Turkey's defense, Pakistan top Clinton's agenda

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures as she speaks during a ceremony in recognition of World AIDS Day, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012, at the State Department in Washington, where she released The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, (PEPFAR) Blueprint' for Creating an AIDS- Free Generation. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures as she speaks during a ceremony in recognition of World AIDS Day, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2012, at the State Department in Washington, where she released The U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, (PEPFAR) Blueprint' for Creating an AIDS- Free Generation. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

PRAGUE (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has arrived in the Czech Republic for talks on energy policy in a country heavily dependent on Russian fuel.

It's her first stop in a five-day trip to Europe. Also on her agenda are Turkey's defense and U.S. relations with Pakistan.

Clinton joins NATO foreign ministers in Brussels to discuss Turkey's request for Patriot missile assistance. Violence is raging in neighboring Syria, which is believed to have several hundred surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads ? a particular concern for Turkey, a NATO member.

On Friday, NATO said it will deploy the Patriots within weeks after the move is approved.

Clinton will also meet Pakistan's foreign minister, Hina Rabbani Khar.

Clinton's trip ends Friday with visits to Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-12-02-Clinton/id-ad5cf3c6e9134fe69105db0722d5c5d9

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First Person: 'expected salary' or what I think I'm worth?

Five million Americans are among the long-term unemployed--those without a job for 27 weeks or longer--according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Another 7.3 million are looking for work, while the unemployment rate sits at 7.9 percent. Numbers aside, individual stories illustrate how America is affected. To see how joblessness hits home, Yahoo News asked unemployed workers to share their job-hunting stories. Here's one.

FIRST PERSON | As a TV news photographer, I hauled my growing family from state to state, eventually ending up in Cincinnati as the manager of a 21-person photography staff making more money than I had ever made in my career. Then, in 2010, I was called in and told my position was being eliminated and so was I.

I was on the job hunt, seeking out a video position in the Cincinnati area, but I had little luck. So, I expanded my search to the lower 48 states, and I filled out a dozen applications a week. I interviewed in Nashville, Tenn., Orlando, Fla., in Kansas and at the University of Arizona. Nothing was successful.

While job-hunting, invariably, there came a part of the application where I was asked to state what I expected to make as a salary.

This posed a problem. Depending on the job in question, if I stated what I made previously as a manager ($73,000) I would immediately price myself out of the job. If I reduced the amount, I would be undervaluing myself and losing money. Some say to just put "negotiable" in the window and move on, but the application program often only accepts numbers and displays an error message with this tactic. Lately, my method has been to put "$1" in the window, which is my numeric equivalent of negotiable.

My point is this: If the company I'm applying to finds the concept of salary a deal-maker or a deal-breaker, why not clearly state the maximum salary or the range the company will pay in the want ad?

This way, I (or you) can decide to apply or not, saving both us and the company time, effort and frustration. If the company feels this is valid information to ask, why is it not equally valid to state in the ad? Like most, I'm looking for a position that pays as much as possible, but I'm also aware I won't make the same amount as I did as a manager. I'm OK with that, as the wife thankfully has a good job. But I don't want to work for nothing, either.

Some do post the numbers and good on them for doing so. But a frustrating majority does not, and that causes unnecessary anxiety in a time where many of us are already maxed out on our own personal anxiety.

Eventually, I landed an $11-an-hour job at a sales warehouse (counting jeans, sweatshirts and tools for inventory). This was meant to be temporary, but the work kept dragging on. Finally, in March 2011, I found a staff photographer position at a Cincinnati TV station. At $31,000 a year, I hadn't made that little since 1993. I was grateful, though; I was working in TV again! I worked there for a year and a half, but I was going broke. My daughter just entered college, and I had two small ones at home.

When my wife found a job in financial services in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved there for the job, the kids and I soon followed. That's where I am now, working a seasonal job at a national big box store, making $8 an hour to arrange toys on a shelf.

But I tell no one about it because, right or wrong, I'm ashamed.

