The Apple TV Is About To Get Much Better

Apple's flagship device to takeover your living room entrainment has up until this point hasn't quite delivered on that thought. The reality is that people who buy Apple TV see it at a extension of easily projecting popular streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. Most consumers enjoy their subscriptions to various television companies like Time Warner, DirectTV etc. Apple TV is built upon using a version of Apple's block app idea from iOS and uses that idea to display an array of streaming applications on your screen. Options that cable simple cannot offer.

The reason I believe why Apple TV hasn't quite taken off is because most people like having their cable and Apple TV as an extension to more viewing option. Apple wants to aim to replace cable boxes and to do so, a revamp is required.

Now the company has released the third beta of tvOS 9.2, the next update to the Apple TV, and it looks like it will address many of the shortcomings users had complained about in the software, notes MacRumors. For starters, tvOS 9.2 will add Siri dictation support to the Apple TV. Many have been frustrated that while you could ask Siri queries or tell Siri to perform actions like opening certain apps, a basic function of Siri on iOS–-the ability to dictate words and have them typed on screen for you–-had been left out of tvOS. As of tvOS 9.2, that feature has now been added, and it will make entering service login names, passwords, and other text much easier on the device, especially considering that not many are fans of its horizontal on-screen keyboard.

Another major feature that tvOS 9.2 will introduce is Siri App Store search. Currently you can ask Siri to find TV shows and movies, but not apps. With tvOS 9.2 you’ll be able to use Siri to search for apps or app categories by voice.

Now if Apple delivers upon these improvements along with many more, their flagship TV device will perhaps penetrate the cable viewing market harder than it has before. 

link: http://www.fastcompany.com/3056504/fast-feed/the-apple-tv-is-about-to-get-much-better

Chipotle Starting Program to Help Farmers Ensure Safety of Food

An article released by Bloomberg announced how Chipotle is continuing to restore its brand name and ensure consumers that their products will be safe. Co-Chief Executive Officer Steve Ells announced during a meeting with his employees on Monday Feb. 8 that they will be spending as much as $10 million to start a program that is aimed to their suppliers to maintain and improve their food-safety standards. The money will be used to help local farmers offset their costs of new tests and food-safety protocols. 

Chipotle took a huge hit from this E. coli that has drastically affected their sales and the value of their stock which dropped 36% in January. The article noted that their new changes will make the restaurant chain an industry leader in food safety. 

It is clear that Chipotle is doing everything in its power to overcome this incident, which has defiantly influenced people's opinion on the company's food quality. It has already been reported that the outbreak is over, so there is only an upside for the company here on out. It might not be a bad time to look into investing in Chipotle.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-08/chipotle-starting-program-to-help-farmers-ensure-safety-of-food

Ford to More Than Double Mexico Production Capacity in 2018

Ford Motor Co. announced that they would expand manufacturing capacity in Mexico over the next three years by more than double. This decision is going to cost about 1.5 billion dollars, but with the new plant, they can produce additional 500,000 new units per year in Mexico in 2018. Base on this journal, Ford is not the only automakers have build factory in Mexico in the recent year. Other companies like BMW AG, Volkswagen AG and Toyota Motor Corp. Honda Motor Co. had also build assembly lines in Mexico.

Some people think this decision is result of the recent labor agreement that pushed wages higher. But, the president of UAW claimed that there was no financial reason for U.S. automakers to switch their production to Mexico, because “they’re making profits right here in the United States.” If he is right, I think the increase in labor costs is only a part of the story. The other significant reason might be the fact that Mexico has less legal regulation, taxes, and trade restrictions, which makes it much easier to do business there.




http://www.wsj.com/articles/ford-to-more-than-double-mexico-production-capacity-in-2018-1454857923?mod=e2tw

What happens to a tiny town when Walmart disappears?

This article highlights some of the negative impacts felt by small communities after Walmart made the decision to close roughly 150 of their stores. The stores chosen to be taken down are mostly located in the southeastern section of the United States and serve mostly blue- collar workers. For instance, the article discusses the impact the closing of one of the branches in Kimball, West Virginia “ 'It’s like we’re a forgotten bunch of people,' said Matney, her long gray hair loosely clipped into a bun. 'It’s about all there was to look forward to. If we had to go any further, there ain’t no way'". The article brought up an interesting perspective to challenge the commonly held notion that Superstores like Walmart are detrimental to the local economies as it draws business away from the "ma and pa" stores

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/05/what-happens-to-a-tiny-town-when-walmart-disappears/?tid=sm_fb

With economy improving, Obama wages war of words with GOP doomsayers

With the Presidential primaries starting to get underway, Obama seems to be more public about his opinions on a strong US economy. In recent speeches he is disregarding Republican nominees ideas of Obama's "failure" with the economy. Obama believes they are just trying to obtain votes from republican voters by pointing out all Obama's flaws. However with the stats to prove Obama’s success with a economy has added 14 million jobs over a record 71 consecutive months, a unemployment rate has dropped from a peak of 10 percent in October 2009 to less than 5 percent, and average household wages have picked up, growing 2.5 percent last year. Its hard to disagree with progress with our economy when you look at the numbers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/with-economy-improving-obama-wages-war-of-words-with-gop-doomsayers/2016/02/07/46873a4c-c45f-11e5-a4aa-f25866ba0dc6_story.html

