Islamic Banking Principles: solution or flop to debt crisis?

By Briana Booker


Officially today the United States government has reached its debt ceiling of $14.294 trillion dollars. Default by August 2011 is a concern for most Americans. How will Wall Street respond? How will it effect our bond market? What will happen with mortgage interest rates? Where is the solution to this debt crisis?

The economy is fragile.  The real estate financial market is fragile. Excessive amounts of U.S dollar reserves are in China's financial market. American citizens and the rest of the world are concerned about U.S money supply and interest rates. A default is not a solution.

However, I believe simplifying our financial market can help open our eyes to solutions. What could be better than going back to the basics of exchange? Why can not we receive what we are willing to give? The purpose of money is to fairly exchange it for a valued good, whether of a specified product or for equal value of money.

I thought of a system that still follows this traditional banking and exchange system. The system is Islamic banking principles. Islamic banking is similar to conventional banking, minus the promotion of interest rates. Islamic banking shares in profits and loss through joint ventures and limited partnerships. It restricts interest rates, which is the culprit of the U.S national banking system crisis. How is the average person able to pay debt back, that  he or she never could afford from the start?

No one with logical sense would borrow from a friend $10 plus 25% or more interest to that borrowing? Yet, banks and a variety of private loaners are allowed to practice these corrupt methods of financial exchanges?

The system needs reforming. Greed does not help anyone, and now as a country, we are laying in  the bed we made for ourselves. Something is going to give or things will fall apart if we do not initiate a reforming of our financial system.

A default will raise borrowing cost, a cost we can not afford now and certainly not later.

I support Islamic banking principles. Presently, it is a stable form of banking but it only holds a small share of the global financial system. It is ethical and I feel, even if we use it temporarily, it can get the economy back on target.

Bust a cap in a Hacker: How to protect online accounts from Hackers!

By Briana Booker

Financial fraud online is becoming a bigger issue as our technology gets more and more advanced! It is based upon us not taking enough basic precautions to not be victims to perpetrators. This morning someone tried to hack into one of my online accounts! It only takes one easy opening for a hacker to make you vulnerable and cause numerous financial and social destruction for you!

Here below are some measurements you should take to protect yourself from online account hacking:

• Make sure when you are at an ATM machine you cover your hand completely! Metal on the ATM can reflect your hand. It is like the bank is setting you up to get robbed. Cover your hand with your body! Professional hackers often watch you at the ATM machine to hack your pin number.

• Look around your surroundings. You have eyes for a reason. I rather look and be rude than be harmed. It only takes one effort to get your information

• Use different passwords for each and everyone of your online accounts. I do this with my email accounts and everything i use online! I think this is the reason the person had a hard time hacking my account! Thank  goodness for Google! They show you last IP address log in as well as send you notifications when someone tries to retrieve your password! I always send a reset to an account i do not use for anything, just in case.

• Do not be a simpleton. Never set your password as anything too obvious! No birthdays, no street address, no social security numbers...nothing personal. Those are the first materials hackers use! And all are easy to obtain with a quick engine search.

• Use characters people would least expect in a password. Mix upper and lowercase letters, shift-number keys, NEVER SPELL WORDS! It works like a charm!

• Protect and check your credit reports and bank accounts every couple of weeks!  AAA offers this with membership! I hear American Express has a great program as well!

•  When an error message happens when you try to make online payments or log in a social network, close the web page and log in as normal. Do not enter it on the log in error screen! And always look for bad English! Do not be a victim!

I hope this is useful!