PocketInfo is in constant flux. Building the structure has taken months of work to date with many more to follow during 2012 , 2013 and beyond. As the Country and City content gets loaded watch how the site becomes more useful to the traveler, geographer , researcher , student or person with general interests in facts and trends about the world.
Owner/Chief Editor : Robert Latchford
- Double Geography Major from the University of Auckland.
- spent the past 20 years traveling the world and seen the tremendous diversity on this planet.
PocketInfo Objectives
Short Term Objectives -
1. Post about trends and information that’s different from everyone else. (Unique Content)
2. Rank high for PocketInfo on Google and other search engines.
3. Actively bring people back to the Website.
Mid Term Objectives
4. Launch an offline newsletter to be distributed around Cities globally - with advertising revenue for local editors based in those Cities.
5. Build a network of freelance contributors to share in future income share based on traffic generated by their articles.
6. Become an expert on the Gold and Silver physical market and pass on related tips to readers.
Long Term Objectives
7. Release a book in Almanack form once all the Country and City information is fully loaded
6. Become an expert on the Gold and Silver physical market and pass on related tips to readers.
Long Term Objectives
7. Release a book in Almanack form once all the Country and City information is fully loaded
PocketInfo has decided to stay loyal to the Blogger environment and will use the platform throughout 2012. A decision will be made in 2013 as whether to migrate to another platform and will be dependent on Google's continuing commitment to improvement.
City specific information is starting to be added to PocketInfo and some Event information has been added to enhance information about that location.
Yahoo Answers With more than 21 million unique users in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide, Yahoo! Answers is the largest knowledge-sharing community on the Web. PocketInfo (via OneLifeLiveit ) is now a contributor to this community focusing on travel , geography , demographics , World Trends and any Country or City related topic.
PocketInfo Glossary
- 99er | Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired normally after 99 weeks. (see article )
- 99% | The demographic in the OWS Occupy movement protesting against the banks and ponzi scheme in the financial markets. (see PocketInfo article )
- Austerity | Economic policy aimed at reducing a government's deficit (or borrowing).
- Baby Boomer | person born in the demographic birth boom between 1946 and 1964, including 1964
- Bear Market | prices are falling and investors, fearing losses, tend to sell. This can create a self-sustaining downward spiral. ( and Panic )
- Bull market | Normally trending up - prices are generally rising and investor confidence is high.
- CEBR | Centre for Economics and Business Research. PocketInfo refers to the WELT table (see below) for the top 30 countries by Ecomonic ranking. The CEBR is based in London and was found by Douglas Mc Williams in 1994.
- Chapter 11 | The term for bankruptcy protection in the US. It postpones a company's obligations to its creditors, giving it time to reorganise its debts or sell parts of the business e.g. Exxon , ...
- Dead Cat Bounce | A phrase used on trading floors to describe the small rebound in market prices typically seen following a sharp fall.
- EFSF | European Financial Stability Facility All 17 countries that use the euro must ratify the commitment made in July to expand the powers of the EFSF and boost its bailout guarantees from 440bn euros (£383bn) to 780bn euros.
- Fiat money is money that has value only because of government regulation or law. The term derives from the Latin fiat, meaning "let it be done", as such money is established by government decree. Where fiat money is used as currency, the term fiat currency is used. (see Pocketinfo article )
- Financial Repression - This is where central banks artificially hold short term interest rates (and in some cases long term interest rates) low or near zero.This helps heavily indebted consumers and businesses dig themselves out from under the debt by allowing inflation to eat away at the real value of the debt. Central bankers and governments essentially punish savers in the future for the sins of the borrowers in the past.
- GDP - The gross domestic product (GDP) or gross domestic income (GDI) is the amount of goods and services produced in a year, in a country. It is the market value of all final goods and services made within the borders of a country in a year.
- The gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed mass of gold. There are distinct kinds of gold standard. First, the gold specie standard is a system in which the monetary unit is associated with circulating gold coins, or with the unit of value defined in terms of one particular circulating gold coin in conjunction with subsidiary coinage made from a lesser valuable metal. (from Wikipedia)
- Insolvency - A situation in which the value of a borrower's assets is not enough to repay all of its debts. If a borrower can be shown to be insolvent, it normally means they can be declared bankrupt by a court.