What’s Behind January’s Higher Wage Growth

According to the article, as the Labor Department said, average hourly payment for American workers increased by 0.5% last month which was the best performances since the recession ended. Even though it seems a good news, however, as the author said, there's still something need to be reconsidered. First is that the leap in January, which is the beginning of a year, might reveals the increasing of cost-of-living in the year. Secondly, even though the minimum wage of many states has increased, as we mentioned in class, increasing of minimum wages actually cannot influence much people, because this doesn't mean the increase of overall income. Third, the article talked about that the increase of income might be the end-of-year bonuses. The last point mentioned in the article is the influence of decreased unemployment rate, which is similar to what we have talked about in class. With the decreasing unemployment rate, employers might raise their wages to keep the workers.

here's the link: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/02/05/management-bonuses-minimum-wage-increases-may-have-juiced-wage-numbers/

Is Chipotle a riskier place to eat? Hard to know

After having sickened more than 500 people across the nation, Chipotle is resorting to drastic measures this Monday as they plan to close all 1900 U.S. restaurants in order to meet with employees about the recent E. coli outbreaks. While it is not often that they deal with local matters, the Federal Public Health Investigators are getting involved since there have been multi-state outbreaks. As a result of these outbreaks occurring in early july, it was recorded that Chipotle's sales have decreased by about 36%.  The stock as a whole is also down about 2.3%. The previous practice from the health department was to not release the names of the restaurant to the public after an outbreak unless it is a common occurrence or danger to the public.  It has however since changed to outbreaks being reported with the name of the restaurant being included every time. Chipotle's outbreaks were not the reason for this change, but it has definitely effected their reputation more than it would have.  Overall, Chipotle has some rebuilding to do with there safety precautions and steps towards regaining the trust of the public.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/chipotle-riskier-place-eat-hard-120001777.html

Feeding the vultures

Argentina, a country who defaulted on $900 million worth of bonds, believes that after 14 years they are finally able to pay off the debt. Creditors are currently seeking $2.5 billion in outstanding interest payments and Argentina is seeking an 85% write down of the current debt. This "pre-agreement", which would cover around 15% of the holdouts from 2005 and 2010, still has to be approved by Congress. Argentina had a $82 billion sovereign default in 2001, which was the highest in the countries history. Also in 2001, around 93% of bond holders agreed to exchange the defaulted loans for other securities, but at a 65% mark down. Among the investors was Elliot Management, a hedge fund located out of New York, which led to another restructuring of bonds in 2014. This was due to an attempt to avoid payments to bondholders outside of Argentina. Argentina who has continuously defaulted on payments, have been unable to access international credit, and are currently unable to aid their failing economy. The country has been seeking alternatives and ways to make deals with the "holdout creditors", but any deal that can be passed, has to be approved by congress. Many Argentineans also do not like the idea of "rewarding the holdouts for their obstinacy", so it is interesting to see what will happen.

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21690109-government-has-struck-one-deal-holdout-creditors-others-will-be

China's Currency reserves plunged

The article talks of how despite being the largest foreign currency holder in the world, the declining rate of its domestic currency is causing worry for China.

To stabilize the situation, the article reads, China is selling Dollars to buy more Yuan (its own currency), which seems very odd to me.

I am guessing the decline in foreign currency reserves is also probably because of general slow growth of China's economy in the past financial year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35516054

Finland's Economic Winter: Permafrost

The European Union's only Nordic member is struggling to improve its poorly performing economy. Finland's economy was doing well before and after it joined the euro in 1999, but has ran into trouble in recent years. After the financial crisis in 2009 output plunged by nearly 9 percent. Short term data also suggests that 2016 will not be a good year either.

A number of things have caused Finland's economy to suffer. One of the biggest reasons has been the decline of Nokia. Nokia's rise propelled Finland's economy. Now its decline is hurting Finland's economy. Another major problem is that despite Finland's lagging economy wages have continued to rise at a rate faster than those of their trading partners. Meanwhile the workforce is shrinking yearly due to baby boomers retiring. Russia is also a heavy buyer of Finnish goods so the decline of the Russian economy has also affected Finland.

The good news is that Finland is able to find new sources of growth due to the innovative ideology among the youth. Finland has supported this ideology through  a $1.8 billion initiative to promote growth. However, soon Finland will have to experience spending cuts which will cause harm to their GDP due to the fact that government expenditure is 58% of GDP. The biggest change Finland is trying to make is to reform their labor market, so that wages are in better correlation to the economy. It also should be noted that is constrained from doing much through monetary policy due to the fact they are part of the Euro. Leaving the Euro would have hazardous results for the economy and is not a safe thing to do. I think the initiative for innovation will help diversify the economy and possibly help improve. No matter what Finland tries it is clear that they must do something in order to try and improve their floundering economy.