Thursday, January 13, 2011
Report: iPhone Best Selling Smartphone, But Android Is Most Popular OS
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Almost a Quarter of Young Emiratis Unemployed
Almost a Quarter of Young Emiratis Unemployed
Almost 25% of young UAE citizens are unemployed. The figures show that 23.1 percent of emiratis between the ages 15-24 are unemployed. Overall the uneployment rate for everyone stands at 12.9 percent, with 16.6 percent without a job in the northern emirates and 11.6 percent in the south emirates.The newspaper said there was also large levels of unemployment among women, but did not give any specific figures.
click here for original article
European air transport industry
Will the U.S. auto market come back? -ECONOMICS-
((((((((((ECONOMICS))))))))))…I didn’t get an invitation for economics
This article talks about the recession that happened in the end of 2007 in the United States of America. Automobile is a great sector in the U.S economy, which affected the economy during the recession. The vehicle industry is the largest consumer spending sector, and also the housing and financial markets.
The recession’s effect on Automobiles:
-Chrysler and General Motors were bankrupted.
-276,000 jobs were destroyed, that’s a 36% of the total employment in the sector.
We all know that the auto industry in the U.S was a great success but will it return to the way it was?
The U.S government had never experienced a thing like this, but according to their suggesting, No it will never return to the conditions it was in.
Impact of housing and auto on real GDP
2007:Q4 403.4 525.0 13,391
2008:Q1 379.6 483.2 13,367
2008:Q2 339.3 462.9 13,415
2008:Q3 333.6 443.3 13,325
2008:Q4 279.8 415.0 13,142
2009:Q1 215.9 367.9 12,925
2009:Q2 222.7 344.4 12,902
Difference -180.7 -180.6 -490
% change -45% -34% -3.7%
Contribution to GDP 37% 37%
Change
According to the chart shown above, the recession made a disaster on the U.S government. There are a few changes, and the economy is growing but not so much. The effect of the recession is still there.
Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1094/is_4_45/ai_n56471340/?tag=content;col1
Haiti's reconstruction (one year after the earthquake)
One year after Haiti's earthquake , there still are over 1 million homeless Haitians. The earthquake killed approximately 230,000 people. Haitians struggle until now from the disastrous earthquake that took many lives of innocent people.
The situation remains very difficult in the country and many people remain extremely vulnerable even though one year has passed since the earthquake. Some areas experience health risks ,as well as other problems, such as violence due to the reason that they received less assistance than city centers and refuge camps.
The medical group spent over 104 million euros (131 million dollars) in Haiti in the last 12 months. Leading governments promised 2.1 billion dollars for Haiti in 2010, but only about 1.2 billion was dispersed. According to charities, more than 70 percent of Haitians are estimated to have living on less than 2 dollars per day. The majority of the Haitians had little access or no access to health care.
Haiti is trying to reconstruct itself and it needs our (leading governments) help so let's try our best to contribute to the reconstruction of Haiti.
BAA says December's cold weather cost it £24m
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
AIG agrees $2.16 billion sale of Taiwan unit
It Will acquire the 97.57% of Nan Shan that is for sale. And that the Ruentex Had long been at the top, but the deal would be a subject to approval shareholders approval of the compet authorities, so seized have previously told Rueters that rented is major player in the market of bussiness like in China and Taiwan and that the would not like to meet all the five strict critera for buyers
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110112/bs_nm/us_aig_taiwan
Behavioral Economics
Behavioral Economics Helping Marketers Better Understand Consumers
Behavioral Economics is the use of psychology in economics. It is the study of why people buy goods and services for reasons other than price, quality and maintenance. Instead of researching consumers rational choices like regular economics, Behavioral Economics studies the "predictable irrational choices" that consumers make. These irrational choices are usually caused by emotions or "social psychology ". Industries, marketers, the government and many more are engaging in behavioral economics. An example is a study done to research why people go to the gym. It was found through behavioral research that people will probably go t the gym if they had an appointment. The reason could be one of many: the person might not want to waste his money since they paid in advance, he might not want to waste another person's time or because he might not want anyone else to know that he didn't show. Another person suggested that the "pay per month in advance policy" is changed to" only pay if you did not visit the gym"."Who knows what the economic impact would be?" posted Jeff Jones, partner and president of McKinney. "But what might it do for the churn rate?"
