|
|
|||
|
|||
|
|
Oil Supplies Threatened by 'Total War' in Nigeria MoneyNews
(Headlines - scroll down for full stories)
Crude prices jumped for a second straight day in light of BBC reports "that Nigerian militants would declare 'total war' on foreign oil companies, rekindling concern about supplies from Africa's top producer," according to Bloomberg News. The militant group known as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta has declared that oil companies have until Saturday at midnight to leave the region, said the British news service. Bloomberg quotes Tim Noest, a broker at ADM Investor Services International in London: "The threat is fresh and direct, and therefore significant to the ongoing stability of the oil-rich region.
Story Continues Below
"The light, sweet Nigerian crude grade that could be affected is also highly attractive." Almost 10% of Nigerian oil output was disrupted in January after the militants destroyed pipelines and kidnapped oil workers. But before that, oil prices were already surging as a result of the standoff between Iran and the rest of the world over that country's nuclear ambitions - and now the Nigerian unrest is only exacerbating the situation, as fears grow that there could be serious disruptions to oil output. Meanwhile, on the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude for March delivery climbed $1.29, or 2.2%, to $59.75 a barrel. The rise comes on the heels of a 6.9% drop earlier in the week. Thursday marked a seven-week low of $57.55, and overall oil is down 16% from its August record of $70.85. Editor's Note:
2. Determining Your Retirement Savings 'Number' Financial advisers are constantly telling clients that they should gauge their net worth, plan out their long-term financial goals and decide how much they'll need to live on after retirement. These days, all of this information can be boiled down to a single question - one that advisers are asking their clients more and more: "What's your number?" The "number" is simply the amount of money a person requires to live comfortably after retirement. "It used to be called your 'life's savings,'" says The Baltimore Sun. "Then it became your 'nest egg.' These days, it's simply known as The Number, or what Lee Eisenberg describes in his recently released and buzzed-about book of that title: How much money do you have to save before you can safely retire? The Number has become something of an obsession." In an interview with the newspaper, Eisenberg says that, more and more, Baby Boomers are beginning to realize that they'll be on their own in retirement, with not even a guarantee that Social Security will be around in 20-30 years. "Over the last two-and-a-half decades, there has been a sea change," Eisenberg told the paper. "A large part of my book is devoted to what I call the old part of your life, in which we relied on pensions and the Social Security system, and the new rest of your life, in which we are asked to be the captains of our own ship. We can no longer hide from the reality that we're going to have to do this ourselves." According to Eisenberg's book, 40% of those asked say they are saving nothing for the future, and those who do save put aside barely a penny out of every dollar they earn. A separate study by the Washington-based Employee Benefit Research Institute says that 55% of workers are "behind schedule" in preparing financially for retirement, mostly because they spend their time dealing with everyday living expenses. But hope springs eternal. Some 66% of those participating in the EBRI study are confident they will meet their savings goal for retirement. But study researchers refer to this as "false confidence." And not everyone has faith in the "number" concept, either. "As a certified financial planner, I've been doing this for 26 years and I can say there is no magic number," says Patrick J. Horan, president of Horan Capital Management in Towson, Maryland. "Health care is not consistent. Spending is not consistent. Health is not consistent. Reducing it to one finite number is impossible. That's like trying to take a single bullet and hit eight different targets at once. The one thing I can guarantee is that any number you can come up with is likely to be wrong."
3. California Sues H&R Block Tax-preparation giant H&R Block finds itself in court this month as the state of California is suing the company for violating 15 state and federal laws in marketing and providing high-cost refund-anticipation loans (RALs), primarily to poorer families. Taxpayers often accept these RALs - loans that are secured by a filer's expected refund, which is used as collateral. Internal Revenue Service statutes restrict tax providers from offering the loans directly. But H&R Block says it has bypassed those rules by contracting banks to issue the loans. But, as usual, the problem is in the paperwork. The lawsuit claims that H&R Block provides clients with the loan applications and then fills out the paperwork, sends it all to the banks and distributes the loan checks to customers. Now California Attorney General Bill Lockyer says that damages could cost H&R Block "hundreds of millions" of dollars.
"Millions of Californians have placed their trust in H&R Block, and unfortunately H&R Block has repaid them by violating that trust," said Lockyer in a press statement. "In marketing and selling these expensive loans, H&R Block has profited greatly, but deceived consumers, violated their privacy rights and taken money from California families who can least afford it."
H&R Block denies any wrongdoing and will fight the matter in court, company officials say.
Editor's Note:
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
Print Page 
Forward Page 
|
| All Rights Reserved © 2008 NewsMax.Com |