Fortune Watch

Leading bank shares around the world plunged yesterday after the crash of Lehman Brothers, forcing central banks to prop up the system with tens of billions of dollars. But US stocks rallied in the final hour of trading to close higher.

American Insurance Group (AIG) was the eye of the storm, with New York governor David Paterson warning the insurer had one day to raise $75-$80 billion.

After sliding about 150 points in early trading, Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 11,059.02, up 141.51 points, or 1.3pc.

The S&P 500 gained 20.9 points, or 1.8pc, to 1,213.6, while the Nasdaq Composite climbed 27.99 points, or 1.3pc, to 2,207.9.

Stock markets took new fright yesterday after the Wall Street shocks, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and bailout of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America.

The London and Tokyo markets dropped more than four per cent to their lowest points for more than three years with some leading bank shares dropping 20pc.

Read (more…)

But, some economists say that the slowdown in August could be a temporary blip, and may not be indicative of a long-term trend.

China’s industrial output grew at its weakest pace in more than six year last month, partly due to the industrial shutdowns ordered by the government ahead of Olympics, the government’s statistics agency said on Friday. The sharp decline continued to be affected by the global economic downturn.

Industrial production in China expanded by 12.8% in August from a year earlier, the National Statistics Bureau said after a gain of 14.7% in July. The August reading was less than the 14.5% median estimate of economists. This was slowest rate since August 2002 and well below the 17.5% recorded in August 2007.

But, some economists said that the slowdown in August could be a temporary blip, and may not be indicative of a long-term trend. China’s industrial activity will pick up with the re opening of factories in Beijing and surrounding areas, JP Morgan’s local securities unit wrote in a note.

Read (more…)

During the last few years of real estate boom the prices were rising like fanatical and mortgage finance was simple to come by. However, things are now started to cool off so most banks and financial institutions have stiffened their mortgage lending practices.

Most significant, interest rates are rising very slowly for a last few months. This might actually not look like a real deal if you are new in the practice of house buying industry. But on a big home finance even a tiny interest rate boost could create a very huge difference to the payment you make. In usual cases the interest rate could further make the disparity among being established or discarded for a home mortgage proposal. That is because with the intention of qualifying for a home mortgages your capability to pay for the payment is one of the most vital criterions for getting sanction. And any higher interest rate might simply put the imbursement impractical.

Here the best option is to get in touch with experienced and trained mortgage broker who has qualified Certificate in Mortgage Advice training. No matter what you do, don’t just begin making home mortgage choices until you link up with somebody who has a great experience in the field of mortgage. Find a mortgage advisor who has dear knowledge of present real estate and home mortgage states and further also has entrée to many required alternatives. This would more often than not be your welcoming area banker. Banks effort with their own services and are not paying attention in making you conscious of other available products, which might offer a superior deal to you.

Read (more…)

There are many benefits in choosing a remortgage, some of which are listed below.

A remortgage is changing your mortgage without moving your home.

Remortgaging is the process of switching your mortgage to another lender that is offering a better deal than your current lender thereby saving money.

A remortgage can also be used to raise additional finances by releasing equity in your property.

When you remortgage you are ending your old mortgage deal and switching to a new one. This normally involves switching your lender although you can sometimes change deals with your current provider. If you do remortgage with your current lender it normally involves changing your existing deal.

You can borrow from $25,000 up to $500,000. Rates are variable, depending on status.

Remortgaging can allow you to get a better rate of interest and reduce your monthly mortgage payments.

A remortgage allows you to consolidate existing loans to one manageable monthly payment or raise money to buy a new car or home improvements.

Read (more…)

Here we consider the seven stages of monitoring investments throughout life.

The seven ages of man is a speech from one of Shakespeare’s plays and catalogues the stages we go through in life, from baby to old age. It is an excellent comparison to investing and how investors need to ensure their investments keep pace with them as they move through life. However, this doesn’t just apply to saving for retirement, it applies to any investment goal and portfolios need to be monitored to make sure they are on track to achieve their objective.

Baby to young adult: Although financial commitments are negligible at this stage in life, it is a good idea to encourage children to save for themselves and to understand the basics of money from an early age.

Under 25: Retirement is a long way and a bulk of an individual’s income may be earmarked to fund their current lifestyle – buying property or cars for example – rather than saving for later years. However it is still a good idea to get started in investing and understanding what it is all about. Now also might be a good time to develop a high risk, aggressive portfolio as there is plenty of time to recover from any capital losses.

25 to 35: Although retirement may still seem a long time away, the earlier someone starts investing, the greater chance they have of building a significant nest egg for later years. At this stage in life people may be able to afford higher risk and more aggressive growth strategies as there is more time for investments to recover from losses or market volatility.

