Monday, February 28, 2011

Investing In Junk Silver Coins: 90 Silver Bags - “How to Determine the Value”

90 silver bags are simply bags made from canvas-type cloth that contain Washington quarters, Franklin or Kennedy half-dollars, and Mercury and Roosevelt dimes that were minted in 1964 or previous years.

Those were the times when all of our U.S. coins were still made of real silver (actually 90% silver and 10% copper.) The phrase 'junk silver' was coined (no pun intended) during the 1970's because these 'junkie' coins had little or no collector value at that time. Well, that's definitely not true today, with these types of coins becoming harder to find!

Types of 90 Silver Coin Bags

The type of junk silver coins most often found in silver bags are the Washington quarters. A usual silver bag will include mixed dates of 1964 or earlier and all of one coin denomination - i.e. all quarters, dimes, or half-dollars. The grade of each coin will vary but generally 95 percent will have dates that will be readable.

Coin dealers will generally sell 90 junk silver bags in face value lots of $1000.00, $500.00, $250.00, $100.00, and sometimes even $50.00 lots. When you invest in a $1000.00 bag, for example, you'll be getting 10,000 dimes, 4,000 quarters or 2,000 half dollars!

However, the face value of the coins will be $1000.00 but will contain 715 ounces of silver, regardless of the denomination of the coins, because of the 90% silver composition of the coins. That means you'll be getting a lot more silver for your money!

How to Determine the Value of Your Junk Silver Coin Bag

Before you march off to sell your 90 silver bag to a coin dealer, you'll need to determine ahead of time, what your bag is worth:

  • First, find out what the current spot price of silver is - I like to use Kitco.
  • Multiply the amount of troy ounces of silver in your bag by the current silver spot price. To figure the silver weight in individual junk coins, I like to use the melt value calculator at SilverMonthly.com
  • If your bag has 715 oz of silver and the spot price of silver is $30, that would be $21,450.
  • Now subtract that amount from the price the dealer is quoting you. Shop around and compare what various dealers (both online and local) are offering. Do your homework and be informed!
  • You need to remember that the price of junk coin bags will follow the spot price of silver. Let's say the price of silver rises ten cents - from $30.00 an ounce to $30.10 an ounce. A $1000.00 face value bag of 90 junk silver Washington quarters will rise $70, give or take.

Advantages of Buying 90 Junk Silver Bags

90% junk silver is a great way for new buyers to invest in silver for the following reasons:

  • 90 junk silver is the most cost-efficient method of buying silver per ounce in bulk. You see, with junk silver, no refining or minting fees are added to the cost of the coin. When you buy a modern silver bullion coin such as the American Silver Eagle, this manufacturing premium is always going to be added to the cost of the coin.
  • Because of their age and circulation, it is only natural for junk silver coins to have lots of wear and tear. But even discounting the scratch marks, nicks, abrasion, worn detail, unrecognizable face, you're still getting 99% of the silver content! That means that the coins will be worth far more than their face value!
  • Another advantage to buying junk bags is that the coins can easily be divided into smaller quantities to use as bartering instruments in an emergency. You can also sell the coins individually, the same way, if you didn't want to sell the entire bag all at once, to take advantage of rising silver prices.

Now that you've learned a little bit about 90 silver coin bags, I think you'll agree that they are a terrific investment. With the price of silver expected to move even higher in the coming year, adding a few to your portfolio will be a prudent and profitable decision!

You'll find great deals and selection on 90 silver bags and other junk silver coins at: ==>
http://BullionBargains.us
By
Christina Goldman

The Big Idea: Creating Shared Value - “The capitalist system is under siege” by Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer

The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business increasingly has been viewed as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of the broader community.

Even worse, the more business has begun to embrace corporate responsibility, the more it has been blamed for society’s failures. The legitimacy of business has fallen to levels not seen in recent history. This diminished trust in business leads political leaders to set policies that undermine competitiveness and sap economic growth. Business is caught in a vicious circle.

A big part of the problem lies with companies themselves, which remain trapped in an outdated approach to value creation that has emerged over the past few decades. They continue to view value creation narrowly, optimizing short-term financial performance in a bubble while missing the most important customer needs and ignoring the broader influences that determine their longer-term success. How else could companies overlook the well-being of their customers, the depletion of natural resources vital to their businesses, the viability of key suppliers, or the economic distress of the communities in which they produce and sell? How else could companies think that simply shifting activities to locations with ever lower wages was a sustainable “solution” to competitive challenges? Government and civil society have often exacerbated the problem by attempting to address social weaknesses at the expense of business. The presumed trade-offs between economic efficiency and social progress have been institutionalized in decades of policy choices.

Companies must take the lead in bringing business and society back together. The recognition is there among sophisticated business and thought leaders, and promising elements of a new model are emerging. Yet we still lack an overall framework for guiding these efforts, and most companies remain stuck in a “social responsibility” mind-set in which societal issues are at the periphery, not the core.

The solution lies in the principle of shared value, which involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Businesses must reconnect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy, or even sustainability, but a new way to achieve economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. We believe that it can give rise to the next major transformation of business thinking.

Sidebar Icon What Is “Shared Value”?

A growing number of companies known for their hard-nosed approach to business—such as GE, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Nestlé, Unilever, and Wal-Mart—have already embarked on important efforts to create shared value by reconceiving the intersection between society and corporate performance. Yet our recognition of the transformative power of shared value is still in its genesis. Realizing it will require leaders and managers to develop new skills and knowledge—such as a far deeper appreciation of societal needs, a greater understanding of the true bases of company productivity, and the ability to collaborate across profit/nonprofit boundaries. And government must learn how to regulate in ways that enable shared value rather than work against it.

Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth. But a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader challenges. The opportunities have been there all along but have been overlooked. Businesses acting as businesses, not as charitable donors, are the most powerful force for addressing the pressing issues we face. The moment for a new conception of capitalism is now; society’s needs are large and growing, while customers, employees, and a new generation of young people are asking business to step up.

The purpose of the corporation must be redefined as creating shared value, not just profit per se. This will drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy. It will also reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. Perhaps most important of all, learning how to create shared value is our best chance to legitimize business again.

Moving Beyond Trade-Offs

Business and society have been pitted against each other for too long. That is in part because economists have legitimized the idea that to provide societal benefits, companies must temper their economic success. In neoclassical thinking, a requirement for social improvement—such as safety or hiring the disabled—imposes a constraint on the corporation. Adding a constraint to a firm that is already maximizing profits, says the theory, will inevitably raise costs and reduce those profits.

A related concept, with the same conclusion, is the notion of externalities. Externalities arise when firms create social costs that they do not have to bear, such as pollution. Thus, society must impose taxes, regulations, and penalties so that firms “internalize” these externalities—a belief influencing many government policy decisions.

