Isn't It Time You Stop Hiding and Show Up on Social Media in a Bigger Way? - Marketing - Social Marketing

Can we talk? I want you to imagine I am sitting right next you.

I'm sitting at my computer right now allowing my heart and soul to reach out to you via this medium online. I am here 100%.

So let's get real, ok?

How's your social media marketing REALLY going? Are you building communities that resonate with you? Do you engage frequently with your communities on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube? Are you posting compelling info to create interaction?

Are you allowing the REAL you to show up through your postings?

Or are you hiding behind the computer hesitant to post something in fear it may come across not appropriate? Are you afraid of being "seen" in the wrong way?

Many business owners are in BIG fear of appearing incorrectly or being too "boastful" about their business, their accomplishments, and their lives. This is the most common fear most entrepreneurs have. This trumps the technology fears many have by far.

And that is one BIG lie you tell yourself. (That's ego not spirit.)

Here's the truth: we are here to shine our lights to inspire others. It's not about you. It's about you showing up in the world in your most authentic way that inspires others to do the same. Social Media is a gift that allows you to do just that.

As you make yourself visible on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, -- you are marketing you as the brand. You have an obligation to expose your talents that can transform someone's life.

Small or large - you are here to serve.

And this is where your personal brand comes in. You must be savvy & sophisticated in your presence - your virtual voice online - your image. It is then you give others permission to do the same which leads to thousands serving one another in a BIG way. I call this the Law of Increase; being a good steward of Social Media.

This concern must be dealt with before you even consider learning all the fabulous tools and applications on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more. The tools won't be effective for you until you allow yourself to be transparent and engage frequently on these platforms.

Isn't it time you stop hiding and step up to serve others by being the real brilliant you?

How can you do that? Start by understanding the art of storytelling in your branding. Today in our "social reward economy" we are digital storytellers. Your life is a story that inspires and connects with others. All your posts over time add up to form you, the brand.

Three reasons why storytelling is so important:

Personal branding in business today is not a luxury; it's a necessity if you are to deliver powerful marketing and generate serious revenues. Again, we live in a "social reward" economy. The savvier you become in your social media marketing - the more income you will make. Your personality and everyday thoughts, feelings, and events create your brand in order to build the know, like and trust factor while using social media.

Key tip: your personal page on Facebook is paramount in your marketing. Please do not leave this out of the equation because you may think you are not supposed to mix business with personal; quite the contrary. The fan page is 100% business; but it's your personal brand that captures the emotional resonance of your relationships online.

When we move our offline life to an online presence (virtual world) we aspire to be as authentic and transparent as possible in order to build relationships that eventually convert to clients and customers.

I am encouraging you to raise your standards in how you market so that you are in alignment with the way our NEW economy is requiring us to be and do. We aspire to talk "with" our communities not talk "at" them as we post and inspire interaction. That's true engagement.

My clients consistently ask what's the most simple way to begin to raise my standards and how do I inspire engagement? I start with "content is queen" and even more so - compelling content is best!

Take a look at these Topics that Inspire Engagement on Facebook & Twitter and begin using this today:

TIP: (Be sure to post photos, videos, & links for more consistent placement in Newsfeed on Facebook; and use first person, conversational format)

Your personal branding success formula to monetize your Social Media is: Brand + Identify + Post + Engage + Build = Success. I dare you to Step into the Spotlight with confidence, savvy & ease!

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Worst Auto Insurance Companies - 2011 - Law - Personal Injury

Personal injury lawyers helping people injured in car and truck accidents deal with auto insurance companies every day. Many will tell you that auto insurance companies make a lot of money by not paying out on legitimate claims.

They will also say that accident victims have been limping away from hundreds of millions of dollars in valid and deserving claims that insurance companies are required to pay. Why? Many of these auto insurance companies believe you won't wait, you won't hire a lawyer to file a lawsuit, and you will eventually become so fed up that you'll take a low-ball settlement offer. This is called the "3 Ds" strategy: insurance companies will delay your claim, deny you were hurt and defend aggressively.

Steven M. Gursten, an experienced auto accident lawyer and partner of Michigan Auto Law, put together this list of the worst insurance companies, based on what he and the 17 attorneys in his law firm see every day from the Michigan auto insurance industry. In their own experiences representing people suing these insurance companies for No-Fault benefits, or helping people injured in car accidents where these insurance companies are on the other side, these are their personal picks as the worst of the bunch, as told by Gursten.

1. Dairyland Insurance - My Worst Insurance Company in Michigan Award

I've never seen any insurance company send a release to its own injured customers extinguishing all of their legal rights, past, present and future, just SEVEN days after a crash - until Dairyland Insurance did just this. The accident victim signed this release, and lost all future No-Fault insurance benefits and claims. Accident victims usually receive this release after the case has closed.

2. Farm Bureau Insurance - My Winner of the Insurance Company Skunk Award

A lawyer is not supposed to stand up in court and intentionally mislead a jury. But Farm Bureau is doing this in serious auto accident injury cases every day. In a Michigan Auto Law case, Farm Bureau insured the vehicle of an 18-year-old girl, who slammed into a man's SUV while she was speeding on the dirt shoulder. The car accident victim had to be transported to the hospital by helicopter. But instead of taking responsibility or making any meaningful attempts to settle this case, Farm Bureau's defense strategy was to hang its customer out to dry, hoping the jury would believe the at-fault teenage driver was the one who would be paying up - instead of Farm Bureau. Because of this case, and anti-consumer changes that Farm Bureau has in its own underinsured motorist coverage (UIM) policy, Farm Bureau wins my Skunk Award in 2011.

3. Allstate Insurance Company - Winner, my Repeat Offender Award

Allstate didn't seem to have any problem growing its bottom line, even in this tough Michigan economy. The insurance giant posted an almost 10 percent increase in national profits compared to 2008. It pulled in national earnings of $518 million, and generated a nearly 23 percent boost in total revenues*. What our insurance attorneys don't like is how Allstate pulled it off: Documents made public in 2008 describe a two-pronged strategy for how Allstate cut payments to its own customers as a way to boost profits. First, the company evaluates claims with a computer program designed to reduce claims payouts. Second, Allstate pushes injury victims to accept quick but very low settlements.

*"How a get-tough policy lifted Allstate's profits" - Herald Tribune, April 6, 2008

4. Progressive Insurance - Winner, My Worthless Coverage Award

What is buried in the fine print? How about completely worthless auto insurance that you paid a lot of money for. This tough lesson was exemplified by one of my cases where my client was struck nearly head-on at age 28. She had 13 surgeries, spent almost a month in the hospital and suffered a traumatic brain injury. The driver who hit her did not have auto insurance. But the victim had purchased uninsured motorist coverage (UM) from Progressive, which is supposed to protect someone if she's injured in a car accident by an uninsured driver. Too bad Progressive's uninsured motorist coverage was worthless and completely failed to protect her because of what Progressive buries in its policy.

5. Daimler Chrysler Insurance Company - "This Isn't Even Insurance!" Award

Want an example of outrageous and deplorable conduct by an insurance company? In another of my cases, a kind mother of three daughters was killed when a drunken, cocaine-using defendant crashed into her vehicle. Her estate sued the defendant and won a $3.5 million jury verdict. But her family was unable to collect anything because Daimler Chrysler Insurance Company's No-Fault insurance coverage STOPS its own customers from collecting if they are seriously injured, or killed, in car accidents!

So which insurance companies do insurance lawyers recommend?

If your current auto insurance policy is with one of the companies listed above, you're probably wondering what you can do to protect your family going forward. After evaluating the top 10 largest auto insurance companies in Michigan, as well several other auto insurers to see what they had to offer, Michigan Auto Law came up with a list of the Top 4Best Auto Insurance Companies.

How to Find and Buy the Best Michigan Auto Insurance

Now that you have this information, you can better protect yourself and your family. Our auto insurance lawyers realize that choosing the best insurance policy can be daunting. The following tips can help you narrow down the best auto insurance company for you:

1. Visit the Department of Insurance website.

The State of Michigan has a department of insurance called the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG). There, you will find "consumer complaint ratios" for all of the insurance companies that sell policies in Michigan. This ratio tells you how many complaints an insurance company received per 1,000 claims filed. Some of these will absolutely shock you, and give you a good flavor for how an insurance company you may be considering chooses to handle auto accident claims.

2. Find out which insurers repair shops recommend.

One of the best ways to identify dependable auto insurers is to contact local collision repair shops that you trust, and ask for their recommendations. Shop managers have a unique perspective to offer, since they regularly interact with insurance claims adjusters. They know which insurance companies have the smoothest claim processes for routine Mini Tort claims (vehicle damage) and which companies are looking for shortcuts to cut costs at the expense of their own customers.

3. Consider working with an independent insurance agent.

Independent agents represent several insurance companies and therefore, do not have a vested interest in selling you a policy from one particular company. They can become familiar with your situation and guide you toward a suitable policy. Our auto insurance lawyers do not vouch for any particular one of these independent agents, but findmichiganinsurance.org is a great resource to search for independent insurance agents.

4. Do your research.

With so many people sharing reviews and testimonials both in social circles and on the Internet, you can get opinions from real people who have experienced insurance company claims first hand. Pay particular attention to those who have had personal injury claims from car accidents and truck accidents.

Online insurance resources for Michigan drivers

Our auto insurance lawyers have compiled this list of online resources to assist Michigan drivers with evaluating their No-Fault insurance:

1. The Michigan government's website has a valuable "What to watch for" guide for buying insurance.

2. The State of Michigan's Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth also has a great website with information on purchasing auto insurance.

3. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners' Consumer Information Source (CIS) provides information about insurance companies that you can use before purchasing insurance, including key information about closed insurance complaints, licensing information and financial data.

To learn more about No-Fault benefits, the No-Fault Act, Social Security Disability and additional coverage that can protect you if you're ever injured in an auto accident, visit the Michigan No-Fault Insurance Resource Center.

