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The global credit crisis has its indelible effect on the stock markets around the world as they are suffering terrible loses. The US housing market has collapsed as loans were handed out to people without income, jobs or assets. But when the interest rates are low the poor credit histories can relax as the banks have the option to repossess and make a profit on the property. But now when the market is heading towards a recession, it happens to be all about thriving in the depression market.

The bad mortgages are the prime reason on why the building societies are going kaput. The financial engineering and the globalization of the finance market has actually aggravated and spread the crisis. To counter this problem, the ‘collateral debt obligation’ was ideated, and this bond was thought to be a good investment option as the mortgages were backed by property. But as the mortgage saga happened to be faulty itself, the bond never yielded positive results and a whole lot of banks in the US, France and Germany have refused to value funds which are backed by these debt instruments.

This has led to a slump in the interest rates and if the stock market further slumps, it will chip away the possibility of any probable rise in the rates. So, naturally it is not a high time for the stock market shareholders. Every fall will make them cumulatively poorer. The fundamentals have always been the same, which is to buy low and sell high. Therefore, the investors must not panic and start selling their shares. Stock market investment on a particular medium should always be on a long term basis. But if the investor has touched the burning pie called the high risk investment, in the form of hedge funds, contracts for difference and spread betting, it is casualty guaranteed.

With the housing market grinding to a halt aided with the stock market slump, there will be a severe cut down on the expensive mortgages. Even if a low single digit growth in the housing prices can be achieved, that can be the ‘best’ possible accomplishment.

But with respect to the shares, it will be wrong to predict a total meltdown. According to the International Monetary Fund, this current crisis is manageable, since the world’s Central banks are squeezing in funds into the stock market. But the stock market cannot cease to be apprehensive.

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You’ve probably seen the ad slogans from many cash advance companies - “Get up to $500 before your next payday!” “Get up to $1,000 within minutes!” “No faxes or credit checks necessary!” Going beyond the slogans, obtaining a cash advance is often a very simple process.

The requirements for obtaining a cash advance are far less strict than with traditional financial institutions that provide consumer loans. For starters, your current credit score is insignificant to companies. These lenders don’t bother to check your credit since many lenders already assume you have bad credit.

If you have bad credit you’ll be considered to have a subprime credit rating. As a subprime borrower you’re only likely to be approved for credit with very high interest rates, which is exactly what a cash advance is.

If you need a cash advance, the company you deal with may use the TeleTrack credit reporting service to see if you have any outstanding debts from other subprime lenders. A credit check processed through TeleTrack will not be recorded by any of the three national credit bureaus and will not lower your existing credit score.

If you pass the TeleTrack credit check, qualifying for a cash advance is usually quite easy if you’re employed and have regular income. Many companies will also require you to earn a minimum income of around $1,000 a month and have a checking account in your name.

Traditionally, cash advance companies required you to mail or fax in a blank check, most recent bank statement and your most recent pay stub from your employer. To prevent fraud, many of these companies also required a copy of your driver’s license and telephone bill.

Today, with many companies going online, you can find out if you’re approved in a matter of minutes. Many lenders now contact your employer by phone to verify your employment information. Lenders are very discrete so you don’t have to worry about your employer finding out about your need.

Once approved, all you usually need to do is provide a valid checking account number as well as a routing number to have funds transferred into your account within an hour of approval. If your loan is approved after your bank’s business hours the funds should be transferred no later than the next business day.

If you’re ever in a desperate cash crunch, a cash advance can get you the money you need fast and easy. If you ever need to pay for sudden auto repairs or some other emergency you didn’t budget for you’ll definitely appreciate it.

John Campbell is the writer and editor of CashBuzz, A financial portal with the latest articles on money management and links to credit cards for bad credit as well as other loan products for the under-served credit market. This article may be reprinted on your Web site if the copyright, author information and active link are included.

Months after the auction rate securities (ARS) market collapsed following a broker-dealer pullout, investors across the United States are still waiting for liquidity to return to investments they once thought were safe places to park their funds. Though some issuers of municipal bonds have made efforts to refinance their debt, holders of student loan backed auction rate securities have only a 99% auction failure rate to look forward to.

