Millions at stake with WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

With major positive changes in my life in the search of 5 Million Euros and just recently moved into a new home, I feel confident with the white winter snow falling in Helsinki, important changes are taking place, Europe's top central banker Jean-Claude Trichet tried to calm the financial markets after another turbulent day when the borrowing costs of several major economies remained at unsustainably high levels.

Amid signs that the contagion from Ireland's debt crisis was spreading to some of the biggest economies in the 16 nation eurozone, the premium demanded by investors to hold Spanish, Italian and Belgian government bonds compared with German bonds touched record levels.

French, Portuguese and Irish bonds were also caught up in the rout. However, Europe's political leadership remains adamant that the currency can survive and Jean-Claude Trichet, the European Central Bank president, waded into the argument by calling for more, not less, harmonisation within the eurozone as the way out of trouble.

Then we see the political game between North and South Korea we have to remember that the main engine for any economy is war, and then the reason of my writing today
and to distract us a bit we have the interesting case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange the leader of an organization devoted to divulging the world’s secrets using technology unimagined a generation ago.

Over the last year his information insurgency has dumped 76,000 secret Afghan war documents and another trove of 392,000 files from the Iraq war into the public domain–the largest classified military security breaches in history.

Sunday, WikiLeaks made the first of 250,000 classified U.S. State Department cables public,the cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC. 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.

Offering an unprecedented view of how America’s top diplomats view enemies and friends alike: And many of them make some pretty harsh–and blunt–comments on various world leaders. Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe? Deeply ignorant on economic issues. Libyan President Muammar al-Qaddafi? “Just strange.” Silvio Berlusconi? “Feckless, vain, and ineffective as a modern European leader, physically and politically weak" whose "frequent late nights and penchant for partying hard mean he does not get sufficient rest" The WikiLeaks dump reveals that Qaddafi apparently gets botox injections. But perhaps the meanest words were reserved for Kim Jong-Il, who was called a “flabby old chap,” by a diplomat’s source.The Pentagon and State Department leaks are just the start.


On November 11, Assange said that he’s still sitting on a trove of secret documents, about half of which relate to the private sector. And WikiLeaks’ next target will be a major American bank. “It will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume,” he said, adding: “For this, there’s only one similar example. It’s like the Enron emails.”

Julian Assange, since enraging governments the world over and facing rape charges in Sweden, has been searching for a nation that will offer him asylum. Now his website is seeking refuge, too–from the largest cyberattack it’s ever faced. Some portion of Wikileaks’ servers are at the “Pionen” White Mountains data center owned by Swedish broadband provider Bahnhof, as first reported by Norwegian news site VG Nett. That data center store's Wikileaks’ data 30 meters below ground inside a Cold-War-era nuclear bunker carved out of a large rock hill in downtown Stockholm. The server farm has a single entrance and is outfitted by half-meter thick metal doors and backup generators pulled from German submarines have a look...




the company’s data center is “a kind of metaphor” for Bahnhof’s commitment to resist any sort of intrusion, physical or legal. “We’re proud to have clients like these,” he says. “The Internet should be an open source for freedom of speech, and the role of an ISP is to be a neutral technological tool of access, not an instrument for collecting information from customers.”

A WikiLeaks source who asked not to be named says that half of WikiLeaks servers have gone offline under a two-day flood of fraudulent traffic, what’s commonly known as a denial of service attack. WikiLeaks is actively searching for new hosts for its Web servers, ideally offered free-of-charge by volunteers, according to the source. The source also said that the attack was the largest in the whistleblower site’s history, and the first to “actually cause harm” to WikiLeaks, although none of the site’s private data has been compromised.

It seems that Julian Assange will have to be on the run for a while he has declared a verbal retaliation to many influential politicians, I agree on the freedom of speech but not in such a degree in which you will have to hide for a living.

This week keep it safe as the strong players in the stock market will stay the same or move down a point or two, send me an e mail and keep in touch...