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LinkedIn Social Networking for Insurance and Reinsurance Executives - Careers - Career Management

LinkedIn is the most active professional social network in the world. According to their press materials, they have over 90 million members, with roughly half of those members residing in the United States.

If you are not a member of LinkedIn yet, I highly recommend joining the website to grow your own professional social network.

If you are already a member, and you work in insurance or reinsurance as an underwriter, accountant, actuary, risk manager, claims professional, financial analyst, agent or other insurance role, this article will begin to list for you some of the more active insurance-related jobs and discussion groups on LinkedIn.

If you search for "insurance" among LinkedIn groups, it returns over 5,000 groups.

Risk, Regulation and Reporting is one of the largest LinkedIn groups. Insurance topics covered by its members include European insurance regulations (Solvency II), international accounting standards (IAS), international financial reporting standards (IFRS), asset-liability management, risk management, regulatory issues, governance and compliance. I also recommend their Solvency II and US Insurance subgroups.

Discussions at the Global Insurance Professionals group recently included catastrophe risk, marketing strategies, insurance startups, emerging risks and appropriate workplace behavior.

Not to be confused with "Global Insurance Professionals", Insurance Professionals invites producers, underwriters, risk managers, claims personnel, actuarial analysts and others to discuss pricing, insurance careers, coverage questions, network security, customer service, small business advice and other topics. Property and Casualty and Life and Health subgroups cover more specific line of business topics.

The subgroup Insurance Professionals has covered issues such as cold calling, underwriting, European insurance startups, healthcare reform and capital modeling.

Global Insurance Network has a very broad audience of brokers, risk managers, agents, claims professionals, actuaries, reinsurance employees and others. Best ways to drive traffic to your insurance blog, resume best practices, job hunting strategies and six sigma methodologies are some recent interesting discussions.

The Risk Management & Insurance Professionals group actually requires insurance-related experience in order to join. Market trends, ratemaking, insurance coverage, risk management, legal deposition handling, policy structure, pandemic models and business plans were some recently covered topics.

Insurance Industry Executives encompasses almost 8,000 members in the life, health and property and casualty insurance fields.

Reinsurance Insurance Professionals Worldwide is the largest reinsurance-related group on LinkedIn. Reinsurance-related discussions there tend to cover contract negotiations and drafting, brokers, excess layer considerations, startups and new branch operations, insurance-linked securities, Bermuda and European markets and job hunting. An Asian-specific subgroup recently launched as well.

Three additional LinkedIn groups specifically designed for reinsurance include Reinsurance Professionals, Reinsurance (from Postonline.co.uk) and the U.S. Reinsurance Under 40s group.

Those interested in insurance-linked securities, including industry loss warranties, surplus notes, securitizations and catastrophe bonds, are directed to ILS Insurance Linked Securities, Insurance Linked Securities and the subgroup Insurance Linked Securities.

If you work specifically with workers compensation insurance, like-minded insurance professionals are members at the Work Comp Analysis Group. Safety, risk management and HR professionals are also welcome. See also the WorkCompCentral and Workers Compensation Roundtable groups.

Confluence (Insurance professionals & Insurance recruiters) is an outstanding group with eclectic conversation. Career advice (underwriting, financial and actuarial careers were recent topics), brokerage and software-related jobs, insider trading, product sales and business development are often discussed.

Insurance Marketing Professionals group is devoted to direct and insurance brokerage distribution and marketing, while Insurance Product Management is lightning-focused on insurance product analysts, product developers and product managers.

The Managed Care Connections group covers healthcare marketing, sales, operations, accounting, healthcare economics, product development, finance, underwriting, actuarial work, pharmaceutical and case management.

And, finally, the Global Health Economics Network has close to 5,000 members. Those looking for additional healthcare economics groups could also look at The Healthcare Strategy Innovation and Management Group and Healthcare Economics, Healthcare Medical Economics, and Medical Economics; each group has about 1,000 members.

The Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) group is focused on risk management, and is peppered with risk managers, engineers, consultants, underwriters, actuaries, project managers and financial analysts from around the world. Another very active risk management group is the 17,000+ strong Risk Managers group.

Claims professionals can discuss adjusting, careers, management and operations at the P&C Claims Professionals group. See also the Insurance Claims Professionals and Claims Management groups.

Vehicle telematics is the integrated use of telecommunications and informatics applied to road vehicles. Those professionals working in telematics interested in networking, insurance applications, vehicle tracking, fleet management, remote diagnostics and toll charging are directed to the Telematics group. There are also the Telematics Update and Insurance-Telematics groups.

For insurance agents, there is Insurance Agents' Opportunities For Success.

The Health Executives Network is for health insurance professionals such as brokers, benefit consultants, underwriters, producers, analysts (financial, accounting, actuary), vendors and others. Also check out National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU).

And, finally, see Insurance Professionals of America, with 4,000 members, including auditors, supervisors, underwriters, marketing and actuarial professionals.

Insurance professionals interested in discussing Solvency II European insurance regulations are encouraged to check out Financial Risk Management Network, Solvency 2 Experts Group, Solvency II CEIOPS subgroup, Solvency II European Insurance Regulations SolvencyDeux.com and Solvency ii Association.

Social media best practices, marketing and promotion for insurance and reinsurance professionals are covered at Social Media 4 Insurance and Social Media Insurance and Reinsurance.

Four groups to inform those looking to learn about insurance-linked securities include ILS Insurance Linked Securities, Insurance Linked Securities, Trading Risk and Insurance Linked Securities subgroup. Recent topics have been industry loss warranties, surplus notes, catastrophe bonds, casualty securitizations, sidecars, reinsurers and hedge funds.

Casualty actuaries can chat at Casualty Actuarial Society group. Life, health, investment and pension actuaries can discuss topics for the actuary at the Society of Actuaries group.

Insurance mergers and acquisitions are discussed at Insurance Mergers and Acquisitions WhoBoughtWho.com and Insurance Mergers and Acquisitions Group.

Takaful (Islamic insurance) is covered by Islamic Finance Takaful & Pensions, Takaful and Retakaful News and Trends TakafulMe.com and Takaful groups.

Insurance accounting is addressed at Insurance Accounting & Finance, while insurance law is discussed at Insurance Legal/Compliance Professionals.

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Foreclosure

Foreclosure is a common problem of people in United States. The problem is equally affecting people in all state of United States. The worse affected states by the problems of foreclosure are Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada. All these states are having high density population housing around 21% of total United States population. Currently one out of five people in United States is facing problem of foreclosure.

Foreclosure is the legal process in which a bank or other secured creditor sells or repossesses a parcel of real property (immovable property) after the owner has failed to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a "mortgage" or "deed of trust". Commonly, the violation of the mortgage is a default in payment of a promissory note, secured by a lien on the property. When the process is complete, the lender can sell the property and keep the proceeds to pay off its mortgage and any legal costs.

During the real estate boom in last decade people bought real properties like anything. They thought there will be no better opportunity to buy properties, and bought properties with help of loans and mortgages. But all this future planning vanished, due to the recession in economy. The decreasing value of dollar has caused great loss to United States economy which resulted loss to Banks and other lenders. The property prices are dipping, and people are worried of their investments. Banks are fearful about their returns, and they have increased their interest rates to get maximum returns in least possible time. It results extra burden on people who are already affected of recession.

The dipping value of dollar has caused a great loss to United States economy. The purchasing power of people has decreased, and it resulted in the overall decrement in overall economy. Due to this entire economic crisis property prices have fallen like anything. The property which people purchased with great enthusiasm, excitement and several dreams in mind related to that property has now become a financial burden for them. Even if they want to sell, no body is ready to buy that property even on lower rates, because almost everyone is facing same problems. If celebrities like Evander Holyfield, and Michael Jackson are facing foreclosures then what would have happening with common people.

This is the real scenario of real estate and the properties market in United States. Even lenders and banks are not able to get the return of money which they provided to people as Loan. Because of the fall in economy, there is no customer who can buy the property on real prices and banks and lenders are not able to get the actual amount to recover their debt.

Thus best solution is avoiding foreclosure situation by finding some middle ways like hiring a foreclosure consulting solution provider to avoid negative consequences. This is helpful as well as beneficial for both lenders as well as people facing foreclosure problems.For More Information Please visit:

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Drivers of SUVs Saving Big Money with Diesel Engines

(ARA) - Half of all American vacationers on the road this year are driving gas guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks, according to a new survey on driving habits from research firm MarketFacts. These bigger vehicles burn high amounts of fuel, which not only puts a dent in drivers' wallets, but also increases the country's dependence on foreign oil. Ironically, the MarketFacts study shows that fuel economy is an important issue for SUV and pickup drivers.

According to automotive experts, standard gasoline engines can't efficiently handle the weight of the larger -- and very popular -- SUVs and pickup trucks. There is an alternative, however, for drivers of big vehicles to consider: diesel engines.

Diesel engines like the Power Stroke Diesel in Ford F-Series Super Duty pickups are specifically made to provide better mileage -- 30 percent in most cases -- and have more pulling power than gas engines, which is why they are especially popular among those hauling camping gear or towing boats, RVs and horse trailers.

"People love big trucks for a lot of great reasons, but running a gas engine in them is like trying to heat a hotel with a small home furnace. You're going to burn way too much fuel and you still won't get the power you really need," said Patrick Charbonneau, chief technical officer, Engine Group, International Truck and Engine Corporation. "Diesel engines produce more power than gasoline engines because diesel fuel itself has more energy. And today's diesel engines are electronically controlled to boost performance and fuel efficiency."

However, the study found that despite diesel's known benefits, many Americans are resistant because they still have a negative perception of these engines, recalling the noisy and odorous diesel engines of the '70s. Industry experts dispel these myths saying today's diesel engines are greatly improved -- running quietly and not producing odors or smoke.

