credit

Monday, March 31, 2008

400,000 Users at Online Personal Finance Startups [NetBanker] [The Banktastic IT & Security Feed]

In a Feb. 11 BusinessWeek Online feature (here), reporter John Tozzi listed the self-reported user bases at seven new entrants in online personal finance. The roundup led with an anecdote about Wesabe CEO Jason Knight answering phone calls from users (see inset).

The seven companies listed below are only a subset of the online personal finance space. The list does not include users at Quicken Online, Yodlee, Mvelopes, and another two dozen smaller players. Nor does it include users at financial institutions that support online personal financial management such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Key Bank, River City Bank and others.

Company   Users Traffic Mint* 135,000 150,000 Wesabe* 100,000 41,000 Buxfer*   80,000   9,200 Geezeo   20,000 14,000 NetWorthIQ   13,000 11,000 BillMonk   10,000   1,000 Expensr* Five figures   1,700 Total 370,000 230,000

Sources: Users per BusinessWeek Online, Feb 2008, figures are reported by the companies and may include inactive users; Traffic: Compete, Inc, estimated unique visitors for January 2008

*Will be presenting at our FINOVATE Startup conference April 29, 2008

For more information:

Previous NetBanker coverage here
Online Banking Report #131/132: Personal Finance Features for Online Banking
Online Banking Report #142/143: Social Personal Finance

Bernanke Comes Down from the Ivory Tower

Let's call a spade a spade, and an ace Ben Bernanke? Well, even Jim Cramer has to admit, Ben knows something more now than he did when TheStreet.com's main man tore him a new one. The Federal Reserve action today was significant, and more so in the implications of the effort than in the action itself.

(Stocks in this article: NYSE: WMT, NYSE: JCP, NYSE: M, NYSE: TIF, NYSE: SKS, NYSE: DKS, Nasdaq: GIGM, NYSE: AET, NYSE: SSI, Nasdaq: SWSI, NYSE: KR, Nasdaq: GOOG, NYSE: MCO, NYSE: RHD, NYSE: TXN, NYSE: WLP, AMEX: SPY, AMEX: DIA, Nasdaq: QQQQ, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: DOG, AMEX: QLD)
Kudos to the Fed!

In essence, what the Fed appears to have done through today's action is to become a more significant lender of last resort for the mortgage and other tight credit markets. Primary dealers were until this point still wary of investment in troubled credit markets. The Fed has effectively said, "we got your back" to the dealers, "no, really we do."

What's more enthusing about the whole arrangement is that it's clear the world's central banks are working hand-in-hand with the private sector in finding and also in refining effective resolution to credit market strife. Kudos to Ben Bernanke for thinking outside the box and coming out of the ivory tower. He's reached out to the so called real world. Jim Cramer's criticism, that "they know nothing," regarding the Fed's grasp of real world economics, no longer holds water. Let's give credit where credit is due. The beautiful, creative, dynamic human mind is problem solving and finding new ways to cure new economic illness. What's more, the Fed and its challenged Chief look to have been working tirelessly and aggressively and are due recognition for that effort alone.

ICSC-UBS Same-Store Sales

Weekly same store sales moved only 1.6% higher in the week ended March 8th. This defied recent improvement of trend, and compared to the prior week growth rate of 2.1%. Retail sales are due on Thursday, and this result has no bearing on our expectation of decent data, on a relative basis, from the report.
Department stores like Macy's (NYSE: M) and JC Penney (NYSE: JCP) continue to bear the brunt of the pain in retail, stuck between discount and high end. The one stop shop middle class model is not built for the current economic environment. The rich will continue to buy jewelry and designer goods from Tiffany's (NYSE: TIF) and Saks (NYSE: SKS) at tagged prices (do they even tag in these shops?), while more of the lower middle class will migrate to the Wal-Marts (NYSE: WMT) of the world.

International Trade January

January's International Trade Report showed the deficit actually narrowed, versus expectations for a widening on tough oil imports. Both exports and imports rose, thanks to rising prices. The reason the deficit narrowed is logical to us, and ugly for that matter. Domestic demand is on the decline my friends, while global demand remains solid. That's not a good thing, and this report offers no positive news as a result. You're just lucky it was muted by the Fed's pre-market action. Plus, it's not directly clear to the masses that a deficit narrowing in today's environment is bad news. In fact, I bet at least five Congressmen were quoted today naively taking credit for it.
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Thai police seize endangered species in market raid

Thai wildlife police have arrested two vendors and seized more than 200 rare animals including endangered tortoises during a raid at Bangkok's popular weekend market, police said Sunday. "Police are taking the suppression of endangered species smuggling
Submitted by LL A. to Animals | Note-it! | Add a Comment

Daily Market Wrap - Market Survives Bear Scare

Enjoy the newest facet of our service, the daily video market wrap.

As always, the opinions expressed within the videos do not necessarily coincide with the opinion of The Greek. You can support "The Greek" by supporting our advertisers. Thank you. (disclosure)

nationwide virtual credit union [True Story - Home] [The Banktastic Credit Union Feed]

Have you seen the news about the new nationwide virtual credit union forming for the National Association of Realtors? The credit union is the Realtors Federal Credit Union and they actually mention that they are a nationwide virtual credit union in their CEO job posting. I love the profile listed on the job listing: "REALTORS® Federal Credit Union (in organization) will strive to meet the personal and business financial services needs of its membership. The credit union will be an organization that recognizes the unique savings and credit needs of self-employed executives in the real estate profession. REALTORS® Federal Credit Union (in organization) promises to deliver a diverse product mix, underwriting a criterion that is realtor friendly. They are taking into account the limitless geographical boundaries and working hours of its membership, and will be fully functional, allowing their membership access from anywhere in the country, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Attractive rates and lower fees will appeal to realtors throughout the management and work with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) to ensure they are in tune with realtors' needs. This credit union will forge new strategic relationships that will advance the competitive opportunities of NAR members."

Think about what they have here:

A clear sense of community
Ability to tailor product offerings to their members that are relevant to how they conduct their professional lives
Understanding of the challenges facing a realtor in mixing their personal and professional lives as it relates to finance

This new credit union has a tremendous opportunity in front of them. Was virtually chatting about this credit union with my friend George Hofheimer at Filene and we thought, what about Google CU or Apple CU? George offered this insight, "It comes down to the question of what do people consider community today? In the past it was definitely employer-employee. It's always been hometown. The future may include what do I consume/where do I socialize."

Gets you thinking, doesn't it?

Decaying brands, and implications for Banks [The Bankwatch] [The Banktastic FI Feed]

Just came across Umair’s blog today and wanted to reference it. He is beginning a discussion on corporate DNA and branding. Quite fascinating …. the decaying brands he isolates are Microsoft [tried to control the product standards], and Starbucks [tried to control the value chain].

Umair Haque
Google and Myspace are perhaps the most obvious; Craigslist and Wikipedia the most radical; and Zara perhaps the least well understood. What all of these players have in common is that, as embryonic revolutionaries growing up in an era of turbulence, they’ve developed radically different DNA.

So of course, I am thinking about how this conversation can be carried over to Banks.

Fed Puts Out Bear Stearns Fire

The trading plague that fell upon Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) nearly killed it this morning before JP Morgan and the NY Fed showed up with penicillin.

(Stocks in article: NYSE: BSC, NYSE: JPM, Nasdaq: MSFT, Nasdaq: YHOO, NYSE: ANN, Nasdaq: ZUMZ, NYSE: DNA, Nasdaq: PSUN, Nasdaq: SIGM, NYSE: LLY, NYSE: LIZ, AMEX: SPY, AMEX: DIA, Nasdaq: QQQQ, AMEX: QLD, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: DOG, NYSE: LEH, NYSE: MER, NYSE: C, NYSE: GS, NYSE: C, NYSE: MS)
The entire group of investment banks sold off in sympathy to Bear's 30+% drop. Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) fell off about 9%, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) slipped 5%, Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) fell 4%, JP Morgan Chase fell 4%, Merrill (NYSE: MER) slipped 3%, Citigroup (NYSE: C) 3%. Bear is down 34% at this hour. The Greek knows a strong mutual fund manager over there and a hedge fund manager, and I hope for the best for those two.

