ABOUT US | Eldridge Financial Review

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Since the global economy is so interrelated, when large economies suffer recessions, the effects are felt around the world. When trade decreases, jobs and businesses are mislaid. In the same way that globalization can be a boon for international trade; it can also have demoralizing effects.

From this statement, Eldrige Financial Review website is here to give you facts, ideas, opinions that is in accordance to economic factors such as economic climate, political climate, legal climate, international affairs, interest rates, public perception ,insights into a few of the controversies or news, issues about  global economy and the like.

Be aware and Let ourselves as a proper element into this developing world specifically in the progressing economic field globally.

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Eldrige Financial Review – Free Trade Policy: As the Employment Grows, Trade Deficits

The uncontrolled unemployment in the United States is one of the issues that the country is facing right now in which many of the Americans are keep on asking to have a policy that will bring the problem of under control. However, the current free trade policies are paralleled to the unemployment and the trade deficit. As unemployment decreases, the trade deficit increases as it was being analyzed. And, this only means that until the trade policies is properly fixed; any gains in unemployment will be tempered by expanding the trade deficit. An economy with a massive trade shortfall is indefensible, and it is a must to change the trade policies if the nation wants to prosper.

In fact, the currently official unemployed are 8.2 percent. Various economists estimate the rate at which the economy is considered to be at full employment to be about 4 percent, because even under the best conditions there will be individuals seeking jobs. Indeed full employment is enviable, but under our current policies it would do little to create any long-term prosperity for the United States. In the previous year, the deficit was over $500 billion, but it is estimated at the full employment they would have a trade deficit $750 billion or more. As more Americans get jobs the purchasing power also increases. Unluckily most of the items from the overseas are the best items purchase by the Americans that sends American dollars overseas instead of keeping them in the U.S.

The money has to come from somewhere when the American purchases more than they sell that leads to debt. The debts that can come in the form of public debt or private debt, but both can be damaging. Many Americans, both conservative and liberal, are very concerned with the rising national debt. They target the lavish spending of government, be it social programs, national defense or entitlement spending as the cause of fiscal problems. They rarely point to the trade deficit.  When they do recognize that the trade deficit is a problem they tend to blame Americans for refusing to adapt to stay competitive. In order to remain competitive with many of the countries they trade with they would have to accept basement-level wages and hostile working conditions. This is clearly a misunderstanding of the problem.

The United States needs to be smart about how it crawls its way out of recession. Creating more service sector jobs is not the answer, to a certain extent they need to create jobs that allow Americans to purchase American made goods. Then if they ignore, they will be pushing the financial problems down the road rather than truly fixing the economic problem.

Facebook, Nestle, Greg Norman, Fiat: Intellectual Property

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-20/facebook-nestle-greg-norman-fiat-intellectual-property

Facebook Inc. (FB) (FB), the biggest social- networking service, made an offer for AOL Inc. (AOL) (AOL)’s patent portfolio before losing out to Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT)’s $1.06 billion bid, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

The proposal from Menlo Park, California-based Facebook was too low, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions haven’t been disclosed. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg led the negotiations to acquire AOL’s patents, one person said.

Microsoft intends to sell most of the newly acquired portfolio because it doesn’t consider all of the 800 patents and related applications essential to its intellectual property arsenal, according to another person with knowledge of the matter. The technology industry has been bulking up on patents amid a surge in disputes over ownership of rights to key breakthroughs in areas such as mobile communications.

Facebook said it’s buying the Instagram photo-sharing tool for $1 billion the same day Microsoft unveiled the AOL deal.

Larry Yu, a spokesman for Facebook, declined to comment, as did Kevin Kutz, a spokesman for Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft and Caroline Campbell, a spokeswoman for New York- based AOL.

Facebook has lined up $8 billion of available credit from its IPO underwriters. Like more established technology companies, such as Apple Inc. (AAPL) (AAPL) and Google, it is buying intellectual property to protect itself from patent-infringement litigation.

