The thing that impressed me the most was her business card. Job Title = Goddess of Revenue. Love it.

So it's a bit hard to read above, but being a 'Goddess of Revenue' says so much. The first thing it says is that Kim 'gets it'. It says she knows that fun is important, but revenue is vital.

Then on the flipside is more useful stuff.

The kind of stuff which just maybe gives her a permanent place in someones wallet or purse. A good chunk of simple, yet useful information.

It'll be handy next time in Sydney on business.... and her simple business card made me remember Kim, it even got her a story on this here blog.

If we are going to the trouble of printing business cards - we should make it worth remembering.

This seems to be the case especially around Memorial Day and Columbus Day. I think their sensors are in the deep shade somewhere. I've seen variations of 10 - 15 degrees pretty regularly in the spring and fall on weather.com, but I've also seen it into the 20s. Memorial Day 2007 was amazingly warm -- mid 80s, but weather.com was claiming low 60s.

I tell everyone I know who is coming to town to bring clothes for about 10 degrees warmer than they'd expect. We had family here this weekend who thanked me over and over for the heads up. They were in shorts and t shirts and sandals the entire weekend during daytime hours.

I don't know if it's possible for someone from the Chamber of Commerce to contact weather.com, but if I were a tourist and saw these temps, it might make me go somewhere else. We shouldn't miss out on tourists because of a severe inaccuracy!

Sent to me by Jason Miller from Thomas Paine’s Corner. Thanks, Jason.

by Kéllia Ramares
10/11/08

Simulposted with Speaking Truth to Power

[Truth To Power is delighted to publish--and Thomas Paine's Corner is delighted to be invited to simulpost--the first in an exclusive series analyzing Barack Obama and his platform. Kellia Ramares has done her homework and documents that an Obama administration, backed by the same corporatocracy that is presiding over the largest wealth transfer in the history of the world, has no investment in change beyond rhetoric and ostensible extreme makeovers.--Editors]

It is often said that you are known by the company you keep. If that is true, then progressive voters should familiarize themselves with at least some of Sen. Barack Obama’s advisers and fundraisers, and by this I don’t mean Bill Ayers and Rev. Jeremiah Wright. I mean the real movers and shakers who are the answer to the question: “How does a young, black, first term Senator rise so quickly in politics so as to be standing at the threshold of the White House?” You will see that those who made it possible are not Weather Underground, or vociferous ministers, but are the people who will insure that Barack Obama will not make any fundamental changes to the way the United States does its business - here or abroad.

The Religion of the Free Market

The Democratic presidential candidate’s chief economic advisor is Austan Goolsbee of the University of Chicago, an economist described by author Naomi Klein as “on the left side of a spectrum that stops at the center-right.”1 Goolsbee is very much a home town pick, and not merely because he and Obama both live in Chicago. Obama taught at the law school of the University of Chicago for a decade, and, as Klein says, “is thoroughly embedded in the mind set known as the Chicago School.”2 The Chicago School’s long time “Headmaster” was the late Nobel Prize-winning monetarist Milton Friedman, who made a secular religion of “the free market.” According to Klein, Goolsbee qualifies as a leftist in this group because he acknowledges inequality as a problem. But his answer to it is more education.3 Sound familiar? During his years in the White House, Bill Clinton emphasized retraining for the people who were losing their manufacturing jobs to “downsizing.” But, besides the difficulties inherent in retraining someone who had spent a decade or more on an assembly line to be a computer programmer, (and helping him or her maintain a home and family during the process), there was the not-so-little matter of technical jobs also being outsourced to the other side of the world, a problem that has been growing since the Clinton Administration, as the United States loses the ability to make anything except bombs, debts, and rich executives.

Goolsbee got into a bit of PR trouble earlier this year for comments to officials at the Canadian consulate in Chicago that a President Obama would not be as anxious to renegotiate NAFTA as Candidate Obama appeared to be.4 Naturally, the press was alleged to have gotten it wrong, just as it has gotten the exit polls wrong in the last two elections.

But the Associated Press obtained a memorandum of the meeting written by Joseph De Mora, a political and economic affairs consular officer. Part of it said:

Goolsbee candidly acknowledged the protectionist sentiment that has emerged, particularly in the Midwest, during the primary campaign. [H]e cautioned that this messaging should not be taken out of context and should be viewed as more about political - positioning than a clear articulation of policy p1ans. He also suggested that of the Democratic candidates, Obama has been the least protectionist (unintelligible).5

On NAFTA, Goolsbee suggested that Obama is less about fundamentally changing the agreement and more in favor of strenghtening/clarifying language on labor mobility and environment, and trying to establish these as more “core” principles of the agreement.6

But the people of Ohio, before whom Obama harshly criticized NAFTA during the primaries7, are not interested in labor mobility. They want good jobs in Ohio. What they are getting is more of the same insensitive and nonsensical message that both Democrats and Republicans gave them in 2004: Outsourcing your job is good for the American economy.

