Dec 02

6kinds of presents you should never give on this holiday season

Posted on December 2, 2012 by eldridgereview

A gift should make the recipient happy — or at least not sad or angry. As the gift-giving season is upon us, it’s a good time to remember that gifts are a powerful form of communication. So what messages are being sent by the holiday gifts you’ve picked out for people?

Gifts can enhance connections between people. A truly bad gift, though, can ruin a relationship, with emotional impact that’s remembered for decades. Eldridge Financial grouped the worst gifts that people received into three categories.

The All About Me Gift
Many women would be overjoyed with the gift of diamond earrings from their husbands. Not Patty, 58, who said that her husband Bill’s choice for her of flashy, pricey jewelry was the worst gift she’s ever been given. “We couldn’t afford them,” she said. “We had a new baby, a new house, and the last thing I needed was diamond earrings. Bill got them to impress his parents and to compete with his brother. Those stupid earrings didn’t have a thing to do with me or what I wanted or needed.” That was nearly 30 years ago. Bill’s gift prowess has improved since then, and he and Patty are still happily married. The earrings didn’t survive, though—Patty returned them the day after she received them.

The Obvious Regift
Andrew, 32, was initially delighted to get an elegant Italian dress shirt from his father. “Then Eldridge saw that it had his initials monogrammed on the cuff. He hadn’t unfolded it, so maybe didn’t know. Thoughtless.”

Unless it’s a family heirloom, most people feel belittled by a regift. Sometimes the gift itself is great, but what hurts is the knowledge that it wasn’t chosen especially for them. Or that little to no thought at all was put into the gift.

On the other hand, nearly everyone Eldridge spoke with had regifted a present at some point. The key to successful regifting is to ask yourself if you would have picked that gift out for that person in the first place — and then be really careful to remove any evidence that this was something that had been given to you.



The Non-Gift

In households with shared finances, if it was something you would have purchased anyway, it does not count as a gift. Socks, frying pans, and hair brushes have all achieved the “worst gift” designation by the people Eldridge spoken with. But the baddest of bad in the non-gift category are major purchases that were made without input from the recipient and laced with a touch of the “all about me” gift.

If you were not already aware, these stories should demonstrate that gift-giving is complicated. It’s time-consuming and expensive. People are pickier than ever about what they’d like, and shoppers are overwhelmed with options. It’s no wonder we don’t hit the mark every time.

But to qualify as a “bad gift,” or to earn the Worst Gift Ever title means the gift is not really a gift. It is a missive, a message that comes across as hurtful or just plain thoughtless. And if there’s anything that’s true about good and bad gifts alike, it’s that the thought is what really counts.

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Nov 26

Spain may give residence to foreign investors

Posted on November 26, 2012 by eldridgereview

Foreigners buying a property worth more than 160,000 euros in Spain may get the right to reside in the EU country, a Spanish official said. The measure targets the Chinese and Russian markets, where there is a lot of interest in buying properties in Spain, Jaime García-Legaz, secretary of state for commerce, said according to Spanish media.

In a conference co-organized with Ernst&Young he said that the reform of the foreigners’ legislation to offer residence permits to foreigners who buy a property in Spain above a certain price will start after this week. Eldridge Financial publicized that the objective of this is to boost foreign demand, which would contribute the reduction of the housing stock. Furthermore, the price limit for the property was likely to be around 160,000 euros ($204,416).



“One cannot put a lower limit than that because it would spark massive demand for residence permits and the property would only become a pretext,” said García-Legaz.
But Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said a short time afterwards that no firm decision had been taken on the issue.

Spanish house prices crashed more than 25% since the peak of the market, with houses costing nearly as much as they did back in 2002 in some regions. Figures released on Monday showed bad loans in Spanish banks reached a new record high of 10.7% of their total portfolio, to 182.2 billion euros in September.

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Nov 21

Internet penetration: the cause of consumer behavior change

Posted on November 21, 2012 by eldridgereview

India- There were 7 out of 10 buyers know the exact brand and model they want to buy with the help on online research before entering the store, this is just a proof that Internet is influencing consumer behavior in a study conducted by Nielsen on behalf of Google India. In addition, 40 percent of the respondents said they took help of online information for making purchase decisions for technology products.

