| Mortgage bankers go back to basics
Mortgage bankers are eagerly going back to basics before Congress makes them. At the annual convention of the Mortgage Bankers Association, or MBA, the most oft-spoken phrase was “back to basics." No matter what you were doing — walking past a shoeshine stand, staring mutely at your shoes in an elevator or waiting in line for lunch — you heard someone uttering “back to basics." That means the home loan du jour conforms to standards set by mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: It isn't a jumbo (a mortgage for more than $417,000), isn't subprime (for a borrower with iffy credit), and it has a fixed rate. Preferably, the borrower totes a good-size down payment (if buying) or sports serious equity (if refinancing). If the mortgage business is going back to basics, then, by definition, it wandered away from the basics.
Kenya: Floating Hotel a Novel Idea Sure to Be a Big Hit With Tourists
Necessity is the mother of inventions, so the saying goes. And as the demand for and cost of land especially in Coast province rises by the day, so do people get smarter and more innovative in the lucrative and competitive tourism industry. One such person is Gerard Johnson who has developed some of the most exotic tourist resorts in Lamu. He knew only too well that for a piece of the local beach - if he found it - he would part with millions of shillings. So he decided that ingenuity would work the magic. .
Windswept Capital acquired by Oregon firm
Aequitas Capital Management Inc., an investment banking firm with offices in Lake Oswego, Ore., and Bellevue, is acquiring a smaller Seattle competitor, Windswept Capital LLC. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Windswept Capital will continue to operate in Seattle under its own name, said firm CEO Bill Greenwood. This is not the first linkup for Windswept Capital. The firm merged in 2005 with Alexander Hutton Inc., another small investment firm in Seattle, but the two firms parted ways in May of this year, Greenwood said. Greenwood attributed the split to a "culture clash," but declined to elaborate. David Fitterer, a managing director at Alexander Hutton, also declined to elaborate, but said: "The transaction was unwound on mutually agreeable terms." .
Business Notes
A seminar aimed at giving owners of small and medium-sized businesses a jump-start on the new year takes place Tuesday Sponsored by the accounting and management firm VonLehman & Co., the free breakfast session takes its cue from late night TV and offers "Tonight's Top 10 List of 10 Ways to Make Your Company Better." Firm representatives Andy VonLehman and Thomas Ruberg have prepared their "Top 10" list to help business leaders with strategic planning, provide topics for a management retreat or create a "to-do" list for next year. The session takes place from 7:30-9:15 a.m. at the Queen City Club, 331 E. Fourth Street. Reservations are required. .
New hand to assist those in world of business
BORDER small and medium business operators have the opportunity to lift productivity and become more globally competitive with an Australian Industry Productivity Centre now on the Border. The centre’s program, which is a Federal Government initiative, is operating from the Australian Industry Group office in David Street, Albury. Business adviser Tim Farrah, who is servicing the Hume-Riverina area, said the program was recently launched by the Industry, Tourism and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane. "In this day and age of international businesses that compete in the Australian market, small businesses in Albury and Wodonga really are competing against companies around the world," he said. "The only way to handle this is to see how our local businesses are coping and run sustainable programs to help them." Albury Precision Engineering is the first Border company to benefit from the new program.
Is there an actor in the house?
STUDENT doctors are diagnosing actors playing sick patients at the University of Sydney, while their counterpart nurses at Charles Darwin University are using a virtual hospital to learn to treat patients, all in the name of making the experience more real. .
Fresh Pain for the Uninsured
In a lucrative new form of fiscal alchemy, a growing number of hospitals, working with a range of financial companies, are squeezing revenue from patients with little or no health insurance. April Dial's dealings with Hot Spring County Medical Center in Malvern, Ark., illustrate how the transformation of medical bills into consumer debt means quicker cash for medical providers but tougher times for many patients of modest means. .
Zimbabwe: Microsoft Continues to Engage Partners for Success
MICROSOFT recently engaged its partners in Zimbabwe on various issues that are affecting them, including a bid to mobilise them in ensuring that their engagement with customers revolves around the use of genuine software. Microsoft system builder channel business account manager, Watau Ng'ang'a said they have different ways of engaging their partners so that they realise the benefits of being a Microsoft partner. .
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