Be the go-to lender for community retailers and maximize the value (and return) of being a local credit provider….[ Read Article ]

View full post on Credit Union Stories

Ramallah, Palestinian Territory (TML) – When Huda El-Jack speaks, it’s with more than an American accent. She exudes an American entrepreneurial drive that she has brought to the Palestinian Authority and, in her own energetic way, she’s paving a path for Palestinian women to assume a greater role in the economy.

“There’s definitely a glass ceiling like in the rest of the world,” El-Jack says over a cup of rich coffee served up in her Zman coffee shop in the West Bank city of Ramallah. “First of all, women here are expected to be traditional wives, overall. She still has to cook. You don’t have the support system of daycare centers like you have in the U.S.”

“When I take a look at the environment, there are so many obstacles, overwhelming sometimes. What has kept Palestinians going is inner dynamism. Palestinian women are known for having this inner dynamism,” El-Jack said.

Warm and cozy, red roses on each table, and photos of Arab silver screen celebrities adorning the walls, the Zman coffee shop is a trendy and popular meeting place in the bustling city of Ramallah. Housed in a modern stone building, it serves its own premium brand in a chic Palestinian/Hollywood atmosphere.

“We respect diversity. We thrive by diversity. You’ll see some people here with a bottle of wine that’s open and you’ll see some people who are very conservative,” said El-Jack.

Married to a Palestinian and of part-Palestinian decent herself, El-Jack was born in Sudan and brought up in the U.S. She studied computer science and worked in information technology for big U.S. companies. Setting up home in the West Bank with her husband and two children in 2003, El-Jack enrolled in the Kellogg program, a masters in business administration course run jointly by Israel’s Tel Aviv University and Northwestern of the U.S.

Upon graduation and now ins her forties, she opted to become an entrepreneur.

El-Jack partnered with two prominent Palestinian businessmen to open Zman in December 2008. Since then, she has opened a second shop, making it not only the first coffee chain in the West Bank, but the first business chain of any kind owned by a woman. It’s become a model for business opportunities where Palestinian women can make their mark.

Doha Wadi, the executive director of the Businesswomen’s Forum, said El-Jack was remarkable for her style and dynamism of her enterprise.

This is a change for conservative Palestinian society. According to Wadi, only 2.4% of registered Palestinian businesses are owned by women. Currently, there are some 60 members of the Palestinian Businesswomen’s Forum and their number is growing.

“People can look at Huda and at her style that is different,” Wadi told The Media Line. “They see the young people she has brought into business. It is what sets her off and differentiates her from the others. She’s opened two branches, which hasn’t been done before.”

There is also a huge dichotomy in the Palestinian areas where women in Ramallah, the economic hub of the West Bank, speak about mergers and acquisitions, and outlying villages where women with barely a grammar school education have no access to the Internet. Only about 10% of women in the Palestinian territories participate in the labor force and that is mostly in education. Unemployment for women is between 30% and 40% and even worse among highly educated women.

On the whole, women are socially and culturally allowed to go to school and colleges, but in order to be better wives. It is much more culturally difficult to go into business, let alone becoming a business leader, which is why El-Jack is such an inspiration for her fellow businesswomen.

According to El-Jack, Palestinian businesswomen own advertising, printing shops and marketing firms. There are several women who also own restaurants, work in the telecommunications and pharmaceutical industries and at least one who is the general manager of a stock brokerage firm.

El-Jack said the tumultuous period of the second intifada when Israeli security action against terrorism cracked down hard on the Palestinian society and economy in an ironic way help open opportunities for women.

“Looking at women’s role in micro-businesses, you’ll see they are growing even faster because men, typically, are used to working at companies. Palestinians are entrepreneurs, but there are only so many entrepreneurs you can have. Most of them worked in Israel. When that shut down, it was very difficult for the men to find work so the women started doing things like opening a little concession stand, or baking, or doing catering. Women had to adapt more and they didn’t feel like they had barriers on what they could do that were home-based businesses,” she said.

“Women in hospitality was unheard of before Zman,” El-Jack said. “Half of our management is women. We want women. We will train them, young girls. Most of them are university students and this is a part-time job for them. We want to grow them in management.”

Asked where she got her ideas, El-Jack didn’t have to look far.

“Israeli coffee chains have been able to hold off international brands from flooding their market. What they did is that they took the idea of a coffee shop and they localized it. We did the same thing,” she said. “Somebody asked me, ‘Is this inspired by Starbucks?’ It’s inspired by all of them but really by the neighbors, the Israeli coffee shops really helped me how to figure out how to localize it.”

Just two years into business, Zman employs some 35 people and El-Jack estimated the value of her company at $1.5 million. Now, she is negotiating to extend her Zman franchise to Jerusalem.

“In Jerusalem, we have the same goal—to bring people together. And we’re going to position it in a way where you’ll have Israelis, Palestinians, tourists, internationals, everybody coming in,” she said, adding they also had ambitions to take it to other countries.

“We’ve been approached to open in Haifa, Nazareth and even Tel Aviv,” she added, naming a few Israeli cities.

The name of her chain is Zman, Arabic for time. And it seems her timing was right.