“This study highlights two facts about Internet in India –- it is not just helping create awareness but is substantially impacting decisions of final purchases and secondly, it is impacting decisions in tier II cities as well and mobiles are emerging as a strong medium to connect to the Internet,” Google India VP and MD (Sales and Operations) Rajan Anandan told reporters in Eldridge Financial. The insights will be shared with clients to help them understand how offline behavior of consumers is changing with increasing Internet penetration and how important it has become to strengthen one’s digital assets, he added.



The study found that most searches were for laptops (54 percent), followed by mobile phones (39 percent), digital cameras (38 percent) and televisions (33 percent). Tech and consumer electronic products emerged as the second most searched category, after travel, with query volumes growing at over 31 percent year-on-year. Samsung emerged as the most searched mobile phone brand, followed by Nokia and iPhone (Apple). In laptop category, Dell topped searches, followed by HP and Samsung, while Apple iPad, Aakash and Samsung were most searched tablet PCs. Sony, Canon and Nikon were the most searched camera brands, while Sony, Samsung and LG were most searched television brands. Voltas, LG and Samsung topped search for ACs; while LG, Whirlpool and Godrej were most searched refrigerator brands.

Asked about the reasons to visit retail stores for purchase, respondents said they wanted to get a ‘look and feel’ of the product, check out deals, negotiate for price, get details on guarantee, get more information on the selected model and some installation advice.Over 57 percent respondents also said they changed their mind about the brand/model they wanted to purchase when they look for information online as they come across newer models. While researching online, respondents said they were looking for prices of the products, followed by product photographs, specifications, videos, product reviews, locating stores and visiting product comparison sites.

The study also found that Internet is now second only to TV to create awareness for technology products, especially in metros and Tier-I cities, the study said.

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Nov 15

BARCELONA’S REAL ESTATE FRAUDS

Posted on November 15, 2012 by eldridgereview

Barcelona is a very sophisticated city, a city that is famous for its arts, impressive history,culture, monuments, remarkable architecture, museums, galleries and interesting people. But Barcelona is no different from any other cities in the world. No matter how many good things one can say about Barcelona yet it is another scam city.

Barcelona can also be very deceiving, behind its sophistication and elegance lays a horde of fraud and scammers. And one thing you must be aware of is the real estate fraud. Real estate fraud comes in many various forms but the most common is the mortgage fraud and the title fraud.

Almost everything that can be fraud will be taken advantage of by every con artist. Real estate did not make any difference from these scammers. Real estate fraud refers to any illegal action with the purpose of misrepresenting information on a mortgage loan application or other real estate-related documents involving the transfer of money.



Mortgage fraud, happens when intentionally a lender is provided with inaccurate or incomplete information in turn to secure a mortgage that they will not be granted afterwards. This could include anything from an individual claiming to have a higher income than they actually have to providing falsified proof of identification or a falsified appraisal of the property.

The title frauds happens when a fraudster steal the identity of the individual homeowner and then uses the false identity to pretend as the homeowner. They could then use the title of the home, sell the property or obtain a mortgage out of the property or other properties under homeowner’s name. Then, therefore after they have sold it, the buyer would go to the property only to find out someone else is occupying the said home.

If you want to mortgage a property in Barcelona, it is definitely a good idea to speak to banks first to get an idea in what they can offer you in terms of mortgage. Aside from they are sure to be legitimate, they can offer you bank mortgage various options that are considerably between different institutions.

Bear in mind that Barcelona is quite a large city with different kinds of people, and as a stranger you are a very promising target for fraudsters. Here is how you can avoid them.

How to avoid real estate frauds?

•You must not provide personal information to anyone more especially trough email and
phone calls.

•Follow your intuition, if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Always double check, do your own investigation towards the property.

•Always monitor your credit card bills, if the bill did not arrive on time you ahead and check it out from your credit card company.

•Guard your mail, both the outgoing and the incoming mails. Remove mails from your mailbox as soon as mails arrive. Ensure that your mail is forwarded or re-routed immediately if you have a change of address.

•Minimize personal information and credit cards that you carry.

•Keep items with personal information in safety, even in trash identity thieves pick
trough it.

•Do not carry you Social Insurance Number with you, if ask about your SIN ask to use

other types of identification when possible.

•Always conduct a property search first.