We can look at the current situation in two separate manners. We could ignore the emotional extreme high and low patterns of human behavior, and say the world is coming to an end. However! I recall not too long ago when the same headless chickens gaining airtime today on CNBC and selling the market to bare bottom lows, were claiming sellers were just "lemmings."
Let's keep a level head shall we? The market typically corrects every 3 or 4 years on average, over the last 100 or so years. Recession is a normal happening. The same greed that drives market bubbles has changed its form to that of fear, driving panic today. The business news is gaining headline, front-page status, so we are likely getting close to crescendo.
Geopolitical Event Will Bring the Real Crescendo
However, I do not sense the bottom yet. That famed "crescendo" is not here yet. We suspect it will come with a geopolitical event. This bull-crap developing in South America will evolve into a war that draws the continent into conflict, if Chavez is not stamped out soon. Colombia has effectively sealed alliance between Ecuador and Venezuela now against it. Even so, the American backed nation still holds overwhelming advantage. But, it's a powder keg surrounded by flint. Colombia is not one united nation you see, but one diseased by an internal enemy as well. Chavez will seize upon the first opportunity he gets; he'll wait until the United States is busy elsewhere. In the meantime, he'll continue to support Colombian rebels every way he can.
In the Middle East, Iran is trembling. Israel is starving Gaza, weakening it. Why? To force Hamas out of power, maybe. But, the strategic oil reserve is full. Bush wants to fill it further. Why? Think about why Bush wants to fill the reserve further, when flooding the market with oil now would help ease economic stresses. We expect Israel, with the aid and cover of U.S. forces, will bomb Iran in the next few months. That's your crescendo sell-off catalyst. That's when commodities spike.
Do they top on that day though? That depends on what Russia has planned and what China decides upon when its energy partner is enveloped in war. Heavy handed fists hold power in Russia and in the United States. Unfortunately, open hands are needed now more than ever.
Bear Stearns & the Fed Rescue
Thank God for the Federal Reserve. If the Fed were abolished like Ron Paul and Jim Rogers have openly called for, the U.S. economy would now be well on its way to a depression similar to that of 1929. Without the liquidity it's offering that is admittedly weakening the value of the dollar, we would be in depression already. Would you prefer that?
If nobody wanted to trade with Bear Stearns today, and the Fed was not there to secure liquidity, Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) would be next, and then the entire financial system would freeze up. The stock market would have crashed and the economy would have fallen. Americans have their wealth tied up in pension funds, IRAs and 401K savings plans invested in capitalizing American companies. When confidence in those shares falls apart, America falls apart. Thank God for the Fed and a pat on the back is offered to Ben Bernanke today from The Greek. We have an obligation to preserve the market, because preserving it, preserves America as well.
Economic Data & Analysis
Consumer Price Index
February's Headline and Core CPI showed no change from January, offering good news to the market that was expecting increases of 0.3% and 0.2%, respectively. Futures immediately showed hope for market inflection, but then the Bear news broke.
Inflation was nowhere to be found in today's report, kind of. Not in energy prices anyway. Not in gasoline?!? Gasoline impacted the index in our favor (through the measuring date) by 2.0%. Just about everybody who drives or reads an occasional newspaper knows gasoline prices have risen and that this factor will stab us in the back next month. So, it's hard to gain too much conviction to go long from a report you know will be significantly different when reported next time around. Still, the market wanted to go long on it this morning, and our own headline for this article was set to read, something like "Watch Out this Afternoon." It was a trading play mistaken for a bear market turn. So, it was fitting that it was a bear, Bear Stearns, that killed it.
University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment
The preliminary March report showed confidence at 70.5, versus expectation for 69.5. However, I bet if you measured it this morning, it would stumble somewhere south of 60! When is Saint Patties Day, I need a drink already.
Thank you. (disclosure)

When is the right time to sell online? [The Better Banking Blog] [The Banktastic IT & Security Feed]

Community First Credit Union has launched a user-generated content website on the back of its sponsorship of the Central Coast Mariners football club.

Visitors can upload a video of their best football juggling effort, and other users can then vote for the best entry. The credit union is offering prizes for the most popular videos including club memberships, signed jerseys and gift vouchers for sporting goods.

So far only a handful of people have uploaded videos, but page views are healthy, with the competition open until April 30.

The site is similar to NAB's kick-to-kick campaign which also encouraged site visitors to upload videos, in this case of their children having a kick of the footy in their backyard. The campaign was designed to leverage NAB's sponsorship of AFL.

Speaking at December's Interactive Marketing forum, Monty Hamilton, direct portfolio manager of retail, brand &amp; sponsorships at NAB revealed the kick-to-kick site campaign generated 110,000 unique visitors, with 340,000 page views. More than 500 videos were uploaded over a two month period and some 170,000 votes lodged.

Hamilton says the bank recognised the need to deliver a collaborative environment, one which saw it deliver a platform rather than act as a content provider.

But while traffic may have been good, Hamilton was less convinced on the need to use the site as a sales channel.

"We didn't throw big advertising dollars at this and when you think about it what's the point of that?...We're not going to sell credit cards directly through this site, we're not going to sell home loans and you-beut high interest savings accounts. What we're doing is just getting our brand out there."

Community First is taking a slightly different tack, leveraging its sponsorship to launch a Mariners branded Visa card. Visitors to the site can pre-register their interest in the product. The credit union is also using the site to cross-sell its children's savings account products.

Time will tell if the strategy is effective, but what do you think? Should sponsorship sites be used to directly sell products? Is creating "consideration" of your brand enough, or should marketers directly leverage online branding to drive online applications and sales?

Update 26 February
Nielsen Online has just released some really interesting stats on consumer generated media - a survey of over 4,000 online consumers in Australia &amp; New Zealand has revealed 84 per cent use Web 2.0 platforms for sharing content such as photos, links and video. Around 78 per cent download and stream audio and video content and 69 per cent (76 per cent of New Zealanders) are creating content in the form of uploading video and music. Staggering figures.

Bail set for two of three suspects in beating death of family's goose

Judge Nancy Perez set bail this morning at $8,000 and ordered house arrest for a teary-eyed 18-year-old accused of beating a goose to death with two friends.

Anthony Karney's lawyer said he is a student at Palm Beach Community College and works
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Stamp out domestic violence

Violence against women in the family ? domestic violence ? is a fundamental violation of human rights. It is a pervasive, daily reality for women living in every country across the globe. Its impact is devastating on women, their lives, their health, thei
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400,000 Users at Online Personal Finance Startups [NetBanker] [The Banktastic FI Feed]

Company &nbsp; Users Traffic Mint* 135,000 150,000 Wesabe* 100,000 41,000 Buxfer* &nbsp; 80,000 &nbsp; 9,200 Geezeo &nbsp; 20,000 14,000 NetWorthIQ &nbsp; 13,000 11,000 BillMonk &nbsp; 10,000 &nbsp; 1,000 Expensr* Five figures &nbsp; 1,700 Total 370,000 230,000

Sources: Users per BusinessWeek Online, Feb 2008, figures are reported by the companies and may include inactive users; Traffic: Compete, Inc, estimated unique visitors for January 2008

*Will be presenting at our FINOVATE Startup conference April 29, 2008

For more information:

Previous NetBanker coverage here
Online Banking Report #131/132: Personal Finance Features for Online Banking
Online Banking Report #142/143: Social Personal Finance

Sunday, March 30, 2008

The Greek's Week Ahead - Holy Week!