Dr. Francis A. Boyle, Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, received his undergraduate education at the University of Chicago, where Obama taught at the law school and Goolsbee is a member of the economics department. Boyle rails against that institution regularly. He managed to stick to his liberal principles there and at Harvard University, where he received a law degree and a PhD. in political science. Boyle had this to say about the University of Chicago’s political science and economics departments, and law school in a December, 2005 article:

“The University of Chicago routinely trained me and innumerable other students to become ruthless and unprincipled Machiavellians. That is precisely why so many neophyte Neo-Con students gravitated toward the University of Chicago or towards Chicago Alumni at other universities. … Integrally related to and overlapping with the Feddies [lawyers who are members of the ultraconservative Federalist Society] are members of the University of Chicago “School” of Law-and-Kick-Them-in-the-Groin Economics, which in turn was founded on the Market Fundamentalism of Milton Friedman….This Chicago gang of academic con-artists and charlatans are proponents of the Nazi Doctrine of “useless eaters.” Pursuant to Friedman’s philosophy of Market Fundamentalism, the privatization of Iraq and its oil industry [is] already underway for the primary benefit of the U.S. energy companies….”8

pic

Milton Friedman pictured here with the Reagans. Who in this photo was the biggest enemy to the working class and poor in the US and throughout the world? Tough to determine.

Naomi Klein’s description of Obama’s economic philosophy bears repeating: he “is thoroughly embedded in the mind set known as the Chicago School.”9

Obama: Property of the Billionaires

Anyone still harboring any fantasies at this late date of “Change you can believe in” from an Obama Administration needs to understand just how badly compromised he is. And that understanding begins with learning about his national campaign chair, Penny Pritzker. She’s the one behind his raising a record $500 million-that’s half a billion-dollars. (My thoughts on what we could do with that kind of money besides spending it on political campaigns will have to wait for another day).

Penny Pritzker runs Classic Residence by Hyatt, a chain of retirement homes, and The Parking Spot, an airport shuttle service. She’s president of Pritzker Realty Group and chairwoman of TransUnion LLC, a credit checking company. She’s a director of Global Hyatt Corp., which owns or operates more than 365 hotels in 44 countries.10

All told, the Pritzker empire is worth as much as $40 billion, a person familiar with the situation estimates.11

Much has been revealed by the KPFA-FM’s investigative news magazine Flashpoints. (Flashpoints in the the public affairs department. This author works for KPFA’s news department). On programs on February 20, 2008 and September 30, 2008,12 Flashpoints focused on Pritzker’s role in the the sub-prime crisis that has triggered this nation’s and now the world’s financial industry meltdown. Bank fraud whistleblower Timothy J. Anderson appeared on both shows to give details of Pritzker’s schemes.

Pritzker, through Superior Bank FSB of Hinsdale Illinois, of which she was owner and chair of the board, was among the first to securitize sub-prime mortgages. Superior was closed by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) in late 2001and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was named Receiver in early 2002. Flashpoints host Dennis Bernstein relayed what Anderson told him in February in an article for Consortium News:

“The [sub-prime] financial engineering that created the Wall Street meltdown was developed by the Pritzkers and Ernst and Young, working with Merrill Lynch to sell bonds securitized by sub-prime mortgages.

“The sub-prime mortgages, were provided to Merrill Lynch, by a nation-wide Pritzker origination system, using Superior as the cash cow, with many millions in FDIC insured deposits. Superior’s owners were to sub-prime lending, what Michael Milken was to junk bonds.”13

Also in February, Earl Offari Hutchinson described the conflict between Obama’s speeches against subprime profiteers and his campaign’s association with Pritzker in an article for the Huffington Post:

“Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama says he’ll crack down on fraudulent sub-prime lenders. If he really means it he can start by firing his campaign finance chair, Penny Pritzker. Before taking over Obama’s campaign finances, she headed up the borderline shady and failed Superior Bank. It collapsed in 2002. The bank’s sordid story and its abominable role in fueling the sub-prime crisis are well known and documented. It engaged in deceptive and faulty lending, questionable accounting practices, and charged hidden fees. It did it with the sleepy-eyed see-no-evil oversight of federal. It made thousands of dubious loans to mostly poor, strapped homeowners. A disproportionate number of them were minority.

“Obama’s home state, Illinois, ranked near the top of thee states in the percentage of sub-prime mortgages. Nearly 15 percent of home loans were sub-prime according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. But that only tells part of the tale. According to the Woodstock Institute, a Chicago non-profit that studies housing issues, the sub-prime fall-out was far higher in the predominantly black and Latino neighborhoods of South and Southwest Chicago.