View full post on All Stories

Cairo, Egypt David Rosenberg – Protestors are still camped out at Tahrir Square and haven’t backed down on their demand that President Husni Mubarak resign immediately, but the rest of Egypt is slowly getting back to business.

Economists, investors and policy makers are assessing the damage.

Starting over the weekend, banks re-opened on a limited basis as did stores, offices, schools and factories. And, serving as evidence that business returning to usual, Cairo’s traffic jams reappeared. The Egyptian pound resumed trading and showed surprising resilience in spite two weeks of political and economic trauma.

“People are returning to work, deliveries have resumed and goods are reaching markets,” Simon Kitchen, economist at EFG-Hermes, a Cairo-based investment bank, told The Media Line. “It’s still an environment where things can change quickly, but it’s an encouraging sign.”

A stalemate between the government and the opposition showed its first signs of resolving early this week when a group of opposition leaders met with Vice President Omar Suleiman to discuss political reforms. Although nothing substantive came out of the talks, the meeting suggested that opposition leaders were ready to let Mubarak remain until the end of his term while the government met other demands for greater democracy.

Not all of Egypt was shut down by the unrest. The Suez Canal, a major source of income for the economy, remained opened. Egyptians working abroad, who sent some $9.5 billion in earnings to their families back home in the last fiscal year, were able to resume sending funds after a brief hiatus when local banks were closed.

Many businesses, especially those furthest away from the epicenter of the protest in central Cairo as well as those that are less labor intensive, continued to operate even last week as the economy came its closest to a complete shutdown.

But many of the businesses that had closed resumed activity Sunday and Monday. Orascom Construction, Egypt’s biggest company, said it has started up work at 50 building sites, accounting for 90 percent of its activities. The state-run Korean Investment Promotion Agency said that operations returned to normal at two of four Egyptian factories operated by South Korean companies.

Yet, not everything was back to normal. Cairo’s stock exchange won’t open until next Sunday at the earliest, bourse officials said. Tourists who were in the country when unrest broke out have fled, curtailing the peak winter travel season. The curfew imposed by the government to contain the unrest continued to taking a toll on business, said Magda Kandil, executive director and director of research at the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies.

Egyptians traditionally do their shopping and socializing in the evening while many people, especially those employed in the civil service, hold down two or three jobs and work late into the night, Kandil told The Media Line. But, for now, people are supposed to be off the streets by 7 p.m. local time.

Economists said that even those businesses that were shut should be able to earn back their losses with extra shifts. The one key sector that remains vulnerable to the turmoil is tourism, which is Egypt’s single biggest money earner and accounts for about 10 percent of GDP, Kitchen said. He said investment may also take time to revive since it is so reliant on sentiment.

Nevertheless, Egyptian exports shrank 6 percent in January, although Kandil noted that other factors besides political turmoil may have played a role, including the bombing of an Alexandria church New Year’s Eve and a shark attack at Egypt’s Sinai coast resort area.

Bank Credit Agricole estimated last week that the unrest cost Egypt’s economy some $310 million a day, or a total of more than $3 billion so far. It revised its forecast for 2011 GDP growth to 3.7 percent from 5.3 percent and said the Egyptian pound could depreciate as much as 20 percent.

Moody’s Investors Service warned on Jan. 31 that the tense political situation may hurt the economy as the government tries to win public support by increasing subsidies and raising wages. Moody’s downgraded the country’s debt and assigned it a “negative” outlook, saying looser purse strings would widen an already yawning budget deficit equal to 8 percent of gross domestic product and fan inflation.

Samir Radwan, Egypt’s new finance minister, told a news conference in Cairo on Sunday that the government won’t reduce subsidies even if global prices of food and commodities rise. Public spending will be used as a tool to “achieve social justice,” he said.

In fact, the markets’ response to the turmoil in Egypt has so far been muted. The Egyptian pound traded at a six-year low on Monday, but the sell-off was less severe than expected. Egypt’s London-listed stocks were all higher and the cost of insuring Egypt’s debt fell in the five-year credit default swap market.

Kandil told The Media Line that the political reforms now being discussed would likely give a boost to the economy, which expanded 5.2 percent last year, but need to hasten the pace to bring down unemployment, increase incomes and create jobs for a rapidly growing population. She said foreign investors had until now been hesitant to put long-term capital into the Egyptian economy out of concerns about political stability and the future of Mubarak’s regime.

“The reform involves changing institutions that would make governance and the fight against corruption much better going forward,” Kandil said. “If some of the changes in the pipeline are implemented swiftly, they should help economy to pick up momentum in the second half of 2011.”

View full post on All Stories

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) – Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery

State of the Union Address. Tuesday, January 25, 2011

As Prepared for Delivery—

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new Speaker, John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we are also mindful of the empty chair in this Chamber, and pray for the health of our colleague – and our friend – Gabby Giffords.

It’s no secret that those of us here tonight have had our differences over the last two years. The debates have been contentious; we have fought fiercely for our beliefs. And that’s a good thing. That’s what a robust democracy demands. That’s what helps set us apart as a nation.