The Greek's Week Ahead is the most comprehensive "week ahead" market-moving event planner in existence.
The week ahead will offer a shortened trading period due to Western Christianity's celebration of Good Friday. Speaking of good Fridays, we have had a few doozies over the past several periods. Two weeks ago, the Employment Situation Report sent markets for a spin, and then last week Bear Stearns needed rescue when it could not find counter-parties willing to deal with it. Thank Benjamin, JP Morgan Chase and the New York Federal Reserve played savior and kept Bear liquid, and solvent for that matter.

Unlike Eliot Spitzer, the market was having a relatively decent week until the Bear Stearns emergency. For the week, the Dow closed higher 0.5%, the S&P 500 moved lower 0.4% and the Nasdaq was unchanged. Four-week moving average mutual funds flows continued to show improvement for equity funds, with net inflows averaging $835 million. Still, money funds drew in $18.5 billion in comparison, but this continued a decreasing trend in the level of cash inflow to the sector.
Overseas, every major European market closed lower for the week, except Belgium and also Spain on the heels of its election. Finland dropped the most, down 4.0%. The broad DJ STOXX Index fell 1.2%. In Asia, all major markets fell, with the Indonesian market leading the losers as it collapsed 10.6%. India moved 1.2% lower, Japan 4.35% and Hong Kong 3.5%.
Gold closed the week just under $1,000 per troy ounce, at $999.50. Light sweet crude closed up $5, to $110.21 per barrel. Natural gas finished higher, to $9.87 per mmbtu. The dollar closed weaker to 1.5665 euros.
Before the Bear Stearns blowup... last Friday morning's Consumer Price Index for February seemed just the right fuel for a strong finish to the week when it offered data showing no change in prices. However, as it turns out, the period recorded completely excluded the recent price rise of oil and distillates, like for instance gasoline! Everyone who drives or has seen a newspaper headline over the past month knows that gasoline has marked record territory recently. So, it appears next month's CPI will not be so pleasant.

As usual, the Fed's action to keep Bear alive spurred much debate. It smells of a bailout, and that always draws the ire of free market capitalists. There's a moral hazard to rescuing one company that fails due to its own excessive risk taking. There's a concern this might encourage haphazard risk management at other firms, since there's an understanding that the Fed is there for rescue if necessary.

However, The Greek disagrees with the moral hazard argument, since we view the alternative unacceptable. If not for this and recent Fed action, we expect the American economy would be well on its way now to depression, not just recession, and that stock prices would be much lower.

The Week Ahead

This week offers important barometers of manufacturing sector condition and a timely meeting of the Federal Reserve.

Monday

A new governor takes over in New York and an important area manufacturing barometer will be measured on Monday. The day's Empire State Manufacturing Survey and Industrial Production reports, and the Philadelphia Fed Survey on Thursday, threaten to show manufacturing activity deteriorated. In their last reporting, New York and Philly area manufacturing dropped off sharply. Bloomberg's consensus is looking for a March Empire State General Business Conditions Index level of -6.3. Economists are looking for a February decrease in industrial production of 0.1%, and capacity utilization of 81.3%, which compares to 81.5% in January.

Monday's Treasury International Capital Report will measure foreign demand for long-term U.S. securities in January. December's data showed a decrease in foreign investment demand from the month just prior. Tuesday's State Street Investor Confidence Index will show how Americans feel about the same topic. We expect neither group is very optimistic.
The Current Account for Q4 is due early Monday morning, while the Housing Market Index for March is set for 1:00 PM release.
Monday's most noteworthy earnings reports include Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC), Conseco (NYSE: CNO), 4Kids Entertainment (NYSE: KDE), AES Corp. (NYSE: AES), Acusphere (Nasdaq: ACUS), Bruker Biosciences (Nasdaq: BRKR), Cosi (Nasdaq: COSI), Excel Maritime Carriers (NYSE: EXM), GeoMet (Nasdaq: GMET), Goldleaf Financial (Nasdaq: GFSI), Houston Wire & Cable (Nasdaq: HWCC), Neurogen (Nasdaq: NRGN), Ocean Power Tech (Nasdaq: OPTT), Perry Ellis (Nasdaq: PERY), Repros Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RPRX), Shuffle Master (Nasdaq: SHFL), Syntroleum (Nasdaq: SYNM), The PMI Group (NYSE: PMI), US BioEnergy (Nasdaq: USBE), Vicor (Nasdaq: VICR) and WCI Communities (NYSE: WCI).

Tuesday

Le Rogue Trader, Jerome Kerviel might be set free by a Parisian Court on Tuesday. Speaking of criminals, some consider recent Federal Reserve action as highway robbery of dollar value. Heading into last Friday, the treasury market had been forecasting that the Federal Open Market Committee would decide on a 50 basis point rate cut (half of a percentage point) this week. However, in the mayhem of Friday morning, rate cut expectations rose to as high as 100 basis points.

More than a handful of economists would rather the Fed not cut rates this time around, considering the further damage it could do to the dollar. There's well-founded concern that in mitigating recession, the Fed might also spur future inflation that could do even more and longer-lasting economic damage. However, we agree that the Fed has to face the challenge at hand first, before looking beyond to a potential problem. The Fed is hopeful prices will naturally find suppression due to decreased domestic demand for goods and services. Globalization, however, threatens to keep the overall supply/demand equation tight, and thus prices high. We expect the FOMC will cut rates by 50 basis points on Tuesday.
The ICSC-UBS Weekly Same-Store Sales results last week surprised on the short side of recent trend. Sales rose only 1.6% last week, year-to-year, while retail sales were reported down 0.6% in February. We estimated that overall sales trends contrasted with same-store sales growth because of mounting store closures and slowing new store openings.
Last week's CPI data proved benign, but February's PPI data is due out on Tuesday morning. Bloomberg's survey shows expectations for headline price increase of 0.4% and a Core PPI rise of 0.2%. February Housing Starts are seen measuring 990K, compared to 1.012 million reported in January. The aforementioned State Street Investor Confidence Index is due at 10:00 a.m.
Tuesday's earnings reports include Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE), Darden Restaurants (NYSE: DRI), EnergySolutions (NYSE: ES), Gamestop (NYSE: GME), GenTek (Nasdaq: GETI), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), Healthways (Nasdaq: HWAY), Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Radyne Corp. (Nasdaq: RADN), Somanetics (Nasdaq: SMTS), Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE: TNP) and more.

Wednesday
Wednesday brings the regular pre-market Mortgage Bankers' Association reporting of weekly mortgage activity. The Fed's action from early last week was partly intended to bring mortgage rates down. We'll see...
At 10:30, the EIA's Petroleum Status Report gets yet another opportunity to pound common sense into oil prices, but does supply/demand matter when the valuing currency is losing its worth by the minute.
Wednesday earnings reports include China Mobile (NYSE: CHL), General Mills (NYSE: GIS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Nike (NYSE: NKE), Avalon Pharmaceuticals (Nasdaq: AVRX), Borders Group (NYSE: BGP), Charming Shoppes (Nasdaq: CHRS), Cintas (Nasdaq: CTAS), CLARCOR (NYSE: CLC), Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS), Emisphere Technologies (Nasdaq: EMIS), Guess (NYSE: GES), Herman Miller (Nasdaq: MLHR), Lindsay Corp. (NYSE: LNN), North American Palladium (AMEX: PAL), Petroleum Development (Nasdaq: PETD), Pinnacle Gas (Nasdaq: PINN), Ross Stores (Nasdaq: ROST), The Marcus Corp. (NYSE: MCS), Ulta Salon, Cosmetics and Fragrance (Nasdaq: ULTA) and more.

Thursday

Welcome to the witching hour, quadruple witching that is. Weekly Initial Jobless Claims are expected to measure 360K, after sticking at 353K last week. Leading Economic Indicators for February is set for Thursday reporting, and will give some further indication of how likely economic contraction is for the first quarter. Bloomberg's consensus is looking for a 0.3% decrease for February.
The Philly Fed Survey, which scared the cheesesteak out of the market last month, is widely expected to sit in negative territory again this time around at -20.0. The EIA Natural Gas Report at 10:30 should again offer bearish data.

