Insurance For You

Oil benchmarks: Wide-spread confusion

June 29th, 2011

FINDING out the price of oil used to be simple. A quick check of either of the two main gauges of international markets—West Texas Intermediate (WTI) or Brent Blend—would suffice. But this year, as oil prices have soared, a gap has opened up between the two benchmark crudes. On June 15th the spread hit a record: close to $23 dollars a barrel.

For years prices of WTI and Brent were locked together, though the higher-quality American WTI oil generally traded at a premium of a dollar or two to reflect its slightly lower viscosity and sulphur content, which ease refining into petrol, heating oil and other products. Pat

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Tags: Oil, Oil Benchmarks

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America’s debt ceiling: The mother of all tail risks

June 26th, 2011

AMERICA’S debt is supposedly the world’s safest, backed by trustworthy courts and an unrivalled capacity to raise taxes and print money. Yet thanks to a quirk of law, talk of default is not confined to the European side of the Atlantic.

Unlike most countries America requires two legal steps to run a deficit: one to pass budget bills, the other to borrow the money. Congress sets a ceiling on how much the country may borrow. In the past it has always raised the ceiling before the Treasury ran out of cash, doing so on 16 occasions since 1993 alone. But it often attaches conditions, and this year Republicans who control the House of Representatives are insisting on particularly onerous terms. Wit

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Tags: Debt, Debt Ceiling

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Your Most Important Asset

June 26th, 2011

When I talk to people about assets and which ones are most important, I often hear about homes, 401k balances, collectibles, antiques, jewelry, secure jobs, and education.

But no one ever mentions what I think is your most important asset: Your health. Think about it: Without good health you can’t work, or at best your working options will be limited by your health restrictions. If you can’t work, you’ll have to get by on the small income provided by Social Security, anything your family can provide, or whatever limited income you can produce.

When you are in poor health, all of your other traditional assets may go by the wayside. The h

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Tags: Asset

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3 Simple Ways to Empower Your Customers to Sell For You

June 24th, 2011

Have you ever received a comment from a happy customer that went something like this: “Let me know if I can ever do anything to help you grow your business.”

My experience is that most businesses have at least a few of those evangelist type customers just looking for ways to sing their praises.

Sure, asking them for a few referrals is a great way to let them help, but I’ve found that there a few things you can do to really give your champion customers a voice and let them shine in the process.

1) Let me introduce you

I discovered the power of this first tactic quite by accident. I was

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Saving with the compulsory insurance

June 23rd, 2011

In times of crisis everyone feels in his pockets for wasteful spending to cut. The insurance of the car can be a good candidate for the cuts, because in good times we tend to over-insure our vehicle, adding coverage that far exceed those required by thecompulsory insurance.

Because it should be noted that the law only requires us to hire a civil liability insurance, Commonly known as third party insurance. This insurance covers the damage that a driver may cause to other drivers, passengers or public space. That is, we are required to have insurance that pays all the damage they caused.

But here ends our duty.

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Tags: Insurance

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