Major automakers in the United States have taken an interest in diesel power predominantly because of the success of diesels in Europe. "Over 30 percent of the passenger cars in Europe are now diesel, and the main reason is fuel economy," said Charbonneau. "The Big Three know fuel economy is keenly important here in North America."

Currently in the United States, diesel engines are an option over the standard gasoline engines, adding a few thousand dollars to the cost of a new vehicle. Although buying a diesel engine is a higher monetary investment initially, automakers say diesel engines make up this cost difference within just three years from fuel savings alone. Diesel engines also add greater resale value to pickups and SUVs due to their longevity.

Industry insiders believe that in 20 years, 30 percent of the passenger cars, sport utilities and pickups in America will use diesel engines because of fuel efficiency and near zero emissions capabilities. According to the Department of Energy, if diesels reach even a percent of their potential penetration by 2020, the country could conserve as much as 700,000 barrels of fuel per day -- half the energy used daily by the state of California.

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Market Impeders and Market Inefficiencies

Even the most devout proponents of free marketry and hidden hand theories acknowledge the existence of market failures, market imperfections and inefficiencies in the allocation of economic resources. Some of these are the results of structural problems, others of an accumulation of historical liabilities. But, strikingly, some of the inefficiencies are the direct outcomes of the activities of "non bona fide" market participants. These "players" (individuals, corporations, even larger economic bodies, such as states) act either irrationally or egotistically (too rationally).

What characterizes all those "market impeders" is that they are value subtractors rather than value adders. Their activities generate a reduction, rather than an increase, in the total benefits (utilities) of all the other market players (themselves included). Some of them do it because they are after a self interest which is not economic (or, more strictly, financial). They sacrifice some economic benefits in order to satisfy that self interest (or, else, they could never have attained these benefits, in the first place). Others refuse to accept the self interest of other players as their limit. They try to maximize their benefits at any cost, as long as it is a cost to others. Some do so legally and some adopt shadier varieties of behaviour. And there is a group of parasites – participants in the market who feed off its very inefficiencies and imperfections and, by their very actions, enhance them. A vicious cycle ensues: the body economic gives rise to parasitic a gents who thrive on its imperfections and lead to the amplification of the very impurities that they prosper on.

We can distinguish six classes of market impeders:

Crooks and other illegal operators. These take advantage of ignorance, superstition, greed, avarice, emotional states of mind of their victims – to strike. They re-allocate resources from (potentially or actually) productive agents to themselves. Because they reduce the level of trust in the marketplace – they create negative added value. (See: "The Shadowy World of International Finance" and "The Fabric of Economic Trust").

Illegitimate operators include those treading the thin line between legally permissible and ethically inadmissible. They engage in petty cheating through misrepresentations, half-truths, semi-rumours and the like. They are full of pretensions to the point of becoming impostors. They are wheeler-dealers, sharp-cookies, Daymon Ranyon characters, lurking in the shadows cast by the sun of the market. Their impact is to slow down the economic process through disinformation and the resulting misallocation of resources. They are the sand in the wheels of the economic machine.

The "not serious" operators. These are people too hesitant, or phobic to commit themselves to the assumption of any kind of risk. Risk is the coal in the various locomotives of the economy, whether local, national, or global. Risk is being assumed, traded, diversified out of, avoided, insured against. It gives rise to visions and hopes and it is the most efficient "economic natural selection" mechanism. To be a market participant one must assume risk, it in an inseparable part of economic activity. Without it the wheels of commerce and finance, investments and technological innovation will immediately grind to a halt. But many operators are so risk averse that, in effect, they increase the inefficiency of the market in order to avoid it. They act as though they are resolute, risk assuming operators. They make all the right moves, utter all the right sentences and emit the perfect noises. But when push comes to shove – they recoil, retreat, defeated before staging a f ight. Thus, they waste the collective resources of all that the operators that they get involved with. They are known to endlessly review projects, often change their minds, act in fits and starts, have the wrong priorities (for an efficient economic functioning, that is), behave in a self defeating manner, be horrified by any hint of risk, saddled and surrounded by every conceivable consultant, glutted by information. They are the stick in the spinning wheel of the modern marketplace.

The former kind of operators obviously has a character problem. Yet, there is a more problematic species: those suffering from serious psychological problems, personality disorders, clinical phobias, psychoneuroses and the like. This human aspect of the economic realm has, to the best of my knowledge, been neglected before. Enormous amounts of time, efforts, money and energy are expended by the more "normal" – because of the "less normal" and the "eccentric". These operators are likely to regard the maintaining of their internal emotional balance as paramount, far over-riding economic considerations. They will sacrifice economic advantages and benefits and adversely affect their utility outcome in the name of principles, to quell psychological tensions and pressures, as part of obsessive-compulsive rituals, to maintain a false grandiose image, to go on living in a land of fantasy, to resolve a psychodynamic conflict and, generally, to cope with personal problems whic h have nothing to do with the idealized rational economic player of the theories. If quantified, the amounts of resources wasted in these coping manoeuvres is, probably, mind numbing. Many deals clinched are revoked, many businesses started end, many detrimental policy decisions adopted and many potentially beneficial situations avoided because of these personal upheavals.

Speculators and middlemen are yet another species of parasites. In a theoretically totally efficient marketplace – there would have been no niche for them. They both thrive on information failures. The first kind engages in arbitrage (differences in pricing in two markets of an identical good – the result of inefficient dissemination of information) and in gambling. These are important and blessed functions in an imperfect world because they make it more perfect. The speculative activity equates prices and, therefore, sends the right signals to market operators as to how and where to most efficiently allocate their resources. But this is the passive speculator. The "active" speculator is really a market rigger. He corners the market by the dubious virtue of his reputation and size. He influences the market (even creates it) rather than merely exploit its imperfections. Soros and Buffet have such an influence though their effect is likely to be considered benefic ial by unbiased observers. Middlemen are a different story because most of them belong to the active subcategory. This means that they, on purpose, generate market inconsistencies, inefficiencies and problems – only to solve them later at a cost extracted and paid to them, the perpetrators of the problem. Leaving ethical questions aside, this is a highly wasteful process. Middlemen use privileged information and access – whereas speculators use information of a more public nature. Speculators normally work within closely monitored, full disclosure, transparent markets. Middlemen thrive of disinformation, misinformation and lack of information. Middlemen monopolize their information – speculators share it, willingly or not. The more information becomes available to more users – the greater the deterioration in the resources consumed by brokers of information. The same process will likely apply to middlemen of goods and services. We are likely to witness th e death of the car dealer, the classical retail outlet, the music records shop. For that matter, inventions like the internet is likely to short-circuit the whole distribution process in a matter of a few years.

The last type of market impeders is well known and is the only one to have been tackled – with varying degrees of success by governments and by legislators worldwide. These are the trade restricting arrangements: monopolies, cartels, trusts and other illegal organizations. Rivers of inks were spilled over forests of paper to explain the pernicious effects of these anti-competitive practices (see: "Competition Laws"). The short and the long of it is that competition enhances and increases efficiency and that, therefore, anything that restricts competition, weakens and lessens efficiency.

What could anyone do about these inefficiencies? The world goes in circles of increasing and decreasing free marketry. The globe was a more open, competitive and, in certain respects, efficient place at the beginning of the 20th century than it is now. Capital flowed more freely and so did labour. Foreign Direct Investment was bigger. The more efficient, "friction free" the dissemination of information (the ultimate resource) – the less waste and the smaller the lebensraum for parasites. The more adherence to market, price driven, open auction based, meritocratic mechanisms – the less middlemen, speculators, bribers, monopolies, cartels and trusts. The less political involvement in the workings of the market and, in general, in what consenting adults conspire to do that is not harmful to others – the more efficient and flowing the economic ambience is likely to become.

This picture of "laissez faire, laissez aller" should be complimented by even stricter legislation coupled with effective and draconian law enforcement agents and measures. The illegal and the illegitimate should be stamped out, cruelly. Freedom to all – is also freedom from being conned or hassled. Only when the righteous freely prosper and the less righteous excessively suffer – only then will we have entered the efficient kingdom of the free market.

This still does not deal with the "not serious" and the "personality disordered". What about the inefficient havoc that they wreak? This, after all, is part of what is known, in legal parlance as: "force majeure".

Note

There is a raging debate between the "rational expectations" theory and the "prospect theory". The former - the cornerstone of rational economics - assumes that economic (human) players are rational and out to maximize their utility (see: "The Happiness of Others", "The Egotistic Friend" and "The Distributive Justice of the Market"). Even ignoring the fuzzy logic behind the ill-defined philosophical term "utility" - rational economics has very little to do with real human being and a lot to do with sterile (though mildly useful) abstractions. Prospect theory builds on behavioural research in modern psychology which demonstrates that people are more loss averse than gain seekers (utility maximizers). Other economists have succeeded to demonstrate irrational behaviours of economic actors (heuristics, dissonances, biases, magical thinking and so on).

The apparent chasm between the rational theories (efficient markets, hidden hands and so on) and behavioural economics is the result of two philosophical fallacies which, in turn, are based on the misapplication and misinterpretation of philosophical terms.

The first fallacy is to assume that all forms of utility are reducible to one another or to money terms. Thus, the values attached to all utilities are expressed in monetary terms. This is wrong. Some people prefer leisure, or freedom, or predictability to expected money. This is the very essence of risk aversion: a trade off between the utility of predictability (absence or minimization of risk) and the expected utility of money. In other words, people have many utility functions running simultaneously - or, at best, one utility function with many variables and coefficients. This is why taxi drivers in New York cease working in a busy day, having reached a pre-determined income target: the utility function of their money equals the utility function of their leisure.

How can these coefficients (and the values of these variables) be determined? Only by engaging in extensive empirical research. There is no way for any theory or "explanation" to predict these values. We have yet to reach the stage of being able to quantify, measure and numerically predict human behaviour and personality (=the set of adaptive traits and their interactions with changing circumstances). That economics is a branch of psychology is becoming more evident by the day. It would do well to lose its mathematical pretensions and adopt the statistical methods of its humbler relative.

