Draghi drags his feet

This article tells how the European Central Bank decided after its policy meeting that from now on it will be the lender of last resort to the European Banks but not European Government. All this is being done to calm the markets down of possible Euro Banks failure hence regain investor confidence.
Any such development has positive impact on Dow Jones, S&P 500 and other indices hence help re boost the sluggish economy by regaining confidence. This also shows that although banks claim to have little exposure to European debt they actually have a lot of exposure and if big European banks fail, many American banks will be hit badly.

American Banks

This is a great article showing the effect of the European crisis on American Banks...

It tells us how much exposure each bank has to Europe and how it is safe to a certain extent.

Its great information and can help you invest in the bank based on your prediction of Europe

Too Big To Fail

The New York Times reviews the movie as being a very accurate portrayal of the events that occurred in 2008. The movie even stops to explain what credit default swaps were so that average people (people who are not taking NIBC class) can understand just exactly what was going on. I too was surprised that a movie portraying a recession could be rather thrilling and keep you wondering what was going to happen next, even though we are still living through the aftermath of the events.

Google Wallet and the Velocity of Money

Google has recently developed a new app called Google wallet, with which people can use their phone to shop with one touch of a button. Although Verizon Wireless declined to allow this application on their upcoming release of smartphones, this app could have a large effect on the macro economy. As discussed in class, an increase in the velocity of money would increase the supply of money and therefore shift the IS curve on our IS-LM model. How could this affect interest rate/output of the economy and how should the fed respond to this app if the velocity of money were to be increased?
Verizon Blocks Google Wallet

Italy’s Leader Unveils Radical Austerity Measures

The Prime Minister of Italy revealed yesterday new fiscal austerity measures that attempt to radically decrease the government deficit and increase long-term growth. Radical measures that would not be stomached in America, like closing of tax loopholes, increases in tax rates, and an increase in the retirement age, are being taken to help fix the ailing economy. Impressively, the Italian Prime Minister is claiming that these measures are needed because it is not the fault of the Eurozone, but Italy itself that has caused the current economic turmoil.

Although I am impressed by the Prime Minister's conviction in enacting these potentially unpopular measures, I am concerned about the short-term effect that this will enact. Cutting spending and raising taxes and retirement age may help in the long-run, but with the current state of the economy, it may not be the best option. It will cause a significant decrease in short-term aggregate demand, which at the moment may not be worth the benefit to the economy in the long-run.

For Angry Employees, Legal Cover for Rants

This is a very interesting article which talks about how employers fire their employees because of negative feedback they give about their companies or their bosses on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Although employers argue that such "ranting" causes negative word of mouth, however the employees are now fighting their cases in accordance with the laws which protect them from being illegitimately fired.

The Dash for Cash

Europe banks are the ones now facing scrutiny before investors, companies and savers will lend them any cash. Faced with an investor strike, banks are putting a halt to new loans and selling or pawning all they can. Unless the investor strike lifts soon, Europe risks a credit crunch. At worst, there may even be bank runs and failures. For now, this is keeping the system ticking over, partly because a bank lending money overnight knows it may have to ask for the favour to be returned next week. Euro-area central banks are also leaning heavily on their biggest banks to keep supporting the smallest with interbank loans.

Into the Storm

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast assumes that the euro crisis can be resolved without too much fuss, which seems increasingly unlikely—and the uncertainty is pushing the euro zone towards recession fast. Across the continent banks are finding it hard to refinance their own debts cheaply. They are also shedding assets at an alarming rate in order to meet EU capital-adequacy targets by next June. Britain’s banks have lent heavily to businesses and governments in the euro zone’s worst trouble spots, as well as to German and French banks. The threat of a severe credit shortage will force businesses across Europe to conserve their cash and make them cautious about spending on new equipment or hiring new workers. Add in the ever more severe budget cuts planned by euro-zone countries and the picture gets even stormier.

