With the housing market seeing signs of a double dip in prices, homeowners who got in over their heads have looked to save money by any means necessary. Now, thanks to extremely low interest rates, adjustable-rate mortgages are luring borrowers away from locking in rates with longer-term fixed mortgages. Although you can score from savings in the short run, choosing an ARM over a fixed-rate mortgage could prove to be a big mistake in the long run.

Low and lower
When it comes to mortgages, homebuyers have never had it so good. After a brief spike earlier this year, rates on 30-year fixed mortgages have headed down again, falling below the 4.5% level. That’s not quite as low as we saw in 2010, but it’s still historically quite attractive.

But for those willing to take on interest rate risk, adjustable-rate mortgages have rates that are even lower. With one-year ARM rates approaching 3%, the difference of 1.5 percentage points represents $250 a month in lower interest on a $200,000 mortgage. HSH Associates reports that the rate difference between ARMs that reset after five years and fixed mortgages is as wide as it’s been since the heart of the housing boom in 2003.

Should you follow the REITs?
In many ways, choosing an ARM over a fixed-rate mortgage is similar to what mortgage REITs Annaly Capital (NYSE: NLY – News), Chimera Investment (NYSE: CIM – News), and American Capital Agency (Nasdaq: AGNC – News) have done to generate such huge profits in recent years. Essentially, taking out an ARM gives you the benefit of borrowing at lower short-term rates, in exchange for a long-term obligation — in this case, owning your home. That has worked well in this rate environment, because short-term rates have stayed at rock-bottom levels for so long.

Similarly, ARM borrowers will enjoy cheap interest payments as long as rates remain low. The risk that they share with mortgage REITs, though, is that if short-term rates spike upward, your borrowing costs will skyrocket. That got many borrowers in trouble during the housing boom, as homeowners discovered that they really couldn’t afford to make mortgage payments once rates returned to normal levels.

A bad reputation
The fact that borrowers used ARMs as the only possible way to afford buying homes gave these loans their bad reputation during the initial part of the housing bust. Option ARMs with negative amortization offered homeowners deceptively cheap payments that were set to balloon upward a few years later. And while some banks, including Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC – News) and US Bancorp (NYSE: USB – News), didn’t originate option ARMs themselves, plenty of now-vanished lenders, including Countrywide, Wachovia, and Washington Mutual, did. So now, Countrywide-acquirer Bank of America (NYSE: BAC – News), Wachovia-buyer Wells Fargo, and WaMu asset purchaser JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM – News) have ended up with plenty of option ARMs.

As it turned out, interest rates have stayed low throughout the initial period of option-ARM resets, saving many borrowers from the possibility of much higher payments. But eventually, interest rates will go up. And while fixed-rate mortgage borrowers will enjoy their current low-ish rate as long as they own their homes, ARM borrowers may well find themselves in the uncomfortable position of trying to figure out whether to eat much higher interest charges, or refinance into a fixed-rate mortgage at a higher rate than the ones now available.

Middle of the road?
One middle-ground solution between a pure ARM and a fixed mortgage is to consider ARMs that let you lock in your rate for longer periods of time. ARMs with five- or even seven-year fixed periods can give you a discount to fixed mortgage rates, and if you end up moving or refinancing before then — or if you’re able to pay off a significant part of your debt — then the savings is yours to keep.

Saving money on interest charges is always an attractive way to cut costs. But with ARMs, what you get now could cost you later. Whether you can save using an ARM over a fixed mortgage depends on your own personal situation, but one thing is certain: ARMs aren’t a no-brainer smart move for everyone, and they could end up being a big mistake.

Fool contributor Dan Caplinger replaced his mortgage with a low-rate home equity line of credit and has never been happier. He owns shares of Chimera Investment. The Motley Fool owns shares of JPMorgan Chase, Annaly Capital, Chimera Investment, and Wells Fargo. The Fool also owns shares of and has opened a short position on Bank of America. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool’s disclosure policy always thinks long term.