This perspective has also shaped the strategies of firms themselves, which have largely excluded social and environmental considerations from their economic thinking. Firms have taken the broader context in which they do business as a given and resisted regulatory standards as invariably contrary to their interests. Solving social problems has been ceded to governments and to NGOs. Corporate responsibility programs—a reaction to external pressure—have emerged largely to improve firms’ reputations and are treated as a necessary expense. Anything more is seen by many as an irresponsible use of shareholders’ money. Governments, for their part, have often regulated in a way that makes shared value more difficult to achieve. Implicitly, each side has assumed that the other is an obstacle to pursuing its goals and acted accordingly.

Sidebar Icon Blurring the Profit/Nonprofit Boundary

The concept of shared value, in contrast, recognizes that societal needs, not just conventional economic needs, define markets. It also recognizes that social harms or weaknesses frequently create internal costs for firms—such as wasted energy or raw materials, costly accidents, and the need for remedial training to compensate for inadequacies in education. And addressing societal harms and constraints does not necessarily raise costs for firms, because they can innovate through using new technologies, operating methods, and management approaches—and as a result, increase their productivity and expand their markets.

Michael E. Porter is the Bishop William Lawrence University Professor at Harvard University. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and a six-time McKinsey Award winner.

Mark R. Kramer cofounded FSG, a global social impact consulting firm, with Professor Porter and is its managing director. He is also a senior fellow of the CSR initiative at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

University of Chicago: Plague Death Came Within Hours, Spurred by Scientist's Medical Condition

University of Chicago infectious disease specialist Ken Alexander still remembers the shock he felt almost 18 months ago when his pager shook with the message that a colleague had died from the plague.

A half-hour later, Alexander was sitting at a table in the dean’s office with researchers, lawyers, administrators and campus security officers, he recalled in an interview. The stricken colleague,Malcolm Casadaban, a 60-year-old genetics and cell biology professor, had checked into a hospital five days earlier and died within hours. Lab results were positive for the plague, and the university’s “biosafety fire alarm” had been triggered, Alexander said.

“The first question was: Do we think this is real,” Alexander, chief of infectious diseases at the university’s pediatrics department, said yesterday in a telephone interview. “The answer was yes. So the onus was upon us to do two things; to notify the health infrastructure and act as if this were a worst-case scenario.”

That meeting on Sept. 18, 2009, began an investigation into the medical mystery of Casadaban’s illness that concluded with a report detailing the events, published yesterday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Considered Harmless

Casadaban was conducting laboratory research on the bacterium that causes the plague when he became sick. The germ was genetically weakened and considered harmless to humans. It was considered so safe, Casadaban’s work with the live plague bacteria wasn’t noted when he fell ill,according to the CDC. A professor at the university for 30 years, by all accounts he had followed the proper safety protocols, the report said.

Casadaban’s research focused on describing the chain of cellular events that occurs as a person is sickened by the plague bacterium, called Yersinia pestis. Scientists suspect that Casadaban may have harbored a previously unknown vulnerability to the laboratory plague strain that was revealed only in his death.

An autopsy found the researcher had a medical condition called hemochromatosis, which causes an excessive buildup of iron in the body, according to the CDC report. The disorder affects about 1 in 400 people and goes unnoticed in about half of patients.

Casadaban’s illness is important because of the way the plague bacterium had been weakened. Yersinia pestis needs iron to survive. Normally it gets this iron by stealing it from a host’s body with proteins that bind to it and help break it down. To make the bacterium harmless, scientists genetically stripped it of the proteins needed to consume iron.

‘So Much Iron’

“It’s like having a lion, where we took out all its teeth and all its claws,” Alexander said. “But in the case of Dr. Casadaban, the lion didn’t even need to have teeth. There was so much iron that it was freely available and easy to get.”

Plague infects more than 2,000 people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization in Geneva. Early detection and treatment with antibiotics are important, and about 90 percent of reported cases survive. About 5 to 10 cases occur in the U.S. each year, passed through rodents and the fleas that feed on them, the CDC said. The last time a scientist was sickened by the plague was in 1959, the CDC reported.

The hemochromatosis that contributed to Casadaban’s fate has been credited with protecting people from strains of plague that circulate in the wild. Sharon Moalem, an evolutionary biologist and author of “Survival of the Sickest,” posited that the disorder shifts iron from certain white blood cells, where it is typically sought by the plague bacterium.

Genetic Disposition

People of European descent are twice as likely as the rest of the population to have hemochromatosis, according to previous studies. That’s because people with the condition were more likely to survive epidemics of the bubonic plague that killed millions of people in medievalEurope and pass the hereditary condition to their descendants, according to Moalem.

The day plague was diagnosed in Chicago, researchers tested the strain to make sure it hadn’t mutated. By a second emergency meeting that afternoon, high amounts of iron had already been discovered in Casadaban’s liver, adding credibility to the early hypothesis of hemochromatosis formed by his colleagues.

The CDC later confirmed the tests with mouse experiments that proved the strain that killed Casadaban was the same that has been safely used by hundreds of scientists doing similar research. The agency is now studying animals to learn how hemochromatosis may increase susceptibility to infection by bacteria with weakened iron-acquiring abilities.

Casadaban’s death shows that no matter how a germ has been hobbled, some people may always be vulnerable, Alexander said. While research with viruses, bacteria and vaccines that employ weakened strains should continue, scientists must take precautions and be aware of hidden vulnerabilities, he said.

“I’m sure that if Dr. Casadaban had had one comment for us as we sat around that table it was: ‘Listen guys, I’m trying to teach you something, and you better damn well learn it,’” Alexander said. “And I think we did.”

Bloomberg.com by Tom Randa

U.S. Offers Aid to Libya Opposition as Unrest Spreads to Oman, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The U.S. said it will assist Libyan rebels trying to forceMuammar Qaddafi from power, as pro- democracy protests that have swept the Middle East spread to Oman and reignited in Tunisia.

“We’ve been reaching out to many different Libyans who are attempting to organize in the east and, as the revolution moves westward, there as well,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said en route to Geneva for talks on Libya. The U.S. will provide “any kind of assistance” to those seeking to end Qaddafi’s 41-year dictatorship, she said.

Armed anti-government forces control much of Libya’s east and have deployed tanks and anti-aircraft weapons to defend Al- Zawiyah near the capital, Tripoli, according to the Associated Press. Helicopters attacked a rebel-held radio station in Misrata, east of Tripoli, Al Arabiya television said. The United Nations estimates that more than 1,000 people have died in the uprising and almost 100,000 have fled amid the heaviest fighting in six weeks of unrest that has spread from North Africa to the Persian Gulf, home of the world’s biggest oil reserves.