“The predictable happened when many of those lost their homes. When the bank collapsed Pritzker and bank officials skipped away with their profits and reputations intact.”14

On September 30th, Tim Anderson opined to Flashpoints that Pritzker raised the half a billion dollars for Obama because she “wants a seat at the table. She doesn’t want to be just a fundraiser.”15

She got it. When Obama met with his economic advisers on July 28 in Washington, Pritzker participated along with Warren Buffett, Robert Rubin, chairman of Citigroup Inc.’s executive committee, and Paul Volcker, 80, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.16

Speaking of seats, the Obama family lives on the southside of Chicago. So they have had a ringside seat to the devastation caused by the subprime mortgage debacle. Yet Obama says of Pritzker: “She and I share certain core values about how to run organizations, and hopefully that will inform how we manage the government.”17

How “we” manage the government? Will this subprime queen become the next Secretary of the Treasury?

That ain’t all…

Pritzker is not the only ultra-rich Obama backer. Another is George Soros, the wallet behind the faux-progressive MoveOn.org, which called for the censure, but not impeachment, of George W. Bush. Obama has been the beneficiary of Soro’s soft money since his days in the Illinois state senate.18

The billionaire currency speculator’s hedge fund may have lost at least $120 million on its stake in Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., mostly acquired in the second quarter, as the investment bank suffered its worst financial result. Soros Fund Management LLC, which manages $20 billion, purchased 9.47 million shares, or about 1.4% of New York-based Lehman, between March 31 and June 30, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.19

Do you think that maybe Sen. Obama might have an interest in seeing that Mr. Soros can recoup those losses?

Both Obama and Sen. John “Keating Five” McCain, the nominal opponent in this fake two-headed corporate party “election,” enjoy huge financial support from Wall Street. Obama has received at least $1.5 million collected by three senior executives at Lehman Brothers.20

With support of the ultra rich such as Pritzker and Soros as well as others at the top of the investor class, is it any wonder Obama and McCain, were joined at the hip on the necessity of a Wall Street bailout? They even issued a joint statement as Congress negotiated the first version of the bailout.

“Now is a time to come together - Democrats and Republicans - in a spirit of cooperation for the sake of the American people. The plan that has been submitted to Congress by the Bush Administration is flawed, but the effort to protect the American economy must not fail.”21

After the bailout finally passed ($150 billion more costly and about 300 pages more complicated than the original bill), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) told writer Chris Hedges in a phone interview:

“We face a perfect financial storm. The elements are the deficit spending for the war of 3 to 4 trillion dollars, the trillion and more tax cuts, the war itself and the lack of serious investment in the country. We are being hollowed out. We are going to see more unemployment and more people losing their homes. With $700 billion we could have made a real investment in the country, in jobs, in infrastructure and in homes. Instead, we got robbed.”22

Apparently, the American economy Obama wants to protect is the financial interests of the Wall Streeters who bankroll his presidential campaign.

Kéllia Ramares is a journalist living in Oakland, CA. She aggregates news stories and commentaries at a channel called freedomnews at Livevideo.com. Her email address is ByrnesBlogger1@gmail.

1. Naomi Klein, “Obama’s Chicago Boys,” The Nation, June 12, 2008. http://thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein/ This article appeared in print in the June 30, 2008 edition of the nation.

2. http://thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein/

3. http://thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein/

4. Michael Luo, “Memo Gives Canada’s Account of Obama Campaign’s Meetings on NAFTA,” New York Times, March 4, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html

5. http://www.nytimes.com/images/promos/politics/blog/20070303canmemo.pdf

6. http://www.nytimes.com/images/promos/politics/blog/20070303canmemo.pdf

7. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html

8. Francis A. Boyle, Neo-Cons, Fundies, Feddies and Con-Artists, December 17, 2005.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=1493

9. http://thenation.com/doc/20080630/klein/

10. John Lippert, “The Power of Penny Pritzker,” Bloomberg Markets, October 2008.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_1008_story1.html

11. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_1008_story1.html

12. Podcasts of these shows may be obtained at http://kpfa.org or http://flashpoints.net

13. Dennis Bernstein, “Obama’s Sub-prime conflict,” Consortium News, February 28, 2008,

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/022708a.html

14. Earl Offari Hutchinson, “If Obama’s For Real on the Sub-Prime Crisis, He’ll Dump His Campaign Finance Chair,” Huffington Post, February 29, 2008.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/if-obamas-for-real-on-th_b_89159.html

15. Flashpoints, KPFA-FM, September 30, 2008. Podcast is available at http://kpfa.org/

16. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_1008_story1.html

17. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/marketsmag/mm_1008_story1.html

18. Ed Hamler, “George Soros buys the Democratic Nomination; Obama Borrows It,” EIR, July 4, 2008.

http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2008/2008_20-29/2008-27/pdf/78-79_3526.pdf

19. Bloomberg News, “Soros Fund Loss on Lehman May be $120M,” Sept 11, 2008, as reprinted in the NY Sun

http://www.nysun.com/business/soros-fund-loss-on-lehman-may-be-120m/85619/

20. Peter Yost, Associated Press, “Wall Street among biggest donors to McCain, Obama,” Sept. 18, 2008 as reprinted in SunSentinel.com, Nation/World section on Oct 5, 2008.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sfl-flacandidates0918sbsep18,0,7899171.story

21. Joint McCain Obama statement, http://thepage.time.com/joint-mccain-obama-statement/

22. Chris Hedges, “Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats Betrayal,” TruthDig.com, Oct 5, 2005. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081006_dennis_kucinich_on_the_democrats_bailout_betrayal

see

Chomsky: If I were in a swing state, I’d vote for Obama

Noam Chomsky: The United States Has Essentially a One-Party System

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse

McCain-John

Palin-Sarah

Obama-Barack

Biden-Joe

Roger Sterling (John Slattery) to Duck Phillips (Mark Moses):
"Everyone thinks you're a fine fella, but if I were you, I'd go out there and make rain."