Leaders Struggle for Deal to Keep Euro Intact

In the article, the problems with the euro and possible ideas to help solve the problems are discussed. A major issue is the disagreements between the countries that are in debt and those that are not. Those that are in debt want more help from the European Central Bank and for it to buy more of their loans. However those countries that are not in debt (Germany is the one that is discussed here) are completely against it, since it will in large part be their tax payers who are now on the hook for the debt of others.

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is also calling for fiscal reforms in the countries of the euro zone. She believes the countries spending and level of debt should be most closely monitored and those that exceed the accepted level should have some sort of predetermined penalty.

Jobless Rate Dips to Lowest Level in More Than 2 Years

Even with the Euro crisis debt the unemployment rate drop to 8.6%, the lowest in 2.5 years. Part of the reason was that more than 120,000 jobs were created and 315,000 people simply stopped applying for jobs. 64% participated in the work force. Also companies have been taking more part time and temporary workers rather than hiring people and they cut low wages salary. Jobs in the retail sales and auto sales have increased and businesses are able to loan from banks.

With the tax cut more than 160 million middle class Americans received more money on their paychecks but the tax cut will expire soon this will slow down the job creation and output growth. This will affect the consumer spending. This is a good sign for Obama.

Haunted by Hyperinflation

At lot of people are looking to Germany, as a leader in the Eurozone, to get out of this European Debt Crisis. Recently, Germany has been criticized for being slow to act on account of its fears of inflation.

Yet, you can't entirely blame Germany for being slow to act. First, Germany has it comparably good right now and increasing inflation could change that. Germans also have an intense fear of inflation, which the article explains in detail. Germans remember or have been raised to fear the hyperinflation of the 1920s, which wiped out savings and devastated the economy. Because of that financial strength, security, and saving have been key, which has been good for Germany in the last couple of decades, but bad for the countries in trouble now. So, the question is, will Germany be able to get over its fear of inflation in time to act to help Greece and the others?

The Euro Crisis: One Problem, Two Visions

This makes one think that they keep talking about reform for the future, but what about the present? Greece is still on the verge of collapse and they still don't seem to have a plan of action for when the inevitable occurs. Are they just going to keep pumping money in these countries or what? I'm sure if they properly restructured the EU so that strict regulations were placed on worrisome states, the markets would be satisfied with that.

In contrast, as all of this is going on, Turkey must be happy that the EU rejected them. In retrospect, Turkey has been doing very well with its economy and the money they could have contributed to the EU would have been invaluable. Now they will watch from a distance while their role in the Middle East only grows...

Jobs growth nice. But show us the money!

We already had several piece of news talking about that the unemployment rate has decreased currently. But according to this new article, people now actually haven't enjoyed the benifit.

There are some signs of life showed in the job market. And that's of course a good thing. It's just too bad that people still aren't making enough money to keep up with the fact that the cost of almost everything is getting more expensive.

"Hourly wages fell in November. So much for consumers having more cash to spend this holiday season. And over the past 12 months, wages are up just 1.8%. Through October, the consumer price index rose 3.5%. That's a big problem. "As we know, the inflation rate is pretty low, but it still higher than the wage growth.

There are several reasons that the job market still stinks. Employers still hold all the cards. Many people who have been out of work for years and can get jobs are just happy to get back to work. They're not going to take a hard-line stance negotiating how much of a salary they will get.

Unemployment 8.6%

This article talks about the recent decrease in the unemployment rate to 8.6%. This serves are evidence to the gradual rectification of the economy. Another important part about this article is its reference to the idea that unemployment insurance that has been given out during this financial crisis should be a source from which the economy would benefit. They say that recipients of this money will spend it quickly which will boost the spending in the economy. This is interesting as it suggests another good side to the availability of unemployment insurance, while in class and in previous articles it was generally seen as an incentive to stay unemployed.