Facebook, which is in the midst of a patent dispute with Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) (YHOO), acquired 750 patents from International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) (IBM), a person with knowledge of the matter said on March 22. Yahoo sued Facebook on March 12, alleging that the social network infringed patents covering such functions as Internet advertising and information sharing.

“If an unfavorable outcome were to occur in this litigation, the impact could be material to our business, financial condition or results of operations,” Facebook said in a March 27 filing.

Nestle Wins Backing in Europe Over Nespresso System Patent

Nestle SA (NESN)’s Nespresso coffee brand won the backing of the European Patent Office over a disputed patent covering its coffee machine and capsules.

The regulator upheld the existing patent in an “amended form” by a committee of technical experts following objections made by companies including Sara Lee Corp. (SLE) (SLE), the office said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. The competing companies have the right to appeal the decision, the Munich-based body said.

Nespresso has sued companies including Sara Lee for alleged patent infringement while rejecting counterclaims. Rivals say their capsules don’t infringe on any patents, seeking to edge in on a market where retail sales may climb 47 percent globally from 2010 to 2015, according to Euromonitor International.

“The decision of the court was positive for our Nespresso” system, Nespresso Chief Executive Officer Richard Girardot said. “Obviously we are satisfied.”

Sara Lee is studying the office’s amendment to determine if it needs to take further steps, Ernesto Duran, a spokesman for Sara Lee based in the Netherlands, said by e-mail.

Nestle has built Nespresso into a brand worth more than 3.5 billion francs ($3.8 billion) after more than a decade of double-digit growth by marketing the coffee as an affordable luxury.

Trademark

Orthodox Union Sues MOOMilk for Using Mark Without Authorization

The Union of Orthodox Congregations of American, one of the organizations that provides Kosher certification for food in the U.S., sued a Maine organic dairy for trademark infringement.

The group’s complaint, filed in federal court in Boston April 11, claims Maine’s Own Organic Milk Company L3C used the Orthodox union’s trademark without authorization. The union’s mark, known as a “hechsher” is a circle containing the letter “U”, and is placed on food to indicate that it is certified as fit for consumption under Jewish law.

The Orthodox union said it initially contacted the dairy about its unauthorized use of the hechsher in June 2010. The dairy, known as MOOMilk, applied for certification that month and received its initial inspection in December 2010, according to the complaint.

The dairy never paid the fees and, continued to use the hechsher on its cartons without authorization, the Orthodox union said in its court papers.

The Orthodox union said it’s harmed by the unauthorized use of the mark, and that kosher consumers are likely to be confused and misled when they see it on MOOMilk’s products.

The group asked the court to bar further use of the hechsher without authorization and for awards of money damages, attorney fees and litigation costs.

Filed with the complaint is a series of letters between the union and the dairy in which an official of the Maine-based company said that it lacked the $5,500 necessary for certification.

Financial Planner Mike Eldridge's Profile | Ameriprise Financial

http://www.ameripriseadvisors.com/mike.j.eldridge/profile/

My Approach

To achieve your dreams, you need a plan. Our unique and collaborative Dream> Plan> Track> ^® approach to financial planning starts with your dreams, not just the numbers. More than a pie chart, asset allocation or product recommendations, our plans are carefully written and based on proven principles of financial planning. The plans break down complex topics into simple actions and provide recommendations for how to save, spend, invest and protect the things that are important to you. I will address your needs over time, and deliver recommendations in a written financial plan. It will be updated regularly and will provide you with information tailored specifically to your goals and dreams. We will track your progress on an ongoing basis against your plan, reviewing where you are, where you need to be and what new developments in your life will affect your goals and make adjustments as needed.

Areas of Focus

• Retirement Planning Strategies
• Retirement Plan Distribution
• Domestic Partner Planning
• Estate Planning Strategies
• Investments
• Tax Planning Strategies
• Wealth Preservation Strategies
• Retirement Income Strategies

Interests

• I enjoy spending time with family and being active outdoors doing yard work, hiking mountain trails, and playing golf.
• I officiate high school and club soccer and enjoy traveling to work in regional soccer tournaments.
• We enjoy traveling to see out of town family and clients and love to have our children come back home to visit.

