Study your present situation thoroughly. Go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you. Visualize the consequences which can follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives you the most promise and go ahead. Many successful people use this skill of mental visualization. They mentally run through important events before they happen. Picture yourself in your minds eye as already having achieved your goal. See yourself doing the things you'll be doing when you've reached your goal. You can put your subconscious to work toward making your mental pictures come true. Go over your day in your imagination before you begin it. You can begin acting successfully at any moment. See the things you want as already yours. Think of them as yours, as already in your possession. You can see your future with a vision and live your dreams.
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The Key to mentoring is often the special effort, imagination, insight or awareness that the mentor gives - effort that goes above and beyond the expectations of the existing relationship. Below are some factors which can influence whether an acquaintance, co-worker, friend or relative makes the transition to the role of a mentor. * Mentoring requires a primary focus on the needs of the mentee and an effort to fulfill the most critical of these needs. * Mentoring is often built on a just-in-time principle where the mentor offers the right help at the right time. A potential mentor must recognize when the mentee feels free to expose a deep-felt need, thereby enabling the mentor to provide the right help at the right time to the best of the mentor’s ability. * Much of what the mentor offers is personal learning or insight, which has never been written down anywhere. The mentor may not be aware of what he or she can offer until a mentee expresses a need or desire and the mentor realizes there may be a match between something they know and what their mentee needs. * Mentoring requires going the extra mile for someone else. Many people may think twice about adding such a commitment to their busy lives. However, if they choose to do so, the rewards of personal achievement, mentee appreciation, and sense of helping to build a better society can be enormous.
Determines which systems, processes, or areas need to be monitored; identifies what information needs to be obtained. The first step to effectively monitoring information is to decide what areas of your job or organization need to be tracked. Once you've determined what those areas are, you then need to focus on gathering the information that best tracks them. For example, an objective in your performance plan includes your area meeting certain sales goals. Naturally, you'll want to monitor the company's monthly sales reports, but you must decide exactly what data you will use from this sales report. In this instance you would focus specifically on the number of sales budgeted for your area versus the number of sales actually made.1. Determine what areas to monitor.Information monitoring can be a powerful tool to help you meet objectives, encourage appropriate actions, and keep surprises to a minimum. "It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised." -- Frederick the Great When you monitor systems, processes, areas, or goals for which you are responsible, you are
tracking:
People. Outputs. Resources.
People perform the tasks necessary to achieve department and organization goals. To guide their efforts, you might use information monitoring systems such as:
Personnel procedures or policies. Performance management systems. Reports on progress, productivity, or projects.
Outputs are the things you or your group produce. It's important that these things--whether they're shoe sales, rocket designs, network software programs, or candy bars--be monitored for quality, quantity, and timeliness. You can monitor output information by:
Defining production levels in terms of quantity, quality, and timeliness. Regularly comparing actual performance against established standards. Tracking waste, rework, defects, and non-value-added process steps. Resources include money, materials, and equipment. You need to monitor information around:
Purchasing policies and procedures. Financial and cost controls. Expenditures.
If you're unsure what information you need to monitor, review your or the company's performance plan. The objectives in it should help you identify where to focus your efforts. Make sure you're familiar with the organization's and your department's performance objectives, business plan, critical success factors, values, and vision. These are all excellent sources that can help you determine what information systems you need to monitor. As an executive, Ryan monitors people, outputs, and resources by using a detailed operational plan. He often uses Pert or Gantt charts to control the various activities that need to be accomplished to finish a project. He also sets time limits and integrates these limits when planning work. This information monitoring system allows him to direct and track how much time, material, or human resources he needs to assign in order to meet organizational goals. Angela, a team leader on an assembly line, monitors the weekly defect report. Monitoring this information helps her pinpoint significant trends and gives her ideas on how to lower her team's error rate.
Thomas' objective is to edit an average of 100 pages of text a week. To ensure he meets or exceeds his goal, he logs in the number of pages he edits each day. At the end of each week, he totals the figures to see if he is on track. Once a month, Thomas checks his average. If he is below average, he puts off reading unrelated memos and e-mail messages to raise his average. When he was above average, Thomas signed up for a class on marketing to expand his writing skills. 2. Determine what information is needed.Now that you've identified the areas you would like to monitor, you next need to determine the specific information you will monitor. This depends on your position, your performance goals, your department's objectives, and your company's business plan.
For example, a customer service manager is held accountable for customer satisfaction and therefore might want to monitor information on any or all of the following topics: Customer satisfaction survey scores. The number of times a telephone rings before it is answered. The number of times a customer's call is transferred before he or she speaks with the right person.
The number of complaints per sale. The number of successful service interactions versus number of complaints. Here are some additional examples of data that might be appropriate to monitor, depending on your job: Scrap rates Safety violations Associate attendance Job satisfaction Turnover rates Total sales Error rates Equipment downtime Productivity
Production rates Measuring performance is an essential element of information monitoring. Some data, like error rates and equipment downtime, is easily measured. Other information, like changes in organizational climate or the results of advertising campaigns, is more difficult to measure.