Behavioral Economics is not going to be the new way to advertise but is a reinforcement to the ways of marketing.
How to Sell an Idea to Your Boss
"My problem is not how to be innovative. The problem is how can I convince my boss to invest in our ideas?"
One of the hardest challenges for creative people is how to win top management's support for their ideas. Many feel that their plans are killed not because they have poor potential but because their boss simply does not understand them or does not even listen to the presentation. They feel disappointed and dream of working with CEOs, who often invest in breakthroughs.
These are some points to start the interaction in the innovation process :
1. Get an endorsement to investigate a business challenge.
2. Design the innovation process together.
3. Update top executives frequently.
4. Involve top executives in the creation of the solution.
I'm not implying that if you follow these steps, the idea that you ultimately propose will or should be accepted. But your boss will definitely have a better understanding of your proposals.
In summary, if you're pursuing radical innovation, do not sell the idea. Sell the process.
http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2010/ca20100831_867890.htm
Entrepreneurship in Pakistan
The second problem is that Pakistan doesn't give the women the chances and opportunities that it gives it's men everyday. Some women are used as the "food makers", not the "food earners". However, research shows that these women turned out to be very succesful entrepreneurs. And now more and more women are fighting for the right to be entrepreneurs.
Ford Company
Ford is a well known car company that has a great impact on the world. Because of the recession, more than 10,000 employees were fired. Ford was losing a lot of money and they were in a bad position.
-In 2000, Ford had more than 150,000 employees.
-In 2007, Ford had about 76,000 employees.
-At the end of 2010, Ford had less than 65,000 employees.
So, by the numbers of employees shown above, we know that Ford has a lot to look at.
Ford spent a few months and came up with new ideas. They are making brand new 13 cars, hiring 7,000 workers, opening 2,500 new factories, and even in the next five years they might add an additional global market share. Not only 7,000 workers but also Ford is adding nearly 4,000 hourly jobs.
Ford is improving by the results, but when will all of this happen?
-13 new cars: They didn’t yet announce the time.
-hiring 7,000 workers: By the end of 2012
-opening 2,500 new factories: next year (2012)
By the effort of Ford U.S market sales were up by 20% just in the last 2 years!
Sony PS3 Ready To Beat Xbox 360
Also since the release of the PS3, the company have sold 3.2 million consoles in the first quarter year from the release date starting from June till September. In the same amount of time (the first quarter of the year since release date) X-Box have olny sold 2.8 consoles compared with PS3. But the Playstion move is not wowing the viewers like the Kinect, which have been selling nonstop since release date.
Since May last year Sony have made a profit from the PS3 on a per-unit basis. Even though the mirosoft is not able to so with the X-Box, they have still made a profit from the games and from the subscription of X-Box Live.
But still both consoles are still far behind the Nintedo Wii, which have sold more than 75 million units up to date.
In the end Sony have earned 32 billion yen vesus a loss 26.3 billion yen last year, having the revenue go up by 4%.
http://www.businessinsider.com/ps3-approaching-xbox-360-lifetime-sales-2010-10
Oil's future is in deepwater drilling
"There's a huge amount of work out there," said Matt Pickard, consulting manager at Quest Offshore Resources, a deepwater research firm. "It's really picking up steam."
According to numbers provided by the Energy Policy Research Foundation.
Oil production in shallow waters are expected to decline to 14 million barrels a day in 2015.
The U.S is currently producing over 1.6 million barrals of oil a day and Brazil produces nearly the same amount as United States.
West Africa, Angola produces about 1.2 million barrels of oil a day and Nigeria 600,000.
"It's getting harder and harder to get access to these lands," said Leta Smith, director of oil and gas supply at Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "These big companies want big discoveries, and big discoveries are getting harder to find onshore."
http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/11/news/economy/oil_drilling_deepwater/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=Sbin
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Facebook valued at $50 Billion
This report came after days of announcing that Facebook had reach 500 million users around the world and became the most popular webiste in 2010 for the first time since the site launched , and Google came second .
