It’s not really a surprise to see Abu Dhabi hand over another bunch of dollars to its wayward relative Dubai. It had to be so; it was just a matter of time. The bailout or handout or whatever one wishes to call this latest transfer of money was necessary to shore up the reputation of the Emirates.

Dubai Metro

It’s the second time that Dubai has had help from it’s more conservative and wealthier neighbour. In February 2009 Abu Dhabi pledged $10 billion to prop up the ailing Emirate in a move to assist Dubai’s $20 billion long-term bond program. The Central Bank of the UAE bought up the first tranche of the bond issue.

The highest Tennis court in the world

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This latest bailout of $10 billion has been a must-do action. When one of your poor relatives, and Dubai with very little oil reserves may be considered that, gets ahead of itself by engineering a building boom literally built on sand it is but a matter of time before the white flag is hoisted.

Dubai Ski Slope

Add to this extraordinary grandiose real estate vision a global recession that world wide knocked property prices down a peg or two and one could easily see that the possibility of an economic shock in Dubai were highly likely.

Christmas in Dubai

Initially it seemed as if Dubai had decided on a solo flight by announcing on 25 November 2009 a unilateral decision to restructure $26 billion in debt. For this you may read – not pay its debt obligation on time.

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club

The global market went into shock. It was as if the stock exchanges simultaneously suffered heart attacks. Some reaction had been anticipated as the announcement was cleverly made just before Thanksgiving on 26 a long week-end in the USA and the Eid al-Adha Festival a few days later on 28 November.

Dubai Airport

It is mooted by economists that the fall-out would have been even worse if this timing had not been used to soften the blow. Regardless of this clever timing, the markets reacted dramatically with stock exchanges posting serious drops and currencies such as the Euro and Pound taking part in jittery dance routines.

Dubai City

To a certain extent the dessert dust stirred up is still inhibiting a clear view of the action. It seems that the bailout coincides with a deadline for a payment related to an Islamic bond or sukuk due on Monday December 23.

The phenomenal Burj Dubai Tower

Whatever the reason, whether an Islamic bond or the global economy, the funding provided by Abu Dhabi has one significant purpose and that is to shore up confidence in not only Dubai but the entire Middle East block of countries.

Dubai sports city

It will be immensely damaging to the entire region if one of its members defaults on repaying interest on debt never mind the capital sum borrowed. A severe knock to ones reputation is of greater significance than any actual reality.

Dubai rotating hotel

Lehman Brothers discovered this when they had to close their doors on facing irreparable damage to their reputation. And casting ones mind even further back the demise of Arthur Anderson was such an instance too.

Dubai's man made Palm Islands

Abu Dhabi had to face the fact that it needed to fight for the reputation of the UAE as well as the entire Middle East Region. It’s a heavy responsibility to carry, but regrettably this Emirate has little choice in the matter. The consequences to the region of allowing Dubai to falter would be a hugely damaging blow from which the region might not recover for many years.

The mantra of the times is cost cutting. The axe of cost cutting invariably falls on the employees. It is either through wage reduction, reduced bonuses, reduction of other benefits, reduced work hours or in a worst case scenario in the form job losses.

In most countries unemployment rates are hitting close to double digits, the worst case scenario might soon become a reality for anybody including you. In such a situation, it is imperative that you should have a plan B ready.

Instead of waiting for a surprise and acting re actively, it is important for you do a realistic assessment of your current situation.

Each and every one of you must have an understanding of your employer’s financial situation and strategy, your own function/department current state and whether there is any danger of retrenchment at your level. Once you access the macro and micro level picture, you need to play your next steps accordingly.

You may not have a choice but to look out for alternate employment if you feel that you may be in the firing line. It may not be easy in the current situation. However the current economic situation gives you an excellent opportunity to do what you always wanted to do.

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A job loss or a potential job loss might be an excellent excuse for you to change your field and move into the field of your liking. An engineer may want to get into arts and a banker may want to get into farming. This might prove to be a once in a life time opportunity and catalyst for such a shift.

