Ever since I started writing this blog I have been testing out various ways of making money or getting freebies and I have had some success. I signed up to anwer about 4 or 5 surveys each day and I registered with "Free Stuff". I got 6 free tomato plants so I will have free tomatoes this year. I was awarded 2 £10.00 wouchers for Amazon and at the rate I read that equals 4 books maybe more as I use "Kindle" and some ebooks are free.
I faithfully fill in my surveys and commodetise my opinions about fruit juices, health products and the merits of furniture polish. I particularly like "YouGov" as that one is more fun and you can be rude about David Cameron and George Osborne. I have been clocking up points and gaining entries for prize draws, so many I have lost count as all these sites run prize draws each month or quarter and I won a computer game I actually want to play with backgammon chess and card games.
So, I will keep going as I don't care enough about furniture polish to feel my privacy is being invaded or that I am being used to make companies profit and I love tomatoes.
Only 5% of the UK population earns £60,000.00 a year most people earn £24,000.00 a year and are watching their incomes and standard of living erode drastically, a chance win on a prize draw or lottery will not change our society or bring people out of poverty.
I want every household in the UK which earns less than £40,000.00 a year to receive £10,000.00 as a gift tax free to use as they see fit, the only proviso being if it is used for a holiday the holiday must be taken in the UK to support our tourist industry.
I can hear the hysteria erupting from the uber rich and people who believe the lie that Britain is broke and everyone must "do their bit" and "tighten their belts" we spend millions on wars and weapons, security for that wedding and bailing out bankers and hedge funds but children live in dire poverty. We have got to change the dynamic, not trickle down economics but bottom up synergy.
Just apply a gift of £10,000.00 to your own life. I would pay off all my bills and use part of it to take a course to learn a language, buy some new clothes, go to the theatre and invest in my business. In that one sentence all the companies I owe money now have cash flow, the clothes shops, language provider and the arts have now got some revenue they didn't have before and my publishing company will have funds. Young people who couldn't afford to leave home will have money for renting a flat of their own, setting up their own business or going to college.
Use your imagination and follow the money it would transform our country.
I am going to close now and leave this while I think it over further.
shopping, oh god, shopping
When worshipping at the great shrine of "Shopping". The first thing you should do after genuflecting at the altar, is make a list. It helps you focus on what you need to buy and what you have to spend, I am not going to make comparisons between shops and supermarkets etc as that is easy to do and I don't want to promote one over another. I do all my shopping on line as it is cheaper - you don't spend money travelling to and from the supermarket, you save time and effort as you don't lose hours trailing around the aisles of your chosen church or have to lug huge bags of shopping on and off public transport or in and out of your car and you don't get distracted by periphal "offers" you don't really need but which all add up.
I don't drive, I have always used public trransport and for years I have had a shopping trolley, I know it sounds so old fashioned and something your great granny would have used with some boiled sweets embedded in the side pocket but I really reommend it - any special offers, cheap fruit at the market, bulk buy bread at the end of the day stick it in the trolley and save your arms from growing extra inches.
My trolley helped me run my book business; I would drag my trolley around all the charity shops where I used to go and find my stock of second hand books. I started my company "Serendipity Books" with £5.00 which I saved out of my weekly wage of £80.00. I went to my local charity shops and bought £5.00 worth of books which I sold to a local book dealer and made a profit of £15.00 and I repeated the process over and over again. This was before amazon.com or e-commerce. I progressed to a stall at the local book fairs then finally after some years I had enough for a small bookshop. No bank will help a woman by herself who has no collateral and I was too "wealthy and priveleged" to be eligible for anything like "The Princes Trust" grants so I did it by myself and I couldn't have done it without my trolley.
Anyway enough of prehistoric times when mammoths roamed the earth and back to the future why are all the prices rising so fast and going so high? Every day seems to see a new increase and supermarkets are trying to lessen the pain with loss leaders; there are some extremely difficult things that have to be looked at and I don't think our government will be able to deal with them becase it goes to the heart of the way we live and the systems at the core of everything that surrounds us.
In 2010, investment bank "Goldman Sachs" warned of "violent price spikes" in commodities markets, and that prediction has more or less come true.
The rapid rise in prices for food, fuel and commodities has been disastrous for the world's poor who are always hit hardest and hit first but now those rapid rises are filtering into middle class life but it's a bonanza for multinational trading firms such as "Glencore" - the world's largest diversified commodities trader - is planning a US$11billion share sale, probaby the largest market debut ever seen on the London Stock Exchange.