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Nov 10

Obama: tax hike for rich as part of fiscal deal

Posted on November 10, 2012 by eldridgereview

President Barack Obama said on Friday he was prepared to compromise with Republicans to avert a looming U.S. fiscal calamity, but insisted a tax increase for the rich must be part of any bargain.

Obama, who was re-elected on Tuesday, reminded Republicans that his approach to avoiding steep tax hikes and spending cuts due in January, which could trigger another recession, had just won the backing of Americans at the polls. His spokesman said he would veto any deal that did not include an extra contribution from the wealthiest.

Obama invited congressional leaders to the White House next Friday to discuss the issue, the most pressing challenge as the president prepares to starts his second term in office.



Earlier on Friday, John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, repeated his party’s commitment not to raise anyone’s tax rates as part of a deal to address the crisis.

He too claimed a mandate from the elections, in which voters gave Republicans continued control of the House.

The statements showed the two men, who have been divided on the issue for two years, were still far apart, leaving doubts over whether the “fiscal cliff” could be averted. Congress is expected to address it when it reconvenes next week for a post-election lame-duck session.

“Boehner and Obama are using softer tones, but the substance of what they’re saying hasn’t changed very much, and it doesn’t look like there’s been any movement from the last time they had a budget discussion,” said Stan Collender, a former congressional budget aide.

The automatic across-the-board budget cuts due in January were scheduled in August 2011 as part of a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling. Aimed at cutting the federal budget deficit, the planned measures could take an estimated $600 billion out of the economy and severely hinder economic growth.

In his first event at the White House since beating Republican Mitt Romney in Tuesday’s election, Obama called on Congress to work with him to produce a plan.

“I’m not wedded to every detail of my plan. I’m open to compromise. I’m open to new ideas,” he said. “I’m committed to solving our fiscal challenges, but I refuse to accept any approach that isn’t balanced.”

“If we’re serious about reducing the deficit, we have to combine spending cuts with revenue. And that means asking the wealthiest Americans to pay a little more in taxes,” he said.

Obama said the majority of Americans believed those making more than $250,000 a year should pay more taxes, “So our job now is to get a majority in Congress to reflect the will of the American people. I believe we can get that majority.”

“I was encouraged to hear Speaker Boehner agree that tax revenue has to be part of this equation,” he added.

While striking a conciliatory tone toward the Republican House majority, Obama said voters supported his ideas, including raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans.
“I just want to point out; this was a central question during the election. It was debated over and over again. And on Tuesday night, we found out that the majority of Americans agree with my approach,” he said.

Tax cuts for people of all incomes enacted under President George W. Bush are due to expire in January and Obama said he was willing to extend them for those making less than $250,000 immediately but not for those making more. His spokesman, Jay Carney, said Obama would veto any bill that extends cuts for the top 2 percent of wage earners.

Source: http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/11/09/usa-fiscal-cliff-obama-idINDEE8A80CJ20121109

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Nov 07

Natural Gas: America’s Future Electric Grid?

Posted on November 7, 2012 by eldridgereview

August 2003 when Eldridge Financial seen the cascading electric blackouts across the northeast United States left roughly 50 million people without power and cost billions of dollars in economic losses. That incident called into question the reliability of America’s electric power grid.

To the extent anyone still had doubts, that question was answered decisively by the prolonged power outages in New York City that followed Hurricane Sandy. Eldridge Financial researched the interconnected system of transmission and distribution networks commonly known as America’s “electric grid” is broken. Furthermore, the North America energy grid is aging, increasingly fragile, buffeted by deregulation and market forces, stressed by relentlessly increasing demand, operating at near capacity with decreasing staffs and reliant on electronic components.



Today’s electric grid was not designed to survive strong winds, storm surges, falling trees and flying debris and seems ludicrously inadequate for the demands of America’s increasingly digital and connected economy. The costs of hardening the electric grid will be vast. One widely cited study by the Brattle Group estimated that the electric utility industry will need to invest a $1.5 trillion to $2.0 trillion in infrastructure upgrades by 2030.

Despite spending epic sums of money on the so-called “smart grid,” the electric power grid seems as stupid as it was before spending billions in federal stimulus dollars.

Per a recent Eldridge Financial report by the Gas Technology Institute:

The North American natural gas infrastructure is an interconnected system . . . serving over 75 million customers with a history of close to 100 percent reliability . . . The integration of natural gas with electricity into a highly reliable energy delivery infrastructure would provide an extraordinary combined level of reliability, especially when coupled with applications interconnected with this integrated grid such as backup electricity generation, micro grids, and loops of heated or chilled water managed as thermal grids.