Sean, vice president of the Facilities Planning and Maintenance department, needs to closely monitor machine breakdowns. This information is necessary for a number of reasons. First, he needs to predict and budget for when a machine will need to be replaced. In addition, he needs to be aware of when equipment downtime is most likely to occur so he can properly schedule repair people.
Susan, a customer service representative, was frustrated. Every time a customer complained to her, all she could do was apologize. It was costing her and the company sales, which hurt her paycheck. She talked with a coworker and they agreed to start tracking when customers threatened to do business elsewhere and their reasons why. After one month they discovered a trend and reported it to their manager. The manager was thankful and said their initiative would give him the information he needed to improve the product.
Image via WikipediaUSC was the top ranked team for the first 4 weeks of the college football, until they lost to Oregon State in Corvallis. Oregon State isn’t a bad team, but USC shouldn’t have lost to them. Their only excuse is that it was a road game. But, shouldn’t national championship teams be able to win on the road?
The University of Oklahoma took over as the top team for the next 2 weeks until they got beat at the Cotton Bowl by the University of Texas this past weekend. This is a big rivalry game, so ratings don’t matter when these teams play. Texas beating Oklahoma isn’t a big upset.
The teams that remain undefeated are Texas, Alabama, Penn State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, BYU, Utah, Tulsa, and Ball State. Texas, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma State all play each over the next 4 weekends. So, only one of those teams will be undefeated and odds are all of them will suffer a defeat.
BYU and Utah play each other on November 22nd, which means one of those teams will be knocked from the ranks of the unbeaten. The winner of that game will probably be undefeated. Ball State is ranked 25th and faces a hard time moving far enough up in the ratings to even get into a BCS game. They also face two-time defending MAC champion Central Michigan on the road. Neither Boise State nor Tulsa is even ranked, so they don’t count.
That leaves us with Penn State as the only other team that has a chance at an undefeated season. They have their two hardest games at home – Ohio State and Michigan State. Penn State has looked tough, but losing one of those games wouldn’t be surprising. Put all those things together and either BYU or Utah has a good chance to be in the BCS championship game. Boise State was a nice story when it beat Oklahoma in the Fiesta two years ago, but that wasn’t the national championship game. BYU or Utah will definitely lose to the winner of the SEC title game and would even be trounced by loser of that game.
It is time for a playoff in college football. Something like an 8 team playoff that could still use the existing bowl games. We just want a little fairness in the world and that is what 104inc.com is about.
Image via WikipediaThey say it is but why? Who pays these people to tell us that good health and exercise are important? The health industry is a $500 billion dollar industry and growing. Think about it. You exercise and you exercise and what do you have to show for your results sore back, bad knees, messed up elbow. Then you go to doctors you make billions of dollars prescribing you drugs to make you feel better. Wait all those drugs have side effects. They can kill you, or cause heart damage of liver disease, etc, etc, etc. So then you go back for more pills and surgery. This is all done in the name of good health.
So is exercise and good health important? Doctors say it is. How do doctors make money? They need to treat sick people. If people did not get sick we would not need doctors. If people did not get hurt we would not need doctors. That would mean that we would not need drug companies or insurance companies. We would save so much money by not having gym memberships, dealing with doctors, insurance companies. That would then reduce or level of stress and we would live longer.
That sounds like a better deal to me then exercising. Just eat better reduce your stress and you will live longer. Some people may say I am crazy but it sure makes sense to me. We are to busy complicating life. We need to step back and realize that we are just animals that were put on this earth to procreate and eat. Why do we have to have a higher purpose then that?
You don’t think so? Your stock portfolio is shrinking, your 401k is not worth anything, you have you’re your home plummet in value, and your bank is out of business. So do you still think we are winning this war against them?
Let us examine the situation. How do you do the most damage all western powers? Is it by killing their people? Is it by overthrowing a government? The answer is none. You destroy them by disrupting what they love most; Money, Power and Greed. The world trade center gets attacked. The world trade center represented the financial strength of this nation and a sign of stability. Things are not very stable now.
The governments of the world that are supported by the US rally to fight a war on terror. Our government is more focused on this war on terror then anything else in our country or around the world. Enter the greed and money. The wealthiest people in the world convince the government to deregulate a number of industries which opens up a faucet of riches to these people. These greedy people then manipulate the system to their advantage rape the world and walk away.
Let us now fast forward to October of 2008. We are no longer facing a US economic meltdown. We are actually facing a worldwide financial crisis, a destruction of our financial markets as we know it today. This crisis is going to destroy wealth around the world. It is going to create fear, hatred and destruction among countries and people. Why do you think the holocaust started? Hitler said that it was the fault of the Jews that their economy was so bad. He said if the people of Germany put him in charge he would get rid of the Jews and the German people would prosper with jobs.
