How to Survive the Financial Crisis

How to Survive the Financial Crisis

There are signs all around us that the world economic crisis is worsening, and this could also affect the US economic recovery, which continues to be fragile. For example, the University of Michigan reported that its confidence index, a key economic indicator, fell dramatically to 74.5 in December from 82.7 in November. Meanwhile, a recent survey revealed that some 40% of Americans regularly live from paycheck to paycheck. It is clear that hard economic times are ahead as the world economic crisis continues to intensify. Here are some ways that you can survive hard economic times.

Reduce the amount of debt that you have. Most households have at least some credit card debt, as well as other kinds of debt such as mortgages and car loans. These debts could easily spiral out of control if you lose your job or even have to suffer a pay cut. You can reduce your debt by paying more than the minimum amount every month and paying down more than you usually do. This requires that you reduce your monthly expenses to free up more money for debt payments. Here, you will have to sit down and make a list of your monthly expenses to see where you can cut down. You might be surprised at how many ways you can cut back your expenses without having to sacrifice your quality of life.

Look for ways to augment your income. The best way to do this is to build a small home business that you can take care of in your spare time. For example, you can enroll to be an affiliate marketer and market a vendor's products on your website or blog. You will be given a special link to the merchant's site, and whenever a visitor to your site clicks on it and makes a purchase, you will earn a small commission. In order to effectively do this, you will have to drive traffic to your site and then place interesting and unique content on it that will encourage visitors to buy the products you're promoting.

Avoid getting into new debt. Once you've paid down a lot of your loans, stay debt-free so that you will not be burdened again. One way that you can do this is to cut up your credit cards once you've paid off the balances on them, and avoid availing of new credit cards, even if they're offered to you on a pre-approved basis. Another is to manage your credit more wisely. There are many credit management strategies that are available from free PDF books download that you will not have to spend a penny on.

How Painful Headaches Can Be Caused by Computer Neck

How Painful Headaches Can Be Caused by Computer Neck

What is Computer Neck and why does it cause your head to hurt?

There are a number of reasons to get this type of problem, and working a desk job is one of the most notable. There are 8 small muscles under the base of the occiput (the big bumpy part on the back of your head). These muscles are called the suboccipitals because they are connected underneath the occiput.

They are small but responsible for a lot of work lugging an 18-20 lb head around. When you tilt your head down to read something on your desk, or more so when jutting your chin forward to look at the computer screen, these muscles are hard at work. These movements are often over exaggerated in the work place and done repetitively all day long. This leads to strain and overuse. Often the tension or pain will creep down into the shoulders. Sometimes it finds its way up to the back of the head or even across the scalp to just above your eyebrows. By the time this happens, you're probably already in the grasp of a headache.

You mean there are more side effects?

As a side effect of these repetitive neck motions the muscles on the sides and front of the neck will often get sore and tight as well. These flat muscles are called the scalenes. Once they become tight, they tend to continue being tight until massaged out. Because of the location, it's really hard and impractical to try and stretch them. It's not uncommon to feel a burning or pulling sensation when a massage therapist performance deep tissue work and trigger point therapy on them, however, you'll probably be grateful when it's done.

Slumping can cause pain

This is by far the most common structural issue I have come across with headache clients. These 8 little muscles get so overworked that they can not help but end up in spasms and develop trigger points. Trigger points (TrP) can develop in tight or damaged muscle tissue and often show up as nodules (knots) of bundled tissue. When pressed and released, they can release the pain pattern across a whole muscle or muscle group.

Your spine can be twisted or injured which will trigger a headache

I find that my clients also store a lot of emotional baggage in the muscles of the shoulders and neck. By far and large, headaches of this nature are the most common ones mistaken for migraines, and much more frequently than you might think. Most of my "migraine" sufferers do not generally seem to have the symptoms of migraines and are "fixed" by tension head techniques within minutes.

What do I do to diffuse the headache?