Big Banks get sued for unethical practices

This article talks about a recent lawsuit filed by the state of Massachusetts against JP Morgan, CitiGroup, and Bank of America for highly unethical foreclosure practices. The lawsuit claims that the banks seized many homes they had no legal right to seize since they did not own the mortgages on the properties. The lawsuit also accuses the banks of "robosigning" , which is when employees sign mortgage documents without even reading them, using false signatures, and /or not having proper witnesses present. Its amazing how unethical many of the leading banks' practices are, even after the housing crisis hit. It just makes you shake your head at the culture of greed that these banks have fostered at the detriment of their customers.

Inside Obama's Re-election Math

This article goes into the detail of which states are crucial to O'bama and his need for electoral votes. He has visited Pennsylvania eight times this year in order to get as much support as he can from the state that holds twenty electoral votes. Pennsylvania is not the only crucial state for O'bama and many feel that it will be a slim margin to whether or not he will be able to stay another term. O'bama's presidential game may be coming to an end soon.

Fears of U.S Safety Keep Investors in Europe

With everything going on in Europe, you would think that more and more money is coming from abroad into the U.S. Well, not so fast. Data shows that even though the turmoil in the eurozone is causing money to fly out of Europe, doesn't necessarily mean it is coming into the U.S. Europeans do not feel that the U.S is a safe haven. Europeans are suspicious of how the Fed is using quantitative easing and are unsure of how their money will do in this economy.

At Top Colleges, Anti-Wall St. Fervor Complicates Recruiting

Jobs in the Wall Street used to be a very popular job for recent graduates but with this current economic situation many student from ivy league universities refused to go into finance. With the recent occupy Wall Street movement there was a lot of protest on university campuses. The job in finance is not as prestige as before since they are laying off workers and the salary decreases. Some of the slogan in the protest against Wall Street said that " 25 percent is too much talent spent" "Take a stance, don't go into finance" "These are people who could be doing better things with their energy". The number of recent graduates who went into financial services decreases from 25% to 17%. Now recent graduates rather go into technology firms such as Google, Apple, and Facebook. After reading this article I'm excited to see whether the protest will impact more recent graduates or not. Some recent graduate are still determined to work in the finance industry but hoping to leave in after a few years.

Stocks Surge After Central Banks’ Action on Debt Crisis

After a long stretch of uncertainty about the European financial crisis, European central banks and the Federal Reserve have begun to take action on the matter. The central banks decreased by about half the rate at which foreign banks could borrow from their central banks. This would be akin to a decrease in the Federal Funds rate. This action was taken to increase liquidity in banks and make sure they had funds, relieving some of the mounting pressure. As a result, bond prices fell, commodity prices and financial shares increased. Stock markets rallied in response, with increases in the Dow, Bank of America shares, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley prices. This article also mentions that interest rates are low and will remain low to stimulate investment, which is some of what we heard at the Economic Outlook Conference too.

Economists quoted in the article believe that although helpful, this action by Central Banks only targets a symptom of the Eurozone crisis, not a the root cause. I agree with this analysis. It will help relieve pressure for a small amount of time, but the crisis is much deeper than this. Eventually, European financial leaders will need to confront the Eurozone system as a whole, rather than targeting these smaller symptoms.

Is it finally getting better?

We all know how important the auto industry is to American commerce. Over the last two years you could describe that industry as sluggish at best. With competition being extremely high, automakers have been fighting for market share in a market with decreasing market size over the past few years. When the numbers come out for November they are expected to be the best in two years. I think this article is valuable to us because we can use the auto market as a litmus test of sorts for the rest of the economy. With this, we can look for consumption to continue to rise ( as we saw on cyber Monday and black Friday with record numbers) and hopefully unemployment to continue to creep in a downward direction.

The great leap online.