The second fallacy is the assumption underlying both rational and behavioural economics that human nature is an "object" to be analysed and "studied", that it is static and unchanged. But, of course, humans change inexorably. This is the only fixed feature of being human: change. Some changes are unpredictable, even in deterministic principle. Other changes are well documented. An example of the latter class of changes in the learning curve. Humans learn and the more they learn the more they alter their behaviour. So, to obtain any meaningful data, one has to observe behaviour in time, to obtain a sequence of reactions and actions. To isolate, observe and manipulate environmental variables and study human interactions. No snapshot can approximate a video sequence where humans are concerned.

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Regulation of Real Estate Dilemma - Business

New Deal implemented in the real estate after 3 months, the real estate market once again raises the topic of general concern. There are indications that the New Deal in China's real estate is at "crossroads", the real estate market regulation also appears that the state of dilemma. It is undeniable that since mid-April, with the implementation of the New Deal real estate, real estate market since 2009, the situation of overheating some degree of cooling, an important manifestation of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other large first-tier cities real estate market turnover down, and this situation is still sluggish trading continued. At the same time, we should clearly recognize that the effects of this round of real estate control policies are not very good so far, its performance is outstanding in the market volume is declining, as the regulation does not target the real estate market prices significant decline, particularly in front-line cities, housing prices are still high. That being the case, the real estate market regulation policy should be further strengthened. However, the domestic and international economic situation, the re-housing complex Queshi existing regulatory policies face more severe external economic environment. Not only to the debt crisis in some EU countries may affect the world economic recovery, thereby affecting our economic development, but the second quarter of China's economic growth rate of Xia Xiang Ye have spurred increasing impact the real estate market downturn Chixu growth concerns. As a result, the current real estate market into a control policy inevitably awkward dilemma: progress, may help to reduce the unrealistically high home prices, stabilize low-income induced by high rates of anxiety and discontent, but the real estate market downturn is inevitable impact on economic growth; back, although the real estate market is conducive to the prosperity and economic growth, but will make the real estate pol icy through regulation, not only lose the trust of the people, as well as possible retaliatory price rise increasing the real estate market bubble and macroeconomic vulnerability. The author believes that this embarrassing situation of real estate control the formation of the special nature of real estate and real estate pillar industries to bring the inevitable result of overlapping localization. As we all know, housing is a purely consumer durable goods and automotive and other various special products with multiple attributes, it is an essential consumer goods to any person, but also can be used to invest in the investment goods. Residential property makes these two different weight classes for real estate prices are very different aspirations. Absolute advantage on the number of low-income people do not want too high a price squeeze out the basic needs of housing consumption; number of small but holds most of the wealth of high-income rising house prices have hoped to ac hieve most of its real estate investment value. Residential nature of this diversity and bring the conflict, but also by the pillar industries of real estate managed to strengthen the positioning, and ultimately rise to the dilemma of regulating the real estate market. Yin Wei, pillar Chanye their property Zuowei circumstances, certainly around this pillar Dalifazhan Shang Wei Rao lower Gezhong industry (some statistics over real estate related industries have more than 50), You Cipian Xingcheng the Yi Real Estate industry as the core of the industrial structure and industrial chain, which Chanyejiegou determine where China's economic growth and revenue in real estate and related industries highly dependent. In the real estate industry and GDP, the local financial revenue tied too tight, showing a prospering harmed relations cases, in order to achieve GDP growth of local revenue and objectively requires the real estate market continued to boom and prices continue to up. Thu s, any real estate control policies are bound to face a conflicting choice: in order not to undermine the basic most low-income housing consumption demand, to take stringent measures to prevent excessive price increases; and to increase high-income residents, especially those of "property income" and local revenue, boost GDP growth, but also maintain the prosperity of the real estate and real estate market to prevent real estate prices continue to slump. Faced with this contradiction, any control policies are bound to seem at a loss. China Real Estate Deal 3 months after the implementation of emerging dilemma dilemma is reflected in the reality of this conflict. Can be expected, if such conflicts are not resolved, the future of the real estate market in both control policy decisions will continue to swing. That being the case, I believe that regulation of the real estate market to get rid of the dilemma, to be a fundamental solution to housing problems of qualitative and rea l estate location. Qualitative terms for residential, must be emphasized as a basic consumer goods, property, restore its true colors as a basic consumer goods, and not to "increase people's property income" in the name of too much emphasis on the properties of their investment products to prevent real estate excessive speculation in the market; to locate the real estate industry, the pillar industry should re-examine its position, change the real estate industry and GDP, local revenue tied tight situation, and in the process focus on cultivating new economic growth, economic structure and industrial structure to optimize.

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Advantages real estate investing - Real Estate - Property Investment

Advantages of real estate investing

Investing in real estate is as advantageous and as attractive as investing in the stock market. I would say it has three times more prospects of making money than any other business. But, But, But since, it is equally guided by the market forces; you cannot undermine the constant risks involved in the real estate. Let me begin discussing with you the advantages of real estate investments. I found the advantages as most suited and really practical.

Advantages

Real Estate Investments are Less Risky

As compared to other investments, less of misadventure is involved in a real estate property. I will not get away from the fact that just like any investment you make; you have the risk of losing it. Real estate investments are traditionally considered a stable and rich gainer, provided if one takes it seriously and with full sagacity. The reasons for the real estate investments becoming less risky adventure primarily relate to various socio-economic factors, location, market behavior, the population density of an area; mortgage interest rate stability; good history of land appreciation, less of inflation and many more. As a rule of thumb, if you have a geographical area where there are plenty of resources available and low stable mortgage rates, you have good reason for investing in the real estate market of such a region. On the contrary, if you have the condo in a place, which is burgeoning under the high inflation, it is far-fetched to even think of investing in its re al estate market.

No Need for Huge Starting Capital

A real estate property in Canada can be procured for an initial amount as low as $8,000 to $ 15,000, and the remaining amount can be taken on holding the property as security. This is what you call High Ratio Financing. If you don't have the idea as to how it works, then let me explain you with the help of an example. Remember that saying Examples are better than percepts!

Supposing, you buy a condo worth $200,000, then you have to just pay the initial capital amount say 10% of $200,000. The remaining amount (which is 90%) can be financed, against your condo. It means that in a High Ratio financing, the ratio between the debt (here in the example it is 90% Mortgage) and the equity (here in the example it is 10% down payment) is very high. It is also important to calculate high ratio mortgage insurance with the help of Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). If needed, you can also purchase the condo on 100% mortgage price.

Honing Investment Skills

A real estate investment, especially when you buy a condo for yourself, will be a pleasurable learning experience. It gives you the opportunity to learn and when I went ahead with my first real estate property, I was totally a dump man. Ask me now, and I can tell you everything, from A to Z. Necessity is the mother of all inventions. I had the necessity to buy the property and so I tried with it, and I was successful. I acquired all the knowledge and skills through experience of selling and purchasing the residential property. Thanks to my job. It gave me the experience to become an investor.

Not a time taking Adventure

Real estate investment will not take out all your energies, until you are prepared and foresighted to take the adventure in full swing. You can save hell lot of time, if you are vigilant enough to know the techniques of making a judicious investment in the right time and when there are good market conditions prevailing at that point of time.

You should be prepared to time yourself. Take some time out, and do market research. Initiate small adventures that involve negotiating real estate deals, buying a property, managing it and then selling it off. Calculate the time invested in your real estate negotiation. If the time was less than the optimum time, you have done it right. And if you end up investing more time, then you need to work it out again, and make some real correction for consummating next deals. You have various ways and methodologies, called the Real Estate Strategies that can make it happen for you in the right manner.

Leverage is the Right Way

The concept of leverage in real estate is not a new one. It implies investing a part of your money and borrowing the rest from other sources, like banks, investment companies, finance companies, or other people's money (OPM). There have been many instances where people have become rich by practically applying OPM Leverage Principal. As I had discussed under the sub head - No Need for Huge Starting Capital, the high ratio financing scheme gives an opportunity of no risk to the lenders, as the property becomes the security. Moreover, in case the lender is interested in selling the property, the net proceeds resulting from the sale of the property should comfortably cover the mortgage amount.

Now consider a situation, where the lender leverages the property at too high ratio debt say 98% or even more, and all of the sudden the market shows a down turn, then both the investor as well as the lender. Hence, greater is the mortgage debt, more is the lender's risk, and it is therefore necessary that lender pays higher interest rates. The only way out to ease the risk from lender's head is to get the mortgage insured. Two companies authorized to insure your high-ratio mortgage debts are CMHC (), and GE mortgage Insurance Canada ().

Let me explain you with the help of an example supposing, you are buying a real estate property worth $ 200,000 at three mortgages, with the first one of $100,000, the second of $75,000 and the third one of $25,000. Possible percentage of interest rates charged can be 3%, 5% and 7%. The last mortgage amount of $25,000 will be accounted, as riskiest; as it would relatively be the last mortgage that you will pay when you finally make a selling deal.

On the contrary, if the first mortgage representing almost 90% of your property price is insured against getting default or as high ratio mortgage, then in the above example, the basic interest rate would be 3%.

Let me explain you the leveraging concept by taking another example.

Supposing, you are buying a real estate property worth $200,000, and made down payment of 10%, equitable to $20,000, while financed the rest amount of $1,80,000. Over the year's time, the value of your property appreciates by 10%. In this case, what would be the total return that you'd incur on your down payment of $20,000? It would be 200%. Yes 200%. Putting in simpler words, the down payment of $20,000 made by you has an appreciation of 10% over it, i.e. (10% increase of original home price of $ 200,000), 200% return on your down payment investment of $20,000.

On the contrary if you invest all the money in buying the property of $200,000, and in wake of appreciation of 10% over the year ($20,0000 would then be accrued to as 20%.

