Cantor Says House GOP Will Push Insider Congressional Trading Ban Next Year


Eric Cantor

In an interview with 60 Minutes' Lesley Stahl, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor pledged to move forward with a bill banning congressional insider trading early next year.

"We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct," Cantor said. "We're gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment."

60 Minutes blew the lid off congressional insider trading last month, with a report detailing several suspect trades by lawmakers — including efforts to short the stock market during the 2008 financial crisis.

Cantor blocked the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act from undergoing a mark-up in the House Financial Services Committee earlier this month — the committee headed by Rep. Spencer Bachus, one of the lawmakers at the center of the scandal.

Cantor said he envisions the ban including more than just insider trading, but also other suspect practices that allow lawmakers to profit.

"I think that you can look at examples across the country, of any various levels of government, where unfortunately there are some bad actors, and they've engaged in taking and seizing upon information they have -- and acting on it," Cantor said in the interview. "And that means whether they're buying stock or whether they are buying land, allegedly, on inside information that they feel they can profit from that [when] no one else can."

A Senate version of the STOCK Act cleared the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee last week.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/ZqqMi3_lt6Q/cantor-says-house-gop-will-push-insider-congressional-trading-ban-next-year-2011-12

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Blinds.com CEO Builds $75 Million Company Debt Free

In the last couple of years, a lot people have been forced out of their jobs and into self-employment. Jay Steinfeld can certainly identify. When he was fired from his CPA job in the late 1980s, he went to work with his wife in their drapery design store. At that point, most people would not have described his career as successful.

But, the day Steinfeld went into business for himself, he believed he was already a success.

?Success is not about achieving a certain point,? he said. ?It?s about being on that road. The steps you take to reach that point is success.?

After 24 years on that road, Steinfeld is the CEO of Blinds.com, the largest online retailer of window coverings in the world. Last year, the company did $75 million in sales with 110 employees.

Blinds.com Born on a Borrowed Computer

When Steinfeld started selling drapes and blinds, it was 1987. There was no Internet?he didn?t even own a computer! So how did this modestly successful brick-and-mortar business become the top online retailer in its field?

Much of the company?s success can be traced to two of his core values. First, he is dedicated to continuous improvement. Second, he allows himself to experiment with new ideas without fear of failure.

In 1993, Steinfeld put those values to the test when he decided to try an experiment he hoped would improve his business.

?By that time, I?d heard about the Internet,? he said. ?I thought it could be a good way to promote my business.?

He paid $1,500 to launch his website?the first in the window-covering industry.

Three years later, he launched another website?this one costing $3,000?that would allow him to sell his product online.

?That?s all (the money) I?ve put into it,? Steinfeld said. ?It was just me, in the garage with a borrowed computer.?

By the way, he borrowed that computer from one of his manufacturers. Blinds.com now accounts for a third of that manufacturer?s business?not a bad investment on their part!

For years after that, Steinfeld built the business in both the real world and the cyber world.

?I did all the marketing, all the SEO?even social media,? he said. ?Of course, it wasn?t called social media, then.?

Early in the morning and late at night, Steinfeld posted comments on news groups and bulletin boards, answering people?s questions about widow coverings and establishing himself as a credible industry resource. During the day, he was in his van, selling his product face-to-face.

Eventually, he started hiring employees, and in 2001, he closed the stores and began selling exclusively online.

Steinfeld agrees with Dave on another key factor in Blinds.com?s success?get and stay debt-free.

?It?s been our goal to grow inch by inch, never spending beyond our means,? Steinfeld said. ?We?ve done it all debt-free!?

Because of the company?s careful planning, Steinfeld said his company has continued to grow while most of the industry has suffered a significant drop in sales over the last two years.

?We?ve made some acquisitions, some distribution deals and built up our technology with the money we?d saved up,? he explained.

Core Values and Everyday Life

You?ve seen how Steinfeld?s core values changed his business, as well as the window-covering world. Can dedication to constant improvement and overcoming fear of failure change your life as well?

Absolutely! But Steinfeld knows from experience, the first step is the hardest part.