I even made sure that the store was not in my neighborhood so I wouldn't see anyone I know or they me. I know this is an unreasonable attitude and that I should be glad to just have a job. I really, honestly, truly do realize how immature these thoughts I'm experiencing are, but I can't deny they constantly push themselves into my conscious thought so regularly that I'm forced to confront and deal with them as corrosive to my everyday well-being.

Although I feel threatened by my self-perceived obsolescence, I still find comfort and confidence in my knowledge, skills and abilities in video and communication in general. It's funny, but despite all of my insecurities that swirl around me like leaves in fall, I still know that I do what I do very, very well.

If only someone would give me the chance.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/first-person-application-dilemma-expected-salary-think-im-221000291--finance.html

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Bruce Krasting On Social Security - Business Insider

Social Security (SS) has released its estimates for the December data for benefits payed and taxes received. With this info, I can estimate the 2012 results that will be formally reported in five-months. It was a ho-hummer of a year for SS, it tread water vigorously, and ended up with a cash deficit of $46.7B, just a tad more red ink that 2011?s $45.6B. The pieces of the pie, and YoY comps:

Payroll tax receipts: ? $712.7B ??????? (+6.5%)?

(Includes payment from Treasury Re the 2% tax cut)

Income from Tax on Benefits? $27.1B ????????? (+15%) !!

(Means test)

Total Cash Receipts ? ? ? ? ? ?$739.8 ? ? ? ? ? ?(+7.0%)

Benefit Payments ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$780B ? ? ? ? ? ? (+6.9%)

(Includes RR interchange)

Overhead ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$6.7B ? ? ? ? ? ? (+4.7%)

Total cash Outlay ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$786B ?????????? (6.8%)

Net cash flow loss ? ? ? ? ? ? ? $46.7B ????????? (+2.4%)

Interest income ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?$111.4B ? ? ? ? (-1.7%)

(non-cash)

Accounting surplus ? ? ? ? ? ? $64.7B ???????? ?(-2.5%)

(Paper minus cash)

Number of Beneficiaries ? ?$56.8m ? ? ? ? ?(+2.5%)

Some thoughts on these results:

- The $46.7B annual cash deficit is the third in a row. The 2012 shortfall confirms it; SS will never see a cash flow surplus again. Every dollar of the cash shortfall?MUST?be funded by selling additional debt to the public.

I hope this is clear. I?ll repeat it.?Social Security is adding to the debt held by the public. It is forcing the country to borrow more to fund current operations. When Senate Democrats, like Dick Durbin and Harry Reid say,??SS does not add a penny to our debt.????they are lying.

+++

- The Tax on Benefits is up to a meaningful $27.1b (+15%). The increase is the result of many newly retired folks who are? getting SS, and also have other income (investments and pensions). This forces them to add the SS income into their tax base.?THIS IS A ?MEANS TEST?.

I emphasize this fact as there is very strong opposition to the concept of a means tax for SS by Democrats in Washington and the liberal press (Dean Baker).?But it already exists!

Liberals don?t like means testing because it undermines the principals of SS. It makes it appear that SS is a form of welfare. The fear is that if SS is labeled as welfare, the popularity of the program would quickly wane. So the staunchest supporters of SS are avoiding a fix that could patch the finances for the worst reasons. They are supporting Roosevelt?s dreams, at the expense of the base they say they are trying to protect.?Only in America?.

The problem with the existing Tax on Benefits is that it does not cut deep enough to fill the bucket. I advocate that the tax bite for high-end seniors be increased. I will go further, and state that the means test for SS benefits should be based on assets, not just income that can be manipulated.

My strong feelings on means testing? SS benefits are to my personal disadvantage; my SS benefits would be gone under my plan. I say this now, as I know there will be many who will throw rocks at me for my stance. I can already see the words,??I paid for it, the money is mine!??I say,?Sorry, this will come sooner or later.?

My gripe is that the generation that is causing the problem, the Baby Boomers, is getting off scot-free. All of the proposals to tweak SS (Age and inflation adjustments) would phase in over twenty-years. With this, the bulk of the baby boomers would get a free ride. This doesn?t seem fair at all to me. Society, as a whole, will have to pay for the Boomers, but the Boomers should shoulder a higher percent of the cost.? By no means should their political clout result in an unfair outcome. This is a political ?Kick of the Can?, ?screw folks sometime in the future?. A downright ugly plan at that.