The story of the ARS market collapse, like many others involving the finance industry, is one mired in conflict of interest.

For much of the ARS market’s history, broker-dealers like UBS, Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers had “shored up” their auctions by submitting bids on their own behalf. These bids ‘of last resort’ provided extra demand for auction rate stocks and bonds, ensuring that there was a buyer for all shares exposed for sale at auction. For years, this practice appeared immensely successful; the market thrived and investors were attracted by the liquidity of the ARS system.

But by late 2007, major investment firms and broker-dealers were well aware that the ARS market bubble was about to burst, as internal e-mails and reports to state governments show. This was a serious concern to broker-dealers, many of whom had accumulated billions of dollars in auction rate paper. These concerns were swiftly conveyed to several state governments, encouraging municipal borrowers to refinance their debt - a gesture not of broker-dealer goodwill, but of self-interested survival, as evidenced by the fact that such a warning was never given to the countless investors who also held ARS.

However, even such a move was not enough to satisfy executives at major financial institutions; they needed some way to quickly unload ARS that they knew were doomed. But who in their right mind would want to purchase the securities in the months before a market crash?

Faced with a conflict of interest between preserving immediate profits and ensuring the well-being of their customers, broker-dealers predictably chose to save their own money. Though they knew that auction rate securities were soon to become illiquid, they aggressively marketed the securities to unsuspecting investors as “safe, liquid, cash-equivalent” investments.

What investors didn’t know:

- The securities they were purchasing were held by broker-dealers who were eager to unload paper whose value and liquidity were due for a fall.

- The liquidity of the ARS market was dependent on the same broker-dealers who were trying hard to exit the market.

For more information about the ongoing auction rate securities crisis, visit the website of ARS lawyers at http://www.auctionratesecuritieslawsuit.com.

Joseph Devine

Eating out with friends and workmates can be truly enjoyable, but is it really necessary? How is it affecting your budget? Is it because of peer pressure? This should be taken seriously, since eating out can become a large monthly expense.

Everybody wants to fit in, and it’s important to do so in an office work environment. Since eating lunch with co-workers only costs a few dollars and helps establish friendships, why not?

This attitude is very prevalent in our culture, where eating out together is considered a great way to bond. Dining with friends is a classic way of having a great time for most people.

A good budget always has a section for groceries. Eating out when there are plenty of groceries at home is an extra, unnecessary expense that doesn’t help you stick to your budget.

Most people really like eating together with their workmates. But you can eat together without eating out. Make a plan to bring a packed lunch from home at least three days a week and explain how much money you’re saving while you enjoy each other’s company.

The times that you do eat out, you more than likely frequent the same few restaurants. You can plan out grocery trips, buying the ingredients for your favorite dishes and preparing them at home instead. Most jobs have a toaster oven or a microwave available for use in the break room. That way you can savor the same delicious food at a much lower price.

You could set up a lunch club with a group of co-workers, too. If you tend to eat lunch together anyway, assign each person a day to prepare lunch for the whole group. That way each person only has to make one lunch every week and everyone gets to eat an exciting variety of meals.

Since such a lunch club arrangement will mean spending more on groceries, you’ll need to adjust your budget slightly. As other people at work notice all the benefits of your lunch club, more people will no doubt join in. The more the merrier, since it will make things easier on everyone else in the club. Lunches don’t have to be a big deal. Even simple and inexpensive dishes can be delicious.

All these plans don’t mean that you can never go out to eat. Make dining out part of your budget and pay with cash so that you won’t be able to spend too much. If you eat lunch out, don’t allow yourself to again for dinner. Balancing your expenses this way will help you develop great financial habits.

If, despite your best efforts, your lunch time group wants to go out to eat more than you can with your current budget, don’t give into the peer pressure. If you explain the reason why in a nice way, they’ll respect your decision and remain your friends, not to mention that you will have gotten some great experience saving your money despite the influence of the crowd.