But there’s a reason the tragedy in Tucson gave us pause. Amid all the noise and passions and rancor of our public debate, Tucson reminded us that no matter who we are or where we come from, each of us is a part of something greater – something more consequential than party or political preference.

We are part of the American family. We believe that in a country where every race and faith and point of view can be found, we are still bound together as one people; that we share common hopes and a common creed; that the dreams of a little girl in Tucson are not so different than those of our own children, and that they all deserve the chance to be fulfilled.

That, too, is what sets us apart as a nation.

Now, by itself, this simple recognition won’t usher in a new era of cooperation. What comes of this moment is up to us. What comes of this moment will be determined not by whether we can sit together tonight, but whether we can work together tomorrow.

I believe we can. I believe we must. That’s what the people who sent us here expect of us. With their votes, they’ve determined that governing will now be a shared responsibility between parties. New laws will only pass with support from Democrats and Republicans. We will move forward together, or not at all – for the challenges we face are bigger than party, and bigger than politics.

At stake right now is not who wins the next election – after all, we just had an election. At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else. It’s whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded. It’s whether we sustain the leadership that has made America not just a place on a map, but a light to the world.

We are poised for progress. Two years after the worst recession most of us have ever known, the stock market has come roaring back. Corporate profits are up. The economy is growing again.

But we have never measured progress by these yardsticks alone. We measure progress by the success of our people. By the jobs they can find and the quality of life those jobs offer. By the prospects of a small business owner who dreams of turning a good idea into a thriving enterprise. By the opportunities for a better life that we pass on to our children.

That’s the project the American people want us to work on. Together.

We did that in December. Thanks to the tax cuts we passed, Americans’ paychecks are a little bigger today. Every business can write off the full cost of the new investments they make this year. These steps, taken by Democrats and Republicans, will grow the economy and add to the more than one million private sector jobs created last year.

But we have more work to do. The steps we’ve taken over the last two years may have broken the back of this recession – but to win the future, we’ll need to take on challenges that have been decades in the making.

Many people watching tonight can probably remember a time when finding a good job meant showing up at a nearby factory or a business downtown. You didn’t always need a degree, and your competition was pretty much limited to your neighbors. If you worked hard, chances are you’d have a job for life, with a decent paycheck, good benefits, and the occasional promotion. Maybe you’d even have the pride of seeing your kids work at the same company.

That world has changed. And for many, the change has been painful. I’ve seen it in the shuttered windows of once booming factories, and the vacant storefronts of once busy Main Streets. I’ve heard it in the frustrations of Americans who’ve seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear – proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game.

They’re right. The rules have changed. In a single generation, revolutions in technology have transformed the way we live, work and do business. Steel mills that once needed 1,000 workers can now do the same work with 100. Today, just about any company can set up shop, hire workers, and sell their products wherever there’s an internet connection.

Meanwhile, nations like China and India realized that with some changes of their own, they could compete in this new world. And so they started educating their children earlier and longer, with greater emphasis on math and science. They’re investing in research and new technologies. Just recently, China became home to the world’s largest private solar research facility, and the world’s fastest computer.

So yes, the world has changed. The competition for jobs is real. But this shouldn’t discourage us. It should challenge us. Remember – for all the hits we’ve taken these last few years, for all the naysayers predicting our decline, America still has the largest, most prosperous economy in the world. No workers are more productive than ours. No country has more successful companies, or grants more patents to inventors and entrepreneurs. We are home to the world’s best colleges and universities, where more students come to study than any other place on Earth.

What’s more, we are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea – the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny. That is why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here. It’s why our students don’t just memorize equations, but answer questions like “What do you think of that idea? What would you change about the world? What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The future is ours to win. But to get there, we can’t just stand still. As Robert Kennedy told us, “The future is not a gift. It is an achievement.” Sustaining the American Dream has never been about standing pat. It has required each generation to sacrifice, and struggle, and meet the demands of a new age.

Now it’s our turn. We know what it takes to compete for the jobs and industries of our time. We need to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world. We have to make America the best place on Earth to do business. We need to take responsibility for our deficit, and reform our government. That’s how our people will prosper. That’s how we’ll win the future. And tonight, I’d like to talk about how we get there.

The first step in winning the future is encouraging American innovation.

None of us can predict with certainty what the next big industry will be, or where the new jobs will come from. Thirty years ago, we couldn’t know that something called the Internet would lead to an economic revolution. What we can do – what America does better than anyone – is spark the creativity and imagination of our people. We are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices; the nation of Edison and the Wright brothers; of Google and Facebook. In America, innovation doesn’t just change our lives. It’s how we make a living.

Our free enterprise system is what drives innovation. But because it’s not always profitable for companies to invest in basic research, throughout history our government has provided cutting-edge scientists and inventors with the support that they need. That’s what planted the seeds for the Internet. That’s what helped make possible things like computer chips and GPS.

Just think of all the good jobs – from manufacturing to retail – that have come from those breakthroughs.

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t there yet. NASA didn’t even exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.

This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race. In a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology – an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

Already, we are seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company. After September 11th, they volunteered their best roofers to help repair the Pentagon. But half of their factory went unused, and the recession hit them hard.

Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert’s words, “We reinvented ourselves.”

