Business and Finance

Last week gold managed to climb above the $1,750 per ounce mark on the back of the co-ordinated move by central banks to boost liquidity. When the US Federal Reserve allowed central banks to swap their own currencies for US dollars, the dollar fell and gold benefited.

Despite the increase in gold prices, Chinese demand continues to be just as high. Although the Chinese government keeps very quiet about its gold reserves it is believed that China holds in excess of 33.89 million fine troy ounces as its reserves and that this is increasing rapidly. In 2007, China overtook South Africa as the world’s largest gold producer and China has been making the most of this cost advantage.

The Chinese however, are also in need of monetary support after The People’s Bank of China made it easier for banks to lend more money, by cutting the level of reserves the banks have to hold. Over the past week, China’s central bank has had to intervene in the currency markets, but for once, it’s not been acting to keep the Renminbi weak against the dollar. The blame lies with China’s property bubble which seems about to burst. The good news is that China’s attempts to prop up the market appear to be working; but the bad news is that investors are beginning to realise that the Reminbi can fall as well as rise.

Also underpinning the gold price was the continued buying by central banks. South Korea is the latest bank to buy gold in an attempt to diversify its foreign reserves and protect against financial instability. A number of banks have disclosed information about their continuing gold purchases; these include Thailand, Russia and Bolivia. Although gold seems to have currently lost its status as a safe-haven asset, increased demand from central banks is supporting gold prices.

EU leaders will be meeting in Brussels this morning (08/12/11) in order to try and agree on a deal to tackle the Euro Zone debt crisis. Most investors and analysts have labelled this the ‘do or die’ moment for Europe. It is now apparent that any solution must be credible and enduring; the markets will no longer be fed drips and drabs of false hope. One way or another, EU leaders must announce a viable plan.

Chancellor Merkel and President Sarkozy are calling for renewed contracts between countries that enforce budgetary discipline with automatic penalties for those who overspend. However, similar sanctions were previously included in the contracts and those clearly weren’t enforced, so how much difference will this really make?

After Standard and Poor’s put all Euro zone countries on credit watch it seems that the main focus is on restoring market confidence and as such EU leaders appear to be hardening their positions. However, if the EU is to survive in the long run there needs to be improved solidarity and collective fiscal union.

The ECB (European Central Bank) has cut its main interest rate back to 1% ahead of the EU Summit. Unfortunately, this is much of the same from the ECB and it doesn’t have the authority to do what is necessary to stop the debt crisis worsening. Italy and its debts are too big to be rescued by other governments so instead the attention continues to circle back to whether or not the ECB will have to surrender and print money. Of course gold would benefit from this, as people would seek to invest in gold again, in search of safe-haven assets and protection from inflation.

What exactly is a frozen account?

A frozen account is referred to as an account where no depositor can do either withdrawals or purchases. The main reason an account can be frozen is if the account holder does not pay for his purchases that are charged to his account. Deposits can be made, but any money that is deposited, cannot be used, for it is frozen with the account. Even checks that are written against the account will be no good, as long as the account stays frozen.

Heading – Who can freeze bank accounts?

Any time you engage in a transaction with a company, and you have to pay the transaction back. This creates debt. The person you owe money to becomes your creditor. As such, if you do not pay your creditor when required, the creditor can freeze your account. All the creditor has to do is place a judgment against you. When this happens your account becomes frozen until you pay what you owe.

Usually when your account has become frozen, you will receive a notice from your bank, letting you know about your situation, and what you need to do to unfreeze it. There should be a number of a lawyer listed. You will have to enlist the services of a lawyer to get your bank account unfrozen. Even if your bank account is frozen, no creditor is allowed to withdraw money just because the money is there. To get what money is owed, the creditor needs to get a turnover order from a judge.

If during the time your bank account is frozen, you write checks against your account, you will have to take steps toward contacting everyone you sent checks to. This is because those checks will bounce, since the money is not useable. Just contact the people and let them know what happened. Explain that your account was temporarily placed in a frozen state, and that you are taking steps to unfreeze it. Just ask them to hold the checks until you notify them to the contrary. Once you contact them, they can then cash the checks.

Until you resolve your situation, you will need to avoid using your bank account for the foreseeable future. This means you cannot make any deposits and you also must cancel your direct deposit if you have one. If you do have bills to pay, ask a friend or family member to do it for you.

Heading – Can the government freeze your bank account?