Looks like history is repeating itself, we are on the verge of a worldwide great depression. We will then blame someone and World War III will be in affect. So let me ask you this question again. Is Al-Qaida winning the war and achieving their goals. I think so. They wanted chaos in our society and we let it happen. Shame on us.
Does this mean it is too late? Hell No! What is the solution? Not sure yet. Maybe this can be discussed at 104inc.com.
What you need to know when driving your car during the winter months, it’s important for you to know all the features on your car very well, especially during winter. Because when you are presented with rain, ice, fog and slippery roads, your car will react much differently then at other times. So what will you need to know when you are driving in hazardous condition? I’ll give you 5 tips below to help you .
#1 How driving at a lower speed will decrease your chances of an accident
This is one of the simplest things we can do. Unfortunately we all have busy lives and are always in a hurry. There are so many things like getting our kids to school or going to work, grocery store, repairs on the car and much more. Usually we are always running behind schedule and the first thing we do is speed up. This is a huge mistake especially when it first starts to rain and the oil from the surface of the ground comes up and that makes for a very slippery road and increases the chance of you getting into an accident.
#2 How leavening your headlights on gives you more visibility
This is another simple thing you can do to ensure the safety of you and everybody else. Studies have shown that driving with your lights on will increase the chance of another driver seeing you earlier and helping to avoid an accident.
#3 How applying your brakes slowly will prevent your car from sliding
Make sure to never slam your brakes while driving in the ice, rain or snow. If you do slam your breaks, then your car will be sliding all over the road because your tires will lose traction. If you live in the mountains where it snows a lot then it is best to get snow tires VS the all season tires and use chains for even better traction.
#4 How to be careful regardless of the type of vehicle you drive.
The reason I say that is because some people that have bigger cars or that have four wheel drive vehicles think “I will be ok if I drive fast and change lanes recklessly” but you have to realize that your car is also heavier and if something happens, it will cause a bigger accident. The bigger the car the harder it will be for you to handle and for you to break in time, especially in a wet environment.
#5 checking your tires
Make sure that you have a mechanic check your tires and see if they are ok and they are not bald on the side or in the middle. Tires are very important for you especially when it is raining, because when the tires are bald and you drive on them they do not hold to the ground and you are more likely to sliding all over the road and lose control or your car.
Make sure during the winter time that you try and go with some of the basic information that I have given you. This will help you and others on the road.
Communication skills involve both speaking and listening to the client and showing your sincerity and professionalism. Communication involves receiving information, processing information and responding. You do this in a sequence of actions that require you to be attentive. As a Sales Associate, you will depend upon your communication skills from the Meet/Greet to Thank/Follow-up।
You probably spend more time using your listening skills than any other kind of skill. Like other skills, listening takes practice. What does it mean to really listen? Real listening is an active process that has three basic steps.
Hearing. Just means listening enough to catch what the speaker is saying. For example, say you were listening to a report on zebras, and the speaker mentioned that no two are alike. If you can repeat the fact, then you have heard what has been said. Understanding. The next part of listening happens when you take what you have heard and understand it in your own way. Let's go back to that report on zebras. When you hear that no two are alike, think about what that might mean. You might think, "Maybe this means that the pattern of stripes is different for each zebra." Judging. After you are sure you understand what the speaker has said, think about whether it makes sense. Do you believe what you have heard? You might think, "How could the stripes be different for every zebra? But then again, fingerprints are different for every person. I think this seems believable."
There are three forms of listening: passive, selective and active. Passive listening is a non-verbal form of listening. The listener provides little to no verbal feedback to the client. Passive listening can lead your clients to assume that you are not really interested, or they may feel it necessary to repeat themselves to ensure that you understand. Selective listening can be summed up as “hearing what you want to hear.” When selective listeners hear what they want to hear, they appear to be engaged and to understand. Conversely, when selective listeners do not hear what they want to hear, they tune out the client, or worse, become reactive.
Active listening is sometimes referred to as reflective listening. Active listeners receive clients’ messages with care and respect and then work to verify their understanding of the message. Active listeners capture both the facts and the feelings of clients. Some behaviors to use are: · Show patience · Give verbal feedback to summarize understanding · Acknowledge emotions · Speak up when something is unclear, or confusing Fundamental to good communication is using “active listening.” Whenever you listen actively to another person’s comments, your reason for doing so is to understand the meaning of the message from the speaker’s point of view. Your clients have choices. If you don’t make them feel welcomed and valued, you will likely lose them as a client.
In 1985 a movie came out staring Richard Pryor and John Candy called “Brewster’s Millions.” The plot: A minor league baseball player has to waste $30m in 30 days in order to inherit $300m; however he's not allowed to tell anyone about the $300m deal. It sounds easy but it is not because he could not have any assets to show for his wasteful spending. They had limitations such as how much you could give to charity and lose gambling etc.