Crude for April delivery rose 0.8 percent to $98.62 at 9:45 a.m. in London. Futures posted the biggest weekly gain in two years last week amid estimates that Libya’s output fell by as much as two-thirds. The country is Africa’s third-biggest oil producer after Nigeria and Angola, and holds the continent’s largest reserves according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Hypermarket On Fire

The regional unrest that ousted Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak reached Oman, where two demonstrators were killed yesterday and several were wounded in clashes with security forces in the city of Sohar, according to hospital and government officials.

Demonstrations in Sohar resumed today, and a hypermarket in the coastal city was set on fire as hundreds gathered to protest and roads were closed. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, the ruler since 1970, has told the government to create 50,000 jobs and boost allowances for those without full-time work.

Oman, where companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Total SA have a stake in the oil industry, produces about 800,000 barrels a day and lies at the critical entryway to the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes.

Oman’s benchmark MSM30 stock index slumped 4.9 percent, the biggest drop for more than two years. In Dubai the main index fell 4.5 percent at 1:45 p.m. local time. The Bloomberg GCC 200 index of regional shares fell 1.2 percent, extending its decline this year to 9.2 percent.

Tunisia Premier Quits

In Tunisia, where the regional turmoil began two months ago, protests have flared up again, forcing interim Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi to resign after at least three people were killed. The demonstrators had called for the removal of Ghannouchi because of his links with former ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who fled the country on Jan. 14. Interim President Fouad Mebazaa named former foreign minister Beji Caid Essebsi as the new prime minister and appealed for calm.

In Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil supplier, activists and academics called on King Abdullahto increase political rights and move toward a constitutional monarchy. Libya and Saudi Arabiaare among the 12 members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil.

Foreign Asset Freeze

International efforts to end Qaddafi’s attacks on the Libyan rebels and force him from power may gain momentum today when Clinton meets other foreign ministers at the UN Human Rights Council to discuss a coordinated response. U.S. officials have discussed the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya in talks with allied governments, the New York Times reported, citing an unidentified senior administration official.

The UN Security Council voted 15-0 on Feb. 26 to freeze the foreign assets of Qaddafi and four aides and to bar them from traveling. The resolution also imposes an arms embargo on Libya and calls for an immediate end to violence that it says “may amount to crimes against humanity.”

Libyan rebels are organizing in the eastern port of Benghazi, the biggest city they control. On the roads between Benghazi and the Egyptian border, anti-Qaddafi protesters carrying assault rifles and former soldiers in uniform set up tents and searched passing cars for weapons, some of them welcoming passersby with juice and sweets.

There were no major clashes yesterday, though gunfire was heard in Tripoli after nightfall, the AP said. In al-Zawiyah, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of the capital and the nearest population center to fall to the rebels, hundreds of people chanted “Qaddafi out!,” it said.

Evacuation Efforts

Governments throughout the world have rushed to get their nationals out of Libya. China has evacuated about 29,000 people, state news agency Xinhua said today, and Turkey said 18,000 of its citizens have been removed. The U.K. and Germany sent military missions to help with the evacuation.

Qaddafi remained defiant yesterday as he said he would remain in Libya and quash the rebellion. “The people of Libya support me,” he said in a telephone interview with Serbia’s Pink television station, according to a Haaretz report. “Small groups of rebels are surrounded and will be dealt with.”

By Viola Gienger and Maher Chmaytelli
bloomberg.com

Biggest bank HSBC Holdings Plc, Earnings miss estimates as investment Bank profit falls

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe’s biggest bank by market value, reported full-year earnings that missed analyst estimates as investment banking income fell and costs climbed to an “unacceptable” level.

Net income rose to $13.2 billion in 2010 from $5.83 billion the previous year, missing the $13.72 billion median estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Pretax profit at the securities unit fell to $9.5 billion in 2010 from $10.5 billion in 2009, the London-based bank said in a statement today. The lender’s cost-efficiency ratio rose to 55.2 percent from 52 percent as rising staff costs outpaced revenue growth.

That ratio is “above our target range and unacceptable,” Chairman Douglas Flint said in today’s statement. “We need to re-engineer the business to remove inefficiencies.”

The earnings are Stuart Gulliver’s first since being named chief executive officer in September. Trading revenue at the investment bank, run by Samir Assaf since Gulliver’s promotion, fell by 15 percent to $5.83 billion. HSBC andStandard Chartered Plc, the two British banks that make most of their profit in Asia, are both paying more to attract employees to their investment banks as revenue from the region jumps. Gulliver said today he’s paying more for bankers in Asiathan in Britain.

Costs were “significantly higher than expected,” and caused the bank to miss analyst estimates, said Cormac Leech, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity Ltd. in London with a “buy” rating on the shares. Analysts are likely to reduce their earnings estimates based on today’s statement, he said.

Shares Drop

The stock fell as much as 4.6 percent and was down 4.4 percent at 680 pence as of 9:50 a.m. in London trading. HSBC shares have dropped 5.5 percent in the past 12 months, the worst-performer in the five-member FTSE 350 Banks Index. The stock trades at about 1.5 times its book value, compared with 1.9 times for Standard Chartered.

“In the short term, risks to global growth remain, not least from an elevated oil price,” Gulliver said today. “We therefore expect cyclical volatility to continue -- including in emerging markets -- and progress is unlikely to be linear.”

Oil futures have gained 19 percent in London this year as political unrest disrupts exports from Libya, holder of Africa’s largest crude reserves. Contracts on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange peaked at $119.79 a barrel on Feb. 24, their highest price since August 2008.

Libya Turmoil

Turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa hasn’t materially affected the bank’s performance, Gulliver said today.

“We have been closely watching events unfold,” he said. “HSBC has been present in the Middle East for more than 50 years and we remain absolutely committed to its future.”

Provisions for bad loans shrank to $14 billion from $26.5 billion, the London-based bank said in a statement today. HSBC halted lending at its U.S. subprime unit in 2009 after it racked up more than $58 billion in provisions from bad debts.

HSBC North America returned to profit last year after three years of losses, asset sales and the culling of more than 6,000 jobs. Pretax profit was $454 million, compared with a loss of $7.7 billion in 2009. The unit includes the former subprime lender Household International, now closed to new business.

Group revenue rose 3.1 percent to $68.2 billion, the bank said. Employee compensation and benefits rose to $19.8 billion from $18.5 billion, while other administrative costs rose 13 percent to $15.2 billion, the bank said.

HSBC cut its return on equity target to 12 percent to 15 percent, the bank said, from 15 percent to 19 percent, Finance Director Iain Mackay told journalists on a call today.

Gulliver, the former head of the investment bank, was named CEO last year in the culmination of a boardroom struggle as Chairman Stephen Green stepped down to join the government. Green was replaced by Flint, the former finance director.