Do you get stressed out every month when your credit card bills come due, not sure how you’re going to cover all the payments? Learn how debt consolidation can help ease that stress and get you out of debt faster. Visit http://www.insidedebtconsolidation.com for more helpful information.

Back in 1997 major financial slump rocked number of countries in Asia, an event that became known as “Asian currency crisis”. Effected countries included Taiwan, Thailand South Korea and others. One of the memorable comments of the time came from one of leading Thai politicians. He blamed this whole mess on speculators, with George Soros being the main culprit. The remarks went so far as to public statement of “not being able to guarantee his safety if he visited Thailand”. Quite ominous.

The fallout in South Korea was brutal. The US Dollar has about doubled in value against the Won, with USD-KRW moving from just above 800 in early 1997, to 1600 by the year’s end. Local stock market suffered similar fate, as did all areas of economy. Perhaps most telling was an enormous spike in unemployment, as the jobless rate soared to almost double digits, with about 9 million people out of work.

This author observed the aftermath first hand, during one of his business trips to South Korea at that time. Collapse of once high flying conglomerate Daewoo under burden of debt. The sight of many construction projects suspended or stopped all over Seoul and Pusan. Daily failure of scores of small business. It was good time to visit South Korea, due to low prices, but very difficult period for residents.

The country has rebounded nicely since then and became one of Asia’s most dynamic economies. KRW strengthen considerably reaching level 900 against USD in 2007. The stock market has recorded double digit gains in four of the last five years, gaining 32% in last year alone. Korean companies like Samsung Electronics Co, and Hyundai Motors Co, have established themselves as some of the world’s leading corporations.

Things have changed in 2008. Challenges like high oil prices, inflation, external debt and account deficit have shaken investors confidence. While many countries have seen outflow of funds into the dollar, this process became especially painful in South Korea. The Won has become the Asia’s worst performing currency, loosing 20% to date. Stock market was no better, falling 25%, with farther sell off of equities expected.

These developments created widely spread comparisons to situation from 1997 and were quick to be picked by the press. International Monetary Fund disagrees with this assessment and expressed confidence by saying that South Korea is a mature and resilient economy with country’s fundamentals much stronger than a decade ago. Korean financial authorities, however, felt obligated to act by intervention on Wons behalf in the open market. This seemed to stop the bleeding for now.

What can be expected next? In all reality, 1997 type sell off is extremely unlikely. As South Korean economy is cooling down together with the rest of the world, Seoul might not be able to stop bleeding of the stock market but there is one thing they can do- keep intervening on behalf of its currency. Unlike before, there are huge foreign reserves, about 250 billion dollars worth of, and they can be used to support Won.

Very likely scenario, as of this writing, is continued fall of Korean equities, in tune with broader stock declines. The Won should also keep dropping, but in much more measured and steady pace. Central Bank has not mentioned what the comfortable level for USD-KRW is, but as we noticed over last few years, major trends are very powerful and can go through any “line in the sand’ drawn by anybody.

Current rate is around 1150. Even with expected interventions, Won can easily weaken to 1300 and maybe 1400, but far short of the previous low of 1600. Also, one shouldn’t look for a fast move, but rather steady depreciation, lasting a year or two. This is not a situation for active traders, but for those who prefer longer term positions current development might present good opportunity for farther selling of KRW.

Mike P. Kulej is a Chief Forex Strategist for Spectrum Forex LLC. He specializes in mechanical trading systems as explained on http://www.spectrumforex.com . Spectrum Forex LLC offers numerous services to individual traders. He also publishes trading blog http://www.fxmadness.com. With questions and comments e-mail him at kulej@spectrumforex.com

Becoming rich is really not a very difficult process. It may be a long process, but it is in no way rocket science. The difference between those are wealthy and those who aren’t is that the wealthy person decided to be rich by taking action. You can increase your income and reach your financial goals by deciding to take action.

How to Make More Money

Here are some examples of the ways rich people produce passive income streams to increase their net worth and accelerate their net worth.