The initial public offering from the commodity speculating giant will create at least four billionaires, dozens worth more than $100million and several hundred old fashioned millionaires. Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg is set to make more than $9bn from the share sale. And speculating on food prices is an important part of his wealth.
Valued at about $60billion, "Glencore" controls 50 per cent of the global copper market, 60 per cent of zinc, 38 per cent in alumina, 28 per cent of thermal coal, 45 per cent of lead and almost 10 per cent of the world's wheat - according to information the firm disclosed prior to its share sale. It also controls about one quarter of the world market in barley, sunflower and rape seed.
"They are possibly one of very few mining companies that are price makers, rather than price takers," said Chris Hinde, editorial director of Mining Journal magazine. "They are the stockbrokers of the commodities business [operating] in a fairly secretive world. They are effectively setting the price for some very important commodities,".
The firm employs about 57,000 people, generated a turnover of $145billion in the past year and has assets worth more than $79billion. Based in Baar, Switzerland, where regulation is minimal, the company's sprawling interests span Bolivian tin mines, Angolan oil, zinc producers in Kazakhstan, Zambian copper mines and Russian wheat operations.
"Glencore's vertical integration really is unprecedented," said Devlin Kuyek, a researcher with GRAIN, a non-profit international organisation working on food security.
"Glencore" owns almost 300,000 hectares of farm land and it is one of the largest farm operators in the world. They are engaging in speculation on the grain trade and have immense market power,".
Global food prices have climbed recently, returning close to their 2008 peak, when bread riots swept parts of the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.
"A disturbing amount of price increases, I fear, is being driven by speculative activity," Marcus Miller, a professor of international economics at the University of Warwick. "Bets [on future price rises or declines] can become self-fulfilling if you are big enough to affect the market."
In March 2011, the World Bank's global food index was 36 per cent above levels from a year earlier, although prices for commodities have dropped in the past few weeks. Some analysts believe price increases have more to do with a growing global population and rising middle classes, particularly in India and China, who are eating more meat and thus driving up prices for corn and other animal feed.
To make money betting on food, metals and energy, "Glencore" – like other trading houses and hedge funds – relies on one crucial commodity: Information.
"They have offices all over the world and unique access to information about production and distribution," said food security researcher Kuyek. "When the people who have that information are also the ones speculating, there is grave cause for concern; they can purchase forward contracts when they know prices are going up."
In August 2010, for example, Russia issued a ban on grain exports, after droughts ravaged crops. On August 3, the head of "Glencore's" Russian grain unit encouraged the government to halt exports. The government followed his advice on August 5, causing prices for cereals to rise 15 per cent in two days.
"Days before the export ban went into place, "Glencore" made huge bets," said Kuyek. "They had some kind of information there; companies with information are in the best place to capture profits from volatility." "Glencore", for its part, said it also lost money as a result of the ban, because it had to fulfill delivery obligations to clients outside Russia at the new, higher price.
In addition to manipulating food prices – potentially with insider information - the trading giant appears to have broken laws on several continents.
Prosecutors in Belgium charged "Glencore" employees with criminal conspiracy and corruption, alleging they illicitly sought confidential information on European export subsidies from a public official. The case will be heard in Brussels on May 12. During Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, and the UN sanctions which accompanied its final years, "Glencore" made handsome profits marketing embargoed oil. In February 2001, "Glencore" bought 1million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for the US and diverted the oil to Croatia, where it was sold for a premium of $3million, according to a UN Security Council report. When the news broke, the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK headlined their investigation "Secretive Swiss trader links City to Iraq oil scam". "Glencore'"s founder and lifelong commodities hustler Marc Rich was dubbed the "face of scandal", by Vanity Fair magazine. After founding the company in 1974, Rich rose to prominence by pioneering "combat trading" -aggressive deal making in countries facing turmoil. He traded oil for Ayatollahs when Iran was blacklisted by the US, did business with South Africa's apartheid government and skirted US trade embargoes on Cuba and Libya to make trades under the motto: Do whatever it takes.
"There will always be allegations that they [Glencore] are dealing with some unsavory folks," said Chris Hinde from Mining Journal magazine. "But I wouldn't say that makes them unusual for traders.". Tony Hayward, the disgraced former BP CEO who presided over the worst oil spill in US history, has been approached by "Glencore" to become a non-executive director on the board of the company when it becomes public. While Rich sold the company in 1993, his take-no-prisoners approach to the commodities business lives on in today's traders and speculators, including the South African CEO Ivan Glasenberg, who gave Rich's trading empire the name "Glencore".