The movie illustrates how difficult it is to spend that amount of money and to not have anything to show for it. It is funny how our government can spend $700 Billion of our tax money and easily have nothing to show for it. The roads are not fixed. Traffic congestion is at an all time high. My health care costs are not paid for, the school districts waste our tax dollars on stuff that does not help educate my children, and the list goes on and on.
Getting back to the movie, one of the biggest ways to waste money is to run for public office. Richard Pryor’s character learned that and decided to run for Mayor of New York City. In that seen he made a very interesting observation. He pondered the question, “Why are the candidates spending millions of dollars to run for public office when the job itself pays about a fraction of what is being spent to run for office?”
Do any of you ever wonder that same question? I believe the President of the United States which is the highest paying job in our Federal Government which $400,000 per year as of 2000. The president also can get a pension that can pay him or her over $7M in paid benefits before they pass away. Also keep in mind that most of the people that run for office are already rich like George Bush and are Multi-Millionaires.
So why spend $500M - $1B for a presidential campaign for a job that only returns a fraction of that. The ROI there is not positive but negative. Not only that who are the people that are donating all this money and why is it so important that their candidate win? Because these are very rich people who want to get richer and stay rich. They are paying for their government. Your $5 donation to Barack Obama or John McCain is not going to get you good government. If these candidates want to be president so bad let them spend their own money.
They won’t because they are not stupid. The system was created to keep the powerful in power and the weak out of office. They do not want to do right by the American People. They only want to do right for their friends. Why aren’t more Americans standing up and asking these questions? Why aren’t more Americans upset about how things are going on Main Street and Wall Street? If you are so upset why do you only vote Republican or Democrat? How about None of the Above? Vote but make your vote count and show that you all have a lack of confidence in both candidates and you want and deserve more choices except for the same 2 people that they recycle every 4 years.
Market conditions in recent days have turned many arcane financial terms into familiar vocabulary. Words and phrases such as breaking the buck, securitization, counterparty risk and short selling are being used frequently in the media. But many of these terms are not easily understood by the average consumer who don’t deal with them every day.
Given recent news headlines, definitions of a few terms and phrases may be useful as you read daily coverage about the current economic environment:
Auction Rate Securities: Short-term instruments designed to preserve capital while generally realizing higher rates of return than traditional money market investments (for example, municipal auction rate securities, municipal preferreds and action preferred stock). Interest rates or dividends reset frequently, usually every seven to 49 days, via Dutch auction. The interest or dividends received can be 70% to 100% exempt from federal taxes. Issuers include states, municipalities, corporations, utilities, hospitals, housing finance agencies, student loan finance authorities and universities.
Break the buck: When a money market mutual fund's net asset value drops below $1 per share. Money market funds aren't federally insured like bank deposits; therefore, fund assets have an implied promise to preserve capital at all costs and preserve the $1 floor on share prices. These funds are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission; rules restrict what they can invest in based on credit quality and maturities with the hope of ensuring principal stability.
Collateralized Debt Obligation (CDO): An investment-grade security (one with a high bond rating such as BBB) backed by a pool of bonds, loans and other assets. CDOs do not specialize in one type of debt but are often non-mortgage loans or bonds. Similar in structure to a collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO) or collateralized bond obligation (CBO), CDOs are unique in that they represent different types of debt and credit risk. In the case of CDOs, these different types of debt are often referred to as “tranches” or “slices.” Each slice has a different maturity and risk associated with it. The higher the risk, the more the CDO pays.
Commercial Bank: A full-service institution that offers customers deposit, payment and credit services, in addition to other financial services.
Counterparty risk: The risk to each party of a contract that the counterparty will not live up to its contractual obligations. A counterparty is the other party that participates in a financial transaction. Every transaction must have a counterparty for the transaction to go through. More specifically, every buyer of an asset must be paired with a seller that is willing to sell and vice versa.
Credit Default Swap (CDS): A swap* designed to transfer the credit exposure of fixed income products (securities that pay specific interest rates, such as a bond, money market instrument or preferred stock) between parties. The buyer of a credit swap receives credit protection, whereas the seller of the swap guarantees the credit worthiness of the product. By doing this, the risk of default is transferred from the holder of the fixed income security to the seller of the swap. For example, the buyer of a credit swap will be entitled to the par value of the bond by the seller of the swap, should the bond default in its coupon payments.
*Note: a swap traditionally means the exchange of one security for another to change the maturity (bonds), quality of issues (stocks or bonds) or because investment objectives have changed.
Deleverage: A process undertaken by a company in an attempt to reduce its financial leverage, or the degree to which the company is using borrowed money. Financial leverage can be beneficial for a company, but if it becomes too risky or harmful, the company may need to deleverage itself by paying off the amount of debt that it owes.
Derivative: In finance, a security whose price is dependent upon or derived from one or more underlying assets. The derivative itself is merely a contract between two or more parties. Its value is determined by fluctuations in the underlying asset. The most common underlying assets include stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies, interest rates and market indexes. Most derivatives are characterized by high leverage.