That’s what Americans have done for over two hundred years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo Projects of our time.

At the California Institute of Technology, they’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they’re using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.

We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own. So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling. So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: by 2035, 80% of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal, and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all – and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.

Maintaining our leadership in research and technology is crucial to America’s success. But if we want to win the future – if we want innovation to produce jobs in America and not overseas – then we also have to win the race to educate our kids.

Think about it. Over the next ten years, nearly half of all new jobs will require education that goes beyond a high school degree. And yet, as many as a quarter of our students aren’t even finishing high school. The quality of our math and science education lags behind many other nations. America has fallen to 9th in the proportion of young people with a college degree. And so the question is whether all of us – as citizens, and as parents – are willing to do what’s necessary to give every child a chance to succeed.

That responsibility begins not in our classrooms, but in our homes and communities. It’s family that first instills the love of learning in a child. Only parents can make sure the TV is turned off and homework gets done. We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair; that success is not a function of fame or PR, but of hard work and discipline.

Our schools share this responsibility. When a child walks into a classroom, it should be a place of high expectations and high performance. But too many schools don’t meet this test. That’s why instead of just pouring money into a system that’s not working, we launched a competition called Race to the Top. To all fifty states, we said, “If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the money.”

Race to the Top is the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation. For less than one percent of what we spend on education each year, it has led over 40 states to raise their standards for teaching and learning. These standards were developed, not by Washington, but by Republican and Democratic governors throughout the country. And Race to the Top should be the approach we follow this year as we replace No Child Left Behind with a law that is more flexible and focused on what’s best for our kids.

You see, we know what’s possible for our children when reform isn’t just a top-down mandate, but the work of local teachers and principals; school boards and communities.

Take a school like Bruce Randolph in Denver. Three years ago, it was rated one of the worst schools in Colorado; located on turf between two rival gangs. But last May, 97% of the seniors received their diploma. Most will be the first in their family to go to college. And after the first year of the school’s transformation, the principal who made it possible wiped away tears when a student said “Thank you, Mrs. Waters, for showing… that we are smart and we can make it.”

Let’s also remember that after parents, the biggest impact on a child’s success comes from the man or woman at the front of the classroom. In South Korea, teachers are known as “nation builders.” Here in America, it’s time we treated the people who educate our children with the same level of respect. We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones. And over the next ten years, with so many Baby Boomers retiring from our classrooms, we want to prepare 100,000 new teachers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math.

In fact, to every young person listening tonight who’s contemplating their career choice: If you want to make a difference in the life of our nation; if you want to make a difference in the life of a child – become a teacher. Your country needs you.

Of course, the education race doesn’t end with a high school diploma. To compete, higher education must be within reach of every American. That’s why we’ve ended the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that went to banks, and used the savings to make college affordable for millions of students. And this year, I ask Congress to go further, and make permanent our tuition tax credit – worth $10,000 for four years of college.

Because people need to be able to train for new jobs and careers in today’s fast-changing economy, we are also revitalizing America’s community colleges. Last month, I saw the promise of these schools at Forsyth Tech in North Carolina. Many of the students there used to work in the surrounding factories that have since left town. One mother of two, a woman named Kathy Proctor, had worked in the furniture industry since she was 18 years old. And she told me she’s earning her degree in biotechnology now, at 55 years old, not just because the furniture jobs are gone, but because she wants to inspire her children to pursue their dreams too. As Kathy said, “I hope it tells them to never give up.”

If we take these steps – if we raise expectations for every child, and give them the best possible chance at an education, from the day they’re born until the last job they take – we will reach the goal I set two years ago: by the end of the decade, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.

One last point about education. Today, there are hundreds of thousands of students excelling in our schools who are not American citizens. Some are the children of undocumented workers, who had nothing to do with the actions of their parents. They grew up as Americans and pledge allegiance to our flag, and yet live every day with the threat of deportation. Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us. It makes no sense.

Now, I strongly believe that we should take on, once and for all, the issue of illegal immigration. I am prepared to work with Republicans and Democrats to protect our borders, enforce our laws and address the millions of undocumented workers who are now living in the shadows. I know that debate will be difficult and take time. But tonight, let’s agree to make that effort. And let’s stop expelling talented, responsible young people who can staff our research labs, start new businesses, and further enrich this nation.

The third step in winning the future is rebuilding America. To attract new businesses to our shores, we need the fastest, most reliable ways to move people, goods, and information – from high-speed rail to high-speed internet.

Our infrastructure used to be the best – but our lead has slipped. South Korean homes now have greater internet access than we do. Countries in Europe and Russia invest more in their roads and railways than we do. China is building faster trains and newer airports. Meanwhile, when our own engineers graded our nation’s infrastructure, they gave us a “D.”

We have to do better. America is the nation that built the transcontinental railroad, brought electricity to rural communities, and constructed the interstate highway system. The jobs created by these projects didn’t just come from laying down tracks or pavement. They came from businesses that opened near a town’s new train station or the new off-ramp.

Over the last two years, we have begun rebuilding for the 21st century, a project that has meant thousands of good jobs for the hard-hit construction industry. Tonight, I’m proposing that we redouble these efforts.

