The presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of the Group of 20 nations have halfheartedly respected their pledge of four months ago to avoid turning inwards in fighting the economic crisis. Since then, world commerce has plummeted in a way unseen since the Great Depression.

With no concerted strategy for a revival, some economists say a rash of go-it-alone stimulus packages and industry bailouts could lead to trade wars — causing havoc in one of the key driving forces to the world’s economic growth since World War II.

“We’re playing with fire,” said Jagdish Bhagwati, an economist at Columbia University. “The system was designed to avoid the free-for-all wrestling of the 1930s. If the U.S. and France start saying, ‘This is legal so I am going to do it,’ everyone else will start to play that game.”

The World Bank says 17 of the 20 countries whose leaders are meeting in London on Thursday have resorted to protectionist measures since declaring their opposition to such action during a November conference in Washington.

The World Trade Organization says most of the major powers — from the United States and European Union to China and India — have erected new barriers to imports in the form of tariffs, subsidies or other measures designed to protect domestic industries.

Part of the problem is that the financial collapse shattered confidence in the world’s economic order, which includes as a major tenet the free flow of goods and services. With the recession deepening, pressure has ramped up on governments to come up with more ways to protect farmers, manufacturers and service providers from competitors overseas.

“The case for trade needs to be made more effectively, including by us,” said Keith Rockwell, spokesman for WTO chief Pascal Lamy, who will attend the London summit. “It behooves all of us to explain the benefits of trade, and what it means to economic growth and development.”

For 60 years, international trade has been a major driver of the global economy, outpacing GDP growth and spurring gains in both rich and poor countries. But trade is being hit hard by the crisis, with the WTO recently predicting that global commercial activity will shrink 9 percent in 2009 after 27 years of uninterrupted expansion.

The main cause is the sharp drop in demand for goods, both domestic and foreign, but analysts warn that protectionist sentiment threatens to make recovery far more difficult.

And slower, said Ed Gresser, trade director at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington.

He said merchandise imports in the United States, the world’s biggest market for foreign goods, has fallen about a third — to $210 billion a month from $310 billion only a half-year ago. That’s slightly worse than the 30 percent fall in trade in the first six months after the 1929 market crash.

“We’re in bad shape and I wouldn’t say we’ve seen the bottom yet,” Gresser said. “Governments haven’t really been working together. But they aren’t really working at odds with each other. If they did, we could be in for a very hard time.”

From footwear to steel to automaking, the G-20 countries have contributed to a protectionist swing, and there may be little the leaders can do in London to immediately reverse that trend, beyond broader attempts to stimulate the economy and fire up demand.

There are a host of smaller spats among the participants.

China is fuming over a U.S. ban on its poultry over safety concerns; Washington is looking to move against subsidies it accuses Beijing of paying manufactures. Farm exporters are upset with the 27-nation European Union’s reintroduction of dairy subsidies; and European nations are bickering among themselves over auto bailout packages and which members will have to shoulder job cuts.

The danger is best highlighted in a dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over trucking. Mexico has raised tariffs on 89 American products worth $2.4 billion in annual trade in retaliation for a U.S. decision to cancel a program that gave Mexican truckers access to U.S. highways. American fruit, wine and washing machines will be among the goods affected.

“If anyone doubted the danger of tit-for-tat, the Mexican response was a pretty clear indication that things can spiral out of control pretty easily,” said Rockwell at the WTO. “That helps nobody. Everybody knows this intellectually, but each and every one of the leaders is facing protectionist pressures from domestic constituents.”

Tips To Write Financial Hardship Letter

Here are some tips that would help you write an effective financial hardship letter.

· The letter must be written in a formal manner.

· The letter should be mailed by some certified mail service. Also check that you have the receipt of receiving of this letter.

· The hardship letter has to be very neat and concise. In case your hand writing is bad, prefer to get the letter typed.

· The letter must comprise of the borrower’s loan number along with the preferred option like short sale or loan modification, the borrower’s name, borrower’s address, borrower’s phone numbers and the borrower’s email address.

· Financially it comprises of the borrower’s current monthly income, monthly expenditure and the reason of the financial crisis.

· This letter must be written quite in time in order to avoid a foreclosure.

I  belive this is the person most consider, most care in the financial crisis period. When you’re young, you can do

anything as you like as you want, you needn’t to care what will be in your future, you just need to care what it is now.

But have you ever think about you future, think about your live when you’re old.  Do you want your child will feed you

untill the old age? Have you ever think about you retirement period? What we need to plan is what be like in our retirement?

retirementlivingnow.com shared with us the plan of providing the financial needs for seniors and baby boomers during this current economic crisis to plan our live. You can plan more about your future via this planation provided by the enet. In the

economy crisis period, we should think and plan for ourselves, we also should learn more business and economy knowledge

to protect ourselves from the crisis.