"We're not talking Holdens or Fords here, we're talking Aston Martins, we're talking Ferraris," he told AFP. "I've never seen it like this before."

As anxiety grips world financial markets and stock prices crash, the Sydney-based dealer is seeing increasing numbers of young executives come into his showroom, hoping to offload their near-new prestige autos.

"These blokes have probably lost a lot of money in shares, their bonuses come on shares. Their expenses are through the roof," Elkordi said.

"A lot of them are upfront. I'm not saying they can't make the repayments and they are going to get repossessed, it's just they have to get rid of that debt."

Indications are that the mood will also infect Asia, a significant market for luxury cars, as the full impact of the financial turmoil stemming from the United States is felt.

"I would say it (the crisis) has not reached Asia... as it has reached America or Europe, but it will," a figure in the regional luxury car industry, who asked not to be named, told AFP in Singapore.

"The question is: will it be as big here?"

Luxury makes have been targeting Chinese customers both in Hong Kong and mainland China over the past few years with spectacular results, but there are signs the crisis is beginning to bite.

Hong Kong has more Rolls-Royce cars per capita than anywhere else in the world, but the super-rich have stayed away in the past few weeks, a period which is normally busy for the famous marque.

"Our customers aren't so much directly affected by the economic downturn but they are putting on hold luxury items like seven-million-Hong-Kong-dollar (900,000-US-dollar) cars," Leon Roy, the general manager of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Hong Kong, told the South China Morning Post.

However, a spokesman for Ferrari in the Asia-Pacific region said they expected sales growth to remain strong in China.

"As our president said at the launch of the California model recently, ours is a niche brand and if you are the type of person who can afford to wait 10-15 months for a car, you can still afford it," the spokesman told AFP.

He said they expected some of the long waiting lists for the cars to be trimmed during the crisis, but do not see sales dipping.

Audi Singapore managing director Reinhold Carl, however, told the Straits Times: "2009 will be a tough year for the car industry and the speed of growth for Audi in Singapore will be affected somewhat."

William Choo, commercial director for Lexus at Borneo Motors in Singapore, was quoted as saying buyers might switch to smaller, cheaper models next year.

But Simon Rock, managing director of BMW agent Performance Motors, said: "We expect to sell more cars on the whole next year."

Sydney's Elkordi said cars are more easily dispensed with than other items and sellers are willing to give them up despite the likelihood of loss.

In the last month he has taken on six or seven cars from sellers in this situation and turned away three or four more, he said.

"You can imagine a gentleman has bought a new Ferrari at 507,000 (335,320 US). If he was to sell that car to me today, I would be paying probably 370,000 to 380,000 for that car if it's 12 months old, only because... who am I going to sell them to? That's the problem.

"That's why at the moment, I've got over five million dollars sitting on the floor and we're not selling any cars of our own."

The dealer, who has worked the market for 17 years, said the credit crunch had crippled the luxury sector -- from property to cars and boats -- and he was now catering to more people buying cars for 150,000 dollars rather than the 250,000 dollars of a year ago.

Sydney's principal Ferrari and Maserati dealer Tony Graziani agreed it was now a "buyer's market" for prestige autos but said he had received no cancelled orders for his luxury Italian motors.

Speaking from a showroom floor filled with gleaming cars, Graziani said the mood of the times was uncertainty and some buyers admitted the situation was very different from two years ago.

"We're not happy, we would like it not to happen," he said of the deepening global financial crisis. "But overall we're not too bad."

Andrew McKellar, head of Australia's Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries, said a sense of caution was pervading the industry after a record 2007 in which one million new vehicles were sold Down Under for the first time.

"We are certainly no exception to other sectors in the economy," he said. "If asset prices suffer, if growth in the economy slows, if there are concerns about employment then clearly that will have an impact in the market place."

As the Australian International Motor Show opened in Sydney on Thursday without high-end brands Audi, BMW and Mercedes Benz, Elkordi said he didn't expect the market to improve anytime soon.

"I've been told it's going to be worse. Everyone that you're talking to, no one is positive, there's only negative," he said.

Source: AFP

Within the next 12 months, the United States government will have ownership positions at the country's biggest banks, auto companies,insurance companies, start up Green Tech Companies and many others. Unbelievably under a Republican Presidency, the government was needed to save capitalism. You can call it what you want but it looks like Democratic Socialism to me. This is the European tradition of the ruling parties over the last decade of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and pretty much all of Scandanavia.

