Posted on 15 December 2009.
What are your thoughts on this one? Fox News aired a segment suggesting the federal government lower the minimum wage to help workers and the economy. I’m not too sure this is something that would be called for during the economic times we are currently in.
Credit f0r the video to RawStory.com
Posted in Archive, Politics, R.T., Television, US Government, VideoComments (0)
Posted on 21 October 2009.
Posted in Archive, Political, Politics, R.T., US Government, VideoComments (0)
Posted on 15 September 2009.
Small Businesses Urged to Prepare for Disruptions From Swine Flu
The Department of Homeland Security urged small businesses Monday to devise contingency plans allowing them to operate in the event a number of their employees become infected with the H1N1 virus. With half of the nation’s private-sector employees working at small businesses, federal officials said they want the enterprises to take precautions to prevent a disruption to the economy as the virus, also known as swine flu, wends its way across the United States. Read the full story
Posted in Business, R.T., The Wire, US GovernmentComments (0)
Posted on 26 August 2009.
by Hazelnut
Crawling around in the back of my mind is a question I’ve often wondered about. How did the insurance industry begin, when and why. Are we not seeing the impact of an insurance mega-industry which has taken control of our freedom to be self-sustaining in every aspect of our lives? Do we not consciously consider our responsibilities and repercussions thereof in a mature way because we must purchase an insurance “policy” to protect us from poor choices, accidents, and ignorance?
If in the beginning, insurance policies were in fact, to spread the risk, then how did that practice become commonly accepted Law around the globe? These days, it is illegal to perform certain activities without purchasing insurance policies. The concept of “insurance” is to spread the risk.
What if I don’t want to buy insurance, what if I want to maintain my own responsibility in everything I do? Too bad for me. The only choice I have is to buy the insurance or pay the penalty for not having it. Risk is a part of life. Is it not an illusion to believe that purchasing insurance policies keeps risk low for the policy holders? IMO, the law demanding insurance be maintained for certain activities prevents freedom of choice. Or at the very least, inhibits those freedoms.
The History of Insurance
Countries and their citizens need something to spread risk among large numbers of people and to move risk to entities that can handle it. This is how insurance emerged. Read on to learn about how insurance evolved and how it can work to protect you from being burned by risk.
The first written insurance policy appeared in ancient times on a Babylonian obelisk monument with the code of King Hammurabi carved into it. The “Hammurabi Code” was one of the first forms of written laws. These ancient laws were extreme in most respects, but it offered basic insurance in that a debtor didn’t have to pay back his loans if some personal catastrophe made it impossible (disability, death, flooding, etc.).
Does anyone remember when apprenticeships were commonplace and why the practice has become a relic of the past?
In the dark and middle ages, most craftsmen were trained through the guild system. Apprentices spent their childhoods working for masters for little or no pay. Once they became masters themselves, they paid dues to the guild and trained their own apprentices. The wealthier guilds had large coffers that acted as a type of insurance fund. If a master’s practice burned down, a common occurrence in the wooden hovels of medieval Europe, the guild would rebuild it using money from its coffers. If a master were robbed, the guild would cover his obligations until money started to flow in again. If a master were suddenly disabled or killed, the guild would support him or his widow and family. This safety net encouraged more and more people to leave farming and take up trades. As a result, the amount of goods available for trade increased, as did the range of goods and services available. The style of insurance used by guilds is still around today in the form of “group coverage”.
Insurance replaced apprenticeships. Nowadays, we are expected to go to college to learn our trades. The practice of paying a guild fee has become the practice of paying college fees.
Insurance and the Stock Exchange
Having recognized the extreme profitability and power of issuing maritime insurance, fire and plague became the next lucrative reason for requiring insurance. This practice began here:
America takes a little longer to play the insurance game and with great reluctance. Insurers were not prepared to “protect” against the “risks” inherent in establishing a new world. Until a profit could be realized, insuring against the inherent risks were taken by pioneers and colonists. For over a hundred years, the colonists managed their risk without mandatory (or even optional) insurance coverage
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Insurance should be optional, not mandatory. Insurance companies are the giants of the monetary world. Its no wonder why.
So, now I know when, why and how the insurance industry began.
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/
History of insurance refers to the development of a modern laws and market in insurance against risks. In some sense we can say that insurance appears simultaneously with the appearance of human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: money economies (with markets, money, financial instruments and so on) and non-money or natural economies (without money, markets, financial instruments and so on). The second type is a more ancient form than the first. In such an economy and community, we can see insurance in the form of people helping each other. For example, if a house burns down, the members of the community help build a new one. Should the same thing happen to one’s neighbor, the other neighbors must help. Otherwise, neighbors will not receive help in the future.