As we know, more and more citizen will plan for their future via planning their retirement, then what should we do now?

Let’s do it, just make our future better and better.

In the beginning of 2009, how can we past the bad economic periors is most important.

Some economic Organizations suggested many 2009 Economic Stimulus Package which wish to stimulate the economic, such as reduce the unemployment rate, the government give some preference policy to support the enterprise, $15,000 Homebuyers Tax Credit will be delivered.

In 2009, we need to do more to help us to pass the difficult live, we also need to think what can be done to make up the
economic not just waiting for the government support.

No one knows if the 2009 economic stimulus package works or not, no one knows how can be the economic become, no one know when can be the economic become better, everyone just hopes the economic will not be worth and worth, hopes everyone can have a job to help them to pass the difficult periors. We also should be confidence about our future.

A better approach is to learn from the mistakes of others and avoid making them yourself. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information available on what to do - and not do - when it comes to credit and credit cards.

One of the biggest, and most commonly seen, mistakes made by new credit card holders is to use that easy money as an excuse to buy lots of unnecessary luxury items. Just because you can charge that four star dinner or five star hotel room does not mean you should. Buying a leather sofa that you cannot afford is a poor use of that new credit card, and it will catch up with you in the end.

The rule of thumb with credit cards is this: if you cannot afford to pay cash for it do not buy it. Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but they should be few and far between. A prime example of an exception to the rule is car repairs. If you need to have your car repaired in order to get to work and keep earning money, that would be a wise use of credit, even if you cannot afford to pay the bill in full at the end of the month. Even in such an emergency, however, it is important to squeeze as much extra money as possible from each and every paycheck until the bill is paid in full.

Other than emergency situations, credit card holders should strive to pay their bills in full every month. If you find yourself unable to do this consistently, it may be time to look at your spending and search for ways to cut back.

The credit card companies are offering introductory offers including 0% on balance transfers and purchases for 6 or 9 months, so everything you buy is interest free how great is that! These offers are becoming more popular by the month, the credit card companies realise we will go with these credit cards first and that interest free deals for any period of time is a great way to pull in the customers.

Break free from your high interest credit card…

All credit cards can be interest free if you pay off your full balance on time and at the end of every month, but most of us cannot afford to do this. When the APR comes into force, usually a typical rate of 15-20% will be charged. There are however some better rates about if you are willing to search for them, including a rate of 9% and maybe even lower. Always check what your rate will be once the introductory period is over.

Many credit card holders are using the 0% deals to their advantage. The term “Rate Tart” is used to describe people who transfer their balance from one card on to a credit card that has the 0% deal. This will cut out the interest payments on their existing card, however, you really have to keep on top of this especially if you have more than one credit card, as you do not want to get confused as to when and where your balance transfers are due.

Take advantage of the 0% deals…

There has never been a better time to take advantage of these great 0% deals with the big companies fighting for your business. If you’re using the 0% deals for transferring your balance and are intending to use the card after the interest free period, double check the interest rate once the introductory period is over as it may be higher than the card you have.

· Switch your balance to a 0% deal
· Check the APR that will be charged when the 0% deal is over
· Start searching for a new credit card 4-6 weeks before your existing deal runs out

You probably know that when you apply for a mortgage, your loan officer gets all three credit reporting agencies reports with three different scores. From your three credit scores, most mortgage companies use your middle credit score to determine your credit worthiness.

Do you know that the credit score an auto dealer sees is not the same credit score your loan officer sees?

Imagine our surprise to find out that my husband’s credit score for purchasing my new car one afternoon was 50 points higher than his top credit score was earlier in the day when he refinanced an investment house. This happened because credit scores get computed differently for mortgages and auto loans!

If you think that you have a great credit score because you recently bought a new car, think again. You may have been told that your credit score was 700 by a finance company. Therefore, you think that you have the perfect credit score to buy a house. Don’t be surprised to hear from your loan officer that your credit score falls short of a prime rate mortgage loan.

You don’t want to have your credit history checked too often. You do get a small penalty with a few points deducted when you have too many inquiries on your credit report. However, when you’re shopping for a car or a home loan, the credit reporting agencies batch your inquiries into one. In other words, you can call several mortgage lenders to shop for the best terms and rates without losing points.

One of the gas credit cards they talked about, a Chase PerfectCard, offers a rebate of six percent for the first 90 days you use it. This rebate is good on any purchase of gas you make at any gas station.

