Friday, January 25, 2013

Will the Debt Ceiling be Good for Gold and Silver? - Money Morning

What a Poor Debt Ceiling Deal Would Do for Gold and Silver

The most likely scenario is Congress will come up with some compromise on spending cuts ahead of the next debt ceiling deadline, May 19.

But if lawmakers in Washington can't come up with a good enough budget deal to rein in spending and get the country's runaway deficit under control - while not derailing an economic recovery - another credit downgrade is highly likely.

In a recent report, Fitch wrote, "In the absence of an agreed and credible medium term deficit reduction plan that would be consistent with sustaining the economic recovery and restoring confidence in the long-run sustainability of U.S. finances, the current Negative Outlook on the AAA rating is likely to be resolved with a downgrade later this year even if another debt ceiling crisis is averted."

Should Fitch strip the U.S. of its coveted triple-A rating as recently warned, and Moody's follows suit, precious metal markets stand poised to rally.

When Standard & Poor's made the unprecedented move of downgrading U.S. credit in August 2011, gold gained about 10% in a month. Silver also enjoyed gains, rising to $41.70 by month's end, gaining about 5%.

If We Do Hit the Debt Ceiling, What Happens to Gold and Silver?

Falling off the debt cliff, or hitting the debt ceiling, means the U.S. government can't borrow any money. Scores of payments would immediately stop.

Failure to pay obligations would immediately devalue the dollar. As a result, gold and silver become increasingly more attractive as investors lose confidence in the greenback and equities.

Gold and silver are flocked to as safe havens from fiat currency. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar can be printed in copious amounts and liberally pumped into the economy.

Even concerns over hitting the debt ceiling can boost gold and silver.

As Goldman Sachs strategists pointed out in a recent report, in six instances between 1996 and 2007 when the country hit the debt ceiling and the Treasury responded with "extraordinary measures" to keep the country afloat, half of those times gold rallied nearly 10%.

Gold and Silver Demand Already Soaring

The uncertainty triggered by the debt ceiling has already pushed investors into silver and gold in 2013.

The U.S. Mint has been forced to suspend sales of its 2013 American Eagle silver bullion coins for a few weeks after running out amid soaring investor demand for the shiny silver coins. Interest in this year's coins has been particularity robust not just from collectors, but from worried investors seeking refuge from the U.S. economic uncertainty.

Demand for gold is also strong.

Global gold demand continues to grow as central banks worldwide increase stores of the yellow metal.

And in a recent interview about his decision to stock up on physical gold instead of "worthless" dollars, economist and author and publisher of the "Gloom Boom And Doom" report Marc Faber reiterated his support for gold in this environment.

He told Yale economist Robert Shiller, "I'm prepared to make a bet. You keep your U.S. dollars and I'll keep my gold. We'll see which one goes to zero first."

Faber continued, "In the worst case scenario, in the systemic failure that I expect, [gold] would still have some value." When the financial system "goes down and only plastic credit cards are left, maybe then people will realize and go back to some gold-based system or such."

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Source: http://moneymorning.com/2013/01/25/will-the-debt-ceiling-be-good-for-gold-and-silver/

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RIM Releases BYOD-Friendly IT Management Software

Research In Motion released a new version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Service mobile device management software on Wednesday. This comes just over a week before the official launch of the new BlackBerry 10 OS and compatible handsets, and just days after RIM CEO Thorsten Heins suggested the company might abandon the hardware market and sharpen its focus on software.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/27d499a6/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C771520Bhtml/story01.htm

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ShelterBox helps Syrian refugees in Lebanon?s worst winter in 20 years

As the Middle East experiences its worst winter storms in 20 years, international disaster relief organization, ShelterBox, is responding to the need for winterized shelter and other life saving supplies among the Syrian refugees living in Lebanon.

Sarasota, Fla. (PRWEB) January 23, 2013

As the Middle East experiences its worst winter storms in 20 years, international disaster relief organization, ShelterBox, is responding to the need for winterized shelter and other life saving supplies among the Syrian refugees living in Lebanon.

ShelterBox responds following disasters such as earthquake, flood, tsunami, hurricane, cyclone or conflict by delivering boxes of aid. Each box contains a disaster relief tent, stove, water filtration system, blankets and other items necessary to help families live independently and with dignity in the months following disaster.

ShelterBox was one of the first international relief organizations to respond to the Lebanese government?s request for aid, having permission from the Minister of Social Affairs for an agreed quantity of ShelterBoxes to be sent to Lebanon specifically for Syrian refugees.

Members of the highly trained ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) are assessing the need for additional winterized shelter and emergency aid as refugees continue to enter the country.