- Junk Bond - High risk bonds normally with a credit rating of BB+ or lower.
- The Nixon Shock was a series of economic measures taken by U.S. President Richard Nixon in 1971 including unilaterally canceling the direct convertibility of the United States dollar to gold that essentially ended the existing Bretton Woods system of international financial exchange. (from Wikipedia)
- Ponzi Scheme - Similar to a pyramid scheme, an enterprise where funds from new investors - instead of genuine profits - are used to pay high returns to current investors. Named after the Italian fraudster Charles Ponzi, such schemes are destined to collapse as soon as new investment tails off or significant numbers of investors simultaneously wish to withdraw funds. ( Bernie Madoff is a recent example of this )
- OCR - Official Cash Rate e.g. New Zealand's Central Bank Rate is 2.5% (July 2011) this is the rate of interest as applied by the Central Bank of that country in this case New Zealand.
- Quantitative Easing - Central banks increase the supply of money by "printing" more. In practice, this may mean purchasing government bonds or other categories of assets, using the new money. Rather than physically printing more notes, the new money is typically issued in the form of a deposit at the central bank. The idea is to add more money into the system, which depresses the value of the currency, and to push up the value of the assets being bought and to lower longer-term interest rates, which encourages more borrowing and investment. Some economists fear that quantitative easing can lead to very high inflation in the long term.
- Rating Agency - A company responsible for issuing credit ratings. The 3 major ones are Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch.
- Stagflation - The combination of inflation and stagnation - an economy that is not growing whilst prices continue to rise. In the 1970s most Western economies experienced a period of stagflation.
- Stimulus - Monetary or fiscal policy aimed at encouraging higher growth and/or inflation. Including things like interest rate cuts, quantitative easing, tax cuts and government spending increases.
- TARP - The Troubled Asset Relief Program - it was a $700bn rescue fund set up in response to the 2008 financial crisis. Originally the TARP was intended to buy up or guarantee toxic debts owned by the US banks .However, after its creation, the US Treasury took advantage of a loophole in the law to use it instead for a recapitalisation of the entire US banking system. (Most of the TARP money has now been repaid by the banks that received it.) (see PocketInfo article on the 4 big banks )
- TLD - Top Level Domain
- Toxic Debts - Debts that are very unlikely to be recovered from borrowers. Most lenders expect that some customers cannot repay; toxic debt describes a whole package of loans that are unlikely to be repaid.
- Troika - The term used to refer to the following 3 organisations 1) European Union 2) European Central Bank and 3) International Monetary Fund
- Volcker Rule - Originally proposed by former US Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker that US commercial banks be banned or severely limited from engaging in risky activities, such as proprietary trading (taking speculative risks on the markets with their own, rather than clients' money e.g. MF Global)
- WEF - World Economic Forum
- WELT - World Economic League Table .A CEBR (see above) Term for their annual table measuring the world's top economies see this post for 2011 table.
- Write-down - Reducing the book value of an asset
Small carry on bag. No dangerous items No liquids under 100ml Boarding pass
Id if local flight Passport if international flight
Get to airport 1.00 hr before domestic flight
Get to airport 2.30 hr before International flight
Make sure you have accommodation at your destination 'before' you leave.
Some Hotels have free shuttle buses so do some advance research first.
Let someone know where you are going Take a mobile phone Have fun!
Keep some spare money in a seperate area from your bag
Disclaimer:
PocketInfo acknowledges that though we try to report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute facts of everything posted. Postings may contain fact, speculation or rumor.We find images from the Web that are believed to belong in the public domain and posted within our rights according to the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Act (title 17, U.S. Code.) A lot of the images are from PocketInfo's own library and can be reused as long as you link back to this site. www.pocketinfo.net
If you believe that any content appearing on pocketinfo.net infringes on your copyright, please email the URL location of said infringement, and we will gladly remove within 24-72 hours.
Sources Various , Wikipedia , BBC , PocketInfo