Whatever Democratic Socialism will look like in the entrepreneurial American climate, we don't know. We don't even know how long the government will have to hold on to the securities it buys. What we do know is that Laissez Faire Capitalism is in the ER. Only the state can save it. But the state will not let capitalism be the wild boy it has been for the past twelve years. So this will be interesting. We will not run out of ideas. And if you are an artist in one of the European Socialist Countries, there is a lot of support for your work. The City of Paris spends more per year on the arts than the whole United States.

Paulson and Bernanke clearly miscalculated when they let Lehman fail. The number of counter parties, especially sovereign ones like the government of Iceland, made it too interconnected. We live in a networked world, we can't get off the Net.Here is why the governments need to make these investments. Here is The Worst Case Scenario.

"With no desire to exaggerate, this might be considered the financial pre-conditions of a depression," Citigroup economist Steven Wieting wrote in a note to clients."Evidence suggests credit rationing is inhibiting day-to-day activities for many firms, with a harsh and worsening backdrop for consumers," he said. "Sadly, some risk exists that financial events could still unfold like a proverbial 'dam break.' This might leave policy-makers treating very serious and lasting damage to the financial system, rather than preventing further erosion."Already, the crisis has taken a heavy toll on economic prospects. Wieting now expects nominal U.S. economic growth next year will be the weakest since 1954, with unemployment climbing to 8.5 percent from the current 6.1 percent.

You know I've been saying this for a while. The first 100 days will be crucial. This morning on This Week the notion was floated at the Roundtable (I think by Paul Krugman) of a "national unity government" being created right after the election (across party lines) to begin moving things ahead in the legislature that would be ready for the President to sign on Inaugural Day.

We live in interesting times.

I didn't grow up playing hockey.  I was born in Nashville, Tennessee in the twilite years of our first minor league team, the Dixie Flyers... and there just wasn't ice around even if one were motivated to play in the South in those days.

Hell - soccer was exotic back then, much less ice hockey in the land of grits, corn bread, and country ham.

However, over the years I have come to love and appreciate the game as one born to the fold, accelerated by having an NHL franchise about 10 minutes from my front door for the past ten years.

Almost everyone has heard the chestnuts about Football being a "collision sport" or a "game of inches" or a "ground acquisition game."

Hockey, on the other hand, is a game of time, space, and opportunity.

Usually, by dominating any one of the three aspects leads to a very positive outcome.

You control the puck more than your opponents, your chances of winning goes up.  Not guaranteed, but goes up.

You create space between the defenders, the puck, and yourself your chances of winning go up.  Not guaranteed, but odds definitely improve.

But number three - opportunity - if you capitalize on every scoring opportunity, your chances of winning go WAY up. Exponentially up.

In fact, I would argue that NOT capitalizing on scoring chances is the number one factor in every loss in professional hockey where most teams are more or less on an equal footing talent wise.

For an individual on the ice, your opportunties are measured in shifts - most lasting only 60 seconds, a couple of minutes at most.

During a pro game, there may be a couple of guys who get 22 minutes of so of ice time - usually defensemen - but most guys (save the goalie, of course) are only on the ice for 10 minutes out of 60.

All the early morning practices, all of the extra ice time skating and conditioning - for 10 minutes of ice time in a game - if you're lucky.

When I help my son get dressed for a game, I say two things to him: have fun, and skate every shift like it will be your last.

Because one day, it will be true.

If you leave it all out there, and try your best each and every shift, you will never have a regret that you didn't do everything you could during those 60 second moments of opportunity.

Over a period of years, you will have aggregated a lot of ice time.  But your overall success or failure will ultimately be judged by the work you did, 60 seconds at a time.

When you go about your day, think about your moments of opportunity.  How are they measured?  Are you creating space between you and your competition to give yourself the best chance at achieving your goals?

Are you commiting your absolute best each and every "shift?"

Because one day, it will be your last shift.

Make the most of the time, space, and opportunity.

Image via Wikipedia

Author: Steve Buchanan

Nowadays everyone dreams of making improvements to one living space but the monthly budget may not give the luxury of getting your plan in action. Home improvement gives you a chance to make your dreams. A home improvement loan can help you to finance repairs and other improvements in your homes. Home improvement loans make it easier for the individuals to adorn their homes with features that they were not able to at the time of buying or constructing homes. Many a times home improvement loans are used to make the designs of home in sync with the latest in designs and interiors.

Actually the home improvement loan UK market is extremely competitive. Therefore, it is quite possible that the borrower may get a loan deal that is suitable to his requirement. Unsecured home improvement loans in UK are popular among homeowners and tenants alike as it can be availed without any security. Home improvement loans facility is for those people who do not like to wait for things to change; they take initiative and change the things for the better. That’s why; this home improvement loan policy is becoming very popular in the UK. Not only this, borrowers have started using the Internet to find the best loan deals possible as well. Daily different companies are offering different policies to attract the people for home loan. There a number of advantages while applying for a home loan online. That’s why it has become one of best financial solutions. There are numerous companies in the financial market who offer loans at competitive rates. The terms and conditions differ with the types of loans that you want to take out.