SRT member Fiona McElroy described the living conditions among refugees as ?unimaginable,? as many can?t afford proper shelter and protection from the freezing temperatures. Syrian families have built makeshift shelters with whatever materials available, as many have no other option.

?It?s not until you look among the communities such as Barelias district that the truth begins to reveal itself,? McElroy said. ?Syrian refugees are the hidden homeless in Lebanon.?

ShelterBox first responded to the Syrian refugee crisis in October 2012, by delivering 500 boxes of winterized aid to the Domiz refugee camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, and have continued to work in the neighboring countries to which many Syrians have fled.

By December 2012, ShelterBox aid crossed into Syria and was distributed to 710 families living families living in the Al-Salameh camp near the Turkey-Syria border.

ShelterBox is also responding to the typhoon in the Philippines, bushfires in Australia and flooding in Nigeria.

ABOUT SHELTERBOX USA


Since 2000, ShelterBox has provided shelter, warmth and dignity following more than 200 disasters in over 85 countries. ShelterBox instantly responds to earthquake, volcano, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tsunami or conflict by delivering boxes of aid. Each iconic green ShelterBox contains a disaster relief tent for an extended family, stove, blankets and water filtration system, among other tools for survival. ShelterBox?s American affiliate, ShelterBox USA is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida. Individual tax-deductible donations to ShelterBox USA can be made at http://www.shelterboxusa.org, 941-907-6036 or via text message by sending SHELTER to 20222 for a one-time $10 donation.


# # #

Erin Holdgate
ShelterBox USA
(941) 907-6036 101
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shelterbox-helps-syrian-refugees-lebanon-worst-winter-20-202846894.html

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

5 Challenges that early stage e-Commerce ... - Business Ideas

e-Commerce to many in India has lost its sheen. But transacting on the internet is a great innovation. Businesses which earn their ecommerce challengesrevenues from online transactions are here to stay and will grow at a massive rate. Reports suggest that the Global e-Commerce market will hit a mind boggling 1 trillion dollars in the next few years.

Despite Flipkart, Snapdeal, Myntra and other e-Commerce giants accounting for a large chunk of the current market share in India, there is enough room in this vast market for startups to come through and shine. However startups are going to face some potent challenges in a few areas. Here are 5 key challenges that Indian e-Commerce startups will face in the coming years

1) Finding a Niche

In a conversation with Mukesh Bansal, Co-Founder and CEO of Myntra, he had stated that finding a niche in e-Commerce means finding NIchepeople who will be willing to transact over the internet for a specific product. Contrasting to this approach, is Snapdeal, which goes full out on assortment and having everything under the sun on their online catalog. Kunal Bahl, the co-founder of of Snapdeal places assortment above all else.

While Snapdeal?s approach is going to need a lot of funding (an investor?s worst nightmare), a niche ecommerce site is something that a startup can take up. But there are too many niche e-Commerce players in the market and finding a large enough market willing to buy online is going to be the first and foremost challenge for a startup.

2) Customer Acquisition

To get people to come on an e-Commerce site and make a purchase involves heavy cost due to advertisement and marketing . This costCertain death is significant and can be brought down to cost per customer. Experts say that the average figure for this metric in the current e-Commerce ecosystem is between INR 500 ? 1000 customer, which isn?t sustainable for even medium sized companies, let alone early stage ones.

This is the next biggest problem that an early stage e-Commerce startup will face.

3) Reliable Logistics and Supply Chain

This is a good problem to have. If you?re facing problems with respect to logistics and supply chain, there are transactions that are Supply chainhappening at your portal. However, failure in this area can mean detrimental damage to a startup?s future. The average Indian customer poses great trust issues for e-Commerce transactions and this in effect hurts the brand overall.

Bad products, which are almost a given when working at scale, also require reverse logistics. The longer a faulty product from an e-Commerce portal stays with a customer, the worse the reputation of the e-Commerce portal gets.

Getting this right will be a challenge, and experts who know what to do are far and few.

4) Customer Service

Customer service is something that is overlooked in the Indian context. ?However, in this dense e-Commerce market, quality customercustomer-service support is going to be a big differentiator. Reassuring customers of a situation or telling them the status of a process is sometimes all that is needed to keep the customer from hitting the panic button and taking to public media.

Getting customer support oriented resources in India will be a challenge that a startup can face.

5) Raising Funds to Scale

Once an e-Commerce company has got its traction going, getting the branding right is going to be quintessential. Every e-Commerce Fundssuccess in India has got their branding right and has been an important part of their scaling process.

This, however, will require funds. The current funding bodies are once bitten, twice shy about funding e-Commerce companies in India. An e-Commerce company can bootstrap to a certain extent, scaling requires funds. A large majority of them have failed in this phase.