We will put more Americans to work repairing crumbling roads and bridges. We will make sure this is fully paid for, attract private investment, and pick projects based on what’s best for the economy, not politicians.

Within 25 years, our goal is to give 80% of Americans access to high-speed rail, which could allow you go places in half the time it takes to travel by car. For some trips, it will be faster than flying – without the pat-down. As we speak, routes in California and the Midwest are already underway.

Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans. This isn’t just about a faster internet and fewer dropped calls. It’s about connecting every part of America to the digital age. It’s about a rural community in Iowa or Alabama where farmers and small business owners will be able to sell their products all over the world. It’s about a firefighter who can download the design of a burning building onto a handheld device; a student who can take classes with a digital textbook; or a patient who can have face-to-face video chats with her doctor.

All these investments – in innovation, education, and infrastructure – will make America a better place to do business and create jobs. But to help our companies compete, we also have to knock down barriers that stand in the way of their success.

Over the years, a parade of lobbyists has rigged the tax code to benefit particular companies and industries. Those with accountants or lawyers to work the system can end up paying no taxes at all. But all the rest are hit with one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and it has to change.

So tonight, I’m asking Democrats and Republicans to simplify the system. Get rid of the loopholes. Level the playing field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for the first time in 25 years – without adding to our deficit.

To help businesses sell more products abroad, we set a goal of doubling our exports by 2014 – because the more we export, the more jobs we create at home. Already, our exports are up. Recently, we signed agreements with India and China that will support more than 250,000 jobs in the United States. And last month, we finalized a trade agreement with South Korea that will support at least 70,000 American jobs. This agreement has unprecedented support from business and labor; Democrats and Republicans, and I ask this Congress to pass it as soon as possible.

Before I took office, I made it clear that we would enforce our trade agreements, and that I would only sign deals that keep faith with American workers, and promote American jobs. That’s what we did with Korea, and that’s what I intend to do as we pursue agreements with Panama and Colombia, and continue our Asia Pacific and global trade talks.

To reduce barriers to growth and investment, I’ve ordered a review of government regulations. When we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them. But I will not hesitate to create or enforce commonsense safeguards to protect the American people. That’s what we’ve done in this country for more than a century. It’s why our food is safe to eat, our water is safe to drink, and our air is safe to breathe. It’s why we have speed limits and child labor laws. It’s why last year, we put in place consumer protections against hidden fees and penalties by credit card companies, and new rules to prevent another financial crisis. And it’s why we passed reform that finally prevents the health insurance industry from exploiting patients.

Now, I’ve heard rumors that a few of you have some concerns about the new health care law. So let me be the first to say that anything can be improved. If you have ideas about how to improve this law by making care better or more affordable, I am eager to work with you. We can start right now by correcting a flaw in the legislation that has placed an unnecessary bookkeeping burden on small businesses.

What I’m not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition. I’m not willing to tell James Howard, a brain cancer patient from Texas, that his treatment might not be covered. I’m not willing to tell Jim Houser, a small business owner from Oregon, that he has to go back to paying $5,000 more to cover his employees. As we speak, this law is making prescription drugs cheaper for seniors and giving uninsured students a chance to stay on their parents’ coverage. So instead of re-fighting the battles of the last two years, let’s fix what needs fixing and move forward.

Now, the final step – a critical step – in winning the future is to make sure we aren’t buried under a mountain of debt.

We are living with a legacy of deficit-spending that began almost a decade ago. And in the wake of the financial crisis, some of that was necessary to keep credit flowing, save jobs, and put money in people’s pockets.

But now that the worst of the recession is over, we have to confront the fact that our government spends more than it takes in. That is not sustainable. Every day, families sacrifice to live within their means. They deserve a government that does the same.

So tonight, I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years. This would reduce the deficit by more than $400 billion over the next decade, and will bring discretionary spending to the lowest share of our economy since Dwight Eisenhower was president.

This freeze will require painful cuts. Already, we have frozen the salaries of hardworking federal employees for the next two years. I’ve proposed cuts to things I care deeply about, like community action programs. The Secretary of Defense has also agreed to cut tens of billions of dollars in spending that he and his generals believe our military can do without.

I recognize that some in this Chamber have already proposed deeper cuts, and I’m willing to eliminate whatever we can honestly afford to do without. But let’s make sure that we’re not doing it on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens. And let’s make sure what we’re cutting is really excess weight. Cutting the deficit by gutting our investments in innovation and education is like lightening an overloaded airplane by removing its engine. It may feel like you’re flying high at first, but it won’t take long before you’ll feel the impact.

Now, most of the cuts and savings I’ve proposed only address annual domestic spending, which represents a little more than 12% of our budget. To make further progress, we have to stop pretending that cutting this kind of spending alone will be enough. It won’t.

The bipartisan Fiscal Commission I created last year made this crystal clear. I don’t agree with all their proposals, but they made important progress. And their conclusion is that the only way to tackle our deficit is to cut excessive spending wherever we find it – in domestic spending, defense spending, health care spending, and spending through tax breaks and loopholes.

