Standard and Times

Poor retails sales will slow US economic recovery

Retail spending has decreased for a second consecutive month which will mean the unemployment rate will remain high, which in turn will harm economic growth. Officials from the Federal Reserve acknowledged the situation and said that they were taking steps to ensure that the US economy would continue to recover in the future. Americans are likely to continue spending more cautiously at a time when consumer spending is vital to economic growth, especially as it accounts for over two thirds of economic activity. Many economists have expressed serious concerns over the continued high unemployment rates, the struggling housing industry and the turbulent stock markets.

The poor retail sales values for June come at a time when businesses are working at a reduced pace. The Commerce Department has reported a 0.1 percent rise in business inventories in May but with sales declining by 0.9 percent, which was the first such fall since the end of the first quarter of 2009.

According to a meeting on June 22-23, Feds are likely to cut their growth forecasts for the last two quarters of 2010 from around 3.45 percent to 3.25 percent, in light of the current economic conditions. Many policymakers were cautious about the global financial situation, which involves a major debt crisis taking place in Europe and a volatile Wall St and were keen to look for new options to improve the US economy and improve credit score of the middle class to encourage spending. These options may include renewing mortgage security programs, reducing the government’s debt or lowering the rate in which Feds are paid emergency loans by the banks. Last year, businesses initiated the first stages of the economic recovery as they expanded their stocks after the recession. From now on, the key to a full recovery will be to create environmental conditions in which businesses can begin to prosper – this could include creating a new programme which would involve increasing lending to consumers and businesses, in order to help drive spending and secure economic growth.

The main disadvantages of using a credit card

This article discusses the problems some credit card holders face when they are buying items and services. Not saying that everybody who uses credit cards will incur debt problems, because if you are responsible a credit card is a good thing that will benefit your credit rating. However, there are a few things to consider before getting another line of credit.

One of the major disadvantages of credit cards is that their interest rates are often very high. They can range from 15 percent to as much as 40 percent, which means borrowing money through a credit card has sometimes been very expensive. When paying for items or services, it is often cheaper to use a debit card. Credit cards often involve a price which is around 3 percent more which can turn out to be a lot of money in the long term.

It can be also be quite expensive to withdraw money, as there is usually a 2 to 3 percent fee involved. A debit card is cheaper to use from taking out money from your account. When you are travelling abroad you are charged a fee for converting your currency (Dynamic Currency Conversion). Retailers often incur a handling fee which adds further to the costs.

You must use your credit card regularly; otherwise you may be subject to a fee of up to £30 a year if you haven’t used it for 6 to 12 months. This is what is known as an inactivity fee. Some cards are also beginning to introduce annual fees so if you credit card company is one of them then you could always consider switching to one which doesn’t incur these fees.

The PPI (Payment Protection Insurance) is supposed to protect customers by paying their bills when they are ill or have been involved in an accident. However, many insurance claims are often rejected and the insurance is much overpriced.

Regulating Our Finance

Recently the world experienced one of the hardest financial complications in the modern money history. The world economic crysis left thousands of unemployed people, marked countries with decreased production and exportation rates, decreased the value of stocks and led a significant decrease in the standard of living. To avoid such complications and to stay untouched by the economic crysis in future, people and small business owners should succeed in maintainig stable financial strategies and complete certain financial goals.

In order for households to reduce the risk of being financially unstable, it is crucial for the members of the family to understand that they should all shrink their personal expenses and attempt to Improve Credit Score. Money flows easily when stable earning rates are established in the household, people are not reluctant to spend on more expensive goods, foods and services but to cope the crysis many of them have to realise that cutting a small percentage of their everyday budget might save their household from misery later when the times become unstable and uncertain economically. This is the reason why households will have to gradually start thinking reasonably and cut the buying of goods that will not contribute to the well being of the family.

Another problem arises with the small business owners. They have to realise that cutting the labour will not generally contribute to the situation -by taking this desparate step to save their firms, owners forget to seek for alternatives -like cutting expenses from the use of different materials for production, reducing the expenses for electricity or even decreasing the working time. By getting rid of workers, they increase the unemplyment rates, negaively influence the workers left in their firms and theoretically leaving ex employees to starve. Taking the cutting of the expenses into account and seeking alternatives to achieve that, small business owners might reduce the expenses in their companies and maintain stable production rates.

Falkland Oil & Gas experiences major losses after being forced to abandon dry well

Shares in FOG (Falkland Oil & Gas companies) have plummeted to less than half their original value after the company was forced to plug a well that they had found contained no oil. Shares initially rose to a high of 244 pence in June as it was hoped that the oil explorer had revealed a new oil field. Shares recently fell to a low of 101.5 pence on Monday, which is an enormous setback for FOG, who had estimated that the Falkland Islands area contained up to three billion barrels of oil reserves.

Yesterday the chief executive of FOG, Tim Bushell tried to de-emphasize the failure by insisting that the company is to continue on its quest to explore new oil reserves in the area. The well was the first to be drilled in the basin and Bushell hopes that further drilling will eventually lead to the discovery of sufficient oil reserves. Rockhopper Exploration, FOG’s rival company experienced booming shares after it discovered oil roughly 220 kilometres to the north of the islands at the beginning of May. Their share values jumped over 150 percent in 24 hours after the first significant oil strike to occur around the Falklands area, which is still being tested for viability.

Meanwhile, as the possibility of large volumes of commercially viable oil in the Falklands attracts attention, it is also possible that disputes over the United Kingdom’s sovereignty in the Falkland Islands may be raised by the Argentine media in the future. Relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina continue to be turbulent due to this ongoing dispute.