So even if you?ve got your act right, past record in the industry is working against the early stage startup at the cusp of scaling.

Come to e-Sparks 2013 to meet the people who?ve overcome these challenges and know how they did it.

About Raghu Mohan

Raghu is an electronics engineer from Anna University who has a keen interest in mobility and consumer technology. Highly respectful of the entrepreneurial spirit, he predominantly works on stories for tech entrepreneurs and startups. Raghu also is active member of the Bangalore Android User Group, a regular speaker at BarCamp Bangalore and is part of many other technology communities. You can follow him on Twitter @Raghum200

Source: http://yourstory.in/2013/01/5-challenges-that-an-early-stage-e-commerce-startup-face-in-the-indian-e-commerce-industry/

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Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Internet and Businesses Online: Affiliate Revenue Article Category ...

What Is Affiliate marketing?

A lot of optimistic things have been written about making money online from affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing all about? Fundamentally, it is an online practice where affiliates bring business to a company by promoting their products and services, and the company, in return, gives commissions to the affiliate as compensation. The concept is equally beneficial for affiliates and associated companies as both the parties get the scope to expand their profits without having made massive investments. Young internet marketers, expert bloggers and SEO experts have earned gigantic money by being affiliates to prestigious firms, websites and companies.

What are the positives of affiliate marketing?

The first and foremost benefit of this concept is the reduced cost of expenditure for parent companies. Most other forms of marketing involve direct payment to the advertising company, irrespective of the results derived out of a campaign. However, the payment made to affiliates is based on the numbers to visits paid to a particular website. This helps companies save at least a few portions of the advertising cost. As for the affiliates, this is the simplest way to make money online. There are no extra costs involved, except the cost of buying a website. In case, one opts for a blog to promote products, even the cost of hosting and website designing are diminished. As for consumers, they can find products more easily via the promoting sites. Search engines rank affiliate marketing sites positively because these sites have original content.

What is affiliate marketing used for?

Affiliate marketing concept can be applied to almost any kind of product and service. Bloggers and web marketers have used this concept extensively for generating commissions. One might wonder why this particular concept works positively for bloggers. When it comes to blogs, regular readers are often habituated to their blogger?s writing style and have trust for the kind of products and services he promotes and advertises on his site. Hence, whenever a prominent blogger talks about a product on his blog, his readers are sure to visit the link. This particular idea works for affiliates of small and large businesses, websites, and manufacturers alike.

The selection of right niche and products:

The product selection is of prime importance for affiliates as it determines the success rate as well as the incomes earned. While selecting a company, one must check the popularity and demand of the product along with the commission rates offered. Some companies offer a commission rate of 60-80%, while there are others who are low on the margins. After a product is selected, affiliates must study the company and product details for writing meaningful content. Some affiliate marketers have content writers hired especially for the purpose. Having quality reviews and content on a blog or website helps in getting better rankings in search engines and thus, draws more traffic to a website. One can also opt for social marketing and promotion of content, so that maximum readers in a niche can be approached and persuaded for visiting links published on a blog.

Source: http://www.affiliatemarketingtipsblog.net/uncategorized/internet-and-businesses-online-affiliate-revenue-article-category

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Thousands Join Obama and Biden for One-World Religious Service ...


Washington, D.C. ? Over two thousand people joined Barack Obama and Joseph Biden for an interfaith inaugural service this morning at the Washington National Cathedral, which united the nation?s religions in prayer for the Obama administration.

Attorney General Eric Holder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer were all stated to be in attendance.

The service included a variety of guests from a number of religions, who presented Christian, Catholic, Muslim, Sikh and Jewish prayers for the president.?Islamic Society of North America President Mohamed Magid delivered an invocation asking that Obama would have??discernment and the self-control necessary to our time,? a Sikh representative asked that all men would have ?concern for our neighbors,? and a Catholic layman spoke of the need for interdependence in America.

?Transform the jangling discourse of our nation into a beautiful symphony of the human family,? prayed Raphael Warnock of Atlanta?s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. once pastored. ?And through us may the earth and all of the families of the earth be blessed.?

Many of the guests who prayed or spoke were also women ministers. Barbara Williams-Skinner from the National African American Clergy Network appeared at the event, as well as Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly.?Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church offered prayers, and?Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of Washington, also made an appearance in welcoming attendees.

As previously reported, one of the keynote speakers for the event was Adam Hamilton of United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, the largest megachurch within its denomination. Hamilton, who is known as being?the author of the book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White: Thoughts on Religion, Morality and Politics, delivered a message about finding common ground and working together.

