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Republicans in the House of Delegates caved on Thursday to the President's, congressional Left wingers ', and fellow Republicans ' demands for a renewing of payroll tax cuts for employees. This is to a short term call till they can settle on a more formal budget plan. This may spare employees from having a standard $20 per week tax increase beginning Jan first.

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Welcome to the December 13, 2011 edition of Stock Carnival Ecstasy. In this edition we have some really good stories including one from Super Saver on a decline in the markets titled ‘Waiting for the Fat Lady to Sing’. Bill Smith takes a look at Four Extra Financial Accounts you should establish. And finally we have Investing Lingo, learning the language of traders, from Dr. Dean. Hope you enjoy the articles, bookmark, share, tweet, like on Facebook and come back soon.

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The stock market is getting a lot of attention today with the recent backlash and protests on Wall Street. The negative sentiments further fuel assumptions of brokers scamming and engaging in unethical practices.

While the stock market has undoubtedly had its share of horror stories, the investment opportunities it presents are still legitimate. The only question is, which ones? To prevent losing out on your hard earned money, it pays to do your own research and take the time to understand the basics of how you can avoid getting hoodwinked by unscrupulous investment scams. To do this you also need to look at a few of the stock market’s most successful swindlers to help you weed out the bad ones from the good.

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The notion that megabanks like the Royal Bank of Scotland are too big to fail apparently isn’t as easy a sell to as it used to be. Everyone hopes that the European Union will be unable to save foundering debtor nations Greece and Italy from default, but no one can see how. And fears are growing that default is inevitable.  Meanwhile, governments, which are cash poor to begin with, are responding  to  their public’s growing impatience with bailouts by sending signals that they won’t come to the rescue of any financial institutions left holding worthless debt. As a result, for the third time in two months the Royal Bank of Scotland has seen its credit rating lowered by one of the big debt rating agencies, not because of any change at the bank itself, but because debt rating agencies are factoring government reluctance to engage in further bailouts into their overall assessments  of financial institutions. This is why Standard & Poors recently downgraded the RBS from an A to an A-  rating following  similar moves by Moody’s and the UK agency Fitch’s in early October.

Investing can seem like a scary thing to many young people. After all, the global markets are very volatile right now, paving the way for massive sell offs in the market. Global pressures of debt and political unrest in many parts of the world are also adding fuel to the fire - making it seem like a horrible time to start investing.

Well, here’s some news for you: it’s almost never a bad time to start investing. In fact, to quote the ever wise Warren Buffet, “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.” Markets will always be volatile, and with anything in life there will always be some bad that comes with the good, but even with the rocky nature of the stock market you may still earn a higher return for your investment than you would in a regular savings account. Furthermore, the younger you start, the more time you'll have, allowing you to wait out rough patches in the market and recover from short-term dips.

Unfortunately, young investors have shown to be the first to bail during rough economic times. However, for those of you who are young and want to take advantage of the potential gains there are some great books you can read to get you started.

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It is nearly the end of the year again when we make our New Year's resolutions for the following year. Looking at cleaning up your finances is a worthy New Year's resolution that will pay off in the long run with a well-formulated plan.

Wouldn't it be great to end 2012 debt and be worry free? To be able to have a restful night's sleep without fearing debt collectors and post threatening legal action and bailiffs would be wonderful.

There are lots of money saving ideas and ways to help reduce debt and support you on your way to a debt free life.

Forex is a $4.2trillion daily business. No financial trading hub can boast of the kind of money that circulates in the Forex market. Given that a few years ago, the daily Forex turnover was just about 30% of today’s values, it is safe to say that in the next five years, we may see the daily turnover reach almost $10 trillion. With so much money floating around in one financial hub, it is not surprising that the Forex market will naturally draw out the human element of greed in some of its participants.

Of all the participants in the Forex market, the brokers are in a better position to profit financially. They make money from spreads and commissions generated by traders, irrespective of the market conditions. In a situation where there is a quest and accompanying pressure by humanity to live well and have the best that life can offer, it is not surprising that some brokers engage in practices that short-change clients and scam money off them.

Cover of Start Your Own Business

There are many people these days who would like to consider starting their own business. Whilst some people may think that now is the worst time to consider starting a business due to the economic fragility and turbulent financial climate, others believe that now is the perfect time to consider this due to the uncertainty over employment, job losses and pay cuts.

However, no matter how keen and eager you are to start your own business, one of the things that is likely to pose a challenge for many people is finding the money to start up your own business. Of course, the amount of money that you need to start your own business will vary depending on the type of business that you plan to start, what you already have versus what you need, and what is involved in setting up e.g. renting premises or buying equipment.

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Social media giant Facebook is slated to IPO in the spring or early summer of 2012, and this change will carry the requirement of public financial records. According to some experts, the company could possibly see a $10 billion gain at a valuation of up to $100 billion. The company has not yet chosen a specific bank for this endeavor, and some financial experts wonder how the IPO will affect the way Facebook does business in the long run.

Thought you had enough with just a checking and savings account? Got your tax account set up and think your financial picture is complete? Hold your horses, because there are a few more types of financial accounts you might want to consider.  These accounts may not be as basic as the ones mentioned above, but they may still play a role in diversifying your portfolio, gaining interest, building good credit, and being prepared for any financial "bumps in the road".