You can use home improvement loan for the followings:

1) For personalizing your living area

2) For remodeling your kitchen or bedroom

3) For adding a new children's room

4) For building a conservatory

5) For repairing or changing electrical or plumbing system etc.

Home improvement loans can be categorized in to two categorizes. These are:

1) Secured home improvement loan

2) Unsecured home improvement loan

While dealing with the secured home improvement loans, borrower has to place valuable collateral against loan amount. Collateral can be based on the current equity in the home with that car, home, valuable documents can also be considered.

Depending upon the collateral placed, borrower can avail the loan amount ranging up to £70000 or more. The secured home improvement loans offer easy repayment options extended over to easy time period of 4-26 years.

Whereas unsecured home improvement loans are best suited when the amount required for home improvements works is smaller. Borrower feels free from the collateral placement as it demands no collateral against the loan approval. Usually lenders approve amount up to £25000 as unsecured home improvement loans.

Home improvement loans allow you to extend your property as well as add a conservatory or build the dream kitchen you always wanted. While applying for the low cost loan home improvement loans borrower must search for cheaper interest rates, easy repayment options etc. this inculcate the borrower to avail the lower cost for the home improvement.

Make an estimate of the amount that you would require for the renovations. If you plan a small scale renovation, then apply for an unsecured home improvement loan. It doesn't require any security. If you plan a big scale renovation, then you may apply for a secured home improvement loan by placing your home as collateral.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/loans-articles/why-take-home-improvement-loan-268293.html

About the Author:

Steve Buchanan writes article on many topics including Home Loan, Home mortgage loans, and First time home buyer loans.

The story starts a week or two ago, I'm not really sure anymore (I have a terrible perception of time,) when Matt and I did audio (mostly me, he's the video dude, I'm the audio dude) for one of those many less than great (read as terrible) garage screaming bands.  We audioed (?) and left, with a promise of twenty bucks in our ears.

We edited.  Rather, I edited, as Matt hasn't used Soundbooth yet, and waited.  I cut two preview clips.  They listened.  They approved.  We waited for payment.  They apparently couldn't come up with twenty bucks.  We waited some more, they still failed to come up with the cash, until now.  Tonigh, October 12th, 2008, I was paid twenty dollars.  Twenty dollars to the name of Klamath Audio Video, Matt and I's small business.  My first dollar, as it be.

They are satisfied, now, are you ready to be satisfied?  Contact me at tisblogging@yahoo.com, our rates are still really, really low.

Even though I try my hardest to read outside of my comfort zone, there are books that I just.will.not.touch.

I'm not going to list them here, lest you think I am shallow.

I like what I like. You like what you like.

So let me pose a question to you, blog readers.

When was the last time you walked into a library or bookstore and purposely picked up a book that was business-related?

Be honest.

Me either.

When I'm working, I tend to breeze past that section, unless I have new titles to shelve.

Say the word "business" and my brain shuts down.

Sometimes I even snore.

But now I stand corrected. At least with one particular title.

I've mentioned before that I find myself picking up books to read because the cover was appealing.

I blew by this little book because the cover didn't grab my attention, although I "got" the point of the cover.

You're probably asking, "How did you manage to get your nose into THIS book?"

A few weeks ago, I was given the opportunity to "host" the author, Mark O. Hubbard, when he came in to do an author signing.

Honestly, I wondered how I was going to get through two hours talking to someone whose subject matter wasn't sitting anywhere on my TBR pile.

So I started chatting with him, asking about what he did and how he came to write this book. And while we were chatting, a picked up the book and flipped to someplace in the middle. I read a chapter. Not bad. I flipped to another page, read another chapter. I liked THIS one. After about an hour of chatting and flipping through the book (including a couple chapters Mark had suggested I look at), I decided I LIKED the book.

ME! like a BUSINESS book!

I. bought. my. own.(autographed) copy.

Now it didn't make me want to run out and take a business class. But it's not THAT kind of business book.

Remember Robert Fulghum? He wrote those awesome little books like: All I Really Needed to Know, I learned in Kindergarten and Words I Wish I Wrote.

Take that concept, throw in some sound and sage business advice, personal anecdotes, and be able to also apply it to other areas of your life, and it comes out under the name Mark O. Hubbard.

I'll also throw in the fact that Mark is a very down-to-earth person you could sit and have coffee with and forget about the time.

If you have the chance to pick up a copy of Business Wise Guide make sure you take a look at the chapters about Lady Bird Johnson, the baseball cap (my personal favorite), whining, and how the Titanic can be related to business.

I'm still a little iffy on the cover, but there's a real gem underneath. Proving once again that:

You can't judge a book by its cover.

I think that what it comes down to, is just how satisfied people are with the product.  Some florists are only concerned with the bottom line, and they forget to focus on quality. To me that is so short sighted, it is more important than ever to focus on quality, and it is going to take all of us demanding across all industries for it to improve.