This article talks about how although right now America dominates E-Commerce sector, but in near future this domination will be shifted to China. China currently has 145m online shoppers compared to 170m American online customers. The rate of growth of online customers in China is immense and this could mean many of the companies shifting their factories to China from USA to avoid high transportation costs.However Chinese people still don't "fully" trust online market which could act as a hindrance in the growth of this market in China

Black Friday...... Well Here's Cyber Monday

After reading the posts on the success of Black Friday and also the mention of Cyber Monday I have come across an article which helps to highlight the major success of these two days. With sales being up this Black Friday than the past year the economy looks as though it will receive some much needed aid from this consumption. In addition to this Cyber Monday is apparently doing equally well with sales being more than last year’s more than $1 billion dollar figure. The idea of Cyber Monday, created to help the e-commerce companies left out by Black Friday, has been able to boost figures of sales for many companies. Online sales have seen increases as high as 42 percent for just this day alone.

The article sort of pokes fun at the idea of all these crazy days of big spending being developed but then one struck me as important. The article mentioned “Red Tuesday” where consumers would be going into debt because of Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending. This raises a serious issue, though consumers are spending is this spending more than they can themselves finance?

The 50-50 Solution

This article talks about the idea of investing in bonds during recessions and stock during economic booms. Specifically, it talks about re-arranging one's portfolio to sway in one way or another according to the current state of the economy (which technically, according to the article, isnt in a recession).

It then goes on to discuss an approach, proven by research, that keeping a balanced portfolio (50/50 bonds and stocks) is the best, regardless if it's during a recession or a progression, than changing the majority of one's portfolio according to the current economy.

"In other words, humility may bring the steadiest returns."

Online sales surge 26 percent on Black Friday

This year, Black Friday saw a large increase in e-commerce purchases at 26 percent greater than last year. Last year, sales were at $648 million where this Black Friday jumped to $816 million in sales. Overall, this November has been great for online sales as many have decided to skip the chaos that comes with midnight shopping at the local retail stores. The next big day is called Cyber Monday, a day when online retailers bring out their big promotions and deals.

I figured it would be only a matter of time until we saw this occurence. There will still be the large number of people who participate in the late night shopping on Black Friday, but as we can see, many have decided to skip the whole even and purchase from the convenience of their own homes. I for one have never participated in Black Friday and when the time comes, I believe I will be one of the millions that does my shopping at home.

US Health Care needs severe reforms

This article talks about how inefficient the US health care system is.
It is well-known that health care takes up a lot of government deficits and as it stands, the costs have not produced as efficiently as in other countries.
The author provides two solutions:
1.) Make the industry more competitive with a voucher system
2.) Make it government run.
The 1st would technically lead to a cheaper and more efficient health care system since higher competition would mean lower prices. However, there is always the risk, especially when lives are concerned, that without regulation, profit-seeking will override patient-saving.
The 2nd option will for sure lead to lower prices because the government will fix it, but many point out that we will have a much worse health care system since many smart minds will not go into medical schools anymore due to much lower incentives.
I prefer the 1st, since there is no guarantee that the government, so heavily influenced by the health care industry anyways through lobbying, will lead to a more patient-saving type of industry than a competitive voucher system.

The NBA

This is a nice article about how the NBA is now back. It talks about how the NBA affected a lot of people outside of the NBA. It talks about how all the parking attendants, concession stand workers and surrounding business are now going to be able to have their lives back. How local businesses are going to make more money than they have been. I think this is something that a lot of people don't think about. The NBA coming back means local economies will rebound and start to produce again. Especially with this coming around the holidays where people spend more anyway, it sure makes things easier on people. Now I'm ready to watch some basketball.

Call Centers - India and the Philippines

Recently there has been an increase in the number of call centers located in the Philippines, with some companies sending their call centers from India to the Philippines. The reason for this being that many customers are happier with the Philippines’ more American styled English as opposed to the “hard to understand” British English of India.