I like to work the neck with my client lying on their back. With the head being as heavy as it is, I can use gravity to get good pressure into the muscles. I like to perform a couple of stretches like the one mentioned in # 2 above. The passive stretching is done much easier by someone else, which lets you focus on relaxing. Typically, I'll combine multiple techniques such as steady direct pressure, hot towels, and essential oils to address the problem from all the angles I can fit into a session. Muscles really respond to multiple techniques at once.

So what can you do right now for this pain? A slow series of exercises can treat headache pain.

1. Lie back in a tall chair or on a bed to allow your neck muscles to rest and recover at night.

2. From a standing position , drop your chin to your chest and let gravity stretch out those muscles for 30-90 sec. You can also make big, slow, full circles with your neck to loosen things up.

3. Get 2 tennis balls and put them in a long sock and tie it off so they do not roll around or slip. Lie down with the tennis balls nuzzled up under the base of your head on either side of your spine. Lay there (as long as it's comfortable) up to 2-5 min. Gravity will take your head and apply pressure to those muscles with the tennis balls. * hint - depending on your size / structure, you may need to hold the tennis balls with your hands to keep them from sliding under the weight of your head.

4. Use a tool such as a Thera Cane or an accu-massager to pinpoint tension in this area and release the trigger points (tight bundles of muscle, TrP). Find these bunched up "knots" and apply pressure slowly for up to 1-2 minutes at a time to get them to let go.

5. You can us Essential Oils to heal and relax Computer Neck. Use a drop or two of Therapeutic grade peppermint essential oil on the chin or under the nose and / or rub 2-4 drops on the base of the head under the occiput. The scent of peppermint has been shown to reduce or tie heads. The oil itself has been shown to absorb into the skin and relax musculature.

6. Use an ice pack. Put an ice pack or cool towel across your forehead and under the base of the head at the occiput.

So whether you work in a desk job or slip in front of a tv, you now have a solution for "Computer Neck" headaches.

The World's Financial Crisis: By Hindsight in 2014

The World's Financial Crisis: By Hindsight in 2014

Overview

A financial crisis occurs when the value of a country's financial assets drops rapidly. The crisis is often associated with bank runs, investors panic, and massive withdrawal of funds from the banking institutions. These scenario foretells that everything is going downhill - since, the need to withdraw all savings and investments from all financial sectors.

When assets are deemed overvalued, rapid sales-offs occur that leads to a financial crisis. If left unchecked, the situation can further lead to a decrease of assets values ​​and the massive withdrawals by investors. The income is mass hysteria that makes the economy to go under towards recession or depression.

The economy is on a tailspin if:

• There is a significant drop in the housing sector;
• A surge or increase in the numbers of jobless;
• There is an appropriate declination in economic output.

Investments can be affected if the financial markets go into a nose dive. Recession always comes after a peak in the business cycle is achieved. There is decline in earnings and employment after every expansion. Recession occurs when this scenario occurs with wages and prices of goods remaining the same as in the peak period.

This then leads to a declining economy that results to a trough or depression. The length of time of the trough is critical since it determines the gravity of employment and economic output bottling out, while waiting for the next cycle of recovery to begin.

World's Financial Markets on a Tailspin?

All global central banks are in panic mode by the 4th quarter of 2013. All the world's economies assessed the situation as bleak and embarked on strategies for damage control. The big story about the bubble burst centered on China's interbank liquidity problems and overnight rates that are spiraling upward.

China's stock market is now in a free fall and has fallen by 20% at present. The Central Bank of China tried to appease investor confidence by assuring the market that there is liquidity in the banking sector. But the market did not react and investors became wary behalf of assurances from China.

In the United States, there were acrimonial debts about the Fed's ability to control Quantitative Easing (QE) by late 2013 to the middle of 2014. Based on historical data, the Fed had miserably failed to spur economic growth. It had only managed to create stock market bubbles while draining the financial markets of high quality collateral instruments.