This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit. Health insurance reform will slow these rising costs, which is part of why nonpartisan economists have said that repealing the health care law would add a quarter of a trillion dollars to our deficit. Still, I’m willing to look at other ideas to bring down costs, including one that Republicans suggested last year: medical malpractice reform to rein in frivolous lawsuits.

To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. And we must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.

And if we truly care about our deficit, we simply cannot afford a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Before we take money away from our schools, or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break.

It’s not a matter of punishing their success. It’s about promoting America’s success.

In fact, the best thing we could do on taxes for all Americans is to simplify the individual tax code. This will be a tough job, but members of both parties have expressed interest in doing this, and I am prepared to join them.

So now is the time to act. Now is the time for both sides and both houses of Congress – Democrats and Republicans – to forge a principled compromise that gets the job done. If we make the hard choices now to rein in our deficits, we can make the investments we need to win the future.

Let me take this one step further. We shouldn’t just give our people a government that’s more affordable. We should give them a government that’s more competent and efficient. We cannot win the future with a government of the past.

We live and do business in the information age, but the last major reorganization of the government happened in the age of black and white TV. There are twelve different agencies that deal with exports. There are at least five different entities that deal with housing policy. Then there’s my favorite example: the Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they’re in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in when they’re in saltwater. And I hear it gets even more complicated once they’re smoked.

Now, we have made great strides over the last two years in using technology and getting rid of waste. Veterans can now download their electronic medical records with a click of the mouse. We’re selling acres of federal office space that hasn’t been used in years, and we will cut through red tape to get rid of more. But we need to think bigger. In the coming months, my administration will develop a proposal to merge, consolidate, and reorganize the federal government in a way that best serves the goal of a more competitive America. I will submit that proposal to Congress for a vote – and we will push to get it passed.

In the coming year, we will also work to rebuild people’s faith in the institution of government. Because you deserve to know exactly how and where your tax dollars are being spent, you will be able to go to a website and get that information for the very first time in history. Because you deserve to know when your elected officials are meeting with lobbyists, I ask Congress to do what the White House has already done: put that information online. And because the American people deserve to know that special interests aren’t larding up legislation with pet projects, both parties in Congress should know this: if a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it.

A 21st century government that’s open and competent. A government that lives within its means. An economy that’s driven by new skills and ideas. Our success in this new and changing world will require reform, responsibility, and innovation. It will also require us to approach that world with a new level of engagement in our foreign affairs.

Just as jobs and businesses can now race across borders, so can new threats and new challenges. No single wall separates East and West; no one rival superpower is aligned against us.

And so we must defeat determined enemies wherever they are, and build coalitions that cut across lines of region and race and religion. America’s moral example must always shine for all who yearn for freedom, justice, and dignity. And because we have begun this work, tonight we can say that American leadership has been renewed and America’s standing has been restored.

Look to Iraq, where nearly 100,000 of our brave men and women have left with their heads held high; where American combat patrols have ended; violence has come down; and a new government has been formed. This year, our civilians will forge a lasting partnership with the Iraqi people, while we finish the job of bringing our troops out of Iraq. America’s commitment has been kept; the Iraq War is coming to an end.

Of course, as we speak, al Qaeda and their affiliates continue to plan attacks against us. Thanks to our intelligence and law enforcement professionals, we are disrupting plots and securing our cities and skies. And as extremists try to inspire acts of violence within our borders, we are responding with the strength of our communities, with respect for the rule of law, and with the conviction that American Muslims are a part of our American family.

We have also taken the fight to al Qaeda and their allies abroad. In Afghanistan, our troops have taken Taliban strongholds and trained Afghan Security Forces. Our purpose is clear – by preventing the Taliban from reestablishing a stranglehold over the Afghan people, we will deny al Qaeda the safe-haven that served as a launching pad for 9/11.

Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. There will be tough fighting ahead, and the Afghan government will need to deliver better governance. But we are strengthening the capacity of the Afghan people and building an enduring partnership with them. This year, we will work with nearly 50 countries to begin a transition to an Afghan lead. And this July, we will begin to bring our troops home.

In Pakistan, al Qaeda’s leadership is under more pressure than at any point since 2001. Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe-havens are shrinking. And we have sent a message from the Afghan border to the Arabian Peninsula to all parts of the globe: we will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you.

American leadership can also be seen in the effort to secure the worst weapons of war. Because Republicans and Democrats approved the New START Treaty, far fewer nuclear weapons and launchers will be deployed. Because we rallied the world, nuclear materials are being locked down on every continent so they never fall into the hands of terrorists.

Because of a diplomatic effort to insist that Iran meet its obligations, the Iranian government now faces tougher and tighter sanctions than ever before. And on the Korean peninsula, we stand with our ally South Korea, and insist that North Korea keeps its commitment to abandon nuclear weapons.

This is just a part of how we are shaping a world that favors peace and prosperity. With our European allies, we revitalized NATO, and increased our cooperation on everything from counter-terrorism to missile defense. We have reset our relationship with Russia, strengthened Asian alliances, and built new partnerships with nations like India. This March, I will travel to Brazil, Chile, and El Salvador to forge new alliances for progress in the Americas. Around the globe, we are standing with those who take responsibility – helping farmers grow more food; supporting doctors who care for the sick; and combating the corruption that can rot a society and rob people of opportunity.

