Cariduitku

The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) was started by Bill Gates, Michael Dell and other technology titans concerned about the declining performance of American students in math and science. The public-private partnership funds efforts to increase the number of students taking advanced placement courses in those subjects. But thanks to the Washington Education Association, a teachers union, the initiative's recent efforts in Washington state have been torpedoed.

Earlier this month NMSI announced that a $13.2 million grant slated for Washington state was being scrapped. Why? The contract ran afoul of the union's collective bargaining agreement. NMSI wanted to compensate teachers directly and include extra pay based on how well students performed on AP exams. But under the teacher contracts, the union is the exclusive agent for negotiating teacher pay and union officials refused to compromise. They were willing to turn away free money for their teacher members rather than abide this kind of merit pay.

State Representative Bill Fromhold, who was helping to administer the grant, told the Seattle Times, "We worked hard to try to find middle ground." But in the end, he said, "we got caught in the middle of the grant requirements and collective bargaining laws in the state of Washington that have to be followed."

Other heavily unionized states, such as Massachusetts and Connecticut, were able to reach agreements and will receive the math and science money notwithstanding similar bargaining agreements. And while the Washington union is spurning millions of dollars in grant money, it's also suing the state for the alleged inadequate funding of public schools. Hmmm. Could it be that union chiefs care more about protecting their monopoly than what students are learning?

“WILL you be part of my life?”

I resoundingly replied, “Yes, I will spend the rest of my life with you.”

While it was a breeze to say “Yes” to a life-changing decision, looking for the engagement ring that I wanted was not.

Even if you’re not a big fan of jewelry like I am, you still need to do your homework. Here’s what you need to know when shopping for an engagement or wedding ring:

1. Set a budget. Your soon-to-be bride may not be too keen about wearing an expensive ring but as Robin said, from centuries back, a ring (usually a diamond ring) traditionally serves as a betrothal gift to the bride and that traditionally, the price tag is equated to the kind of love he has for his bride.

I ended turning down most prospective rings because they were too pricey even if discounted. There is a rule of thumb that says an ideal budget for a ring is worth two months’ salary. Eventually, though, the guy will eventually determine how much he is willing to shell out.

2. Know the 4 C’s. Know the basics if you’re planning to get a diamond ring: cut, color, clarity and carat. According to Tiffany and Co., the diamond’s cut will determine its defining characteristic – so check for angle and size and the shape; round remains classy, but for variety, you may opt for emerald, heart, oval, marquise, pear, or princess cut).

The most valuable color is white or colorless, and graded “D” by jewelers. To check the clarity, examine the ring through a jeweler’s loupe or magnifying glass, and when the stone is graded SI1 [Slightly Included 1] or better (best and most expensive is IF, or Internally Flawless; worst is I3 or Imperfect 3], then your pick is fine. Finding the right carat for your budget is important so ask for stones than the next carat [example: 0.9 instead of 1], since this almost indiscernible difference can lead to significant savings.

In our case, Robin was on the lookout for a simple yet classy ring. He was first considering a round cut diamond. When I later became pro-active in our search, I leaned more toward a princess cut.

3. Pick the band. According to Suarez Wedding Rings Web site (www.suarezweddingrings.com), white gold is trendier than the traditional yellow gold and not as rare looking as rose gold. It is more affordable than platinum, an extremely white metal that is harder and more expensive than gold or any other metal at that.

White gold is recommended for stone settings other than yellow. You may opt for 24-karat gold, but you can save more by opting for gold of lesser karat. Since gold by nature is soft and malleable, generally losing its shape over time, cleaning and maintaining your engagement and wedding ring might eventually become a real expense. While we had different ideas regarding the stone, Robin and I settled for an 18K white gold band.

4.Shop around. Don’t settle for just the popular jewelry stores. You have to search both mom-and-pop jewelry stores and jewelry chains. The latter, of course, command higher prices because of their name and years in the industry. We found our ring at a less popular store, which has the accreditations required and follows global guidelines (the Philippines follows the International Gemological Institute guide on diamond clarity). Most stores we checked also offered discounts, but the smaller—and more eager—stores will give in to the customer’s (reasonable) demands.