Now I really have to say this is getting out of hands, Julian Assange appeared in court in London just hours after he emerged from a month in hiding and surrendered to police.

Filmmaker Ken Loach, Jemima Khan, and campaigning journalist John Pilger each offered to put up part of his bail but a judge in London refused, saying a court would review the situation at a hearing on December 14th.

Online supporters of whistleblowing website Wikileaks are fighting back after news of Julian Assange’s arrest hit the wires.

Immediately afterwards online activists known as “Anonymous” have initiated what they called Operation:Payback, a call to action to bring down the websites of companies that have publicly removed services once used by the Wikileaks website.

Anoymous has already targeted the Swiss bank PostFinance, a bank that froze all payments to the controversial website, after it promised to take down PayPal, the online payment company that cancelled Wikileaks’ account that it used to solicit donations.

Its current target? Mastercard. The website is currently down for a large number of users after a DDOS attack.

All of the groups actions have been publicly posted to the Anon_Operation Twitter account; the Paypal attack was posted to Twitter on December 6, the PostFinace attack was declared 17 hours ago and just hours ago it was confirmed by the group that Mastercard had been taken offline as a result of its online assault.

Anonymous is a collection of online activists formed from popular online message boards, attacks are not for profit but are in most cases to demonstrate a show of force to promote unfair practises or highlight sensitive political issues.



The three attacks here could just be the start of an uncomfortable battle about technology and Political issues, we all know the power of INTERNET my only concern at this moment is that since now the use and control of the WWW will be more regulated, I hope not. Anyway the leaks are still comming now with one that really raises concern:

An extensive blog post untangling an alarming story from the state department cables: "another horrific taxpayer-funded sex scandal for DynCorp,

I finally plea for the use of knowledege for a good cause that is really what matters, keep in touch...

Wikileaks given data on Swiss bank accounts:

$600 billion in bonds for the economic recovery

My purpose to make one Million Euros in less than 5 years seems more than possible considering all the substancial factors that we are experiencing in the financial world today!

The Federal Reserve has now the power to revitalize the U.S. Economic recovery with a plan to pump $600 billion into the financial system, this move is designed to stimulate the economy in large part by lowering mortgage and other interest rates.

Although the approach carries significant risks for both the economy and the central bank's credibility, the steps announced by Fed policymakers could represent the nation's best hope for breaking free of sluggish growth, especially with bold initiatives unlikely from a newly divided Congress.

The Fed usually manages the economy by adjusting short-term interest rates. With those rates already near zero, Fed officials had to dust off a strategy for boosting the economy that debuted during the darkest days of the financial crisis. The Fed plans to create money, essentially out of thin air, and then pump it into the economy by buying Treasury bonds on the open market. These purchases are to be finished by the end of June.

Using this technique, called "quantitative easing," the Fed bought more than $1.7 trillion in securities during the financial crisis and in its immediate aftermath. The central bank's holdings jumped to their current level of $2.3 trillion, and the figure will approach $3 trillion when the new purchases are complete. This new wave of bond buying is a dramatic turnabout for an institution that just six months ago, amid a false spring in the economy, was weighing how it would begin unloading all the securities it had purchased.

The Fed action, will make it cheaper for Americans to take out mortgages and for businesses to borrow money to expand, all these events influenced the market even before the steps were formally unveiled. Average mortgage rates had already fallen from 4.5 percent for a 30-year fixed-rate loan over the summer, when Fed officials first said they were considering new steps, to 4.2 percent last week in USA the collateral effect was already visible in Finland with an average mortgage rate of lees than 3.5% for a 25- year fixed- rate loan (a perfect time to get a new appartment if you can get and manage a loan) .

The stock market, meanwhile, moved higher and the value of the dollar declined about 14% over the past two months in anticipation of the central bank's action.(here comes another temporary "market contradiction" How can we see a recovery with such a declined currency?

