IFIP News

You might find yourself choosing exactly what bills you can, and which of your bills you cannot afford to pay. The question is, how can you, without dramatically upgrading your employment status, pay each of your bills in a timely manner, while still having some funds at the end of this process to live on? The answer is: of course you can. The way that you can do this is by consolidating your past and current debt into a single larger monthly payment, thus relieving yourself of the continual perplexity of not knowing which debt to pay-off first. Alright, but who will help me do this? A Non-Profit Credit Counseling or Debt Consolidation firm. All in all, a said debt consolidation firm may help you by negotiating with those nasty little creditors so as to assist you in consolidating your bills into a single new loan with their firm. In many cases, they will make an agreement with each particular creditor in writing, showing you what specifically will be shown on your particular credit report as a result overall. On the whole, the ability to show creditors that you can indeed manage your debt DOES improve your Credit Score, but not necessarily all at once, as it usually takes some amount of time to see an increase in your credit score. Broadly speaking, you might actually notice your FICO score rise by some 10-15 points per month, depending on how aggressively you take on your debt; how consistent you are in making your monthly payments. Seeking Free credit counseling is indeed the first step towards a stress-free future of YOUR OWN Money Management!
Although it can take up to six months or more for a FICO Score to rise, consolidated debt help can have a more immediate impact by replacing “old dates” (those which show a payment so long ago) with “new dates” (currently paying on).

The General Electric Company has reported a decline in their Second Quarter earnings and continues to struggle in the present economy according to experts.
They reported earnings of 26 cents per share, which is down from the same quarter last year from 54 cent per share. They also had a net income fall of 47 percent to $2.9 billion, which is down from $5.4 billion in the second quarter of 2008. According to Richard Tortoriello an analyst for Standard & Poors this is a significant decline for General Electric with their diversified product lines that include gas turbines, power plants and aircraft engines. Tortoriello also stated that while it was a significant decline it was not unexpected in the climate of this economy. It almost seems like they could use some debt help, credit counseling or perhaps some kind of debt consolidation.
The chief executive of General Electric Jeffrey R. Immelt stated that his team was focused on cutting costs while improving operations and believed with their plan General Electric will profit during the next quarter.

In an attempt to regulate consumer debt management services and credit counseling services the houses of the Tennessee legislature have passed bills to regulate these businesses. The bill is called the Uniform Debt Management Services Act, which requires these companies to carry insurance and a surety bond, along with other regulations. One of these regulations is companies that are located outside of the state must register as doing business within the state of Tennessee. This is due to many of the businesses being located outside of the state and doing advertising on billboards and other means.
Senator Doug Overbey a republican from Maryville sponsored the Senate bill and believes it is a way to protect consumers in Tennessee. The act was drafted using the Uniform Law Commission, which is a 117 year old state organization, which is focused on protecting consumers. It should be noted that there are numerous non profit credit counseling services available and some of them are even free.
This commission stated that many consumers with credit card debt can do what these companies do themselves. The commission went on to say that these companies usually charge a large upfront fee. The advice they give for clearing up credit card debt is to stop paying the company, and to save a significant amount of money, which they will use to negotiate a settlement.

According to an article by leading journalist Tom Searls of the Sunday Gazette, both
Legislative leaders as well as West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin are gradually pushing towards a battle involving the right way to regulate workers’ compensation insurance benefits in that state.

Lawmakers have made their intent clear that they wish, at an absolute minimum, to be informed of any modifications in workers’ compensation rules, like earlier moves to cut off widows’ benefits at the age of their late husband’s retirement, for example.  Meanwhile, in

minimum wage news, the wages of salaried workers will go up by some fifty cents to $8 per hour on the first of January,  in the state of California (particularly in the city of Los Angeles),
making  workers there the 2nd highest paid earners overall in the nation, with Massachusetts being the other such state.
 The Massachusetts minimum wage will likewise reach the $8 an hour plateau on the first of the month, according to the U.S. Dept of Labor.
The state of Washington meanwhile, which automatically adjusts their minimum wage each year so as to keep up with inflation rates, will have the highest overall such wage at $8.07 per hour. As a side note to this story, By the way if you live in Los Angeles and you are looking for a first class Los Angeles Workers Comp attorney then I highly suggest that you take a look at the Law offices of Peyman and Rahnama. They serve the greater Los Angeles area

The Governor and the attorney general tends to think that if lawmakers interfere with the various rules and regulations for workers’ compensation, it may in fact damage the state’s plan to ultimately privatize the whole system.
 Insurance companies may then potentially wrongly presume that as a move to bring the program back under government control, he was quoted as stating.
BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Company., which was formed from the Workers’ Comp division  about 2 years ago, at this time is the only such firm selling workers’ compensation insurance in the state. Any good Workers Comp attorney out there?
However, this will change on the first of July when the state opens workers’ comp to private firms  across the whole country in an effort to maximise market effeciency.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Economic news — ifipcongress @ 8:21 pm

According to statistics from BLS.gov,
non agriculatural payroll employment increased by about one hundred and fifty thousand in May, while the unemployment
rate was unchanged at around 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the United States
Department of Labor reported today.  The health care & food service industries both managed to adde jobs,
while employment declined in the manufacturing sector, unfortunately.  Meanwhile, the average hourly earning rate amanged to rise by
6 cents, or 0.3 percent, in May.
In the same month, employment in general was unchanged at some 145.9 million, and the em-
ployment-population ratio held firm at around 63%.  The civilian labor force also
was the same, at 152,000,000, while the labor force participation rate
stayed at 66%.  Both the employment-population ratio and labor force
participation rate were down by 0.4% since the end of 2006.
Earning rates are important, but to get a wider perspective you should of course also
take a look at the inflation numbers, since inflation dicates spending power of that earned income.
According to Newsmax online, the MoneyNews publication as well as the Financial Intelligence Report, the dollar has been inflated recently - despite claims that the official CPI is “low”
I do not know if this claim is actually tru, but that was the report.
But whether these reports are true or not, I tend to view inflation a big threat to America’s global strength, and most importantly our wealth as American citizens.
I mean, if you get a 5% raise, but inflation jumps 10%, who really benefits from this. I also find that fact that our manaufacturing base shrunk (yet again)
to be truly troubling, especially in light of the recent reports that so many manufacturing jobs have gone to China and India in recent years.
While this may save some corporations some money and add a few nickels to investor’s dividends, it seems to me that this is bad for the long term economic health of the country.