Gulliver will receive a 5.2 million-pound ($8.4 billion) bonus for 2010, compared with 9 million pounds for 2009, the bank said in its annual report today.

bloomberg.com

Angola’s Sonangol plans to take direct stake in Portuguese group Galp Energia

Luanda/Angop, 28 Feb – Angolan oil company Sonangol plans to take a direct stake in the shareholder structure of Portuguese group Galp Energia, the company’s chief executive Manuel Vicente said in Luanda as part of the celebration of Sonangol’s 35th anniversary.

Sonangol has an indirect stake of 15 percent in Galp Energia, via the 45 percent stake it owns of Amorim Energia, a company that controls 33.34 percent of Galp, the same as Italy’s ENI.

The scenario may involve acquiring some of the shares owned by ENI, which ended negotiations with Brazil’s Petrobras for acquisition of a 33.4 percent stake in Galp that is owned by the Italian group.

The ENI group has string interests established in Angola and plans to increase its involvement in the country via new oil exploration contracts as well as exploring opportunities in neighbouring countries, namely in the Congo, where the Angolan state oil company has strong links.

Cited by newspaper Oje, Vicente said that the process was not closed and added that other Angolan entities, other than Sonangol, could conclude the deal with ENI.

Meanwhile, the rise in the price of a barrel of oil on the international market has led to Sonangol’s revenues increasing. According to financial figures for 2010 the company posted sales of U$21.9 billion, and pre-tax profit of US$3 billion. (macauhub)

BP’s Greater Plutonio Angola Field to Shut in April for Works - 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day

BP Plc said it will shut its Greater Plutonio oil field in Angola in April to install new water injection equipment to maintain the extraction rate.

The field was pumping at about 95,000 barrels a day a last week, said Robert Wine, a London-based spokesman at BP. Greater Plutonio has pumped an average of about 180,000 barrels a day since its start in October 2007, lower than the expected plateau of 200,000 barrels a day, he said.

“Because we can’t inject as much water it affects the performance of the reservoir,” Wine said by phone today. Production will resume in May or June, Gaspar Martins, an administrator for Angola’s state-owned Sonangol EP told reporters today in Luanda, the capital.

The floating, production, storage and offloading vessel at Plutonio can process as much as 240,000 barrels of crude oil a day and 400 million standard cubic feet of natural gas, according to BP. The company plans to supply gas to Angola LNG, a project being developed by Chevron Corp.

Angola’s crude output may drop by as much as 15 percent in the first half of this year from its 2010 peak due to “chronic operational problems” at the Greater Plutonio field, the International Energy Agency said Feb. 10.

BP expects production of about 3.4 million barrels of oil equivalent a day in 2011, compared with 3.8 million barrels in 2010. Output fell 9 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.

Bloomberg.com News

African Development Bank Group (AfDB) delegation visits Republic of Angola

Luanda/Angop - A high level delegation of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is paying a one-week visit since Friday to the country, in order to discuss with the Angolan authorities possible development cooperation projects.

The delegation, which is comprised by executive directors of the AfDB, is expected to be granted an audience by the Angolan Minister of Planning, Ana Dias Lourenço.

AfDB supports in Angola development projects in the sectors of agriculture, fisheries and health, among others.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Desvalorização do dólar foi sugerida pelo Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI)

O Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI) é favorável a uma desvalorização do dólar americano, uma medida que ajudava a conter os desequilíbrios globais, segundo documento apresentado pela instituição de Bretton Woods na cimeira do G20, realizada durante o último fim-de-semana, em Paris.

A sugestão, no mínimo controversa, sustenta que se outros países contribuírem para uma depreciação do dólar isso vai permitir aos Estados Unidos da América reduzir o respectivo défice externo.

De acordo com os especialistas do Fundo, a taxa de câmbio do dólar está sobreavaliada, enquanto a de outras moedas como o euro e o iene está em níveis adequados face aos fundamentais de médio prazo, refere um dos capítulos do documento “Global Economic Prospects and Policy Challenges” colocado na quarta-feira no site da instituição.

Small Towns with Big Money to live: From summer resorts to wealthy suburbs, a look at the most expensive small towns in the U.S.

big-money-Small Towns with Big Money to live New York - Residents of America's most expensive small town get by without a chain store or even a traffic light. The town has one gas station, an elementary school, a community center, a general store, dairy and vegetable farms, and some restaurants and inns that open during the warm seasons.

Median home value is $2.237 million in Chilmark, a small town on Martha's Vineyard, an island south of Cape Cod. The town is home to 953 year-round residents, but the population swells dramatically during the summer when the rich and famous—including Seinfeld creator Larry David and actor Ted Danson—settle in for the summer. Chilmark, which includes the 300-year-old fishing village of Menemsha, has only 1,700 homes, many of them expensive vacation properties, and is the second-least densely populated town on the island. Houses rarely go on sale here, but when they do prices are high. On Sept. 12 a buyer paid $13.8 million for eight acres with a nine-bedroom home on it. In July, another buyer paid $15 million for 27 acres of land near the town's beautiful Squibnocket Beach.

"I definitely think inventory has a lot to do with it," Pamela Bunker, Chilmark's assistant assessor, said of the home values. "People are asking for high, high prices because people don't have to sell. We have amazing water views here. And the three-acre zoning keeps it really rural."

THE SELECTION PROCESS

Businessweek.com worked with Zillow.com to come up with a list of the 32 smallest towns with the highest home values. We set a cap on population of 10,000 people, although most of the towns populations fall well below that. In fact, many have fewer than 1,000 residents. We also only selected one property per Metropolitan Statistical Area, a geographical designation used by the U.S. Census, because otherwise the list would have nearly entirely dominated by towns near New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. (We did, however, include more than one home from the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA MSA because, frankly, it covers so much space that it seemed silly not to.)

Readers looking for certain towns may be disappointed not to find them on our list. Some towns had populations that were too large to qualify for our list. Others such as Jupiter Island, Fla. were left off because Zillow.com didn't have enough data on them to come up with a median home price.

Besides high prices and low populations, what the towns on the list also have in common are great locations. Many of them such as, Chilmark, Stinson Beach, Calif., Water Mill in Southampton, N.Y., Block Island along Rhode Island's coast, and Haleiwa in Hawaii are known for their gorgeous beaches. Far Hills, N.J., is a beautiful New York suburb where you'll find large country estates, polo matches, and fox hunting. And the wealthy Chicago suburb of Kenilworth, which sits on Lake Michigan, is a tight-knit community with little room for new development.

SEASONAL RESORTS AND BEDROOM COMMUNITIES

Yet these towns are not all alike. In fact, it would be quite easy to break them down into two separate categories: seasonal resorts and year-round communities. The former includes places like Chilmark and Water Mill, which chalk up their high property values to the influx of well-heeled summer people who are willing to pay top dollar for the pleasure of walking their beaches between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The latter includes Far Hills and Kenilworth, which are plush bedroom communities located a short distance from a major metropolis. The distinction is important, however, because many families looking for a place to settle may find Block Island, for example, a little inhospitable when February rolls around.

