Take Action to take after losing your job
File for unemployment benefits that day or the next day online at floridajobs.org
Share the news with your family and friends. Try to be positive, especially when telling children.
Review your separation package and your finances. Decide what monthly expenses you can do without.
Let former clients and contacts know how they can reach you.
Enroll for classes at Broward County's Workforce One or Palm Beach County's Workforce Alliance, or seek other career transition help. Do not pay someone to find you a job.
Check whether you qualify for food stamps. There are restrictions on income and assets. You can prequalify at myflorida.com/accessflorida
Source: Sun Sentinel research
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
GM CEO Rick Wagoner to resign
Kinda weird how a President of a country can tell a so called publicly owned company to resign and it happens. I thought this was supposed to be a free market and the shareholders held that responsibility.
As troubled automaker appeals for federal help, Rick Wagoner gives up top spot following years of losses and declining U.S. market share.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign as part of the federal government's plan to bail out the struggling automaker, White House and GM sources told CNN Sunday.
Wagoner's departure comes the day before President Obama is expected to announce the latest details of the government's plans for restructuring GM and Chrysler LLC, which have been pushed to the brink by huge losses and a sharp decline in sales.
Fritz Henderson, the current chief operating officer, is expected to be named interim CEO of General Motors, according to two GM sources.
A GM spokesman declined to comment.
GM and Chrysler face a Tuesday deadline to prove to the Treasury Department that they can be viable in the long term. Without such a finding, the government can recall the $13.4 billion it has already lent to GM (GM, Fortune 500) and the $4 billion it loaned to Chrysler.
Wagoner, a 32-year company veteran, has been CEO of General Motors since 2000. Prior to becoming CEO, he was chief operating officer and led the company's North American operations. He also served as chief financial officer from 1992 to 1994. ('Wagoner: Almost a superstar CEO')
A senior GM official official told CNN that the White House and its auto task force had "sent very clear signals" that the key to more help was "new leadership" and something that would help the administration see real change.
General Motors has been hit hard as auto sales have plummeted. Sales have continued to tumble through the early months of this year, falling 40% across the industry and about 50% at GM and Chrysler.
The companies and industry analysts have slashed their sales estimates for the year -- and that in turn has heightened the need for more loans to keep GM and Chrysler afloat.
Last month, the two companies filed reports on their restructuring efforts. GM said it needed up to $16.6 billion more in loans. Chrysler asked for an additional $5 billion, and said it would need the money by the end of March to avoid running out of cash.
The Obama administration had been widely expected to approve the requests. Obama has repeatedly spoken about the importance of saving the struggling auto industry, and on March 19, Treasury announced $5 billion in federal help for GM's and Chrysler's auto parts suppliers.
The other member of Detroit's Big Three, Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500), has a better cash position than its rivals and has so far not needed federal loans. But Ford has asked for a $9 billion line of credit in case sales continue to be worse than expected or if major suppliers have to halt operations.
Job cuts
As part of the viability plan, GM and Chrysler were to win concessions form bond holders and the UAW.
GM has a big debt load, but negotiations with bond holders have gone slowly.
As for talks with labor unions, last week GM announced that 7,500 factory workers had taken its latest buyout offer. The workers leaving the company represent about 12% of the GM's remaining U.S. hourly work force, leaving it with just under 55,000 factory workers in the United States.
With this latest program, GM has shed about 60,000 hourly U.S. jobs since 2006. GM has offered buyout packages to all of its remaining hourly workers.
Even if the company needs to hire someone new to replace a departed worker, the company will save money under terms of the 2007 labor contract that pays new hires at a lower wage scale and with a far less lucrative benefit package.
--CNN's Kate Bolduan and John King contributed to this report.
As troubled automaker appeals for federal help, Rick Wagoner gives up top spot following years of losses and declining U.S. market share.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign as part of the federal government's plan to bail out the struggling automaker, White House and GM sources told CNN Sunday.
Wagoner's departure comes the day before President Obama is expected to announce the latest details of the government's plans for restructuring GM and Chrysler LLC, which have been pushed to the brink by huge losses and a sharp decline in sales.
Fritz Henderson, the current chief operating officer, is expected to be named interim CEO of General Motors, according to two GM sources.
A GM spokesman declined to comment.
GM and Chrysler face a Tuesday deadline to prove to the Treasury Department that they can be viable in the long term. Without such a finding, the government can recall the $13.4 billion it has already lent to GM (GM, Fortune 500) and the $4 billion it loaned to Chrysler.