1. Buy Real Estate: When you own a piece of property that can be rented for an amount that is greater than the mortgage, expenses, taxes and maintenance, you keep the profit. Not only do you make the difference between what you charge for rent and your expenses, but your renters are helping pay down your mortgage, which means free equity in the property for you.
2. Write a Book: Authors only have to write a book once to receive royalty checks forever. In some instances they may have to revise their book now and again, such as the case with textbooks, but 90 percent of the work is done when they publish the original book.
3. Invest for the Long Term: Rich people understand the power of compound interest and how it can double their money many times over. Invest early and often, and over time your money will double, and then double again. With just average stock market returns, you can double your money in 7 years.

As you can see, these are not very difficult concepts, but in order to take advantage of these strategies to become wealthy it requires you to take action.

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Eating out with friends and workmates can be truly enjoyable, but is it really necessary? How is it affecting your budget? Is it because of peer pressure? This should be taken seriously, since eating out can become a large monthly expense.

Everybody wants to fit in, and it’s important to do so in an office work environment. Since eating lunch with co-workers only costs a few dollars and helps establish friendships, why not?

This attitude is very prevalent in our culture, where eating out together is considered a great way to bond. Dining with friends is a classic way of having a great time for most people.

A good budget always has a section for groceries. Eating out when there are plenty of groceries at home is an extra, unnecessary expense that doesn’t help you stick to your budget.

Most people really like eating together with their workmates. But you can eat together without eating out. Make a plan to bring a packed lunch from home at least three days a week and explain how much money you’re saving while you enjoy each other’s company.

The times that you do eat out, you more than likely frequent the same few restaurants. You can plan out grocery trips, buying the ingredients for your favorite dishes and preparing them at home instead. Most jobs have a toaster oven or a microwave available for use in the break room. That way you can savor the same delicious food at a much lower price.

You could set up a lunch club with a group of co-workers, too. If you tend to eat lunch together anyway, assign each person a day to prepare lunch for the whole group. That way each person only has to make one lunch every week and everyone gets to eat an exciting variety of meals.

Since such a lunch club arrangement will mean spending more on groceries, you’ll need to adjust your budget slightly. As other people at work notice all the benefits of your lunch club, more people will no doubt join in. The more the merrier, since it will make things easier on everyone else in the club. Lunches don’t have to be a big deal. Even simple and inexpensive dishes can be delicious.

All these plans don’t mean that you can never go out to eat. Make dining out part of your budget and pay with cash so that you won’t be able to spend too much. If you eat lunch out, don’t allow yourself to again for dinner. Balancing your expenses this way will help you develop great financial habits.

If, despite your best efforts, your lunch time group wants to go out to eat more than you can with your current budget, don’t give into the peer pressure. If you explain the reason why in a nice way, they’ll respect your decision and remain your friends, not to mention that you will have gotten some great experience saving your money despite the influence of the crowd.

Do you get stressed out every month when your credit card bills come due, not sure how you’re going to cover all the payments? Learn how debt consolidation can help ease that stress and get you out of debt faster. Visit http://www.insidedebtconsolidation.com for more helpful information.

It’s amazing to me how many of us go through our working years without too much thought of how we’ll live when we retire. Thing is- we want to be able to stop working at some point and enjoy our retirement years, but the only way to do that is to be financially prepared.

How do you know how much money you will need to retire? Try the following steps:

1. Calculate the cost of your current living expenses. Statistics say that when we retire, we will need around 70% of the income we live on while working. This is probably not an accurate figure for most of us anymore, since we tend to live longer than we used to, retire earlier than we used to which means we tend to travel and have more entertainment expenses when retired, and then don’t forget that as people age more medication and visits to the doctor are typically required.

It’s not wise to depend on Social Security for those of us in are 20’s now, since there is no real guarantee the money will be there when we’re ready to retire, but right now people retiring can expect Social Security to replace 45% of income for middle-income American’s.

If your home will be paid off before you retire, you will not have to worry about paying a mortgage, but older homes tend to need more money for maintenance costs.