If you don’t foresee an immediate threat to your job, however at the same time don’t feel confident about your situation in the medium term, you need to adopt a different strategy. As long as the company you work with doesn’t look like winding up/closing down, the first option to be explored should be within your employer.

Being fair to yourself, you need to treat your employer as your customer and demonstrate value for the salary you are earning. If you feel the same is not the case in your current role, you should position yourself for an alternate role that is a better fit for your potential and will help bring more visible benefits to your employer.

Such an alternate role may be in the same or different function. Such a positioning and the subsequent change to your role may not happen overnight. However this paradigm shift in your outlook towards your employer will definitely help you in the medium to long run.

One important alternate option you need to consider is honing your professional skills. It is an excellent time to consider education in your field of liking, be it a management degree or a certification in any technical subject.

It should be something which will give you satisfaction and the edge required to move ahead. The thing you should keep in mind is to be careful on how much money you spend as fees. The last thing you want is getting stuck in a ROI loop.

Last and not the least, your best option for plan B depends on how much you have saved in your coffers for the bad times. If you have enough bank balance, what about an extended vacation for globe trotting?

Everyone I know is sick of this recession, and sick of hearing about this recession. For one, the media’s attention to the global financial situation is depressing. But as many have pointed out, we are in this situation because of our own devices. On the individual level, poor financial and debt management, have exacerbated outside factors such as the housing market collapse and high rates of unemployment. For others, indiscriminate consumer debt has led to a number of individual crises. But in such a climate, there is a lot that can be learned. While it would have benefited everyone to know this several years ago, here are twelve personal financial lessons that can and should be learned during this recession.

Learn How to Plan Ahead

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It’s no secret that poor planning contributed to why so many people are currently in untenable financial situations. Don’t Panic. Figure out where you are at, where you want to be and put in place a realistic plan for getting there. The majority of businesses without plans in place before they start operations do not succeed. So if you are serious about creating a way to get ahead, or even just caught up, this step could not be more necessary. Unique circumstances will come up and cause you to stray from your plans temporarily, but structure is necessary in order to monitor your progress, and stay focused.

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Learn From Past Mistakes – Then Put it Into Practice

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Americans have an average of $10k in credit card debt. In order to identify how you came to be where you are at specifically, take a look at your spending for the last year (or even several years). Then locate what percentage of spending went to each type of expense. Chances are, the figures will be surprising and maybe upsetting at first when, for instance, you realize how much you spent going out to dinner or on entertainment. Figure out a realistic percentage that you would like to reduce your less-than-necessary expenses by, and then work this into your plan. The sense of urgency caused by the current recession can be an impetus to your learning about, and consequently fixing, poor money management practices.

Learn to Understand, Hate and Attack Debt

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Prioritize debt. Snowball. Pay off your highest interest rate first. Basic advice, right? The problem is that people have been regurgitating this theory for years, but most do not put it into practice. Paying off debt can be an arduous task, but it can also be quite rewarding. This step requires individuals to plan out their debt and then follow through with attacking it. A plan may seem difficult to stick to at first, but after several accounts are paid off, you’ll be surprised to see how quickly the remaining debt is repaid with more money being allocated to principal in subsequent months. One byproduct of this exercise should be a new understanding of debt – and you will probably learn to avoid credit cards like the plague.

Learning to Distinguish Want vs. Need

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After figuring out much money you’ve unnecessarily spent in the past, this should come naturally. I’m not suggesting that you should never go out to eat or splurge on anything ever, just that you implement a higher level of self control. For instance, the term “special occasion,” should have a greater meaning once you decide to get serious about your finances. When you condition yourself to realize that spending $100 on cocktails and dinner when you go out for your third cousin’s coworker’s birthday will mean that you are able to spend $100 less the next month on your aggressive debt repayment, you’re on the right path. In short, consider the opportunity cost of your spending.