Posted in Archive, Authors, Business, Education, History, J.K.Comments (0)
Posted on 18 August 2009.
Well…something tells me this will be part of the $182 billion from their federal bailout. On the brighter side, at least he won’t be making LeBron James type money….
http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/17/news/companies/aig_ceo_salary/index.htm
AIG’s new boss: $3 million salary … plus
Robert Benmosche will receive $7 million in salary and stock and is eligible for $3.5 million in annual bonuses. Obama’s pay czar was consulted.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — AIG’s new boss will make an annual salary of $3 million and receive bonuses and stock options worth millions more, according to a company filing on Monday.
Chief Executive Robert Benmosche, who took over the bailed out insurer’s reins on Aug. 10, will take home $3 million in cash and $4 million in stock options.
According to an AIG spokeswoman, Benmosche will receive his “stock salary” in equally divisible, bimonthly payments of common shares. Under the terms of his pay deal, he can’t sell those shares until August 2014.
The new AIG CEO will also be eligible for $3.5 million annual performance bonuses. The bonus will be prorated for 2009. He is not eligible for any kind of severance package.
In the Securities and Exchange Commission filing, AIG also said that Kenneth Feinberg, the Obama administration’s pay czar, “expressed approval in principle” for Benmosche’s compensation package. Feinberg still must formally approve the new CEO’s compensation.
Feinberg was not available for immediate comment.
AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) was one of seven TARP bailout recipients required to submit proposed employment contracts for their 25 highest-paid employees. The others were Chrysler, Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Chrysler Financial, Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), General Motors and GMAC.
AIG has received a larger federal bailout — $182 billion — than any other company. Executive pay has caused a series of political firestorms.
The insurer is required to get its 2009 compensation plan approved by Feinberg. In addition, it still has nearly $240 million in 2008 bonuses to pay out. A $2.4 million payment scheduled for July was held up by Feinberg’s office, pending further review.
Controversy over the bonuses erupted in March after it was revealed that employees of the company’s crippled Financial Products division received $165 million in retention bonuses. That unit wrote the complex derivatives that nearly brought the whole company down.
After the controversy, then-CEO Edward Liddy opted to receive a nominal $1 a year salary and gave up a bonus. Liddy retired on Aug. 7.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who has been outspoken about his criticism of AIG’s bonus payments, has said AIG should be led by an executive paid a competitive salary who can help ensure the company pays back its sizeable debt to taxpayers.
When Benmosche’s hiring was announced earlier in the month, Cummings said the new CEO will be held to a high standard.
“I caution him that my colleagues and I will be closely watching his progress,” said Cummings in a statement on Aug. 3.
Prior to joining AIG, Benmosche was the CEO of MetLife (MET, Fortune 500) until he retired in 2006. He oversaw MetLife’s transition from a private to a public company, which experts say gave him the experience necessary to lead AIG’s transition from the world’s biggest insurer to a much smaller domestic life insurance company.
Posted in Business, R.T.Comments (0)
Posted on 06 August 2009.
Drop in Unemployment Claims Indicate Market Stabilization
After a terrible nine months, the pace of job losses finally appears to be slowing down, according to mounting evidence.
Analysts are expecting confirmation on Friday that the labor market is warming up this summer, as the Labor Department releases July employment data. Economists anticipate the report will show that the jobless rate continued to rise– to 9.6 percent, from 9.5 percent, and that employers will turn out to have shed 328,000 jobs. Those results, while horrible by normal standards, would be an improvement over the 467,000 jobs lost in June and would support the idea that the recession is ending. Read the full story
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Posted on 06 August 2009.
Twitter was shut down for hours Thursday morning by what it described as an ongoing denial of service attack. In a one sentence statement on its status blog, Twitter said, “We are defending against a denial-of-service attack, and will update status again shortly.” The outage appeared to begin mid-morning, EST, and affected users around the world. Read the full story
Posted in TechnologyComments (0)
Posted on 01 August 2009.
A lot of businesses around the world use sales software to increase their overall profits and productivity. One of the main findings is that you can increase your sales staff productivity which will enable them to spend more time selling potential new customers and less time generating leads. More time spent on sales obviously mean that the business will have higher conversion rates. Read the full story
Posted in Archive, Business, J.K.Comments (0)
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