Once the initial ninety days is up you still will realize a one percent rebate on purchases at restaurants, dry cleaners, grocery stores and clothing retailers as well as gas stations.

Not only that, your gas credit card rebates will get credited toward any purchase you make in the future with this card.

After the introductory period, you’ll earn a 3% rebate at ANY gas station on all gas purchases. Not only do you have a quick, easy payoff with this gas credit card but your APR is also fixed at zero percent on any balance you transfer to the card for up to nine months. You can earn a rate under 14 percent depending on your credit, and the first year you will be charged no annual fee.

Once your first year is up, all you will have to do to have your annual fee waived is to make nine purchases total with the gas credit card for the year.

Marathon gas credit cards offer a big ten percent rebate on Marathon Midwest and Southeast gas stations the first sixty days you use your card. After that you’ll realize a five percent rebate continuously.

This gas credit card also gives you a one percent rebate off any other purchases that you can put towards Marathon gas purchases.

This MasterCard gas credit card charges no annual fee your first year and, if you make nine purchases with this gas credit card for the year, you won’t have to pay the $20 annual fee the subsequent year either. For the first nine months you own the card there is no fee and zero percent APR on any balance transfers.

The rate on this gas credit card can be as low as 13.99 percent depending on your credit.

Hess gas credit cards offer you rebates for free gas and merchandise at every Hess, Hess Express and Wilco Hess location. The first ninety days you will earn a ten percent rebate. Subsequently, every Hess purchase with your gas credit card will net you a five percent rebate, while any purchase elsewhere will give you one percent back.

But credit cards aren’t all bad. If we could live our lives without them, we would. But we can’t. The world is simply not built that way anymore. More and more often, companies require credit cards as the best way to receive payment or security, rather than cash or checks.

But a credit card is just a loan. Few people realize it as such, but that’s all it is: Simply a loan that you can use if you want, but you don’t always use. A credit card is like a constant line of credit that is represented by the piece of plastic you carry in your wallet or purse. It says to the shop owner that someone has checked you out and deemed you worthy to receive a certain amount of credit line in order purchase the product offered for sale.

Used wisely, a credit card is an excellent financial tool. The first advantage a credit card offers is the ability to manage your finances. This means that you can buy things you want or need and defer payment until you choose.

If you have a credit card that provides you with reward points or rebates or discount opportunities, an advantage that credit card offers is to help you leverage your current purchases by building up points or generating discounts on the money you spend.

The third advantage a credit card can offer you is the additional layer of purchase protection. Some credit cards come with an extra insurance package so that purchases you make it any retailer are also covered by the credit card.

The fourth advantage a credit card can offer you depends on the credit card you get. Some credit cards offer travel insurance, car rental insurance, and even concierge services for a small fee. Depending on how busy your life is, or how often you travel or rent a car, having these advantages built into your credit card may be a wise financial decision for you.

If you wondering why you need to build your credit, consider the following reasons:

1. Having a credit history makes it far easier to obtain utilities like gas, electricity and phone services in your personal residence. Without a credit history, you may be asked to put down a large cash deposit to ensure that you will pay all your bills on time.

2. If you plan to ever buy a house or condo, the higher and more extensive your credit history is, the better the rate you will obtain for your mortgage.

3. If you ever want to get a degree and borrow money to pay for it, having a credit history will make it far easier to qualify for a good loan.

4. If you ever want to open your own business, you need a positive credit history in order to obtain a business loan or line of credit.

In short, you have much to gain by establishing credit for yourself as soon as you can. The earlier you begin building your credit history, the more advantages you will create for yourself for any future plans you may have.

You can build credit in many ways, such as having a department store credit card, or taking out a small loan at a bank and paying it off, but having a credit card is actually a far more effective way to build your credit. The simple reason for this is that you can use a credit card to pay for all your regular and ordinary expenses for which you might be paying cash, and in the process, you are literally building your credit record.

For example, at the very minimum, you might as well use a card to pay for all your grocery purchases, gas station fill-ups, and clothing purchases. By paying off these purchases in full when you receive your credit card statement each month for as little as two years, you can be taking advantage of hundreds of simple opportunities to build yourself a credit history without any risk or pain.

So if you do not yet have a credit history or if are trying to improve your credit, don’t wait any longer to apply for a credit card and begin using it as often as you can on your ordinary daily purchases. Many banking institutions are seeking new credit card business and are eager to find new applicants who need to build their credit history. They are especially interested in college students, young professionals, and people seeking cards in order to get special benefits such as airline miles or bonus points, and so you can find many attractive deals online from banks catering to your needs.