Learn to Save – Even if You Start Small

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The oldest piece of financial advice relates to saving: put an emergency plan aside (6 – 9 months worth of expenses) should you lose your job. But, does it make sense to service a savings account with a 2-3 % yield, when remaining credit card debt rates of up to 29%? Yes, because it is not wise to forgo saving entirely in order to repay debt. Instead of spending less on debt repayment, save in the form of cutting out extra expenses. The problem for many people is that they live month to month and they don’t develop healthy saving habits until they are in their thirties or forties. Contributions to a savings plan should be recognized as the first of your necessary monthly expenses, so that money saved will never be thought of as money that can be spent. Even if your savings rate starts small, you can always increase in the future.

Learn to Monitor Your Expenses

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Scrutinize your current bills – cell phone, internet, credit cards, et cetera. I’d suggest to continually call your service providers to find out if there are better deals available, or if they can do something special for you. These days, customers have more power than ever; for instance, try suggesting that you will go elsewhere if vendors are not able to sweeten existing deals. Using leverage to get a better deal is a time-honored tenet of this more or less ‘free market’. Companies know that it is more cost-efficient to keep an existing client than it is to get new customers, and using this in your argument with customer service may be a way to get reduced pricing, or extra free services.

Learn to Stay on Course

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When I first started to cut debt aggressively about a year ago, I found myself able to dramatically reduce my monthly bills and pay down debt at a rate that I never could have imagined. The problem was once I paid about half of my debt down, I found myself at a plateau. It was only after realizing that I had replaced my old expenses with new ones did I start making ground again. My once super-frugal approach to eating out and playing golf only about twice a month became more lax, and this was putting a damper on my ability to repay debt at my preferred rate. It took an evaluation of my recent expenses to see how I had strayed from my plan and to figure out how to get back on it. This is extremely important to keep in mind: be careful not replace some unnecessary expenses with others.

Learn to Take Responsibility

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Personal finance is all about being responsible and taking initiative: no one will do these things for you, and learning to manage your finances is not something that you just wake up with one morning. It is every individual’s responsibility to monitor their bills and make sure they are not incurring any unnecessary fees with their banks or credit card companies, and also to monitor their credit score closely. And, if necessary, to repair their own credit. For those that own their own home, now is a great time to refinance and a good credit is imperative to improve your rates; for those looking to buy, knowing what your credit report says is only the first step in understanding what type of interest rate you will likely get. And, of course, the better your credit is, the better your interest rate will be.

Learn How to Get Organized

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To those who are not used to monitoring and managing their finances closely, this may sound like a lot of work. But once you get a system in place, it should only take about one hour per week to stay on top of everything. This will include: making sure that credit card due dates are not changing, that rates are not increasing, monitoring activity to your charge accounts, tracking the progress of your overall debt-to-income, and making sure you are always getting the best deals possible. These of course, are just a few of the examples.

Learn to Become Competitive and Creative

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One of the most important things to take from a recession is that nobody can just coast by anymore. For those seldom challenged in the workplace, it would make sense to improve your skill set, continue education, and network now. The medium- to long-term for many, still remains uncertain. For those that have fallen prey to our generation-high unemployment rates, it’s time to reevaluate your previous career and at least start considering other alternatives. In today’s changing and evolving marketplace, dynamic individuals are those which succeed.

Learn to Become a Deal Hunter

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While the housing market deflated, prices in most other industries have dropped in the last year as well. If you are serious about improving your personal financial wherewithal, try thinking about buying new as a way to replace old, not to satisfy want. Even better, think about buying slightly used as a way to replace the old. The ‘replacing’ aspect is key. If you need a newer vehicle, try finding a fleet rental and you will be blown away by the potential savings. Even in industries where consumers don’t traditionally haggle for prices, deals can be found with retailers looking to unload stock.

Learn to Diversify

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Where is your money going every month, and from where is it coming in? Cash? Currencies market? CDs? Commodities? Residual income? Profit-sharing? Trust fund? Is it possible for you to create a second income stream? In these uncertain times, individuals with contingencies and fall back plans usually fare the best. Think of the old saying, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket”. Always be on the lookout for producing additional income-generating opportunities. For some this might mean getting a part-time job, or taking on freelance work. My parting advice: be wary of get rich quick schemes on Late Night TV.