Recent events have shown us that what sets us apart must not just be our power – it must be the purpose behind it. In South Sudan – with our assistance – the people were finally able to vote for independence after years of war. Thousands lined up before dawn. People danced in the streets. One man who lost four of his brothers at war summed up the scene around him: “This was a battlefield for most of my life. Now we want to be free.”

We saw that same desire to be free in Tunisia, where the will of the people proved more powerful than the writ of a dictator. And tonight, let us be clear: the United States of America stands with the people of Tunisia, and supports the democratic aspirations of all people.

We must never forget that the things we’ve struggled for, and fought for, live in the hearts of people everywhere. And we must always remember that the Americans who have borne the greatest burden in this struggle are the men and women who serve our country.

Tonight, let us speak with one voice in reaffirming that our nation is united in support of our troops and their families. Let us serve them as well as they have served us – by giving them the equipment they need; by providing them with the care and benefits they have earned; and by enlisting our veterans in the great task of building our own nation.

Our troops come from every corner of this country – they are black, white, Latino, Asian and Native American. They are Christian and Hindu, Jewish and Muslim. And, yes, we know that some of them are gay. Starting this year, no American will be forbidden from serving the country they love because of who they love. And with that change, I call on all of our college campuses to open their doors to our military recruiters and the ROTC. It is time to leave behind the divisive battles of the past. It is time to move forward as one nation.

We should have no illusions about the work ahead of us. Reforming our schools; changing the way we use energy; reducing our deficit – none of this is easy. All of it will take time. And it will be harder because we will argue about everything. The cost. The details. The letter of every law.

Of course, some countries don’t have this problem. If the central government wants a railroad, they get a railroad – no matter how many homes are bulldozed. If they don’t want a bad story in the newspaper, it doesn’t get written.

And yet, as contentious and frustrating and messy as our democracy can sometimes be, I know there isn’t a person here who would trade places with any other nation on Earth.

We may have differences in policy, but we all believe in the rights enshrined in our Constitution. We may have different opinions, but we believe in the same promise that says this is a place where you can make it if you try. We may have different backgrounds, but we believe in the same dream that says this is a country where anything’s possible. No matter who you are. No matter where you come from.

That dream is why I can stand here before you tonight. That dream is why a working class kid from Scranton can stand behind me. That dream is why someone who began by sweeping the floors of his father’s Cincinnati bar can preside as Speaker of the House in the greatest nation on Earth.

That dream – that American Dream – is what drove the Allen Brothers to reinvent their roofing company for a new era. It’s what drove those students at Forsyth Tech to learn a new skill and work towards the future. And that dream is the story of a small business owner named Brandon Fisher.

Brandon started a company in Berlin, Pennsylvania that specializes in a new kind of drilling technology. One day last summer, he saw the news that halfway across the world, 33 men were trapped in a Chilean mine, and no one knew how to save them.

But Brandon thought his company could help. And so he designed a rescue that would come to be known as Plan B. His employees worked around the clock to manufacture the necessary drilling equipment. And Brandon left for Chile.

Along with others, he began drilling a 2,000 foot hole into the ground, working three or four days at a time with no sleep. Thirty-seven days later, Plan B succeeded, and the miners were rescued. But because he didn’t want all of the attention, Brandon wasn’t there when the miners emerged. He had already gone home, back to work on his next project.

Later, one of his employees said of the rescue, “We proved that Center Rock is a little company, but we do big things.”

We do big things.

From the earliest days of our founding, America has been the story of ordinary people who dare to dream. That’s how we win the future.

We are a nation that says, “I might not have a lot of money, but I have this great idea for a new company. I might not come from a family of college graduates, but I will be the first to get my degree. I might not know those people in trouble, but I think I can help them, and I need to try. I’m not sure how we’ll reach that better place beyond the horizon, but I know we’ll get there. I know we will.”

We do big things.

The idea of America endures. Our destiny remains our choice. And tonight, more than two centuries later, it is because of our people that our future is hopeful, our journey goes forward, and the state of our union is strong.

Thank you, God Bless You, and may God Bless the United States of America.

###

View full post on All Stories

CUNA Mutual Group has reached an agreement in principle to sell its Australian business operations to QBE Insurance Group.

View full post on Credit Union Stories

Cyber criminals are selling stolen credit card details for as little as two dollars each and renting computer networks for spam for 15 dollars as part of a vast online black market, according to a report released Thursday.

View full post on All Stories

New York City, NY, United States (AHN) – JP Morgan Chase bank has informed all 192 United Nations member states that it will close its UN branch by the end of March, along with all business accounts and credit cards there.

Chase has advised UN nations to seek business accounts and credit cards with other financial institutions while saying that personal accounts would not be affected.

UN member nations are reportedly upset by the news. Although many UN missions have accounts at other banks, Chase was the only bank with retail operations at UN headquarters.

Chase gave no reason for its action in the letter it sent to UN missions. However, observers speculate that it was caused of the high cost of complying with U.S. government regulations designed to prevent money laundering or aiding terrorism.

Last year, new regulations kicked in that require reporting all transactions with overseas clients regardless of the amount versus the old regulations that only required reporting amounts over $10,000.