+++

- In 2012 the Treasury paid SS $115B to offset the drop in income related to the 2% reduction in payroll taxes for the year. The operating results (including the Treasury contribution) still produced a cash flow deficit of $46.7B. In other words, the shortfall for 2012 added?$162B?to the borrowing requirements at Treasury. This borrowing resulted in a dollar-for-dollar increase in the Debt Owed to the Public.?

+++

-? There was an improvement (+6.5%) in the YoY payroll tax income. A portion of the better results are annual ?Adjustments?. 2012 had positive adjustments to revenue from the prior year totaling $2.1B, while 2011 had negative adjustments of $8.6B. Taken together, the real rate of increase for revenues at SS is closer to 5.2%.? This data can be used to create an estimate of total payroll income (Adjusted payroll income / Tax rate {12.4%} :

2011 estimated SS total payrolls = $5.658T

2012 estimated SS total payroll = $5.951T

YoY change = $293B (1.8%)

The ~$300B of increased pay seems like a very big number, but when you consider that inflation is running at about that same 1.8%, most folks are getting no place fast.

I draw this comparison to make a point about the huge numbers that are part of the economy. A $300B increase in worker?s incomes doesn?t move the needle at all.?Amazing?

Note: This quickie numbers analysis does not reflect the cap of $106.5K on SS tax, nor other sources of income that is not taxed by SS. I don?t think this skews the results/conclusions by much. Social Security has 155m in its pool, significantly larger than the Non-Farms Payroll (135m). These numbers cover a big slice of the American pie.

+++

- The YoY increase in Benefits of $50.1B (6.9%) is a reflection of?A)? A COLA increase of 3.6% and?B)?A net increase of 1.4m in the number of beneficiaries. The costs at SS rose at a pace that is far higher than the economy grew in 2012. Approximately 11,000 people enter the system every day. 7,000 current members of the club, well, they leave the system 24/7.

+++

- Interest income is down 2.5% in 2012. The decrease of $1.1B is modest, but also significant. The passage of time and ZIRP/QE, has caught up with SS?s investment portfolio. The interest income at SS for 2011 will prove to be the zenith; from now on, the interest income at SS will be in annual decline. This is an important milestone, a decidedly negative one at that.

?The Federal Reserve has cheapened the cost of money at the expense of SS. One can argue the merits of this tradeoff, but what can?t be argued, is the consequence to SS. If the Ten-Year were at 4% (Versus the 6% long-term average) it would add $700B to SS interest income over the next (critical) ten-years.

?If you listen to Bernanke, the other Fed Doves, guys like the WSJ?s Jon Hilsenrath, and all of the economists on TV, you would think that there is no consequence to the government of perpetual cheap money. Actually, what Bernanke is doing is dramatically shortening the day of reckoning for SS. The current thinking is the SS ?go bust? date is 2033. But when SS releases its annual report in May, it will confirm that the date has been brought forward a few years, and the culprit is cheap money. ?I wish that someone other than the blog world would point these things out. Bernanke is no pal of SS, Very Important People, like Paul Krugman, love SS and also hail Bernanke?s endless cheap money. I guess they don?t see the conflict.

+++?(finally, sorry for running on)

- There was no crisis at SS in 2012, and there won?t be a real crisis for a number of years to come. The growing annual cash deficits are now ?programmed? to happen. This gives Democrats the opportunity to say,??Hands off SS?. ?It ain?t broke, so don?t try to fix it?.

My guess is that the Democrats will prevail on SS with regard to the current fiscal cliff debate. As a result, there will be no changes to SS. Should that be the outcome, in about five years the wheels will fall off the cart. By then, SS will be running cash deficits of at least $200B a year. It will be much harder to ?fix? than today.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/bruce-krasting-on-social-security-2012-12

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Business Loans | OVIEW.NET

? posted on Sunday, December 2nd, 2012 at 12:22 pm by Oview

The company loan is an essential part of most business operations. To be totally clear though, we are talking about business finance in the form of the loans that businesses take out instead of any loans they may well make themselves. There?s a number of distinct sorts also, based on what?s actually involved. We?ll go via a couple of of them here.

