Private Equity looking ahead

As the recession enters its second year, the Private equity industry is looking to 2014 to deal with the buyout spree of the past years. In this brief but incisive article by the Wall Street Journal's Liam Denning, the situation of the private equity industry know faces solid issues, not ambiguities.

Private Equity's Problems Fade From Red to Gray

Henry Kravis Prize awarded to Pratham

KKR, led by Henry Kravis, does more than just broker some of the world's biggest deals. Every year, the Henry Kravis Prize in Leadership recognizes innovations in nonprofits. Pratham, India’s largest education nonprofit, was awarded $250,000

Pratham has reached 34 million children across India through its Read India program, which works with governments and communities to improve the reading, writing, and basic arithmetic skills of children aged 6-14.

“We are delighted that a very high profile selection committee picked us after a thorough process without involving any of the organizations in the running, Of course, the award is for what we have done in the past and there are many bigger challenges ahead,” said Madhav Chavan.


Past honorees for the Henry Kravis Prize include Roy Prosterman, founder of the Rural Development Institute; Fazle Abed, founder of BRAC, the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), and Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, founder of the Afghan Institute of Learning.

Young Turks Comment on Health Care Bill

President Barack Obama just passed a landmark healthcare bill, but most people are still in the dark about precisely what the bill entails. Cenk Uygur of the progressive internet talk show The Young Turks weighs in on the pros and cons of the health care bill, and says that supporters' celebrations are premature; there are still some serious flaws in the bill.



via videosift.com

Kirk Kerkorian

Kirk Kerkorian was born on June 6, 1917, in Fresno, California. Instead of finishing high school, he chose to drop out in order to help his Armenian family. Eventually, he followed his brother’s footsteps and became a Pacific amateur welterweight boxing champion.

In 1939, he was hired to install wall furnaces for 45₵ an hour. Soon after, he developed an interest for aviation. Without having the means to pay for flight lessons, Kirk Kerkorian went to the Happy Bottom Ranch in the Mojave Desert to clean barns and milk cows in exchange for his lessons. After receiving his commercial pilot’s license six months later, Kirk Kerkorian went to Montreal, Canada to apply for the Royal Air Force. He was then hired to do the dangerous task of delivering Canadian-built bombers to Scotland. For the span of one and a half years, he successfully delivered 33 planes and traveled to four continents.

By integrating the Bellagio and Mirage properties in 1999, Kirk Kerkorian brought to life three of the most profitable gambling resorts in Las Vegas. Currently, he remains as the largest shareholder of the Los Angeles based investment company, Chrysler. He is also one of the major stockholders at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation.

In addition to being the richest Armenian in the world, Kirk Kerkorian is also notable for his feats in philanthropy. His charitable foundation, the Lincy foundation, was named after his daughters Linda and Tracy. So far, the organization has extended its donations to cultural center renovations, highway reconstructions, city beautification in Armenia, as well as to Armenian Churches and to the United Armenian Fund. For the past few years, the Lincy Foundation has granted a total of $165 million worth of donations to the Armenian government. The donations were used to help overcome the damage that was brought about by the earthquake in Spitak.

Avoiding Plastic Blunders

Anyone can make mistakes. Mistakes are a part of human nature and in this technology driven world of ours, some mistakes definitely have bigger repercussions than others. Making mistakes with regards to credit is more often the blunder that everyone has committed over the past couple of years. The recent global recession for example, is something that came to be from poor credit management.

But despite these, credit cards and other kinds of borrowing still fuel a lot of people’s lives nowadays. It is because of this dependence that one needs to keep a sharp eye on their credit card usage.

Some of the basic mistakes credit cardholders must avoid to avoid hurting their credit scores include:

• Asking banks or other lending institutions to lower the credit card’s limit. This is okay for people who do not have balances on their cards. In fact, lowering one’s credit limit will enable the user to be more in control of their credit spending. But when the card is full of outstanding balances, a lower limit will lessen the gap of what you owe and what you have.

• Making late payments will always be damaging to one’s credit scores. Passing out payments for a few days or worse, not making due payments at all will seem to be a sensible short term solution but will only hurt one’s scores in the future.

• Paying one credit card with another. Credit in payment for credit will always be a bad thing to do and this will reflect in the credit card scores.

• But so too is applying for a new credit card when one already possess many. More credit cards mean more temptations that will make one spend. More cards mean more rates to be handled; more balances to be paid out and more damage to one’s credit score in the future.

Avoiding all of these basic blunders is very important to be able to successfully manage credit accounts and not hurt the user’s credit score in the future.

