Category Archives: Business

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U.S. Economy Slow Down over Europe Debts

The US economy seemed to be slowed down by the increasing debt burden in Europe. This is reflected in the performance of the US stocks which has its worst outing in a month. This is as a result of the deadlocked US budget talk with countries in Europe.

It is not only in America that the problem of debt as affected the economy, even in the Asian continent the central bank of countries in Asia are worried over the same problem. There seemed to be another threat to the global economy. The threat is the euro debts which may spread to other parts of the world.

The situation has made some central bank executives to review some of their monetary policies. In Japan the central bank is holding on some of the key financial decisions to make for economic growth and change.

Some countries in Asia performed well such as Indonesia where JKSE performed well; it is regarded as the best stock performer in Europe for the year. The performance is about 8 percent. This development has led the country to reconsider some of its economic policies and may keep it so for a month. The annual rate of inflation in the country has reduced for the year.

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Euro Down With Debt Problem Worsening

The debt worries in Europe have affected the performance of the euro. The currency was down to one of the worst levels in the month. The fall of euro came shortly the new IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde confirmed that they were not ready for the second Greece bail out. European stock also crashed over the fear that the crisis is going to extend to other countries within the euro zone.

There are worries over the debt crisis which originated in Greece which other investors believe that it will spread to other countries within the currency zone. This made other currencies to gain at the expense of the euro such as the US dollar and the Japanese Yen.

It was in a bid to avoid getting to the type of Greek crisis that finance ministers of Italy, Spain, Ireland and Portugal agreed to offer cheap loans to investors. They said the new measures as regards the modalities are in the offing and that they are likely to be announced later. The euro has being at the receiving end of the problems that have engulfed the euro zone. That is why the euro has being down to other currencies for two weeks running now.

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Jakarta Gained iDevelopment of Global Concert circuit

Kylie Minogue performed at Jakarta the capital of Indonesia where thousands of enthusiastic fans clapped and cheered as they performed. Nobody would have expected such a development in a Muslim country like Indonesia which presently has the largest concentration of world Muslim population. The sale of ticket was high and yet many people took time to participate in the show.

The scene of the activity has in about a month featured such artistes as Janet Jackson, Justin Bieber and Bruno Mars. Not only that the people of the country are expecting other stage performers such as Lady Gaga, Linkin Park and Cranberries to make it to that country.

The fact that events like that is taking place in Islamic country is a positive sign that the young population of the country is eager to spend their money to get entertained. Indonesia is a great place in Asia where the artists market can thrive partly because they have the population or the market and because the young population likes that.

The people are not complaining about the amount they spent to watch the artiste on stage which is more than the average monthly wage of certain classes of people. Many young people in Indonesia are crazy about music.

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Firefighters extinguish flames at US nuclear lab

Firefighters saved what could have been nuclear tragedy when they beat back fire that was engulfing Los Alamos National Laboratory which was the preeminent nuclear facility in the country. This has caused panic in Los Alamos which had forced the authority to order for the immediate evacuation of the people who are living in the city. The residents of the city were put to about 12, 000 people.

The firefighters were able to extinguish the flames inside the southwestern boundary of the lab. The buildings were not gutted by fire but the authority said that the threat was enormous. The position of the fire was at 28,000 near the complex that is the location of the laboratory.

The plutonium facility of the laboratory was located at the north eastern site of the complex. The position of the fire was said to be in the direction of the south east. The laboratory occupied a very vast area in the city. The authority maintained that the facilities at the lab was protected against any threat by fire adding that it had survived the year 2000 wildfire which damaged some parts of the building and properties that were estimated to be about $1billion then.

The authorities also maintained that the explosive materials in the laboratory are safely stored at the underground bunkers that are made in concrete and steel.

Firefighters extinguish flames at nuclear lab

Firefighters saved what could have been nuclear tragedy when they beat back fire that was engulfing Los Alamos National Laboratory which was the preeminent nuclear facility in the country. This has caused panic in Los Alamos which had forced the authority to order for the immediate evacuation of the people who are living in the city. The residents of the city were put to about 12, 000 people.The firefighters were able to extinguish the flames inside the southwestern boundary of the lab. The buildings were not gutted by fire but the authority said that the threat was enormous. The position of the fire was at 28,000 near the complex that is the location of the laboratory.

The plutonium facility of the laboratory was located at the north eastern site of the complex. The position of the fire was said to be in the direction of the south east. The laboratory occupied a very vast area in the city. The authority maintained that the facilities at the lab was protected against any threat by fire adding that it had survived the year 2000 wildfire which damaged some parts of the building and properties that were estimated to be about $1billion then.

The authorities also maintained that the explosive materials in the laboratory are safely stored at the underground bunkers that are made in concrete and steel.

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French banks to assist Greeks in U.S. credit market

French banks are going to pay for help the Greece which is ridden with crisis to overcome a sovereign default. The payments are to be done in the US credit markets. The French banks were charged interests in higher rates on US short term borrowing arrangement. This was done at a rate other what was granted to their European rivals. This is after the French bank has cemented their links to help the Greek debts.

However in the long run these higher rates may turn out to be lower price in paper work, and it may benefit the French banks after all.