Institutional investors from the US, East Asia and the Middle East have all committed to buying. Aabar, the sovereign wealth fund from the United Arab Emirates, controlled by Abu Dhabi's oil-rich monarchs, is expected to become the largest "cornerstone investor", pledging to buy about $1billion worth of stock. "It seems that they are buying a stake to strengthen the UAE's control over the global grain trade, for their own food security," said Kuyek. "In the absence of anything meaningful being done at the international level, - except for the same prescriptions of open markets and trade liberalisation." Food insecure countries in the Gulf, Northeast Asia, Korea and other regions are attempting to gain more direct control over food, as the market economy "can’t guarantee decent prices",
"Stability is to be prized," said Oxfam's David Green. And that is the last thing "Glencore" wants, as it's instability which is most profitable - for those who have the inside knowledge to exploit it.
If Dante were alive today and rewrote "The Inferno" I think he would include a special hell for food speculators. I can't get my head around the figures it seems like monopoly money and where is the moral compass? There is none.
I know there are lots of facts and figures to read but we have to understand what is happening so that legislation, international and national can correct what is going so wrong in our societies. The facts and figures come from an excellent article on "Al Jazeera" and the opinions are mine and I will write more about this on future blogs
I don't drive, I have always used public trransport and for years I have had a shopping trolley, I know it sounds so old fashioned and something your great granny would have used with some boiled sweets embedded in the side pocket but I really reommend it - any special offers, cheap fruit at the market, bulk buy bread at the end of the day stick it in the trolley and save your arms from growing extra inches.
My trolley helped me run my book business; I would drag my trolley around all the charity shops where I used to go and find my stock of second hand books. I started my company "Serendipity Books" with £5.00 which I saved out of my weekly wage of £80.00. I went to my local charity shops and bought £5.00 worth of books which I sold to a local book dealer and made a profit of £15.00 and I repeated the process over and over again. This was before amazon.com or e-commerce. I progressed to a stall at the local book fairs then finally after some years I had enough for a small bookshop. No bank will help a woman by herself who has no collateral and I was too "wealthy and priveleged" to be eligible for anything like "The Princes Trust" grants so I did it by myself and I couldn't have done it without my trolley.
Anyway enough of prehistoric times when mammoths roamed the earth and back to the future why are all the prices rising so fast and going so high? Every day seems to see a new increase and supermarkets are trying to lessen the pain with loss leaders; there are some extremely difficult things that have to be looked at and I don't think our government will be able to deal with them becase it goes to the heart of the way we live and the systems at the core of everything that surrounds us.
In 2010, investment bank "Goldman Sachs" warned of "violent price spikes" in commodities markets, and that prediction has more or less come true.
The rapid rise in prices for food, fuel and commodities has been disastrous for the world's poor who are always hit hardest and hit first but now those rapid rises are filtering into middle class life but it's a bonanza for multinational trading firms such as "Glencore" - the world's largest diversified commodities trader - is planning a US$11billion share sale, probaby the largest market debut ever seen on the London Stock Exchange.
The initial public offering from the commodity speculating giant will create at least four billionaires, dozens worth more than $100million and several hundred old fashioned millionaires. Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg is set to make more than $9bn from the share sale. And speculating on food prices is an important part of his wealth.
Valued at about $60billion, "Glencore" controls 50 per cent of the global copper market, 60 per cent of zinc, 38 per cent in alumina, 28 per cent of thermal coal, 45 per cent of lead and almost 10 per cent of the world's wheat - according to information the firm disclosed prior to its share sale. It also controls about one quarter of the world market in barley, sunflower and rape seed.
"They are possibly one of very few mining companies that are price makers, rather than price takers," said Chris Hinde, editorial director of Mining Journal magazine. "They are the stockbrokers of the commodities business [operating] in a fairly secretive world. They are effectively setting the price for some very important commodities,".
The firm employs about 57,000 people, generated a turnover of $145billion in the past year and has assets worth more than $79billion. Based in Baar, Switzerland, where regulation is minimal, the company's sprawling interests span Bolivian tin mines, Angolan oil, zinc producers in Kazakhstan, Zambian copper mines and Russian wheat operations.
"Glencore's vertical integration really is unprecedented," said Devlin Kuyek, a researcher with GRAIN, a non-profit international organisation working on food security.
"Glencore" owns almost 300,000 hectares of farm land and it is one of the largest farm operators in the world. They are engaging in speculation on the grain trade and have immense market power,".