Community Participation

I have focused my free time in helping youth.   I am a former Chairman of the School to Work Initiative on the school drop outrate for Watauga County.  I have used my college coaching skills as a head coach of a traveling team for the High Country Soccer Association. We’ve participated with the Adopt a Street program.

Eldrige Financial Blog: Fed Apprehension job gains could fade

http://www.eldridgefinancial-blog.com/category/world-news/

WASHINGTON – The current strong gains in hiring makes the Federal Reserve policymakers worried that it could buzz if the economic growth of the US doesn’t go up.

According to the Fed’s minutes on Tuesday, members were first stated their concerns before they make a plan to keep interest rates at record lows until at least late year 2014. However, some of the members want to take further procedures to improve the economy current status if a condition gets worse or inflation remains reclaimed.

After the meeting, Fed presented the somewhat current view of the economy mainly because of the three consecutive months of hiring in two years. It was concluded that there have been similar raptures of hiring in the previous two years which ended up fading.

On the speech echoed by the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last week in the economists gathering, the decline of the economy recovery was the main concern of Fed as it did last year.

Americans aren’t receiving meaningful pay augmentation. Gas prices are high. Additionally, Europe’s debt crisis could reflect on the U.S economy. Provided that the inflation will remain on its current position, analysts think that the Fed will likely give interest rates down in order for them to give the economy an additional support. Most of the economists don’t think that Fed officials will alter their interest-rate policy at their following meeting on April 24-25 and will only relieve credits if the economy gradually moves from its current status.

The economy outlook is going up. Employers added an average of 245,000 jobs a month from December through February. On the other side, the rate of unemployed dropped nearly to 8.3%. The government will report Friday on the job market in March. Most of the economists supposed that the report will give a better month of job creation with a net gain of 210,000 jobs. They also expect that the unemployment rate will remain at 8.3%.

Eldridge Financial Blog : A Healthy Advice to stop Obesity Crisis

http://www.eldridgefinancial-blog.com/category/personal/

Nurseries need a better food advice due to the fact that there are so many children turning up on their first day of school overweight. As revealed in the Eldridge Financial Blog, more than a fifth of children are now overweight or obese by the time they start school, according to official figures. Studies points out those children who are fat at five are highly likely to continue being overweight into adolescence, and possibly beyond. As a result, the School Food Trust has launched a new guide telling nursery staff what to feed children in their care and how much to give them.

There are some guidelines that also give them a fundamental advice on the possible risks of letting their children eat foods which contain much of salt, fat and sugar, too regularly. Based from the Eldridge Financial Blog, including them in the diets of very young children may contribute to them becoming overweight and having a poor nutrient intake. Additionally, children are unlikely to take in more energy than they need if they are offered a range of healthy meals and snacks that meet the food and drink guidelines. It gives examples of what is the right quantity of foods like cornflakes, pasta and rice pudding look like on different sized plates and bowls.

The guidelines are being piloted in five local authorities, with more set to join in 2012.Sarah Teather, the Children’s Minister, said many people who work in nurseries “lack the expert knowledge of what is the best food to serve”.”Parents rightly want their children to be eating healthy, nutritional food. Thanks to these voluntary guidelines drawn up by the School Food Trust, we will help nurseries and other childcare providers do just that”, she added. The British Heart Foundation welcomed the guidelines, but said if the problem of childhood obesity continued without improvement, a voluntary approach would be deficient. According to theEldridge Financial Blog, Victoria Taylor, a senior dietitian at the BHF, said: “More than a fifth of children turn up to their first day at school overweight or obese and that has to change. These guidelines look to be a positive step towards teaching children about healthy eating from their early age.

“These are only voluntary guidelines though and so it’s important that food and drink provision is closely monitored to ensure young children are enjoying balanced and nutritious food.

“If standards are slipping then a mandatory approach could be a better alternative.”