Usually the government can’t freeze a bank account. Since you are not actually purchasing anything from them directly, they have no way to store your money. Plus, the government as an entity does not have or own a bank. They do use one. That’s how they pay their bills. But technically speaking, they do not have a way to store your money.

The only time the government can freeze an account, is for security reason. For instance, if they suspect terrorists are using money in an account, the government can go in and freeze the account, so the money can’t be used.

If you have been in business for a while you have probably seen and heard from more credit card salespeople than you care to remember and from as many or more than you ever care to hear from again! Why is that?

Because somewhere along your trail of experiences you were probably promised the moon and received far less, because you took someone at their word and were taken advantage of or more likely lied to, cheated and hoodwinked into making a bad choice. You chose the wrong shell. The wrong company. The wrong person to trust with your money!!

I equate it with the old network marketing trick of having been invited over to a good friends home for a party or get together to catch up on lost time. You show up all excited and expecting to enjoy a night out with old friends and you end up sitting through a sales presentation. It used to be known as the “Amway Party.”

It was deceitful. It was hurtful. It probably breached your trust and it might have been the last time you accepted an invitation from your “good” friend. It probably soured you on ever listening to another person speak about a network marketing company EVER AGAIN! Even though there might have been a good company or opportunity you could enjoy or be successful at.

THIS IS THE MERCHANT SERVICES GAME!! The merchant services shell game. Now you see it, now you don’t.

While you’re busy trying to work your business and do the things you are good at which may or may not be the financial end of your business, a credit card sales guy walks through the door, catches you at a weak moment, makes a pitch that sounds great and next thing you know you’ve got a new processor, a promise to save $$$ hundreds per month and a 4 year lease payment of a little less than the $$$ hundreds per month on a new state of the art terminal.

3 months later you find that the company is not “saving” you as much as the sales guy promised and god forbid costing you “gulp” more, you’ve been charged a sizable termination fee from your previous processor and your money is now being held for days while you have outstanding bills that need to be paid now!!

You’re fuming, you call the sales guy and get his voice mail and leave a highly charged message. Three days later, you realize he hasn’t returned your call. You call again… and again… and…

That’s it you’ve had enough! You call to cancel and are informed that you have another early termination fee and a NON-cancellable 4 year lease of a proprietary terminal (that means you can only use it with that company)!

Now you’re thinking “What the hell did I do? How did I let this guy do this to me?” and you never want to see a “merchant service sales guy” as long as you live.

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen this scenario over the last 10 or 12 years. I can however, tell you the first time I saw it happen. It happened to me! Then it happened again!! I thought I must be the world’s biggest idiot to let it happen to me again.

I decided it would never happen to me again. I got into the merchant service business! I’m not telling you to leave your business and sell merchant services.

As the debt crisis continues to dominate overseas, the warning bell is sounding for the U.S.

The Europe crisis has still not been sorted out properly, and a lot of astute investors are left wondering what will happen and how things will play out. Things will not play out well at all for those poor Europeans, and the effects will also spread to the US and Americans also.

The pain is already showing itself and being felt by MF Global investors who had accounts. Jon Corzine the Director or MF Global sent the company bankrupt by chasing higher yield bonds in Europe which was a very costly mistake. Corzine thought if anything was to go wrong, Wall st would come to his aid and bail him out like all the other banks and institutes. But unfortunately his timing was way off.

There will be lots more of these stories to come as the financial world starts to implode. But the federal reserve wants to rescue the Europe banks with more liquidity by cutting their rates yet again. In the end that is not going to put anyone ahead.

People do not understand that now the Europe crisis is out in the open, the banks that have had the most exposure to the European financial crisis are JP Morgan, Bank Of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. They too are in serious trouble and relying on more bailouts to help them keep afloat.

But a lot of the American families are in trouble, but do they get any sort of bailout. No. They are collectively victimized and used in this ponzi scheme and their money is actually being used to help keep the banks afloat even though they keep doing the wrong thing. At the same time the purchasing power of the dollar is losing strength and helping cripple the economy.

The real scary thought is that the European crisis is actually small compared to what is happening in the US right now. So when it comes to the US shores you must be ready. The doom and gloom is out and about, but realize there are 3 solid ways you can protect yourself before the financial crisis 2.0 hits the U.S. shores.

Here are 3 lessons we can learn to help you prepare and even profit from this mess.

1) The problem is much bigger than the government and media is letting on.

