Business and Finance Guide

Posted on Wednesday, 27th July 2011 by Jana Sanders

Generating the most income in the safest fashion from a nest egg is the holy grail of retirement income planning. You obviously want your dollars to stretch as far as possible without taking on much risk.
The proper mix of stocks and bonds and cash is the mix that allows you and your parents to sleep at night. That may sound trite, but it is the only true gauge that works. Mom and Dad can look at all the charts and all the probabilities, but if at the end of the day the mix of assets has them paranoid that a market correction will wipe them out or leave them unable to afford their cost of living, then it is clearly the wrong mix. Thus, telling you what an appropriate mix might be for your parent is largely impossible. Read more…

Tags: Income, Retirement Income
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Posted on Wednesday, 27th July 2011 by Jana Sanders

Our view: Buy

Share price: 335.6p (+3.1p)

The last time we looked at Morgan Crucible, we decided to hold, reasoning that while the company boasted strong prospects, the shares, though not forbiddingly pricey, had already woken up to the growth story.

Since then, the industrial materials group, which serves a variety of markets, including energy, has continued to show strength. Yesterday’s half-yearly results, for example, showed an 11.8 per cent rise in revenues against the same period last year. In constant currency terms, the hike was 14 per cent.

At the same time, the underlying operating profit margin increased to nearly 13 per cent from under 10 per cent in the first half of 2010. Underlying pre-tax profits saw particularly stellar growth, surging by more than 66 per cent.

Read more…

Tags: Morgan, Morgan Deserves
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Posted on Tuesday, 26th July 2011 by Charlotte W

Home buyers who took out mortgage insurance rather than opting for a second “piggyback” mortgage prior to the downturn are turning out to be far less likely to default on their mortgages, a new study reports.

Buyers who put down less than a 20 percent down payment and opted for a second mortgage in lieu of mortgage insurance are defaulting at rates 21 percent higher than those who opted for mortgage insurance on comparable loans. The study, conducted by Promontory Financial Group, looked at 5.7 million mortgages originated between 2003 and 2007.   Second or “piggyback” mortgages were a popular option prior to the housing crash for home buyers who could not come up with a 20 percent down payment when buying a home. They enabled borrowers to take out a second mortgage to cover part or all of the down payment on their new home. This all Read more…

Tags: Default, Linked Default
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Posted on Tuesday, 26th July 2011 by Charlotte W

Introductory statement with Q&A

Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I are very pleased to welcome you to our press conference today. We will now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the Governing Council, which was also attended by Commissioner Almunia.

On the basis of its regular economic and monetary analyses, the Governing Council decided to leave the key ECB interest rates unchanged. The current rates remain appropriate. The incoming information and analyses that have become available since our meeting in early October have confirmed our expectations. While annual HICP inflation was -0.1% in October, according to Eurostat’s flash estimate, it is expected to turn positive again in the coming months and to remain at moderately positive rates over the policy-relevant horizon. At Read more…

Tags: President, President Ecb
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Posted on Monday, 25th July 2011 by Jana Sanders

Story first appeared on the Associated Press.
Arizona launched a fundraising website Wednesday to build fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border, a newly authorized project that supporters said is needed to close gaps exploited by smugglers and illegal immigrants.
State Sen. Steve Smith, a first-term Republican who sponsored the legislation authorizing the fence project felt Arizona once again has to do the job the federal government isn’t.
Smith, Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, state Attorney General Tom Horne, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and other supporters gathered Wednesday evening in a restaurant in Smith’s legislative district to kick off the fundraising campaign.
The public will back the effort, Pearce predicted.
Pearce commented that he knows where America stands and that we have a nation at risk. Read more…

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