SEATTLE Thomson Financial – Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 video game console will be $50 cheaper starting Wednesday, confirming fuzzy snapshots of leaked advertisements posted by bloggers in late July.
The company said its most popular console, which comes with a 20-gigabyte hard drive, will cost $349.
A basic console without a hard drive or wireless controllers will retail for $279, $20 less than its current price, while the Xbox 360 Elite, a black version with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and high-definition video support, will drop $50 to $449.
In July, the company clipped the price of its add-on HD-DVD player to $179, from $199.
Microsoft has been dodging questions about a console price cut since competitor Sony Corp. slashed the price of its 60-gigabyte PlayStation 3 to $499, from $599, in early July. Nintendo Corp.’s Wii, the least expensive of the so-called next-generation consoles, costs $250.
Last week, spokespeople for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. and Microsoft all refused to say whether blurred images found online _ purportedly showing weekend ad circulars reflecting the price cuts _ were authentic.
Aaron Greenberg, a group product manager for Xbox 360, said in an interview Monday that the ads were real.
Greenberg also said competitors’ prices had no impact on Microsoft’s decision.
‘In fact, we had this in our plans from the very beginning,’ he said, and added that the timing was linked to the release of several highly anticipated video games, including ‘Madden NFL 08,’ which hits retail shelves next Tuesday.
‘There is nothing too shocking about this,’ said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at JupiterResearch. He said it’s normal for companies to cut console prices between one and two years after launch.
The analyst added that the $50 price cut will bring in a whole new group of customers who ruled it out at the higher price, and that Microsoft should enjoy increased sales immediately _ even though the official holiday shopping season is still months away.
Microsoft also said Tuesday that the green and gold ‘Halo 3’-themed console, will go on sale in September for $400.
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LOWER PROFIT: Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s first-quarter profit fell 58 percent to $1.5 billion, or $917 per Class A share, from $3.6 billion, or $2,272 per Class A share, a year ago. Revenue rose to $33.7 billion, up from $32 billion last year.

INSURANCE LOSSES: The sharp drop in earnings was due to hefty losses to the company’s insurance segment as a result of the major disasters in Japan, New Zealand and Australia.

BRIGHT SPOT: Berkshire’s insurance segment overall, which includes auto and home insurer Geico, still contributed $131 million to net income because of investment gains.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Mortgage finance giant Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) on Friday said it would ask for an additional $8.5 billion from taxpayers as it continues to suffer losses on loans made prior to 2009.

The largest U.S. residential mortgage funds provider reported a net loss attributable to common shareholders of $8.7 billion, or $1.52 per diluted share, in the first quarter.

Including the latest request, the firm has taken about $100 billion from the U.S. government since it was seized in 2008, though it has also paid about $12.4 billion to taxpayers in interest.

Loans made in the past two years have been more profitable than loans made during the housing boom in preceding years.

“As we move forward, we are building a strong new book of business that now accounts for 45 percent of the company’s overall single-family guaranty book of business,” said Michael Williams, the firm’s president and chief executive officer.

Sibling firm Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB) said on Wednesday it lost just under a billion dollars in the first three months of the year, though the second-largest provider of mortgage funds did not request any new money from the government.

The two firms together have asked for about $164 billion, though their net payments have been reduced to about $140 billion as a result of the interest payments, including the latest request.

Then-U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson took control of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae at the height of the financial crisis in September 2008 as losses mounted from mortgages gone bad.

The plan to put them into conservatorship was meant to be temporary, although it is likely to be years before a long-term replacement structure takes shape.

The two firms and the Federal Housing Administration back close to nine of 10 new home loans after private mortgage funding dried up in the wake of the financial crisis.

(Reporting by Corbett B. Daly; Editing by Diane Craft and Dan Grebler)

Whenever business school rankings are released by any publication, readers flock to the Bloomberg Businessweek Business Schools Forum to analyze the lists.At the moment, forum participants are debating the order of business schools in U.S. News and World Report’s latest ranking. So far, 44 messages populate the discussion thread, and many suggest different ways to rank the programs, each participant bringing his own preferences to the discussion.

Admissions directors at top schools and consultants who advise B-school applicants agree that many B-school hopefuls rely too much on the rankings and get caught up in the lists instead of the more valuable data that come with them. They warn that this can ruin a business school application, because admissions committees are unimpressed when applicants have chosen them simply because their school is No. 5 on a certain publication’s annual list.

“Stop thinking of them as rankings of
anything,” says Linda Abraham, president of Accepted.com, an admissions consulting firm in Los Angeles. “They are collections of data and surveys. They are opinions.”

Still, rankings serve a purpose in the application process and can be valuable to MBA candidates who know how to use them properly while keeping the lists themselves in perspective, say admissions experts.

