Protect your finances from the hands of Natural Disasters

Natural catastrophes pulls away a person’s mind from his finances, when they strike. Thus, leaving a drastic aftermath for the rest of their futures. It is obvious that a person shall be least be bothered about his finances when such a tragedy strikes his family and home. It is even more tragic for people to bounce back from such a situation to normal life especially when his home is no more.

These lead to chaos and ample bad decisions in a person’s mind which even adds to the ruins of his future. Thus it is necessary for people to work out a plan ahead of time and be prepared for the worst. Since it is impossible to predict such catastrophes, it is best to set yourself up right from the beginning.

Certain advisable measures are:-

Gradually developing a fund for emergencies:

It is essential for every family to maintain an emergency fund constantly as easier access to money is a necessity during such situations. It is this emergency fund which avoids the hunt for funds when a natural calamity strikes.

Insure for storm damage:

It should be noted that a normal homeowner’s policy does not cover up the cost of the damages caused due to a natural disaster. So it is essential to get insured through an exclusive policy that will serve the purpose for a natural disaster. According to the nature of place where a person stays the appropriate policy should be chosen. Flood insurance, hurricane insurance are some of the alternatives as per the topography of the place of residence.

Index a list of contractors that you can bank upon:

During a natural disaster many home are destroyed or damaged. It is this phase when a homeowner helplessly approaches non-trusted contractors to put together a new place to stay for him. This is where con artists or new contractors come into the play charging huge amounts to gain unethically. Thus if a list of such contractors are kept who can be banked upon, then huge losses can be furthermore avoided.

Take care of your papers and keep them safe:

Your every financial document and paper should be copied and kept safely in some deposit box. Piling up a file with such documents and papers are not advisable. During such disasters if these are misplaced it gets chaotic to invoke your claims on the insurance policies. It is important that copies of all such documents should be also kept in a second location which shall be unaffected.

Thus, if the above mentioned precautions are taken before-hand it will obviously put you in a much better position than other victims. Though it is very tough for a person to actually think about losing everything that he might own , however natural disasters are unpredictably inevitable, so it is best advised to be prepared before–hand to lead a good life henceforth.

Is Rising oil prices a threat to National Security ...


In this global liquidity crisis the US Air force has developed certain measures to meet its cost reduction process.
The primary proposition being the use of synthetic fuel upto 50% in place of commercial fuel. A spike of $10 per barrel costs the US Air force $600 million in excess for fuel. Thus, synthetic alternatives are being considered to be used vastly by 2016. The Pentagon has even proposed the increasing use of virtual training programs through flight simulators for new pilots. According to officials of Pentagon, flight simulators are more effective training options as thy are customizable unlike the real world training programs.
The Air Force consumes about 2.6 billion gallons of fuel every year for aviation purposes. Thus they aim at saving 260 million gallons every year which accounts for 10% of the total volume consumed.
Boeing Co has even introduced X-48Bs in the Pentagon hangars which are compatible with synthetic fuels and are lighter aircrafts. NASA has come forward developing BWB(Blended Wing Body) which lessens the drag in aircrafts thereby reducing fuel consumption. The route of travel for flights and loading of cargoes are even altered for more fuel-efficient outputs.
Such conservation measures are devised as in 2005 and 2006 the budget was exceeded for aviation fuel by USD1.4 billion and 1.6 billion respectively. Also tensions developing between US and oil producing countries like Iran and Venezuela amidst the economic recession has made the US Air force to initiate such processes.