Synonymous with leveraging is pyramiding, where you borrow on the appreciated value of your existing property. Pyramiding applies the principal of leverage that enables you to purchase even more properties. This appreciated value over the real estate property in some selected areas results in accumulation of rich financial virtues.Real Estate Appreciation

An appreciation is an average increase in the property value over original capital investment, taking place over a period. There are some neglected real estate properties that have an appreciation below the average mark, whereas, some of the properties located in maintained geographical areas, showing high demand, have an above average appreciation. In such centrally located and high demand areas, the average appreciation can reach up to 25% in a year. I will discuss appreciation in the chapter on real estate cycles. For now, for general understanding, appreciation is what goes up.

You Make Your Equity

As you gradually pay your mortgage debts, you are creating your equity. In other words, you would be reaching to original house price on which you have no debt. Your equity is absolutely free of percentage increase in appreciation. From the investor's perspective, in real estate market, equity is the amount that is free of debt and it is the amount that an investor holds. When you sale your property, then the net money you get, after paying all the commissions and closing costs, becomes your equity. Lenders don't want to take risk by allowing a loan on over 90% of equity. Therefore, in this manner, the lenders take the safety measures in wake of their loan being defaulted.

The Federal Bankruptcy act says that all the first mortgages of over 75% of the appraised or purchase value must be covered under high-ratio insurance schemes. However, there are certain conditions, wherein, CMHC offers the purchasers of real estate property qualifying the insurance, a mortgage of up to 100% of purchase price over your principal house value. In the wake of an event where borrowers want more money from the lenders, they would ideally settle for second and the third mortgages.

Low Inflation

Inflation is the rise in the prices of the products, commodities and services, or putting it another way, it is the decrease in your capacity to buy or hire the services. Supposing, a commodity was worth $10 a decade back, will now cost $ 100 as the result of inflation. For people who have fixed salaries feel the real brunt of the dollar, as the inflation rises. In Canada, the inflation rate varies and it varies every year. There was a time when Canada had a double-digit, but it was controlled to single digit, after the regulation of policy.

If we analyze closely, the land appreciation value for the residential real estate is 4% to 5% higher than inflation rate. Therefore, when you invest in real estate, then you are paying mortgage debts in high dollar value. Now as you are getting more, salary to pay less amount than the amount that you had paid in the original mortgage.

Tax Exemptions

You get various tax exemptions on your principal and investment income property. The tax exemptions available in real estate property investment are more than available in any other investment. In other investments, you lose terribly on the investments in your bank in the form of inflation and high taxes therein, but in real estate; you don't actually have such hindrances.

Various tax exemptions available are:

The interest receivable from your bank account, term deposit or guaranteed Investment Certificate (GIC) is completely taxable as income. A little math here will do the magic work for you. Supposing, if you get an interest of 8% on the deposit, and the on going inflation rate is 5%, the Real Return Rate will come out to be settled at 2%.You get completely tax-free capital gain on principal amount of your residential real estate property.You have the opportunity to ward off principal amount of your residential real estate property against the home expenses incurred by you.You can easily ward off the property depreciation against your income.You can cut the expenses incurred in real estate property investment through your incomeTax rate reduced to approx. 50% of the capital gain. And many more

Net Positive and High Income is Generated

If taken in right direction and played seriously, a real estate investment can be your virtue making endeavor now and in times to come. You will not only be having additional assets building in your favor, but also with positive cash flow, your real estate property value will increase automatically.

High Return on Investments (ROIs)

Real estate investment gives you potentially high ROIs before and after the taxes levied on your income. In fact, investing in real estate gives you high ROIs after the taxes.

Demand for the Real Estate Increases

As a natural instance, when the population of a region increases, the total usable land decreases, and this provides the impetus for high real estate prices. There are many communities that can or cannot have growth and development regulations, thereby, resulting in limited land available for use. Therefore, the real estate prices of the area shoot up. Remember housing is the necessity of an individual and therefore it is much in demand than any other single commodity taken. Furthermore, there are people who purchase additional houses for their recreation, recluse or as a past time. This in turn increases the demand for land.

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Travel With Thai Airways to Thailand and Beyond. Thailand and Beyond with Thai Airways. - Travel

A trip to Thailand can be an once in a lifetime opportunity, and Thai Airways is the most experienced airline to take you there. Regardless whether its a business trip or a vacation, the airline had a solid reputation of treating their passengers as welcome guests and making sure they are comfortable. We will examine some features as well as some of the places Thai Airways can take you in this article.

Thai Airways has won its share of awards over the years, and in 2011 it was honored by Skytrax World Airline Awards in two important categories-Best Airline Economy Class Onboard Catering and Best Airline Economy Class Seat. It is one thing to be interested in your First Class and Business passengers, but winning these two awards shows that Thai Airways is also concerned about their Economy passengers as well. Last year, Thai Airways placed ninth in the World's Best airlines category, but this year moved up to fifth, which is impressive. Considering how many airlines are competing for this award, to be recognized as one of the top 5 airlines in the world means that they must be doing something right. By getting an official 4 star rating from Skytrax, which has been received by Thai Airlines, shows that their level of service is exceptional. For people who like a bargain, Thai Airways offers a new level of service called Premium Economy Class which offer some of the same lu xuries normally reserved for the more expensive tickets, but at a lower price. Lean back in the larger roomier seats, enjoy the wider isles and the extra leg room. Its much easier to relax and even fall asleep in the comfortable reclining seats. There are also power outlets in case you want to use your laptop during the flight. Not all of Thai Airways flights offer Premium Economy Class, so check with them first if you are interested in booking this kind of service.

The Thai Airways Royal Orchild Lounge in the Suvarnabhumi Airport is one of the most luxurious and you must take time to experience it if you fly to Thailand. Quite a few awards have been won by these lounges because of their comfort and features. In 2010, for example, it was chosen as Skytrax Best Airport Services and best Airline Lounge- First Class. While waiting for your flight, you can get some work done in one of their lounges fully equipped business centers. They also have slumber rooms if you want to take a nap, as well as dining rooms to have a snack or beverage. The Royal Orchid Spa offers the First Class passengers the opportunity to relax with a Thai massage as well as a foot massage. Flying with Thai Airways is something to consider, especially if a trip to Thailand has always been something you wanted to do. Maybe you would like to make a trip to New Zealand or Australia, since they have flights there as well, and also other Asian destinations. If you are fly ing to that part of the world, this award-winning airline is ready to take you, so check out their website.

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Smart Buyers Buying Seattle Home Real Estate in Today's Market - Real Estate - Mortgage Financing

Seattle / Bellevue Real Estate Mortgage Rate Watch June 24, 2011: Roller coaster ride in domestic and global news pushed mortgage rates all over the board this week. The continuing saga in Greece weather to bail out or not, to DO something or not kind of like our local government in the U.S. Sense some similarity here, well that is exactly what Moodys is thinking. Rating firms like Moodys have downgraded the Euro in recent months and have WARNED the U.S. that it stands to lose its triple a rating for the first time since the depression. What would this do, to say the least it would be catastrophic on the economic recovery of the U.S., mostly because of the further devaluation of the dollar and disbelief that we can repay our debt. BOTH would lead to severe inflation. ARE we there yet? Not yet but BIG BROTHER has to take some action and send a message to the world that we have it together.Big Ben Bernanke and the Fed held their two day meeting only to come out and reaffirm that we are in a very slow growth mode with employment lagging. He once again affirmed that inflation is transitory and even though recent reports showed inflation heating up he expected that it was reflective of higher energy costs earlier in the year.With all of this news and buzz in Wall Street we now listen a little closer to the economists who are forecasting a pullback in stocks. Here is a point for home owners to pay close attention to right now. When Wall Street goes into the red and sells off, look at the bonds, Mortgage Backed Securities benefit which pressures mortgage rates LOWER. At least at this time.

Big Ben Bernanke and the Fed held their two day meeting only to come out and reaffirm that we are in a very slow growth mode with employment lagging. He once again affirmed that inflation is transitory and even though recent reports showed inflation heating up he expected that it was reflective of higher energy costs earlier in the year.

Watch todays segment to see why rates still have not been able to move lower.

Timing is everything just as location of the home is critical. Timing in securing an interest rate, BEST rate, is working with a mortgage professional who has their pulse on the market and when best to advise and educate their clients when timing is right. Along with this key knowledge is to be on top of all of the lending and underwriting changes which seem to almost happen daily. We at the Mortgage Reel are Licensed Washington Loan Originators, serving clients with transparency, knowledge and most importantly keeping your goals in mind. How can we assist you today?

Join the Conversation on Facebook, just click on the banner on the homepage and it will take you to our Facebook page, How to Beat the Banks on your Home Loan Like us when you visit and post any comments or suggestions. We want your feedback.

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Let

Lawmatch is honored to post our first guest blog from our new friend and soon to be one heck of a lawyer Jack Whittington. We met Jack, as he explains on Twitter- where he spoke his mind and sparked some good conversation on something that all professionals, educators, and students in the legal field should talk more about:

First, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Lawmatch.com for inviting me to write this guest post. Lawmatch.com and I came into contact under interesting circumstances. It is no big secret that I am not a fan of the cynics in the online legal community. Lawmatch.com had retweeted a story on Twitter from the infamous Elie Mystal of Above the Law fame about stupid law school students and the amount of debt they incur to go to law school. Feeling a bit surly on this particular day I fired back at Lawmatch.com and asked why they felt the need RT his stories. They said they didnt mean any harm, but just wanted to talk about law school student debt. Let me point out to you as I did with the fine folks at Lawmatch.com that if you want to have honest and open dialogue with law school students, its not a great idea to ridicule and belittle them in the process.