"This approach eased financial conditions in the past and, so far, looks to be effective again," Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke wrote in a Washington Post opinion article published Thursday. "Stock prices rose and long-term interest rates fell when investors began to anticipate this additional action. . . . Increased spending will lead to higher incomes and profits that, in a virtuous circle, will support economic expansion." I don´t quite agree with the second paragraph but I know I can play the game .

Mortgage and other interest rates could again decline in the coming months if the economy weakens and the Fed expands its purchases further. But those rates could just as easily increase if the economy starts picking up and the Fed ends its purchases as scheduled, or perhaps curtails them sooner. The action might also be suspended or scaled back if inflation spikes to dangerous levels.

Inflation is not the only risk that the Fed's initiative entails. It could cause new bubbles in the stock market or housing prices, if asset prices rise beyond what's justified by their fundamentals. Also, the value of the dollar could decline rapidly. We have the risks of future financial imbalances and an increase in long-term inflation expectations that could destabilize the economy.

Some analysts doubt the effectiveness of efforts to further reduce long-term interest rates, because they are already exceptionally low and credit, at least for larger companies, is easily available.

I really hope that all the Fed officials really know what they are doing, if they are playing with the economy with $600 billion in bonds it is feasible that knowing what I´m doing gets me just a Million €.

Fed officials viewed their move Wednesday as roughly equivalent to, in normal times, cutting their short-term interest rate target by three-quarters of a percentage point. That is enough to provide a real boost to growth but is not a shocking, unprecedented amount of monetary stimulus. And Fed officials framed their decision as being designed to fulfill its "dual mandate" to maintain maximum employment and stable prices. Now I wonder How helpfull was the idea of the economics nobel prize winners on this issue? employment and stable prices?

Have a good one, in the short term let's keep investing but the reasoning behind bonds is as follows:

A Bond is simply an 'IOU' in which an investor agrees to loan money to a company or government in exchange for a predetermined interest rate.

If a business wants to expand, one of its options is to borrow money from individual investors, pension funds, or mutual funds. The company issues bonds at various interest rates and sells them to the public. Investors purchase them with the understanding that the company will pay back their original principal (the amount the investor loaned to the company) plus any interest that is due by a set date (this is called the "maturity" date).

Bonds provide an element of stability that offsets some of the volatility of stocks. However, they are vulnerable to economic changes that can undermine their value.

The biggest economic threat to bonds is rising interest rates. If you own a bond and interest rates go up, the value of your bond on the open market, with few exceptions, will go down.

Of course, if you plan to hold the bond to maturity the value of your bond doesn’t change because interest rates change. You’ll still get the amount promise when you bought the bond, all other things being equal.

However, if you plan to own bonds for investment purposes - that is you buy and sell bonds as you would stocks - then interest rates are very important.

Bond prices move inversely to interest rates. When interest rates go up, bond prices go down and when interest rates go down, bond prices go up. Remember, we’re talking about previously issued bonds trading on the open market.

The Importance Of An Emergency Fund when making Millions

Especially in today’s economy, establishing an emergency fund is a critical step on your journey to make millions. We all know that life happens, and if all of the sudden you needed cash quick, would you have it on hand? If not, do you know what the long term consequences could be? Here is a look at what an emergency fund is and why it is so important.

An emergency fund is simply a fund that you stash cash into in case of an emergency. Let’s face it, emergencies do happen. What if you came home one day and your furnace had died, what if you had a sudden accident with thousands of dollars in uncovered medical bills or what if you showed up for work, only to find out your job had been eliminated. What would you do? If you have an established emergency fund you can take the money from there without a lot of unneeded stress. If however, you don’t have an emergency fund you will be scrambling.

If you don’t have an emergency fund for when life happens, your options are not the greatest. You could cut into your monthly budget to get by, but what would you have to sacrifice? Would you have other late payments with tacked on late fees? Would you be able to pay your mortgage and put food on the table?