Thursday's earnings include Carnival Corp. (NYSE: CCL), FedEx (NYSE: FDX), New York & Co. (NYSE: NWY), CRA Int'l (Nasdaq: CRAI), CryoCor (Nasdaq: CRYO), dELiA's(Nasdaq: DLIA), Genpact (NYSE: G), Global Options (Nasdaq: GLOI), Hellenic Telecommunications (NYSE: OTE), Luby's (NYSE: LUB), Palm (Nasdaq: PALM), Progress Software (Nasdaq: PRGS), Shoe Carnival (Nasdaq: SCVL), The Children's Place (Nasdaq: PLCE), Winnebago (NYSE: WGO), WorldSpace (Nasdaq: WRSP), Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR) and more.

Because of the holiday on Friday, U.S. equity and bond markets will be closed. Markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and the U.K. will also be closed.
You can support "The Greek" by supporting our advertisers. Thank you. (disclosure)

Podcast 04: CU Skeptic [Currency Marketing] [The Banktastic Credit Union Feed]

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 4 of Credit Union Innovators. My guest is the infamous CU Skeptic. I don't know who he is, but this is what he states on his blog.

He's a sub-30-year-old male that has spent the last few years working in and around the banking and credit union industry. He has heard the tales of credit union greats and seen what some would call the bottom of the barrel. He's seen the efforts of small town banks and has all of his personal accounts with one of the big banks.

His take on banks and credit unions? At their current state, credit unions as a whole are no different than banks to the end user. Each have their share of sellouts and standouts, but in his eyes, that’s the bottom line.

You can listen by streaming audio here on the blog or you can subscribe to it in iTunes and listen on your iPod.

Some links to get to know the CU Skeptic even better:

His blog

Production notes:

Interview recorded with Rogue Amoeba's Audio Hijack and Skype
Intro recorded with a M-Audio Microtrack II mobile digital recorder
Edited in Audacity
Hosted on Evoca
Podcast RSS Feed through Feedburner
Music is A Song for Jake by Oregon Chad licensed through Creative Commons

The first day of Northern Voice 2008 = MooseCamp [Tinfoiling] [The Banktastic Credit Union Feed]

The first day of NV08 was pretty good. Of course there were sessions you couldn’t get to but there certainly was enough to keep you busy.

The Enterprise Social session had a good attendance and talked about wikis in the enterprise and how to successfully grow and use them. One aspect of wikis which was noted again and again was that search of all kinds sucks. But the biggest question was how do you get people to use these tools? What exactly hinders their use? It was interesting to note that the successful use of a wiki in an enterprise situation was conditioned on both the top and the grassroots contributing and there had to be a balance of both. It wasn’t like it would take hold just because it was introduced.

Citizen Journalism was interesting but it was also a presentation by CBC. The ‘motherhood’ culture predominated. Sure you can send stories and news to them but they will control the content. I don’t think they get it. By it’s nature citizen journalism uses the ‘openness’ of the web as one of its strongest points. To have it funneled and used by a large public media outlet takes away that strength. It was interesting to see how the CBC have now silently changed into beginning to understand what is happening. A few years ago blogging and alternative sources of news were largely ignored and discounted. But the giant will move slowly.

Photocamp was great. Lots of discussion around light.

WordPress and your problems was everyone moving into specific groups with resident experts leading the discussions and helping everyone with their questions. Jim Groom led our small group with some amazing information about plug-ins and presentation schemes.

Alan Levine had a session ‘More Than Cat Diaries’ that showed some web sites that don’t look like blogs but are running on blog software. The tag ‘notcatdiaries‘ on del.icio.us gives numerous examples.

That was it. Voxant was buying the beers and handing out T-shirts at the local bar so a bunch of us headed over there and continued discussing the day’s event. By the end of the day my brain hurt. And now we move into the second day.

Holy Hell! Don't Panic...

Bear Stearns sold for $2 a share over the weekend to sure up the financial system. Bear basically became the sacrificial lamb to save the rest of the investment banks, but JP Morgan got to eat the whole feast... or is it rat poison.
(Stocks in this article: NYSE: BSC, NYSE: JPM, NYSE: LEH, AMEX: SPY, AMEX: DIA, Nasdaq: QQQQ, AMEX: QLD, AMEX: DOG, AMEX: SDS, NYSE: GS, NYSE: MS, NYSE: C, NYSE: CS, NYSE: DB, NYSE: MER, NYSE: BCS)
Over the weekend, the Fed opened up the discount window to all the investment banks to insure what killed the Bear would not also cause mass extinction on Wall Street. At the same time, the Fed promised to keep the offer open for at least six months. The Fed also cut the primary credit or discount rate a quarter point to close the spread between it and the fed funds rate. I seem to recall The Greek and others recommending the closing of that spread a while back...
To further insure that all of New York's Financial District did not commit mass suicide today, the Fed is also offering backstop to JP Morgan's (NYSE: JPM) bid for Bear Stearns (NYSE: BSC) in the sum of $30 billion to cover its illiquid assets. The pain will all be felt by Bear Stearns' shareholders (or rather sh*tholders), which may be 30% composed of BSC's employees according to Barron's. Expect plenty of lawsuits as these people watched their stock crash from over $70 down to $2 in ten days. This is going to prove reminiscent to Worldcom for some folks.
Call in PETA!
The Greek spoke with an anonymous JP Morgan representative over the weekend, and according to her, what happened to Bear was just plain tragic. The $17 billion or so of cash on the company's balance sheet disappeared almost overnight as the leverage it had employed proved in hard core fashion why leverage increases risk. An ugly rumor got started (I have some ideas here) that Bear was in trouble. All of a sudden, nobody wanted to take the other side of Bear's trades, or risk any capital tied in any way to Bear. Or, maybe Bear really was in trouble.
Bear Stearns' new building is worth roughly $1.2 to $1.5 billion alone according to Bloomberg and Barron's, respectively, so how the hell do you buy the entire firm for $240 million? Well, you're taking on Bear's risk, and that risk is poison apparently. Still, Big Brother Fed has got your back so poison might not taste too bad at all.
Global markets tanked today as a result of concern for the most important economy in the world. Gold jumped $30 early this morning (now just $16 higher) and the dollar fell to a record low againt the euro of 1.59 (more recently about 1.58). Lehman Brothers looked as if it would be pressured in the premarket.
Don't panic folks! Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH) is now on death watch, but probably should not be. Regarding the market, a lot depends on what you folks do now. If you all rush to your computers and sell sell sell, then we'll crash today no matter what the Fed does. But, if the Fed plays its hand in full this morning, and goes through with its FOMC move that probably would have occurred tomorrow; instead acting today before the market open, then maybe it can once again breath life into this struggling patient. The fact is that initial reactions are already looking overdone. It's a good thing that this all played out well enough ahead of the market open for cooler heads to prevail, we hope...
Thank you. (disclosure)

Petroleum Status

The EIA's Petroleum Status Report this morning continued to produce information that counters logic for current energy pricing.

(Stocks in this article: AMEX: VDE, AMEX: GDX, AMEX: KOL, AMEX: NLR, NYSE: HUM, NYSE: FNM, NYSE: FRE, NYSE: BSC, NYSE: UPS, NYSE: SAM, Nasdaq: JASO, NYSE: PPC, Nasdaq: TTWO, NYSE: CAT, AMEX: DIA, AMEX: SPY, Nasdaq: QQQQ, AMEX: DOG, AMEX: SDS, AMEX: QLD)

Petroleum Status

The EIA Petroleum Status Report showed inventory build three times higher than expected, and served as a splash of cold water on the face of commodity traders. We said here in our weekly article that perhaps continued inventory building at heavy pace might force inflection point against the wild driver of momentum in the oil trading pits. But hey, what we do we know. Two weeks ago we labeled our weekly article, "Set to Retest Market Lows" (we then did) and then labeled this week's article, "Buy the News" (looks like you did). Sometimes, I scare myself to tell you the truth. But, I'm not psychic, or I would be on a beach in Greece instead of a stuffy New York City apartment. Or, I would be working for Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), since they seem to have the psychic market cornered.