Read (more…)

A friend of mine is an unabashed and very sane Obama supporter (not Obamabot in the slightest). When I asked him why he bought the t-shirt, he said:

It’s all in good fun. Win or lose, this presidential election season is just full of grade-A entertainment!

Presidential politics is serious business!

Read (more…)

The presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain announced today that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter is pregnant.

In a statement, Palin and husband Todd said, “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We are proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby, and even prouder to become grandparents.”

Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential hopeful and running mate of John McCain, has revealed that her 17-year-old unmarried daughter is five-months pregnant.

The couple said Bristol, 17, plans to marry the “young man” who is the father of her child. The Reuters news agency reported Monday that Bristol is five months pregnant.

“We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents,” Sarah and her husband, Todd Palin, said in a statement on Monday.

The news comes as the Republican National Convention is to open in St Paul, Minnesota.

“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realise very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family,” the statement added.
Read (more…)

The dreaded “R” word – recession – has been dominating business headlines for months now. More and more economists are predicting bleak economic conditions and weak job growth in the coming months.

If you get laid off, you can only hope you saw the writing on the wall long before your company announced its cuts. You can only hope you leave with an impressive work history, great recommendations, and updated skills. You can only hope.

Unfortunately, not everyone is so prepared when the boss delivers a pink slip.

Here are some things you can do starting today — whether you think you face a layoff or not — to keep yourself relevant on the job:

Act as if your job is always on the line, even if you’re still on the company payroll. Strive to make yourself more valuable — not just to your current employer, but also to any potential employers you’ll need to win over in the future.

Imagine yourself interviewing for a new position. Can you point to specific ways in which you’ve improved your skills and grown on the job? If so, keep up the good work.

Document your accomplishments. Update your resume regularly to reflect your ever-increasing skills on the job. You can use this information during your performance review and salary negotiations or, should the worst happen, for finding other employment quickly.

If, however, you’ve been coasting in your current position, it’s time to take some initiative. Try these surefire ways to increase your value as an employee:
Read (more…)

So it’s now official, and 80,000 packed into the Denver Broncos’ football stadium in Denver on Thursday were there to see it: Barack Obama is now indisputably the Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential election campaign, and the first bi-racial man in American history to win the nomination of a major party. The unlikely campaign that began 19 months ago in the freezing winter of Springfield, Illinois had reached and passed its penultimate hurdle.

Senator Obama himself, revelling in the biggest political extravaganza the US has ever seen, seized the opportunity on prime-time, coast-to-coast television to switch gears in campaign strategy – and the nation witnessed non-confrontational Obama morph into combative Obama.

“If John McCain wants to have a debate about who has the temperament and judgment to serve as the next commander-in-chief, that’s a debate I’m ready to have,” he roared with the characteristically brilliant, soaring oratory that has stirred so much enthusiasm across the world. “I’ve got news for you, John McCain. We all put our country first… John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”

McCain, meanwhile, also took advantage of the evening to spring a surprise, one-upmanship campaign ad on the nation’s television screens. Oozing supposed sincerity, McCain looked straight into the camera and congratulated his opponent: “Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America,” he said. “Too often, the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed.” Minutes later, viewers saw an Obama campaign ad featuring a negative personal attack on McCain – all with the overall effect that Mr Nice Guy seemed to have transformed into an attack dog during the course of the evening, while the veteran old toughie McCain had changed into the warm and fuzzy of the two candidates.
Read (more…)

The pace of global oil demand growth should increase next year as rising consumption in emerging markets outweighs declines in developed nations hard hit by the high fuel costs and mounting economic problems. The barrel of crude which sold for $65 in 2007 might soon cost $200.

With such astronomical increase coming on top of a credit crunch, economists are talking seriously about the prospect of world recession and, even the worse, stagflation – the lethal combination of inflation and economic stagnation last seen in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.

We are told it is all due to a world shortage cause by soaring demand for oil in China and India, and that we can expect record prices to continue for eight years.

But is this really the case? Nowhere in the world are people queuing at petrol pumps; there are no power blackouts and no idle tankers are waiting in the Gulf for oil.

On the contrary, oil storage tanks across the world are full, super tankers are queuing at ports to unload and no major oil field is closed. Across the world, 86million barrels of oil are produced every day which at the moment is sufficient, not least because consumption in America – which burns a quarter of the world’s supply every day – is actually declining.

Alarmists also say that the world’s oil supplies have passed their ‘peak’, that the world has consumed half of all its oil and that the remaining 1trillion barrels will be gone by 2025.

Read (more…)