| 'Tis the Season for Financial Crimes Against Seniors
Not everyone is full of goodwill during the holidays. Unfortunately, the holidays are prime time for financial crimes -- identity theft, robbery and fraud -- and seniors are often the target. "Consumers are reminded to Shred, Signup, Suppress and be Sensitive," says Melissa Companick, Acting President of the BBB of New Jersey. "Shred any private documents; sign up for automatic payroll, Social Security and SSI payments through direct deposit; suppress the amount of key paperwork left in mail boxes and other accessible areas; and be sensitive to protecting your passwords and financial information from anyone without a specific reason to have that information." To safeguard against financial crimes this holiday season the Better Business Bureau of New Jersey offers these tips for seniors: .
Dell Inc. and other celebrities help with wish lists
Hoping it can boost holiday sales, Dell Inc. has enlisted Burt Reynolds, Ice T and other celebrities to help customers raise money to buy products for themselves or others. Through a new Web site launching Friday, visitors to http://www.YoursIsHere.com will be able to create a virtual piggy bank where friends and relatives can donate money for gifts. There are tools to create e-mail distribution lists, and gift-seekers can embed their fundraising requests on their Facebook and MySpace pages. The e-mails are embedded with celebrity video clips, each pitch based on a theme. Actress Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza's nagging mom in the sitcom Seinfeld, solicits funds through the "guilt sell." "Not that it's any of my business, but you usually get them a thoughtless gift every year anyway," she groans.
Northfield picks tough week for stick debut
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Northfield Bancorp Inc. (NFBK /NASDAQ Global Select Market) wrapped up it first two days of trading Friday with a positive, but relatively lackluster showing, closing at $10.58 a share. The stock made its market debut at 11 a.m. on Thursday with an offering of $10.02, and, by day's end, signed off at $10.45, an increase of less than 4.5 percent. From December 1997 to March 1998, three banks doing business on Staten Island went public, including the former Staten Island Savings Bank (now SI Bank & Trust), Richmond County Savings Bank and the former Independence Community Bank (now Sovereign Bank). In each case, the first-day "pop" -- the immediate increase from the subscription price -- was more than 60 percent. If history repeated itself for Northfield, its newly listed stock would have soared to over $16.
Undocumented immigrants afraid of using U.S. banks
Stuffed in the bottom of a sock, or between the folds of clean clothes, or in the back of a drawer: There are dozens of places undocumented immigrants find to stash their savings. Surprisingly few of them, however, involve a bank.
There is no regulation that requires proof of legal status to open a bank account in the United States, and an increasing number of small banks are pursuing immigrant and Hispanic customers. Yet finance professionals and immigrant advocates say millions of undocumented men and women still opt to keep their cash on hand, or else wire it home a little at a time, paying for each transaction as they go.
Advocates say the problem largely lies in gaping cultural divides, and fear among the undocumented that bank accounts would make them more visible to authorities.
The Silver Blow Off
The Price / Earnings Ratio has long been recognized as one of the most useful financial indicators for valuing both individual stocks and stock markets. However as with individual stocks, it can be misleading if not also taking into account growth prospects for a particular economy. One of the primary indicators of growth is a countries real GDP, and as with an individual stock analysis, it is the consistency of trend that is important so as to avoid one year growth spurts. Therefore the following table evaluates current country main indices P/E Ratios against GDP growth trends for 2008, as an indicator of prospects for future stock price appreciation in terms of relative valuations. Analysis suggests the following fundamental picture based on earnings and trend adjusted growth for 2008.
Now You Can Prevent Cyber Invaders from Infecting Your Computer
(ARA) - "Lions, Tigers and Bears, Oh My!" When Dorothy uttered those words during her long, scary walk through the forest in the movie, "The Wizard of Oz," she had no idea just how scary the world was about to become.The lions, tigers and bears of today are spyware, viruses, spam, pop ups and phishing scams that cost Americans billions of dollars every year. Since none of us have a good witch on our side to keep these threats at bay, it's important to take steps to protect your computer from these cyber invaders.A good first step to take is to develop an understanding of the enemies you're dealing with, and they are plentiful.* Computer virus -- a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data.* Spam -- the common name for unsolicited commercial e-mail.
Russian Ctrl Bk: Reserves Nov 9 $455.2B Vs $447.9B Nov 2
MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russia's gold and foreign exchange reserves rose $7.3 billion in the week to Nov. 9 to a new record high of $455.2 billion, the central bank said Thursday. That follows a rise of $6.6 billion the previous week. Reserves have been rising since the beginning of October under the apparent influence of renewed capital inflows, coupled with the country's habitual current account surplus. In addition, the dollar's recent decline against the euro has inflated the dollar-denominated value of those reserves that the central bank holds in euros, over 40% of the total. The central bank doesn't comment itself on developments in its reserve portfolio. Central bank Web site: http://www.cbr.ru -By Will Bland, Dow Jones Newswires (+7 495) 974 8055; william.bland@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires November 15, 2007 02:55 ET (07:55 GMT) Copyright 2007 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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