Debit Cards and how to Properly Manage Their Usage

Responsible financial management is important in today’s world especially since consumers are faced with a variety of choices that they can use to go about their spending and needs. With credit cards, debit cards, and ATMs being offered by banks and financial institutions today, people need to know what to choose from these and be able to take full advantage of whatever the plastic cards offer.

Among all of these, debit cards seem to be the best avenue to take since the user is not borrowing but is rather spending money he saved for his purchases. Still, users need to be fully informed about these debit cards and should use them wisely to avoid falling into bad financial situations like large transacting fees and debts.

First thing that users need to know are the types of debit card that banks and other financial institutions might be offering. Some charge fees per transaction while others substitute their ATM cards for debit cards. Knowing the differences and fees involved will make consumers more informed on how and when it is fully advantageous to use their debit cards.

Next is to hold on to receipts from all debit card transactions. This is useful when reviewing monthly statements and making sure that charges one did not make are not included and shouldered by one’s bank account.

Other basics with debit card usage include memorizing the Personal Identification Number or PIN, and not just writing it down on a piece of paper or worse, on the card itself. Keep debit cards, or all cards for that matter, in safe places. In cases of lost and stolen cards, report immediately to your bank so that the lost card may be deactivated and a new one can be issued out. Also, make sure PINs are not basic numbers such as birthdates or telephone numbers.

Lastly, always check the balances of the cards in one’s possession. This is the very basic step for responsible financial management. Some debit cards allow you access to funds that you may have set aside to take care of a check that has not been cleared yet.

Hobson’s Financial Resolutions for 2010

Saving a significant yet manageable amount of money in a savings account might be one of the most important ways to enhance our financial standing in the future. However, that is not the only way to secure a clear financial future.

Mellody Hobson, the current president of Ariel Investments and personal finance contributor of “Good Morning America,” lays out some of the most sensible finance resolutions we can make for 2010.

Hobson thinks that investing in the stock market might be a good idea to start the year. According to her, the stock market was able to recover from hitting rock bottom last March 2009. In fact, the stock market was reported to have gone up an astounding 57% earlier this year.

Apart from that, Mellody Hobson also encourages people to consider reviewing the accuracy of their credit scores. According to her, credit reports are one of the most important items in each person’s financial life. Credit scores can bring most people bigger interest payments when getting loans for homes or new cars. In addition to that, Hobson also says that a person’s credit score can either make or break his/her bid for his/her dream job. However, to achieve all those, people need to give more importance to the accuracy of their credit scores. Mellody Hobson says that around 80% of credit reports are flawed. Major credit reporting agencies including Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian are not responsible for ensuring the accuracy of each person’s credit reports. Therefore, the owner of the credit report must take the responsibility himself.

In addition to those two, Mellody Hobson also advises people to prepare themselves for the possibility of rising minimum payments. Due to the new legislation, most credit card issuers including JP Morgan, Citibank, MBNA, and the Bank of America are increasing the amount of minimum payments.

Debit is the Way to Go

With the US and the global economy still feeling the tail-end of the recession, many consumers have kept mum with regards to their spending and have tried their hardest to keep all of their finances inside their households.

Together with frugal spending and saving, more and more people are finding the advantages of using debit cards more appealing than using their counterparts, the credit cards. It is true that debit cards offer users a more responsible way of spending and is more convenient to use than most credit cards. But when used improperly, just like credit cards, they can seriously hurt users financially. And because debit cards are more loosely protected than credit cards, as they come with schedule of fees different from that of credit cards, knowing basic information about debit cards and their usage will make for better and responsible spending. Here are some things to remember for users with debit cards and frequently use them in their transactions.

Basic in the list is to know and understand everything written in the bank’s terms and conditions with regards to their debit card services. Users should take note the schedule of fees that their banks give. They should know the important rates such as basic transaction fees, over-limit fees, and cash-withdrawal fees among others.
Also, they should carefully review every billing statement that the banks send them. They should cross-check them with the transaction receipts to make sure that no dubious transactions are being debited to one’s name.

Since a debit card is always attached to an existing bank account, debit cards should be protected with utmost care and not just placed anywhere open and unsafe. PIN numbers should also be formulated in a way that not even the smartest thief or someone the user knows can figure them out.

Also, be aware of the rewards program that banks have for using their debit cards. Using debit cards is indeed a more responsible way of financing transactions than debit cards. But like credit cards, it should also be given the proper attention and due diligence that it deserves.