Business school rankings are available free online, which can help people save money on admissions consultants, says Sara Neher, assistant dean for MBA admissions at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business (Darden Full-Time MBA Profile). “Use rankings to figure out where to apply,” she says. “Don’t use them to decide where to go.”

What>

Indeed, rankings are of the most service to applicants near the start of their business school search, says Patrick Noonan, associate professor of decision and information
analysis at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School (Goizueta Full-Time MBA Profile). Applicants, say experts, should use the rankings to narrow down the list of schools to which they’ll apply. But first they must understand what each ranking measures, says Noonan.

For instance, the Bloomberg Businessweek rankings focus on recruiter and student evaluations, whereas U.S. News measures reputation, placement success, and selectivity. Graham Richmond, chief executive of Clear Admit, an admissions consultancy in Philadelphia, says he recommends that his clients consider the Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News, and Financial Times rankings, which he thinks are the most respected in the industry.

Consumers of the rankings must realize that small, often insignificant, differences separate the top schools, and they are better off looking at the tier the school falls in — among the top 20, say — instead of the
school’s numerical placement on the list, says Douglas Bowman, professor of marketing at Goizueta. His colleague, Noonan, suggests applicants look at the rankings over time to get a sense of each school’s consistency. Bloomberg Businessweek, for example, provides an online ranking history going back to 1988.

Although Noonan says the general message of the rankings is more important than specifics, he adds that applicants should understand each measurement within a ranking to determine what is important to them. For example, he says most students will tell you the number of professors with research published in academic journals doesn’t influence their decision about whether to apply to a school. But when he explains that published research serves as a proxy for how engaged and innovative the faculty members are at a particular business school, students realize this might be of more importance to them than they thought, he says. Both the
Financial Times and Bloomberg Businessweek include a faculty research component in their ranking methodology for full-time MBA programs.

Part of understanding any data point is to know where the data come from, says Julie Strong, senior associate director of admissions at the MIT Sloan School of Management (Sloan Full-Time MBA Profile).Ask questions, she adds, such as, “Did the school provide the information the publication uses to determine the rankings? If not, who did? How often are the rankings done? Is the information you’re looking at two or three years old?” Most of the well-known rankings provide full explanations of their methodology, where one can find answers to these kinds of questions.

Using>

Ideally, those who are thinking about business school will use the data from the rankings to create a personalized list of programs to which they will apply, says Richmond. Applicants can input the data
from the rankings in a spreadsheet and include the items from each that are most important to them, he adds. Several ranking organizations, including Bloomberg Businessweek, offer online comparison tools that can facilitate the process.

Next, applicants should turn to the specialty rankings that many media outlets publish to see which schools rank best in finance, marketing, and other academic subjects to get an idea which schools offer programs that match their career goals, says Richmond. They can weight each of these characteristics according to their own preferences and compare the various programs.

Most publications, including Bloomberg Businessweek, publish profiles of business schools that contain in-depth information about each program, including GMAT scores, corporate recruiters who come to campus, and the percentage of women in the incoming class. Applicants can use these profiles to determine how competitive the schools are and where
they might fit best, says Abraham. Still, she suggests using this information only in a preliminary manner and in tandem with additional research, such as visits to the schools’ websites and discussions with students and alumni.

While the rankings are viewed by most admissions experts as the entryway to a person’s search for the right business school, some experts say there are other ways to use the rankings in the application process. Bowman, for instance, suggests applicants reflect on what they want from a program, start to check out schools that might interest them, and turn to the rankings to validate their choices or insure they didn’t miss any programs.

Rarely, the rankings can be a factor at the end of the application journey. Abraham says that if someone has been accepted to multiple programs and finds it difficult to choose between two, employing the rankings to help make the final decision is a legitimate use of the data. This should be a
last-ditch mode of deciding, however, used only after all other research has been exhausted, she adds.

Numbers are the biggest feature of most ranking reports, but they are not the only one. “Go for the data and stay for the art,” says Noonan, who reminds applicants to read the narratives that publications provide to get a sense of what business school is all about.

Limits>

Ryan Hamilton, assistant professor of marketing at Goizueta, turns to a quote by Albert Einstein when talking about the rankings: “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” Essentially, Hamilton says, data will be meaningless, as Einstein suggests, if the numbers are not representing something important and meaningful to the applicant.