These are places with a restricted supply of real estate, much of which has been passed on from generation to generation in the same families. Residents want a small-town experience, and they are willing to pay higher taxes to keep it that way. These towns rarely have tax revenue from malls and office complexes to dip into.

"A lot of people in urban environments or fast-paced traveling environments…are looking for a lifestyle change, even if it's 48 hours or a couple weeks out of the year," said Paul Boomsma, president of LuxuryPorfolio.com, the high-end marketing arm for independent real estate brokers. "They want to go out on the front porch and all they want to hear is birds. It's a great way to have a complete recharge experience."

One of the best features of Clyde Hill, a small town just across Lake Washington from Seattle, is its location. The town has two commercial areas: one is a gas station and the second is a coffee shop. But residents don't have to go far for action.

"We're across the bridge from Seattle and adjacent to the booming downtown of Bellevue," city administrator Mitch Wasserman said. "And you're able to take advantage of gorgeous vistas of Mount Rainier."

The question remains whether these places will continue to take advantage of their buoyant property values into 2009. While it's true that most of these communities have relatively few homes, and commensurately small turnover, what is fair to say is that by this time next year the list could be completely different. The reason is that inclusion is reflective of sales. If homes fail to sell, or prices come down, the town on this list may well be replaced by others next year. All it takes is one really big sale to change the results.

By: Prashant Gopal/businessweek.com/

Money with Silver: Why Silver Prices Continue to Rise

earth-brooch-silver-macro-620 By the end of 2010, the price of silver had increased by an incredible 70% in the space of four months, and global investors are bullish about the price of silver reaching new highs in 2011/2012. Why is silver becoming a much sought after precious metal?

When the bank of China announced that ordinary Chinese should invest in silver, as an option to gold. Unveiling newly minted bars and coins with a fanfare fire cracker display, on state television. Investors around the world woke up to the fact silver was on the way up.

At the same time ordinary Chinese citizens were public ally encouraged to go to their bank and trade their dollars's into mini silver bars, and coins. In India silver traders were seeing a slow switch from gold to silver by ordinary Indians in the bazaars.

Silver values on global markets jumped up to its highest in 31 years, as China, the Worlds forth highest producer of this precious metal, announced no more silver was going to be exported. Whilst experts admitted there was a global shortage of silver.

Shortages create higher prices, and the fact that nations still holding US dollar bills, fear that quantitative easing (printing money) by the US treasury is continuing to devalue the greenback. Gold, Silver and other precious metals can be bought with these extra dollars, and in turn ensure no future dollar losses in the future, as the sale of silver can be made in a local currency.

De-coupling from the greenback has been a gradual process since the 2008 market crash, and involves a continued process of buying assets with these extra dollars. This seems to be the strategy of China, and much of the developed World. But there is another reason why silver prices are rising. Silver is needed in a wide range of Industrial products, as well as for Jewellery products such as rings and bracelets. A shortage of silver is simply driving the price up.

High gold prices are also reason silver is becoming a more valuable precious metal. In many countries, people tend to buy gold as an investment, especially jewellery. Since there is less trust in the US dollar, and the Euro, consumers seeing high gold prices, are now opting for silver.

The Chinese investor, Indian housewife and global manufactures, are the three main reasons silver could be the new gold for the next few years. And this trend also helps less developed countries which suffered because of a formerly artificially low silver price.

Silver can be freely traded through most national banks, or coin shops. Online users can purchase silver coins and mini-bars through eBay, and a wide range of silver stores. Silver coins like the American Eagle or Kennedy dollar, also make great gifts, and aid local businesses who sell them.

Discover how to Adjust to economic change.

Expert Author Mark W. Medley

By Mark W. Medley

Friday, February 25, 2011

Live Money: Advice on Buying Silver by Andy Henry

make_money_with_silver_now New York - If you're looking for advice on buying silver then you've probably already noticed that silver has suddenly become something that you're seeing mentioned online, on your TV and even at stands on your high street. There is an increasing demand for your silver from companies that used to focus mainly on buying second hand gold. Do you know why this is? Have you actually wondered why they suddenly seem to want your gold more than ever before and that they seem to want your silver almost as much as gold?

Common-sense should tell you that if they want to buy your gold and silver then they probably have a way to make money with it themselves. This is the case and not only that but they stand to make a lot of money by using the fact that they know something that most normal people don't - how much it's actually worth.

If you've ever bought anything gold or silver you'll have probably been sold it based on it's esthetically pleasing jewellery value or told about how unique and collectible it is and the fact that it's a precious metal and will always be valuable. You probably understood right away that it was valuable just because it was made of gold or silver but known that you're going to have to pay extra because of all the work that went into turning that metal into a nice piece of jewellery.

Let's just look at that statement again - You paid extra because you had to pay for the fact that time and money were spent turning it into an attractive piece of jewellery and that is part of the reason you wanted that specific item in the first place. That seems perfectly reasonable right?

You probably knew that the gold or silver that came out of the ground had a much lower value than you were paying and that to get a nice piece of jewellery you pay much more than the price of just a lump of gold or silver, but did you stop to think why you can't get that same value when you come to sell it?

When you see these advertisements on TV saying they'll give you top dollar for you old gold and silver you may think that because they're advertising publicly that they must indeed be giving good rates for your precious metal. If you check around you'll actually find that what they're offering varies hugely. Not only that but if you refuse their first offer they'll often increase it by up to 50%.

So - do you think that even with that increased offer you're going to get anything like what you paid? No chance. It doesn't work like that.

What these companies will do is weigh the metal, check what purity level it is and then make you an offer. What most people don't realise is at this point - They know exactly what it is worth. That value is called the 'spot price' - the value per ounce which that particular precious metal is quoted on the stock markets at.

In 2010 I wrote a book about silver and it's true value and how many economic and financial factors affect its price at any particular time. I even showed that only a few years earlier the price of silver was around $4 per ounce. At the time I wrote that book the spot price of silver was around $20. It's now around $30.

Read that again. The price of silver has gone from $4 to $30 in a few years. That is a huge change.

The price has gone up almost 30% in the 6 months since I wrote about it being $20 and how I believed it would rise dramatically.

The irony is - it's still not anywhere near its true value.

So the best piece of advice you can get about buying silver is to buy it as soon as you can.

Try to get the purist quality you can and get it as quickly as you can to lock in your profits as it continues to go up. We're using it faster than ever in many ways and the earth isn't producing any new stocks to replace what we consume. The true value right now is way more than its price and that is likely only to increase.

Find some nice 0.999 silver coins or bars that you can get for as close to the current spot price as possible and pay as little shipping as possible and you'll have started a wise investment for your financial future.