Contributed by BillShrink Guy

Every correction is the same, a normal downturn in one or more of the markets where we invest. There has never been a correction that has not proven to be an investment opportunity. You can be confident that governments around the world are not going to allow another Great Depression “on their watch”.

Every correction is different, the result of various economic and/or political circumstances that create the need for adjustments in the financial markets.

While everything is down in price, as it is now, there is actually less to worry about. When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

In this case, an overheated real estate market, an overdose of financial bad judgment, and a damn the torpedoes stock market, propelled by demand for speculative derivative securities and Hedge Funds, finally came unglued.

But it is the reality of corrections that is one of the few certainties of the financial world, one that separates the men from the boys, if you will. If you fixate on your portfolio market value during a correction, you will just give yourself a headache, or worse.

Few of the fundamental qualities that made your IGVSI securities sound investments just two years ago have permanently disappeared. We’ll be using credit cards, driving cars and motorcycles, drinking beer, and buying clothes twenty years from now. Very few interest payments have been missed and surprisingly few dividends eliminated.

Only the prices have changed, to preserve the long-term reality of things—and in both of our markets.
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Corrections are beautiful things, but having two of them going on at the same time is like a trip to Fantasy Land. Theoretically, even technically I’m told, corrections adjust prices to their actual value or “support levels”. In reality, it’s much easier than that. Prices go down because of speculator reactions to expectations of news, speculator reactions to actual news, and investor profit taking.

The two “becauses” are more potent than ever because there is more self-directed money than ever. And therein lies the core of correctional beauty. Mutual Fund unit holders rarely take profits but rush to take losses. Additionally, the new breed of unregulated index-fund speculations is capable of producing a constant diet of volatility overload. New investment opportunities are everywhere.

Here’s a list of ten things to think about or to do during corrections:

1. Don’t beat yourself up by looking at your market value. You don’t live in a vacuum and you should expect lower valuations. That is why you should only buy the highest quality securities in the first place and stick with a well-defined asset allocation plan. Look for ways to add to your portfolios.

2. Take a look at the past. There has never been a correction that has not proven to be a buying opportunity, in spite of the media hype that this one is somehow special. When they are broad, long, and deep, the rally that follows is normally broad, long, and steep. Get ready to party.

3. The “Smart Cash” produced by interest and dividends should be placed in new stocks for rapid profitable turnover— don’t be shy when you’re looking at 50% discounts from recent highs. Buying too soon, in the right portfolio percentage, is nearly as important to long-term investment success as selling too soon is during rallies.

4. Take a look at the future. Nope, you can’t tell when the rally will come or how long it will last. If you are buying quality securities now, as you certainly should be, you will be able to love the rally even more than you did the last time— as you take yet another round of profits.

5. Buy more quickly in a prolonged correction, but establish new positions incompletely so that you can add to them safely later. There’s more to “Shop at the Gap” than meets the eye, and you should remain confidently fully-invested at least until the media starts whispering: “rally”.

6. Cash flow is king. Take smaller profits sooner than usual as long as there are abundant buying opportunities. Today, nearly sixty percent of all Investment Grade Value Stocks are down more than 25% from their 52-week highs. As long your cash flow continues unabated, change in market value is just a perceptual issue.

7. Note that your Working Capital is growing, in spite of fallen market prices, and examine your holdings for opportunities to average down and increase your yield on fixed income securities. Examine both fundamentals and price, lean hard on your experience, and don’t force the issue.

8. Identify new buying opportunities using a consistent set of rules, be it rally or correction. That way you will always know which of the two you are dealing with in spite of the Wall Street propaganda. Focus on Investment Grade Value Stocks; it’s easier, less risky, and better for your peace of mind.

