US retail sales see fall in March

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22127332

According to the article, official figures have shown that US retail sales fell in March across all sectors, suggesting that recent tax rises are starting to affect consumers. Also, jobs figures released last week showed less than 90,000 new jobs were created last month. Because the population is growing, that number is well below the rate of job creation needed to maintain employment levels. It seems like the US economy is going through another slowdown. Let's just hope that it will only be temporary.

Where Did Everyone Go?

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21573969-demography-may-explain-weakness-americas-recovery-where-did-everyone-go

This article talks about how demographics explain slow recovery in the United States. Labor-fource participation is highest between ages 25 and 54. In 1980s the baby-boomers were growing the labor force but now they are retiring , which could explain the trend in employment. Even accounting for the baby boomers generation labor0force participation among men aged 25 to 54 has fallen more then in other rich countries. Article suggests that job environment in the US makes it difficult for unemployed to stay in the workforce.

Employers using algorithms to help make hiring decisions

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/04/economist-explains-how-browser-affects-job-prospects

Employers are starting to change the methods in which they make hiring decisions.  Small factors such as what web browser you use have been correlated to how long and how sucessfull an applicant will be in a certain job.  In the past employers have used facts such as if an applicant has tattos or body piercings to bias in decisions.  However these new factors seem to have a much higher rate of correctly predicitng how well an applicant will do in the future.  It is interesting in the fact that by shifting to these methods, some of the human bias can be elminated from the hiring process.  I think that this helps not only the applicant pool, but also help companies get stronger employees as well.  Additionally, our society has become more technology dependent and it is crucial to incorporate these factors in to the current job market.  These findings will prove to be crucial in the future, especially as the competition for jobs tightens, and many jobs are now very untraditional.  It seems fitting that we should start to shift to more untraditional methods of hire as well.  As a result, these methods could lead to new motivation in the work force, and as a result much less apathy when searching for a new job, hopefully cutting down on unemployment length.

HSBC fined $27.5m for 'money laundering'

http://www.aljazeera.com/business/2012/07/201272683513872418.html
HSBC, the Europe's largest bank is being fined $27.5 million dollars for alleged scathing US senate report slammed the banking giant for letting clients shift funds from dangerous countries. The British giant was accused of allowing drug cartels launder large amounts of money. The fine is the largest monetary consequence fine ever charged against a bank by the Mexico's National Banking Commission. The accusation came from the US senate and the Mexico's National Banking and Securities Commission was quick to fine the bank. The fines are separate from any fines or settlements that might occur between the US Department of Justice, which could be as high as one billion dollars. The bank has admitted to the charges and has released a statement saying "HSBC Mexico apologises for its failure strictly to comply with banking regulations, and acknowledges that in the past, it has sometimes failed to meet the standards that regulators and customers expect."

April 13, 2013, 2:35 p.m. EDT

Obama’s budget no compromise: Republican

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/obamas-budget-no-compromise-republican-2013-04-13

A House Republican freshman on Saturday called President Barack Obama’s newly unveiled budget proposal “a blank check for more spending and more debt,” ripping into the plan in the GOP’s weekly address.“The president’s budget isn’t a compromise,” charges Rep. Jackie Walorski of Indiana.

“Even when the president’s budget offers signs of common ground — like modest entitlement reforms — he says he won’t follow through unless he can impose more tax increases,” she says. 

 

Obama had hoped that by including the so-called “chained CPI” measure, he could help bring Republicans to the table for a deal to reduce the U.S. budget deficit. Republicans say Obama’s moves on entitlement spending don’t go far enough, and groups including the AARP slam the chained CPI for its ability to slow the growth of Social Security benefits.  

 

Obama’s budget will serve as a marker in the fiscal debate this spring and summer. The White House and lawmakers are now gearing up for what promises to be charged negotiations about raising the U.S. debt limit this summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is wood the fuel for future ?