More and More companies are going hybrid

Recently more and more major companies have been adding hybrid vehicles to their fleets. One of the most notable cars that is taking the industry by storm is Honda’s insight hybrid. Hybrid vehicles are not only saving the companies money in the long run but it is better for the environment. The savings that these companies are realizing are being passed on to the consumers.

If a company can lower their costs they are able to lower the costs to the consumers. UPS is one of the recent companies to be added to the list of hybrid users that include companies such as Wal-Mart. UPS recently added 200 hybrid trucks to it’s delivery fleet. Over the course of a year the expectation is to lower the fuel consumption by about 176,000 gallons. The hybrids will also reduce the amount of CO2 that is released into the atmosphere.

Going hybrid seems to be a great option that is now available to companies. Saving money and saving the environment is a great decision for companies to make. It not only adds value to their company but it adds value to their persona as well. Lately going green is major on the minds of consumers. Consumers are looking for companies that have the same ideals as theirs when it comes to the environment.

These companies will not only make money from the reduced fuel consumption but they may see an increase in consumers. The current outlook of most consumers tends to lean towards companies that are environmental conscious. If given the choice of the same service from a company that is environmentally conscious and one that is not many consumers choose the company that is more conscious. With recent disasters such as the oil spill this outlook is hitting home for even more consumers. With all of these factors it seems that going hybrid is a win-win situation for businesses.

The World Cup So Far

Talk about your slow starts, I have not seen so many top seeded teams stumble on the Football pitch construction in all my World Cup watching years. The first game of note was the France – Uruguay game which ended in a 0-0 draw. Easily one of the worst games of the World Cup so far, neither side wanted to lose it seemed and the game played out in a very dull manner. The French then went on to lose their second game against Mexico 2-0, a terrible start.

While Germany did play very well in their opening game, they did lose their second game to Serbia who did not look particularly threatening going forward. That loss compounded with the sending off of their talismanic striker, Miroslav Klose, means the Germans will need a win and nothing else in their final game against a plucky Ghana side.

England have been a massive disappointment also. They have been suffering from a lack of creativity and a lack of passion. They started so brightly, scoring against the USA in the first four minutes of their opening game. However, since then they have been devoid of ideas and have had to settle with two draws. They should be Slovenia and go through, but they should have beaten the USA and Algeria also. Things look dire.

Both current World Champions, Italy, and European Champions, Spain, have also looked ordinary. Italy have, like England played out two draws. One with Paraguay, who do look a decent side and one with New Zealand, which is an astonishing result for the latter side. Spain managed to lose their opening game with Switzerland and now have to play a couple of decent Hispanic teams in Honduras and Chile to progress.

Despite all this, Argentina, Holland and Brazil have all played very well it must be said and have secured their passage to the Round of 16 knock-out stage. Portugal also look like they are heading through after a strong display against North Korea. What this does do, I suppose, is set up some tantalising final group stage games. I will be watching with interest.

Sometimes you have to take what you can get.

There are so many people that are not taking control of their economic situation. They are basing so much of their future on the hope and wish theory. They are hoping and wishing that they will win the lottery, get that great job, or come into a large inheritance. The reality is that nine times out of ten none of those things are going to happen.

There are so many people that are talking about how there are no jobs out there. They need to reword that. What they meant to say is that there are no jobs that I want to do. There are always jobs available just may not be the job that you really, really want. You may have to scrub a toilet, pump gas, or deliver a pizza until a position at your dream job opens up. Hopes and wishes don’t feed you, cloth you, heat your home, pay for your home, or secure a future for you and your family.

You need to take economic control of your future now. Everyday that you go without a paycheck is another day that you are wasting and digging yourself into a deeper and deeper hole that will be harder and harder to get out of. Go out and get whatever job you can get. It does not have to be the best job in the world but it will help to keep your head above water. Remember that you are setting yourself up for the future. The more debt and bad credit, and equity release schemes you are involved in now the harder it will be for you later to try and get that money back. You can not just wipe away bad credit. It takes years and years to improve it so try to keep it from going bad now while you can so you won’t have regrets later. The more you take control of your current situation and work towards clearing away your debt, the better of your future will be.

America Recession – Just do something already.

I find it very humorous that we pushed and pushed to get change now. We wanted for everything to be revamped and fresh. Everything to be fixed and nothing to go wrong again. Many thought that the wave of the future was coming with the era of a new president. For some reason people thought that the color of someone’s skin would change how the political arena would be run. Well the change did come and in a big way.

No one wants for us to be in a recession yet we are, even cement prices have dropped out, the economy is undisputedly in trouble. We have more people unemployed then ever before. There is no way that everyone will be employed tomorrow but there is no sign of any vast improvement anytime soon. People are taking less paying jobs just to put food on the table. They are not making enough money to pay their bills and are thus falling deeper and deeper into to debt. Houses are being foreclosed on every day. More and more repossessions are happening. So now people have no car to drive to get to their minimum wage paying job and no house to sleep in when they get off of work. That is a big change. It’s a huge one.

There are few to no benefits that have come thus far. We are still fighting in another country while our country is still having attempts made to destroy it every other day. People’s family members are dying or being injured while over there because they feel as though it is their only option. There is no chance of them making it here because there are no jobs for them. Without a job they will not survive so they stay. We need this great change we were promised to come and come now. Stop hiding behind the political jargon and just do something. It’s time to just step up and fix our problems instead of worrying about every other country’s problems.