The leverage situation today is worse than that of 2008 due to Fed's intervention. However, as seen in recent weeks, the bond and stock reaction to Fed's market intervention is critical; and if it backs off support - the entire system may be at risk.

With the collapse of the bond markets in Europe, there is the fear that what would come next next are higher interest rates. This new emerging market scenario is catastrophic with all economies in the world frozen in a debt bubble. The world's central banks can only watch, while they lose control of the financial markets. The emerging scenario looks bleak with industry stalwarts saying that the situation may be worse than what happened in 2008.

The Economic Bust in 2007 and 2008

What transpired in this two year period may be akin to the pre - Federal Reserve era. The market was in a state of panic with people difting their assets thereby driving prices down to unpredictably low levels. What happened then, people were getting out - all at the same. time. The mass hysteria affected short term instruments like repos, bonds, stocks, commodities, and real estate.

The wave of terror not only affected short term investments but long term instruments as well. This worldwide debacle caused the collapse of bedrock companies like Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, and Countrywide Financial.

The next financial crisis is expected to be the same as what happened in 2008, 1987, 1929, 1907 and so on. The bank run will be systemic, credit will freeze, great number of people lose their jobs, and millions of people will have their lifetime savings decimated. It happened in the 19th century when the central banks were still non-existent, and did not stop even after the appearance of the Fed in 1913.

There is no triggering factor that would determine if the crisis had started. Depositors in banks like Wells Fargo, Citibank, and Bank of America did not panic to alert the nation. It was the Fed who took notice that the major banks were under-capitalized, over leveraged, and insolvent before it came in with a bailout package.

The 2007-2008 economic debacle affected the stock market when it realized that the banking community did not have the resources to absorb the run. What transpired was a lack of confidence in the stock market that made it suffer immensely. What saved the day was the guarantees made by the Fed and the Treasury on the stock markets, that it would guarantee bank deposits of up to $ 250,000 and inject billions of capital to save the country from total financial collapse.

It has been discussed most seriously at present that to save the financial markets from future runs, there should be sufficient capital or fortress funds to meet its obligations from the run. Losing confidence on the banks and lenders pulling out their funds from one or more banks can be disastrous on the banking system. The continued incoming streams of short term funds are needed by banks to meet their long term obligations. Without this continuity, it would be inevitable for another bank run to begin.

Can The Global Economy Handle Another Financial Crisis?

It has to be reiterated that the world economy is connected to many pundits believed. While it is important to be aware of how the US economy is faring, it is still part of the global economy where many players are positioned at the top. China had become one economic dragon to rival that of the US for top position. China has the presence in many parts of the global economy that include commodities and the material sectors.

The more recent moves by China in shifting from an outward driven economy towards its domestic markets is causing significant problems with its trading partners. The Gross Domestic Product of China is watched most carefully since the global arena is heavily dependent on its rapidly rising economy. Financial debacles in China are observed keenly by global markets, since its downfall could wreak havoc in all of the world's economies

Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde

Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Conde

"Crossing the Mangrove," by Maryse Conde is set in 1986 on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. The story is told through the eyes of the many inmates of the island who are uncomfortable with the arrival of a strange foreigner who has come to live amongst them. Francisco Alvarez-Sanchez mysterious story invokes themes of past and present Caribbean life and stories from the villagers are combined to connect the fascinating tale. The novel reflects the Creolite diversity of the inhabitants of Guadeloupe.

In "Crossing the Mangrove," several recurring themes prominent in Caribbean life are evident. Colonization and class perspective are among the more dominant themes. Guadeloupe was colonized by France in the 17th century and, like many Caribbean islands, Guadeloupe became a slave trading center. A story told by the strange recluse Xantippe shows how colonization ideals of the past are still present on the island today. As a young man Xantippe was happy go lucky. This fence the French rule gendarmes (police) reason to interrogate him. They insinuated that he had enemies and burned his cabin down. Xantippe describes how he lost everything and his life was changed for the worse, forever. This activity is reminiscent of Cesaire's equation: colonization = "thingification."