This article discuss how the biggest source of energy in Europe at the moment is wood. In some countries, wood even provided 80% of their used energy. This leaves the majority of the energy industry in Europe scouring for more woods. Because Europe could not produce enough woods for their use, a large amount of woods come from import, which pushes the price for wood over the top. The consequences are not only the price though, as the subsidies Europe countries created are also big enough to be a concern and the carbon emission is also posing a problems in near future. Perhaps wood might not be the best answer for a renewable source of energy.


http://climate-connections.org/2013/04/08/the-fuel-of-the-future-environmental-lunacy-in-europe/

Facebook shares plunge to new low

http://www.aljazeera.com/business/2012/07/20127285533626683.html
Facebook share prices fell even lower into a record low price since the company's debut in the market after the announcement that Facebook had a loss of 157 million in the second quarter. Facebook's stocks have been flopping ever since its market debut on may 18th. The companies earning as bad as they may be have been within the operations estimate of of $515m on $1.18bn in revenues. According to the article, Citi analyst Mark Mahaney said the company "has established itself as an Internet utility, but it might take a while for Facebook to gain Wall Street love".

Japan car manufacturers recall millions of cars globally

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia-pacific/2013/04/2013411820333594.html
The four giant japanese car manufacturers Honda, Nissan, Toyota, and Mazd  are recalling a combined 3 million cars due to defects in airbags safety systems. According to Toyota USA, their recall is due to the cars being equipped "with front passenger airbag inflators which could have been assembled with improperly manufactured propellant wafers". The recall is going to have serious financial consequences for the four Japanese car manufacturers which are still recovering from the japanese natural disasters of 2011.

Gold price plunges to lowest level since 2011

http://www.aljazeera.com/business/2013/04/2013412182259701800.html
Gold prices have hit the lowest price since 2011. The new low price came as a result of a US government report on friday that wholesale prices fell very low in march. Gold usually is in high demand when investors expect inflation to increase in the near future, and indications of price levels falling usually results in animal instincts to to sell gold and consequently prices to fall.

The New Frontier in Africa

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21575769-strategies-putting-money-work-fast-growing-continent-hottest

This articles talks about the potential growth in the markets of sub-Sahara Africa. In some countries there markets have risen by 50% in the last couple of years. Also, experts predict that a majority of the African population in 2020 will have income to be able to splurge on extra items. This is why they say that rich world firms will looking into Africa to invest. Another advantage is that a majority of African population is under 20 and in a couple of years Africa will have a larger working class than that of China. I believe that with the current business and the corruptness associated with places such as China firms will start to look toward the rise in Africa and start investing more. This could mean that we could see a shift of production to the African continent and maybe even cheaper goods and help solve some problems that we see in Africa.

Fewer Americans Lose Jobs, but Hiring Is Also Down

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/13/business/survey-shows-americans-are-losing-jobs-at-lower-rates.html?ref=economy&_r=0

Less Americans are being laid off their jobs in America according to the Bureau of labor statistics. During the month of February only .9 percent of all job holders got laid off. This is significantly down from the recent past. Over the past 12 months 15.1 percent of workers lost their jobs which is the lowest 12 month percentage since 2006. In 2006 however the job turnover rate was much better than it is now so there were much less people who were unemployed. Because there are so many aspects to unemployment it is hard to figure just about anything from this data. However from what the article tells us it seems like the unemployment rate is doing better. 

Mining Digital Gold

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21576149-even-if-it-crashes-bitcoin-may-make-dent-financial-world-mining-digital

This article talks about Bitcoin and how its affecting the financial world. Bitcoin is a website with digital currency and at first, one unit of Bitcoin costed around $15.  Now, it had settled at $179, taking the value of all Bitcoins in circulation to $2 billion. What makes Bitcoin different is that, unlike other online currencies, it is neither created nor administered by a single authority such as a central bank. Instead, “monetary policy” is determined by clever algorithms. People say the website will soon be shut down it will surely leave a lasting legacy. 