Wagoner, a 32-year company veteran, has been CEO of General Motors since 2000. Prior to becoming CEO, he was chief operating officer and led the company's North American operations. He also served as chief financial officer from 1992 to 1994. ('Wagoner: Almost a superstar CEO')
A senior GM official official told CNN that the White House and its auto task force had "sent very clear signals" that the key to more help was "new leadership" and something that would help the administration see real change.
General Motors has been hit hard as auto sales have plummeted. Sales have continued to tumble through the early months of this year, falling 40% across the industry and about 50% at GM and Chrysler.
The companies and industry analysts have slashed their sales estimates for the year -- and that in turn has heightened the need for more loans to keep GM and Chrysler afloat.
Last month, the two companies filed reports on their restructuring efforts. GM said it needed up to $16.6 billion more in loans. Chrysler asked for an additional $5 billion, and said it would need the money by the end of March to avoid running out of cash.
The Obama administration had been widely expected to approve the requests. Obama has repeatedly spoken about the importance of saving the struggling auto industry, and on March 19, Treasury announced $5 billion in federal help for GM's and Chrysler's auto parts suppliers.
The other member of Detroit's Big Three, Ford Motor (F, Fortune 500), has a better cash position than its rivals and has so far not needed federal loans. But Ford has asked for a $9 billion line of credit in case sales continue to be worse than expected or if major suppliers have to halt operations.
Job cuts
As part of the viability plan, GM and Chrysler were to win concessions form bond holders and the UAW.
GM has a big debt load, but negotiations with bond holders have gone slowly.
As for talks with labor unions, last week GM announced that 7,500 factory workers had taken its latest buyout offer. The workers leaving the company represent about 12% of the GM's remaining U.S. hourly work force, leaving it with just under 55,000 factory workers in the United States.
With this latest program, GM has shed about 60,000 hourly U.S. jobs since 2006. GM has offered buyout packages to all of its remaining hourly workers.
Even if the company needs to hire someone new to replace a departed worker, the company will save money under terms of the 2007 labor contract that pays new hires at a lower wage scale and with a far less lucrative benefit package.
--CNN's Kate Bolduan and John King contributed to this report.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Beware Conficker worm come April 1
Bad timing for a worm if you ask me. The hacker should take a look around and just chill out. Many people right now are looking for jobs with their computer because that is the best way to get out as many resumes and Applications as possible. These people could be responsible for more than they realize.
In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.
Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.
Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.
Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.
Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.
At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.
Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.
In an event that hits the computer world only once every few years, security experts are racing against time to mitigate the impact of a bit of malware which is set to wreak havoc on a hard-coded date. As is often the case, that date is April 1.
Malware creators love to target April Fool's Day with their wares, and the latest worm, called Conficker C, could be one of the most damaging attacks we've seen in years.
Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent... though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives.
Thanks in part to a quarter-million-dollar bounty on the head of the writer of the worm, offered by Microsoft, security researchers are aggressively digging into the worm's code as they attempt to engineer a cure or find the writer before the deadline. What's known so far is that on April 1, all infected computers will come under the control of a master machine located somewhere across the web, at which point anything's possible. Will the zombie machines become denial of service attack pawns, steal personal information, wipe hard drives, or simply manifest more traditional malware pop-ups and extortion-like come-ons designed to sell you phony security software? No one knows.
Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day -- which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled -- but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can't be tracked and disabled by hand.
At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.
Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.
Jake DeSantis: A Defense of AIG Bonuses
Wow done nothing wrong. Like take millions of taxpayer dollars and using it as bonuses instead of making your company financially viable. Why should anyone get a bonus when they are doing a terrible job in the first place? He is not the only one and AIG is not the only company that has done this. They are just the ones who are in the spotlight right now.
Liz Wolgemuth
Liz Wolgemuth
Jake DeSantis, an executive VP in AIG's financial products unit, is getting out. We know this because the NYTimes has his resignation letter, penned to CEO Edward Liddy.
It's a comprehensive rebuke of the AIG-admonishers in Congress and of Liddy himself, who was "not strong enough to withstand the shifting political winds," and committed a "breach of trust" in allegedly asking for the bonus money to be returned only shortly before his Congressional appearance last week, DeSantis says.
Here's excerpt that gives a good insight into how the AIG employees are feeling. Note that DeSantis was not among the group that dealt in the ultimately poisonous credit default swaps:
As most of us have done nothing wrong, guilt is not a motivation to surrender our earnings. We have worked 12 long months under these contracts and now deserve to be paid as promised. None of us should be cheated of our payments any more than a plumber should be cheated after he has fixed the pipes but a careless electrician causes a fire that burns down the house.
