Fortune Watch

An audio book is a voice recording of written material. An audio book is often referred to as a book on tape, as a cassette tape was initially the format offered when the audio books first appeared on the market in the 1980’s.

Many retailers did not see the need for these audio books, but the books gained popularity quickly. Now there are many websites dedicated to providing free audio book downloads to everyone. There is really no limit to the genres available to you through free audio books downloads.

Audio fiction books, nonfiction, research, even cookbooks are now available. There are many different download formats available as well. You are now able to choose to download a free audio book in MP3 or iPod formats, enabling you to listen while walking, running, or other forms of exercise.

Books will always be part of our lives. It has been in existence for many centuries and it will continue to exist until the end of time. People have protected books from being burned. They went through great lengths to preserve it such as burying it deep into the ground so it will be passed on from generation to generation. So books will be a constant presence in our lives from the moment we were born up until we die.

Have you noticed that books have been evolving? There was a time when all we had are pages of a manuscript. Now, books are in all kinds of forms. We have the paperback books, the hardbound books, comics, magazines, e-books, Audio Books and others. No matter what form of book that we prefer, it will still be the same.
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Many are cutting back on unnecessary holiday spending this year, but one item they’re not willing to do without is the perfect Christmas tree. When it comes to wreaths they try to save some green by going green.

Americans don’t appear to be ready to give up their Christmas trees amid a slumping economy, but they are downsizing to save money. There may be fewer presents under that Christmas tree this year, but it seems few families are giving up the tradition of having a tree.

Retail sales dip to the lowest in 35 years and unemployment hit a 14-year high, Christmas tree sales however holding steady in the gloom, according to growers, sellers and industry analysts.

Sales will stay in line with last year, based on reports from growers. I think people just like to have a Christmas tree; it’s not the most expensive part of Christmas, really.

Last year, Americans bought 31 million natural trees, “The year may end up the same or even a little better than last year, consumers want to keep the tradition, even if other things go by the wayside,” says Linda Gragg, executive director of the North Carolina Christmas Tree Association.

Linda Holt bought a tree this year even though she lost her job last year repairing speech devices for the hearing-impaired. Her unemployment checks ran out in March. “I can’t imagine Christmas without a tree,” says Holt, 52, who lives with her daughter’s family in San Jose. “It’s too depressing.”
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It was $1,900 here and $10,000 there.

On Friday, it all added up to a sentence of 55 years in state prison for 42-year-old Johnnie Miles, whose criminal record — of bad checks and financial fraud — dates to when she was 14 years old, according to court officials.

A month ago, a six-member Indian River County jury found the 29th Avenue resident innocent of the latest charges against her: defrauding a store out of $7,500 during a three-month period in 2007.

But under state rules, Circuit Court Judge Dan Vaughn was allowed to take another look at the facts in the latest case. That’s because she was on probation for a 2003 conviction for grand theft and fraud in Indian River County.

Because of her record, Vaughn gave her the maximum for probation violation: 11 five-year state jail terms, all to be servedconsecutively, adding up to 55 years. Each five-year term is for the 11 offenses for which she served four years in state prison.

Her record goes back even further, including an additional 20 felony fraud and theft convictions, nine petty theft convictions and seven misdemeanor cases, according to county court records.

“She is one of the most notorious thieves” in the county, said Assistant State Attorney Adam Chrzan, who handled her latest case.
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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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Credit cards are actually one of the best things to inspire people to spend unlimited money and get anything they want. These have empowered the credit card holders to waste money and the result is that people end up being burdened with excessive debts.

Not all, but in case of many credit card holders such incidents have happened. If you too are a sufferer like those then without any further delay you should get the credit card debt management programs.

This is a very important question for women who are struggling with personal debt and credit card debt. The reason that I ask this question is because the only way that we can solve a problem is to identify that we have a problem in the first place. Without an identification of a problem, there can be no solution to something we have not identified.

A leading credit ratings firm has warned those in love to be cautious when taking on debt for a partner. It says debts taken on for a partner, when things are rosy, can become a real hassle if the relationship breaks up.

If you are struggling to pay your monthly bills, and your credit card debt to income ratio is more than 10 percent (including car loans as well), you most likely have a problem with debt. It does not matter if you are a man or woman reading this article. What matters is that you have identified a problem that is creating stress, concern, lack of sleep, anxiety, and depression.
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Preparing Your Portfolio Is the Most Important Action You Can Take

When the stock market is running very hot or very cold, it is on everyone’s mind and few conversations last very long before turning to the latest numbers.

Whether it is the dot.com boom of the 1990s or the credit crisis of 2007, when the market is erratic and volatile, people are engaged.

The factors that lead to a boom-bust cycle in the market are important. Investment professionals and regulators spend a great deal of time trying to understand what happens in the market during these periods.

Individual investors have little influence on the market. While it is important to understand what happens and why, that is not the most important consideration for individual investors.

The most important influence on how your portfolio performs is how well you have prepared it. Preparation is the only factor you can influence.

Preparation means adopting a reasonable allocation between stocks, bonds and cash. It also means diversifying you holdings by industry sector, company size and growth and value stocks.

Most investors should consider a bond allocation equal to their age. For example, a 45 year-old investor should have 55 percent in stocks and 45 percent in bonds.

You can’t know with any assurance which turns the market will take – even industry professionals don’t know.
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The cost of air tickets are expected to start coming down soon because of the world financial crisis, experts are predicting.

Experts are ruling are ruling out a plunge that would endanger the health of airlines.

“If you keep prices too high you’re going to lose more passengers,”

A forecast of reduction in an average ticket of between 15 and 20 per cent by the end of March is predicted, to be attracting passengers from more conventional companies like British Airways.

Most airlines nowadays use the yield management system, whereby prices are adjusted by computer on an almost daily basis in line with demand, starting relatively low then rising if a particular flight fills up, or falling if it does not.

“However, company profit margins are narrow, and they cannot really engage in a price war.”

Few airlines have yet adopted an aggressive pricing strategy, as they try to recover from the massive cost of fuel which neared $150 a barrel in mid-July, forcing them to slap surcharges on tickets.

While oil has now fallen to a third of this level, companies have held back from price-cutting at the same rate, while announcing a reduction in the surcharges since September.

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But in the end, ketchup is just ketchup, isn’t it?

Not really. For Americans, ketchup always contains tomatoes and vinegar and some kind of sweetener, along with spices, and a brand named Heinz.

H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ) reported a 22% rise in its fiscal second-quarter profit and indicated that it may take fewer price increases on its products amid weakening consumer spending and falling commodity prices.

The company is still going ahead with some selected price hikes, but indicated that price cuts were unlikely.

Food companies have raised prices steadily over the last year amid soaring commodity prices. Investors and analysts have been watching closely to see how these companies now will handle the subject of price increases as commodities have pulled back and global economies have weakened. Price increases play a big role in offsetting costs, but in a weak economy companies run the risk of pushing away penny-pinching consumers. There has been some speculation that retailers may also be resisting efforts by manufacturers to raise prices.

The company took a fair amount of price hikes in the second quarter and that discussions with retailers on pricing are a “little more difficult.”

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