Contrary to what some might think, the price of gold is high at the moment not because consumers are demanding more expensive jewellery and high-quality HDMI cables. Supply and demand are factors in the price of gold, but what drove bullion past £1,000 in August 2011 had little to do with microeconomics.
Inverse Attraction
It is often said that opposites attract, but can this maxim be applied to gold bullion prices? Why was gold worth £14.63 an ounce in 1970 and £1,098.25 in 2011? Did inflation really cause a 7,400 per cent shift in real-money prices over four decades? Not exactly. Gold, silver and platinum are like no other commodities because they tend to enjoy growth when the world’s economy is on its knees. This may seem perverse to those who do not understand how trading works, but the market in its most simplified form relies on weakness to thrive. The price of gold bullion reached £271.70 on the 4th January 1980, but unlike in recent times it did not move much thereafter. After experiencing several peaks and troughs, the price of gold climbed to £312.96 on the 24th January 2006. An increase of £41.26 in 26 years would hardly excite the average hedge-fund manager, but there was a reason why gold had not prospered in almost three decades: the economy was relatively strong. Despite a number of short-term problems in the 1980s, developed countries such as the UK and US enjoyed sustained growth through the 1990s. After the turn of the millennium, rich countries became even richer. Money was abundant, the price of sterling was high and companies were prospering. Who would want to invest in gold at a time when stocks, shares and cash investments could generate huge returns in little time at all?
Nostradamus
The Renaissance seer might have been able to predict certain cataclysmic events (or spout random nonsense), but only the most insightful of investors could have predicted the sudden rise in gold prices that occurred after 2006. The reason for the increase was that the economic boom was about to implode. Sub-prime mortgage lending in the States gave rise to the credit crunch, which restricted the availability of consumer and commercial credit. People and businesses suffered as a consequence, while short-term investors and bankers were spooked. Several banks faced financial ruin, unemployment rose and the jobs market dried up. Traditional forms of investment were no longer as attractive to investors, many of whom jumped ship early and bought gold at relatively low prices. Today, the price of gold has stabilised above £1,000 as economies throughout the world continue to struggle with recession. The price of bullion may drop again, but it ought not to crash in the same way as real-money currencies did in 2007. On the contrary, gold might enjoy even further growth in the years ahead.
In this fast paced society, many of us simply start and end each day with a rush, whether it is running for the bus, racing to that meeting or hurrying to meet that deadline it seems we are a nation on a mission. In the midst of all this though, one thing offers us a source of communication, information and entertainment; our mobile phones. With such a rush on, accidents are ever more likely at times when we need our mobiles more than ever, which is why the following scenarios have been documented to help you be more aware of the damages that can occur.
Dropping
You can see the bus coming and you really need to get a move on in order to catch it, so you start to pelt it down the road with your arm outstretched wildly in the hope that the driver will see your efforts and take pity on you. In the race to the bus, you hear the tell-tale thud as your mobile is set free from your pocket and takes a tumble to the ground, a likely story? Dropping your phone is something that will happen to pretty much everyone, but sometimes the consequences can be more severe than others. Smashed screens, chipped corners and ceasing to work altogether can be the outcome of a drop, so try and keep a hold of your phone whilst making that mad dash.
Spillage
You’re working late and have been up since the early hours, caffeine is most definitely needed so you make a strong coffee and return to your desk. As you reach for the mouse your hand knocks the mug and disaster strikes; steaming hot coffee all over your handset. Some people may just be lucky enough to have a working phone after this, but they are in the minority. Try to avoid this by keeping your phone well away from your drinks, such as in your pocket or the opposite side of the desk.
The Dog
If you have a dog, be prepared for the fact that the shiny black handset could seem like the perfect object to get chewing on. If you leave your phone unattended at home and you have an excitable puppy to contend with, this really is a recipe for a chomped phone! Avoid this by keeping the pooch well away from the phone, either on top of a high table they cannot reach or in a room they cannot get in to.
When you are in a rush, damage to your mobile is more likely to occur through accidents so take the time to take precautions that keep your mobile safe and secure throughout your busy days.
Sophie understands that with the best will in the word, accidental damage can occur to your mobile phone, which is why mobile insurance is the best way of protecting yourself from the costs of replacing or repairing the handset.
The laws on playing online poker in the USA are kind of blurred. While depositing on poker sites is very risky and could result in a fine, there are still a bunch of online poker sites that are still operating – why is this?