I had an issue with flowers this week that was really frustraing and seems to be getting worse.  I ordered some white spray roses from Ecuador, first they packed the box wrong, so I ended up with pink.  That in itself was frustraing, but then I went to my local wholesaler and bought the white spray roses that she had just gotten in that day.  When I got them back to the shop, and unwrapped them, they were the worst looking flowers I had ever seen! Now she told me over the phone that they were beautiful, but I'm not kidding when I tell you that I have better looking flowers in my compost bin!  So at this point my option is to either use them or throw them out.  Of course I threw them out, but I was seriously frustrated. First, I had to ask myself why this wholesaler would accept such product as her normal course of business?  She needs to be demanding and expecting good product. 

Maybe the way to get someones attention is to hit them where it matters, like the pocket book!  If it's bad, I won't buy it. I think we all need to come together and demand that growers stop sending garbage, wholesalers stop pushing old product and retailers quit supporting those businesses that refuse to stand behind their product. 

It's not just happening in the flower industry, I pay money for a pair of jeans, only to have them wear out in 2 months.  I buy milk and it spoils in 2 days, I buy bread and it molds in two days, etc.. it drives me nuts! We have become such a throw away society.  I am really on a mission to find a way to solve the problem...how's that for a big challenge?

I think the biggest thing we can do is start expecting & demanding better quality! I can apply pressure in my industry but I am only one person.  If every florist would demand it from their supplier, and every supplier would demand it of the grower, maybe we could get somewhere.  Until this changes, I'm forced to throw away product that doesn't meet my quality standards and look for suppliers who care. 

I do have customers who buy flowers just for themselves, but I've encouraged it, & promoted it through my constant dedication to high quality, even at the expense to my bottom line sometimes!  :)  Ask your florist to design a weekly flower plan to fit your budget, so you can experience the joy that a single flower in the room can bring! I even have some ladies who love to come pick out a flower each Monday morning to put on their desk for the week.  It's inexpensive and it adds a lot of sunshine to your day.   Stop & smell the flowers! In fact there was a research project done at Texas AM University, that showed that nature improves business success, it showed that workers creativity, innovation, ideas, and problem solving skills improved in an place that included flowers & plants. The research project shows that there is growing scientific evidence that flowers have a beneficial effect on your state of mind & your emotions.

Management Strategy → Structural Design → Structural Change → Organizational Success (greater organziational efficiency, greater results)

When an organization is on its last leg, the modus operandi is to bring in a new, highly paid leader who sets out to eliminate excess administration and improve the efficiency of throughput. In such cases, the nuclear option may be the only option.

For most businesses that may be experiencing some significant shortfalls but not on their last leg, I caution you against the nuclear option. There is a predisposition on the part of newly hired executives to capitalize on the political capital they have when taking over a declining business. Desperate stakeholders will often provide a rather long leash for the executive team to shake things up, and the opportunity to implement massive restructuring may be too enticing to pass up. It is certainly the option most likely to capture headlines.

Let's suppose that the new organizational strategy is brilliant and perfectly aligned with the proposed organizational design. We can even suppose that management has the political will and ability to implement the changes and all goes as smoothly as possible. According to the simplified model above, that is all that is necessary to achieve organizational success.

The problem with the model is that it lacks a very important distinction between the formal and informal structures. The formal structure shows how work processes are supposed to be organized; the informal structure dictates how work really is organized. The informal structure is not as easily observed, but no less real. It is responsible for processing a great deal of information about business processes and relationships and can be both an ally and enemy.

The informal structure presents a double threat to organizational developers. For one, massive restructuring threatens to torpedo positive informal processes that have developed over time to circumvent problematic formal arrangements. An example might be two managers sharing information and adopting strategies to circumvent an inept director. Formally, it looks at is if the director is responsible for the successes. Reorganization efforts to move this director to a more prominent role would clearly be a bad move.

The other potential threat is that disruptive informal arrangements will remain largely intact when the dust settles from restructuring. The relationships built over years and decades do not simply disappear when formal change occurs. Formal changes can lead to positive changes in informal social networks, but quick successes are key. The first move for any kind of social group that does not see positive developments quickly or extensively enough is to revert back to long established relationships and processes.

In most cases that are not completely desperate, I suggest a different perspective on organizational development. The focus is on working with individual units to improve their effectiveness and then building the structure up, much like one would build a house from a solid foundation. I’ll describe what I mean in future posts, but for now I wanted to highlight what I believe is an important overlooked danger in large reorganization efforts.

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These days most architects have a website. Some have even started to blog, but few have an Internet presence equal to La Vardera.

A principal of a small firm located in Merchantville, New Jersey just minutes from Philadelphia, Greg has been developing and selling modern architecture home plans since 2002. He posts to his blog on a regular basis with progress on homes located throughout the world built using his plans.