Besides softening domestic demand, the strategic oil reserve draw should be winding down by our estimation. Last year, the government announced it would fill the reserve, and we diligently calculated that by March end, the reserve should be filled and Iran should be trembling. Might this be part of the reason inventory status is so changed... In any event, oil has no right rising in price, based on U.S. demand alone.

And, if global demand is the driver, than pricing should have reached this point sometime last year. European growth is burdened now, and China must eventually see some impact despite its own robust domestic growth. While it takes time to build power plants, it only takes hours to contemplate their fuel demands. Thus, the global demand factor was known.

So, why didn't oil rise to these levels when global economies looked flawless? Perhaps the barrier of historic price record itself stood in the way, as traders moved cautiously into the darkness of new pricing territory. They tested the water, found it lukewarm, but feared it might be cold deeper within and backed away before testing again. Could there be any other tangible reason for the energy equation?

Negative correlation to the dollar's direction has been just about perfect over the last ten dollars of oil price rise. So, oil price rise may be nothing but illusion at this point. It's just that your dollar cannot purchase what it use to, and the trend continues deteriorating. Even decoupling the two would have no economic consequence on American consumption cost. We would still be paying more for it in real dollars.
Or, is oil simply overpriced due to momentum? How far can momentum push price in an efficient marketplace? Or, are well-advised and capitalized investors buying oil ahead of a coming war. These are the possibilities. Tell me what you think is the real driver, if not a combination of each factor. Because the greatest of all factors, demand as measured by the EIA figures, says oil should be moving lower, not higher.
We will publish a solution for the dollar drift issue in a coming article. This is a symptom of a problem America must cure or otherwise settle for relegation as less than global leader.
You can support "The Greek" by supporting our advertisers. Thank you. (disclosure)

Innovation is local in a global context | case study - Zara [The Bankwatch] [The Banktastic FI Feed]

A thoughtful post on the nature of innovation, relative to globalisation, making the point that while the world appears global, the reality is quite local for effective innovation. The innovation levers technology and communication for the global aspects.

One example is Zara. Based on NW Spain, they have developed a global strategy of successful stores, but the innovation is centred in Galicia.

Irving Wladawsky-Berger
On average, it takes nine months to develop a new fashion product and get it into stores. Zara is able to shrink that number to a remarkable four to five weeks. Consequently, it can assess in real time how well its products are doing in its stores around the world and take action accordingly. If after a week a product is not selling well, it is withdrawn from the stores and the orders are cancelled. On the other hand, if a product proves hot, production is ramped up, and variations on its design are quickly pursued.

Some points of note on Zara’s strategy;
- they reduced production cycyle from 9 months to 4 weeks
- local receptivity on new designs is gathered real time from all stores back to Galicia
- design is all in house in Galicia
- actual production is local near the individual stores
- all communication is network based

Premarket Action: Bravo Bernanke!

Through this premarket action, some of the world's most important central banks are working together to bring liquidity back to mortgage markets.
In dramatic premarket fashion, the U.S. Federal Reserve in concert with the ECB, Bank of England, Bank of Canada and the Swiss National Bank are undertaking creative, concrete and substantial action to address credit market issue. This ties right in with our discussion over the weekend, that the intangible in the economic dilemma is human creativity and the problem solving human mind. It is constantly discounted as a stagnant economic factor, while it proves itself dynamic time and again. It finds solutions where none are evident or expected, and reliably so. We'll have more to say about the market in our follow up article today.
Please find the Fed announcement republished word for word below:
Since the coordinated actions taken in December 2007, the G-10 central banks have continued to work together closely and to consult regularly on liquidity pressures in funding markets. Pressures in some of these markets have recently increased again. We all continue to work together and will take appropriate steps to address those liquidity pressures.
To that end, today the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, and the Swiss National Bank are announcing specific measures.
Federal Reserve ActionsThe Federal Reserve announced today an expansion of its securities lending program. Under this new Term Securities Lending Facility (TSLF), the Federal Reserve will lend up to $200 billion of Treasury securities to primary dealers secured for a term of 28 days (rather than overnight, as in the existing program) by a pledge of other securities, including federal agency debt, federal agency residential-mortgage-backed securities (MBS), and non-agency AAA/Aaa-rated private-label residential MBS. The TSLF is intended to promote liquidity in the financing markets for Treasury and other collateral and thus to foster the functioning of financial markets more generally. As is the case with the current securities lending program, securities will be made available through an auction process. Auctions will be held on a weekly basis, beginning on March 27, 2008. The Federal Reserve will consult with primary dealers on technical design features of the TSLF.
In addition, the Federal Open Market Committee has authorized increases in its existing temporary reciprocal currency arrangements (swap lines) with the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Swiss National Bank (SNB). These arrangements will now provide dollars in amounts of up to $30 billion and $6 billion to the ECB and the SNB, respectively, representing increases of $10 billion and $2 billion. The FOMC extended the term of these swap lines through September 30, 2008.
The actions announced today supplement the measures announced by the Federal Reserve on Friday to boost the size of the Term Auction Facility to $100 billion and to undertake a series of term repurchase transactions that will cumulate to $100 billion.
Information on Related Actions Being Taken by Other Central BanksInformation on the actions that will be taken by other central banks is available at the following websites:
Bank of CanadaBank of EnglandEuropean Central BankSwiss National Bank

Statements by Other Central BanksBank of JapanSveriges Riksbank
You can support "The Greek" by supporting our advertisers. Thank you. (disclosure)

Saturday, March 29, 2008

Yo Bernanke! Fool Me Twice Shame on Me!

Relief soothed the market this morning, as something other than disastrous news from the investment banking community proved the world was actually not coming to an end, at least not yet. High hopes for a 100 basis point Fed rate cut later this afternoon has buyers finding their way to equities, with advancers leading decliners nearly 10 to 1 in the early going.

(Stocks in article: NYSE: GS, NYSE: LEH, NYSE: WMT, NYSE: RTP, NYSE: XOM, Nasdaq: YHOO, NYSE: DAL, NYSE: NWA, NYSE: FNM, NYSE: FRE, NYSE: FDS, NYSE: UBS, Nasdaq: CWCO)

All Eyes on Fed
All eyes are on the Fed, with high hopes for a 100 basis point rate cut. The treasury market has already priced it in, and the Fed has not failed to disappoint treasury expectations yet. Time and again, I've been caught listening to Fed words rather than realizing the group is just a scared silly bunch that jumps at the President's and market's beckon call (thank God!). So, my bet is on a big rate cut this time around, whether it be 75 points or the 100 mark the treasury market is betting on.

Now that I've said it, they will of course only move by 50 points, which is what I really believe is the amount they should move this time around. Still, I recall that period this past November and December when Bernanke flat out said he would not cut, repeated it in mannerism and language at a follow up address, and then got in line behind his elder at the Fed and the President, and cut rates by exactly what the treasuries had priced in. Thank God he did, but he proved a little shaky a leader in that process. It's possible he's just a pawn to the market, but at the same time tried to fool it into backing off. That would make him as cunning as Putin, and I don't see that.

In fact, the whole group in Washington has been quite the reactionary bunch. Treasury Secretary Paulson finally said something indicating an expectation for recession. He said the economy was experiencing a sharp downturn. Really? What do you know! Hey, I don't know about you, but I was thinking, it's about $#$% time!

You can only play the PR game for so long before you just end up pissing off the world's economists, strategists and investors out there who know you are just singing a tune that's supported by a view that we're all stupid. Putting yourself in their shoes though, scaring consumers out of the mall by forecasting the obvious recession would not serve any good purpose either. So, while their cheerleading has been annoying to the wise, it may have been wise for the whole.