Is there actually Economic equality in Greenwich, Conn.?

When everyone in the tri-state area hears about the town of Greenwich they think of wealthy investment bankers, or lawyers who make the daily commute to New York City every day. Greenwich is in close proximity to the city so it is easy to commute but it also makes it a haven for young families as well with much lower income. Actually according to a recent study there is a lot more lower income families living in a haven of "1 per centers"than we previously thought.

In actuality four percent of the Greenwich population live below the poverty line. How is this possible? Well instead of living on the grand estates like Stephen Cohen lower income families decide to live in the apartments located in the town. Even though they live in a very high income area they pay low costs of living and reap all the benefits of an extremely wealthy area such as schooling, and good public parks and infrastructure.

This has become a theme throughout the country. Low income families are finding affordable living in wealthy areas and benefitting from the amenities the wealth provides the area. The family members are also rewarded by this new trend by doing better in school.

Don’t make us Führer

Don’t make us Führer

Germany still has to deal with the guilt from World War Two, and this guilt has resulted in them not accepting a leadership role in the European Union. With more countries going into debt, Germany holds all the power, but they are reluctant to stand up and take charge out of fear of offending and angering the other nations in the EU. If they don't stand up and take over and lead the union and instead they leave and go back to the D-mark then the European Union could collapse and fall. They would then be criticized for abandoning everyone. No matter what they do, they cannot win and if this continues the Germans might get pushed to far.

Price of gold decreasing.

                http://www.aljazeera.com/business/2013/04/2013412182259701800.html

Gold scheduled for June delivery plunged in price by $64 to close the market price at $1,501 per ounce as of the market closing on Friday. This is the largest drop in the price of gold since February 2012. For the past ten years the price has been steadily climbing. At the beginning of the millennium the price per ounce was around $300 an ounce. In 2008 it skyrocketed to $1000 an ounce mainly due to the financial crisis and people fearing a bank collapse and turning to gold as a safer more tangible investment. Investors tend to buy more gold when they expect inflation to increase, an indication that prices aren’t rising tend to sell their gold.

The article goes on to talk about how the price of gold has been declining due the market growing stronger and stronger. This is indeed quite a good indicator that our economy is growing back to its former glory. It shows that people are gaining more and more confidence in the market by liquidating their gold and in turn investing it in the market. 

Product Design and Zen Wisdom

With companies like Apple, from which even the US economy borrows money, design has become a hot-topic. Design influences businesses and sales, and by extension, the entire economy at a very deep level. I thought this was an interesting article detailing the process of design and the Japanese zen wisdom; it talks about some of the philosophies and principles major, economy driving companies follow and thought it would be an interesting read. 

US adds mere 88,000 jobs in March

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/04/20134514471878168.html


The article talks about how there was fewer jobs added to the labor market in the past month of March.  Only 88,000 jobs were added to the job market which was far less than analysts had expected.  They expected there to be about 200,000 jobs created in the month of March.  This is considered the lowest level  of job creation since June 2012.  Even though there was far fewer jobs added to the labor market than analysts' expectations, the unemployment rate decreased from 7.7% to 7.6% due to people dropping out of the workforce.  Despite the lack of meeting the planned expectations, one market does continue to improve which is the housing market.  The housing market continues to create more jobs in the construction sector.  It will be interesting to see how the budget cuts affect the labor market in the future.  

A big financial week ahead

The S&P 500 and the Dow report highest level of stocks of 2013 at the weeks end as a positive note going into the upcoming week. With taxes due Monday, earnings reports will be posted next week and many investors are awaiting the results of how they will impact the market. At least 75 S&P companies are due to report their earnings this week, and after this past Fridays announcement, it will be very interesting to see how these numbers play into the market. Though there are only a couple days left before the deadline, accountants are offering incentives on Mondays holiday to promote tax filing and encouraging all to adhere to the closing date.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/finance-week-ahead-tax-day-flood-earnings-more-230922145.html