This article just scratches the surface of advice on buying silver and you can find a lot more information and free videos from Andy Henry over at Advice on buying silver

by Andy Henry

2011 American Silver Eagle: 5 Reasons Why You Should Buy This Silver Coin!

The 2011 American Silver Eagle coin will available for sale from select coin dealers and authorized distributors by the middle of January. Silver Eagle coins are definitely hot - sales of the silver bullion coin broke numerous records during the month of November 2010. Amazingly, even with silver trading at record levels, no other month in the coin's history has seen greater sales! This even includes December of 1986, the first month that the coin was available for sale to the public!

I purchased my very first Silver American Eagle coin back in February of 2001 (a box of 100) and paid $6.99. In those days, buying silver coins of any sort wasn't on anyone's priority list except perhaps for the most diehard silver fans. With a gain of 329.18% on that coin, as you might imagine, I'm thrilled with my decision to invest in this popular silver bullion coin.

You're probably wondering, however, with the price of silver trading over $30 an ounce, does it still makes sense to invest in the 2011 American Silver Eagle?

The answer to that question is a resounding YES!

Here are 5 reasons why I believe you should invest in this lovely silver coin.

1. You can add them to your IRA. In fact, they are the only silver coin that you are allowed to put in your retirement account. Great for diversification purposes!

2. They have a U.S. government guarantee. They are the only silver bullion coins whose silver purity, weight and content are guaranteed by the U.S. government. When you purchase a silver eagle you know that you are getting one troy ounce of 99.9% pure silver!

3. They are very easy to buy and sell. Because of their recognition worldwide and backing by the United States government, you won't have any trouble buying or selling these coins from or to online dealers or local coin shops.

4. Shhhhh! You don't have to report your sale to the IRS. That's not the case with some precious metals. No matter how many American Silver Eagles you sell, you won't have to fill out that nasty 1099B form come tax time!

5. Even now, with the price of silver trading over $30 an ounce, the potential profit you can make is excellent. The price of silver closed at $16.99 an ounce on December 31st 2009. If I had told you on that date that American Silver Eagles were still cheap and that if you bought now, you would make an 82% return on your investment in 2010, would you have believed me?

I don't know what the price of silver will ultimately do in 2011. However, all the current factors that made the metal so attractive in 2010 are still in place - investor demand, a weak U.S. dollar, uncertainty about the global financial system (particularly Europe), worries about inflation, etc.

With the current environment, I believe buying the beautiful 2011 American Silver Eagle Coin is going to be one of the smartest investment moves you'll make in 2011!

If you haven't secured your order of 2011 American Silver Eagle yet, now is the time to act!
The U.S. Mint is limiting the allocation of 2011 Silver American Eagles to distributors.

Order yours today at: ==>
http://BullionBargains.us

Make Money Now: Gold Price Forecast for 2011 by Hilda Chan

Forecast: Rally to continue, but in a slower rate than 2010

1.) A Quick Summary of 2010 the Price Trend

1a.) Technical Summary:

2010 saw a continued rally in gold price which was up from USD1044.4 (1 Feb 2010) to USD1431.33 (6 Dec 2010), a 37% increase in 12 months. The trend stayed within the uptrend channel that started in 2001 when price's lowest price was USD253.5. Gold price has risen close USD1200 over the last 10 years, an increase of 565%, which has doubled in 2 years, from USD682 (Oct 2008).

2010 Q1 February gold price hit its lowest price, then the rally started until Dec 2010 when it reached new historical high at 1431.33. Q1 and Q3 were technical corrections seasons, and Q2 and Q4 were rally seasons.

2010 Seasonal Trends the Yellow Metal ( total rise of 37%):

Q1: highest price was 1136, lowest price was 1044 -correction season (down 8% from 1136)

Q2: new peak achieved at 1255.49 (21 June 2010) - a rally season - (up 11% from 1044)

Q3: July saw a correction; price was down to 1156 - correction - (down 8% from 1255.49)

August & Sept saw another rally - new peak at 1320.6 (27 Sept 2010) - (up 14% from 1156)

Q4: New historical peak achieved at 1431.33 (6 Dec 2010) - a rally season (up 24% from 1156)

1b.) Fundamentals Support for Gold Price's rally in 2010:

Increased in investment and physical demands were supporting gold price to rise over the whole of 2010. Commodities prices rose as a result of increasing demands mainly from emerging countries, and also caused by increasing speculative demands from the markets. Other commodities such as aluminum, palladium, also surged in 2010.

Physical demands came mainly from emerging countries such as India and China increased their yellow metal reserves as USD was trading at low levels. Indians and Chinese were also purchasing higher volumes of gold as an investment asset. China further opening up its Shanghai gold exchange in Q3 of 2010 further pushed up the price. While India's national spending on the yellow metal's purchases increased by over 90% in 2010 alone. Another big increase in buying came from Russia as physical demand was also up and national reserves in gold holdings also went up as a hedge against the falling US dollar. We also saw some other nations taking the same actions as USD was on a slide.

Increase in the world's largest Gold ETF fund; SPDR ETF's gold holdings were up to over 1300 tones from around 1100 tones at the start of 2010. International governments were also increasing their yellow metal's holdings as foreign reserves, hedging against the falling USD.

SPDR EFT Gold Trust up 28% in 2010.

Investment demand for the yellow metal was also strong as investors turned to this precious metal as an alternative investment against Euro and US dollars. Risk appetite for gold went up and pushed gold price to new peaks as Euro debts caused serious concerns to the markets. As Euro zone debts problems worsened; Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Greece went into severe troubles with their national debts, and saw their ratings downgraded. EU had to implement undesirable policies to rescue those countries. Euro against USD fell sharply from 1.500 (start of 2010) to 1.180 (June 2010), and recovered slightly to around 1.300 levels as debts problems were easing. The 'safe haven' factor as investors turned to gold during the Euro debts crisis, was a major leading factor behind the yellow metal price's strong rally during the 2nd half of 2010.

The other key factor was the weak US economy. US Fed's Quantitative Easing QE2 rescue policy in Q4 of 2010 gave gold price a final push above 1350, and hitting 1430 (historical peak). The easing of US monetary policy to boost the weak US economy, lead to another surge in investment demand for gold.

USD Index 1 year chart. As USD index was trading weak against other major currencies, markets once again turned to gold. High US unemployment rate at around 9.3%, slow retail sales and housing markets still in a slump, US interest rates stayed at low levels during 2010, and gold continued to rise as alternative investment demands increased. The yellow metal's saw a straight daily jump of USD20 each time when there was weak US economic data came out.

2.) 2011 Gold Price Trend Forecast

Do we think the rally will continue in 2011? The answer is "Yes". We expect the yellow metal's price will rise further, but at a slower rate than in 2010. We forecast gold price would increase by 15-25%, the price of gold could rise into the 1680 - 1900 area.