So first of all you have your bog standard commercial loan. This is a loan which will probably be acquired by a enterprise just because it is a nicely run company, it has a decent turn over and it will be able to pay for the loan via its revenue. There?s nothing special involved here and it?s something that banks will make accessible. To get the best prices though, the best interest rates on commercial loans, going to a commercial broker can be a excellent idea. There are plenty of other enterprise lenders out there who may well just offer lower rates than the banks are doing.

Then you?ve your loans that are connected to something in specific. So there?s your asset finance, for instance. This indicates that you are able to acquire a capital asset, some piece of machinery for instance, but not pay outright for it. Rather you?ll be able to get financing so that you?ll be able to pay for it in instalments. The folks you?re purchasing the asset off might not be willing to go for that arrangement, but you should be able to locate a commercial lender who is willing to purchase it for you, and then you?ll pay them back. It makes the asset more costly in the long run, but signifies that your cash flow is substantially improved.

Similar to asset finance is property finance.

Again, rather than paying for it upfront, something only extremely rich and liquid businesses would be able to complete anyway, they can get a commercial mortgage. This can be something banks will also supply but to get commercial mortgage rates as low as you?ll be able to going to a commercial broker is good business generally.

Then you?ll find the less conventional business finance alternatives, things that banks do not always provide. That may be things like factoring. In a factoring arrangement, the commercial lender will pay for invoices that the business sends out. They pay about 90% straight away, and then after the client has got around to truly paying it, then the organization will get the rest. Needless to say that?s less the fee that the lender takes for providing the organization with this service. Invoice discounting is precisely the very same except that the client will not know what?s going on, they will not realise that a lender is involved.

When things are not going so properly what a organization is going to need, perhaps, is an insolvency arrangement. Sometimes organizations take too long, they don?t need to admit to themselves that they are in severe difficulties, and they are unable to stay away from

pages: 1 2

Source: http://www.oview.net/business/business-loans.html

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bossmao: Streaming Video Web Hosting - samuelfolkes.com ...

On the other hand, streaming files are not actually downloaded, so your files stay where you want them ? with you. Some sites required users to adopt the commonly used file formats for videos and also limit their users to upload a video that lasted about 15 minutes and not more than that. To avoid problems, it makes sense to store and distribute the video files from a separate server ? in fact renting space on a server hosting video provided by a company that specializes in streaming. It is basically where your website files are located and can be accessed by your visitors. In addition to the live broadcast and on-demand files, the server can also save as FLV H.264/AAC container and MPEG-4. Web hosting services can provide unlimited storage and compress files to load. Simply enter your website will not be accessible in the World Wide Web if you do not have web hosting. For starters, your visitors can access any part of the file at any time. A web hosting server for video sharing and video streaming can be very lucrative in this day and age. Businesses of all sizes are increasingly turning to using streaming video on the web as a way to interact with their customers and with the availability of powerful video editing software and cheap but affordable camcorders and webcams that produce high-quality video and sound, it is now possible for even small businesses to create effective streaming video content to a relatively low cost. Due to the popularity of web hosting today, it is important to decide for the better, not just cheaper options for novices. The tool is referred to as "Mobile Web 2.0 arena using this aspect can broadcast their videos and live without any delay everyone can access it.
In addition, web hosting services can put a video device security on the downloaded videos to ensure they appear on sites that are dictated by society. Do not deal with companies that provide misleading titles. Of course, this is not really a problem if you are a large company with enough budget to hire IT professionals to meet your accommodation needs. Therefore, if you are not currently incorporating these rich media files in the website of your business, you'll soon find you are leaving money on the table. What this means is expensive to get a web hosting service online video service fails to ensure quality viewing experience, unless the company providing the services with the latest programs and a gear with software. While you may not have the capital to start the business, you can still use audio-visual presentations to help your business stand out and enjoy the most possible gains.
Check the reputation of the company means there for a long time also providing quality services online. On the video hosting is a service where a website provides a platform for users to upload and share their videos. It is therefore essential to choose a first class service to execute streaming live streaming on your own. If you still do not want to get a crowd, here are four reasons why you should: 2.Having a service provider to host your website you away from the headaches of running your own server. No control over the content, advertising your competitors showing on your content and links to other content which may be less relevant to your audience are all risks you take when you use a free service. While traditional web hosting services can support audio and video via a technology called "progressive download," there are a number of limitations to this approach.
Your site becomes more "sticky" ? and your results more robust. Common practice among users is that they apply unintelligible titles and lack of clarity on the videos, which will not be familiar with the sites and also the search engines on the Internet. Using Flash Media Server sites significantly increases site traffic and increases the number of users / visitors on the site. Free Video Hosting: Free video hosting (or more accurately sharing) sites are designed for sharing regular content with friends and the wider community. Similarly, there are specific sites where you can get your domain name, but there are also web hosting providers that offer both for a reduced price. Here's an overview of what a website hosting is.
The user can ignore some of the video and did not need to wait for the entire file to download to do the same, and hence the minimal use of resources of the client. Namely, the large file size associated with audio and video files may result in downloading time too long. Forest people in their social media accounts, sending e-mails, watch videos or live streaming and chatting with friends all over the world have become a normal part of life. The main reason for the success of live streaming hosting is that it saves the amount involved in the process of data transfer, creates a general reserve for people putting events live over the Internet and ensures trouble free streaming continuous videos, also allows to view events broadcast without interruption. Be prepared to meet these demands and give them a video production that is truly special. In all models free video sharing the cost of hosting your video is paid for by advertising.