First off this is good for the Philippines as it helps raise the standard of living for the population, as the salary provided by the call centers is above the national average. This will help pump more capital into this economy. On the downside however, the call center industry in India is losing some of its business, though not too much for them to worry about as they remain strong in the information technology branch of call centers. Also to be taken into consideration is the value of the peso and rupee to the dollar. The rupee is currently on a downward decline which would make it cheaper to keep outsourcing calls to India. While the peso in the Philippines had recently seen a steady increase in value which the article mentions could hurt their position on the industry if the value strengthened to 35 pesos to the dollar. It is interesting to see how shifts in one countries economy could result in benefits or hindrance to another country.

Who lost the decade?

The Japanese say they suffer from an economic disease called “structural

pessimism”. Overseas too, there is a tendency to see Japan as a harbinger of all

that is doomed in the economies of the euro zone and America. Besides supposed

stagnation, the two other curses of the Japanese economy are debt and deflation.

Yet these also partly reflect demography and can be overstated. Japan’s economy

works better for those middle-aged and older than it does for the young. But it is

not yet in crisis, and economists say there is plenty it could do to raise its potential

growth rate, as well as to lower its debt burden.

Brink Think

When Mario Draghi took over as president of the European Central Bank at the

beginning of this month, it was felt that he had to prove his credentials in Germany.

That task is made harder by calls on the ECB to act as backstop to troubled Italy,

Mr Draghi’s home country, and to contain a sovereign-debt crisis that is raising

borrowing costs for most euro-zone countries, while driving them down in Germany.

s much as reform in Italy and elsewhere is needed, it seems unlikely that promises

to be austere will halt what looks like a run from all euro-zone bonds but German

ones.

The Dwindling Power of a College Degree

This article is very interesting showing how technology and the needs of labor changes over time. Before back in the 1970s having a college degree guarantee a job right away now a bachelor degree is only a base. You will need more than that more specific skills and charm. Some jobs are more obsolete such as secretaries. Out sources are more common as well.

Nothing guarantees you anymore for a good job some believe "that if they played by the rules . . . they would have the chance to build a good life.”

During the 1970s there were stabilizers which keep working class wages up and rich's wages lower. Before the top bracket was taxed 70% in 1978 and its 35% now. But not there are more inequality.

There are 40 millions of people who are unskilled theses people are likely to be laid off. I'm not surprised to see that there are more inequality between the classes now than back in the days.

For Black Friday First-Timers, Not a Night of Conversion

Black Friday starts early this year many stores tend to open earlier as early as 9pm. With this economic situation more people tend to participate in Black Friday shopping than last year. Some people are more aggressive as well. There was a women in California pepper sprayed a fellow Wal-Mart shopper in order to get the Xbox she wanted. There was an estimated that they are 9000 shoppers visiting Macy this year compared to 7000 last year. Some people never participated in Black Friday sales before but this year they have too. For example a couple bought several box of diapers at Toy R US during the sales because they had twins with one income. I hope Black Friday sales can significantly increase the consumption rate. Then again some people came out for Black Friday but they didn't buy anything since the thing they wanted was out. This was a bad experience for some of them and they vowed not to participate again.

Will Cousins Cost You?

This is a very interesting article which talks about how your relatives could end you up in a financial debacle.
It is not only your own intelligence and networking which will assure your financial stability but the health and education of your relatives as most of the time one who is stable ends up paying for others.
One analogy I can make to the current situation is the student loan problem. Many of the student loans have been co signed by parents, uncles or cousins and in today's job market where jobs are hard to find, a default by the applicant would mean that his co signer ends up paying for his debt.
I see this as a potential threat in near future to the stability of the economy as student loan default rate is increasing and such a circumstance could have a trickle down effect.

The harsh reality

This is a great article about the mixture of optimism and harsh realities facing the american Economy currently. There are a lot of economic indicators saying things are looking good like the unemployment insurance etc. However somethings like orders etc for businesses do not look that great

Debt supercommittee members brace for failure

Not surprisingly, a bi-partisan group failed to come up with a good compromise.
The Democrats want high tax rates to the rich while the Republicans want to cut in Medicaid and Social Security.
It is blasphemous that these two sides are taking such extreme sides and won't budge.
With all the politicians gone for Thanksgiving, I hope they are working hard to find a solution.
The debt must be cut or else half of the cut must come from national security.
Republicans drove a hard bargain in order to let Obama raise hb

Imperial Overstretch: Is A Bloated Defense Budget Weakening the U.S.?