?The same can be said about getting out of debt,? he said. ?You just have to start, and you?d be surprised what might happen.

?If I think of success as achieving one particular thing,? he added, ?I?ll see myself as unsuccessful until I reach that point.?

Instead, Steinfeld said to make small, incremental changes?baby steps?toward your goal, and count each step as a success.

Do you dream of growing a successful business like Jay Steinfeld has done? At Dave Ramsey's EntreLeadership events, he will give you detailed advice about how to grow your business the right way. Learn more. -->

No leader should lead without these principles. It?s what your team members need to see in you, and what you want to see in them. Learn more about the EntreLeadership Live Events, and put Dave's 20 years of proven business principles to work for you.

In 20 years, Dave has grown his company to a national winning brand with more than 300 team members who have impacted millions of lives. His company has been named one of the ?Best Places to Work in Nashville? four years in a row. EntreLeadership is how he?s done it and how you can do it too. Get your copy of the new book now!

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Source: http://www.daveramsey.com/article/blindscom-ceo-builds-75-million-company-debt-free/lifeandmoney_business

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Cost of Cable Bundling: $100 a Year for Sports, Whether You Watch or Not

Is ESPN Charging a Tax on Every American Household?The next time you find yourself bellyaching over your expanding monthly cable bill, don't blame your provider. Blame Tim Tebow! Curse LeBron James! Hate on Tiger Woods! You're a bum, A-Rod!

Even though your cable, satellite, or broadband television provider may be despised for completely legitimate reasons, when it comes to your ever-rising bill, the providers are mostly just passing along the scaling programming costs of networks. As The New York Times reports, "American television subscribers pay, on average, about $100 a year for sports programming -- no matter how many games they watch."

A lot of that goes to the NFL, which just finalized a nine-year programming extension with Fox, CBS (CBS), and Comcast's (CMCSA) NBC. The NFL's cut? Twenty-seven billion dollars, a sum so large that the Times predicts "the average cable bill will rise again soon."

Taxing Sports

When it comes to basic cable, ESPN is perhaps the biggest offender. Media tracker SNL Kagan estimates that ESPN alone sets distributors back $4.69 a month for every subscriber.

You can expect that figure to continue to inch higher, and some in the industry are more than a bit concerned. Speaking at a media conference earlier this month, Liberty Media (LMCA) CEO Greg Maffei suggested that there will come a point when ESPN's escalating fees will become a "tax on every American household."

We may already be there.

Fumbling the Handoff

Your cable provider points to Disney's (DIS) ESPN, but the original 24/7 sports network doesn't want to take the fall. See, it too is passing on the costs of larger sums of money that it has to shell out to sporting leagues with every passing year.

The only silver lining for consumers in the NFL's new deal with the major networks is that Fox, CBS, and NBC are free over-the-air channels. You can kick your pay-TV provider to the curb and get a cheap HD antenna to catch all three networks for free. Advertisers will likely pick up most of the bill, and the broadcasters will eat the rest.

However, this doesn't mean that other networks aren't paying through the nose for pigskin rights. ESPN and NFL Sunday Ticket home DIRECTV (DTV) recently inked extensions that also dramatically marked up their licensing fees.

So the next time you hear someone claim that overpaid athletes aren't your problem, show them your cable bill.

Bundling is the Bomb

I'm paying $4.69 a month for ESPN, apparently, and I don't mind. I get enough entertainment out of the sports network to make it worthwhile. Maybe you feel the same way. Maybe you don't. However, my aunt -- who doesn't know the gridiron from a baseball diamond -- can't be too happy subsidizing our sports viewing just so she can watch Mad Men on AMC.

Then again, I have no need for The Weather Channel or QVC. C-SPAN? Hallmark Channel? Please. Why can't I cherry-pick the channels that I am presumably paying for? Why do folks pay for both MSNBC and Fox News when really they will only watch one or the other?

Here is where the fingers point right back at the cable companies. They're the ones with loosely bundled packages that find couch potatoes paying for hundreds of channels, 90% of which they will never watch.