Although many of the UN member nations have business accounts with other banks, some of the smaller developing nations do not. The situation could affect the UN budget.

U.S. officials have met with UN ambassadors to discuss the situation and assure them that the bank was acting solely because of commercial concerns.

Under the 1947 agreement to host the UN headquarters, U.S. officials have an obligation to facilitate the day-to-day operations of UN missions without hindering them. However, U.S. officials do not have any legal authority to affect the business decisions of a private bank.

View full post on All Stories

If your company still hasn’t been providing your customers with the convenient opportunity of making online payments by means of their credit cards you are losing much. Nowadays it’s crucially important to follow current business trends. No one would deny that purchases made online have become the main source of income for any business that has Internet representation. Just imagine that you are losing a client each time a visitor is ready to buy something from your web site and suddenly finds out that you don’t do credit card payment processing. The way to improve the situation and increase your profits is obvious – a merchant account. Online credit card merchant account is a possibility to accept credit and debit card payments. You can make your online business much more profitable with an internet credit card processing service. Moreover, by getting an offshore merchant account you become able to process merchant credit cards of the customers located in any part of world 24 hours a day.

However, no matter how good it sounds you still have a lot to do before you get your own virtual merchant account. First of all, you will have to perform a thorough research to find a reliable credit card merchant service provider that will provide you with the necessary credit card processing software. Besides, almost any merchant account provider has a list of requirements you have to comply with. Still, getting a credit cards merchant account is a wise decision and will without any doubts positively affect your business. Choosing the right type of merchant account for your company may seem like a step to take but it’s really all about finding a good credit card merchant service provider. Surely you’ll appreciate the one that lets you pay the lowest merchant fees west fees but gives you the best quality of service.

Search for the best deal possible as there are plenty credit card merchant service providers offering the credit card and other electronic merchant payments. If you’re running a high risk business you should look for merchant service provider that offers high risk processing and provides high risk merchant accounts such as adult merchant account, casino merchant account, and pharmacy merchant account, so on. Save your efforts and time by learning whether the merchant service provider supports your country as some of them are country specific. Be wise and rather choose a provider that allows processing all the major credit cards (such as American Express, Visa, MasterCard merchant, etc) as some only accept Visa. Besides, if you would like to accept credit card payments in various currencies, double-check if the merchant account provider supports them.

Business reward credit cards play a essential role in just about every business as they permit for far better capital investment and they help provide you with far more getting energy. With all the usefulness of business reward credit cards very evident, a lot more little businesses are getting advantage of this and also the credit card industry has not missed this growing trend. Today, quite a few credit rating organizations, banks along with other monetary institutions offer you distinct business reward credit cards to vie to your business. Moreover, using the numerous businesses competing for ones business, it could get hard identifying which business reward credit cards are one of the most appropriate to your circumstance.

With just about every small business becoming diverse from each other, your business might have various wants from an additional business so keep this in mind when searching for business reward credit cards. It truly is really significant that your credit card can assist you to together with your business’ necessities and allow you to make greater profit.

Write down every thing that the business wants in business reward credit cards to create your business reward credit cards comparison an less complicated job. Go on the internet and check out creditcardguide.com and creditcards.com to uncover an unbiased and informative description with the diverse business reward credit cards.

Utilizing your list, you can effortlessly compare which credit card could be applicable for the present business scenario. For every credit card which you discover, attempt to search into their rates, characteristics, costs, terms and problems to have a greater understanding of what you’re acquiring into.

Business credit cards like personal credit cards also have rewards which you are able to use to your business’ benefit. Select business reward credit cards that you simply know you or your employees can use to further improve the organization. Credit card rewards like travel miles, cash backs and discount charge cards are the best well-liked with regards to smaller businesses so attempt to appear into that.

Looking for the top business reward credit cards might be challenging and it could entail lots of time on your element but whenever you do locate the business reward credit cards which are best to your business, they are able to genuinely enable you to a good deal with your finances.

Co Branded Credit cards can be very beneficial for you if you have a business. These cards are online based and are beneficial in creating a professional system that will infuse trust in your client base and make people believe in your professional abilities and capabilities.

If you take your business and brand it along with a Credit Card program, you will be able to take a MasterCard or Visa card and combine it with the logo and name of your business. People who hold these co branded cards will be able to use them almost anywhere and will be able to get fast access to your money at any time for any situation. Also, you will be able to withdraw money from any ATM machine whenever you need it. The best part of this system is the immense rewards that come from it. You will be able to choose a variety of payment programs that best suit your needs, so you can choose generic debit card programs, co-branded debit card programs, white label programs, co-branded prepaid credit card programs, generic prepaid credit card programs, and many more that can be custom chosen to suit your needs best.

The best part is you will be given a vast array of benefits with this program that will be unbeatable. You will be able to have access to loan and benefit payout applications, as well as micro loans operations. In addition to that, you will be able to have travel and remittance card programs, as well. Imagine being able to have access to pension pay out programs and commission payout applications, as well. You can choose to have a card that starts with a zero balance or one that is already preloaded, one that is active or one that needs activation, all that will be in accordance with your company’s needs.