For a two-year investment in a full-time MBA program, which can easily top $300,000, including two years of forgone salary, applicants owe it to themselves to conduct a wide
range of research, says Judy D. Olian, dean of the UCLA Anderson School of Management (Anderson Full-Time MBA Profile). “The rankings should be a factor but a small factor,” she says.

After all, it is through campus visits and talks with students and alumni that applicants will best come to understand the culture of an MBA program and where they might be able to see themselves enrolled, she says. One thing applicants never want to do, says Richmond, is discuss the rankings in their applications. Schools want to know that applicants see a future there and not that the program is appealing because a magazine says it is No. 1.

“The rankings are an initial step, but you have to go further,” says Richmond. “The ranking doesn’t tell you the full story of what life is like on that campus or what a school is actually doing to place students in a particular industry.”

(1888PressRelease) March 23, 2011 – Emerging Markets Direct released their latest Malaysia Banking Industry Report 1H11. Contributed by higher net interest and financing income and revenue related to financing activities, the pretax profit of Malaysia Banking Industry increased by 17.8% y-o-y to RM6.13 million in 3Q10. As of September 2010, total assets held by financial institutions in Malaysia amounted to RM1, 508.57 billion, a record growth of 10.12% y-o-y. Commercial banks represent the largest segment of all financial institutions in Malaysia (total asset at RM1, 192.84 million), with Maybank taking up 27.18% of the local market share and ranking first domestically.

About 55.61% of total loans in the Malaysian banking system is driven by the household sector (eg. Mortgage,hire purchase loans for passenger cards and personal loans), which was up 13.4% y-o-y as at September 2010. Education, health and other sectors saw a robust growth in total loans at a rate of 69.83% y-o-y. Overall, the total loans in the banking industry grew by 11.84% y-o-y to RM854.18 billion.

The banking system remains very stable with ample liquidity to meet demands for deposits withdrawals. In the third quarter of 2010, deposits saw a growth of 8.90% y-o-y, which was mainly derived from financial institutions, businesses and individuals. The loan-to-deposit ratio as well as the financing-to-deposit ratio were rather stable and remain at 81.3% and 87.8% respectively.

To sustain high level of stability, the banking system adheres to the rules and requirements specified under Bank Negara Malaysia’s mandate. All banking institutions in Malaysia are required to comply with the Risk-Weighted Capital Ratio requirement (8%) set by the central bank. As of 3Q10, the ratio remained strong at 14.75%, far more than the specified ratio.

Growth story continues in the Islamic banking segment, Islamic banking in Malaysia is the fastest growing sector in the global banking industry with an average annual growth rate of 20% over the past 5 years. Malaysia is the world’s largest market for sukuk or Islamic bond market, which takes up around 65% of the global market share. To date, Malaysia has 17 Islamic banks including Islamic units in HSBC holdings, OCBC and Standard Chartered PLC.

What is the development of Mobile Banking? How does the central bank and government offer assistance to the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)? What are the mergers and consolidations activities set out in the Financial Sector Master Plan? What are the trends and outlook of the industry?

Profit now from our Malaysia Banking Industry report:

http://www.emergingmarketsdirect.com/products/Malaysia-Banking-Industry.html

Table of Content

1. Industry Profile

Sector Overview

Sector Size and Value

Total Assets

Total Loans and Deposits

Interest Rates

Sector Performance

Financial Institution Profit and Loss

Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR)

Non-Performing Loan (NPL) Ratio

2. Market Trends and Outlook

Islamic Banking

Mobile Banking

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

Industry Consolidation

3. Leading Players and Comparative Matrix

Leading Players

Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank)

Public Bank Berhad (Public Bank)

CIMB Group Holdings Berhad (CIMB)

RHB Capital Berhad (RHB)

Hong Leong Bank Berhad (Hong Leong)

Comparative Matrix

SWOT Analysis

4. Tables & Charts

Table 1: Banking Institutions in Malaysia

Table 2: Breakdown of Total Loans by Sector (December 2006 – September 2010)

Table 3: Breakdown of Total Loans by Purpose (December 2006- September2010)