Producer Price Index

Inflation signs were completely ignored this morning, since the market had already binged on panic on St. Patties Day. While the headline figure showed a rise of 0.3%, short of expectations, Core PPI jumped 0.5%. That compared to expectations for a rise of 0.2%. Panic was also put off since changes in producer prices do not translate in a predictable manner to consumer price changes, at least not over the short term. However, allow me the opportunity to frighten.

February's price changes missed the recent rocket rise of commodities, including oil and distillates. The headline figure will be higher in March, and these prices should find there way to your pockets soon enough. We were forecasting this long ago, and it's started playing out finally and even caught consensus recognition at this point.

Nothing has changed. However, the Fed has high hopes domestic recession will help ease pricing, while at the same time it does its best to stave off recession. We discussed this topic in much more detail in our week ahead copy that you can see by clicking this link, The Greek's Week Ahead - Holy Week!.

(disclosure)

Loans for Tenants With Bad Credit

Tip! Visit Bad Credit Help for more resources and help with your credit.

Most of the loan providers offer loans to people who can offer their home as security or in simple words, these lenders are more interested in offering secured loans, so they do not accept applications from tenants. But there are lenders who offer bad credit tenant loans to tenants without taking any collateral and inspite of bad credit history. So, if you are a tenant staying in a private house or an association building or even if you are staying with your parents and you have a bad credit record, you can still opt for bad credit tenants loans.

Tip! Here are some things that will help you to find the bad credit help that you need.

Bad credit tenant loans are unsecured loans offered by loan service providers without taking any asset as security to council or private tenants and people living with parents who have an adverse credit history or a poor credit rating.

Tenant loans can be customized according to your requirements and can be used for any purpose: a holiday, debt consolidation, or for a new car, the choice is yours. Infact, there is a hidden advantage of bad credit tenant loan-by making timely payments and avoiding any defaults, you can actually improve your credit record, which will help in future requirements of loans.

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In case of any secured loan, lenders’ risk gets reduced due to collateral offered by the borrower. So lenders are confident of getting timely payment otherwise they have option of taking over the securitized asset. This reduced risk for lenders are transformed into reduced interest rate for borrowers. But a bad credit tenant loan is usually unsecured loans so there is normally increased risk for lenders. To compensate this increased risk, lenders charge a little higher interest rate for bad credit tenant loans.

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Loan amount in case of bad credit tenant loan is decided by taking into account the profile of borrower, which includes source of income, income range, credit history, any running loan etc.

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Tags: debt consolidation, bad credit auto loan

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Round 5: Exxon vs Crocs [Worst Company In America]

Exxon Valdez crash spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaskan waters. Recently Exxon petitioned to have the $2.5 billion in punitive damages reduced because it thought they were excessive. Exxon was also sued in lawsuit claiming their Indonesian subsidiary allowed their facilities to be used by the Indonesian government to torture 11 villagers.

Crocs makes really stupid looking shoes that have unfortunately become faddish. They can also get stuck in escalators leading to a very scary time as you try to pry your child from the ceaselessly churning stairs of death. Several injuries have been reported.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Google Vs Sony, Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods

How To Get Approved For A Personal Loan With Bad Credit Or No Credit

Tip! Here are some things that will help you to find the bad credit help that you need.

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Your credit history includes any county court judgment, defaults on loan payments, late payments, bankruptcies, loan
requests, etc. all of which affect your credit negatively. For a regular bank loan officer this implies that he is considering lending money to a high risk client, because these kinds of records are known to lead to late payments and default.

Tip! Visit Bad Credit Help for more resources and help with your credit.

Bad Credit Personal Loan Lenders
There are however other financial institutions willing to approve loan applications for people with bad credit. You should bear in mind though, that these financial institutions usually charge a higher interest rate. This is due to the higher risk
involved for the lenders when lending to people with past financial problems.
Nevertheless, your credit history will be checked if you apply for a loan. Your credit report will almost always be pulled
and your credit score will be taken into consideration. But you don’t need to despair; there are many ways to increase your chances of getting approved for a personal loan even with bad credit.

Bad Credit Help Web portal for people with bad credit or no credit provides information on loans, secured credit cards, cellular phones, debt consolidation and credit repair.

Bad Credit Secured Personal Loans
If you have any asset you can use as collateral, the smart thing to do is to apply for an unsecured personal loan. In this
type of loan your credit rating becomes less important as the value of the asset will be guaranteeing the loan repayment.
This means that if you fail to pay the monthly installments, the lender has a legal claim on your property and you risk
repossession.

Bad Credit Loans - All Categories Bad credit loans for Americans who need financing. Cash loans for all requirements.

Pondering the loan amount
Reducing the loan amount is another way of increasing your chances to get approved. The loan amount is another factor that
plays along with the others so if you can reduce the amount of money you request, the requirements for approval will be less
strict. That being said, you should always request the strictly necessary and not a dollar more.

Repair Your Credit Is your credit score low? Learn how to increase your credit score by repairing your credit.

Late and missed payments
You should avoid missing payments. Make sure all your bills and loan installments are up to date. Late payments will also have negative effects on your ability to get approved. Usually people belittle these two factors but it has such importance
that it may imply that you get blacklisted for loans for a long period of time.

Applying to the right lenders
If your credit is too bad, don’t waste your time with banks and other mainstream lenders, they’ll pull your credit report
just to decline your application and this will affect your credit score negatively. At this point, you should aim to
financial institutions specialized in bad credit loans. These firms focus on customers with past credit problems and are ready to deal with their needs.

Bad Credit Help - Creditmechanic.net Using our streamlined credit repair package, we know you can get bad credit help by easily following a few simple steps to build better credit.

You should bear in mind though that the interest rate charged for such loans is higher than the one you would get from a bank. You may be able to reduce the interest rate by offering collateral or applying for a personal loan with a co-signer.

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Search for your loan Online
When it comes to finding a lender willing to approve a bad credit personal loan, online lenders are the best options. Due to their online nature, they have lower costs and thus charge lower interest rates. There are also some online firms that offer access to many lenders in a single site, so you won’t need to search around for a lender and you’ll be able to compare loan
quotes from the comfort of your home.

Mary Ann Wise, a professional consultant with more than twenty years in the financial field, is currently committed to helping people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and preventing consumers from falling into the hands of fraudulent lenders. In one of her websites: http://www.badcreditloanservices.com you will find more useful tips and interesting articles on this subject and other financial related topics.

Tags: bankruptcy, debt

Tags: bad credit help, bad credit, credit repair, credit help

The Dog Feeding Dilemma: What Kind and How Much?

The Dog Feeding Dilemma: What Kind and How Much? by Wright, Jude

You've just brought your new dog or puppy home. Now, what do you feed it?

Just like humans, dogs need good nutrition to keep them happy and healthy. Most veterinarians recommend dry dog food over canned food. It has been determined that dry food has more nutritional value than canned food. This is because canned food is usually about 70% liquid. So, your dog has to eat more to get the same nutrition as dry.

Some brands of canned dog food are beef or chicken based and can be adequate for small dogs. Dogs that weigh over 30 pounds should be fed dry food for most meals. Use canned foods too so that your pet feels that his hunger is being satisfied. Sometimes you can mix water or broth with dry food so that your dog feels he is getting something special.

So, how much food should you give and how often should your puppy be fed?

Puppies that are six weeks old or younger should be given milk seven to ten times during the day - and night. Your puppy will let you know when it is hungry by yipping or whining.

You can start feeding your puppy a little sold food when it reaches four weeks of age. Give your puppy very small amounts to begin with. If she gets sick or has diarrhea, wait a few days and then try again...perhaps with a different brand.

As your puppy gets older, the feeding times can be reduced to several times a day. This usually occurs at about eight to ten weeks old. This timetable can vary according to the breed of dog that you have. If your puppy whines at his feeding dish, go ahead and give him a bit more food.

Puppies that are three to six months old will be teething and will need something else to chew on. Chew bones and hanks of rope are good for puppy chewing toys. Puppies should be getting some dry dog food by this time as well. Remember that puppies of these ages are still growing so will have to have adequate nutrition in their 'puppy' food.