This is a great article about how we can look at history to prevent disasters in the future. Specifically, this article compares the United States to the former Soviet Union and Britain in that we are neglecting our own economy while we are engaging in, what some call, "Imperial Overstretch". Defense over spending has resulted in a a "civilian/social service" deficit. This includes an under investment in our country's infrastructure, health care, and education, resulting in lower GDP growth. The author also criticizes the war in Afghanistan as a lost cause and reason for slow growth in recent years. This is the time in our country's history to correct what the world's history has shown us to be a fatal flaw in some of the greatest powers in history as we know it.

Trade

The article talks about the trans-pacific trade pact between 12 economies of the world in the Asia-Pacific region. The pact is important and worth noticing considering the fact that it accounts for more than 40% of the world's GDP. Some people are critical of the fact that this treaty would make some leaders only concentrate on trading in this region, thus affecting world trade. However, I strongly believe (and the article talks about it) that this would only enhance global trade and not hurt anyone. The most interesting part of the article is that it talks about how Japan has conveyed an interested to join this partnership and how this could mean a revolution in trade across the world considering Japan's tariffs of over 800% ! I believe that trade can only benefit everyone in the long run and look forward to learning more about this agreement in the future.

Debt Committee: Decision Time

The latest news on the Congressional deficit supercommittee is looking bleak. No substantial compromise has been reached thus far, and the timeline is running out. In this whole process, I, along with I would assume many Americans, have been quite confused about the whole thing. What is it that the supercommittee is trying to accomplish, what will happen if they reach it, and what will happen if they don't? Every politician and economist is giving different answers, and it's difficult to know what exactly will happen and how it will impact us. This article gives some good analysis of what's to come from the supercommittee, with a leaning towards the scenario where no deal is reached on time.

Jobless Claims Fall to 7-Month Low: Is the United States' Large Layoff Period Ending?

A ray of light at the end of the tunnel? Maybe, but recent initial jobless claims statistics may have the light getting a little brighter. Initial jobless claims 4-week moving average has hit a seven month low. Though this is a good sign, we are not out of the water yet. Currently, the United States is short 11 million jobs in the economy. That is a lot of ground to make up and economists predict the United States needs to nearly triple the current job growth to 300,000 a month, and have it constant there for 37 months to get back to the pre-recession rate. Lets hope it doesn't take that long, for graduates' sake everywhere.

The magic of diasporas

This is a great article which talks about the changing attitude towards immigrants and its negative repercussions on the economy .  In Europe, Japan and USA immigration laws are being made tougher and tougher and those immigrants who are educating themselves in these countries find it hard to land a job as companies are not willing to sponsor them. Making immigration laws intricate and discouraging foreign workers is not only bad for the country which is imposing it but also for the country where the immigrant comes from as that country looses precious foreign remittance.
"America educates foreign scientists in its universities and then expels them, a policy the mayor of New York calls “national suicide”. Whether or not this is national suicide only time will tell. 

Voices of the Near Poor

This article starts off by explaining the Census Bureau's new system of measurement for the poor and the near poor. This Supplemental Poverty Measure seems superior, especially when you see that the number of near-poor was 76% greater than estimated with the original system.

The article then goes on to discuss the situation for the near-poor, who are largely forgotten by the public and politicians. They're between a rock and a hard place; their income is "too high" for food stamps or to be considered poor, yet it is not high enough to keep them safely away from the brink. It's shocking that so many people fall into this near poor category and it seems that their situation is almost inescapable. It's really a shame that so many find themselves in this situation in the US.