They may be some hardships in terms of the rollover but in the long term the they could gain by avoiding further disruptions. Investors are charging French banks more than they do to banks from dutch germany when when they decide to buy any US short term obligations. This is because the French banks more any other banks are more exposed to the Greek debts.

The move by the French banks mark the progress in the Greece debt problems from turning into a global economic crisis. The worry in the US market is centered on how the French banks are going to suffer from that deal in an event that the Greece parliament passes some measures within the week.

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Computer faults disrupts United Airlines cancelling 36 flights

The last Friday experience where computer faults nearly grinded the activities of the United Airlines is an ugly reminder of what over dependent on technology can cause to the airlines.

The embarrassing development made thousands of the customers of the airline saw there flight information disappear to the tin air, several others were stranded and it all culminated in the cancellation of about 36 flights. The worst of the situation is that the airline has no explanation as to what led to this unfortunate incident.

Similar incident occurred in December when over 10,000 flights were cancelled for about three days. The incident of last Saturday occurred when the passengers have no other alternative as it was late in the night for the passengers to look for another alternative to the problem.

Although the system later came back alive giving hope to the stranded passengers it does not mean that customers of the airline were happy with the development. Many of the passengers voiced their anger to the airline operators over the incidence.

Charles Hobart a spokesman for united airline said that the airline was not going to cancel any other flight saying that they are now coping with the situation. Also spokeswoman for the airline Mary Clark said that the technical department of the airline is blaming the outage of the system to connectivity failure.

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Apple plans to sell 1.5M Sandy Bridge MacBook

Apple is planning to flood the market with sandy Bridge MacBook which is the latest generation of the product. The company is planning to sale over 1.5 million of the product in each quarter of a year.

If the company meets the target then the product would represent fifty percent of the product’s notebook that is in the market. Already there is a believe in some quarters that apple would be in a position to achieve that.

It was revealed by apple insider that the company has already placed an order for 380,000 of the product for this month. 55 percent of the total order would be in the model of 11.6 inch while the remaining would be 13.3 inch model.

Apple is planning to take the market; the MacBook Air refresh will boost the performance of the Mac sales in the market together with the expected release of Mac OS lion brand. Apple computers are already miles ahead of other PC in the market. The company is expected to market over 18 million apples within the year 2011. It is expected that the operating margin of the lion will be higher than the previous upgrades done by the company. The products would only be marketed through Mac application stores and there would be no retail distribution costs.

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Greece to sell 10% Telecom share

Greece had taken the initial move on Monday to get money through the selling of govt. properties, although a premier spokesperson at the Central Bank of the European Union (ECB) debated that the country was solvent and required paying its debts.

Greece worked out a contract to sell a 10% share in the part-privatized telecom company Hellenic Telecommunications Organization S.A. usually known as OTE, to German telecom company Deutsche Telekom for approximately €400 million, or 585 million United States dollars. However, the contract was still being finalized Deutsche Telekom expressed its welcome to the contract.

Although that amount is likely to make just a little reduction in country’s overall debt of €400 billion, Mr. L. Bini Smaghi, an associate of the managerial panel of the ECB, said the country held saleable properties valued €300 billion and is solvent.

Appraisers claim that the ECB’s reliability has fallen off since its share in Greek debt results in an interesting issue.

The Greek authority has started attempting to get money through selling shares it holds in companies similar to O.T.E., but the denationalization initiative has run into intense opposition from residents already tired of strict procedures.

Deutsche Telekom currently holds OTE’s 30% share since March 2008 including the further sale of 5% of OTE’s share by the Greek state in July 2009. A top official said that the sum for the 10% share is still being worked out and would be around €400 million.

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US banks report decreasing revenue

The banking sector in the United States of America has been given account of their financial position for the first quarter of 2011. This hint was dropped by the federal Insurance Deposit Corporation.

It reported that the first quarter of this year marked a new beginning in the banking sector as the banks reported the highest margin of gains since the financial crises started. It reported that the net income earned by those banks stood at $29b.

This is about 60% more than what the banks have been earning. The corporation gave a growing picture of banking industry in US saying the rate of bank failures has minimised but complaints against some personalities are on the increase.

The corporation revealed there was a drop of the interest rate income which according to the corporation dropped to about 3% to what it was in the year 2010. The situation prevailed through out last year despite so much hype of economic recovery in the United States.

This also represents the first time since 1989 there was a quarterly decline in interest rate income. The corporation threw more light on the decline in interest rate income. It said that the six biggest banks are the most affected but it cuts across all the banks.

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Employment rate improves in US

Job situation in America has improved last month in majority of the states in America. This was revealed by the Department of Labour which disclosed that in more than three quarters of the states of the country the employment situation has improved last month.

The statement said that there is improvement in employment situation from March adding that about 34 states of the country reported of improvement in job positions. This report was released by Labour department on Friday.

Generally there is an improvement in employment generation throughout the country. Private sector also gave positive report of job increase with about 250,000 added every month. The current rate of employment generation in the country is the highest ever recorded in the last five years.

The level of unemployment started dropping in the country since last November. Some of the states that had recorded drop in the unemployment include the state of New York. The unemployment has dropped while 45,700 jobs were created. The state of New York is the highest in the level of job creation it is followed by Texas which has created 32,900 jobs and the third is Pennsylvanian which has created 23,700 jobs. However Michigan has the largest decline in job with 10,200 jobs.