| Annual “Lambs to the Slaughter” ritual has begun
It's that time of the year again. Holiday spending was up another 5% this year to …. get this….. $457.4 Billion. As reported By Parija B. Kavilanz, CNNMoney.com staff writer in the article found here. That's right, billion with a “B". And, once the credit card bills begin to get delivered…. the slaughter will begin. Many might be thinking that I'm going to drone on about the high cost of credit, how long it will take to pay off those credit cards, fees, penalties, etc… Not this time. The ritual that I'm referring to is mortgage refinancing. Every year thousands of homeowners find themselves in a little trouble with last years spending habits. And this year many people are going to get the old Double Whammy with roughly 12% of adjustable mortgages coming due. Scratching their heads trying to figure out how they will make ends meet, refinancing (or debt consolidation) begins to look appealing.
Britons Face Billion-Pound Interest Payback
One in four people is struggling with their debts as Britons collectively face a 93bn annual bill for interest. At the same time, around three million people have taken out a debt consolidation loan to try to get on top of their borrowings. Borrowing through credit cards, loans, overdrafts and mortgages has hit almost 1.4 trillion, according to comparison website uSwitch.com. An estimated 9.5m people had "maxed out" on one form of credit during the past six months, while 38% have had a credit card application rejected, the group claims. But nearly two-thirds of these failed to close down their existing credit facilities, and instead went on to rack up a further 2,300 of debt on average. Overall, the research found that the average household has now amassed unsecured debts of 4,281.
N.Y. Philharmonic Primed to Perform For North Koreans Closed Country ...
The presence of the New York Philharmonic argues against that," Hill told the Los Angeles Times editorial board last week. "I don't see any downside to this." But others have criticized the trip as appeasement of a government with one of the world's worst human rights records. Trying to escape the country is a crime punishable by death, and human rights groups say hundreds of thousands of people are held in labor camps. Lorin Maazel, music director of the orchestra, stirred up criticism by comparing U.S. treatment of detainees at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with North Korea's treatment of its citizens. "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks, should they? Is our standing as a country -- the United States -- is our reputation all that clean when it comes to prisoners and the way they are treated?" he said in an interview with the Associated Press when the orchestra left for Asia.
Writers' strike means rough going for TV networks
Viewer defection is bad enough, but this is a pocketbook issue for the networks, which will have to reimburse advertisers for the ads they purchased on the basis of higher estimated audience size. "Even with a strike audience, the networks will still draw huge numbers, so you won't see a mass advertiser defection," says John Consoli, senior editor of Media Week magazine. "But the networks will fall short. They'll have to give 'make goods,' or free ads back to the advertisers, which is inventory they can't sell." But networks are running out of "make goods," forcing them to pay out of their own pockets. In December, NBC started to reimburse advertisers for the drop in its fourth-quarter ratings, an average of $500,000 per company, according to a recent Media Week article by Mr.
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Taking responsibility
We don't let infants fly planes, why are we letting infantile cyber-citizens put us all at risk? Undeniably, the real villains are the online criminals: the phishers, the Nigerian scammers, the identity thieves that steal billions of dollars every year from individuals and organisations. Software companies selling leaky products also share blame. The unwitting henchmen But it's us - the users - that are facilitating these crimes. It's our stupidity, laziness, naiveté, ignorance and inattention that are allowing criminals to hijack our machines, and send out spam, viruses and countless other dangers to other innocent, ignorant users. We've seen with file-sharing and piracy lawsuits how record companies have successfully prosecuted computer owners, even when it turned out to be their children that had secretly carried out the piracy.
Fredonia Baby Needs Life-Saving Liver Transplant
"The numbers are not what they should be and we're just going to continue to run some tests to see what they are," said Lydia Walnicki.
Not what she wanted to hear from the doctor after giving birth to her baby girl.
"There really is no cure for her condition. You wish all the time that you could spare your child, with all the treatment that she has to go through," said Walnicki.
Piper was diagnosed with Biliary Atresia, a condition that affects the liver and only one in every 15,000 to 20,000 babies.
"You go through all kinds of feelings, you wonder, is there something that I did, my husband wondered if there was something he did, something in our lifestyle, I was wondering did I not eat healthy enough during the pregnancy," said Walnicki.
Neiman Marcus reports February store sales decline
Upscale retailer Neiman Marcus Inc. posted a slight increase in revenue for the second quarter, but comparable store sales - a key indicator of retailer performance - for the month of February actually fell 7.3%. For the period ending Jan. 26, the Dallas-based company's revenue grew by 3.7% to $1.37 billion, compared to $1.30 billion for the same quarter one year ago. Neiman Marcus attributes its revenue boost to higher store sales and direct marketing efforts. Its adjusted operating earnings were $152.3 million, a 4.4 increase from $145.9 million a year ago. The Dallas shopping institution was purchased by Texas Pacific Group and Warburg LLC in 2005. It is the parent company of Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman department stores. Web site: www.neimanmarcusgroup.com .
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