Extending Black Friday

This article is quite interesting. It talks about the economic effects of the Black Friday shopping event. They note that during this period in the shopping year about 1/5^th of all revenue is made, that’s just in four weeks. They say an alien to America would describe the economy as, people living frugally for 11 months of the year but then going crazy buying things that they don’t need.

This unnecessary spending is however very useful to the economy. It stimulates the consumption, spending of billions of dollars that otherwise were not spent. The writer even goes on to describe the event as a “one-day economic-stimulus plan and job-creation program”. This causes the suggestion of trying to extend this effect for more than just say a week. Give the article a read the writer goes more into detail about this idea.

Imagine, Black Friday as an economic relief source.

Targeting Nominal GDP as a Monetary Policy Rule

In class last Thursday (11/17), we talked about various monetary policy rules and mentioned that there is currently a debate whether the Fed should adopt targeting nominal GDP growth rate to stabilize the economy. The debate on this issue in policy circles is very current and it is interesting to follow a back and forth on the issue, especially since we are in uncharted waters. This article (linked in the title) is a response to Christina Romer's case for targeting nominal GDP growth rate.

Hope you find this stimulating.

Prof. Skosples

Greece lightning

Greece seriously needs good leadership. Just when the world thought there could have been some reasonable state of stability in Greece and the Euro crisis, the world was reminded of how inept Greece's prime minister George Papandreou can be. The idea of having his citizens vote on whether they want to put in place a plan that will higher their taxes and basically make their lives worse, was absolutely crazy if he wanted to somehow avoid even more economic turmoil for the EU. After decades of terrible economic policies in Greece, new leadership is needed clearly in order for them to get back on track towards a more fiscal responsible future.

Delaying retirement: 80 is the new 65

This is a kind of depressing article, but it is also truly realistic. There is data shows that, a quarter of middle-class Americans are now so pessimistic about their savings that they are planning to delay retirement until they are at least 80 years old -- two years longer than the average person is even expected to live. The main reason is that, on average people cannot save as much as the need before their retirement.

I think this situation will bring many other issues. For example, the limited job chances for young people, especially new-workers, will be decreased by this extension of retirement age. This change could be another challenge for the job market in the future.

Bell Ringers Go Digital This Season

After reading this article now I see the importance about adaptation since technology is always improving. The company/organization/ business have to cater to their customer's needs same as the Salvation Army in this article.

They realized that people don't really carry cash anymore so this year they will use Square a mobile start up payments which allow them to take credit cards. So that people won't have any excuse not to donate. Some other organization have started using Square as well, it brought great feedback. By accepting donations by credit card it can eliminate theft too.

When I went to a farmer market down in Columbus I started to see small merchants using this technology as well.

U.S. Economy: Sales Rise More Than Forecast, Driving Growth

As the title suggests, Christopher Wellis discusses a rise in retail sales, stocks, as well as discussing other economic indicators showing signs of growth. This recent growth was under predicted by most economist and is in agreement with the attended lecture. An interesting aspect to look out for is whether or not income inequality continues in this growing economy.

Republicans Consider Breaking No-Tax Vow as Deadline Looms

This article talks about some Republicans that are willing to change their original stance on taxes as they see the turmoil that is unfolding in Europe. This is also because of the November 23rd deadline of Congress' Bipartisan super committee is approaching quickly and no mention of anything happening has been brought up. They must find 1.5 trillion dollars from the budget and some Republicans are willing to make some changes and compromise with Democrats. We'll see if it's all talk or will they make it happen.

What do you do when you reach the top?

This is a great article which talks about the rapid speed with which South Korean economy has been growing. Till 1960 it was one of the poorest economy with all resources exhausted after the war, but now it has a gross domestic product per person of $31,750 compared compared with $31,550 for the EU. Although it did suffer from the 2008 financial crisis but it gained back the momentum quickly and currently south Korea is enjoying growth of around 6% with unemployment of 3%. 
However this pace of growth can not continue forever and South Korea will have to come up with new ways of maintaining its growth as it has almost reached its optimum level.  

