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POPSSmall Banks Fail in Big Numbers
Closures and government takeovers of failing banks have become so routine that they barely gets noticed each Friday when the FDIC makes its announcements. While the banking crisis began with escalating defaults and foreclosures on home mortgages, the increase of bank failures in recent weeks has been driven by rising losses on commercial real estate loans, which are starting to default in large numbers. Community and regional banks hold a disproportionate share of commercial real estate and construction loans. My sister-in-law works at a local bank and says they are only accepting signature loan applications, fixed 5-yr home loans, and no car loans. My brother-in-law sells commercial real estate and every loan he has setup this year has been denied. My wife works for a car dealer who is losing his lines of credit after years of pristine credit. Our home value lost $50,000 and our property taxes went up $500. How the middle class is going to survive this mess is anyone
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POPSXP and Vista Service Packs Knocked Out The new XP service pack reportedly applies some helpful speed boosts to users' systems, so there's a lot of folks waiting for it. The fact that Microsoft issued a service pack with a major bug in it is not encouraging.
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POPSReforming health care is fiscally conservative
More: Real conservatives should point out that the current proposals are not tough enough on costs - and criticize Obama for that, not for fantasies like a communist takeover or euthanasia program for special needs kids. The Romney-Obama model will require fiscal boundaries to healthcare provision and this will mean a trade-off that will be hard to postpone much longer. We'll get less innovation, and probably some rationing at some point. But that is already happening - the rationing is done by insurance companies. One final thing: most Americans do not want people dying in the streets. If you have guaranteed emergency room care for the uninsured at public expense, you have already effectively socialized medicine. It makes no sense not to bring these people into the insurance system, and to offer less expensive, long-term preventive healthcare. To insist that ideology stand in the way of this piece of compassionate common sense is irresponsible.
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POPSWal-mart spying on employees The quote that jumped out at me: "We operate for the benefit of our shareholders to make sure this company is being appropriately and ethically run ." I'm not sure following people to the far corners of the globe to spy on their personal dealings is what I'd call ethical - that amongst other grievances like union busting , lowering basic standard of living , inequality in the work place , and destroying local economies & small businesses .
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POPSDirect Mail - The Dinosaur of Marketing Direct Mail use to be king. Now it sitting at the back of the bus. I firmly believe to truly have an integrated marketing mix (especially when marketing locally) you need a solid (if scaled back) direct mail campaign. If it works in an email, it works in a mailbox.
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POPSBush Calls Out the Dems Next was ANWR, which can be exploited with "virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife." Finally, refining capacity: It has been 30 years since a new refinery was built in our Nation, and lawsuits and red tape have made it extremely costly to expand or modify existing refineries. The result is that America now imports millions of barrels of fully refined gasoline from abroad. This imposes needless costs on American families and drivers. It deprives American workers of good jobs. Finally, Bush laid the problem once again at the Dems' door: I know Democratic leaders have opposed some of these policies in the past. Now that their opposition has helped drive gas prices to record levels, I ask them to reconsider their positions. If congressional leaders leave for the Fourth of July recess without taking action, they will need to explain why $4-a-gallon gasoline is not enough incentive for them to act. Excellent stuff. We need to do this every single day.
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POPSPalermo businesses defy the Mafia
The more money a business makes, the more money the Godfathers expect. Those who don't pay up are quickly paid a visit. It starts with a friendly chat to explain the rules, followed by a nudge such as a brick through the window. If that fails to make the point, a home, business or car might be firebombed. Small shops are expected to hand over around £100 a month: for supermarkets and jewellers, the going rate is nearer £1,000. But shoppers and businesses are rebelling, with those refusing to pay adding their names online at the Addiopizzo website. As of yesterday, 241 firms and individuals were listed. Now Mr Messina has decided to bring them together by stocking their items in Supermercato Punto Antipizzo. "I felt the time had come to give those businesses that had refused to pay the pizzo an extra economic opportunity. "All the products in the store are supplied by firms who have refused to pay pizzo — we are talking . . .the sort of items you find in a normal super
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POPSAmerica recruits Immigrants
plowed and planted for the first time, yielded bumper crops. Promoters made the most of it ... most of these efforts came to nothing. Factory workers weren't farmers, and even those who might try it could rarely afford it. Land itself was cheap, but getting to it, getting started, and surviving for the five years required to get title to a homestead cost money that most of them didn't have. "Prospects seemed better overseas. The Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society recruited Jewish immigrants from eastern Europe to establish farming communes in Oregon, Colorado, Kansas, and the Dakotas. The First Swedish Agricultural and Galesburg Colonization Companies started the towns of Salemsborg and Lindsborg in Kansas. Small groups of Dutch, French, Bohemian, English, and Irish families scattered across the Plains. Two hundred Scottish families settled together on the Kansas-Nebraska border. By 1875, more than half of Nebraska's 123,000 settlers were members of families headed by
by jillsimpson01 
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