You could use your credit cards, but when would you be able to pay them off? Credit card interest and other fees add up fast, and the long term consequences can be financially devastating. Also, in today’s tough credit world, you may not have enough credit or even be able to get credit to cover emergencies.

Another option would be to take the money from your retirement, but that is not wise either. Most likely you will have early withdrawal penalty fees and depending on the account you may also have to pay taxes on the money. Not to mention that every time you withdraw from these accounts you are taking hard earned money away from your retirement.

The solution is to save some of your money in an easy access account for emergency purposes. The amount you save is really up to you. You need to look at your own individual circumstances. As a rule of thumb, many financial experts will tell you to save somewhere between three and twelve months worth of living expensed in your emergency fund. If you have a stable job, usually the three to six month range is good, but if you are in fear of losing your job, the more months you have saved, the better.

Where to keep your emergency fund is the next question. The key is to make sure it is accessible, while hopefully making a little interest. Some options include keeping the fund in a high yield savings account, , in short term CD’s (Certificate of Deposits) or in a number of CD’s using what is called CD laddering. The goal is to have cash at hand.

As a recap, an emergency fund will:

* Keep you financially prepared for unexpected “life happens” emergency events.

* Keep you from having to rely on credit and in turn prevent you from going into debt.

* Keep you away from your retirement accounts.

* Help keep you from experiencing financial stress.

If you don’t already have an emergency fund, start one today. Work to fund it quickly and then don’t touch the money except for emergencies. Having the protection of the emergency fund very well could help you achieve saving millions.

This article was the result of a joint cooperation with my friend and colleague,

Barbara Montgomery is a freelance writer who specializes in articles and blog posts on numerous topics including banking, finance, debt management, health, travel and more. She is a frequent writer for reliablewriters.com and a guest blogger for DepositAccounts.com, where you can compare savings account rates from dozens of banks in one place.

Keep your comments coming, with wise Investing and great ideas.

$1.5 million Nobel economics prize

While submerging myself on economic theories and various Investing methods to acomplish my goal of a Million Euros in less than 5 years I just find out that two Americans and a British-Cypriot economist won the 2010 Nobel economics prize, for developing a theory that helps explain how many people can remain unemployed despite a large number of job vacancies.

Federal Reserve board nominee Peter Diamond was honored along with Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides with the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million) prize for their analysis of the obstacles that prevent buyers and sellers from efficiently pairing up in markets.

Diamond — a former mentor to current Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke — analyzed the foundations of so-called search markets, while Mortensen and Pissarides expanded the theory and applied it to the labor market.

Their work, dating back to the 1970s and '80s, sheds light on why the classical view of markets, in which prices are set so that buyers and sellers always find each other and all resources are fully utilized, doesn't always apply to the real world as we already knew.

One example is the housing market, where buyers can struggle to find new homes even though there are a number of unsold properties available.

Another is the labor market. Because searching for jobs takes time and resources, it creates friction in the job market, helping explain why there are both job vacancies and unemployment simultaneously.

The laureates' models tries to help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy,.But it seems that we already knew that...

Their work resulted in the so-called Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides model, a frequently used tool to estimate how unemployment benefits, interest rates, the efficiency of employment agencies and other factors can affect the labor market.

"One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times," a clear example of that phenomena could be analized in Finland.

Diamond, 70, is an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an authority on Social Security, pensions and taxation.

President Barack Obama nominated Diamond to become a member of the Federal Reserve, but the Senate failed to approve his nomination before lawmakers left to campaign for the midterm congressional elections.

Senate Republicans have objected to what they see as Diamond's limited experience in dissecting the inner workings of the national economy.

Bernanke was one of Diamond's students at MIT. When Bernanke turned in his doctoral dissertation in 1979, one of the people he thanked was Diamond for being generous with his time and reading and discussing Bernanke's work.

