22% of consumers are cutting back on other gifts to splurge on Apple products, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey. Reuters Money editor Lauren Young takes a closer look at your holiday list.
Solutions for the “Sandwich Generation” supporting children and parents
How families paying for kids and elderly parents can discover hidden day-care, flex-spending, telecommuting, and financial help. Lauren Young offers leads in this week’s Money Clip.
EXCLUSIVE: HSBC Holdings PLC is under investigation by a U.S. Senate panel in a money-laundering inquiry, the latest step in a long-running U.S. effort to halt shadowy money flows through global banks, according to people familiar with the situation and a company securities filing.
The intensifying scrutiny of HSBC is the latest in a series of investigations by U.S. officials into how global banks have processed — and in some cases, intentionally hidden — financial transactions on behalf of countries which allegedly support terrorism, corrupt foreign officials, drug gangs and criminals.
Germany: many seek to switch to public health insurance
Shocked by premium increases of as much as 50 percent, many Germans with private health insurance are seeking to switch to a national health plan, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported Sunday.
Many private health insurance plans pushed through hefty premium increases at the beginning of the year and that’s behind the move to switch, the magazine said.
“We’ve gotten increased telephone inquiries from those privately insured who want to come to the AOK,” Wilfried Jacobs, the head of the AOK in Rheinland/Hamburg, told the magazine. The AOK, with 15 regional branches and some 24 million members, is Germany’s largest public health insurance organisation. The magazine said other public health insurers have received similar inquiries.
But it’s not so easy to switch once you’ve opted for private insurance. German law only allows people to change from public to private in exceptional situations.
These include when someone has lost their job. You can also switch if you are an employee whose salary falls below the € 45,900 level. Workers who used to be self-employed but now have a full-time position with a similar salary may also change. (via The Local)
Corporate America’s worst nightmare lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, loves browsing in flea markets and has a lop-eared brown and white pet rabbit named Crackers
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Will Your Offshore Accounts Land You in Jail
The days of hiding away your assets in a secret Swiss bank account are over.