Do we think gold price is in a bubble? No, not at current price levels. And the trend was not always on a straight up since 2008. in 2009, and 2010, each time it achieved new peaks, there were healthy corrections of 5% - 10%. The price would be seen as a bubble if there was no corrections in the price's uptrend.

2a.) Technical Forecast For 2011 Gold Price Trend:

Looking back at our 2010 forecast, we predicted that the yellow metal would see rallies in Q2 and Q4, and Q1 and Q3 would see corrections. As it turned out, we were correct in the predictions of quarterly pattern.

2a.) 2011 Quarterly Technical Trend:

Q1: Technical corrections season - around 8 - 10% from peak price of 1431

Q2: Rally season

Q3: Correction followed by rally

Q4: Rally then corrections begin

A new historical peak could be reached in the area of 1680 - 1900.

Looking at the 10 year up trend chart. The yellow metal's price has been on a rising trend since 2001, when price of gold was at around USD250, and the uptrend became steeper started in 2007. As long as the price remains on the uptrend, the trend should continue to rise in 2011.

Looking at the Weekly Chart.

The yellow metal price went up from USD1044 (Feb 2010) to 1431.33 (Dec 2010).

The resistance line indicates that near term key resistance should be around 1550. While key horizontal resistance should be at 1387. That is, if gold price fell through 1387, then the uptrend could be collapsed.

As mentioned above, we forecast the trend to be rising through 2011, and could enter the 1680 - 1900 area.

Looking at the Quarterly Chart:

The yellow metal should enter a corrections season in Q1 of 2011, could see a 8% - 10% correction. It could go though another step-by-step rising trend, where Q1 and Q3 could see technical corrections, and Q2 and Q4 would see the yellow metal price on a rally.

2b). Fundamentals Factors affecting Gold Price Trend in 2011

The yellow metal's physical demands would continue to be on an increase as countries such as India and China's economies continue to grow. Domestic demands for gold would see increases. We expect China could further expand its gold exchange business as the investment demand from local Chinese has also been on a rise. And there's also Russia as a key buyer of gold to increase its gold holdings as foreign reserves. However, as China could further increase its interest rates to calm inflation and control growing housing prices, the 2011 GDP growth in China could see a slow down. Thus could cause a slower increase in physical demand for the yellow metal, in comparison with 2010.

While European debts problems would keep coming back into the picture, as the problem is still far from being completely resolved. Each time the Euro debts problem creeps into the picture, we could expect the risk appetite for the yellow metal to rise again. However, as Euro zone has also kept its key rates at low levels, the EU central banks could begin to lift rates during 2nd half of 2011, this could cause damages to its price.

After US implemented easing monetary policy, key economic data have shown better signs of US economic recovery. While the US trade deficit, unemployment still remain as weak areas of the overall recovery picture, US Fed's relaxed monetary policy should remain for at least during the 1st half of 2011. USD index should continue to be weak against other major currencies as US Fed intends to keep USD low for sometime to boost its exports. The yellow metal's price would remain strong as the US economic recovery process could still undergo some key obstacles. But, as positive signs of recovery could come into the picture during 2nd half of 2011, the price could see corrections as investors would turn to US stocks for immediate investments returns.

Inflation fear,would be a key factor in 2011 for a strong yellow metal price. The price could also be lifted as fear of inflation continue to rise. As emerging countries have forecast their domestic inflation to be rising as a result of higher than expected domestic growth, domestic prices could see further increase. European countries and US, if are viewed as on the road to recovery, inflation pressure could increase. This could give another support for the yellow metal's price to see more upwards momentum, as a hedge against inflationary pressure.

In Summary:

Looking at 2011 Gold Price Trend Chart: We forecast the price to continue to rise in 2011. As long as the demands are still up, prices should continue to rise in 2011. However, the rate of increase would not be as significant as in 2010. The trend could also be more volatile as the price had already gone up by over 30% in 2010, and has come up from USD682 (20 Oct 2008) to 1431 (6 Dec 2010) which is a 110% increase in 2 years. We expect a 15% - 25% increase in the yellow metal's price this year, in step-by-step uptrend, and if technicals hold, the price could see USD1680-USD1900 per troy ounce in 2011.

Hilda Chan publishes regular articles on Goldtrades Info - Get more FREE Daily Gold Price Analysis and News.

Get Gold Price 2011 Charts and News

How Silver Affects Gold, and Vice Versa By Rachel F Paiste

Gold has been trending up all year, well past the numbers expected by market analysts. And while some are now speculating that gold's run is coming to an end, others believe that there may be more space to grow for the red-hot commodity. Silver is also on the up and up, and, believe it or not, the two are interconnected in a massive metal web, with one profoundly affecting the others place in the market.

How can this be possible? There are multiple drivers that affect a stock's performance, including the miners and the global demand (which does change fairly often). And though one can often jump ahead of the other, sooner or later they meet back in happy equilibrium. If your 401k includes shares in the commodities market, speak with your financial advisor about what the changing silver and gold rates mean for you and your retirement planning. That way you and your certified financial planner can work together to make educated decisions about what's best for your personal finances.

Currently, silver is pulling ahead of gold. That's not unheard of, but the rates that its value is escalating are unprecedented. But when major holding companies order large quantities of silver, it sometimes takes months for the bullion to arrive after the paper purchase has been made. The slowness of the silver to come from the mining facilities to the funds that are buying them could affect the price of the precious metal in the future.

Thankfully for silver investors, that looks quite unlikely. Even if the metal is slow to arrive, between industrial and medical uses its value is huge. The trading price of silver will remain high as long as the demand does. Whether gold is riding silver's wave or on a high wave of its own is unclear, but either metal seems to be a wise investment at this point. If you are interested in buying silver or gold - or buying more silver or gold, speak with your financial advisor today.

Don't have a financial advisor? Fee-based financial advisors get paid only when your stocks make money, so an appointment to discuss options could be free!

Fashion house Dior suspends John Galliano over racial slur

PARIS: Fashion house Dior said it has suspended chief designer John Galliano pending the outcome of a police enquiry into allegations he assaulted and used anti-Semitic insults against a couple.

The flamboyant British fashion designer was briefly detained by police after he allegedly verbally accosted a couple seated on a cafe terrace. An altercation erupted for an unknown reason at La Perle cafe between Galliano and the couple.
The couple said Galliano made derogatory comments about them with reference to Jews and Asians.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Who Will Wear The Crown? African Beauties at the 2011 Miss Universe Pageant

It seems like just yesterday but it has already been a year since the last Miss Universe competition. Once again, our beauty queens from all around Africa have converged to compete for the most lucrative crown in the global beauty queen industry – Miss Universe.

This year the competition takes place in Las Vegas, USA. The girls have already arrived and are participating in various activities and contests ahead of the main event which will take place on the 23rd of August 2010.

Ngozi Odalonu, the 1st runner up from the 2010 Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria (MBGN) pageant is representing Nigeria. With her athletic body and pretty face, we believe she has a good chance, what do you think?