Global food prices have climbed recently, returning close to their 2008 peak, when bread riots swept parts of the Middle East, Africa and the Caribbean.
"A disturbing amount of price increases, I fear, is being driven by speculative activity," Marcus Miller, a professor of international economics at the University of Warwick. "Bets [on future price rises or declines] can become self-fulfilling if you are big enough to affect the market."
In March 2011, the World Bank's global food index was 36 per cent above levels from a year earlier, although prices for commodities have dropped in the past few weeks. Some analysts believe price increases have more to do with a growing global population and rising middle classes, particularly in India and China, who are eating more meat and thus driving up prices for corn and other animal feed.
To make money betting on food, metals and energy, "Glencore" – like other trading houses and hedge funds – relies on one crucial commodity: Information.
"They have offices all over the world and unique access to information about production and distribution," said food security researcher Kuyek. "When the people who have that information are also the ones speculating, there is grave cause for concern; they can purchase forward contracts when they know prices are going up."
 |
| Trading firms can capitalise on instability in world food markets [EPA] |
In August 2010, for example, Russia issued a ban on grain exports, after droughts ravaged crops. On August 3, the head of "Glencore's" Russian grain unit encouraged the government to halt exports. The government followed his advice on August 5, causing prices for cereals to rise 15 per cent in two days.
"Days before the export ban went into place, "Glencore" made huge bets," said Kuyek. "They had some kind of information there; companies with information are in the best place to capture profits from volatility." "Glencore", for its part, said it also lost money as a result of the ban, because it had to fulfill delivery obligations to clients outside Russia at the new, higher price.
In addition to manipulating food prices – potentially with insider information - the trading giant appears to have broken laws on several continents.
Prosecutors in Belgium charged "Glencore" employees with criminal conspiracy and corruption, alleging they illicitly sought confidential information on European export subsidies from a public official. The case will be heard in Brussels on May 12. During Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, and the UN sanctions which accompanied its final years, "Glencore" made handsome profits marketing embargoed oil. In February 2001, "Glencore" bought 1million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for the US and diverted the oil to Croatia, where it was sold for a premium of $3million, according to a UN Security Council report. When the news broke, the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK headlined their investigation "Secretive Swiss trader links City to Iraq oil scam". "Glencore'"s founder and lifelong commodities hustler Marc Rich was dubbed the "face of scandal", by Vanity Fair magazine. After founding the company in 1974, Rich rose to prominence by pioneering "combat trading" -aggressive deal making in countries facing turmoil. He traded oil for Ayatollahs when Iran was blacklisted by the US, did business with South Africa's apartheid government and skirted US trade embargoes on Cuba and Libya to make trades under the motto: Do whatever it takes.
 |
| In Lia Romi's community, people have to choose between sending their kids to school and buying food [Credit: Oxfam] |
"There will always be allegations that they [Glencore] are dealing with some unsavory folks," said Chris Hinde from Mining Journal magazine. "But I wouldn't say that makes them unusual for traders.". Tony Hayward, the disgraced former BP CEO who presided over the worst oil spill in US history, has been approached by "Glencore" to become a non-executive director on the board of the company when it becomes public. While Rich sold the company in 1993, his take-no-prisoners approach to the commodities business lives on in today's traders and speculators, including the South African CEO Ivan Glasenberg, who gave Rich's trading empire the name "Glencore".
Institutional investors from the US, East Asia and the Middle East have all committed to buying. Aabar, the sovereign wealth fund from the United Arab Emirates, controlled by Abu Dhabi's oil-rich monarchs, is expected to become the largest "cornerstone investor", pledging to buy about $1billion worth of stock. "It seems that they are buying a stake to strengthen the UAE's control over the global grain trade, for their own food security," said Kuyek. "In the absence of anything meaningful being done at the international level, - except for the same prescriptions of open markets and trade liberalisation." Food insecure countries in the Gulf, Northeast Asia, Korea and other regions are attempting to gain more direct control over food, as the market economy "can’t guarantee decent prices",
"Stability is to be prized," said Oxfam's David Green. And that is the last thing "Glencore" wants, as it's instability which is most profitable - for those who have the inside knowledge to exploit it.
If Dante were alive today and rewrote "The Inferno" I think he would include a special hell for food speculators. I can't get my head around the figures it seems like monopoly money and where is the moral compass? There is none.
I know there are lots of facts and figures to read but we have to understand what is happening so that legislation, international and national can correct what is going so wrong in our societies. The facts and figures come from an excellent article on "Al Jazeera" and the opinions are mine and I will write more about this on future blogs