Table 4: Interest Rates in Malaysia 2006 – 2008,1Q09 to 3Q10

Table 5: Top 25 Countries by Shariah-Compliant Assets

Table 6: Number of Establishments by Sector

Table 7: CIMB: Profit before Tax by Segment FY08, FY09

Table 8: CIMB: 2009 Target Achieved

Table 9: Financial Highlights of the Leading Players FYE09 or FYE10

Chart 1: Malaysia’s GDP and Growth Rate 2006-2010

Chart 2: Total Assets by Types of Financial Institutions as at September 2009 and 2010

Chart 3: Total Assets of Nine Domestic Banks in Malaysia as at September 2010

Chart 4: Total Loans and Growth Rate September 2007-September 2010

Chart 5: Loan Disbursements by Sector 2Q09,3Q09,4Q09,1Q10,2Q10,3Q10

Chart 6: Banking System’s Loan Applications and Growth Rate 1Q07 – 3Q10

Chart 7: Loan applications vs Loan Approvals 1Q06 – 3Q10

Chart 8: Banking System’s Total Deposits as of September 2010

Chart 9: Banking System’s Total Deposits 2005-Sept 2010

Chart 10: Total Deposits by Types of Financial Institutions 2009 and September 2010

Chart 11: Loan/Financing to Deposit Ratio April 2009 – September 2010

Chart 12: Overnight Policy Rate March 2006- September 2010

Chart 13: Commercial Banks’ Lending Rates 2006 – 2008, 1Q09 to 3Q10

Chart 14: Banking System’s Capital Ratios March 2006-September2010

Chart 15: Banking System’s Net NPL Ratio March 2005 – September 2010

Chart 16: Mobile Users Worldwide by 2011

Chart 17: Maybank: Net Income by Business Activity FY2010

Chart 18: Public Bank Loan Loss Coverage 2005-2009

Chart 19: Public Bank Asset Growth 2005-2009

Chart 20: CIMB Group’s Earnings History 2005-2009

Chart 21: RHB Bank: Loans, Advances and Financing 2005-2009

Chart 22: RHB Bank: Total Deposits 2005-2009

Chart 23: RHB Bank: Operating Revenue by Business Segment in 2009

Chart 24: Intrinsic Value of Hong Leong Bank FY2006-2010

Chart 25: Hong Leong Bank Total Loans and Deposits at Bank Level FY 2006-2010

About Emerging Markets Direct

Emerging Markets Direct is the online research store from ISI Emerging Markets, a Euromoney Institutional Investor Company. We deliver in-house industry research report, industry analysis and data vital to support all kinds of business decision, academic and research purposes. Our flagship product – Emerging Markets Direct Report covers the top 20 industry sectors of India, China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Indonesia. ISI Emerging Markets in-house analysts crunch the numbers from our proprietary CEIC databases and combine the results with on-the ground industry insight. The result is reliable, hard-to-get industry data, analysis and insight. Previously available only to subscribers of the ISI Emerging Markets Information Service, Emerging Market Direct reports are available now at our online research store. Our Other products are: Dealwatch, CEIC snapshots, CEIC datatalk, Intellinews. To view our full catalogue of products, please visit http://www.emergingmarketsdirect.com

BOSTON (Reuters) – Billionaire hedge fund manager John Paulson, whose bet against the overheated housing market made him one of the world’s wealthiest people, became a lot richer last year.

By earning an estimated $5 billion in 2010 thanks mainly to bets the economy would recover, Paulson likely set a record for the $1.9 trillion hedge fund industry’s biggest-ever year’s earnings. He beat his own record, which he set in 2007 with a $4 billion haul made off the subprime bet.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Paulson’s payout in its Friday edition, and investors familiar with Paulson’s portfolios said the number is likely correct given the manager’s asset size and his recent profitable bets on Citigroup (C.N) and gold.

More generally, Paulson’s eye-popping payday confirms that hedge funds are still Wall Street’s gold mine, where hefty fees make hundreds of managers extremely rich. But it also underscores concerns among investors that they may not always be getting their money’s worth, especially when hedge fund returns lag behind the broader markets.

For Paulson, who now ranks among the likes of Warren Buffett and Pimco’s Bill Gross as the world’s most closely watched investors, the payday comes after he reversed deep losses in his funds halfway through the year. And it may finally put to rest speculation that his investing prowess was limited to one lucky bet during the subprime era.

“He did it on the short side and on the long side,” said Brad Alford, founder of Alpha Capital Management, which invests with hedge funds. “He proved that he can really do it all.”