The downside to customized options, beyond the logistics of making it happen, is that cable bills wouldn't necessarily get any cheaper. If ESPN loses half of its subscribers, it would have little choice but to double its rates. These are companies with set expenses to cover. The denominator doesn't change, even if the numerator contracts.

You don't have to like it, but you can vote with your feet.

Pass Interference

No one is demanding an ESPN tax out of you. Comcast -- the country's largest cable provider -- offers a "digital economy" package that sidesteps the costly sports programming. Smaller providers have similar packages.

However, that value-priced bundle doesn't have many basic cable staples, including CNBC, FX, and Nickelodeon. If you want a regular dose of Jim Cramer, American Horror Story, or SpongeBob, you're going to have to take ESPN with that.

That could well change in the future. Whether out of economic need or libertarian inspiration, more and more "cord cutters" are cancelling their cable subscriptions and opting for streaming options. Smart televisions are making it easier to connect to Web-served programming on demand, putting consumers back in control.

"No taxation without representation" was the slogan of one revolution a couple of centuries ago. It might be time for another one, only on a much smaller scale, and a much different playing field.

Longtime Motley Fool contributor Rick Munarriz does not own shares in any of the stocks in this article, except for Disney and Liberty Media. Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Disney.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/12/16/costs-of-cable-bundling-100-a-year-for-sports-whether-you-wat/

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The Most Popular Female Athletes On The Internet In 2011


maria sharapova

Total Pro Sports put together a list of the 30 most Googled female athletes of 2011, measured by the amount of search results from the past year.

And in 2011, it seems people were busy searching for female tennis players.

Your favorite ladies on the tennis court took the top five spots, followed by skiers, soccer players, and even MMA fighters.

#13 Gina Carano?2.15 million results

#12 Michelle Wie?2.18 million results

#11 Petra Kvitova?2.59 million results

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/rAmEq-0fV5c/most-googled-female-athletes-2011-12

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Savage Rivale: The Most Amazing Car You've Never Heard Of


Savage Rivale

Savage Rivale is an ambitious startup based in the Netherlands and working hard on not just a new car, but a whole new segment.

That segment, albeit a niche one, is the four-door convertible supercar segment, a void which in the very new future will be filled by the striking Savage Rivale Roadyacht GTS.

Still in the concept phase, but edging invariably closer to production, the Roadyacht GTS is featured in a stunning new promotional video filmed where else but in the home of the car’s target market, the millionaires’ playground that is Monaco.  

Savage Rivale has confirmed that the production version of the Roadyacht GTS will debut in 2012 at a major auto show in the Middle East, another key region where the Dutch firm hopes to sell its wares. For now Savage Rivale is continuing work on the Roadyacht GTS’ convertible roof system but order books for the car are already open, with three customers having placed firm orders thus far.

One of these orders is for a special version, the track-only ‘GTR’. It will come with a stripped out body, more powerful drivetrain, and plenty of carbon fiber to keep weight down. Savage Rivale has also revealed that it plans to build just 69 GTR models and the first one will be shown to customers as early as February.

As for the road-going Roadyacht GTS, Savage Rivale plans to start deliveries in early 2013. As previously reported, the car will ride on an in-house developed chrome molybdenum frame and in standard trim will run the high-performance 7.0-liter LS7 V-8 engine from the Chevrolet Corvette Z06 but tuned to produce 601 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque.

Importantly, Savage Rivale will also use its uniquely-designed car in an attempt to set a new Nurburgring-Nordschleife record for a four-door car. That attempt will take place sometime next year.

Enough time-wasting, now sit back and enjoy the video (via Vimeo):

The post originally appeared on Motor Authority.

Now take a look at the car of the week >

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How You Can Avoid Credit Card Problems

Credit cards have many powerful advantages. They allow you to make internet purchases, hotel reservations, and many other things. But credit cards can be a cause of financial problems if you don’t know how to use them right. You must take credit cards seriously, and here are some steps to make sure you keep your [...]

Source: http://www.legaldebthelponline.com/2011/12/17/how-you-can-avoid-credit-card-problems/

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Here Are This Week's Winners And Losers In Sports


minka kelly

Everyone on Earth is talking about Tim Tebow this week (Tebow!).

