| US pawnbrokers benefit from hard times
Hard times in the US are benefiting pawnbrokers as beleaguered consumers pledge jewels, electronics and other goods in return for loans with interest rates running as high as 300 per cent a year. Dave Adelman, president of the National Pawnbrokers Association, said the number of loans at US pawn shops had risen 15-20 per cent since October. He attributed the increase to rising fuel prices and deteriorating economic conditions – an assessment echoed by other industry executives. “Brief and shallow downturns in the economy may benefit our business model," said Daniel Feehan, chief executive of Cash America, the biggest US pawnbroker chain, with 942 locations. Pawnbrokers offer loans in return for personal items. Customers can buy back their property for the value of the loan plus a fee, which works out to an interest rate that can reach 300 per cent on an annualised basis, according to the NPA.
Seattle Investor Group Calm as Markets Swing
It certainly could be. Thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages have been dropping since Christmas. The average is now 5.5 percent, quite low by historical standards. So if you have an adjustable rate mortgage that's going to reset, now could be an excellent to time to swap into a fixed-rate loan. Lending standards have changed since the "anything goes" days of the housing bubble that burst last fall. "Here's why," says Greg McBride, senior financial analyst with bankrate.com, a personal finance Web site. "There are actually standards now. Instead of the loan requirement being the ability to fog a mirror, the people now in the best position to get mortgages have good credit, proof of income and either money for a down payment or equity in an existing house." Lower interest rates will take some of the sting out of adjustable rate loans that are resetting higher.
Need funds: Encash your home equity
When Nishant Sheth, a textile entrepreneur , was contemplating borrowing funds to expand his business, the first option that came to his mind was applying for a personal loan.
But he thought over this and had almost approached a bank, when his father asked him to reconsider.
His father suggested mortgaging the house where Nishant lived, pointing out that a loan against property would work out to be cheaper than a personal loan.
Nishant saw merit in his father's words and decided to approach the bank for a loan against his property. .
Red Mosque Opration
Musharraf should go, his presence is destabilising the country. He and his government are unpopular. An elected government should take power. The Islamic system of government IS secular, not Taliban. We true followers of the Prophet (PBUH) do not beleive in a theocracy or any kind of mullah hood. We follow the way of our prophet, we have no formal clergy so we cannot have a form of government which is not secular.
Imran Ahmed, Pakistan
RESPONSIBILITY? Who is responsible for the Red Mosque carnage?- PAKISTANI MINDSET. DIFFICULT AND PAINFUL FOR ANY PAKISTANI TO ADMIT. THE PAKISTANI MINDSET IS DRIVING THE NATION TO AN ABYSS. BLAMING OTHERS WILL NOT HELP.
A. V. RAO, United States of America
Islamic Republic Of PakistanMuhammed Ali Jinnah's Pakistan was called just Pakistan and Ayub Khan thought that it would make the mullahs happy by calling it Islamic Republic Of Pakistan just like General Zia passed the hadood ordinance in order to make the mullahs happy.
Politics of gas prices
Everyone likes to see a villain squirm. The problem is, the Federal Trade Commission already has been sniffing out price gouging in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and has yet to uncover one instance of illegal behavior. Election-year investigations into marketwide collusion and gouging are window dressing, nothing more. The reference is to Dustin McDaniel. .
Islam on marriage
The overview commentary of the said Sura also deals with the family, the nucleus and the foundation of Muslims society, to which Islam has extended notable attention and effort, regulating its essential aspects and ensuring its safety and protection against abuse and disintegration. Such attention is reflected in several Quranic suras and addresses all necessary elements to ensure the strong foundation of the family in Muslim society.
The Islamic social order is family-based by virtue of its being a Divinely-Ordained system for human society that takes full account of the essentials of human nature and its basic requirements.
Its ingredients originate with the very essence of life itself, as stated in the Holy Quran when it says "Of all things We have created a pair (male and female), so that you may give thought." (51:49) "Limitless in His glory is He who has created pairs of whatever the earth produces, of your own kind, and of that which they (people) have no knowledge." (36:36)
Human life began with one person, out of whom came a spouse, and then offspring from the pair of them, and so on.
CAMPAIGN 2008
He voices as much concern for postnatal life as for prenatal life. He seems genuinely concerned about the less fortunate, including the children of illegal immigrants. Given those qualities, it's probably not surprising that many old-guard leaders of the religious right seem uneasy about the former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor—or at least about his surprisingly strong showing in the Republican presidential primaries. Is Huckabee the political expression of something new in the evangelical Christian movement? Some analysts think so. Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay, writing in the the Immanent Frame, calls him a "new kind of evangelical that is less interested in 'taking back the country' for the faithful and more interested in his faith being seen as authentic, reasonable, and attractive." Dubbing this new type the "cosmopolitan evangelical," Lindsay, author of Faith in the Halls of Power, says that many who fit the label have become influential Washington players, still committed to the antiabortion and traditional marriage agenda but "also concerned about the environment and...federal support for the poor and suffering." Some of these cosmopolitan evangelicals are politically liberal, Lindsay explains, but just as many, if not more, are conservatives who favor a truly compassionate and less confrontational conservatism.
Restoration Hardware agrees to lower price in merger with Catterton
Restoration Hardware Inc. changed its merger deal with Catterton Partners, agreeing to a lower per-share price -- $4.50 per share rather than the $6.70 per share in the November agreement. The change lowers the overall price Catterton will pay in the deal to $179 million from $267 million. The Corte Madera company (NASDAQ: RSTO) said "increased pressure" in the retail sector led it to agree to the new deal. Catterton has loaned $25 million to Restoration Hardware for working capital. Michael Chu is a founder and managing partner of Catterton, a private equity firm founded in 1990 with about $2 billion under management. He worked previously at First Pacific Company, a Hong Kong investment and management company, which hired him in 1983.
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