Well it’s not at all clear. Black Friday in 2011 resulted in the closure of one of the largest online poker sites in the world – Full Tilt Poker.
Finding a online poker site in the US
Well what poker sites accept US players and why or how? Since Full Tilt’s closure there has been a huge shift towards American ‘accepting’ poker sites like Carbon poker, so how is Carbon poker still operating?
The poker sites that are still operating are located outside of the US and therefore face different legal obligations. The security of American player accepting sites like these is in some doubt and depositing or playing online poker from anywhere in the US must be done at your own risk. Players have lost millions of dollars following black friday last year – play poker from America at your own risk!
Before you take a serious look at taking out a bridging loan you should fully understand all of the risks that come with short term finance. Bridging loans are a great solution for some but not others, so when does it make sense to take out a bridging loan?
What is a Bridging Loan
The clue is in the name, bridging loans literally bridge the gap in your finances. These types of loans are almost always repaid within a 12 month period as the high interest rates make further borrowing too expensive. However the more savvy individual will use a bridging loan to make a profitable investment that requires fast extra cash. For example a bridging loan may be used to purchase an under-valued asset when their current finances couldn’t afford such an investment – this may result in a rapid return on investment which heavily outweighs the high interest rate.
Bridging loans should rarely be used to cover debt as a strong and secure financial plan is required to avoid heavy repayment costs.
How much can you borrow with a bridging loan?
Bridging loans typically range from £30,000 to anything as high as £10,000,000. Of course large bridging loans require financial security to ensure repayments are made.
A year ago I was partnered in a typical small business. Our one and only tool that we always used for networking was the iPad and eventually the iPad 2. Great for showing others our portfolio or demonstrating our services – but in reality holding an iPad and a conversation just wasn’t that easy. We decided that the iPad was more of a fad (at least for us business people) than anything and so we decided to push it to the sidelines.
So why did we buy an iPad 2?
It wasn’t far into 2011 when Microvision released an iPad compatible projector that was successful enough to grab our attention. Not long after the initial release was a second generation created and this one had us drooling. With full iPad compatibility, the SHOWWX+ iPad projector was a must-see piece of tech. Within days we had grabbed one and began testing it out on the iPad we had shunned not so long before.
The projector was impressive – it could project your image from the small 7″ iPad screen onto a wall with over 100″ display. Presentations could be watched by everyone, not just the person you were talking to – and demonstrations, video and web content was so much easier to share. Not only this, but the iPad projector is about the same size as an iPhone making it ultra portable.
Finally for us, the iPad had a purpose in business. We could take it to a networking group and display it as 15″-20″ to a small group of people (and yes it works well in dim-normal light) or hold a meeting at the office and display it to everyone. The portability is what sets this projector apart from all over iPad projectors – sure the new HDMI capabilities of the iPad mean that you can plug in almost any modern projector unit, but most of these units aren’t at all portable.
Since then, there has been a long line of iPad projectors and the success is looking to continue right into 2012. If you are part of a business and you’re not sure about an iPad, think of how much more it can achieve with an iPad projector.
Cash flow can be a big issue for small businesses. With the standard 30 day payment terms, it’s easy for a business to go a month without a much needed cash injection. Small businesses also have to make concessions; in many cases they can’t sign people into contracts because they need business and they need it fast.
So how do you look to recover debt if you’ve not tied anyone into a contract?
Well there are a number of avenues that you can take, debt recovery solicitors, agencies or even just going straight to the courts. Because agencies and courts can be very costly, we’re going to look at the more popular option – consulting a solicitor.
A debt solicitor is useful because:
1. They have a full understanding of the processes required to recover debt
2. They have the legal knowledge to write letters threatening extensive legal action
3. They are priced very competitively and often help settle issues outside of court
If you are interested in reading more about how debt solicitors can help you and the stepped approach that debt recovery requires, please read it here: http://www.debtsolicitors.co.uk or at the UK Government’s managing debt website.