Investment bank: An individual or institution that acts as an underwriter or agent for corporations and municipalities issuing securities. Most also maintain broker/dealer operations, maintain markets for previously issued securities and offer advisory services to investors. Investment banks also have a large role in facilitating mergers and acquisitions, private equity placements and corporate restructuring. Unlike traditional banks, investment banks do not accept deposits from and provide loans to individuals.
Money market deposit account: A type of savings account offered by banks and credit unions just like regular savings accounts. However, they usually pay higher interest, have higher minimum balance requirements and limit the number of withdrawals per month. As with bank accounts, the money in a money market account is generally insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) subject to certain limitations. The recent announcement from the U.S. Treasury regarding money market mutual funds does not affect money market deposit accounts or impact FDIC insurance of such deposit accounts.
Money market mutual fund: A fund that invests in a pool of high-quality, short-term, interest-bearing securities. A money market mutual fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by Bank of America, the FDIC or any other government agency.
Resolution Trust Company (RTC): A U.S. government-owned asset management company charged with liquidating assets (primarily real estate-related assets, including mortgage loans) that had been assets of savings and loan associations declared insolvent by the Office of Thrift Supervision, as a consequence of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. In 1995, its duties were transferred to the Savings Association Insurance Fund of the FDIC. Between 1989 and mid 1995, the Resolution Trust Corporation closed or otherwise resolved 747 thrifts with total assets of $394 billion.
Securitization (or securitized assets): The process of distributing risk by aggregating debt instruments (for example, mortgage loans) in a pool, then issuing securities that are backed by the pool and available for purchase by investors in the secondary mortgage market.
Subprime mortgages: A type of mortgage that is sometimes offered to borrowers with a greater-than-average risk of defaulting on the loan. Lending institutions often charge interest on subprime mortgages at a rate that is higher than a conventional mortgage (often referred to as “prime”) to compensate themselves for carrying more risk.
Short sale: A transaction in which an investor sells borrowed stock, betting the stock will decline with the intention of buying it back at a lower price to realize a profit.
Warrant: Certificate given to its stockholders or bondholders by an issuer that allows the holder to purchase a specific amount of its securities at a set price. A warrant can be sold to another investor if the holder chooses not to exercise the warrant.
You should be aware that http://104inc.com is always a useful resource for terms and acronyms. You can help keep 104inc stay current by submitting updates and ideas for features you would like added to the site through their feedback button.
Well, ladies and gentleman, the magic number is now 35. 35 days until election day. Where do you stand? Where should you stand? Well, I'll tell you one thing. Anyone who votes for McCain might as well jump on the first ship, plane, train, helicopter, pigeon, or anything else that moves out of the country. Now, don't get me wrong. Bush III, err...McCain is a solid guy. A war veteran, former POW - we all know his resume; but the shear fact that his running mate is a nonsensical, Oprah-watching, I-can't-answer-one-question-with-an-intelligent-answer soccer mom scares the ever-loving crap out of me. Can you imagine if, God forbid, something happened to McCain (72 years old and not in the best condition), then our Commander in-chief would be....gulp...Sarah Palin. Wow. I just started convulsing at the thought of the Lifetime Channel taking over the television airwaves. OK, now I'm just terrified - and I think I just threw up a little. That woman has no business in office, and McCain would be wise to change his running mate (if that's possible). Now, for all you reading this that are currently flipping through a thesaurus to come up with every synonym of chauvinist, let me make this perfectly clear. I voted for Hilary Clinton in the primaries because of her experience, intellect, and proven past of the Clinton family. This is not a 'I am man, hear me roar' rant. I don't care if there's a woman in office, as long as it's the right one. Okay, I better change course a bit, because I'm getting fired up. I suppose it's obvious that I am a democrat and a strong Obama supporter. Now, who reading this saw the debate? And of you who did, who was for McCain, but after seing the debate, feels like Obama may be the better man? I thought so. McCain was flustered, not confident, and was caught multiple times spewing false statistics, to which Sen. Obama called him out ever time. So, I ask you, Mr. John McCain, what is your master plan? This 'plan' we have heard about, but yet know nothing about. McCain/Palin are in short, a deadly combo... and I don't mean that as a compliment. He can't back up anything, she can't answer a question, and all they do is waste their time bashing Obama and his crew, in hopes that the retarded voters who elected Bush not once, but twice, will vote for them. They hope that the bon-bon popping Oprah fanatics will 'relate' to the stultifying nature that is Sarah Palin. I mean, if McCain must use Palin, perhaps he could consider swapping her out with Tina Fey (comedienne from Saturday Night Live); with the uncanny ability to do a spot-on impersonation of Palin, Tina Fey has more substance and actually has the ability to answer questions. The choice is simple. The choice is ours...and yours. But as for this man, I say the answer is clear....OBAMA or bust. I'm getting Virgin Atlantic on standby in case McCain/Palin win - I'll be on the first flight to Prague. Need any more help? Not sure which way to go? Well, at least there's one easy choice. Log on to 104Vote.com for related articles on the upcoming election, as well as simple and easy ways to accommodate all your needs!
