Why Inject Money Into the US Marketplace?

By Lance Mohr

Unless you have spent the past couple of months hiding away in a cave, you are aware that a huge number of home mortgage loans have ended up in default and even in foreclosure. Indeed, some states in the country are experiencing a record rate of mortgage foreclosure filings. In addition to problems associated with credit and lending, the stock market has been a bit bearish itself. The combination of these two factors has caused a significant amount of concern amongst economic, financial and fiscal experts and consumers.

The Federal Reserve actually has been rather proactive in working to ensure that the problems do not have any more adverse effect on the banking industry and by extension on business owners and consumers across the country. In this regard, the Federal Reserve actually has "pumped" nearly $80 billion into the banking system during two weeks in August.

Understanding what actions the Federal Reserve has taken, you may be wondering and why this helps the banking industry and how it will also have a positive effect on businesses and consumers alike. In order to understand the benefits of what the Federal Reserve has done this month, it's important to have at least a basic understanding of banking regulations and practices in the United States.

The primary regulation that you need to understand is that banks in this country are required by law to maintain at least 20% of their deposits in cash. Because of this requirement, at the end of each banking day, if a bank does not have the necessary amount of deposits in cash, the bank itself must borrow money from other banks. This type of borrowing needs to take place to ensure that the bank has an appropriate cash deposit balance at all times.

The amount of interest that is charged on these types of inter-bank loans is known in the industry as the overnight lending rate. Absent the infusion of money references a moment ago that was undertaken by the Federal Reserve, the amount of money available to banks to ensure their cash deposit balances would have been tighter -- resulting in higher interest rates that the banks would have to pay to obtain the cash they needed to ensure proper maintenance of their cash deposit balances.

Had this tightening occurred, banks would then have to cover their own reserves by cutting back on the money they otherwise would make available for lending purposes to businesses and consumers alike. The net effect of that would have been an even more significant impact on the economy overall beyond what has already occurred due to the mortgage foreclosure and stock market uncertainty related issues.

In the end, the actions of the Federal Reserve in this instance does appear to have the desired effect of avoiding a further restriction of the amount of money available for lending purposes to both businesses and consumers alike. Moreover, this has helped to hold off even more serious economic problems at the present time and into the more foreseeable future as well.

Lance Mohr is your Tampa real estate expert, with over ten years of experience in real estate sales. He holds a real estate broker license in the state of Florida, and as a member of top relocation firms, such as Cendant Mobility, Prudential, Century 21, and others, has assisted countless individuals and corporations with their relocation needs. Lance has been investing in real estate for over 18 years, and he believes that a person's professional knowledge should continue even after college or vocational training. Lance can be reached at 813-317-4009 or lance@lancemohr.com. Don't forget to visit our website http://www.tampa2enjoy.com and add http://www.tampa2enjoys.com/blog to your favorites section of your browser.

Finding Unique and Exotic Travel Deals Right Here in the US

For the larger travel web sites; travel deals are generated when they purchase airfare seats, hotels and rental cars in bulk and then resale to the general public at reduced rates.

The same holds true for discounted cruise deals and hot vacation spots. He who has the cash flow to purchase travel in bulk do extremely well in the resale.

However, there is another travel deal that is generated consistently that the general public usually is not aware of. This is the travel deals created by the smaller resorts and off the beaten path travel spots.

With any purchase of sight unseen you run the risk of the vacation NOT being what you expected. You can be fairly sure that your accommodations will be as advertised when you purchase from the large travel web sites.

This leads us to why the "travel review" sites are so popular. You can go to any of these sites and read what other traveler's have written about the destination you are interested in visiting.
This leads us to another concern for the independent traveler; unless you know exactly where it is you want to travel you may never know about the exciting, wonderful, beautiful, inexpensive, travel deals throughout the world that have been totally safe for Americans in the past.

Getting small private resorts, travel agents and travel suppliers to be consistent with their marketing efforts has not proven successful. In the pass their ad campaigns have been hit and miss, now and then. Unless a cash flow rich travel agency decides to promote one of these small and unique travel destinations in the San Francisco Chronicle or the New York Times; the general public may never know of the hidden travel spots.

Yes, this is a time when we must be extremely aware of our surroundings, regardless of what county we are in; but we don't have to leave the US to find really nice exotic places alone the Eastern seaboard or the hidden islands and coast line off the southern states here in the US.

Travel Agents receive press releases and flyers on remolded, inexpensive, small, out of the way resorts, via their fax lines all the time. Its one thing for them to receive this information and another for them to promote them. And why should they? Good business persons promote that which will increase their income! And many of travelers go to the larger travel sites for vacation packages.

So for the independent traveler who wants more from his/her travel experience - research is the key. You don't have to leave the US to find new and exciting places to travel -- However, you do have to take the time to find them.

Sandy Ingram is webmaster for Classifieds360; a place where independent travelers can find exciting, inexpensive and unique travel deals. Check out the NEW and still growing: http://www.travel360degrees.com/cgi-bin/classified/classified.cgi

Official - Becoming a US Citizen or Permanent Resident is Now More Expensive

By Diego Pineda

Beginning July 30, 2007, immigrants seeking to become US citizens or permanent residents will have to pay more in immigration fees. In some cases, the fees have almost tripled, such as the adjustment of status fee that will change from $325 to $930.

Back in February the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services had announced their plan of increasing their fee structure to finance the modernization of the agency. According to a USCIS press release:

“USCIS expects that the revenue from the new fee structure will lead to a 20 percent reduction in average application processing times by the end of fiscal year 2009, and will cut processing times by the end of fiscal year 2008 for four key application types: the I-90 (Renew / Replace Permanent Resident Card), I-140 (Immigration Petition for Alien Worker), the I-485, and the N-400 (Naturalization). These four application types represent one-third of all applications filed.”

Although the above may sound like good news in terms of processing times, the new fees are a hard blow to thousands of immigrants who couldn’t even afford paying the current fees.
With the new fees, a family of two adults and two children filing for a green card will pay more than $3,000 in fees alone—add to that the cost of the required medical examinations, photos, and attorney’s fees.

Some of the changes include:
* Form I-130 (Family-based Petition): From $190 to $355
* Form I-140 (Employment-based Petition): From $195 to $475
* Form I-485 (Adjustment of Status): From $325 to $930 (adults); from $225 to $600 (children under 14)

The complete list of fees is available at the USCIS Web site:

Diego Pineda is the author of Getting a Green Card for Less: How to file the I-485 without an immigration lawyer. To learn how to save up to $5,000 in attorney’s fees go to greencardforless.com