NASA stretches economic crunch on Lockheed Martin and Boeing

NASA Blows Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co.
NASA awarded a USD 3.5 billion in contracts to beginner companies in order to transport cargo to the International Space Station ,post the retirement of US space shuttles. This was a big blow for the giants Lockheed Martin and Boeing as their rejection was least anticipated.
By the beginning of 2010 A.D, Space Exploration Technologies (SPACE-X) , headed by the Paypal founder Elon Musk and Dullas , and Orbital Sciences Corporation, originating from Virginia ,will be seen transporting cargo shipments to and from the International Space Station.
The mammoth spacial outpost worth USD 100 billion being assembled together through stages involves the United States , Canada , Japan , Russia and European Nations working together.
NASA replaced the Russian Progress cargo carriers with carriers from commercial contractors in order to deliver required supplies to the space station.
After the retirement of the Soyuz shuttles in 2010 , Russia will deploy them for transporting astronauts to the Space station and back. Such would be required to do as shuttle replacements will be met only by 2015.
According to Bill Gerstenmaier 40 to 70 % of the cargo will be carried by the carriers provided by the commercial contractors.
Planet Space ,based in Chicago, a consortium which accommodates companies Lockheed Martin Corporation , Boeing and Alliant Techsysytems Inc. was blown over by Space-X and Orbital Sciences. The contract for Orbital stands at USD 1.9 billion for eight flights and for Space-X at USD 1.6 billion for twelve flights.
NASA had already granted contracts to Space-X and Orbital Sciences worth a combined USD 500 million prior to the billion-dollar awards. Space-X has even announced its plans for setting up a complex alike Cape Canavarel Air Force Station beside the Kennedy Space Centre,Florida.
Whereas Orbit shall be flying from the NASA Wallops Island base in Virginia.

Declining House sales in US ....

Yet another Fed Rate cut is expected as US consumer Index has fallen and there is a decrement in the present data of housing sales .

It was big surprise in store for analysts as US markets closed at a flat as a consequence of a bout of negative data. As markets already started with Consumer Index of 99.8 against an estimated value of 104.3, nothing more would have been expected , finally it hit the lowest in the last couple of years.

This fall in Index can be factorized in the following three ways :-

· With declining housing prices it is getting realized that the consequent net-worth is also on a decrease.

· The labor market is sensed to be on a deterioration

· There is a credit crunch in the market and availing credit is getting immensely tough.

As Consumer Index sums up almost to two thirds of GDP , hence it is expected that the lowering Consumer Index shall bring down the GDP as well.

However another data that was evaluated was the fact that US Existing Home Sales data showed figures beyond the expected ones.

The declination at 4.3% in August ,’08 was lower than the expected 4.6%.

Certain companies even showed negative results. Such an example being Lennar Corporation, a leading credit company , showed the worst results in the 53 years of its history with a net loss of USD 514 billion ,which was written off at USD 848 billion.

Thus the whole market depicted a negativity.

Can Obama Bounce the Economy to boom....???

The Barack Obama Financial Express......
In October 2008 President elect Obama voted in favor of the $700 billion Emergency Economic Stabilization Act. However, he quoted , "The fact we are even here voting on a plan to rescue our economy from the greed and irresponsibility of Wall Street and Washington is an outrage."
As the Bill failed initially in the House, it made Obama to urge a return of the Bill for a negotiation. Thereby, Obama suggested an additional measure to the Bill that would stretch the limit from $100,000 to $250,000 on Federal Deposit Insurance.,
Obama verbally gave a "thumbs-up" for the Treasury Department's plan to flow in money into the Banks that were struggling to survive the crisis. However in October 2008 with reference to the implementation of the plan, Obama quoted : "implemented in a way that helps homeowners and does not enrich Wall Street CEOs at the taxpayers' expense." He even called for a 90-day moratorium on home foreclosures.
As Bear Stearns collapsed in late March,2008, Obama introduced " a six-point plan" so as to better the government's regulation of financial institutions. It was foreseen that "The Obama Plan" would provide the Federal Reserve with the absolute power over "any financial institution to which it makes credit available as lender of last resort." Obama depicted confidence that the plan would provide liquidity and capital requirement for all financial institutions and added that U.S Regulators should be streamlined to meet competition and overlap.
Obama quoted the September 2008 bailout of AIG as, " the final verdict of the failed economic policy " of the Bush administration and asked the Federal Reserve to "ensure that the plan protects the families that count on insurance ." The Federal Reserve was even urged by Obama to deny the bail out AIG's shareholders or management. Obama even addressed a letter to the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to disallow outgoing of CEOs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
In August 2008 Obama announced an "Emergency Economic Plan" which provides a 95% tax-cut for working families and a grant of $ 2 billion in "Jobs and Growth Funds" for jobs in infrastructure.
As Obama said in the pre-election camaping "the change" is about to become.