A Water Crisis Threatens Ghana's Economic Growth

 Water—or the lack of it—is one of the biggest issues facing urban Africa, which will see a 66 percent population increase to 1.2 billion people by 2050, according to the United Nations. Although water shortages have long plagued parts of the continent, they’ve become the potential killer of Africa’s economic takeoff. The country’s network of aging water pipes, some of which date back to 1914, does not meet the increasing demand. The lack of water in Accra, Ghana's capital, affects women and children most. The women and children wake up early in the morning because it takes up to an hour to fetch water from a public pipe stand or well. The children are late for school, and women, who often prepare food for a living, may struggle to be ready for their customers.
Ghana Water is working with foreign investors, including Denys, a Belgian company that’s building a €341 million ($438 million) treatment plant, and Befesa Agua, a Spanish-Ghanaian company spending $115 million on a desalination plant. The long-term success of Ghana’s economy may depend on these efforts.
In my opinion, Ghana should also ask for helps from neighboring countries to deliver clean water into the countries to solve with the lack of water during the tough times. Meanwhile, foreign investors should not only invest in building plants to support water supply but they should also help with the water pipes system.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-11/a-water-crisis-threatens-ghanas-economic-growth#r=glo-s

Investors are back with a vengeance

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/12/investing/stocks-rally-inflow/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River

This year has shown major signs of improvement in the stock market and investors are investing more money into mutual funds and ETFs. Investors have invested more than sixty billion dollars into the U.S. stock mutual funds.  As soon as the year began there was a drastic increase in the amount of investment into the market which was a great improvement compared to the previous years.  One of the biggest influences behind this sudden increase in investment was due to stimulus from the Federal Reserve which created strong inflows into the stock market. The Fed pumped money into the financial systems by buying up equities in the stock market and on average there was inflows of roughly four billion dollars daily.  Experts say that there is still plenty of money to be made because in previous years there was fewer investors in the stock market.  It will be interesting to see what happens to the stock market as the year progresses, hopefully it will continue to show signs of improvement. 

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/12/17722920-obamas-tax-return-revealed-made-609k-paid-112k?lite
This article focus' on the paycheck of Obama and the uses that it goes to.  it is particularly interesting how Obama writes that he thinks American should pay their "fair share" when their income is about $250,000.  While he pays some of this money in taxes, a larger share of the money goes to charity.  The recent rises in taxes will help reduce the deficit but looking at it from the other perspective, it may also adversely affect donations to charities and other non-government charitable programs.

http://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Paper-Economy/2013/0412/Retail-sales-down-in-March

The US census Buruea released data starting from february to april that shows sales have reduced by .4% during the period.  Although on the year the US is still at a 2.8% gain.  The US census Bureau also provided a chart which provides data of retail sales and the year-to-year change of home prices.  The chart appears to show some correlation between home value and retail sales.  This is likely due to the perceived wealth that households have when their home value rises.

Somali pirates cost global economy '$18 billion a year'

http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/12/business/piracy-economy-world-bank/

This article interested me because sometimes people forget there are still pirates out there today. I did not realize the impact they still have. This report shows it cost the global economy $18 billion per year. Trading companies spend a lot more money on insurance and other things to protect their boats and when pirates do succeed in attacking boats, they will lose all of the supplies and it is crazy to think about how big of an impact this truly is.

Food fraud on the rise

http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2013/04/11/n-cmr-food-safety.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River

There has been a lot of recent food fraud throughout the food industry. To avoid paying higher costs of premium food ingredients some companies are replacing them with cheaper ingredients. Sometimes these alternative ingredients can be harmful. According to the watchdog organizations the reported cases of food fraud are up by 60% this year.  