9. Examine your portfolio’s performance in terms of market, interest rate, and economic cycles as opposed to calendar time intervals. Apply your asset allocation to your analysis for meaningful-to-you results.

10. So long as everything is down, there is little to worry about long term. Downgraded, or simply lazy, portfolio holdings should not be discarded during general or group specific weakness— unless you don’t have the courage to get rid of them during rallies.

Corrections of all types will vary in depth and duration, and both characteristics are clearly visible only in institutional-grade rear view mirrors. The short and deep ones are most lovable; the long and slow ones are more difficult to deal with.

Most corrections are relatively short and difficult to take advantage of with mutual funds. So if you over-think the environment or over-cook the research, you’ll miss the after-party. Unlike many things in life, Stock Market realities need to be dealt with quickly, decisively, and with zero hindsight.

Amid all of the uncertainty, there is one indisputable fact that reads equally well in either market direction: there has never been a correction-rally that has not succumbed to the next rally-correction.

About the author:
Steve Selengut has been a Professional Investment Manager since 1979.
Author of: The Brainwashing of the American Investor: The Book that Wall Street Does Not Want YOU to Read, and A Millionaire’s Secret Investment Strategy.

President Barack Obama pressed Congress Monday night to urgently approve a massive economic recovery bill, using the first prime-time news conference of his presidency to warn that a failure to act “could turn a crisis into a catastrophe.”

With the nation falling deeper into a long and painful recession, Obama defended his program against Republican criticism that it is loaded with pork-barrel spending and will not create jobs.

“The plan is not perfect,” the president said, addressing the nation from the East Room of the White House. “No plan is. I can’t tell you for sure that everything in this plan will work exactly as we hope, but I can tell you with complete confidence that a failure to act will only deepen this crisis as well as the pain felt by millions of Americans.”

When the stimulus bill passed the House, not a single Republican voted for it. On Monday an $838 billion version of the legislation cleared a crucial test vote in the Senate by a 61-36 margin, with all but three Republican senators opposing it.

Obama said the federal government was the only power that could save the nation at a time of crisis, with huge spending outlays and tax cuts that he contended could save or create up to 4 million jobs.

“At this particular moment, with the private sector so weakened by this recession, the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back to life,” Obama said.
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Rejecting criticism, he said that 90 percent of the jobs created by the plan would be in the private sector, rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges and other aging infrastructure.

“The plan that ultimately emerges from Congress must be big enough and bold enough to meet the size of the economic challenge we face right now,” Obama said.

Again and again, he stressed that the economy is in dire straits.

“This is not your ordinary, run of the mill recession,” he said. Obama said the United States aims to avoid the kind of economic pain that Japan endured in the 1990s — the “lost decade” when that nation showed no economic growth.

“My bottom line is to make sure that we are saving or creating 4 million jobs,” he said, and that homeowners facing foreclosure receive some relief.

While Obama stressed the economy in the opening minutes of the news conference, he also faced questions on foreign policy, and was asked how his administration would deal with Iran, a nation accused by the United States of supporting terrorism and pursuing nuclear weapons.

The president said his administration was reviewing its policy toward Iran “looking at places where we can have constructive dialogue.” He also said it was time for Iran to change its behavior.

“My expectation is in the coming months we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can be sitting across the table face to face,” Obama said.

He said that Iran must understand that funding terrorist organizations and pursuing nuclear weapons are unacceptable.

On the economy, Obama took a swipe at Republicans for criticizing the stimulus bill as wasteful. He pointed out that he inherited the current economic crisis and a doubling of the national debt from eight years of the Bush administration.

Yet, he also acknowledged that some components of the bill would not create jobs, as GOP critics have complained. While such spending plans might be worthy, he said, “those programs should be out of this.”

Obama spoke a day before his administration was to announce new policies to rescue the ailing financial industry. A major goal of that program is to persuade hedge funds, insurance companies and private equity firms to buy into some of U.S. banks’ riskiest investments.

“The credit crisis is real and it’s not over,” Obama said. He faulted the way the first $350 billion of the $700 billion bailout program was spent. “We didn’t get as big of a bang for the buck as we should have,” he said.