That allowed some other stories to fly under the radar.

An NHL analyst who allegedly beat up a 12-year-old. A crazy basketball star said the craziest thing he's ever said. And a New York's biggest playboy had one of his strangest bedroom secrets revealed.

WINNER: Metta World Peace

He said this:

"'Cause I was wondering, like, what if you kept your baby teeth until the age of 18 or 20, and then you lose 'em? That would look pretty bad."

Winner.

WINNER: Chris Paul

Paul got what he wanted: he gets to play with a contender, live in L.A., and throw lobs to Blake Griffin all day.

He may have got to the Clips via shady NBA veto, but he got there nonetheless.

WINNER: Tebow!

On Sunday, he did the same-old Tebow thing where he plays like a third-grader for three quarters and then dominates in the fourth en route to a dramatic victory.

God also spoke to him this week, which is a big deal.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/MLK15RdZiL4/winners-jeter-kelly-2011-12

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19 Days After Its Relaunch, Social Network App Path Has 1.5 Million Downloads


dave morin web 2.0

Dave Morin launched his more private Facebook startup, Path, twice. Path is a mobile social network that has a strict limit on the number of people you can befriend.

Since its launch 19 days ago, the new version seems to be doing well.  In two and a half weeks, the app has gained about 300,000 daily active users, up from 10,000.

Morin tells TechCrunch's Alexia Tsotsis that people are sharing "12 moments per second," including what time they go to bed and what they eat for breakfast.  More than one 1.5 million people have downloaded the app since its relaunch. Tsotsis notes that it took Path a whole year to get 1 million the first time around.

Morin says that more things have been shared in the past few weeks than in all of last year on Path, and Tsotsis says she hears the app is getting 100,000 downloads each day.

We won't go so far as to say that Morin was smart to turn down Google's rumored $100 million offer, but at least he seems to be on to something with Path. We'll be curious to see if there's a high drop off in usage once all of the buzz from its relaunch dies down.

Why are so many people starting to use Path? Check out our walk-through of the app: Here's Why The New Path Will Make You Want To Delete Facebook >>

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/dav_Tvvdx4o/18-days-after-its-relaunch-personal-social-network-app-path-has-15-million-downloads-2011-12

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14 Straight Quarters Of Falling Home Prices May Be More Than Spanish Banks Can Survive


The Spanish banking system is in far worse shape than most realize because of unrealized losses related to Spain's imploded housing bubble. Various austerity measures and tax hikes to bail out French and German banks will greatly exacerbate this problem.

Please consider Spain Banks Face 43% Price Fall on Repossessed Homes

Spanish home prices fell for the 14th consecutive quarter as unemployment surged and a drop in mortgage lending crimped demand for property. The average price of houses and apartments dropped 7.4 percent in three months ended Sept. 30 from the same period a year earlier, according to the National Statistics Institute in Madrid.

Repossessed houses in Spain are worth 43 percent less on average than the valuations assigned on the mortgages for the properties, according to Fitch Ratings.

Price declines range from 20 percent to 58 percent, analysts Juan David Garcia and Carlos Masip in Madrid wrote in a report analyzing 8,235 properties funded by loans from banks including Banco Santander SA (SAN) and Bankia SA. The mortgages are in asset-backed securities with high loan-to-value ratios.

Spanish Unemployment Rate

chart

Spain's Unemployment Rate is 22.8% and rising. 

Austerity measures in Spain will force down home prices, force up the unemployment rate, and force up losses on Spanish banks.

As I have noted before, Spain needs to restructure work rules, make it easier to fire people (which will eventually make it easier to hire people), get rid of government workers, lower taxes, and implement various reforms.

Unfortunately, the Merkozy agreement demands many counterproductive austerity measures and tax hikes that will crucify Spain in the short-term. Banking losses will soar, GDP will plunge, and deficits will rise.

The same setup applies to Portugal and Greece. Thus, the idea there will be no more sovereign debt losses will soon be smashed on the hard rocks of reality.

 Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/businessinsider/~3/afx4B2oN3lA/spanish-banks-42-months-falling-home-prices-2011-12

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