Investment in Africa

Currently Africa's economy is on the rise given its strong growth of GDP, particularly in market regions such as Nigeria and Kenya. Where their main markets have risen by close to 50% in the past year alone. Specifically over the past three years the Sub-Saharan region of Africa's GDP has risen by 5% and with this increase in GDP consumption has also been increasing and families that use to barely survive on minimal necessities now have the income to spend on non-essential items creating opportunities for investors. Due to half of Africa's population being under the age of 20 within the next few decades Africa is projected to have a larger working-age population than China. Despite this improvement, Africa's national savings and capital are still small and this helps create the opportunity for investors to capitalize on great rates of return on their investments. Interestingly, in Africa financial returns originate from revenue growth efficiency gains as opposed to the more typical way of financial engineering, as stated by Runa Alam (head of a private-equity firm in Africa). A single-country firm now has the opportunity to transform their company into a regional one in a short amount of time.

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21575769-strategies-putting-money-work-fast-growing-continent-hottest

Class of 2013 faces grim job prospects

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/10/news/economy/college-grads-jobs/index.html?iid=SF_E_River

The article says college grads under age 25 face an 8.8% unemployment rate, and of those who do have jobs, more than half work in positions that don't require a bachelor's degree. For those who will find jobs, many will probably have to settle for low-level positions. But again if we look at it, nobody gets to start at the top, we have to earn our place. The job market certainly has improved during the past few years. But the rate still remains higher than pre-recession level. Maybe we just have to wish for the best, and plan for the worst.

Obama calls for cigarette tax hike of 94 cents a pack

http://money.cnn.com/2013/04/10/news/economy/cigarette-tax/index.html?iid=SF_E_River


According to the article, President Obama calls for a 94-cent-a-pack hike on federal cigarette taxes to fund early childhood education programs. It would raise about $78 billion over 10 years for early childhood education programs while at the same time reduce smoking rates. However, it has been argued that this might be a bad idea because a higher percent of smokers are middle or low income. So they are the ones who are going to take the hit. But well it's about time people start give up smoking.

Retailers lead stocks up; Sagging sales hit tech

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/retailers-lead-stocks-sagging-sales-163347361.html

The stock market has risen a great deal in the past couple months. Retail drugstores like Rite Aid have been showing higher profits than expected. Their record breaking sales in generic drugs and their low costs have been a factor to their achievement. Although sales for many different companies have been climb, the same can't be said about the makers of computer hardware and software. We have seen a recent drop in companies such as Hewlett-Packard with a drop of 6 percent, Microsoft with a 5 percent drop and intel with a drop of 2 percent. If it wasn't for the drop in these markets, the Dow wouldn't have drop 28 points.

Cyprus may sell some gold reserves to help fund bailout

This article talks about the possibility that Cyprus might have to sell some of its gold reserves to help fiance this bailout.  Cyprus would have to sell about 400 million euros worth of gold , this comes after all the savings above 100,000 in banks have been tapped. Cyprus currently holds 13.9 tones of gold and if did have to raise that 400 million euros worth of gold it would account to about 10.36 tons of gold. Even with this bailout it is expected that the Cypriot economy would shrink by 8.7 %.

If these reports are correct then this would be the biggest bullion sale by a euro zone central bank since France ,  sold about 17.4 tonnes in the first half of 2009.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22106187

Sexist Sponsorships

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2012/08/20/augusta-national-takes-heat-off-sponsors-with-addition-of-women/

The Masters in the most exclusive golf tournament in the world. It convenes once a year in April at the Augusta National Golf Club, an exclusive club that notoriously is men only. It is even exclusive with its sponsors, only 3 for the most prestigious golf club/ tournament. AT&T, Exxon Mobil, and IBM are the current sponsors for the past 10 years or so. All CEOs of the company have received invitations for membership to Augusta National, all CEOS men. However there was some controversy when IBM's new CEO Virginia Rometty took the reins of the tech giant in January. The club and tournament didn't want to loose IBM's sponsorship. The club acted quickly and announced that two women were invited to join the historically all-male bastion, ahead of when the club opens for a new season in October. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and South Carolina financier Darla Moore accepted their invitations. This action not only got Augusta more sponsorship request but also made the trio's investment worth much more.