When your puppy reaches one year old, she is considered a fully adult dog. You should feed her adult dog food twice a day.

Female dogs that are pregant will need additional nutrients. She may require an additional feeding during the day. Your veterinarian might recommend vitamins to keep her and her puppies healthy.

A dog that is sick will probably lose his appetite. Don't force him to eat; he will eat when he's feeling better. Consult your vet if you think he's not getting enough nourishment.

Older dogs might not want to eat as much as they did when younger. This is normal and nothing to be concerned about because their activity level is lower than when they were young dogs.

A word about table scraps: please don't. Yes, they do love them, but many pets die from disease caused by the wrong kinds of foods.

Use common sense when feeding your dog and your dog will do fine.

Jude Wright is the owner of multiple home and garden websites. Learn more about taking care of your dog at http://dogandpuppycare.com.

Article Directory: Article Dashboard

Bad Credit Loans Help Reaching Your Destination With Bad Credit Loans

Tip! Here are some things that will help you to find the bad credit help that you need.

Bad credit loans always serve the purposes of those who have a poor credit history. If you have bad credit past you should take the route of secured loans, which will involve collaterals and as a result of that you can improve the probability of getting your loan approved.

Tip! Visit Bad Credit Help for more resources and help with your credit.

Bad credit record is barrier in getting low interest rates or even getting your loan approved. If you are suffering from any county court judgements, defaults, arrears, insolvency or have had any Individual Voluntary Arrangements in the past, lenders will not be convinced easily that you are capable of repaying the loan. However, no body can take away the right from you to borrow a loan. Bad credit loans are designed to serve people of such inundated financial background.

The biggest disadvantage of secured bad credit loans is that borrower will always have the danger of property repossession in case of defaults on payment. A borrower with a bad credit record has to prove a lot of evidences to prove his repayment potential. Nevertheless, it is not very unusual, as majority of UK residents have bad credit record.

Bad Credit Help Web portal for people with bad credit or no credit provides information on loans, secured credit cards, cellular phones, debt consolidation and credit repair.

If your bad credit loans are unsecured, interest rates will be slightly high and you can avail the facility of payment flexibilities. The role of online lenders is very significant. You can compare different loan rates of various lenders before conceding your loan deal.
So, you decide how much you have to borrow and over what length of time, finding lenders will not be a problem.

The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration as a finance specialist. For more information visit at http://www.easy-debt-consolidation-loan.co.uk

Tags: bad credit mortgage loan, bad credit

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Cheap and Fast - Freecreditreport.com.

FreeCreditReport.com - Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFreeCreditReport.com is a website owned by the Experian credit clearinghouse. The site offers users a chance to check their personal credit reports from all three major credit .

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Read this...Something to think about!

A friend of mine sent this to me. Good stuff!

The other day someone at a store in our town read that a Metamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in an adjoining county and he ask me a rhetorical question. "Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up"?
I replied, I had a drug probelm when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday mornings. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was drug by my ears when I was disrepctful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher or didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity. I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower bedsand cuckleburs out of dad's fields. I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood and if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack or heroin: and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
God Bless the parents who drugged us.:praying

Thought you all might enjoy this one.
God Bless,
Sweet Pea

Top 10 ways to keep that car clean

I will have to disclose at the outset that my car can stay pretty messy. But these are the tricks I use to keep it manageable. If I did all of them at once, I would have a beautiful car all the time. So here are my top 10 ways to keep your car clean and organized.

Keep a trash bag hooked somewhere in the front of your car for trash. I keep mine hooked to the drink holder.
I love keeping a swiffer in my car. when you are stopped at a red light or waiting on the kids, just whip it out and dust.
Keep those traveling Armor-All wipes under the seat or in the glove box so you can take a quick swipe when you are sitting still.
Keep a small bag or box for the toys. There is nothing more irritable than a toy rattling around under a seat. then you have to get that wide load (oh wait, that would be my butt in the air) visible to get it out.
Keep a small tote or crate(you know… one of those plastic cubes with the holes in it) in your trunk or back seat for all the incidentals that find their way into your car. Shoes, diapers, toys, sippy cups…
Use that same container for groceries. I hate it when I go to make something only to find that it fell out of the bag and is under a seat.
Spoil yourself with a touchless car wash every once in a while. This will help the outside stay clean and encourage you to keep the inside even cleaner.
Have one bag for nothing but mail. I am infamous for lugging the kids in with their individual bags plus my purse plus a cup or 2 and leaving the mail in the seat on accident. Put it in one place, like the center console, so that you won’t have it laying around everywhere.
If you have a spare minute, go to a car wash only to throw out the trash. You know you have that coupon sitting there that you never got around to using. What about the McDonald’s cup you finished yesterday?
Find a CD holder for all those CD’s rolling around.
Do your 27 fling car boogy! (this was just a bonus)

I just find that none of these take a lot of time individually and they can add up to a great little car for you if you manage it on a regular basis.

Tags: cleaning, top-10, vehicle

Friday, March 28, 2008

Best March Coupons

Enjoy these coupons!

Target coupons good until 3/29
Bed Bath & Beyond $10 off $30 good until 4/20
Children’s Place 20% Off coupon good until 3/31
CVS $5 Off $15 and $30 Rx coupon good until 3/31
Best Buy 10% Off coupon good until 4/30
Victoria’s Secret $10 off and free panty coupon limited time only
American Eagle $10 off bra coupon good until 3/15
Kirkland’s 25% off good until 3/31
Luvs coupons good until 4/2
Harbor Freight 10% off coupon good until 4/1

SimplyCash® Business Card from American Express

Earn 5% cash back on automobile gas, office supplies, and wireless services
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Cash back is automatically credited to the statement each month
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No annual fee with the flexibility to pay in full or carry a balance
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Save 3-25% on business purchases at companies like FedEx®, Delta®, Hertz®, and more.

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Round 4: Google Vs Sony [Worst Company In America]

Google is like the elephant that never forgets... and it knows all of your personal information. Do you trust it not to be "evil?" Or is Google just a nice name for "Big Brother?" Let's not forget how they bowed to Chinese government demands that Chinese users be prevented from seeing certain search results, like information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

Sony is a member of former Worst Company in America winner, the RIAA. When its not fake blogging, it can be found installing a rootkit on your computer and finding lots of ways to void your warranty.

This is a post in our Worst Company In America 2008 series. Keep track of all the goings on at consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/

STILL OPEN FOR VOTING: Ticketmaster vs Wachovia, Facebook vs The American Arbitration Association, Comcast vs Menu Foods
(Photo:Jeff Sanquist)

Apple sued over Leopard, iPod, iPhone: the whole shebang

The latest entrant in the "lawsuit of the week" category, according to AppleInsider, is Mirror Worlds, who is suing Apple for "willful and deliberate" violation of its software patents (don't they all?). The company believes that Apple is guilty of violating several patents and is seeking not just damages, but triple wordscore damages.

Mirror Worlds's patents describe a way to have your files visually arranged in windows according to the timestamps as well as searching through them. Sound familiar? Apparently, it did to Mirror Worlds: they claim that Mac OS X and, by extension, all Macs are guilty of infringing upon the patents.

The lawsuit also ropes in the iPod and the iPhone for good measure, because even though they don't present your data à la Time Machine, they've still been using timestamp-based organization ever since their release—and that should be reason enough for anybody.

The suit was filed in a Texas court and charged Apple for being guilty of violating not just one but four of Mirror Worlds' patents, dating back to as early as 1999.

You'd think Mirror Worlds would've realized this sooner, what with the iPod line having been around for the past seven years [and hell, the MacOS has let you sort by date for, er, almost a quarter century -DM]—but no, it was only when Apple released Leopard with Time Machine that they realized they could sue. Apparently timeliness is not next to godliness.

[Hat tip to reader Shrenique.]

