Protect Yourself From Fraud
HOW TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM Fraud
YOU may have heard the saying, “You can’t cheat an honest man.” Like many sayings, that one is untrue. Every day honest people are the victims of fraud; honesty alone doesn’t protect them. Some of the cleverest minds in the world are devising and carrying out schemes to separate people from their money. More than a hundred years ago, one writer noted: “There are some frauds so well conducted, that it would be stupidity not to be deceived by them.”
Deception has a long history, dating back to the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3:1-5) Old schemes have many variations, and new schemes are being concocted all the time. So how can you defend yourself? You need not try to learn all the ways in which criminals defraud people. A few basic precautions will go a long way in protecting you from becoming a victim.
Safeguard Personal Information
THE EURO – New Currency for an Old Continent
A JUBILANT French finance minister gave the fresh coin a bite and declared: “This is the real thing, it’s no copy. It’s the first produced in France as well as in Europe.” The coin was the first euro struck at France’s official mint. The date was Monday, May 11, 1998.
What is the euro? How will housewives, workers, tourists, and businesses across Europe be affected by it? Will there be any repercussions for the global economy? Before you throw away your deutsche marks, lire, or francs, you may do well to learn the answers to these questions.
How Did the Idea Develop?
When the Maastricht Treaty transformed the European Community into the European Union (EU), on November 1, 1993, one of the fundamental goals was to introduce a single currency for the member states.* Since Roman times, Europe has not shared such a single currency. It was decided that the
Click here to continue readingGLOBAL TRADE How It Affects You
WHEN Peter lost his job with the multinational corporation where he had worked for 20 years, the dismissal notice put the blame squarely on “the globalization of the economy.” When Thailand’s currency, the baht, lost more than half its value, the finance minister of that country went on TV castigating “globalization.” When the price of rice increased by 60 percent in a country in Southeast Asia, headlines at the news kiosk announced: “It’s the Globalization!”
What exactly is the globalization of the economy? How and why does it affect your country as well as the money in your pocket? What is behind this trend?
What Is Globalization?
As an economic phenomenon, globalization is a shift from distinct national economies to a global economy. In today’s “global village,” the production of goods has been internationalized, and money flows freely and instantly across borders. It is virtually trade without borders. In this
Click here to continue readingUS stocks resume climb after one-day sell-off
Wall Street has managed a moderate gain after a back-and-forth session that saw investors snapping up energy and materials stocks and dumping financial shares.
Shifting sentiment over a possible bailout deal for Detroit’s Big Three automakers tugged at stocks throughout the session. That had major indexes alternating between gains and losses.
The gains Wednesday represent the continuation of the market’s advance since late November. It has been punctuated by a few steep selloffs, including a slide Tuesday. Rising commodity prices have helped energy stocks while worries about balance sheets hit financial stocks.
The Dow Jones industrials are ending up 70, or 0.81 percent, at the 8,761 level. Broader indexes have risen more than 1 percent. source
Click here to continue readingBond investors put money on layaway
As continuing stock market volatility leaves investors searching for a safe place to put their money, many have decided government bonds are the best option – even if the bonds give back a bit less than investors put in.
Short-term bond yields have hovered around – or below – zero since the credit crisis began with Lehman Brothers’ collapse in mid-September. That means investors in those bonds essentially pay the government to watch over their money and take back the same amount or even a little less when they get their money back from Uncle Sam.
It’s not just a few people investing in zero-interest bonds, either. Tuesday, the Treasury auctioned $30 billion worth of 28-day bills Tuesday at a yield of 0%, after receiving $126 billion in open interest. The yield on the 3-month bill dipped as low as -0.2% Tuesday before closing above 0%.
Demand for bonds with no return remains
Click here to continue readingTowns That Could Be Hit Hardest by the Financial Crisis
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The upheaval shaking Wall Street will hurt privileged enclaves as well as working-class neighborhoods from coast to coast. Find out which will fare the worst.
How many former Lehman Brothers bankers or AIG executives are likely to be buying a Park Avenue apartment or a home in Darien, Conn., this year? Most likely answer: not many at all.
As anyone who works on Wall Street, invests in the stock market, or just reads the newspapers knows, the past few weeks for the financials sector have been as ugly as Frankenstein’s sister. People have seen their net worth eviscerated, if not obliterated completely.
But Wall Street’s woes are going to have a direct impact on communities around the U.S.—and not just because the proposed $700 billion bailout will result in higher taxes for most Americans. The pain
Click here to continue readingAsian markets tumble as financial fears deepen
HONG KONG – Asian stocks tumbled Thursday, tracking declines on Wall Street as investors feared more companies could succumb to the global financial crisis that forced the U.S. to bail out troubled insurer American International Group Inc.
Every regional benchmark fell deeply in the red.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index led the region’s losses, tanking 1,272.86 points, or 7.22 percent, to 16,364.33 — its lowest level in over two years.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 stock index was down 445.67 points, or 3.79 percent, at 11,304.12. Australia’s S&P/ASX200 index fell more than 3.5 percent, South Korea’s Kospi lost 3.6 percent and Shanghai’s index fell 5.8 percent.
The losses tracked U.S. markets, where the Dow Jones industrial average fell about 450 points, or 4.06 percent, to 10,609.66.
Investors were unsettled by the Federal Reserve’s $85 billion loan to AIG, the huge U.S. insurer that lost billions in the risky business of insuring against bond defaults. It
Click here to continue readingWorst Crisis Since ’30s, With No End Yet in Sight
The financial crisis that began 13 months ago has entered a new, far more serious phase.
Lingering hopes that the damage could be contained to a handful of financial institutions that made bad bets on mortgages have evaporated. New fault lines are emerging beyond the original problem — troubled subprime mortgages — in areas like credit-default swaps, the credit insurance contracts sold by American International Group Inc. and others firms. There’s also a growing sense of wariness about the health of trading partners.
The consequences for companies and chief executives who tarry — hoping for better times in which to raise capital, sell assets or acknowledge losses — are now clear and brutal, as falling share prices and fearful lenders send troubled companies into ever-deeper holes. This weekend, such a realization led John Thain to sell the century-old Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. Each episode seems to bring
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