Yep, that is how much you and every American will be paying for the government bailout. This does include your children. Luckily, it doesn’t include your cats, dogs, and fish. This year’s bailout includes the following items: $700 billion proposed Wall Street bailout; $85 billion for AIG; $200 billion for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; $150 billion stimulus package (your $600/person rebate check); $438 billion projected Federal deficit; and a small $29 billion bailout for Bear Stearns. Makes you glad you got that rebate check earlier this year, doesn’t it?
The scary part is that this number will probably grow. The Treasury Department is really just asking for a blank check and they won’t have any accountability to Congress or anyone else. There is the potential to include more than problem mortgages in this package. Car loans, student loans, and credit card debt could all be included in this package. This $700 billion Wall Street bailout could grow to over $2.5 trillion dollars.
Just in case you were curious, this won’t help only American banks - it will also help foreign banks. Pretty nice of the US taxpayer to help the world. Though, I guess we did help create the problem.
It was all about trying to take advantage of the system. The investment banks came up with inventive ways of repackaging debt. The rating agencies went along with something they obviously didn’t understand. Then, we didn’t think and went along with their greed. Why? Because we are just as bad as Wall Street is.
Some people bought houses with “neg am” loans. What a concept – you can make a payment, but it doesn’t have to even cover your interest payment - just go deeper in debt. The other cool idea was tapping into your new found “equity” in your home. Just refinance or take out a home equity loan, take out some cash, and go deeper in debt. Well, at least you got to buy a Gucci bag and a jet ski. Hope it was worth it.
Yell and scream at Wall Street and the government all you want, but we are just as much to blame.
Luckily, www.104inc.com isn’t going to be asking you to help them out. Go check out their website to get away from this mess.
To pursue a strategy of "product leadership" entails delivering value through offering leading edge products and services, providing a stream of new products and services, and creatively adapting to new and changing marketing conditions while constantly pursuing new solutions on behalf of its clients and customers.
This strategy depends on an organizational structure that, among other things, is very research and development centered (if a manufacturing company) or extremely knowledgeable about the products and services currently being developed and considered in the market place. In addition, the firm's Sales & Marketing Departments must be part and parcel of their customer's business planning process so as to be able to anticipate future needs, to supply that need, to teach their customers new approaches and solutions to their problems, and particularly to be able to direct their customers into avenues they hadn't entertained on their own as being profitable directions.
In contrast to (but overlapping in certain respects with) the organizational structure demanded by a "customer intimacy" strategy, "product leadership" requires an organization that is not bureaucratic but rather quick to action and opportunistic in intent. Personnel tend to be organized into matrix teams that cross departmental lines since this type of structure provides the fastest response time. At the same time, since decision making authority is spread throughout the firm, risk management is carefully monitored.
In addition, in order to stay current with clients' long range plans to which their input could be invaluable, "relation selling" is essential. These firms have not only the sales force, but also as many other departments as they can, in their clients' planning meetings. The firm's personnel take on an advisory and consultative role, putting them in the position of informing their clients' strategic thinking and anticipating their needs.
An advertising and PR firm continually scans the marketing environment for new approaches to offer their clients and for creative talent with whom to partner either temporarily or long term. They are continually meeting with their clients to review these new approaches and the opportunities their newly discovered talent opens up.
In order to achieve this level of "service leadership", personnel are teamed into matrices, with each team having the responsibility to bring fresh ideas and directions to their clients. They joke about having offices at their clients because they are rarely seen in their home offices. Communication between team members is so crucial that each team has a designated person whose primary responsibility is to ensure that everyone knows what everyone else on the team is doing and to serve as a liaison to senior management. In addition, the teams convene regularly to review not only the latest presentations and their impact, but also what is out there in the market place, who is doing what, etc., and how can they partner or ally themselves with the talent that is out there.
Because the cost of this kind of process is high (e.g., voluntarily preparing project ideas with accompanying support material clients hadn't even initiated or requested), Finance is regularly consulted about each team's ROIs.
You say that is ok I will get into a money market fund because my money will be safe and liquid there. Well not anymore. The Wall Street Journal reported that a huge money-market fund, the Reserve Primary Fund, announced Tuesday that it lost money as its net asset value fell below the hallowed $1-per-share level, the first time one of these conservative funds has had a loss in 14 years. The reason is was debt securities it holds issued by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. This means that more losses may be in store for other money market funds. The S&P and Standard and Poor’s have placed several funds on credit watch for possible downgrades.
What does this mean for you the person living on Main Street? We are facing potentially the largest financial meltdown in history. This crisis will not only have ramifications in the United States but around the world.
The thing that pisses me off about all this is when those individuals in their Ivory Towers were looking down and seeing how much money they were making rather then seeing what the moral hazard is they wanted deregulation. They wanted the government to stay out of their business. Now that they are all strugiling and the businesses are collapsing they want the regulation and begging the government to bail them out.