When we got the discounted amount, I asked if they could just waive the excess P2,500 since it’s the only ring of its kind left and we truly came back for it after checking out all the other stores. So they waived it and my fiancé gave me an approving smile for sealing the sale at a more reasonable amount.

5. Don’t buy alone. For men, bring a companion when buying jewelry – someone who knows your ladylove’s preferences. If you decide to go with your fiancée, you may lose the surprise element and the romanticism, but it can be worth it. Looking for a ring together is an exercise in mutual decision-making, involving money at that. Buying the engagement ring gave us an idea how we are going to work together as a couple in the near future.

AN ANGLICAN PRIEST is warning that the love and worship of money and the desire to get rich can be tempting and lead many people down the wrong path.

Reverend Canon Wayne Issacs told his congregation that included members of the Royal Barbados Police Force at St Paul's Anglican Church Sunday that a person could not serve God and Mammon (wealth regarded as an evil influence) together.

"The two cannot live in peaceful coexistence," he said at a service to mark the start of Police Week celebrations and which was also attended by Prime Minister David Thompson, Attorney-General Freundel Stuart, Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin and the heads of other organisations.

The priest, who noted that money could be a good servant or a bad master, said that without it the Government could not carry out its programmes and people could not take care of their needs.

However, money became an evil when it was not used to serve the interest of God.

"There are three evils about materialism – greed, the desire to get rich and the worship of money have been the downfall of many persons. These three lead to corruption and dishonesty in both the public and private life and cause many to fall in disgrace. These three evils . . . cause us to compromise our principles. . . .

"Our national security is endangered when people with whom we place our confidence allow greed to make them slaves of materialism . . .," he continued.

Issacs added that the desire to get rich was responsible for some of the social problems facing Barbadian society today such as people involved in selling drugs.

"The desire to get rich is a factor that causes some persons to overcharge for services," the canon added.

He warned that people spent so much time trying to make money that at the end of the day, salvation was lost to them and they were sometimes miserable and discontented.

The other thing sometimes called money laundering is when you have some big lump of cash that you'd rather not have people find out about. Sometimes it's an effort to keep the money from the tax man (literally the opposite of classic money laundering), other times the goal is to keep it from coming to the attention of someone else who might feel like they have some claim to the money--an ex-spouse, a creditor, the guy who owns the land where you found the bag of gold coins in the culvert.

In this kind of money laundering, the point is to make the money disappear. This is the sort of money laundering where you might make use of foreign banks, shell companies, and so on.

There are two parts to these strategies. First, you need to make the money disappear. Second, you need to make it reappear in some gradual fashion that doesn't bring it to the attention of whoever you're trying to hide it from.
Disappearing the money

The easiest way to disappear the money, especially if it's already cash (as opposed to, let's say, silver bullion or a winning lottery ticket) is to just stash it in a safety deposit box. You miss out on any investment income, but it's safe and you know where to find it.

If you really want to be able to invest the money, get it overseas. If it's an amount that you can just carry with you, buy a vacation package to the Cayman Islands or visit your family roots in Europe and take a little side trip to Switzerland or Austria or Liechtenstein.

There are plenty of fancy, complex ways to get the money overseas, that mostly require an accomplice. The most basic is an invoice scam. Establish a business that imports or exports something. Meet with your customer or supplier and arrange with him to either over-pay or under-bill, and then to have your counterpart deposit (most of) the excess into your foreign bank account. An ongoing scheme is good, because the guy knows that the lucrative cash flow will stop if you find out the money isn't getting deposited as it should, but you can also work this as a one-shot deal if your counterpart can be trusted.

Banks used to help their good customers get money discretely overseas, but nowadays there are a bunch of laws against such things, and bankers are particularly averse to going to jail for their customers. Expect them to refused to get involved and to rat you out.
Reappearing the money

Now we're basically back into classic money laundering territory.

If you stashed a duffel bag full of cash it in a safety deposit box (or under your bed), all you need to do is pull out a few bills now and then when you're heading out for a night on the town. You can raise your standard of living modestly. Alternatively, you could increase the amount that's going into your 401(k) and then use the cash to keep your standard of living about the same--gradually turning the hidden money into above-board money.