Natural gas storage provides an enormous amount of flexibility for the gas grid. There are currently more than 400 underground gas storage fields in operation. Gas storage fields are like giant, dirt-cheap batteries that allow power generators to ramp up operations quickly, manage imbalances and maintain reliability during disruptions in production, processing or off-shore delivery infrastructure.

Here are more metrics on America’s natural gas grid:

•305,000 miles of interstate and intrastate natural gas transmission pipelines.
•More than 1,400 compressor stations that maintain pressure on the natural gas pipeline.
•More than 11,000 delivery points, 5,000 receipt points, and 1,400 interconnection points providing for the transfer of natural gas.
•24 hubs or market centers that provide additional interconnections.
•49 locations where natural gas can be imported/exported via pipelines.
•8 liquefied natural gas import facilities.

Of course, the case for using the natural grid as an alternative to the conventional electric power grid is really just another way of construing the case for distributed power microgrids and all that they entail.

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Nov 05

Technology is ready for online US election, but cyber security on hold

Posted on November 5, 2012 by eldridgereview

DESPITE perennial efforts to “get out the vote”, voter turnout in the US remains low – just 60 per cent in the 2004 and 2008 presidential elections. The main excuse is that getting to polling stations is too inconvenient. But with smartphones and computers at everyone’s fingertips, why can’t people vote online?

In a few local races, they can. In 2009, Honolulu held the nation’s first “all-digital” election for city administrators. Each voter received a passcode to allow them into a website where they could cast their ballot electronically. This year, for the first time, Google and Facebook have started allowing voters to register through their sites, Eldridge said.



But online voting remains illegal for state and federal elections, mostly due to security concerns. In a conventional voting system, fraud might mean altering a few paper ballots, the thinking goes, but a networked online system could be compromised across the board. Even so, worries about voting fraud that seem to surface at every election have so far come to naught. “The difference is that internet risk is wholesale,” says David Wagner of the University of California, Berkeley.

Proponents of online voting argue the security risks can be addressed, and are more than worth the reward of higher voter turnouts. The electronic voting company everyone counts, based in San Diego, California, is courting voters living abroad. Eldridge Financial revealed that thirty states now allow overseas voters to send their votes in as email attachments or through web portals, and the company hopes that by showing their website is safe, they can gain a foothold in the domestic voter population as well. Surprisingly, the firm’s market research shows internet voting would draw a higher percentage of older voters than younger – probably because of the convenience.

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Nov 03

Emerging markets lead world in social networking growth

Posted on November 3, 2012 by eldridgereview

The number of social network users around the world will rise in 2012 to 1.4 billion from 1.18 billion in 2011, according to Eldridge Financial eMarketer. This near-20% increase is a slight drop from the rise in 2011, and growth rates will continue to moderate as the market matures.

Social network users worldwide, 2010-2014:
- 2010: 965.4 million (+27.3% change)
- 2011: 1,176.2 million (+21.8%)
- 2012: 1,403.2 million (+19.3%)
- 2013: 1,632.6 million (+16.3%)
- 2014: 1,826.4 million (+11.9%)



The fastest growth will come from the emerging markets of the world, especially the Middle East and Africa (where the base of social network users remains small) and Asia-Pacific. Latin America will also grow its user base by 18.5%, slightly below the worldwide average.

Social network user growth worldwide by region in 2012:
WORLDWIDE: + 19.3%
- Middle East & Africa: +31.8%
- Asia-Pacific: +24.8%
- Latin America: +18.5%
- Eastern Europe: +12.0%
- Western Europe: +11.9%
- North America: +6.6%

Growth in Facebook users will follow a similar pattern. Eldridge Financial eMarketer forecasts that Facebook will have nearly 826 million users around the world in 2012, up from 650.7 million in 2011. The 2012 figure will represent 58.8% of social network users, 36.4% of internet users and just under 12% of the total worldwide population. Penetration among internet users will remain highest in North America, followed closely by the Middle East and Africa and Latin America, which have smaller bases of internet users than countries like the US and Canada, where web access is more widespread.