If you are able to pay off your debt before you retire, you will not have to make monthly payments for credit cards or loans, which can reduce your living expenses considerably from what they may be now.

2. Determine your desired retirement income. Some people are able to cut costs dramatically when they retire (as discussed above, paid off mortgages and becoming debt free can make a huge difference to the amount of income you need), while others plan additional expenses for their retired years that actually requires having more money during retirement than when working.

If you plan to travel to visit family or for vacations, your income will need to be able to support the traveling lifestyle. Many retired people look forward to traveling, and if this is your intention you’ll want to be sure your income is enough to make it happen.

Are you going to relocate? Some retired individuals or family move to another state or location with a lower cost of living and this can help you reduce your necessary living expenses. Plus, if you sell a house you might have a profit to add to your retirement fund, or to use towards the purchase or rental of a less expensive home.

When you are retired- will you have any sources of income? Some people work part time because they want to do something, others have passive sources of income through businesses they own or investments made. This will reduce the amount of money you need to save for retirement.

3. Remember to account for inflation. Life is more expensive with every passing year, so you have to consider that when figuring the amount needed for your retirement years. For example, the amount you can live on comfortably in your first year of retirement may be tight during the fifth year and not enough during your tenth year! Experts say to assume an inflation rate of 3%.

4. Try to predict the number of years you will be retired. How old do you want to be when you retire? Ok, now how old will you realistically be when you retire? (These two numbers are usually very different!) Then think about how many years you will live beyond your retirement day. You can use life expectancy calculators or you could just guess, but you need to have an estimate of years in order to estimate the amount of money you need for retirement.

5. Plan, budget, figure it out. What you can do is add up the money you’ll need each year of retirement, accounting for inflation and your lifestyle, and then add up the money for each of the years you’ll be retired. Then, save. Most people find their retirement number to be out of reach for regular savings, so you’ll probably want to use investment strategies to help you reach your number. A financial advisor can be extremely helpful with this. It’s recommended that you set aside 15% of your gross annual income for retirement.

CNN Money offers an interactive retirement calculator you can use to help figure out costs.

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Orderly conditions prevailed 4x software financial markets during 2001-02 with brief periods of uncertainty associated with extraordinary events in September and December 2001. Barring these episodes, the call money market remained stable and generally range-bound within the informal reporeverse repo corridor. The foreign exchange market experienced comfortable supply conditions. Yields fell across all maturities in the government securities market, accompanied by a significant rise in turnover.

Orderly market conditions were engendered by the active management of liquidity in the money, foreign exchange and gilt markets. The Reserve Bank absorbed sizeable liquidity on a continuous basis through repos. Foreign exchange purchases were effected to offset strong capital inflows and open market sales of government securities were employed on some occasions to absorb excess liquidity.

Market reactions to the September 11, 2001 event were calmed by injections of liquidity through reverse repos, a series of open market purchases of government securities to support the gilt market and foreign exchange sales. The development of financial markets in terms of building up the institutional and technological infrastructure and fine-tuning of market microstructure was continued apace with the changing context of the regulatory function.

The Negotiated Dealing System (NDS) was operationalised with effect from February 15, 2002 with 41 participants. The NDS provides on-line electronic bidding facility in the primary auctions of Central/State Government securities and OMO/LAF auctions. It enables screen-based electronic dealing and reporting of transactions in money market instruments, secondary market transactions in government securities and facilitates dissemination of information on trades with the minimal time lag. It also permits “paperless” settlement of transactions in government securities with electronic connectivity to the Clearing Corporation ofIndia Limited (CCIL) and the delivery versus payment (DVP) settlement system at the Public Debt Office.

As on August 5, 2002, 138 SGL account holders had joined the NDS. On an average, 526 deals were reported daily on NDS, of which 473 deals for Rs.11,668 crore were ready for settlement during the quarter ended June 2002. These deals comprised money market deals, outright government securities trades and repo transactions among market participants. The settlement of government securities transactions through the CCIL constituted 91.3 per cent of total government securities trades dealt/reported on the NDS.