He said the government would work with banks to take bad debts off of their books so they will start making loans again. He said his goal was to restore market confidence.

Obama said he did not know whether more bailout money would be needed and, if so, how much that might be.

The United States lost almost 600,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 per cent, its highest level in more than 16 years, the Labor Department said on Friday.

It was the biggest monthly job loss since the economy tipped into a recession more than a year ago, and it was even worse than most forecasters had been predicting.

In addition, the Government revised down its estimates for previous months by 4,00,000. For December, the Government revised the job loss to 5,77,000 compared with an initial reading of 5,24,000. Overall, it said, the nation has lost 3.6 million jobs since it slipped into a recession in December 2007.

“Businesses are panicked and fighting for survival and slashing their payrolls,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. “I think we’re trapped in a very adverse, self-reinforcing cycle. The downturn is intensifying, and likely to intensify further unless policy makers respond aggressively.”

As in previous months, employers in January slashed their payrolls in almost every industry except healthcare. Manufacturers eliminated 2,07,000 jobs, more than in any year since 1982. The construction industry eliminated 111,000 jobs. And retailers, who were wrapping up their worst holiday shopping season in years, eliminated 45,000 jobs.

One modest exception to the bad news was in workers’ wages, which have thus far not reflected the dramatic plunge in employment. Hour earnings edged up to $18.46, up five cents, and average weekly earnings climbed $614.72, up $1.67.

A bipartisan group of senators worked furiously in backroom negotiations on Thursday to cut the cost of the more than $920 billion economic stimulus plan. Senate Democratic leaders said they would await outcome of those talks before pushing for a final vote on the measure.
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Members of the bipartisan group, led by Senators Ben Nelson and Susan Collins, said they wanted to trim spending that would not quickly create jobs or encourage spending by consumers and businesses. They spent the day scrutinising the 736-page bill and wrangling over what to trim.

Aides said the group had drafted a list of nearly $90 billion in cuts, including $40 billion in aid for states, more than $14 billion for various education programmes, $4.1 billion to make federal buildings energy efficient and $1.5 billion for broadband Internet service in rural areas. But they remained short of a deal.

“We’re trying to focus it on spending that truly helps stimulate the economy,” Collins said. “People have different views on whether or not a programme meets that test. So we’re continuing to talk.”

Source – Indian Express

Have ever been a fan of the wonderful Asterix comics, you know that the ancient Gauls were a very brave people who didn’t know the meaning of fear. However, there was one thing that they were afraid of, and that was the sky falling on their heads. Of course, the sky actually never fell. But that didn’t stop the Gauls from thinking that it might fall.

I think the world’s financial markets have reached a stage when a lot of people are convinced that the sky is actually falling. The kind of fear and panic one sees around nowadays is unprecedented. Unlike earlier, the fear and panic is coming from some unusual directions.

In a report assessing economic prospects, the World Bank has predicted that the world’s annual economic growth will slow to 0.9%, from 2.5% in the year 2009.

The politicians and bureaucrats of the world are the people who seemed to be genetically engineered to be cheerful about economic prospects. No matter what happens, the official word in most countries is always that things are fine and getting finer. But for the first time in living memory, over the last few months, these professional optimists have changed their tune. And that’s a scary prospect.

In the United States, where the crisis first appeared, the pace and the intensity of the change of tune has been stunning. As recently as September 15th, the accepted wisdom was that erring financial firms should be left to fend for themselves and the crisis would basically work itself out with a little more pain.
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That was the day when Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers was allowed to go bankrupt. Just one day later, the US authorities decided to change its approach and rescue the insurance company AIG. And two days after that, they decided that basically everyone who needed to be rescued would get help.

And suddenly, the apparent scale of the crisis changed. From being calm and confident and reassuring, people like the US Treasury Secretary (finance minister in Indian terminology) Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke were openly expressing panic. It suddenly seemed out in the open that the sky was indeed falling.