Yes, I think there needs to be an open dialogue between the legal community and law school students about the difficulties facing our profession, but the cynics should not run the conversation. So here I propose that calm and rational heads prevail. Realistic Optimists must be the ones who are heading these debates and conversations. We must be realistic in our expectations for ourselves and our profession but we should approach the conversation with a positive outlook. With that let us turn the conversation the issue of student loans, networking, and the current economy.

In a ten year span from 1998 to 2008 the average cost of law school tuition had risen 74%. Currently the average law school student graduates with $150,000 of personal debt due to the costs of attending law school. There is also a large gap between the average costs of attending public universities versus private. Many of those in the legal field say that the level of debt one sinks into attending law school is not worth it. However, recent legislation and the overhaul of the student loan industry may provide a better outlook for law school students facing high levels of debt upon graduation. Also students now have the opportunity to take jobs in government and non-profit organizations that will allow their loans to be forgiven after a period of ten years (provided theyve worked in the public sector continuously and consistently made their loan payments).

Many in the legal community look at their current plight and try to warn law school students from entering into the field. The hours, stress, and emotional toll is not worth it- many of them cry. Yet students keep entering law school in droves. Regardless of the stress that comes with the legal profession, too many it still represents at a chance to achieve a better quality of life than most other professions could afford them. Youd be hard pressed to argue to the general public that lawyers on average dont do that well for themselves. So to many, a JD is a key to financial success. The reality of it is that in a weak job market many students are forced to take jobs paying well below the figures they had in mind and in some cases students are unable to find jobs period. Law school students need to realize that a JD no longer equals a job. So the emphasis must be placed on networking while you are in law school to position yourself to where you can get a job as soon as you graduate. This requires a fair amont of diligent effort on top of keeping up with your studies. I am reminded of the story of the adjunct professor I had during my first year of law school. She wasnt much older than me and had just graduated from law school two years ago. She explained to our class the most important aspect of law school was networking. She had graduated number four in her class, but never took the time to network; the end result was it took her eighteen months to finally secure a full-time job in the legal field.

Law school students should be made aware of the potential pitfalls of the profession. Taking out a vast amount of debt to secure a JD is a gamble. In the current economy we are no longer guaranteed high salaried jobs as the graduating classes of yesteryear were. Law school students are bombarded from the minute they step foot in law school with people (particularly those in the legal field already) telling them what a terrible choice they made and how were going to be racked with debt for the rest of our lives, and there are no jobs to be had and on and on and on it goes. Many of us already know this. We did our homework, weighed the pros and cons of debt and decided to take the gamble anyway. For some getting a JD is more about the money rather than the job. Others truly want to make a difference in some fashion and they see the legal field as the way of carrying out their goals. No one should be deterred from legitimately wanting to make a difference in the world. We kno w the challenges that lie ahead, we have accepted that challenge and we aim to overcome it. However, we know we cannot do it alone either.

The Baby Boomer Generation is reaching retirement at an alarming pace as Generation Y comes into the job market. Someone is going to have the fill those shoes. I stress to the older generations the need to work together with the young up and comers to correct the problems or else we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. No nonsense, no sarcasm, no belittling just give us the facts and help us to fix the problems, well all get a whole lot further that way.

Follow Jack where we met him, on Twitter- @j2_Whittington

Make sure you check out Jacks blog for some more Gen Y blawg about Law, Law School, Pop Culture, Social Media, and Sports, coming from the Sunshine Kid and self proclaimed Champion of Realistic Optimism. Youll be glad you did.

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Global Economy News: Important & Beneficial - News - Current Affairs

People should believe in the economic integration of today generation to increase their property along with economical kind of business. Some experts are proclaims that an economic crisis of one country will affect on across the globe. Global economy news is arriving in all major business news channels. The business news is avoiding which are not factors in the crisis. The economy news is broadcasting all over the world up to date and each and every aspects .most of the news channels mainly depends upon business like scoping which are major things in the global news.

Globalization is essential part in the present economy. Most of the global economic factors are affected in the trade policies and government policies to bring up the global economic trend down like trade, labor migration and more. Economic News differs for country but the global economy news involves in the part of all countries. Global economy is mainly depending on the basis of developed countries. The developed countries having sufficient finance to serve the citizens of the country where as developing countries strive hard and earn finance to fulfill the economic needs of the citizens. Business news caters the information of trades and all economics status of the country as well as world.

Technology is developing a high dimensional. So, today each and every person knows the global economic news through over the internet. Most of the people's prefer to do the online trading kind of business. Global economy plays a prominent role in online business. These businesses are doing throughout the world. Most of the brand name organizations are established throughout the world to generate the handful economic growth. News channel provides the information and guidelines in business news that can improve the individual knowledge on different kind of business. Most of them will taking those who are experts in this filed. The expert's suggestions are very important when doing their business to develop the firm. Economically which are strong countries they will save the economy kind of problems.

Most of the news channels will caters the business news, which news can boost the people personal and official businesses to earn more income. Involvement of every citizen plays a major role in the economy of the country. Global economy news depends on the global business, exchange of currency and trading markets. Economy news is important to know about the market situations regularly and analyze the concepts to market situation and take right steps in their business according to the markets. This news is very useful for people which are avoiding unnecessary mistakes in their business.

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History and the Various Types of Economies - Finance

Economics as a subject is more than 200 years old dating back to the publication of Adam Smiths Book entitled, An Enquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations. In 1976, economics was not recognized as a separate branch of learning. Adam Smiths book presented first systematic study of economics. It led to the recognition of economics as a separate subject of study. That is why, Adam Smith is generally known as the father of economics.Since then economics has been defined differently in different stages. The set of definitions given by different economists can be divided into the following categories:

1. Wealth definition given by Adam Smith

2. Welfare definition given by Prof. Alfred Marshall

3. Scarcity definition given by Prof. Robins

4. Growth definition given by A. Samuelson

Out of these, the most important definition is the scarcity definition given by Prof. Robins. In his book, an essay on nature and significance of economic science published in 1932 Prof. Robins has given the scarcity definition of economics as:

Economics is a science that studies human behavior as a relationship between ends & scarce means that has alternative uses.

This definition of economics give by Prof. Robins is based on the following 3 assumptions.

1. Human wants are unlimited i.e. as soon as one need is fulfilled another need arises and sometimes even before the fulfillment of first need.

2. The means or resources required to fulfill the human wants are limited and as such all the needs can not be fulfilled.

3. Scarce resources have alternative uses, that is, they can be put to different uses or they can be put to more than one use.

In general, we can say economics is about making choices in the presence scarcity. Scarcity and choices are important in economics. Study of the Choice Problem at individual, social, national and international level is what economics is all about.

Types of EconomiesNow, you are clear with the definition of economics. Let us study the types of economies. There are 3 different types of economies:

1. Developed Economy2. Underdeveloped Economy3. Developing Economy

1. Developed EconomyDeveloped Economy refers to that economy where the level of national income and the per capita income is very high as well as high production, consumption, savings and investment. As a result, people living in developed economies have a higher standard of living, e.g. U.K, USA, Australia, Canada, etc. are examples of developed economy where people have a very high standard of living.

2. Underdeveloped EconomyUnderdeveloped Economy is one where the level of income and the per capita income is very low. The reason for low national income and per capita income is either the unavailability of sufficient resources or under-utilization or non-utilization of resources on account of low level of technology. This situation results in low capital formation and technical development resulting in poor standard of living in the economy. According to a report, 2/3rd of the population falls under the underdeveloped economy.

3. Developing Economy Developing economy is one where the per capita income and the national income are neither too low nor too high. In other words, a developing economy has a rising per capita income and national income. Such an economy, utilizes its resources and with the use of modern technology tries to achieve a higher economic growth rate. People living in developing economy enjoy better living of standard as compared to underdeveloped economy, e.g. India is a developing economy that has a lot of natural resources but due to absence of improved technology, these resources remain unutilized.

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Conquering the Economy - Self Help - Motivational

Do not let the economy defeat you.

How are you doing in this economy ? We have seen in the media how many powerful people have been affected by the economy. Even the extremely wealthy have been affected by this economy. Look at the far reaching affect the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme have had on so many during this economic down turn. But when it is all said and done many of these people are still able to provide the basic needs of food clothing and shelter for their families in this economy. Dont get me wrong. I feel for all who is affected by the economy, and I am happy for those who can provide every necessity to their family while they steer the course of this economy. It is terrible to lose money and property, because of the greed of a few that has caused a chain reaction which upset the economy.

The economy has negatively affected many people, but there are some who have not been affected at all by this economy. Yes, these unaffected persons will tell you that they have been affected greatly in this economy, because they can no longer dine out every night, or go on extended vacations twice or even once a year. But what they can do, that many of us cannot do in this economy, is pay their bills every month. Their residence, an essential need during all phases of economy, is not in jeopardy of being auctioned off on the court house steps. They do not have to deal with the embarrassment we feel whenever we have to uproot our children from the environment they have grown accustomed to because their home have been a casualty in this economy. How do you deal with the embarrassment of your children perceiving you as a failure? Children are the most understanding in these trying economic situations. Continually reminding them that you love them and that you are all going to get through these times together will help them maintain their trust in you no matter what happens with the economy . How do you deal with feeling like a failure - because society says that you are one? Society says if you do not have a job or good credit you are a failure, and treat you like you are an insignificant person because of this unfortunate economic circumstance. When less money is coming in than there are bills to pay, your credit is going to be destroyed. Get over it! There is nothing you can do about the economy right now. Your credit will rebound, when the economy and your financial situation rebounds. You are a champion, and you will conquer this economy. You will not allow it to conquer you! Just do the best you can. I am here to let you know that good credit or a job does not define who you are. The economy does not define you. Strength of character while facing adverse situations is what defines you; and you are a mighty conquer! The economy is already conquered by you!