African queens have won the Miss Universe crown three times – Miss South Africa in 1978, Miss Namibia in 1992 and Miss Botswana in 1999.

Do any of the African Queens stand a chance?


Take a walk down memory lane – Check out BellaNaija.com’s coverage of Miss Universe over the years

Miss Universe 2006Feature 1 | Feature 2
Miss Universe 2007Feature 1
Miss Universe 2008Feature
Miss Universe 2009Feature 1 | Feature 2| Feature 3
MBGN 2010Feature
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Nigeria – Ngozi Odalonu – 22

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Angola – Jurema Ferraz – 25

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Botswana – Tirelo Ramasedi – 21

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Egypt -Donia Hammed – 22

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Ghana – Awurama Simpson – 22

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South Africa – Nicole Flint -22

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Tanzania – Hellen Dausen – 23

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Zambia – Alice Musukwa – 22

By BellaNaija.com

Sunday, February 20, 2011

5 Ways To Make Money Online: Marketing, Blogging, etc

Today, making money online has never been easier. New opportunities are literally sprouting out daily. It can get pretty confusing and complicated to try and choose which of the opportunities to grab. The following ways are still the best and most effective ways of making money online.

1. Affiliate marketing - Affiliate marketing is simply selling other people's products and services. If you make a successful sale, you earn a sales commission. If you have experience of offline sales, then affiliate marketing will be a lot easier to learn for you. There are thousands of affiliate companies online from which you can choose from. These include Amazon, ClickBank, eBay, Commission Junction and a whole lot more. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages so it's best that you weigh down all these pros and cons against each other to find the affiliate company suited for you. There are many ways as well of doing affiliate marketing. The best way still is to create a website, your own website where you can then promote and sell your affiliate products and services. You can also buy advertisements from other websites or ad programs and include in your ads your affiliate links.

2. Blogging - It is very common nowadays to hear of bloggers making full-time incomes online. You can as well if you have the right skills and attitude. The key to blogging business is patience and your actual knowledge about what you are blogging about. There are numerous ways on how to monetize a blog. The most used technique is to display advertising on your blog. These could be direct ads purchased from you served by advertising programs like AdSense or Bidvertiser. You can also promote affiliate products and services on your blog. All you have to do is direct your visitors to affiliate companies and if they buy something, you earn a sales commission. Or you can create your own products like an eBook and sell it directly on your blog.

3. Freelance writing - The internet is run and powered by content which can be in the form of images, videos, articles or a combination of the three. Now, it is without a doubt that articles comprise more than 50% of the internet's content. This is great news if you are a freelance writer. Blogs, websites and companies are always in the lookout for freelance writers to hire. All you have to do is find these writing jobs. There are hundreds of job boards online listing these writing jobs. Just find them and apply.

4. Domain flipping - You set up and create websites then offer them up for sale. This can be very lucrative if you are good in finding profitable and in-demand niches.

5. Direct selling - This is the best way to make money online if you have your own product that you yourself created. You can list your product in sale directories or you can setup a website just for the product.

The above-mentioned ways to make money online are the most popular and effective. Start using them first before you try your hands on other ways.

Ready To Start Your Own Internet Based Business And Make Real Money Online? Generate 5 Figures Every Month. Discover The Amazing Secret...For A Limited Time Only - Go Tohttp://www.tofinancialsuccess.com for free ebook to download "How To Make $100 Per Day, Every Day!"

Varolo Review: Make Money Watching Television Ads?

Varolo is a multi level marketing opportunity based on the power of watching television ads. The reasoning behind it is that large conglomerates spend millions of dollars putting on TV adverts. The problem is that the advertiser has no idea what type of person will be watching (or putting the kettle on) as the case may be. This form of "blanket advertising" is not great and what advertisers really want are laser targeted adverts aimed at a targeted audience. So how do they do this?

What they do is that they recruit people specifically to watch the adverts, with the idea that they get paid a very small fee per each advert that they watch. How the multi level marketing opportunity comes in is that when you join which is totally free you are afforded membership into the village or group which is a platform whereby you will find a plethora of adverts that you can watch.

The more you watch with Varolo, the more you get paid. When you sponsor people into the opportunity they will be placed directly into your group. This means that you will also get paid a percentage of the fees from the adverts that they watch, and so on, so forth so the more adverts your collective group watches, the more you get paid.

You may well be thinking that all you have to do is to log in, and leave the computer running all day whilst you go off and do something else. However the company have a data catcha system where you have to log in at regular intervals during the time that you are watching so that the they can monitor your progress. If you don't log in you will not get paid.

Although it takes absolutely no skill to sit and watch adverts and it is totally free to join, the amounts that you get paid watching adverts is small change. The key is to develop a large community of ad watchers. If you can do this, then you stand a good chance of making some money. However I'm guessing that you would have to create a team the size of a small country to be able to make possible life changing sums of money with the Varolo opportunity.

Dane Tanodra is a internet marketing coach who works with many top marketers from all around the world. If you want to learn more about Dane or how you can earn five figures monthly from home without having to sell, take a look at Freedom2Wealth

Monday, February 7, 2011

Gianna Nannini: “Dimentica”, dell’album “io e te” - Testo e musica

rengianna-nannini-itunes-prima Il nuovo album “Io e te” (etichetta Sony Music) di Gianna Nannini è sempre ai primi posti della classifica Fimi degli album più venduti negli ultimi giorni. L’album è stato pubblicato l’11 gennaio scorso, anticipato dal bellissimo singolo “Ogni tanto“. C’è da dire che il singolo che è in rotazione dal 3 dicembre scorso, è stato dedicato alla nascita della figlia Penelope Jane.

Dimentica
Dimentico ancora un po’ e ti vedrò dolcissimo atteso inganno
mi arrampico e in alto arriverò
indietro lascio la tristezza e un abbandono
no, non dirmi come sei come cambierai
preferisco non pensare
non dirmi come stai per ogni offesa e pianto io mi perdono
dimentica lascia che sia facile dimentica cerca tra le nuvole
immagina di andare via di perderti nel vento niente si fermerà
dimentica luci che si accendono dimentica nodi che si sciolgono
c’é musica ovunque andrai
e il buio che sembra inverno si ridipingerà
ehi, lo vedi come sei resti fermo lì, ti conviene il tuo dolore
non dirmi che farai l’amore è una parola
c’é stato un tempo e il tempo è ora
dimentica lascia che sia facile dimentica soffia sulla cenere
sei musica ovunque andrai
e il buio che sembra eterno non ci spaventerà
dimentica mani che si arrendono dimentica c’e l’alba tra le nuvole
e l’abitudine di me di te è un ombra sai,
per noi che abbiamo scritto e cancellato tutto, e abbiamo fatto
ogni salita senza chiedere perché dimentica.