Class perspective exists on the island of Guadeloupe but to a lesser extent than in the previous novels. The Ramsaraz and Lameanes families are upscale. They own land for farming and flower nurseries. They have large houses and they drive French built Peugeots. Although a peasant and servant population exists it is not featured prominently in the novel. Instead, something of a middle class society combines the major class of the characters. Moise the mailman, Emile Etienne the historian, and Lucien Evarist the writer are among a cast of Francis middle class friends. But it is assumed that Francis belongs to the upper class due to his tales of travel and adventure, his ability to purchase the aging Alexis estate, and daily truck deliveries of household appliances such as a TV set, a refrigerator, a stereo set. The inmates of Riviere au Sel are envious of this and question his occupation and work ethic as a writer. They ask, "Was a writer a do-nothing, sitting in the shade for hours on his veranda, staring at the ridge of mountains for hours on end while the rest sweated it out under the Good Lords hot sun." One must get the sense that the class perspective presented in "Crossing the Mangrove," is a good representation of society in Guadeloupe today.

Strong themes that are current to Guadeloupe society are that in a male dominated society women are forced into the practice of arranged marriages. But many of the women of Riviere au Sel have tried towards their estranged husband's and their fathers who make the unusual arrangements. Forced marriages are common and based in tradition in this island society but oddly enough explanations are not provided as to why a parent would want to marry off their young and attractive daughters to older men with dubious intentions. What is the motivation of the parents who take part in this practice? Yes, these men are wealthy and the young women will live in comfort, but are the parents receiving some compensation for their generous contribution to the men? The young women all seem to come from families that are well established. Do the parents take into consideration the trauma and unhappiness their daughters will suffer?

In Riviere au Sel, Dinah's father arranged for her to marry Loulou. Dinah was in favor of this but later became repulsed by her husband. Dinah said, "It's been years since Loulou slept in my bed. Once darkness has fallen I lock my door and curl up like a fetus between my sheets." Rosa, of Indian decent, is forced to marry Sylvester; the practice of arranged marriages is also common in India where a social caste system still exists. In her passage in the novel she wanted it to be known that, "When they married me off to Sylvester Ramsaran, nobody asked for my opinion" and "Sylvester hurt me.

Just as her Indian mother before her, Vilma's marriage was to be arranged. Vilma's father Sylvester, arranged for her to marry a man named Marins Vindrex. But Vilma revolted by running away from home saying, "Marins Vindrex. But I do not love him." In the ultimate act of vengeance against her father she took up with the hated Francis Sanchez. Now in a position to forever poison the appalling marriage to the dreadful Vindrex, she allowed herself to become impregnated by Francis. Sylvester is defenseless to act while the questionable motives of Francis intensify among the villagers of Riviere au Sel who are already suspicious of him.

Conde connects the vinettes together in "Crossing the Mangrove," by establishing the relationship each villager had with Francis Sanchez as the story progresses. Every member has a strong opinion or emotion about Francis. Some of those thoughts are positive and some are negative. Central to the story is the wake of Francis which is held in Riviere au Sel. It rains a lot in Riviere au Sel and on the Thursday afternoon of Francis wake, it was no different. The rain seemed to act on behalf of Mother Nature in cleansing the congregation of friends, enemies, and former lovers who gathered to witness Francis swan song.

Moise, the mailman is the first character that Conde provides us with insight into the relationship he had with Francis. Oddly enough there was some speculation in the community that there may be a homosexual relationship involving Moise and the great womanizer Francis Sanchez. There were something fishy about that friendship and the two men were Makoumeh! (Homosexuals). These allegations side, the two were friends but the friendship was awkward and unusual. One moment we see Moise cradling Francis in his arms when something upset Francis.

