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Showing posts from November, 2009

Employment Insurance or Unemployment Insurance

Unemployment Insurance or Employment Insurance as it is called in some countries provides temporary financial assistance for unemployed citizens while they look for work. In times of distress such as the global financial crisis when people get laid off, this is an effective way to protect people financially, well to an extent at least. At the same time this does not promote or encourage unemployment among people. HOW IT WORKS? This insurance is not applicable for people who have not started working yet. This only applies if you were working as an employee. Eligibility Generally you need to be ‘qualified’ to be insured. Qualification includes Insurable hours - Continuous period of work for a certain minimum hours (eg. 52 weeks) Unemployment – you need to be without work and without pay for some minimum days (eg 7 days) No fault – you should have been fired for no fault of yours and should not have left the job without any ‘valid’ reason. Insurance Premium: A portion of salary (e.g. 2%)

Vulture Funds

Vulture Funds are financial organizations/private equity firms that seek to invest in debt issued by a company (or in case of a sovereign debt, a country) that is weak and dying. They are also called “Distressed Debt funds”. They buy up sovereign debts of poor nations that are assumed default or near bankrupt when at time the debt is just about to be written off and eventually sue the debtor for the full value of the debt plus interest in the future. The full value is usually 10 times the original paid up debt. Alternatively, they hold on to these investments (if the issuer doesn’t default) and sells them when the prices skyrocket. So these vultures prey upon the debt cancellation measures received by the poor companies/nations by purchasing their debt at a discount (sometimes as low as 20%) and redeeming it at a premium (including interest). They provide a useful alternative for investors who are unable to follow up upon their defaulted debt and in turn are certain to face financial r