 the CFTC set up a special task force to deal with growing foreign exchange fraud.”6 In January 2010, the CFTC proposed new rules limiting leverage to 10 to 1, based on ” a number of improper practices” in the retail foreign exchange market, “among them solicitation fraud, a lack of transparency in the pricing and execution of transactions, unresponsiveness to customer complaints, and the targeting of unsophisticated, elderly, low net worth and other vulnerable individuals.”7
The forex market is a zero-sum game,8 meaning that whatever one trader gains, another loses, except that brokerage commissions and other transaction costs are subtracted from the results of all traders, technically making forex a “negative-sum” game.
These scams might include churning of customer accounts for the purpose of generating commissions, selling software that is supposed to guide the customer to large profits,9 improperly managed “managed accounts”,10 false advertising,11 Ponzi schemes and outright fraud.412 It also refers to any retail forex broker who indicates that trading foreign exchange is a low risk, high profit investment.13
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which loosely regulates the foreign exchange market in the United States, has noted an increase in the amount of unscrupulous activity in the non-bank foreign exchange industry.14
An official of the National Futures Association was quoted as saying, “Retail forex trading has increased dramatically over the past few years. Unfortunately, the amount of forex fraud has also increased dramatically.”15 Between 2001 and 2006 the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has prosecuted more than 80 cases involving the defrauding of more than 23,000 customers who lost $350 million. From 2001 to 2007, about 26,000 people lost $460 million in forex frauds.1 CNN quoted Godfried De Vidts, President of the Financial Markets Association, a European body, as saying, “Banks have a duty to protect their customers and they should make sure customers understand what they are doing. Now if people go online, on non-bank portals, how is this control being done?”
Forex swap
In finance, a forex swap (or FX swap) is a simultaneous purchase and sale of identical amounts of one currency for another with two different value dates (normally spot to forward).[1]; see Foreign exchange derivative

Forex Bank
Forex AB is a Swedish financial services company. The company was started in 1927 as a currency exchange service for travellers, at the Central Station in Stockholm. The owner of Gyllenspet’s Barber Shop, according to the legend, discovered that most of his customers were tourists in need of currency for their trips. The owner began keeping the major currencies on hand.
The company was subsequently acquired by Statens Järnvägar (now SJ AB), the Swedish State Railways, which expanded the operations until it was sold off to one of the managers, Rolf Friberg, in 1965. The company was the only one apart from the banks that was licensed to conduct currency exchange in Sweden.
The company, which is still wholly owned by the Friberg family, has expanded into Denmark, Finland, Norway and Iceland and has over 60 shops, usually located at train stations or airports. The decrease in the business brought on by introduction of the euro has made the company look for alternative sources of revenue, like applying for a banking licence and attempting to move into more regular transaction services, earlier handled by Svensk Kassaservice, a subsidiary of the state owned Swedish postal company, Posten.
Since 2003 Forex is a licensed bank.
Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange market (forex, FX, or currency market) is a worldwide decentralized over-the-counter financial market for the trading of currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends. The foreign exchange market determines the relative values of different currencies.[1]
The primary purpose of the foreign exchange market is to assist international trade and investment, by allowing businesses to convert one currency to another currency. For example, it permits a US business to import European goods and pay Euros, even though the business’s income is in US dollars. It also supports speculation, and facilitates the carry trade, in which investors borrow low-yielding currencies and lend (invest in) high-yielding currencies, and which (it has been claimed) may lead to loss of competitiveness in some countries.[2]
In a typical foreign exchange transaction a party purchases a quantity of one currency by paying a quantity of another currency. The modern foreign exchange market started forming during the 1970s when countries gradually switched to floating exchange rates from the previous exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system.
The foreign exchange market is unique because of its
* huge trading volume, leading to high liquidity
* geographical dispersion
* continuous operation: 24 hours a day except weekends, i.e. trading from 20:15 GMT on Sunday until 22:00 GMT Friday
* the variety of factors that affect exchange rates
* the low margins of relative profit compared with other markets of fixed income
* the use of leverage to enhance profit margins with respect to account size
As such, it has been referred to as the market closest to the ideal of perfect competition, notwithstanding market manipulation by central banks.[citation needed] According to the Bank for International Settlements,[3] average daily turnover in global foreign exchange markets is estimated at $3.98 trillion, as of April 2007. $3.21 Trillion is accounted for in the world’s main financial markets.
The $3.21 trillion break-down is as follows:
* $1.005 trillion in spot transactions
* $362 billion in outright forwards
* $1.714 trillion in foreign exchange swaps
* $129 billion estimated gaps in reporting
source: wikipedia.org

Ecommerce Solutions & E-commerce start-up delivers Indian food to travelers

2010-09-25T06:38:00.000-07:00

Ecommerce Solutions & E-commerce start-up delivers Indian food to travelers
Responding to the needs of Indian business travelers who arrive in the United States (U.S.) with jetlag, no food, and limited transportation, a unique concept at www.worrynotcurry.com assembles vegetarian food care packages and delivers them to the travelers’ U.S. hotel or place of stay.
Traveling to the U.S. from India involves a lot of work. Besides obtaining a passport, in some cases a U.S. work permit is also required. Then in order to receive a U.S. visa, a traveler must submit paperwork to VFS, pay fees at an approved bank, and then have an interview at the U.S. Consulate. This is only the beginning. After that there are questions about booking flights, hotels, packing, maps, directions, transportation, etc.
Founder of Worry Not Curry, Tamera Shintre, said, “With so many details to consider, the least of the travelers’ worries should be how to get food of their choice. Not only will a little preplanning ensure they will have food, but flavorful Indian vegetarian food at that.”

Worry Not Curry aims to lessen the load – mentally and physically – for international business travelers. And at under $30 for a complete day’s worth of food, it is much less expensive than the alternative option of eating out at U.S. Restaurants. The menu entails well known and respected brands imported from India including: MTR, Ashoka, Haldiram’s, Kohinoor, Priya, Lijjat, and others.
To order your own food available in 2-day, 3-day and 4-day kits or for more information about Worry Not Curry visit www.worrynotcurry.com.
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Forex, Dollar bounces down again and euro gains

2010-09-25T06:36:00.000-07:00

Forex: Euro rises, boosted by rally in the euro/Swiss franc cross
Dollar bounces down again and euro gains
Dollar index lower, dlr/yen back below 84 yen
China data, Dubai World deal supports commodity currencies
(Recasts, adds quotes, updates prices)
LONDON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – The dollar gave up most of its gains versus the yen on Friday, heading towards 15-year lows and keeping intervention prospects alive, while the euro rallied against the Swiss franc as investors sold safe-haven currencies.
Chinese trade data which showed higher-than-expected imports for August along with news that Dubai World had reached a deal to restructure liabilities boosted risk demand and pushed currencies such as the Australian dollar higher.

The dollar fell against a basket of currencies .DXY =USD, having failed to hold above the index’s 55-day moving average at 82.80. Against the yen, the dollar was off its session highs of 84.28 yen JPY=, falling to 83.90 yen.
It rose earlier in the session, helped by an increase in U.S. Treasury yields on Thursday on U.S. jobs data.
“There has been a moderate improvement in risk appetite which is seeing the dollar fall,” said Daragh Maher, deputy head of global foreign exchange research at Credit Agricole CIB. “But it is still very quiet there and its unlikely to lead to any trend.”
By Anirban Nag