The CCIL also commenced its operations from February 15, 2002 in clearing and settlement of transactions in government securities. Acting as a central counterparty through novation, the CCIL provides guaranteed settlement and has in place 4x management systems to limit settlement risk. It operates a settlement guarantee fund (SGF) made up of contributions from its members and backed by lines of credit from commercial banks. All repo transactions have to be necessarily put through the CCIL while all outright transactions up to Rs.20 crore have to be settled through the CCIL. The option to settle outright transactions in government securities above the facevalue of Rs.20 crore either directly with the Reserve Bank or through the CCIL is available to NDS members.

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It is hard to believe, that events in a small country with a population of just 320,000 people could have world wide effect. Flooded with a deluge of information during first 10 days of October, most traders probably didn’t even register what was happening in Iceland. Yet it might have been there, according to some market watchers, where the current financial turmoil began.

Over last few years Icelandic Krona has been very high yielding currency, paying more than 15%. For this reason, it has been popular choice in the “carry” play enjoyed by many traders against mainly Japanese Yen an Swiss Franc. This pushed the ISK to lofty levels, which, in turn, helped fuel the expansion of Icelandic financial sector, especially its banks. The nations three banks established branches abroad, mainly in UK and Europe. Business flourished.

During the “unwind of carry trade” in summer last year, Krona experienced a sell off, which was seen, at the time, as temporary. However things got a lot worse earlier this year, during Bear Stern’s bailout. ISK’s slide continued and was much steeper than any other currency. With financial sector being disproportionately large relative to country’s economy, Iceland started to suffer. In fact, authorities launched an investigation into, what was seen as, hedge fund attack.

The nations three banks, Glitnir, Landsbanki and Kaupthing Bank, found it increasingly difficult to refinance debt over last two months as credit crunch shook the world. One by one banks have become insolvent and had to taken over by the Finance Ministry. Krona plummeted and the country became unable to meet banks obligation, leaving behind shocked investors and depositors. That include hundreds of thousands of people who have accounts in Icelandic banks abroad operations.

During the week of October the 10th, as financial markets were in turmoil world wide, ISK came under even more strain. Losses reached 30-40% against major currencies in just few days. The latest publicly available quote was EUR-ISK at 304, which is completely of the chart. By Friday even central banks stopped making market for Krona and trading has stopped. For all practical purposes this leaves Iceland bankrupt as a nation, first sovereign state to fall victim to this crisis.

In perhaps the most telling example of how far the troubles progressed, United Kingdom threatened legal action against Iceland as a country. The aim of such step is to recover money on UK’s citizens, which is stranded in failed banks. Great Britain could invoke anti terrorism laws in an effort to regain the funds. Such move would leave the small nation isolated in more than geographical sense.

Thankfully, probability of such drastic, panic driven measures is low. It is expected that the government of Iceland will ask International Monetary Fund for assistance. Organization has the funds to help, especially since, in global terms, the sums involved are manageable. In order to qualify for IMS intervention, country would have to accept some harsh terms and conditions. One of them might be very difficult to come to terms with, the future of Krona.

Some people argue that in order to avoid future problems of this magnitude, Iceland should apply for inclusion into European Union and adopt Euro. Since most of laws and regulations of the island nation are already compatible with EU, this would be a relatively painless process. Another option is to peg Krona to Euro. In that case, Iceland would also hand over control of monetary policy, including the setting of interest rates, to the European Central Bank.

Both of these options will be a tough choice for independent minded Iceland. Both of them would also effectively put an end to a freely floating currency. It seems, as of this writing, that Krona’s days are numbered. One less choice for Forex traders, even though little known and understood.

Mike P. Kulej is a Chief Forex Strategist for Spectrum Forex LLC. He specializes in mechanical trading systems as explained on http://www.spectrumforex.com. Spectrum Forex LLC offers numerous services to individual traders. He also publishes trading blog http://www.fxmadness.com. With questions and comments e-mail him at kulej@spectrumforex.com.