Thanks to the sustainable green buzz and an increasing interest in modern design, there many sources for modern home plans and prefab houses. Greg was one of the first and today, he's still one of the best.

From LaMiDesign.com:

Our mission is to fill the void in the house plan marketplace by offering modern home designs. Our designs are flexible and allow different people to use them in different ways. It is possible to build our designs with conventional methods familiar to any builder, or to introduce unique materials. If you always wanted a modern home, but thought a custom design was beyond your reach, then we think you may really like what you find here. We don't know of anything else like it.

In addition to posting to his blog, Greg is also a regular at the CORA and LiveModern forums. His work has been posted on blogs throughout the net and he has been featured in several articles, both print and web.

More recently La Vardera teamed up with EcoSteel, manufacturer of contemporary building systems.

From LiveModern:

EcoSteel steel building systems are complete steel shell packages, ready for your interior customization. The pre-engineered and pre-fabricated EcoSteel building package includes a complete Insulated Steel Building System along with exterior doors, windows and trim.

EcoSteel's program is the undeniable leading force in steel prefab construction. EcoSteel leverages an existing manufacturing network of 13 primary shipping points across the U.S.  The pre-engineered and panelized steel systems are easily built by a commercial contractor. All of the steel components of an EcoSteel system are pre-cut, pre-drilled, and are clearly labeled which virtually eliminates mistakes and confusion typically associated with wood homebuilders venturing into steel construction.

EcoSteel is teaming up with Greg La Vardera of LaMiDesign to modern home designs, all built with steel. Pricing starts at $135/sf, complete.

Greg La Vardera... Entrepreneur Architect.

1) Name Your Company
Assuming you already know what you want your company to do, you need a name that is not already registered.

2) Get the Right Paperwork.
You dont need use an expensive service to file your paperwork. You simply need to navigate to your state government's web page and get the correct paperwork, Articles of Organization. In Michigan you need to get your hands on Form 700 Articles of Organization from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth

3) File your paperwork
Now that you have your forms it is time to fill them out, put them in an envelope with a check to cover the processing fees ($50 in MI) and Mail them to the address on the form. It will take about 5 business days to get your paperwork back unless you have them expedited.

4) File for a Tax ID Number

5) Create an Operating Agreement
Much like corporate bylaws, an operating agreement lays out the rules of how the company is to be run and how ownership interest is to be divided amongst members of the LLC. LLCs do not have shares of stock like corporations.

6) Business Plan
Create a business plan and keep it up to date. This living document will help you stay focused on the goals and vision of your company. Include business cases, cash flow models, competitive data, marketing plans, growth and sales forecasts. Create your own plan that helps you sort out your ideas of what your company is and what it can be.

After that, work your face off. Work on developing ideas, developing new business and creating relationships with your employees, customers and vendors that will let your company grow for years to come.

<!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> I once heard a quote that one who believes in freedom of speech “Will defend someone who is yelling at the top of their lungs their ideals in a public place, ideals which you would yell at the top of your lungs to oppose.”  I have thought about this often.  We live in a nation where we should have freedom of speech, and even if that speech is against what I say and think I will support that freedom.

Now it comes to appropriateness of the time and place it is a whole different mater.  I think that there is a huge difference between public and private events.  I thought it was shameful for those few democratic protestors to sneak into the republic convention and protest during the peaks of the speeches.  It was NOT their place.  I also think that if someone goes through all the trouble and expense to put on a parade (Such as a famous church does each St Patricks day.) they own that parade and they should be able to pick and choose who is allowed to be in their parade, not forced to allow a group of Homosexual rights people to basically have a protest in the middle of the parade as a court recently forced them to do.  If the Gays want to have their own parade, I have no problem with that, they can pick a different time or place.   Also if a pastor wants to say something to his church about who to vote for, he should be allowed, unlike todays laws.

On Friday I went to the state fair, there were two different church groups who rented a space there, they decided that they would try to tell people about God.  I also have no problem with this, they used their money, and they were following the rules.  Now was this the best place, I think not, will they actually do any good for the Kingdom of God, maybe they will make a few people think.  For years I have thought that relationships were the best way to win people to Christ.  You simply invite them to events, show them the community and tell them the Gospel and let them decide.  But any decision that is forced is NOT lasting or sincere, and so many Christians like to force such decisions.

If you notice in the quote you have from Thomas Jefferson he says sect.  As you know this is a difference within the same religion.  He could not imagine that our nation would be anything but Christian.  He just did not want one denomination to be favored over another.

I do totally agree that we should not force our Christian ideals on non Christians as a form of law.  There are too many laws in our nation.  We are NOT a free nation.  Anyone who leaves for a year or more and comes back will tell you that.  There are others that are less free but also others that are far more free.

You also had the point of the “Merry Christmas” greeting.  I have found that it is used far less.  The other day I went to Costco they had two isles of “Christmas” stuff, so I decided to look really closely, there was not one item that was Christian based, and not one location did it say the word Christmas.  They are a business, they can choose what to put on their shelves, but me, as a Chri