But Francis also had his enemies. Both Loulou Lameaulnes and Sylvester Ramsaran have similar reasons for despising Francis. Francis had sexual affairs with their daughters impregnating both of them. To these two men Francis was a villain for his indiscretions but in both cases it was the young women who approached Francis. Both women hated their fathers and hated the lives they led under their father's roofs. Perhaps the fathers should have accused themselves for forcing their daughters out of their arms and into the bed of Francis. Vilma and Mira both shared the same bed with Francis and both attended his wake. They did not speak to each other. Oddly, Loulou and Sylvester were also in attendance and both felt a strong sense that in Francis death justice had been served.

The congregation exited the wake with the sober realization that they had just mourned for a man that they severely knew. Francis had that ability. People were drawn to him but they did not know why. The novel ends with the inmates of Riviere au Sel raising the same ironic questions about Francis as when they had first laid eyes on him. "Who was Francis Sanchez? And subsequently," Who was this man that chooses to die amongst us?

How to Buy a Computer TV Tuner Online

How to Buy a Computer TV Tuner Online

Choosing A Computer TV Tuner

If you're looking for a computer TV tuner, the best place to go to would be the internet. The reason for this is that there will be a lot of tuner cards that will be available, and some of them may be identical but not really. They're like graphics cards. You'll see graphics cards by NVidia, for instance, but they can be manufactured by ECS or Palit. The difference would lie in little things that count. For instance, Palit may be a stronger advocate of eco-friendly computer parts while ECS may give you higher performance.

Tuner cards are the same. You can find different ones online, and most of them are new. That's the only problem with going online - you are not going to likely find the simpler and almost obsolete ones where you can get the most savings. Still, if you want quality, you can check out the massive amounts of tuner cards online. One thing you have to do before buying them is to look up different reviews about it.

A lot of websites would review products, albeit with much bias towards them; so you will not find a lot of good feedback. To counter this, go to forums. You can even ask a question in Yahoo's "Answers" section, although this can take time to get a reply. Another good place to go to would be "Tom's Hardware", although you will need to brush up on your technical knowledge and jargon or just post something that goes along the lines of "I'm not a technical person, use laymen's terms please" . While this will not give you results right away, the responses from the forum members will be legit and provide a lot of information.

It's best to stick to popular video cards if you do not know what you're doing. The ATI All in Wonder, for instance, is a very popular card for the "not geeks". That being said, you might want to purchase the hardware off of the manufacturer's websites. For instance, if you're going for the ATI card, purchase a licensed ATI dealer. If you're not sure about a seller, try to ask some questions about them in forums as well.

If you want to find a computer TV tuner that does not need a pack punch, you can visit your local computer hardware stores and they'll have it. You might even want to go check them out first to see what cheap items they have and look for them online for an even cheaper price.

SWTOR Imperial Agent Class Review

SWTOR Imperial Agent Class Review

The Imperial Agent class is the spy of the Empire relying on stealth and cunning to get behind enemy lines and take out their target or recon valued information. This class is very versatile since you can spec for close range dps, long range dps, or healing. The Imperial Agent has a high grade mesh armor that provides protection while allowing for quick motions. They use Blaster Rifles, Energy Blades and Sniper Rifles if spec'd for them. The starting abilities for the Imperial Agent are:

• Rifle Shot- fire 2 quick shots
• Shiv- Stab the target with your energy blade for initial damage plus 3seconds of light damage
• Take Cover- Evasion increase
• Recuperate-Recover Health and Energy over 15 seconds when out of combat
• Snipe-High damage rifle shot. Only usable when in cover
• Laser Target- Increase damage to a target by 80% for 30 seconds. Must be in cover to use this
• Weapon Proficiency: Rifle- Able to equip Blaster Rifle
• Show Cover- Shows all nearby cover areas

The Imperial Agent class has 2 advanced classes:

Operative- The Operative uses Blaster Rifles and Energy Blades and has 2 skill trees to choose from. You can choose Concealment which will improve your stealth and close ranged attacks for some nice burst damage. The other choice is Medic which focuses on healing and protecting your allies during combat.