The official panic has now rolled around the world. A few days ago, an emergency summit of the heads of European governments took place in Paris and they decided what the EU should do about the crisis. Even in India, where such pessimism has always been taboo, the mood has changed. The prime minister himself said a few days ago that India could not stay insulated from the troubles of the rest of the world. The RBI’s sudden CRR cut points towards a sharp worry that wasn’t around a few days ago.

Suddenly, the accepted wisdom is that the world is in the middle of a huge financial crisis and unless drastic action is taken immediately, things will rapidly become much worse. A global economic collapse is being talked about routinely.

To the casual observer, all this is a little bewildering. It’s as if you’re walking down the road and suddenly everyone starts running in panic. You keep trying to stop people and ask them what’s happened but no one can explain clearly. They just keep running and pretty soon you decide to stop asking questions and start running too. Just to be on the safe side, just to be with the crowd in case the sky is actually falling.

My sense is that even the high and mighty have now joined the herd and are basically, just running. There are officials who want more powers. There are politicians who like to be in a I’m-here-to-save-you situation. And there’s the media which can see a story that is selling and will keep selling.

There’s no doubt there is a global financial problem and there will be some hardship before it subsides. However, the shift in official mood amounts to nothing much more than what the Americans would call a cover-your-rear strategy, although they would use a less polite word for rear.

World leaders vowed yesterday to revamp the global financial system in the face of recession fears, but US President George W Bush urged nations to “recommit” to free markets despite economic turmoil.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao called for more regulation of the world’s financial system, saying after the summit “we need to draw lessons from this crisis.”

“We need financial innovation to serve the economy better, however we need even more financial regulation to ensure financial safety.”

Wen confirmed China’s participation in a crucial summit in the United States on November 15 aimed at tackling the financial meltdown, without specifying which Chinese leader would attend the meeting of 20 industrialised and emerging powers.

The economic turmoil has led to growing criticism of US-style free market capitalism, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy earlier this week saying “the ideology of the dictatorship of the market… is dead.”

But Bush, moving to set an agenda for the upcoming international economic summit, said its participants must “recommit” to the principles of free enterprise and free trade.

“As we focus on responses to our short-term challenges, our nations must also recommit to the fundamentals of long-term economic growth – free markets, free enterprise, and free trade,” Bush said.
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The US president, who leaves office in January, added that “open market policies have lifted standards of living and helped millions of people around the world escape the grip of poverty.”

After a week of growing economic gloom and plunging stock markets, Asian and European leaders meeting in Beijing promised wide-ranging reforms while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also called for quick change.

“Leaders pledged to undertake effective and comprehensive reform of the international monetary and financial systems,” the 40-member Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) said.

“They agreed to take quickly appropriate initiatives in this respect, in consultation with all stakeholders and the relevant international financial institutions.”

Ban said the Washington meet must address the need for change and joined chief executives of key UN institutions in calling for considered but large-scale reforms.

“The market and regulatory failures that have led to this crisis must be addressed as a matter of urgency,” a joint statement said.

“We reaffirm the need for meaningful, comprehensive and well-coordinated reform of the international financial system and pledge our support to this end.”

Volatility has surged across financial markets and was particularly violent in foreign exchange trading on Friday, with a swathe of major and emerging market currencies sold aggressively in favour of the US dollar and the Japanese yen.

Russian officials pledged to prevent sharp fluctuations in the rouble, but said there was no need to limit capital movements or change the trading corridor of the currency, which hit two-year lows versus the dollar this week.

Emerging economies have been particularly hard hit by the crisis, forcing many to plunder their foreign exchange reserves to defend their currencies and financial systems.

Officials in Washington said those economies that qualify for a proposed new liquidity fund at the International Monetary Fund could be eligible for an unusually high level of funding.

Although the details of the package were not finalised, the plan, which may offer countries up to five times their IMF quota, could be approved as soon as next week.

It would allow certain emerging market economies to exchange local currencies for US dollars to ease short-term credit strains, the officials said..