A common argument against paying retention bonuses to the AIG employees has been, essentially: Where else can they go? Not only is this the ugliest job market in decades, they're also stained with the AIG name. But not so fast. De Santis says this:
Many of the employees have, in the past six months, turned down job offers from more stable employers, based on A.I.G.’s assurances that the contracts would be honored. They are now angry about having been misled by A.I.G.’s promises and are not inclined to return the money as a favor to you.
Liddy both defended the bonus payments to Congress last week and told legislators he had asked for the bonus money to be returned--for the employees to "do the right thing."
Index IQ's New ETFs to Offer New Investing Strategies
Could this be the next big bubble? We shall see in due time. Hopefully though this will help things in the long run, I think everybody is ready to get out of this recession and is willing to almost try anything to get out of it. Just look at President Obama.
By Tom Lydon
A new suite of ETFs is hitting the market soon, this time with an entirely new strategy.
By Tom Lydon
A new suite of ETFs is hitting the market soon, this time with an entirely new strategy.
Filings for five new ETFs have been submitted to the SEC by Index IQ and each will track indexes created by IndexIQ subsidiary Financial Development HoldCo LLC. According to Money Management Executive, the ETFs are:
- IQ Hedge Multi Strategy Tracker ETF
- IQ Hedge Macro Tracker ETF
- IQ Hedge Long/Short Tracker ETF
- IQ Hedge Event Driven Tracker ETF
- IQ Hedge Market Neutral Tracker ETF
Paul Mazzilli, senior advisor and board member, is bringing his expertise to ETFs through these funds. As hedge funds and mutual funds continue to leak assets, these and other ETFs could benefit as they tackle new and interesting strategies. These ETFs will be employing strategies that have been common in hedge funds.
Tony Davidow, executive vice president and head of distribution at IndexIQ, has said that he feels ETFs will grow at the expense of mutual funds. “There’s trillions in mutual funds. Those assets went down, and ETFs will ultimately be the beneficiary of those flows.”
Negative news about hedge funds recently may have soured investors on the strategy, but Mazzilli and Davidow aren’t worried about that. In fact, they see it as one glaring hole within the industry in general.
“The issues have been more structurally. The lack of liquidity, they’re difficult for investors to get out of. [Bernie] Madoff is a perfect example of a lack of transparency and what it means to investors. We’re capturing the positive attributes,” Davidow says.
Index IQ will bring innovative products to market with the liquidity, tranparency and cost-efficiency investors are seeking.
Monday, March 23, 2009
missingmoney.com on the Early Show
By ANNA PRIOR
Wishing for extra cash? You may be entitled to some of the nearly $33 billion in unclaimed property sitting in state governments' coffers.
These are sums that businesses were required to turn over to the states after no activity or contact with the owner after a period of a year or more.
Items can include dividend or payroll checks that haven't been cashed, refunds, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders, insurance payments or refunds, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments and the contents of safe-deposit boxes.
To find out if a state has any of your money, visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' Web site, unclaimed.org. From there, you can access individual states' records or the centralized MissingMoney.com (which includes records from most states, but not New York and California), all free.
You also can search for the names of deceased relatives who may have unclaimed property. If you can prove that you are the legal heir, you can claim those accounts.
If a match pops up, you'll need to fill out a claim form and submit it to the state's claim office along with the proper documentation.
Be patient -- depending on your state and type of claim, it can take a while to be verified and for the state to put your check in the mail.
Wishing for extra cash? You may be entitled to some of the nearly $33 billion in unclaimed property sitting in state governments' coffers.
These are sums that businesses were required to turn over to the states after no activity or contact with the owner after a period of a year or more.
Items can include dividend or payroll checks that haven't been cashed, refunds, trust distributions, unredeemed money orders, insurance payments or refunds, annuities, certificates of deposit, customer overpayments and the contents of safe-deposit boxes.
To find out if a state has any of your money, visit the National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators' Web site, unclaimed.org. From there, you can access individual states' records or the centralized MissingMoney.com (which includes records from most states, but not New York and California), all free.
You also can search for the names of deceased relatives who may have unclaimed property. If you can prove that you are the legal heir, you can claim those accounts.
If a match pops up, you'll need to fill out a claim form and submit it to the state's claim office along with the proper documentation.
Be patient -- depending on your state and type of claim, it can take a while to be verified and for the state to put your check in the mail.
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