Sniper- The Sniper uses a Sniper Rifle and has 2 skill trees to choose from. You can choose Marksmanship which will allow you to take out goals from a great distance from the safety of cover. The other choice is Engineering which allows you to upgrade your droids and probes to weaker your opponent.

Both advance classes share the Lethality tree which allows you to use poisons to debilitate your opponent over the course of a fight.

Each class in SWTOR has 5 companions that help them with crafting, gathering, and can come along on missions. The Imperial Agents companions are:

Kaliyo Djannis

• Species: female Rattataki

• Planet: Hutta

• Role: Ranged DPS

Armor: Medium

• Weapons: Dual Wield Pistols

• Default Kit: Grenade

• Crew Skills: +10 Armstech Efficiency, +2 Underworld Trading Critical

Scorpio

• Species: Droid

• Planet: Belsavis

• Role: Ranged Tank

• Weapons: Blaster Pistol, Shield Generator

Armor: Heavy

• Default Kit: Shield

Doctor Lokin

• Species: male Human

• Planet: Taris

• Role: Melee Tank

• Armor: Light

• Weapons: Vibrosword and Shield Generator

• Default Kit: Ground Slam

• Crew Skills: +15 Biochem Efficiency, +10 Research Efficiency

Vector Hyllis

• Species: male Human

• Planet: Alderaan

• Role: Melee DPS

Armor: Medium

• Weapon: Vibrostaff

• Default Kit: Ground Slam

• Crew Skills: +5 Bioanalysis Efficiency, +5 Diplomacy Critical

Ensign Raina Temple

• Species: female Human

• Planet: Quesh

• Role: Ranged Healer

Armor: Medium

• Weapons: Pistol and Shield Generator

• Default Kit: Med Pack

• Crew Skills: +10 Scavenging Efficiency, +2 Armormech Critical

This gives you a quick SWTOR Imperial Agent Class Review so you can decide if this character fits your play style.

The Importance of Data Analytics for Leveraged Sales

The Importance of Data Analytics for Leveraged Sales

We've come quite far from our discussion on leveraged sales and by no means is it a finished topic. The next subject evolves around the importance of data analytics for leveraged sales and general business practices. For many new teams, this is a cornerstone subject matter that will help them from falling flat on their face completely. If you're a harden veteran but need an update for your business this should keep you moving forward or get you out of the mud.

Leveraged Sales are based on performance and NOT luck

Leveraged sales are measured and not just by the sales. They must be measured by views, click through, visits, bounce rates and time on page. The content that defines the product is also examined, especially the call for action, the design and graphics play an immense role. So, this is why it's not based on luck and anyone that is not measuring their general business and products may not see the success they desire. Each of these can be set up in an analytics program and trimmed for a report that can be examined anytime.

Leveraged sales performance must ride with the promotional element. The more that you promote your business, the more chances that your ideal prospect will visit your product page. The more views and hits on your product page will increase the chance for a direct sale. In order to achieve the results, the promotional aspect must be balanced. Like a Samurai, it must be strong and wise at the same time. It may also be delicious like a rose but strong enough to pull attention from the other distractions online. So, your performance level can increase if it is well maintained and acted upon by the audience.

Build an incredible story and the world will come

Every leveraged sales product has a story that precedes it. It is your business story that sets the stage for your audience. If the story is to be successful, one must contemplate the need for the story. The owner must forge it over from the furnace of their experiences and shape it into one that is deliverable and copy proof. It takes talent to be original, there are too many copy cats on the market today. Put in the effort to write the story and use analytics to achieve your goals. Do not copy someone, be unique and blaze your own path to glory.