Ben Bernanke told congress back in 2007 that the mortgage crisis was under control and he did not see things getting worse. Fast forward several years and look where we are. Things are a mess.

Also when the debt ceiling was raised to $15 trillion, the truth really lies in the hidden debt and unfunded liabilities which now tops a staggering $116 trillion.

2) The government are thinking short term but not fixing the real problems at hand.

The government love to keep things on a leash by coming up with radical short term solutions to some of the biggest financial problems we have seen in the last 100 years. They will work short term, but really not solve any problems for anyone later down the track.

The debt crisis has been downplayed since day one, and on the surface the solution is keeping people in a false sense of security. Right now the IMF and the Central Banks are up to their eye balls in Greek debt.

Another drastic measure was to introduce budget cuts over the next year. That is not saving money that is only taking it away from those places needed when things are recovering. So it will make the recovery longer and drawn out.

3) The Volatility on the markets are making it a very risky environment.

Every time we hear something from the European regions traders jump. The market right now tends to swing very violently to the smallest of news. On each little report that comes out, traders react instantly making it impossible to pre-emt the major moves on the market.

The Dow Jones is tends to react wildly one day in a positive direction, and then traders seem on edge and react negative to the smallest of news then next day. The roller coaster on the market is likely to continue and make it a very risky environment especially with the European news not finished and another crisis likely to hit the US shores soon.

One moment you hear the debt crisis is fixed and banks are saved and investors jump. Then next moment you hear more complexities and and more missed debt that needs to be fixed and again traders panic. Fear and greed are taking over the markets and traders do not know what to do, or what to think.

The only thing the government have right now under their belt is the printing press. But that is not going to solve the longer term problems. Short term it is a good fix, but they are not looking out 5 to 10 years down the track. The effects will be catastrophic.

The media and government officials keep claiming that they are surprised by this crisis in Europe, but we do not have to be surprised. If you understand what is happening right now over in Europe you will realize that it is a dress rehearsal for what is coming to the U.S. and it will not be good for anyone. The debt in the US is much bigger and more complex and financial crisis 2.0 is going to be bigger and badder than anyone expects.

Right now gold seems to be the flight to safety for astute investors they are jumping in left right and center to try and secure their families financial future. That seems like a pretty rock solid bet for both the short term long term.

Keeping a record of financial statements is a tedious task, especially with new regulations mandated by the government from time to time. Henceforth, outsourcing your accounting to a professional is a wise decision as it helps you keep your financial details up-to-date.

Accounting is a tedious job requiring attention to detail and must be undertaken in organizations to keep a continued vigil on the company’s financial health. If you are looking to outsource the accounting services in your organization, this article will provide you with all the benefits associated with it.

Maintaining documents of all transactions is an essential part of every business enterprise. It helps in tracking all the deals entered into and keeps a record of the inflow and outflow of cash. Regulations framed by government bodies from time to time require organizations to provide a record of every transaction made by them in a transparent manner. Purchases, sales and their receipts have to be kept carefully in order to accurately account for expenses and revenues. Bookkeepers are people who make entries of financial transactions in an organization. These are entered into a notebook or ledger which is then analyzed by the accountant to prepare income statement and profit and loss statement.

It is important to fully asses the financial health of a company from time to time in order to make the appropriate budget and planning allocation of finances. Accountants organize the inflow and outflow of cash in statements and ensure that they tally in order to be able to provide details of any given transaction. A detailed picture of the current assets as well as current liabilities can be obtained by looking at a statement prepared by an accountant. Different methods of accounting like the single entry and double entry bookkeeping exist and can be adopted based on the needs of the organization.

Maintaining an accounting department in the company requires hiring permanent employees. This adds to the cost and makes fewer funds available for the core business of the company. Expansion and development plans of organizations require capital and this require companies to be cash rich. Outsourced accounting is a good option to get the accounting work done without having to watch out for the overhead costs of the accountants. All transactions are duly recorded and requisite statements are prepared by these accounting firms by merely sending across scanned copies of receipts and invoices to them. They also make all data pertaining to the company available online and most reports and statements can be pulled out with the click of a button once you have access to the internet.

Accounting firms handling outsourced work also take utmost care to maintain the confidentiality of data of their clients. They also provide other allied benefits like tax services as well as financial planning which can be availed of. Most of these accounting firms work on a fixed fee basis and thus no unexpected or additional expenses need to be incurred by organizations.
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