February’s earthquake certainly didn’t do any favors for New Zealand’s economy. The country’s central bank “sliced half a percentage point of its benchmark interest rate in an effort to limit the short term economic impact” of Christchurch’s quake. Reconstruction costs have been estimated at $11 billion, with a prediction that economic growth will be stunted… Continue Reading
It seems it’s no longer humans and cats who are being DNA tested these days. There is now the possibility for testing the DNA of diamonds, resulting in accruing details of “diamond diagrams, plotting of inclusions, photographs (high resolution images), AGS parameters and many more, along with generating consumer confidence in the product that consumers… Continue Reading
An article in today’s ‘Times of Malta’ – quite fitting for International Women’s Day – is showing how the women of Malta are quite capable of succeeding unaided. An EU suggestion of special treatment of women has been rejected by the businesswomen of Malta, who believe that “gender imbalance at work should be addressed by… Continue Reading
It’s great that the global economy is benefiting from economic reform, but what will this mean for developing countries, such as Egypt? According to World Bank Officials, it might spell bad news. CFO of the World Bank Vincenzo La Via claimed that “solutions for advanced economies are not necessarily a good fit for developing countries.” … Continue Reading
Charlie Sheen sure knows how to fight tough when it comes to money. When WBTV canceled his show’s eighth season, Sheen wasn’t willing to take it lying down. Indeed, today it seems as though Sheen will be winning his case and possibly resuming work, bringing home over #1.2 million per episode. Litigator Martin Gold who… Continue Reading
There are various different types of investment portfolio assets, including: bonds; future contracts; gold certificates; real estate; stocks and warrants. An investor makes a credit to an institution (a bond); one uses a future contract for the purchase or sale of an “underlying instrument” at a set rate but the date is not set for… Continue Reading
Stocks are not very difficult to understand, even for the uninitiated financial layman. Basically, an organization will sell stocks so that they can increase their revenue which will be used for their business. So if you buy stocks, you are helping out a business (and hopefully yourself as when the stocks increase, so will your… Continue Reading
If you are new to the world of finance and investments, one of the areas you need to be educated on are bonds. If you are trying to build up a portfolio, bonds are extremely important since during stressed economic times, it is the bonds that will be there to provide stability and… Continue Reading
A pension fund is created by one’s employer for the purposes of the employee’s investment retirement funds to which they both contribute. Each month the employee is paid, a certain percentage of the salary goes into the pension fund, with an additional sum provided by the employer. These make very good terms for… Continue Reading
It’s not easy working out which investments to put into an ISA. First you need to assess a tremendous amount of funds; then determine how to disperse it around the types of investments/asset classes available. This is called asset allocation. Due to current Middle Eastern unrest, doing this properly and well is quite a balancing… Continue Reading