Source: http://www.samuelfolkes.com/streaming-video-web-hosting/

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Obama's decision on US-Canada oil pipeline may preview new term's energy, climate approach (Star Tribune)

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Boycott-hit voting begins in Kuwait

KUWAIT CITY (AP) ? Deeply divided Kuwait opened polling stations Saturday to pick a new parliament that's certain to side with the ruling establishment after a widespread election boycott by opposition groups.

The voting underscored the deepening tensions in the strategic Gulf nation, a major oil producer and hub for U.S. ground forces as part of the Pentagon's military counterweight to Iran.

Opposition groups ? ranging from hardline Islamists to Western-leaning liberals ? have already called the new parliament illegitimate because of the boycott and could increasingly shift their protests to the streets against Kuwait's ruling family.

The anti-government groups have bitterly denounced a decree in October by Kuwait's emir to end an unusual balloting system that allowed four choices per voter.

Critics claim the new one-vote-per-person rule will make it easier for state authorities to potentially influence the outcome. On the eve of the election, more than 15,000 people joined a peaceful pro-boycott march in the first rally permitted by authorities since a ruling last month banning gatherings of more than 20 people.

Security forces watched over polling stations, but there were no immediate indications of unrest or boycott supporters trying to disrupt the voting. Some opposition groups predict turnout could be well below 50 percent.

Kuwait has the Gulf's most political powerfully parliament, which was in the hands of Islamists and their allies earlier this year before the courts dissolved it over a legal challenge by the ruling establishment over electoral districts.

The country also has some of the widest political and media freedoms among the Gulf Arab states, but key government posts and policies remain under the control of the ruling family.

The region's popular uprisings have not spilled over to Kuwait in a major way as in nearby Bahrain, and it remains unlikely opposition groups would wage an all-out challenge to the current system and risk losing the generous cradle-to-grave benefits provided by the state.

But clashes last month between protesters and security forces displayed the potential for violence to escalate.

Kuwait also has been hit by a wave of labor unrest and strikes earlier this year, including walkouts that grounded the state carrier, Kuwait Airways, and temporarily closed customs posts and left several hundred trucks stranded at the border.

Calls for better working conditions have grown louder in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings. Kuwaitis are used to well-paid government jobs and benefits that increasingly have become a burden on state finances despite the country's huge oil wealth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boycott-hit-voting-begins-kuwait-054242443.html

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