France and Italy in the Eurozone Turmoil

This article discusses another Euro-zone problem, with French banks having substantial holdings in Italian, not Greek, debt. French banks are “among the worlds’ biggest, and are closely linked with their counterparts in the United States.”

While we are all well aware that our American $ will also ultimately be affected by the euro crisis, this article attempts to explain to an extent, how intertwined the US is with European banks.

The article also discusses the various ramifications from the leaders of severely indebted countries leaving office (most notably Greece and Italy)

Italy approves austerity, Berlusconi resigns

This article heralds gives a basic idea of the measures to be taken by the Italian Government and people in regards to their current debt crisis. Measures such as, pension reform, raise in the retirement age, the privatization of state-owned companies and sale of state-owned properties, the liberalization of certain professions, and investment in infrastructure. This turn of event comes with the realization of Italian politicians that daily in their reform could mean the end of Italy, as they make changes and receive support from the European Central bank. The article continues to say though the market seemed to have reacted favorably to the actions by the Italian government the Nation is still not out of the risk of default with it's 1.9 trillions Euro debt that makes up 120% of their current GDP.

The democratic votebank

This is a great article that talks about how Obama and the democrats aim at the majority of the minority.
Great article on how things were, how they look now and how they might be in the future for American Politics.

Greece lightning

The prime minister’s botched referendum plan has left the debt deal in trouble. Doubts about the deal had emerged even before the Greek thunderbolts. It was not clear that the euro-zone leaders had done enough to bolster their rescue fund. European leaders hoped that emerging economies, particularly China, might put money into a special purpose investment vehicle capitalized by the EFSF. Investors were also unnerved by signs that the European economy seems to be slipping closer to recession. Global markets took their cue from Europe, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling by 573 points over the course. But a European collapse would still be very bad news for American banks and exporters.

Drought warning

As the rich world lurches from one crisis to the next, a consolation has been that emerging economies, which account for about half of world output, have been growing quickly. Even the wretched euro zone has a few racy emerging markets nearby. A deep recession in the currency zone would leave few countries unscathed, even in fast-growing emerging Asia. For developing economies closer to home, the euro zone’s banks may be the main route by which the suffering spreads. The current-account balance is a rough guide to which countries are most vulnerable. On that basis, Asia is generally a safer place than Eastern Europe, where several countries run large current-account deficits, and so rely in part on fresh loans from big European lenders.

Kick the Can

This is a really interesting article. I like how the author compares countries dealing with massive debt and them continually kicking a can down the road. It's like no one wants to deal with anything except the United States. People in the Eurozone are all passing the blame and not working together to solve problems. They can't agree on how to fix anything. As for China, according to this article, they are doomed to crash. They are inflating their numbers and patching things so they continue to grow instead of fixing them. It's just like if you continue to patch a boat eventually the patches will give and you will sink the boat. I do like how this article gives hope to the American people about how politicians are determined to fix things, yet they can't agree on anything. However, this does give people hope and more confidence about how good we have it compared to other countries.

The all-telling eye

I found this interesting because it tells of a completely new way of doing things - through the technology-human interface. And it could be an entirely new emerging industry in the field of technology. There is a lot of information encoded in facial expression; failure to detect it is the basis of autism dysfunction.

There is WHAT we say, but also HOW we say it that provides subtle secondary pregnant meaning like sarcasm, regret, or sadness.

We assume technology should be strictly robotic and unemotionally. But humans are emotional. And mastering the Technology-Human Interface was the key to Steve Job's success. Yes I smiled when I read some of the details of this fascinating essay. And who does not smile at a well written joke, pun or a word like 'spork'.

There is a 'ton' of meaning that is lost in empty words unattached to facial expressions and gestures. That is why we still have face-to-face meetings in the 21st Century