?Over the last two weeks, I?ve been praying a lot. ?God, what would you have me to say to these remarkable people? And the first thing I felt God wanted me to say to you was simply, thank you. Thank you,? he began. ?[Some people] really want to make a difference; they really want to change the world for the better. I believe that represents you and all the people in your administration, and the leadership of our country.?

Hamilton continued by speaking on the life of Moses, whom he called the ?great emancipator,? in light of 2013 marking the 150th year since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. He stated that people must be humble like Moses, find a common vision and work together.

?You should?ve been a preacher,? Hamilton remarked to Obama, evoking laughter.

?God actually has you exactly where God wants you,? he later added. ?And yesterday you began to lay out a vision for us in your inaugural address that was very powerful and compelling.?

In addition to Hamilton and the other featured guests, the Washington Performing Arts Society?s children?s choir sang ?Determined to Go On? for those present.

This morning?s service was the third that Obama has attended in the past three days. Yesterday, prior to the inaugural service, he attended St. John?s Episcopal across from the White House. Among the guests at the service included Cecile Richards, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

?Honored to be at church with President Obama this morning,? she Tweeted yesterday morning.

During Monday?s pre-inaugural service, Andy Stanley, son of well-known Baptist preacher Charles Stanley and megachurch pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, Georgia, delivered a message in which he reportedly told Obama that he should be called the ?pastor-in-chief.?

?Mr. President, you have an awfully big room,? he said. ?My prayer to you is to leverage that power for the stewardship of our nation.?

Services at Washington National Cathedral following inaugural ceremonies have been a long-held American tradition, spanning 106 years. Earlier this month, the Episcopalian Cathedral announced that it would begin hosting same-sex ceremonies for homosexual couples.

Source: http://christiannews.net/2013/01/22/thousands-join-obama-and-biden-for-one-world-religious-service-at-washington-national-cathedral/

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Sandy helps shore town reach deal on bar closings

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. (AP) ? A nasty dispute over how much responsibility bars in a popular Jersey shore town have to keep their patrons quiet and well-behaved after last call has been largely laid to rest ? thanks in part to Superstorm Sandy.

Point Pleasant Beach has reached an agreement with the owners of Jenkinson's Boardwalk to drop a proposed midnight bar closing law in return for the company ending lawsuits against the town. Jenkinson's also will contribute up to $1 million to help rebuild the storm-damaged boardwalk.

The widely publicized dispute brought Point Pleasant Beach national attention ? but not the kind it wanted as it sought to defend a family-friendly atmosphere while trying not to damage one of the pillars of its tourism business.

While settlement talks had started before the Oct. 29 storm hit, causing widespread damage to this and many other Jersey shore towns, Sandy may have helped expedite an agreement, said Toby Wolf, a spokeswoman for Jenkinson's, the town's largest taxpayer and employer.

"It definitely helped push everyone toward wanting to get it resolved faster," she said. "With everything that everyone in this town has gone through, (we wanted) to have one less thing to worry about. There was a lot of tension back and forth. But the spirit that came after the storm, everyone coming together to help each other, kind of went along with that."

Mayor Vincent Barrella said a settlement would have been reached even if there had not been a devastating storm. But he said the trauma from the storm might have helped nudge things along.

"It just would have taken longer, and the angst would have gone on," the mayor said. "Perhaps I saw (the bar owners) in a different light, and maybe they see me differently now, and realize the goal hasn't been to destroy their businesses."

At issue was what borough officials ? and many residents ? say was a worsening quality of life in neighborhoods nearest the boardwalk and its four bars. Many residents complained of bar patrons returning to their cars in the wee hours of the morning, screaming, fighting, urinating and even defecating on their lawns or porches, and leaving trash and liquor bottles strewn about.

Point Pleasant Beach asked the bars to help pay for the cost of added police patrols near the boardwalk, but the two sides were unable to agree on an amount. The town also restricted overnight parking in some neighborhoods to residents-only during the summer, further angering the bars and some charter-fishing businesses who said their customers couldn't park near the boats.

The matters wound up in a tangle of lawsuits, and state liquor regulators put the early bar closing law on hold last summer.

In a deal reached last month, Jenkinson's agreed to drop its litigation against the town, but another bar operator, Martell's, is still suing over the parking restrictions.

Tuesday night, the council took the first step toward repealing the midnight bar closing law by a 6-0 vote. A final vote is scheduled for Feb. 19.

Dave Cavagnaro, one of the most vocal residents in favor of cracking down on rowdy bar patrons, applauded the deal, adding last summer was noticeably better than years past.

"Last summer was incredibly better," he said, crediting the parking restrictions that kept late-night revelers away from his neighborhood. "The neighbors all raved about having the ability to actually sleep with their windows open at night on occasion."

___

Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sandy-helps-shore-town-reach-deal-bar-closings-170218691.html

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