Written on September 28, 2008 by admin
WASHINGTON — When a senator at a recent hearing asked General Motors Corp. Chairman Rick Wagoner whether she should wait for the price of the Chevrolet Volt to go down before buying one, Wagoner had a ready answer: “The good news is we’re going to subsidize your purchase.” So will the American taxpayer.
With the approval of $25 billion in low-interest loans Saturday, the U.S. auto industry has won the help it urgently needs to rework its vehicles. Continue reading! »
Posted in Business, latest, world | Comment Now!
Written on September 6, 2008 by admin
The US dollar has pulled back across the majors as US non-farm payrolls fell more than expected in August by 84,000, marking the eighth consecutive month of contraction in US job growth. Perhaps even worse than that, the unemployment rate surprisingly rocketed to a nearly 5-year high of 6.1 percent from 5.7 percent.
On the other hand, average hourly earnings actually picked up 0.4 percent during the month of August, pushing the annual rate up to 3.6 percent from 3.4 percent. The data provides a very skewed picture to the Federal Reserve, as employment growth slows but wages pick up. This will stir fears amongst the FOMC members that surging food and energy prices over the summer has led the public’s inflation expectations to rise and thus, has led them to demand higher wages. It is this “wage price spiral” that any central banker fears most, and as a result, the Federal Reserve is likely to continue sounding hawkish in the commentary. Nevertheless, the sentiment that may ultimately feed through into the US dollar is that the central bank is unlikely to take action anytime soon, as employment conditions are weaker and threats to US economic growth as rising. Continue reading! »
Posted in forex, world | Comment Now!
Written on August 24, 2008 by admin
Image Credit to Media 4 Trade
The foreign reserves holdings of oil and some emerging economies including the BRIC countries are reaching stratospheric levels. This external surplus is largely a result of the run-up of the oil and commodity prices. Should these nations be complacent with their high levels of forex holdings or should they worry about the opportunity costs of holding high levels of foreign reserves? This savings glut of oil and emerging economies has been largely channelled to the US, cheaply financing its large current account imbalance. The US current account deficit is estimated to absorb about 75% of the global external surpluses. Increasing liquidity of the oil and newly industrialised economies are being funnelled into financial instruments issued by advanced countries yielding negative real rates of return. Continue reading! »
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Written on August 18, 2008 by admin
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NEW DELHI: Reebok India, in an effort to capture the fitness-inspired lifestyle clothing market, is bringing its global lifestyle brand ‘Reebok Classics’ to India. The company will set up separate stores for Classics, 75 outlets by March 2009.
Reebok India has built up a lifestyle-product portfolio for apparel, shoes and accessories. It has signed up style icon Bipasha Basu and youth icon Yuvraj Singh to represent the fusion of fitness and lifestyle through Reebok merchandise. To be rolled out in the menswear and womenswear segment, Classics will cater to niche market of style-and-fitness conscious youth in the country.
Reebok India MD Subhinder Singh Prem told ET: “The lifestyle space will be a focused business for Reebok. We see more people interested in wearing stylised sportswear, and hence we will be rolling out up to 70 specialty lifestyle retail outlet stores by this year-end, besides existing 700 Reebok performance stores.” With the introduction of this new vertical, Reebok India expects to garner revenues of Rs 1,400-crore by this year-end. Reebok, currently, claims to enjoy 51% marketshare in the Indian sports-footwear and apparel market.
Sources: The Economic Times
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Written on August 12, 2008 by admin
Picture Taken By Mohd Aidil
News reports out of London and France this morning say a villa in France has become the most expensive home ever sold.
Villa Leopolda, the legendary estate on the Côte d’Azur built by King Leopold, has been sold to a mystery Russian billionaire. The price: €500 million, or about $750 million.
We’ll see if the price and sale turns out to be true. The European press reports had Bill Gates buying the place in 2005, but clearly that didn’t happen. And real-estate agents have been known to exaggerate on price. Continue reading! »
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Written on July 31, 2008 by admin
BRUSSELS, July 30 (Xinhua) — Euro zone’s business climate indicator fell to -0.21 points in July, the lowest level since May 2005, figures of the European Commission showed on Wednesday.
The indicator was 0.13 points in June and 0.58 points in May.
The low level of the indicator suggests that economic activity in industry remains subdued in the euro zone, commented the commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU).
All the five underlying components of the indicator registered a decrease. Industrial managers’ production expectations and their appraisal of total order books deteriorated most. Their assessment of production trend observed in recent months and export order books also declined significantly. Their assessment of stocks of finished products worsened only slightly.
The business climate indicator is based on a factor analysis of the euro zone’s aggregate balances of five of the monthly questions in an industry survey.
Sources: China View
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Written on July 23, 2008 by admin
Image credit to google
Do you ever think opening a business for your self?. Do you want to start a small business with a small capital and start safe?. Small business finance acts as a stepping stone for the small businesses, to explore innovative and holistic approach of business to increase their profits. With small business finance borrower can minimize the difficulty of funds that the borrower comes across during the business. Continue reading! »
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Written on July 15, 2008 by admin
GRAND HAVEN TOWNSHIP — Township trustees voted 6-1 Monday night to merge the township’s assessing and finance departments.
Township Manager Bill Cargo said the system was put into place a few months ago when Finance Director Gary Schriber retired.
Cargo admitted at first he was skeptical, but since has seen it work and is very supportive of the team approach.
“It works in the private sector, so why not use it in the public sector?” he asked.
Cargo said elimination of a middle-management position (finance director) would reduce labor costs by $46,000 to $56,000 a year. He said when combined with the decision earlier this year to replace a full-time public works employee with a seasonal employee, the township will have reduced the general fund labor costs by $80,000 a year. Continue reading! »
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Written on June 17, 2008 by admin
The futures markets are predicting a stand-pat policy on interest rates by the U.S. Federal Reserve when it meets next week, according to The Wall Street Journal [subscription required]. Even so, some economists say investors should not feel overly emboldened by the futures outlook.
“I still put the odds of Fed rate increase at 30%,” economist Glen Langan told BloggingStocks Tuesday. “A stand-pat policy is not guaranteed. Not hardly.” Continue reading! »
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Written on June 11, 2008 by admin
Image Credit to Telegraph
Teenagers who send more than five text messages a day on their mobile phones or make more than five calls are ruining their chances of getting a good night’s sleep, a new study shows.
Young people who often used their phone to text or call their friends were more likely to have trouble sleeping than those who used their mobile moderately.
As a consequence “excessive texters” felt more tired during the day and drank more caffeine to help them stay awake.
Many young people also felt a “pressure” to be at the end of their phones “around the clock”, the stress of which led them to take up smoking or drinking, the team behind the research warned.
The study, presented at SLEEP 2008, the 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), in Baltimore, found that teenagers who used their mobiles often were more prone to disrupted sleep, restlessness, stress and fatigue than other young people. Continue reading! »
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