by joe on October 31, 2008
The top 3 oil companies have recently recorded another quarter of record-breaking profits. $14.83 billion for Exon Mobile, $8.45 billion for Royal Dutch Shell, and $5.19 billion for Conoco Phillips. With 92 days in the 2nd quarter, that puts the daily combined profit for these three companies at over $309 million. Again, that’s profit, not revenue. $309 million every day, $212,500.00 per minute, or $3,543.00 per second. Tell me again why gas and oil cost so much?
The future does not look quite so golden however. With the global economy in a tail-spin, demand for fuel has fallen sharply, resulting in lower prices. Even OPEC threatening to lower production recently has had little effect on the price of crude. Still, these three companies will likely report record annual profits anyway.
Some members of congress are calling for these companies to use more of their gargantuan profits to invest in alternative energy sources, but with little incentive for them to do so, don’t expect to see much change.
by joe on October 28, 2008
The credit card industry imposes mandatory safeguards to which merchants are supposed to adhere in order to protect your personally identifiable financial information. They are known as the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. Additionally, government regulations exist for the same purpose, for example, the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA). In spite of the fact that the penalties for non-compliance can be severe, many merchants lack the discipline to maintain the required vigilance, and some simply don’t have the resources to remain compliant. Thus, even if <I>you</I> practice good security with your data (by burning or shredding credit-card receipts, etc.), the far greater risk comes from these businesses who do not.
There are steps you can take to help. They do nothing to safeguard your data maintained by non-compliant merchants, but they can mitigate the damage if your data is stolen.
- Set fraud alerts with the major credit bureaus.
- Opt out of pre-approved credit card lists.
- Check your credit report.
Read The Full Report, with links to tools to help implement these suggestions.
Read about other ways to Protect Your Privacy
by joe on October 6, 2008
I feel so special - I got an email from Robert S. Mueller III, Executive Director of the FBI. Amazingly, it appears that the Bureau is aware that I’ve been contacted by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and they felt compelled to protect my interests and investigate the contracts and related fund dispersal promised by the bank in payment for the rendering of some unspecified services.
This is good news indeed, since I didn’t even know that the CBN owed me $10,000,000.00, and now not only do I know about it, but I can rest assured that the FBI has already confirmed for me that the fund transfer is legitimate, and they will closely monitor the transfer. All I have to do is contact the CBN using the phone number and email address that the FBI has so thoughtfully provided, and follow their instructions expediently.
Seriously, does anybody fall for these scams anymore?