North Korea's Nuclear Intentions

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22103753

The G8 group of nations has officially condemned North Korea's missile program "in the strongest possible terms." If another test launch or other threatening action is taken by North Korea, the G8 has vowed to take aggressive action.

With the threat of nuclear war looming, there's been speculation about the relationship between North Korea and China. If war was to occur, there's a question over which side China, one of the only nations with ties to North Korea, would join.

In the last decade, China has become an integral part of the world economy and a massive exporter. Joining North Korea in nuclear war, undeniably, would be a death sentence for any hopes of an international Chinese economy in the future.

Hopefully we won't have to see this decision be made.

Key senators reach deal on background checks for gun buyers

Prospects for a gun control bill's passage in the Senate in coming weeks got a boost today with a bipartisan agreement on background checks for gun buyers. This is great news for those who believe too many unqualified citizens hold a gun. In the past, people have attended gun and trade shows because, for whatever reason, they were able to purchase guns without a license. With this new agreement in place, about 40% of people will have to find a new way to acquire guns. Now hopefully we will be able to ban automatic machine guns and rapid fire assault rifles.

Fed Officials Split Over End of Bond Buying

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/11/business/economy/fed-officials-split-over-end-of-easing.html?ref=economy&_r=0

The Federal Reserve will continue its plan on buying bonds for the next month in hopes of improving the current economy.  In the recent FOMC meeting, there was much controversy on whether to continue the recent purchases of bonds due to the "improved outlook (of the economy) since the fall." Also, because the labor market looked to be improving before the recent unemployment numbers were released, many board members felt that the risks of stimulating the economy through open market operations were not equal to the return they would be receiving.  The fed will continue buying $85 billion worth of bonds for the next month in hopes of stimulating the economy. 

Obama's Unveiling of Spending Plan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/obama-to-unveil-377-trillion-spending-plan/2013/04/10/843adef4-a18d-11e2-82bc-511538ae90a4_story.html?hpid=z1

Obama is set to present his new spending plan on Wednesday morning at 11:00 AM. This $3.7 trillion spending plan will include large new taxes on the wealthy and reformations of Social Security and Medicare. Most Republicans  are shown not to be in favor of this large spending plan, due to the increases in spending and deficit. President Obama says this plan will initially increase the gap between spending and the deficit but this gap with eventually become smaller in future years. The plan also calls for many infrastructure innovations, that will be covered with new taxes. While this plan is aiming to please both parties, right now it seems doubtful that it will do so.

Qatar offers Egypt $3bn lifeline

This article talks about Qatar offering economic lifeline to Egypt by buying out bonds worth 3 Billion Dollars. Egypt is in a state of turmoil. Inflation is on the high especially food inflation. All caused by shortages in fuel and a currency crisis.This additional $3Billion comes after a promise of $18 billion investment in Egypt by 2018 from Qatar.  Egypt have also taken a loan of $ 4.8 Billion from the IMF.

The Qatari Prime Minister has also said that it is willing to supply natural gas when needed . It is also believed that the Egyptian pound has depreciated sharply and the country only has enough money to pay for three months of imports.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22093320

Toyota surpasses Ford in 2012 Sales

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-10/toyota-says-corolla-topped-ford-focus-in-12-global-sales.html

There is a lot of competition in the automobile market. From German to Japanese, mid sized to mini van, gas-guzzler to solar powered, the market seems endless. Speaking just for the US market, we import more cars then we export, we are a net borrowers. This article however exhibits the world market for automobiles. Toyota, the Tokyo-based company surpassed Ford, the Detroit-based company in over all global sales for 2012. Could this possibly lead to a decrease in US exports and an increase in imports leading to an increase in real exchange rates. 

          

US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew calls for demand boost

This article talks about the US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew who has countries with the ability to grow to boost the economic growth through an increase in consumer demand. This was said after talks were held with the German Finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. The German economy is the euro zones largest economy and its weakening would have a drastic effect on the Euro zone.

