From my notary with love

Wills and Brits do not get on well with each other.

Seven in every ten British citizens die without making a will. This happens in a country where do-it-yourself wills are sold at £4.99.

This is bad for your personal finances, Ruth Jackson, author of the article, tells her readers.

It’s also a legal no-no as it will create legal problems in the long run.

Getting a will drawn up by a solicitor can cost between £100 and £400, argues Jackson. Now, with these prices, wills are also a win-win situation. Just multipl the cheapest amount quoted by 70% of the British population and you’ll understand why lawyers in Britain should be clamouring for more wills as jobs in the financial services dwindle.

Job losses deepen Monday blues

Companies all over the world announced thousands of job losses today as a survey among US private sector companies suggests that the situation will only get worse.

Caterpillar, producer of heavy machinery such as bulldozers, announced that 20,000 of its employees will face the sack is it made more than a third less profit for the last three months of 2008.

Six thousand employees will be fired from electronics producer Philips.

In the UK steel maker Corus announced 2,500 job cuts while France is considering a stimulus plan to help airlines purchase planes that will in turn save Airbus.

All these job cuts are affecting both skilled and unskilled workers. This means that there are more unemployed individuals with tertiary education than before. Writing on the Wall Street Journal, Dawn Jordan, former vice president of operations at Bank of America writes:

I know my education will be key in landing my next job, but it didn’t prevent me from losing my last one. And it doesn’t carry any guarantees about the job after that. Given the growing number of intelligent, experienced workers being laid off everyday, I can’t help but wonder, what besides education and experience is needed to increase job security in today’s workplace?

Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a new world order after the crisis. This is already happening with Kuwaiti firm Noor Financial Investments forming ventures with Russian gas giant Gazprom

Cows are stronger than Brown: They can survive recession

As Gordon Brown announces the UK is following the US in recession, saying it was caused by ‘complete market failure’, data shows that cattle ranching is experiencing double-digit growth in the US.

So, if you’re looking for a job and you’re worried the British financial services sector will shrink over the coming two years, why not try work on a cattle ranch, where growth and peace of mind are guaranteed.

Online reality buys your debts to own your life

Are you charismatic, jobless, drowning in debt, with only a carrot left for your next lunch? Then you could be next in line to be saved by the debt monkey.

‘We pay off all your debts but then we own you!’, says the official slogan of Debtmonkey.tv, a new internet tv reality starting today.

Ben Foster, a self-styled anti-reality YouTube box-blogger, was the lucky winner of a competition which attracted thousands of applications. But, as this video shows, he’s still not sure whether to endure the experience, though he admits he’s ecastic he was freed of all his debts:

Debtmonkey.tv can also be followed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Meanwhile Italian news agency ADNKronos today reports that more Italians have resorted to online micro-lending since the start of the financial crisis with web-sites as www.zopa.it proving to be a massive hit.

Photo of the Day: Cars-in-waiting

 

Cars waiting to be sold in the UK

This picture, taken from The Guardian, shows Nissan cars waiting to be sold in the UK. Demand for cars globally has plummeted forcing producers to cut production. In the UK only, car production was halved in December 2008. As a result, global steel production fell for the first time in ten years.

Meanwhile, Fiat continues its rise with rumours suggesting that it might merge with French carmaker Peugeot.

The day of happy postmen and happier taxmen

The 21st of January 2009 will be remembered as the day which made postmen in the UK happy and taxmen in the US even happier.

Royal Mail, Brtains postal service,  in fact today posted its first profit for all its business operations in 20 years, The Guardian reports. Perfect timing for Royal Mail: post a profit while virtually everyone else’s posting a loss.

Meanwhile in Washington, soon-to-be Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner apologised to the US Senate for failing to pay $34,000 in taxes which became due in 2001. He later admitted that he now settled all his dues. This is what I call responsible politics.

But not all was happy clappy today.

Ebay announced later on in the day that its income dropped 31% and traffic went down 4%. The web site generates more than 84.5 million visitors annually.

Whre did the traffic go?

Possibly to Iceland where citizens are fuming at their ‘corrupt government’ following its mismanagement of the financial crisis that hit the once financially strong island. The Huffington Post reports the story with an ironic headline: ‘Iceland is burning.’

I don’t know if the pun was intended.

(Video: A day in the life of a happy Royal Mail postman)

Euro car industry, Latvia are running low on fuel

€40 billion is needed to save the European car industry from collapse, European car maker association president Carlos Ghosn said today. This news came as reports suggest that more than 1,300 employees could face the sack in troubled car make Jaguar-Land Rover.

Car makers in Europe were urged to keep a close eye on the outcomes of the proposed plan by President Obama to bail out US car makes, argued EU Industry Commissioner Geunter.

Latvia is also in need of help. The Finance Ministers of the European Union agreed to give the troubled Baltic EU member state a €3.1 billion loan.

Meanwhile, Fiat announced it acquired a 35% stake in Chrysler. The New York Times reported, Sergio Marchionne,  the chief executive of Fiat saying in a statement:

“This initiative represents a key milestone in the rapidly changing landscape of the automotive sector and confirms Fiat and Chrysler commitment and determination to continue to play a significant role in this global process,”

Jurys Inns, a small British hotel chain, was a rare source of good news as it announced the creation of 300 jobs as it intends to build new hotels in Newcastle-upon-Thyne, Portsmouth and Glasgow.

Jobs and Cars trouble continues as Wall Street waits

Everyone’s waiting for what Obama will say, and do, on the economy even stock traders as CNNMoney reports that stocks on Wall Street are set to go down in value today.

Meanwhile there’s a mix of bad and good news on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean as Times reports that inflation in Britain has stumbled to 3.1% in the last three months of 2008. RBS’ shares, which yesterday announced the biggest loss in British corporate history, are today trading at higher prices. 

This is however overshadowed by news that food firm Vion and clothing firm Burberry are set to axe jobs. 

European car-makers urgently need money, said Renault’s Chief Carlos Ghosn at a summit in France today. More than 10% of France’s workforce is employed in the car industry. France is preparing a plan to inject more cash in the industry.

Toyota’s also in trouble as it fired its President today after the company reduced its sales by 4%.

Bank posts biggest loss in British history

CNBC just announced that Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the major banks in Britain, has posted a $30 billion loss for 2008.

This is the biggest loss in Britian’s corporate history.

“If the banking system collapses, every single one of us would see the obvious problems. The economy would come down with it,”  said Alistair Darling, Britian’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.

This news comes as the UK government prepares to take over as much as 70% of the bank in a bid to rescue it. This is part of a £300bn rescue package that was announced this morning.

Some sectors of the press are however already doubtful whether this second bank bailout will be successful.

Professor Peter Spencer from York University however argues, “We must not lose sight of the fact that they [bank bailouts] have prevented the collapse of the monetary system.” Were this to happen, this would spell disaster for the whole global economy.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard however states that “this does not mean that recovery is imminent’.

I do not envy anyone who has to deal with this financial mess.

Tesco starts tweeting

British retail giant Tesco started tweeting through its US arm Fresh & Easy, The Telegraph reports:

A sample Twitter exchange from earlier this week involves a customer called “songrytr” noting that stock levels had seemed “a little sparse” on recent visits to his local branch, to which Fresh & Easy responds that levels tend to be a bit low at the end of the year due to shipping schedules.

Though perhaps not gripping correspondence, Twitter does help to establish loyalty by giving customers an active way of communicating with the company’s management.