Diamond said the U.S. stimulus spending last year helped prevent much higher unemployment, and a second round would also be beneficial.

Pissarides, a 62-year-old professor of economics and social sciences at the London School of Economics, was the first Nobel winner with Cypriot citizenship.

Speaking from his north London home, Pissarides told The Associated Press the announcement came as "a complete surprise" though his work had already helped shape thinking on both sides of the Atlantic.

For example, the New Deal for Young People, a British government initiative aimed at getting 18-24-year-olds back on the job market after long spells of unemployment, "is very much based on our work," he said.

"One of the key things we found is that it is important to make sure that people do not stay unemployed too long so they don't lose their feel for the labor force," Pissarides told reporters in London. "The ways of dealing with this need not be expensive training — it could be as simple as providing work experience."now I ask myself is this a real major discovery or just common sense?

Mortensen, 71, is an economics professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He is
currently a visiting professor at the University of Aarhus in the neightbour country: Denmark,

Mortensen told AP he was asked not to share the news until the announcement in Stockholm 30 minutes later.

Diamond wrote a paper in the early 1980s that found that unemployment compensation can lead to better job matches. Workers "become more selective in the jobs they accept" because of the employment aid. And, that makes for better matches and increases efficiency, he found.

He told a Senate committee during his nomination hearing in July that a central theme of his research has been how the economy deals with risks that affect both individuals, and the entire economy.

"In all my central research areas, I have thought about and written about the risks in the economy and how markets and government can combine to make the economy function better for individuals," he said in that hearing.

The economics jury was the last of the Nobel committees to announce 2010 winners.

Last week, British professor Robert Edwards won the medicine prize for research that led to the first test tube baby. Russian-born scientists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov shared the physics prize for groundbreaking experiments with graphene, the strongest and thinnest material known to mankind.

The chemistry award went to Richard Heck and Japanese researchers Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki for designing techniques to bind together carbon atoms.

Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa won the literature prize( a victory for L-A ) and the imprisoned "Chinese democracy "(Axl was visionary :) campaigner Liu Xiaobo was named the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

Some Excerpts from the citation awarding the 2010 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences to Americans Peter Diamond and Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides, a British and Cypriot citizen.

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"Why are so many people unemployed at the same time that there are a large number of job openings? How can economic policy affect unemployment? This year's Laureates have developed a theory which can be used to answer these questions. This theory is also applicable to markets other than the labor market."

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"On many markets, buyers and sellers do not always make contact with one another immediately. This concerns, for example, employers who are looking for employees and workers who are trying to find jobs. Since the search process requires time and resources, it creates frictions in the market. On such search markets, the demands of some buyers will not be met, while some sellers cannot sell as much as they would wish. Simultaneously, there are both job vacancies and unemployment on the labor market."

___

"This year's three Laureates have formulated a theoretical framework for search markets. Peter Diamond has analyzed the foundations of search markets. Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides have expanded the theory and have applied it to the labor market. The Laureates' models help us understand the ways in which unemployment, job vacancies, and wages are affected by regulation and economic policy. This may refer to benefit levels in unemployment insurance or rules in regard to hiring and firing. One conclusion is that more generous unemployment benefits give rise to higher unemployment and longer search times."

___

"Search theory has been applied to many other areas in addition to the labor market. This includes, in particular, the housing market. The number of homes for sale varies over time, as does the time it takes for a house to find a buyer and the parties to agree on the price. Search theory has also been used to study questions related to monetary theory, public economics, financial economics, regional economics, and family economics."

So let´s keep investing and finding out what this theory is all about so far it seems to me that the Nobel Commitee is just running out of talent and common sense or maybe is just me that while trying to aproach my difficult task of one Million in less than 5 years, I get more and more critical of all and everything...

Anyway keep the ball rolling, some late picks to keep at least until June 2011 are: Mreal and Marimekko. Keep in touch remember lets make it happen.