The German exports were down by 1.5 % and the imports were down by 4% , this implied that there was a weakness in the German demand at home. As Germany is one if the strongest export figures in the euro zone and a fall in its exports shows a sign of weakening in the German economy.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22079217

US Trade Deficit Falls While Exports Rise

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/06/business/economy/trade-deficit-narrows-as-exports-increase.html?ref=economy

The US's trade deficit narrowed abruptly in February while exports rose close to a record. Also, the volume of imported crude oil fell to the lowest seen in 17 years. The gap between exports and imports declined to about $43 billion, which is down 3.4% from $44.5 billion in January according to the Commerce Department. It is stated that this is the smallest trade imbalance since December when it decreased $38.1 billion, the lowest in three years. Meanwhile, exports rose 0.8% to $186 billion, also close to a record from December. Imports stayed consistent at $228.9 billion.
The overall deficit for the US in the first two months of this year had a rate of $524.5 billion which was down from $539.5 billion imbalance last year. It is predicted that the deficit will narrow slightly this year.  Using a measure of GDP, grew annually at 0.4% in the October-December quarter. Some say that this economic growth strengthened 2013's first quarter to 3%.

The Scary Message for Everybody in Obama's Budget

"Most Americans will ignore the dickering over the federal budget that President Barack Obama wants Congress to pass this year. But there's an important message for just about everybody in that budget: The pain is going to get worse." Austerity measures are never easy, but often they are never taken unless absolutely necessary. Reforms to entitlement programs are needed desperately to keep them alive, but no one wants to go about the complicated problem of fixing them until now. This article says that "Obama would still change entitlements in ways that would have a direct impact on people enrolled in them, in many cases reducing benefits and requiring enrollees to spend more of their own money." Not what he said when he was campaigning but an interesting idea since most entitlement programs are a safety net and not designed to be a way of life. What I find most interesting is that he is actually proposing things that make economic sense ie. changing the way that the Social Security payments are calculated. However, he is also proposing some dangerous things as well.

According to this article, "Obama wants to make some administrative changes in the program that might lower payments to healthcare providers, while also reducing benefits or raising premiums for wealthier Medicare patients." This is problematic because most doctors' offices have been absorbed by hospitals for this reason, government programs make it impossible for doctor's offices to practice because they force doctors to treat people for pennies and then cannot meet overhead costs. I know this because my mother is a doctor. Getting (maybe) paid $30 for a $90 procedure costs everyone money because it raises prices that need to be asked of from other insurances as well. Also the question of "Who is considered wealthy?" will continue to be a problem and may run us all into a class warfare state if it continues.

This is especially true because of the last paragraph of the article, "Obama, for example, has said he'd only agree to cutbacks in Medicare and Social Security if Republicans agree to further tax increases on the wealthy." While compromises can be made, I find this pandering more ridiculous. Everyone is going to hurt and everyone needs to share the burden. The top 50% of people pay 97.6% of income taxes with 70.6% being paid by the top 10% (Source: http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data-2012#table1). There is a need for tax increases and spending cuts so bite the bullet and hurt now before everything gets even worse. A balanced budget and under-control spending will only help the United States regain its footing and that is worth a little pain.

CEO of J.C. Penny fired

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/09/business/ron-johnson-out-as-jc-penney-chief.html?_r=0

This is a news report on the ouster of the CEO of J.C. Penny, Ron Johnson. He has been fired and replaced by his predecessor. This decision comes following his non-performance in the task of turning around the struggling company.
His strategies had been ineffective in increasing the revenue or profits for J.C. Penny. Under his leadership, the sales of the giant retailer declined tremendously and its competitors (Macy's, Kohl's)  reported far better financial statements.
Ron Johnson had to face a 97% pay cut for the 2012 accounting year (down to $1.9 million). He also did not receive any stock options or bonuses. His predecessor, Myron Ullman, has been re-appointed as the CEO.
It would be interesting to see whether the return to previous leadership would change the financial health of the company. 