“Absolute Truth” well science maintains there is there is no such thing like that, but from the current global financial crisis it is evident that there is no absolute free market. Truth is always relative, just like freedom.

It is important to look for positive points to find a way out of the financial crisis, apart from philosophic controversy.

All countries, whether separately or collectively, are working hard to contain the crisis, or at least to reduce losses, despite the gloomy picture of the global economy and the pessimistic atmosphere blanketing the entire world.

Although it is difficult to speak about positive points while the entire world is facing such a crisis, there must be some positive aspects.

The first of these positive effects is that the financial crisis ushers in an end to the domination of the sole magnate in international financial relations, which was a major cause of the crisis.

Wall Street was the world’s most powerful investment house, just a few months ago, where investments used to pour from the East and the West. Now Wall Street means bankruptcy, and investors in fear of losing their money do their best to avoid it.

At present, there are regions in Europe and Asia, including the Gulf region, emerging as hubs of huge investments, which will bring about more stability to the world financial system. This shift is important for restructuring international relations in the post-crisis stage.

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The second positive result of the financial crisis revolves around redrafting laws and rules that regulate global financial institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) whose membership could not have been possible without a green light from Wall Street.

The previous rules governing economic relations were appropriate for the post-Second World War era and during the Cold War, but are no longer suitable for the globalization age and the emergence of new and influential economic powers on the map of international relations.

For instance, in China, foreign currency reserve reached $1.9 trillion at a time the US budget deficit amounted to $1 trillion, in addition to the progress achieved by Europe in the light of its single currency.

The third positive point is related to the change in the world investment map and the opportunities to be provided by the emerging investment hubs, which offer guarantees and opportunities for world capitals.

This potential change will coincide with restructuring of commercial relations, which will be done through the WTO that will allow specialization on the basis of the production priorities of each country.

This will offer middle east countries rare opportunities to take advantage of the possible outcomes of this crisis.

Fourth, the next global financial and banking system will be strictly regulated and supervised by applying the measures of control, transparency and global governance.

The last of the positive effects of the crisis would be the absence of giant financial institutions, which dominated stock markets in the world for long decades.

This in turn would allow new institutions to emerge and take over, which lays the foundation for a new sharing system in international financial and economic work.

In short, a bad situation may sometimes have good effects, and what is required now is to draw lessons from this crisis and the subsequent losses suffered by most countries.

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:
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Work while you’re at work. According to a Gallup poll, most of us spend an average of 75 minutes a day using our office computers for activities other than work. Online shopping, online gaming, and personal email are just a few of the ways we waste our employer’s time, to the tune of a more than $6,000 loss in productivity per employee per year. Do yourself (and your boss) a favor and keep the other activities to a minimum.

Hit the books. Take continuing-education credits at your local community college, enhance your computer skills with an advanced course relevant to your work, or look for weekend workshops that target a developing skill related to your job. Your employer may even have a program to help defray the costs. Take advantage of these paid continuing-education opportunities. It might be your old employer who writes your ticket to a fabulous new job, once you’ve updated and expanded your job skills.

Be visible. Perception can be everything. You can be a productive, highly skilled employee, but if you continually skip company-wide events or staff meetings, others may perceive you as a slacking off. Make sure you attend functions where your presence will indicate commitment, arrive at meetings on time, and volunteer for tasks that will raise your profile in the larger organization.

Look like you care. “Dress for success” means different things across different work cultures, of course, but there are always limits. Even if your work doesn’t require that you wear a suit every day, make an effort to look well-groomed, up-to-date, and ready to assume your supervisor’s job.

Communicate your ambition. Ask your supervisor what you need to do to progress in the company. Overtly expressing your ambition is the first step in setting high expectations; be ready to spring into action after that. Your supervisor may hand you extra challenges and responsibilities; these are your opportunities to differentiate yourself from the pack.

Even if you are never faced with a layoff, acting as if one will happen can enhance your value as an employee. Who knows? It might even win you a promotion.