The cost of Selling Shares
Many individuals look to invest in shares as a way of supplementing their income or simply as a hobby. What some people don’t know is that selling shares can be incredibly tricky and there are some key areas that you should watch out for. This is a short guide to the mathematics of selling shares, brought to you from SellingShares.org.uk:
The Mathematics of Selling Shares
If you were to buy £1,000.00 of shares in a single company and the share price increased by 10%, your shares would now be worth £1,100.00. Now if you imagine that the share price then went up again by 10% the next day but crashed by 20% the following day, you may think that you have broken even. Let’s take a look at the maths:
Initial Investment: £1,000.00
Day 1: £1,100.00
Day 2: £1,210.00
Day 3: £968.00
From this series of events you have incurred a net loss. The principle behind this is a very strong one. For every decrease in share price, there is a greater increase required to break even. Let’s take a look at a simpler example starting with your initial investment of £1,000.00:
Initial Investment: £1,000.00
Day 1: £900.00
Day 2: £1000.00
On day 1 your share price fell by 10%. On day 2 your share price broke even. However the required % increase to break even was 11.11%. Whenever you’re looking to invest in shares you must be aware that selling shares at a profit becomes more difficult with every lost percentile.
Guest post from Robert Hounslow of SellingShares.org.uk
Thanks to the Europeans, one ounce of gold hit a 30 year record high of $1,600. That’s great news for those of you with a bit of scrap gold sitting in the loft – bad news for the rest of us; really bad news.
Rallying Gold Prices tied to Financial Collapse
Gold prices are fuelled by speculation and are heavily dependent on demand side economics. When a country’s (or in this case, a continent’s) economy is expected to take a hard knock, people rush to swap their fiat currency for something more stable. This could be converting Euros into Dollars or Dollars into Yen, but more common is the purchase of gold. Gold, unlike any fiat currency, is tried and tested and has been used in trade for centuries without coming unstuck. The security of gold is proven and it’s extremely liquid, making the demand for gold in economic recessions very, very high.
Where is the Gold Price Headed?
While the Eurozone is in the middle of a debt crisis that could force Greece into dropping the Euro altogether, the US is also faced with the possibility of defaulting on their debt. America has hit a debt ceiling that, if not raised by Congress, could cripple the US economy and the dollar. If Congress were to do the unthinkable and reject the move to increase the debt ceiling, the gold price will shoot up yet again as ‘capital flight’ takes hold. The dollar would be virtually abandoned by investors as it became more unstable than ever.
The continued Eurozone crisis and the problems that Italy are expected to bring to the Euro wil be likely to continue driving gold prices higher and higher over the next few months. While Italy looks to be the latest addition to the Eurozone crisis, the European fallout is by no means over as more underlying issues in other European countries have yet to rear their head.
This article was provided by GoldPrices.org.uk and the gold price calculator below was provided by Free Scrap Gold Calculator and Cash for Gold Calculator
Many businesses deal in products and services that require a free help desk solution. This help desk may be there to serve employees who are using internal IT systems or it may be there to serve customers who have purchased your products or services. People who work in IT based organisations tend to make up a large percentage of help desk users but there are others who are now implementing them. For example a housing or property company many use a help desk for residents to report maintenance and repair needs. A supplier of telecoms may use one to record calls about faults and installations and so on.
NEUQs is a very versatile help desk software solution that can be adapted for use in many industries and sectors. Call details can be recorded very quickly using this system and it is therefore favoured by many call centre operators. These details are then sent to the relevant department and teams for further action to be carried out where necessary. The operator can prioritise the calls so that when the details are sent to the relevant people they can carry out the jobs in order of importance.
The NEUQs software tracks the whole process from the moment the call is taken right through until the case is closed. This has a number of benefits. Firstly, those dealing with the problem can see exactly what has been done prior to their involvement. Secondly, people at a management level can review the response times and actions of their staff.
All business owners know the importance of having a strong corporate identity. Your brand represents and speaks for your whole organisation and so it is crucial that you get it right. As you can imagine one of the first places to start is with a logo and the concept grows from there. Finding a professional company that you can work with is essential. Hullaballoo is an experienced marketing company that can help you build up your corporate identity. They have a number of years’ experience in the areas of logo design, catalogue and brochure design, packaging and advertising plus much so more.
Their slogan is ‘Listen.Think.Create.Deliver’ and they really do these things to a very high standard. Every business owner wants to know that their ideas are being listened to and when it comes to something like branding the owner really does know their business best. Hullaballoo are fantastic at taking your ideas and turning them into a workable and fantastic looking reality. Whether it’s brochure design or anything else design related, they add their experience and creativity into the mix and the results are always punctual and visually stunning.
Once you’re branding is finished you will need to begin to promote it. Hullaballoo can help you with all of your direct mail and e-mail marketing needs and get you off to a flying start or put the wind back into your business sails or should that be sales?
They have worked with a number of large companies such as Timberland, B&Q, Sainsbury’s and Connexions and are therefore the ideal solution for your all of your design and print needs.