If you've got the money overseas somewhere, bring it back in some way that makes it legit. The easiest would be to create an overseas company that then hires you to do something. You do whatever it is and send an invoice whenever you want some cash. You can also reverse the invoice scam that let you get the money overseas in the first place--now you under-pay (or over-bill), while making up the difference out of your foreign bank account. A third option is a fake loan where you "borrow" the money and then simply fail to pay the money back.
Instant disappear-reappear cycles

If you can't wait to reappear the money gradually, and the amount involved isn't too big, you can always use a simple casino scam. Go to a casino and buy some chips. Do a little low-risk gambling. (For example, bet each chip, one at a time, on red. Do that 20 or 30 times and you'll have about the same amount you started with.) Get a few more chips and repeat. Play a few different games (blackjack, craps, slots). Ideally, go to several different casinos and repeat the whole process there. Eventually, cash in all your chips and go home with a story about how you won a bunch of money at roulette. Pay taxes on your winnings.

Financial Shock is a kind of anxiety that results from being unfamiliar with the currency, exchange rates, prices, and standard of living of a foreign country. It manifests itself in a variety of ways. Undoubtedly, the most common aspect of financial shock is one's utter unfamiliarity with the money. It looks and feels different and has a seemingly nebulous value. Thus, it can feel like you are trading your dollars in on Monopoly money when you go to the bank. At the same time, there is another related aspect of financial shock that can overtake you; namely, the feelings that "the prices here are exorbitant!" and "everything is cheaper back in the (good old) US of A!" And though these feelings may not be totally groundless, until you have become comfortable with a new currency and have developed a strong "feel" for it, you will have to dismiss them as symptoms of financial shock.

Moreover, there is the matter of perceiving standards of living; for even though you may soon feel comfortable dealing with a foreign currency, it will not be until you can put the standard of living from which you came and the standard of living where you are or will be, into its proper perspective, that you will be able to understand the true value of the "foreign" currency with which you are dealing.

For instance, in a country where the standard of living is considerably lower than it is in the US, equivalent amounts of money (dollars to pounds, francs, cedis or pesos) at the bank are not necessarily equivalent in terms of their "real" value. In fact, because a foreign national may earn only half as much (on the average) as an American does, the equivalent value of the currency is worth far more to him in "real" terms than it is to you. Therefore, no matter how you find prices to be abroad, they may be easier for you to afford than for the local populace. This has developed the "Ugly American" image, the traveler who has too much money and throws it around. Finally, there is a last symptom of financial shock that you need to be cautioned against. It doesn't happen to everyone; nor can it be predicted. And though its causes are many: "funny money," exchange rates, floating dollar values, etc. In any case, the end result is fairly basic. It is known as "abandoning reason to the wind and spending money like crazy," and those individuals who succumb to this temptation are going to encounter the most awful financial shock of all -- going broke in a foreign country!

NEW YORK — Total money market mutual fund assets rose by $54.01 billion to $3.472 trillion for the week, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.

Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds rose by $5.99 billion in the latest week to $1.238 trillion.

Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category rose by $544 million to $941.19 billion for the week ended Wednesday, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Tax-exempt fund assets rose by $5.45 billion to $297.01 billion.

Assets of institutional money market funds rose by $48.02 billion to $2.234 trillion for the same period. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets rose by $34.38 billion to $2.037 trillion; assets of tax-exempt funds rose by $13.64 billion to $197.46 billion.

The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds fell in the week ended Tuesday to 1.95 percent from 2.01 percent the previous week, said Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westboro, Mass. The 30-day average yield fell to 2.05 percent from 2.12 percent, according to Money Fund Report.

The seven-day compounded yield fell to 1.97 percent from 2.03 percent the previous week, and the 30-day compounded yield fell to 2.08 percent from 2.14 percent, Money Fund Report said.

The average maturity of the portfolios held by money funds was 46 days, unchanged from last week, said Money Fund.

The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts rose to 0.66 percent as of Wednesday from 0.64 percent a week earlier.

The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts was unchanged from last week at 0.21 percent.

Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield was 1.85 percent on six-month certificates of deposit, up from 1.84 percent the previous week. Yields were 2.00 percent on one-year CDs, up from 1.99 percent; 2.13 percent on 2 1/2-year CDs, up from 2.11 percent; and 2.83 percent on five-year CDs, up from 2.79 percent.