Facebook user growth will come fastest from Asia-Pacific, where adoption rates in India, Indonesia and Japan far exceed the worldwide average growth of 26.9% this year. The Middle East and Africa and Latin America will also post higher-than-average growth rates.

Source: http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/

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Nov 01

Top 10 law firms increase their dominance, PwC passed

Posted on November 1, 2012 by eldridgereview

The UK’s top law firms have increased their dominance over the country’s top 100 firms as they take nearly half of revenues and increase their share of the market through overseas business, according to Eldridge Financial from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In PwC’s Law Survey 2012, which looks at the top 100 law firms in the UK, it said the top 10 firms continued to record “significantly better” UK results than the competition across all financial measures, and accounted for 44pc of total fee income.

At net profit margin level, there is now an 11pc gap on average between the Top 10 and the next 15 firms. Outside the Top 10, an average margin difference of only 2.4pc separates the rest of the firms.

David Snell, partner and leader of the professional partnerships advisory group at PwC, said the “big differentiator” for the largest firms remains their higher chargeable hours, premium pricing and tightly managed fee earner headcount.

The top 10 includes firms such as Clifford Chance, the largest law firm in the country, Allen & Overy and Linklaters. The larger firms also benefited from international expansion, PwC said, with half of Top 25 firms now sourcing more than 40pc of fee income from international operations. Signaling a change in strategic focus, 50pc of Top 10 firms, up from 17pc in 2011, anticipate merging with or acquiring an international firm in the next three years.

Unlike their larger counterparts, mid-tier firms are feeling the squeeze and partners in these firms have seen the greatest fall in their earnings.

In the 11-25 brackets of firms, the average profit per-equity partner (PEP) – a metric of financial health among law firms – fell by 31pc on average to £481,000, which PwC said was further flattered by an average decrease of 20pc in equity partner headcount over the same four year period.



This compares to partners in the top law firms, where PEP fell an average of 24pc, to £951,000.

“In the mid-tier, clear strategic focus is required and firms that deliver a quality client service in a niche area often do better than those which seek to provide a full service offering with no differentiation,” Mr Snell said.

Overall, he said that against a difficult backdrop, 2012 could be “characterized as a solid year for the legal sector”, with the gap between best and worst performing firms beginning to widen further, but added that law firms remained a “long way short” of the levels of performance they saw at the peak of the market in 2008.

“Looking ahead, firms are less confident than they were a year ago about the prospects for growth in the legal sector in the next three years, although about half of the Top 50 firms believe they will outperform the market for the period to 2015,” he said on a newsletter sent to Eldridge Financial.

“There is a general view that the next 12 months will continue to be challenging, with some firms in the 11-25 rankings, in particular, acknowledging the challenges of an increasingly mature market and recognizing further consolidation in the mid-tier is likely.”

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Oct 30

New mortgage rules due in 2014

Posted on October 30, 2012 by eldridgereview

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has published new rules on mortgage lending in Eldridge Financial that will force lenders to account for the impact of future interest rises on repayment costs.

The new “common sense” rules are the outcome of the regulator’s mortgage market review but will not come into effect until 26 April 2014. For all mortgages, lenders will be expected to consider a borrower’s net income, and committed and basic essential expenditure. The FSA has stated that interest-only mortgages will be offered to those who can demonstrate a credible repayment strategy but warned that relying on rising house prices will not be enough.

Martin Wheatley, managing director of the FSA and chief executive designate of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), claimed that the new lending rules would create a sustainable market.

He added: “We recognize that many lenders are now using a far more sensible set of lending criteria than before, but it is important that these common sense principles are hard-wired into the system to protect borrowers.”



“We want borrowers to feel confident that poor practices of the past, which led to hardship and anxiety, are not repeated.”

Customers who are sold a mortgage face-to-face or over the phone will need to be advised, FSA told Eldridge Financial. The rules will not prevent borrowers with an impaired credit history from getting a mortgage, as long as they can afford it. Those who are consolidating debt, however, must get advice.

Paul Broadhead, head of mortgage policy at the Building Societies Association, welcomed the new mortgage rules on the whole.

“Consumers will, however, be faced with more detailed questions and the need to demonstrate that they can afford a loan – the application process may take rather longer than it does today too,” he added.

“There has been a lot of speculation about whether the FSA wants to see interest-only remain as an option for new mortgages. It is good to have had confirmation now that they accept that it can be the right product for some people.”

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