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Shaw Capital Management Factoring: Oil Scarcity and its impact on the Global Economy - News - Business News

TUESDAY, 03 MAY 2011 10:11WRITTEN BY GLEN ASHER

In the latest edition of the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook publication, the IMF dedicates a chapter entitled "Oil Scarcity, Growth and Global Imbalances" to an examination of the world's oil markets and the impact of growing oil scarcity on the world's economy. In this document, the IMF seeks to answer the current status of oil scarcity, how oil scarcity will impact the global economy and how oil scarcity will impact economic policies around the world.Now that the price of both Brent and West Texas Intermediate seem solidly positioned above $100 per barrel for the first time since 2008, this is a timely study. Demand for oil has risen and, for some major consumers such as China, consumption levels have reached new records. Since oil is central to the world's economy, the impact of oil price volatility is key to economic growth and security. While oil prices have risen and fallen over the past 4 decades, it is only now that the issue of looming oil sc arcity is becoming increasingly discussed.The authors of the report believe that the world is, in fact, reaching a point of increasing oil scarcity. Demand from emerging economies is acting in concert with decreasing levels of growth in supply resulting in increasing tension in the world's oil markets. The IMF distinguishes between an absolute drop in supply (decreasing absolute daily oil production level) and a drop in the level of oil supply growth. If oil supply growth were to drop by one percentage point, annual global economic growth would slow by an annual rate of one-quarter of a point over the medium to long term. On the other hand, a steady decline in absolute oil supply levels would have a much greater negative impact on the global economy even if there is an increase in substitution of other energy sources in the place of oil. As well, the pace of the rise in oil scarcity will also affect the level of impact on the world's economy; should there be sudden downward trends in supply, the economic impact will be far greater than if supply constraints were gradual.Let's start by looking at the concept of oil scarcity and the extent of the issue. To put the importance of oil to the worlds economy into perspective, oil is a key factor in production and transportation and is the world's most widely traded commodity with world exports averaging $1.8 trillion annually over the years 2007 to 2009, about 10 percent of global exports. Oil prices generally follow the economic law of supply and demand. When demand rises, if the supply is steady, prices will generally rise which will ultimately result in both an increase in supply and a drop in demand. The price of oil generally reflects the opportunity cost of bringing an additional barrel of oil to the market place. In general and over time, a high price generally implies that oil (or any other commodity) either is (or is anticipated to be) scarce while a low price generally implies abundance. Sho rt term market fluctuations can occur that will lead to price spikes such as those seen in the 1970s OPEC embargo or the Gulf War in 1991 when the price spiked to just over $40 per barrel from just under $10 per barrel just five years earlier. Over the longer term, oil price changes generally appear to be relatively smooth with a gentle rise prior to the rapid rise and fall in 2008 - 2009 which reflected issues in the world's economy rather than oil market macroeconomic factors.The concept of oil scarcity is a contentious one. Many authorities in the oil industry now acknowledge that the world may well be entering a point of supply constraints. The decline in oil availability reflects the constraints placed by nature on the ability of the industry to profitably explore for and produce reserves. When prices are low, the oil industry generally reduces capital expenditures which places downward pressures on supply. On the other hand, mounting oil prices have resulted in technol ogical advancements that have impacted industry's ability to bring certain reserves to market, for example, the advent of both deep water drilling and multi-stage hydraulic have allowed the industry to invest in higher risk/lower productivity play types. It is the widespread use of enhanced technology that is now depressing natural gas prices in North America where both horizontal drilling and multi-state fracking have resulted in an oversupplied natural gas market.The scarcity of oil is also related to the properties of the commodity. Oil has unique physical properties that make substitution difficult, particularly in the chemical industry where it forms the feedstock for many of the items that we use in our daily lives. If substitutes for oil for these products were found, oil supply constraints would have less of an impact on prices since rising demand for the substitute would dampen oil price volatility.One of the fundamental factors that impacts the world's economy is t he fact that oil is the world's most important source of primary energy with over 33 percent of the world's total with coal accounting for 28 percent and natural gas accounting for 23 percent. In recent years, the world has experienced increased rates of growth in energy consumption, particularly from China who is now the world's number one overall energy consumer. For the foreseeable future, growth in China's economy will be the primary driver of increases in global energy use. In general, the world's developed economies (OECD nations) expand with little increase in energy usage, however, those non-OECD nations in lower income countries have a one-to-one relationship between economic growth and energy usage

Given the one-to-one relationship noted above, the IMF forecasts that China's energy consumption is predicted to double by 2017 and triple by 2035 in comparison to its 2008 level. In 2000, China consumed 6 percent of the world's overall oil consumption, this rose to nearly 11 percent in 2010 with coal accounting for 71 percent of total energy consumption and oil for 19 percent.The IMF study also examined the elasticity of oil. Elasticity is defined as "...the ratio of the percent change in one variable to the percent change in another variable. It is a tool for measuring the responsiveness of a function to changes in parameters in a unitless way..." The IMF found that an oil price increase of 10 percent leads to only a 0.2 percent reduction in demand (low elasticity). Over a longer term of 20 years, that 10 percent price increase reduces demand by only 0.7 percent, a very insignificant amount. When looking at oil demand based on income, over the short-term, a 1 percent inc rease in income results in a 0.68 percent increase in oil demand; this drops to 0.29 percent over the longer term. This is far lower than the increase in demand for total energy consumption meaning that as incomes rise, over the short-term, people increase their demand for oil but over the longer term, while their demand for all energy sources increases, they substitute other fuels for oil. It is interesting to note that the demand for oil among the developed nations of the OECD changes very little when the price of oil rises when compared to the demand of non-OECD nations. This is likely because during the oil price shocks of the 1970s and 1980s, nations such as the United States and France switched from oil to other means of power generation such as coal and nuclear. The economies of the more developed nations are somewhat more immune from increases in the price of oil since their power generation does not require the use of oil. The same cannot yet be said for those natio ns with less mature economies who still rely more heavily on oil.What impact will increasing oil scarcity have on the global economy? Strong and increasing oil demand is expected from emerging market economies where rapid income growth is being experienced. Since oil production appears to have reached a plateau over the past decade, supply and demand could well fall out of balance. As I noted above, even a drop in the average growth rate of oil production (not a drop in the absolute level of oil production) will have an impact on the world economy. To put the following scenarios into perspective, oil production has grown at a historical rate of 1.8 percent annually.Now let's look at two of the IMF oil scarcity scenarios:1.) Oil production growth drops by a persistent 1 percent annual growth rate: In this case, an immediate oil price spike of 60 percent is predicted by the IMF models. Over a 20 year period, a 200 percent increase in the price of oil is predicted. This will re sult in a massive wealth transfer from consuming nations to exporting nations and will result in a much lower GDP for oil importers that is at least partially offset by a higher GDP for oil exporting nations. On the upside, increased demand for goods from oil importers results in increased exports of these goods by the wealthier oil exporting nations. Overall, the IMF feels that global economic growth is slowed by less than one-quarter of a percent annually over the medium and long term if oil production growth slows gradually. 2.) Oil production growth drops by a persistent 3.8 percent annual growth rate: This scenario is more closely related to scenario anticipated by the proponents of "peak oil". In this case, an immediate oil price spike of 200 percent is predicted by the IMF models. Over a 20 year period, an 800 percent increase in the price of oil is predicted. Price changes of this magnitude have never been experienced by the world's economy and the impact would make it very difficult to carry out monetary policy. The economies of emerging Asia would be highly impacted since their economic growth is at a one-to-one ratio with energy usage. As well, the economies of those nations that have weak links to oil exporting nations, such as the United States, would be highly impacted. It is likely that if oil output decreased substantially, oil exporting nations might well reserve an increasing share of their production for domestic use, shrinking the amount of oil available for the world's oil markets. This could have the ultimate result of shrinking the world's supply of oil far faster than would normally be anticipated. A persistent decline in oil production growth of this size would result in larger current account imbalances (exports minus imports) among nations with oil importing nations experiencing a 6 to 8 percentage point drop in GDP over the long term.The state of oil scarcity can be mitigated by changes in government policy toward th e development of sustainable sources of energy, particularly among nations that are net importers of oil. Changes in policy will also be required for nations that use subsidies to keep energy costs reasonable for their citizens. As oil scarcity results in higher prices, the fiscal cost of fuel subsidies could overwhelm the fiscal situation of these governments. Removing such subsidies has often resulted in civil unrest, however, on the other hand, the reduction in subsidies would also allow market forces to work their way through the system to reduce demand as prices rise. In place of subsidies, these governments will need to implement an enhanced social safety network to ensure that their citizens do not face increased poverty.Governments around the world face a conundrum; by ignoring the issue now, the world's addiction to oil continues to rise unabated. By acting too soon to curtail oil consumption through the use of policy interventions, the world's economy could be thro wn into a premature economic malaise. Since the scarcity of oil is a global problem, it is critical that governments throughout the world act in a cooperative manner to ensure that the ultimate outcome is one that is advantageous to all of us. The sooner that action is taken, the better for everyone.

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Economy and beauty in design - Business

An engineer designing a bridge has twin obligations, to his client to use his money wisely, and tosociety to produce a structure that will enhance the built environment. In fact, beauty inengineering design has its roots in the tension that exists between designing for economy anddesigning for appearance.

Economy in this context is not simply saving money; it is a concept of rationality and frugality. Itis fundamental to engineering design that the designer is constantly planning how he can savematerials, and how he can make the construction process simpler, even if many of thesedesign decisions in isolation would not register on the overall balance sheet of a project.An example of this tension between appearance and economy is given by the design of anaccessramp to a high level bridge, Figure 1.1. The main bridge consists of a trapezoidal boxsection, 2.4 m deep, allowing it to span 60 m or more.

The access ramp must climb fromground level to merge with the main structure. At the point of merger, the ramp has thesame depth and shape as the main bridge. However, the 2.4 m depth would be out of scale for adeckclose to ground level. Consequently, the ramp is given a depth that gradually reduces to0.7 m as it approaches the ground, with the spans shortening correspondingly. This is clearlynot the most economical choice, as the formwork for the downstand webs of the ramp willbe continually changing.

