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North’s white Xmas could be Florida’s bright Dec |
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 |
The weather across the west, mid west and northern states, and in
neighboring Canada has been frightful for the past week, with plenty of
snow, ice and frigid temperatures. In fact, over this period Florida
has been the only warm spot on the North American continent. Mother
Nature is not only blessing Florida, and South Florida in particular,
with delightful warm, dry weather, it is providing a boost to the
regions economy.
Residents of the colder, snow swept states, and Canada have made plans
to get out of the cold and head to South Florida. Hotels in Broward
County, Miami and Miami Beach have indicated that there has been a
spike in bookings over the past few days, mostly from residents in the
colder regions, including Canada. Tammy Crombie who operates a guest
house near A1A in Sunrise, says her facility (nine studio apartments)
is booked solid to mid January. “Bookings shot up at the beginning of
December, as the temperatures and snow began falling. Before that I was
worried that it would be a bleak December, but now I am singing, ‘Let
it snow, let it snow, let it snow’.”
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Caribbean Americans victims of Madoff scam |
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 |
Caribbean American investors were among those affected by the
investment scam perpetuated by Palm Beach resident and investor Bernard
Madoff.
The National Weekly spoke with a Caribbean-American resident of
Wellington, Palm Beach County, who would only give his name as Fred,
because he wanted to remain anonymous, said he had made large
investments with Madoff over the past five years, and have now lost
amounts estimated at close to half-a-million dollars. Fred said he did
not have direct contact with Madoff’s company, but made the investments
through an investment broker.
“I had no reason to suspect that my investments were going into a
pyramid scam”, Fred said. “For most of the time I had by funds with
Madoff’s program I did receive interest on my money. But the broker
sold him so strong that I kept on reinvesting more money. Then a few
week months ago I noticed that the returns began to be slow and
sluggish, and then the news of the scam broke last week. I am shocked
and devastated.” Fred also indicated that fellow Caribbean-American
colleagues of his, and associates residing in the Caribbean had also
invested with Madoff, and although some benefited, some suffered losses
as well.
In the meantime thousands of investors who were duped by felt that it
was a case of insult being added to injury when a New York judge
approved bail for Madoff last week, allowing him to live at home,
albeit with an monitoring bracelet around his ankle. However, Madoff
would have been free to leave the confines of his Manhattan home during
the day.
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Unemployment lower than rest of state |
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Saturday, 27 December 2008 |
This is not the type of news one wants to hear with the holidays here
and the New Year right behind. However, Floridians, like residents of
other states have to live with harsh realities and the reality is that
70,000 additional South Floridians became unemployed over the past 12
months, according to new state figures released last Friday.
According to the data, unemployment across the state rose by 0.3
percent in November to 7.3 percent, the highest rate recorded in 15
years, and higher than the national average of 6.7 percent. Translated
to actual numbers this means that 680,000 people are unemployed across
the state, and an estimated 207,000 have lost jobs this year.
However, the unemployment news for South Florida is not as dire as for
the rest of the state. The regions unemployment rate was reported to be
6.4 percent in November, the lowest rate of the state's major
metropolitan areas. However, this compares to a much lower rate of 3.9
percent recorded in November 2007.
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Federal Reserve Interest Rate lowest ever |
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Sunday, 21 December 2008 |
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday cut a key interest rate from 1 percent
to 0.25 percent. This is the lowest Fed rate on record, but in making
the drastic cut the U.S. central bank said it was using “all available
tools” to combat the severe existing financial crisis and prolonged
recession. The rate reduced by the Feds is that which commercial banks
charge for making loans to each other and its primary objective is to
get the banks to step up their credit offering, as their tight credit
practice in recent months has played a major role in crippling the
economy.
The lowering of the Fed rate to 0.25 will also lower the prime rate at
which the banks make loans, predictably from 4 to 3 percent, a factor
that should in turn stimulate more credit. Mortgage rates should,
theoretically, fall further, but, on the downside, the money deposited
by the bank’s customers into interest earning accounts will bear less
interest. Frequent past cuts in the Fed interest rate was also meant to
stimulate bank credit and lower mortgages, but with bankers unable to
sell their mortgage holdings to other investors as in the recent past,
what has happened in reality is that banks have been weary to offer
credit of any kind. Moreover some mortgages with adjustable mortgage
rates (ARMs) have already fallen to their contacted low rate levels for
this year.
The 0.75 percent rate deduction caught many economists and financial
analysts by surprise as they had anticipated a cut to 0.5 percent. The
sharp cut made one Wall Street analysts call the measure “Shock and
Awe” to get the economy really jump started.
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Portable classrooms for Hait |
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Sunday, 21 December 2008 |
Following an international plea for help and preliminary talks at a
school visit in Broward in October, Haitian President Rene Préval is
getting more assistance for his country – this time with old portable
classrooms from the Broward school district.
Broward School Board members on Tuesday consented to sending about 100
portables to the struggling nation. The portables are just a first of
about 3,000 promised to Haiti by the Florida school districts.
When Préval addressed the school board in October he said the country
was still in desperate need and that although the US was focused on its
economic downturn, that it does not forget them.
The approval of the portables is a sign that the hurricane-ravaged country has not been forgotten.
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