Other prominent managers like Appaloosa Management’s David Tepper and Bridgewater Associates’ Ray Dalio likely also earned 10-figure paychecks, the Journal reported.

EYEBROWS RAISED

Thanks to a spurt in December, John Paulson’s $7.7 billion Advantage Plus Fund ended the year up 17 percent. That is not much more than the Standard & Poor’s 500 index’ 15 percent gain but it surely returned more in fees to Paulson & Co than to a mutual fund manager overseeing a portfolio tracking the index.

Now the payouts for Paulson and his fellow top hedge fund managers at firms managing over $20 billion are sure to raise new questions about managers’ high pay even for low returns.

Overall, the average hedge fund gained 10.5 percent last year, lagging the S&P; and falling short of the industry’s own 19 percent return in 2009, data from Hedge Fund Research showed. But managers will still collect 2 percent management fees and about a 20 percent cut of their gains.

In Paulson’s case, the fact that his 17-year-old firm Paulson & Co oversees about $35 billion fattened up his payout. To be fair, Paulson also invests his entire fortune in his funds and since his gold fund gained 35 percent, his investment gains added billions to his payout.

For other managers, including ones who lost money, however, the industry payouts may seem less fair, investors and analysts said.

“People are fine with hedge fund fee structures as long as they are making great returns,” said Stewart Massey, who invests with hedge funds at Massey, Quick & Co. “But where they get antsy is where managers have middling returns and the managers are still making a lot of money.”

As hedge funds look for new investors, experts say that investors’ demands on pay will hold more sway. A push from some investors to set a so-called hurdle rate, or minimum accepted rate of return, for manager pay, or to reward them only if they exceed certain benchmarks may gain traction.

ROAD TO BIG PAYDAYS

The big paydays at hedge funds are likely to confirm that hedge funds can be modern-day gold mines on Wall Street and spark even more movement from the world of banking and mutual fund management into this asset class.

“Many of these big hedge fund managers are now earning more than professional athletes,” said Kenneth Murray, president of Mercury Partners, which recruits staff for hedge funds. “And they can do this for the rest of their lives, unlike sports stars who have to find another job after the age of 35 … 100 percent, hedge funds are the places where everyone wants to be.”

But he and other recruiters agree that as the industry matures, it is becoming harder for newcomers to break in, and that portfolio managers need to bring long records of top performance before getting a job. Also, with investors becoming pickier, it is harder to raise a lot of money.

“If you’ve been in the game and successful, you may be set for life, but for everyone else it is becoming tougher,” Murray said.

(Editing by Robert MacMillan; Editing by Gary Hill)

(1888PressRelease) December 09, 2010 – DUBAI, UAE – How does interest-based finance contribute to global warming? And how does Islamic finance provide an alternative? Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, the Dubai-based training and certification institute, explores these and other topics in a live webinar on Sunday, December 12, 2010 at 6pm (Dubai time).

Ethica looks at how interest-based finance imposes unnatural demands on humans and nature, and explains how Islamic finance offers an ethical alternative. The webinar also shows attendees how to get involved and concludes with a live Q&A.;

Ethica’s Managing Director, Atif Khan said, “The connection between interest-based banking and global warming is rarely made. Yet, across the globe, every summer gets hotter and every winter gets milder. We need to make this connection and understand the true humanitarian cost of compounding interest and the demands it places on the Earth and us.”

Between 1980 and 2007, the summer Arctic ice area shrank from ten million square kilometers to four million square kilometers. At this rate, the Arctic will be almost free of ice within fifteen years and the sun, with no large ice sheet deflecting its light, will have free reign to warm our oceans at will. Rising sea levels and increasing global heat are not part of a natural, glacial shift in the Earth’s weather patterns, as some of those in moneyed quarters might have us believe, but rather a dramatic environmental shift all happening in a blink of the Earth’s archaeological eye. It is caused by us. A fact easily measurable from carbon data in ice stratigraphy dating back millions of years.

About Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance: In 2010, Ethica (www.EthicaInstitute.com) was chosen by more professionals for Islamic finance certification than any other organization in the world. The Dubai-based institute received the award nomination for “Best Islamic Finance Training Institution” in 2009 and 2010 by Islamic Business and Finance Magazine. Ethica’s clients include banks, universities, and professionals in over 20 countries.