In order to mitigate this additional cost of formwork, the geometry ofthe ramp deck may be de ned by keeping the length of the web shutters constant and equalto those of the main bridge, but changing their angle. Thus if the ramp is built span-by-span, theside shutters of the webs may be re-used for each span. This is an intellectual concept basedon an attempt to rationalise the construction method and save cost, which gives rise to adistinctive appearance. Finally this appearance must be judged on its own merits.

When an engineer designs, whether it is the overall concept of a bridge or an individualmember, he rst must understand the structural behaviour, and then seek rationality and economy. Thesearch will usually leave him many options, which allows him to make choices concerningthe appearance of the structure.

A very simple example is the design of the bridge pier carrying a single bearing, Figure 1.2. Thepier is subjected to a vertical load and to a horizontal load at the top which produces abending moment that increases linearly to a maximum at the base of the pier, Figure 1.2 (a).The size of the pier at the top will be limited by the size of the bridge bearing, while at thebottom it will be governed by the combined effect of the compression force and the bendingmoment. The engineer has a choice between, for instance:a prismatic column of a generous size that allows minimum reinforcement to be used throughout, Figure 1.2 (b);a smaller prismatic column that needs minimum reinforcement at the top, but heavyreinforcement at the base, Figure 1.2 (c);

a column that is as small as possible at the top and tapers uniformly to the bottom, Figure 1.2 (d);a column which is as small as possible at the top and whose width then varies such that theminimum reinforcement may be used throughout, Figure 1.2 (e);some combination of any of these.

His choice will be informed by other aspects of the project, for instance:the number of similar columns in the project;the range of heights of such columns;the need for variations on the basic column size to cater, for instance, for bridge expansionjoints, anchor piers or different length spans;the need for a family of columns to cater for other bridges forming part of the same project;the architectural context of the bridge.As the engineer considers the economy of the various choices to be made, he will most probably ndthat several options have costs that are within the margin of estimating error. Consequently, althoughthe search for economy is at the heart of his design, it cannot be used as an alternativeto aesthetic judgement; the engineer must choose the shape he considers is best in allthe circumstances.

Once he has made his basic choices, he then has to rene his design, both for economy and appearance; small changes of shape can greatly affect the appearance, as may be seen incomparing the options for a column of varying width shown in Figure 1.3. Reinforced concretedetailing considerations may also suggest minor dimensional changes, to give a rationalarrangement of bars, or to make best use of standard bar lengths and minimise waste.What an engineering designer cannot do and retain the integrity of his design is to yinthe face of rationality and economy, and design a heavily loaded column that, for instance,tapers towards the bottom, Figure 1.2 (f), creating an articial problem that then needsto be solved by misdirected engineering ingenuity. This is true even if the additional cost as compared with a rational design is negligible.

There is no reason that the column should not be decorated, with corners cut off, the sidesfaceted, Figure 1.4, or with ribs or other decorative nish, Figure 1.5 (7.15.4), as long asthe cost of this decoration is reasonable in the context of the project. Some aspects of suchdecoration may be functional, for instance to reduce the apparent bulk of the column bychanging the way light re ects off it or to control water runs to improve its weathering, whilesome may be just to make it more attractive.

Engineering design is thus driven by the simultaneous consideration of rationality, economy andappearance. Designing economically alone is not enough. There is no automatic linkagebetween economy and beauty; aesthetic judgement is required at every step of a design.Engineers have been known to put their faith in the idea that if they design honestly, andre ect in their structure the ow of forces, the result will inevitably be aestheticallysatisfactory, or even beautiful: the idea that 'form follows function'. Unfortunately,this is not suf cient. Within the con nes of honesty and economy, the engineer is left with a wide choice, which requiresaesthetic judgement.

A useful analogy is to consider the design of the human face,which is well de ned by its function, but which gives rise to an in nite number of outcomes.If bridge designers are not condent of their aesthetic ability, they should request theassistance of an architect, who should be involved from the earliest stages of the design. Ifthey are lucky, they will nd one who understands the special quality of engineering design,and who does not take over the project with his own, nonengineeringtaste.

An engineer designing a bridge has twin obligations, to his client to use his money wisely, and tosociety to produce a structure that will enhance the built environment. In fact, beauty inengineering design has its roots in the tension that exists between designing for economy anddesigning for appearance.

Economy in this context is not simply saving money; it is a concept of rationality and frugality. Itis fundamental to engineering design that the designer is constantly planning how he can savematerials, and how he can make the construction process simpler, even if many of thesedesign decisions in isolation would not register on the overall balance sheet of a project.An example of this tension between appearance and economy is given by the design of anaccessramp to a high level bridge, Figure 1.1. The main bridge consists of a trapezoidal boxsection, 2.4 m deep, allowing it to span 60 m or more.

The access ramp must climb fromground level to merge with the main structure. At the point of merger, the ramp has thesame depth and shape as the main bridge. However, the 2.4 m depth would be out of scale for adeckclose to ground level. Consequently, the ramp is given a depth that gradually reduces to0.7 m as it approaches the ground, with the spans shortening correspondingly. This is clearlynot the most economical choice, as the formwork for the downstand webs of the ramp willbe continually changing.

In order to mitigate this additional cost of formwork, the geometry ofthe ramp deck may be de ned by keeping the length of the web shutters constant and equalto those of the main bridge, but changing their angle. Thus if the ramp is built span-by-span, theside shutters of the webs may be re-used for each span. This is an intellectual concept basedon an attempt to rationalise the construction method and save cost, which gives rise to adistinctive appearance. Finally this appearance must be judged on its own merits.

When an engineer designs, whether it is the overall concept of a bridge or an individualmember, he rst must understand the structural behaviour, and then seek rationality and economy. Thesearch will usually leave him many options, which allows him to make choices concerningthe appearance of the structure.

A very simple example is the design of the bridge pier carrying a single bearing, Figure 1.2. Thepier is subjected to a vertical load and to a horizontal load at the top which produces abending moment that increases linearly to a maximum at the base of the pier, Figure 1.2 (a).The size of the pier at the top will be limited by the size of the bridge bearing, while at thebottom it will be governed by the combined effect of the compression force and the bendingmoment. The engineer has a choice between, for instance:a prismatic column of a generous size that allows minimum reinforcement to be used throughout, Figure 1.2 (b);a smaller prismatic column that needs minimum reinforcement at the top, but heavyreinforcement at the base, Figure 1.2 (c);

a column that is as small as possible at the top and tapers uniformly to the bottom, Figure 1.2 (d);a column which is as small as possible at the top and whose width then varies such that theminimum reinforcement may be used throughout, Figure 1.2 (e);some combination of any of these.

His choice will be informed by other aspects of the project, for instance:the number of similar columns in the project;the range of heights of such columns;the need for variations on the basic column size to cater, for instance, for bridge expansionjoints, anchor piers or different length spans;the need for a family of columns to cater for other bridges forming part of the same project;the architectural context of the bridge.As the engineer considers the economy of the various choices to be made, he will most probably ndthat several options have costs that are within the margin of estimating error. Consequently, althoughthe search for economy is at the heart of his design, it cannot be used as an alternativeto aesthetic judgement; the engineer must choose the shape he considers is best in allthe circumstances.

Once he has made his basic choices, he then has to rene his design, both for economy and appearance; small changes of shape can greatly affect the appearance, as may be seen incomparing the options for a column of varying width shown in Figure 1.3. Reinforced concretedetailing considerations may also suggest minor dimensional changes, to give a rationalarrangement of bars, or to make best use of standard bar lengths and minimise waste.What an engineering designer cannot do and retain the integrity of his design is to yinthe face of rationality and economy, and design a heavily loaded column that, for instance,tapers towards the bottom, Figure 1.2 (f), creating an articial problem that then needsto be solved by misdirected engineering ingenuity. This is true even if the additional cost as compared with a rational design is negligible.

There is no reason that the column should not be decorated, with corners cut off, the sidesfaceted, Figure 1.4, or with ribs or other decorative nish, Figure 1.5 (7.15.4), as long asthe cost of this decoration is reasonable in the context of the project. Some aspects of suchdecoration may be functional, for instance to reduce the apparent bulk of the column bychanging the way light re ects off it or to control water runs to improve its weathering, whilesome may be just to make it more attractive.

Engineering design is thus driven by the simultaneous consideration of rationality, economy andappearance. Designing economically alone is not enough. There is no automatic linkagebetween economy and beauty; aesthetic judgement is required at every step of a design.Engineers have been known to put their faith in the idea that if they design honestly, andre ect in their structure the ow of forces, the result will inevitably be aestheticallysatisfactory, or even beautiful: the idea that 'form follows function'. Unfortunately,this is not suf cient. Within the con nes of honesty and economy, the engineer is left with a wide choice, which requiresaesthetic judgement.

A useful analogy is to consider the design of the human face,which is well de ned by its function, but which gives rise to an in nite number of outcomes.If bridge designers are not condent of their aesthetic ability, they should request theassistance of an architect, who should be involved from the earliest stages of the design. Ifthey are lucky, they will nd one who understands the special quality of engineering design,and who does not take over the project with his own, nonengineeringtaste.

Such collaboration can be very creative, but success depends rstly onthe engineer being skilled and condentin the technical domain, and secondly in thearchitect having a genuine interest and feeling for engineering structures. Even engineerswho have condencein their aesthetic judgement can nd collaborationwitha talented architect very creative, with the architect questioning the engineer'schoices,and proposing different ways of seeing the design.

Such collaboration can be very creative, but success depends rstly onthe engineer being skilled and condentin the technical domain, and secondly in thearchitect having a genuine interest and feeling for engineering structures. Even engineerswho have condencein their aesthetic judgement can nd collaborationwitha talented architect very creative, with the architect questioning the engineer'schoices,and proposing different ways of seeing the design.

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