Chairman Ben Bernanke's comments at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. During that speech, Bernanke weighed in on "mark to market" accounting, saying the following:
"The ongoing move by those who set accounting standards toward requirements for improved disclosure and greater transparency is a positive development that deserves full support. However, determining appropriate valuation methods for illiquid or idiosyncratic assets can be very difficult, to put it mildly. Similarly, there is considerable uncertainty regarding the appropriate levels of loan loss reserves over the cycle.
"As a result, further review of accounting standards governing valuation and loss provisioning would be useful, and might result in modifications to the accounting rules that reduce their procyclical effects without compromising the goals of disclosure and transparency. Indeed, work is underway on these issues through the Financial Stability Forum, and the results of that work may prove useful for U.S. policymakers."
The problem with the banks isn't all the bad securities and loans they're loaded up with. The problem is that the industry doesn't want to acknowledge that today's prices are the market prices. The valuations are not correct; they are not hitting the bids. They do not want to admit reality. And, there are not checks and balances in place to MAKE reality the touchstone for determining valuation.
If you think that financial institutions have no clout, read about the mind twisting efforts engendered by throwing financial money to lobbyists in order to get their way.
"Sold Out: How Wall Street and Washington Betrayed America," a report released last week by the nonprofit citizen's group Essential Information and the Consumer Education Foundation finds that "from 1998-2008, Wall Street investment firms, commercial banks, hedge funds, real estate companies and insurance conglomerates made $1.7 billion in political contributions and spent another $3.4 billion on lobbyists, a financial juggernaut aimed at undercutting federal regulation."
Discounted business checks are not the legend of your financial institution are neighborhood bank. Rather they are the product of searching online for commercial check printers that deal with the public.
At BusinessChecksHome.com we offer a huge selection of business checks and supplies at Discount. You'll find discount business checks at 50% off the retail price you would pay at your bank.
By ordering direct, you'll save on middleman markup charges plus have access to an entire range of business check products at reduced prices as a result of dealing direct.
Found this interesting bit of news:
A point of view … Barbara Walters of Television's 20/20 did a story on gender roles in Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.
She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind their husbands. From Miss Walters' vantage point, despite the overthrow of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even further back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old custom.
Miss Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, 'Why do you now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to change?'
The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes, and without hesitation said,
'Land Mines.'
Moral of the story is .. (no matter where you go) .. BEHIND EVERY MAN, THERE'S A SMART WOMAN!
There is a very, very tall coconut tree and there are 4 animals,
a Lion, a Chimpanzee, a Giraffe, and a Squirrel, who pass by.
They decide to compete to see who is the fastest to get a banana off the tree.
Who do you guess will win?
Your answer will reflect your personality.
So think carefully . .. Try and answer within 30 seconds
Got your answer?
Now scroll down to see the analysis.
If your answer is:
Lion = you're dull.
Chimpanzee = you're a moron.
Giraffe = you're a complete idiot.
Squirrel = you're just hopelessly stupid.
A COCONUT TREE DOESN'T HAVE BANANAS.
This is a cheap check.
Obviously you're stressed and overworked.
You should take some time off and relax!
Try again next year.
With food prices spiking, gas costs rising and cost increases getting passed on to all areas of production, the Federal Reserve cuts interest rates.
The idea behind this move was to stimulate economic growth by making loans less expensive. However, checking the increase in the cost of foods and gasoline because of the already devalued dollar, seems that if real estate sales don’t pick up soon, we will have only a continued slowdown in consumer spending.
When consumers reduce their spending, capital expenditures usually reduce as well. Inflation-adjusted consumer spending slowed to an annualized rate of only 1 percent during the first quarter, versus 2.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2007, while gross private domestic investments declined 4.7 percent.