Registration is available on a limited first-come, first-served basis at www.facebook.com/EthicaInstitute. For more information about this article, or to schedule an interview with Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance, please call Sameer Hasan at +971-4-305-0782 or e-mail at info ( @ ) ethicainstitute dot com.

European equities markets were higher Thursday on the likelihood that Ireland will get a bailout for its banks to the tune of tens of billions of euros, and after an index of leading indicators was up for a fourth consecutive month in the United States and the US Labor Department reported that fewer Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week.

The FTSE 100 was up 1.34 percent to 5,768.71 in London, while the FTSE 250 added 1.22 percent to 10,844.4.

Brewer SABMiller (LSE: SAB) added 5.12 percent to lead gains on the 100 after it reported that its profits were up by 15 percent in the first half, while defense technology company QinetiQ Group (LSE: QQ) was the best performer on the 250, adding 13.64 percent on first-half earnings that were above analysts’ predictions and ahead of earnings in the same period last year.

Basic resources companies, including miners, were higher, led by gold and silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) with a gain of 5.05 percent, while there were only two decliners in the sector as papermaker Mondi (LSE: MNDI) fell 1.88 percent and African Barrick Gold (LSE: ABG) dropped 0.83 percent.

The energy sector was also mostly higher, led in gains by oil and gas engineering and well support company John Wood Group (LSE: WG), which was up 2.68 percent, while the four decliners in the sector were led by oil rig builder and refurbisher Lamprell (LSE: LAM), which led declines on the 250 as it fell 13.74 percent.

The worst performer on the 100, meanwhile, was product inspection, testing and certification firm Intertek Group (SLE: ITRK), which was 6.26 percent lower on the session.

The travel and leisure sector was mostly higher, led by online gambler PartyGaming (LSE: PRTY), which was up 5.55 percent, followed by a 4.4 percent gain for British Airways (LSE: BAY) after French airline Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF) raised its outlook on profits.

Business processing outsourcer Capita Group (LSE: CPI), which administers television licenses for the BBC, was down 4.43 percent after it said that budget cuts by the government were hurting sales of the licenses.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.34 percent to 1,107.07 while the IBEX added 1.33 percent to 10,3253, the Dax was 1.97 percent higher to 6,832.11 and the CAC-40 gained 1.99 percent to 3,867.97.

There were no decliners on the Dax and only one decline on the CAC-40.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were higher as investors had fewer worries about China’s measures to curb inflation after it looked as if the government there would concentrate on controlling prices in specific sectors rather than imposing broader controls to cool the economy.

The Nikkei 225 was up 2.06 percent to 10,013.6 in Tokyo, while the Topix index added 2.18 percent to 868.81 and the Mothers market gained 1.05 percent to 372.3.

Banks and brokers made significant gains as Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306) added 4.3 percent, while Mizuho Securities (TYO: 8606) was up 6.99 percent, Shinsei Bank (TYO: 8303) was 7.14 percent higher and Resona Holdings (TYO: 8308) gained 9.17 percent.

Exporters were higher as the yen weakened versus the euro.

Watchmaker Citizen Holdings (TYO; 7762) was up 1.17 percent, camera and copier maker Canon (TYO: 7751) was 1.26 percent higher, consumer electronics manufacturer Sony (TYO: 6758) added 2.19 percent and optics and imaging group Olympus Corp (TYO; 7733) gained 2.85 percent.

The Straits Times Index was 0.1 percent higher to 3,215.22 in Singapore and India’s Sensex added 0.33 percent to 19,930.6 after both returned to trade after holidays yesterday, while the Taiex was up 0.34 percent to 8,283.45 in Taiwan.

In Australia, the SP/ASX200 was also 0.34 percent higher, to 4,640.2 while the Sydney Ordinaries gained 0.38 percent to 4,722.8.

The Shanghai Composite added 0.94 percent to 2,865.45 in China, South Korea’s Kospi was up 1.62 percent to 1,927.86 and the Hang Seng gained 1.82 percent to 23,637.4 in Hong Kong.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 1.68 percent to 11,193.1 at just before 1 p.m. local time, while at the same time the SP 500 had added 1.84 percent to 1,200.26 and the Nasdaq Composite was 2 percent higher to 2,525.44.

Crude oil prices were higher in New York and London, while metals prices were up as gold added $13.70 per troy ounce in early afternoon trade in New York.