Girl Scouts: A hotbed of fraud?

Written by Jessica Clark on October 10, 2011 – 1:47 pm

I got a call this morning from the Girl Scouts of Los Angeles. A staffer had tried to charge my American Express for our annual dues and donation, and the charge had been rejected. She tried again while I was on the line; same result.

A few minutes later I got an email from American Express emblazoned “Fraud Protection Alert.” I called the toll free number and identified the attempted charges as legitimate. The

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Tags: Girl Scouts, Scouts
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Harvard Endowment Has an Excellent Year

Written by Jessica Clark on September 27, 2011 – 12:12 am

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: “Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” He was right: The rich get better returns on investment. The Harvard endowment rose 21.4% to $32 billion in the university’s fiscal year, which ended on June 30. Harvard has the largest endowment of any university in America.

The Harvard Management Company wrote, “Over the past two decades the average annual return on the endowment has been a robust 12.9%.” Those are Warren Buffett-class returns, and the management company crowed about how well it has done in volatile markets. That may be true, but the fund is still a bit shy of its peak level in 2007.

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Tags: Endowment, Harvard Endowment
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Is now the time to fix your mortgage?

Written by Jessica Clark on September 25, 2011 – 11:18 am

For many Britons, the eurozone sovereign-debt crisis might seem a bit remote given we are not part of the single currency. However, our banks might be about to bring it straight to us. Until now the record low Bank of England base rate has encouraged mortgage providers to come up with some excellent deals. Yet while the base rate doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere just now, Europe’s troubles could panic the banks and push up lending rates.

The early warning has come from private banks, which often act faster than their high-street peers. In recent weeks several British private banks have started to increase rates for the first time in two years. “Unce

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Tags: Now, Now Time
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Sales People and Support People

Written by Jessica Clark on August 27, 2011 – 1:23 pm

Good people are hard to find, the saying goes. For example, by the year 2000 over 190,000 computer programmer and other information technology jobs will be vacant, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. (This is now a bit out of date, and although the dot-com bustups and the 2000-2001 recession has eased things a bit, it is still difficult to lure top talent.) It may be easy to fill these empty positions if you are a software giant like Microsoft, but there is a tremendous challenge attracting (and keeping) top performers if you are smaller and less well known.

According to chief executives and industry recruiters who were interviewed for this article, there are three main areas on which to focus: the quality and market position of your product or service, environment, and compensation.

Leading edge technology and a high perception of quality will lure top technical and design people, salespeople and support people, all for different reasons.

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Tags: People
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Trade Rec’s for Tues. Aug. 23rd

Written by Jessica Clark on August 25, 2011 – 1:49 pm

Hello All, A volatile day that ended with the indexes finishing well off their highs.  Financials continue to weigh on the markets, and with the afterhours report that Goldman’s CEO has hired a attorney only brings into question what headline will follow.  Investors still look towards what Bernanke may say at Jackson Hole on Friday, and as accommodative the Fed may want to be, there are only so many tricks you can pull out your sleeve.  The only indicator we need to be focusing on is the price of Gold which has topped $1900, which is pricing in a disaster from Europe, and we may very well be at $2000 by weeks end at this rate.  This may have also been fueled by the reports out of Libya where Ghaddafi’s reign may soon be over.  Mi Full Article…


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