As a community and as a country we are going to suffer. We need to stand up to all the politicians who make these laws and start voting them out. We need to make them understand that they are not in Washington to do the bidding of lobbyist but the bidding of the American People. What makes our country any better then any other country? Nothing because what we call bribery based on the activities of other nations we call here lobbying. We need to stop playing on words. If it looks like a bribe and it smells like a bribe then it is a bribe. Deep pockets buy good government for those who can afford it. The rest can all suffer based on that philosophy.
Stop the madness people. It is time for a financial revolution. The best way that we can affect change is by hitting where it hurts the most. Not by wars and fighting and killing but by hurting the deep pockets. Stop voting for the same people over and over again. Stop picking only Democrats and Republicans. Both parties have controlled this country for over 100 years. What is different from that and a dictator? Nothing!
Check out 104inc.com and join the revolution of people who want to break the monopoly on deep pocket businesses. 104inc will help the little guy unlike Yahoo and Google.
Lehman Brothers went belly up this weekend.Bank of America acquired Merrill Lynch.American International Group (AIG) is on the edge bankruptcy or being acquired for pennies on the dollar.Last week the federal government took over Federal National Mortgage Associationand Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
When JP Morgan Chase took over Bear Stearns last March, the US government set a potentially ugly precedent of not letting financial companies fail.This happened again with the takeover of the quasi-government agencies:Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
Rumors of Lehman Brothers demise started last week.The Government went into the weekend saying that it wouldn’t bail out Lehman.The Government put the burden of finding a solution on the private sector.Several financial institutions were in the running, but it boiled down to Bank of America or death.The answer was death.
It was kind of strange:Bank of America started the weekend in talks to acquite Lehman Brothers, but ended up with a different partner:Merrill LynchI guess they didn’t want any more subprime garbage after acquiring Countrywide.
The next piece of the puzzle is seeing what happens with AIG.AIG was downgraded by Standard & Poors, Fitch, and Moodys.This will cost AIG billions of dollars.They now need to raise capital and it looks like they will have to sell assets or find a sugardaddy.
The catch to AIG is how much money they need.They used to have a market capitalization of around $200 billion.At the end of the day on September 15th, their market capitalization was around $15 billion.They are looking for financing of $50 billion.Why would someone lend a company money for 3x their market value?Will they be too big to fail?Or will we the taxpayers be their sugardaddy?
Check out www.104finance.com for more information about this crazy financial situation we seem to have gotten ourselves into.
Local small businesses have shoestring advertising budgets and can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on yellow page advertising or on Google pay-per-click Ads. So here are four free advertising tips to help you save thousands of dollars a months and still get more value from each dollar you spend.
You can use these Four free advertising Tips as much and as you need to.
Free Online Advertising Tip #1 - Register for a free http://104inc.com business account .
When you register you can take advantage of their "Free" basic listing. This will allow your business to be listed on over 2000+ websites for free. Registering on 104inc.com alone will help your website/store increase online and foot traffic; generate quality leads from targeted local customers. They also offer 45 day free trial of the upgraded package if you fully want to take advantage of their powerful lead generating tools.
Free Online Advertising Tip #2 - Send a press release or newsletter.
You always have the opportunity to write a newsletter or press releases monthly to promote your business. This is one of the best free advertising tips for you to take advantage of.
This monthly newsletter or press release can be mailed or e-mailed to your customers and update them on a unique product or service you offer.
Make your release interesting and offer discounts or sales to your business clients.
People love success stories so make sure to spotlight a success story from the past month or quarter. You might talk about a new product or a client who found success using your product or service.
Then once it is finished, you can submit it to local news outlets or you can publish it online.
The best place to release your story is by using the website at http://104News.com. When you visit the site click on "feedback" on the top right hand side of the website and submit your story.
These first two tips will really help in your quest for free online advertising.
We all want free advertising for our online business. Any new ways to publicize ourselves and our business is the key to making money. Finding free advertising is never easy, but 104inc.com helped me drive traffic to my site faster then I ever imagined. As the owner of BuyatDiscounts.com and my own eBay store advertising has always been my number one cost. With over 120 million Websites currently registered, it is increasingly difficult for anyone other than a large company to stand out.
Locating most websites has become as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. How do you expect your Website to stand out? Most registered Websites are long, multiple-word names, and are difficult to remember and type. This leads to slow growth, wasted advertising dollars, and minimal return on investment. How many times have you seen a billboard or truck offering a service you really need; repeating the website to yourself a few times, but you end-up forgetting it by the time you get to a computer?
I know most eBay sellers are always looking for a great opportunity to link their online stores with relevant websites and get free online advertising. After hours of research I was finally able to find an online business listing with basic FREE advertising services. 104Inc provides endless opportunities for branding, networking and increased exposure. All I had to do was visit 104inc.com and click on register at the top right of the website. You fill out your business details and add your website link. Your profile will be reviewed and then added to relevant domains for free advertising.