Fuel for the future

http://www.economist.com/news/business/21575771-environmental-lunacy-europe-fuel-future

The article talks about alternate energy resources and focuses on efforts in producing energy without combustion.Europe has three-quarters of the world’s total installed capacity of solar photo-voltaic energy.Germany trebled its wind-power capacity in the past decade. Even then,by far the largest so-called renewable fuel used in Europe is wood. The article further talks about how prices of woods are soaring and also focuses on the need to reduce wood consumption in Europe for energy purposes

Drop in LFPR is Distress Signal

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/04/07/march-labor-force-participation/2057887/

According to this article, the Labor Force Participation Rate fell from 63.5% to 63.3% in March, which is the lowest it has been since 1979.  The main cause of this is from people who have become discouraged and stopped looking for work, as well as the baby boomers are finally retiring.  Although the unemployment rate is falling, this could be in part that more people have fallen out of the labor force which will decrease the unemployment rate.  One positive outcome of a decrease in the labor force is that it allows for more people to find jobs since there are less job seekers as a result of falling out of the labor force.  

Portuguese shares fall after court blocks spending cuts

This article talks about the fall in the Portuguese shares market on Monday after the court said that spending cuts aimed at cutting debt were unconstitutional. The PSI share index was down by 1.6%. After this response from the court the prime minister said that it would have to make some other deep spending reductions and these would come in a form in reduced social security , health and education.

These cuts were expected to save between 900 million to 1.3 billion euros , but they have been rejected by the court. All these actions have to take place to avoid the country from getting a second euro zone bailout.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22061875

Japan's Economic Stimulus

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/04/us-japan-economy-boj-idUSBRE93216U20130404

Japan's central bank has planned an unprecedented stimulus package over the next two years as a gamble to stabilize and expand a stagnating economy. The stimulus is the largest in the history of the country and so far, reactions have been good. The stock markets rose and the Japanese Yen fell in value, as desired by policymakers. They hope to use this situation to meet the inflation target of 2% and weaken the Yen to strengthen exports and make Japan more competitive in world markets.

This spells potentially good news for a lot of other economies in the world as they will receive Japanese goods at relatively lower costs which is desirable for consumers. In addition, a stabilized Japan represents valuable trade prospects. While initial projections appear good, it remains to be seen how the stimulus will play out over the coming years.

German economic output at 'near stagnation'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22024606

According to the Markit composite purchasing managers index (PMI) Germany's manufacturing and services sectors declined from 53.3 in February to 50.6 last month. In the PMI, less than 50 usually points towards recession. 

France's PMI figures declined to 41.9 points, the lowest since March 2009. PMI figures for the eurozone also fell by 1.4 points to 46.5 in March. 

One of the Chief Economists at Markit said this data does not point to an economic recovery. Because of all of Europe's debt and political problems, businesses are struggling which is deepening the recession. 

The reason Germany's stagnation is really highlighted is because even when all the other Eurozone economies are struggling, Germany seems to be the lone ranger performing and not shrinking. 

Italy's election and the Cyprus bail-outcould are also considered as being reason for low economic figures last month. 

US economy adds just 88,000 jobs in March

This article talks about the recent 88,000 jobs which were added in the previous month. This has been the lowest increase in nine months. The predicted number was close to 200,000. This weak additions of jobs have raised doubts over the recovery of the US economy.

The retail sector lost about 24,000 jobs and about 12,000 jobs have been lost by the US Postal Service. While other sectors of the economy performed better with about 51,000 jobs of business and professional jobs being added. About 23,000 jobs added to the healthcare positions. It is believed by many economists that the recent federal spending cuts have had an impact on the confidence level of companies. The current unemployment levels of male and females are quite high , with 6.9% being for male and 7% for females.

If the US economy has to keep on adding 90,000 jobs each moth to keep up with the growing population , and also to make sure that economy is on a track of recovery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22042657