Archive for March, 2009
Home loans low, downsizing options are slim.
Posted by: | CommentsWe have been watching the stock market plummet, the banks fail and reduce and eliminate credit lines, home prices drop with no buyers and no loans. Our credit scores were affected by the changes in reduction of credit card and bank lines putting us over the 50% threshold that kept our scores lower. Now, we have more and more unemployed and those with jobs are facing salary reductions. How does one downsize to stay within their means? It is nearly if not impossible. The future we and our neighbors face under the current climate is grim.
In the last 5 years if you qualified for a home loan you could afford you probably used a 401K or savings as liquidable assets to requalify for a new loan even if you could sell your current property (at a loss) your investment portfolio is probably substantially lower, your income may be lower, you have less capital from a fire sale to reinvest in a new home. This option of selling your current home and downsizing to a less expensive one is also nearly impossible.
The options to recover and be responsible and live within your means just got a whole lot more difficult. So how much should we celebrate the bank deal the treasury just made? I don’t think we should pop open the champaign just yet.
Detached Leadership and the Result
Posted by: | CommentsThe recent crisis across the globe is a direct result of the detached leadership in government and corporations alike. Many of our chosen leaders live in a bubble and their connection to the people they govern has been lost somewhere in the midst of their desires to grow and become larger than life. Life requires connection and knowing yourself and the people you govern is key to success. We can not recover from the crisis we are faced with currently without a reconnection between the parties from the top down.
It is not just the financial wedge of the top with the bottom but also the personal and professional detachment that has caused resentment and a firm break between the two. Many employees of companies are not known by name or even a face by those they work for and in goverment many of our leaders rarley know more than a few of those they represent. This phenomenon of detachment and the resentments that have ensued because of the poor results of the representation of the leadership must change for their to be a recovery.
We must make an effort to reconnect and appreciate the contributions of all those around us from our neighborhoods to our companies. I encourage the boards and leadership to take the time to meet and greet the people around them and to acknowldge their input and to slow down enough to listen to what they have to say. We must as a community encourage this reconnection and begin the growth process from the beginning all over again.
WWW 20th birthday – Internet Profiling Concerns
Posted by: | CommentsToday is the 20th aniversary of the World Wide Web. One of the founders Tim Berners-Lee reinforced a common concern amoung security and privacy activists about the amount of “snooping” on the net. Google will be launching it’s new “interest based” advertising program among it’s network which includes the popular Youtube site.
Soon we will probably be subjected to embedded commercials and advertising just like we do on tv when we watch a online video. I guess the most important thing is that we have accepted the Term of Service across many communities and sites that we use without question and in many of them this collection of our information and thier ability to use it was granted.
My concerns lie in my researching because if those famous programmers begin writing search algorythems that match what I am searching for with content from the highest paying advertiser that the results could be less or more relevant – we just don’t know yet. To me this is like wanting to shop at Neiman Marcus and asking my husband to drive me and he keeps dropping me off at Target. The potential influence of the search engines could be huge in the online shopping market.
Abundance of Online and Automated Phone Solicitor Scams
Posted by: | CommentsAn abundance of new scams have emerged most claiming that with a fee these scammers will help you get some of the stimulus money from the recently passed bill.
Scam artists are really crawling out of the woodwork everywhere you turn – be it work-at-home scams, tax scams, mortgage fraud or foreclosure scams.
You really need to be vigilant now.
If you have been contacted by a scam artist, make sure you file a complaint.
Here’s where you should go: The Federal Trade Commission at FTC.gov; the Federal Bureau of Investigation at IC3.gov and the Better Business Bureau at BBB.org.