You can never go wrong with free advertising and what I loved the most about their product is the Geo-Targeting technology, individuals and businesses alike can maximize their potential by easily being located, regardless of size or popularity. Geotargeting is the practice of customizing an advertisement for a product or service to a specific market based on the geographic location of potential buyers. Every country, province, state, county or city in the world can constitute a niche market for certain products or services at certain times. On 104inc.com, geotargeting can help small businesses to compete with national brands and can ensure that large corporations effectively make use of their advertising resources.
This was exactly what I was looking for to promote my eBay business and thought I might share with the rest of the eBay community. Hope it helps! Please leave comments if this was helpful and feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Enjoy the FREE advertising.
Image by comicbase via Flickr The time will shortly be upon us. Obama? McCain? None of the above? Let's face it, America. Every John Q. Taxpayer has been taking jab after jab from the government the last 8 years. It's time for a change, and that change is now! There are those strongly for McCain, and those strongly for Obama. Equally so, there are those who are still undecided, and some, sadly, who could care less. Let me implore you all that the country is in absolute turmoil. Need some help deciding, then you, family, and friends should visit 104Vote.com, a keen website with great articles and reviews of all things politics.
In the meantime, allow me to say the following: when former President Clinton was in office, there was a surplus. There were 22+ million new jobs, a booming economy, etc. Since "W" took the reigns, all that has faded, leaving a flurry of foreclosed homes, disgruntled unemployed workers, and a deficit that ten Bill Gates' couldn't get us out of.
Still need help voting democrat. OK. Here it is. Log on to 104Vote.com and after reading many articles, you'll see that you can only spell change O-B-A-M-A. The man is primed and ready to rock the nation and bring the United States of America back to the international supremacy we were globally known for. He's ready to bring the value of the dollar back, to lower taxes, and all that other good stuff. Sure, most politicians say the same thing, but after what Bush did to the country, aren't you ready for a change? And with McCain (Bush II) running, what would be the difference? He's agreed with Bush on over 90% of bills that crossed his desk over Bush's two terms. So, if he agreed with arguably the worst president in history, what would make him any different.
Nothing.
OBAMA 2008. Register to vote today! Vote in November, log on to 104Vote.com, and get ready for great years to come!
Image by Getty Images via DaylifeThere were a couple of key injuries to some NFL players this past weekend. One is obvious, the other maybe not as much. The obvious key injury was to Tom Brady. The other player who was injured was Nate Burleson. It looked like Nate Burleson was going to be Matt Hasselbeck’s number one receiver with Deion Branch and Bobby Engram out with injuries. The Seahawks ground game isn’t very impressive. The other concern for the Seahawks is who is Hasselbeck going to throw to? You have to be suicidal if you took Tom Brady with your 1st or 2nd pick in your Fantasy Football draft this year. You got less than one quarter’s worth of action and he is done for the year.
You did have to wonder how much you would get out of Brady this year: he was hurt during the AFC Championship game last year and didn’t do much in the Super Bowl. He didn’t play during the pre-season because of another injury. So, you shouldn’t have expected him to put up numbers like last year. But, who would have expected a torn ACL? Did he just come back too early?
The only Patriots’ fantasy value this will help is Matt Cassell. Randy Moss is not going to get as many -touchdowns as last year and you have to wonder if he will have a meltdown with a non-Pro Bowl Quarterback. Wes Welker, Brady’s most consistent target, won’t see as many catches and yards as he has in the last couple of years. Maybe the Patriots’ running game will be used more. But, if other teams’ defenses are focusing on the running game, it might not work out so well for the Pats.
It will be interesting to see how the Patriots and Seahawks cope with the injuries and see how fantasy owners will deal with the loss of Brady. Hopefully they drafted a decent back-up quarterback, or they might have to make a costly trade. One of the places you can check out football information is www.104football.com .
Our story at 104Inc is simple: We like to help others. Imagine a team that consists of family and friends who all have the same passion in life. Imagine a group of individuals who sacrifice so much everyday in-order to attain their goal and one day live their dream. Now, imagine the amount of effort, motivation and discipline it takes for ordinary people like us having a burning desire to accomplish something extraordinary. Here at 104Inc, we have the opportunity to do all of that. We have, the aspiration, the zeal and the motivation to help others in areas where they are less fortunate, including our own family and friends.
Study your present situation thoroughly. Go over in your imagination the various courses of action possible to you. Visualize the consequences which can follow from each course. Pick out the course which gives you the most promise and go ahead. Many successful people use this skill of mental visualization. They mentally run through important events before they happen. Picture yourself in your minds eye as already having achieved your goal. See yourself doing the things you'll be doing when you've reached your goal. You can put your subconscious to work toward making your mental pictures come true. Go over your day in your imagination before you begin it. You can begin acting successfully at any moment. See the things you want as already yours. Think of them as yours, as already in your possession. You can see your future with a vision and live your dreams.
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