Primary category: Legal

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Military Bad Credit Personal Loan Has Made Loans for All

Tip! Your bad credit personal loan may be slapped a higher interest rate, and may be for a shorter term so that your monthly payments could be rather steep. Your lender may also opt to insert a few clauses that could constitute hardship ? like an acceleration clause for one, or a balloon payment clause ? if you default.

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Office Manager (Central London)

Badoo.com is looking for person who can efficiently run our company as office manager. We are a global social network with over 13 million active users from 180 countries. Badoo users share photos links blogs and videos with an ever expanding audience. Google Zeitgeist 2007 reported Badoo as the second fastest rising search term and Website of the Year voted Badoo No1 community website in France and Spain for 2007. The position will mainly consist of Reception duties Bill payments and banking Maintenance of company spreadsheets. For example Excel Word etc. Flight and hotel booking Stationery ordering Holiday planning management Answer basic queries on telephone Job skills Good typing skills. Strong level of Microsoft Office (excel and word in particular) Very good organizational skills Strong team player Fluent English (French Spanish or Italian is a plus) Work experience At least 1 year Office hours 900-1800 Monday-Friday Salary £18000 If you are interested please send your Cv and references to Vanessa Smith hr corp.badoo.com

Bad Credit Loans: A Solution to Your Bad Credit Problems

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Taking bad credit loan is no more a thing to feel ashamed. Bad credit has become very common among people, thus creditors have also accepted it. Bad credit loans have become popular because of the increasing number of individuals experiencing debts problems.

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Doctor Blogs Raise Concerns About Patient Privacy

Medical blogs have drawn back the curtain on the inner workings of the health care profession. Online readers can learn about the latest medical gadgets, read physicians' views on health care issues, even get a peek at the inner thoughts of surgeons. But despite their attraction, these blogs have raised concerns about privacy issues on the Web.

Take a stroll through any of the 120,000 health care blogs and you can find opinions on everything from popular pharmaceuticals to celebrity skin problems. There are no precise figures on how many doctor blogs are out there, but they are easy to find. One blog called "EM Physician" recounts a scene of gang members turning up at the ER with severe burns. "Aggravated DocSurg" says that operations are "fun," and "Radiology Picture of the Day" shows a range of horrific conditions from brain diseases to a breast implant rupture.

Day 6 of no contact........

We have not contacted each other now for 6 days! Every day I get that much closer to cutting the umbilical cord. Sometimes I think WOW it's cut ... and then a matter of hours go by and my wheels start spinning..... what was the last thing said? I wonder if he is sad, mad, angry, glad..... etc. He says that he has been clean for more than 2 months now, and by his actions (not his words), I have not personally seen any changes. At this point, that is what I needed for us to start a new journey together. More often than not, I feel that he is probably really happy to see the back of me, and then some times I think he is hurting as much as I am, but is kindly giving me my space. Maybe he is thinking both? Or maybe he really doesn't give 2 sh!ts about it and is resuming just fine not being worried about being accused and not trusted by someone anymore! AND THEN... that stinkin thinkin gets replaced with.... it doesn't matter what he's thinking! And I carry on with my recovery! I am so used to keeping him updated on my feelings, so he we are on the same page, but we don't have the book anymore...... for our page to fit. I fear I will never be able to lie next to someone and look and feel something so amazing. That feeling was my drug, if I look at it negatively. When really it was something I have never felt for anyone before, I thought he was my soul mate!

Anyway.... right now I'm just embracing this recovery and I have faith that one day, I will go one day without thinking about him. I am working towards that..... I know it sounds horrible.... but my emotions are flip flopping through out the day. My friend told me today, that is why the "no contact rule" is so good. Cause lets say we talk when I'm missing him terrible.... yet had I of waited.... a few hours later I probably would be so relieved that we are not in this dysfunction anymore! That I am feeling happy and soulful about my life and not obsessing over his!

Today I felt like writing him an email ......saying I'm sorry that I couldn't trust again... I'm sorry I was not strong enough.... I'm sorry that I have so much doubt. It's true... I am sorry, but that is because I'm not able to carry that much right now... I think in reality, I would be strong enough, but it's not the time for me right now to do so. I would just fail ... horribly. I've already shown that I can't.

Afterglow by Sara MacLachlan is the cd that is currently all about my relationship and how it went. It's healing to listen to.

Safari 3.1 out in the wild

As a Tuesday goodie, Apple just released an update to Safari for both Mac OS X and Windows. In a rare detailed change-log from Apple, they give us the scoop on what has changed since Safari 3.0.4 (beware of spoilers though).

Here are some appetizers:

Better JavaScript performance, site compatibility and application stability
Support for CSS 3 web fonts, transforms and transitions
Several developer features such as access to Web Inspector and Network Timeline, support for custom user access string and improved snipper editor
Double clicking on the Tab Bar opens new tab (goodbye, Twicetab—you’ll be missed)
Opens Download and Activity window in current Space
Shows Caps Lock icon in password fields
Improved security

You can choose between firing up Software Update and downloading it from Apple’s website. It’s compatible with Leopard as well as Tiger, provided that you are running v10.4.11.

Primary category: Software : Updates

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Security Update 2008-002 says German is for firewall lovers

We are pretty psyched about the changes brought by Security Update 2008-002. Amongst diverse patches for the likes of AFP Client, Apache, Emacs, and mDNSResponder we also get wonderful improvements such as an updating of the German translation for the firewall. Here's das skinny:

The "Set access for specific services and applications" radio button of the Application Firewall preference pane was translated into German as "Zugriff auf bestimmte Dienste und Programme festlegen", which is "Set access to specific services and applications". This might lead a user to believe that the listed services were the only ones that would be permitted to accept incoming connections. This update addresses the issue by changing the German text to semantically match the English text. This issue does not affect systems prior to Mac OS X v10.5.

Excellent. This isn't the first time that Apple's changed the text in the firewall system preferences pane; they updated the English back in 10.5.1 as well.

If you're looking to grab the download, it's available via Apple's download site or Software Update in multiple flavors of security deliciousness.

Primary category: Security

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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Tackle it Tuesday - Get that hotspot cooled down

I love 5 minutes for moms. They are crazy over there. So my Tackle it Tuesday is a hotspot that often gets neglected. I am going through my purse. Every once in a while my purse gets lost in junk. JI am going to clean out all the paper that doesn’t need to be there. The extra pens are going away. I think I might even have a spare toy that I don’t want to play with. Oh wait, that is Little Man’s. <wink>.

How about you? What hotspot are you going to tackle today?

Tags: organization, Tackle It Tuesday

Bad Credit Personal Loans: Quick and Simple

Tip! Visit Bad Credit Help for more resources and help with your credit.

Bad credit personal loans will always serve the purpose of needy people looking for some instant financial solution. If you need money for any major or petty needs, personal loans will always be supportive and easily accessible. Personal loans are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. If you use your credit cards for making big purchases or for home improvement, the interest rates would be mind-boggling and nearly unaffordable.

Secured personal loans require collaterals to offer against the loan. Collaterals come in the form of property or home. Secured personal loans offer less rate of interest and hence monthly payment will be also reduced.

Tip! Here are some things that will help you to find the bad credit help that you need.

Bad credit record is an obstruction in getting low interest rates. If you are served county court judgements, or have defaults and arrears in the past, personal loan lenders can not offer you a reasonable interest rate. However, no body can take away the right of getting you a loan. Bad credit personal loans are intended to provide people of such beset economic background.

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Unsecured personal loans do not involve any collateral issues, thus it is fast and convenient for small amount loans. Unsecured personal loans again carry higher rates of interest. But with the introduction of bad credit personal loans, you can get competitive interest rates provided if you make exact search through the website of personal loan lenders.

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About The Author:

The author is a business writer specializing in finance and credit products and has written authoritative articles on the finance industry. He has done his masters in Business Administration and is currently assisting Apply-4-Personal-Loans as a finance specialist.

Tags: money, bad credit auto loan

Tags: bad credit help, bad credit, credit repair, credit help

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