Goldman Sachs Bank has report that they had recieve a check with a value of 50 million dollar from Digital Sky Technology a russian company to invest in Facebook .
Also the report from Goldman Sachs Bank shows that the value of Facebook raised to 50 billion dollar , which make this site much in value than more than alot of popular sites like Time Warner, eBay and Yahoo , and it make the owner of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg in the top 20 wealthy man in the world .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12135320
Saturday, January 8, 2011
US unemployment rate drops in December
The US unemployment rate dropped to 9.4% in December from 9.8% in November, the biggest one-month drop since April 1998. Some 103,000 jobs were created last month. The lower rate came not only because more people found jobs, but also because 260,000 had given up looking. If people stop searching for work, they are no longer counted as unemployed.
Stubbornly high unemployment has hindered the US economic recovery. Tax cuts would help employment and urged businesses who were thinking about creating jobs to press ahead. It may take up to five years for the unemployment rate to drop to a more historically typical 6% while the economy should grow more strongly this year as consumers and businesses boosted their spending.
"Notwithstanding these hopeful signs with employers reportedly still unwilling to add to payrolls, considerable time likely will be required before the unemployment rate has returned to a more normal level.
Overall employment for October and November was revised to show 70,000 more job gains than earlier reported, and the unemployment rate is now at its lowest since May 2009.Private hiring increased in December by 113,000, while government employment fell by 10,000. The falling rate appeared to counter concerns over fewer-than expected jobs being created, with shares on Wall Street relatively unchanged in early trading.
Meanwhile the euro rose into positive territory against the dollar after the report, but then relinquished those gains.
Revision List for End of Term
- How government affects business
- Taxes and taxation
- The global market
- Other economic systems
- Global economic changes
- Buying goods and services
- Consumer rights and responsibilities
Friday, January 7, 2011
Apple's Hard iPad Sell
it was on the front page of at least 47 state newspapers, with pictures and stories about the product and a minimum of 24 countries worldwide.
In the last ten years, Apple has innovated communication and music with its iPhone and iPod touch. Newspapers look at the iPad as a way to boost up their fading industry by offering down-loadable applications. Book Publishers would use the iPad's large screen to sell books electronically instead of spending money on paper and fuel to deliver the books . Software developers, who have been making and selling apps on the app store for the iPhone and iPod, would make more money by taking advantage of the much larger screen of the iPad for better graphics or simply for softwares that specifically need a large screen.
As of January 1 2011, 8.26 million iPads have been sold worldwide.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
December auto sales raise hopes for 2011
Most automakers ended the year 2010 with smooth sales month.Americans Gm, Ford, and Chrysler Group all made solid gains and met or topped all predictions,with Fords gain in 2010 it recaptured the spot since 2006 from Toyota Motor, the position No.2 in automakin in the U.S sales, following only GM.
Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. which holds the kia and hyundai brands in the U.S continued to go up in U.S market,also Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan ended 2010 with strong sales.
The one major automaker that was falling behind was Toyota,which had a decline in sales for the month and the entire year,but despite that the strong december was raising the hopes up for the industry.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
2010: The year of uncertainty and volatility
Summary:
2010 was a volatile and unpredictable business year full of ups and downs.
''Put bluntly, 2010 was a roller coaster ride'', said David Kotok, chief investment officer at Cumberland Advisors.
Stocks went off to a good start but worries about European debt and other anxieties slowed down stocks. The stocks started recovering but at around mid July, the stocks plummeted to their lows for the year. A mere hint at another stimulus package sent stocks on a upward trajectory for the rest of the year. But let's not forget May 6, when the "Flash Crash" sent the Dow (Dow Jones Industrial Average) spilling down almost 1,000 points in minutes.
The year ended on a high note though with a rise in stocks. Investors are hoping stocks continue rising in 2011.
Stock outlook for 2011: Recovery rally will continue

According to the New York’s CNN Money, the stock market will rise 11% by the end of 2011. Also according to the survey, business profits shall rase 10%, which is an average of $92 per share. Is it time to invest your money? According to Weeden & Comp market strategist Steven Goldman, it is the time to invest when he said "Everything seems to be in place for the stock market to rise", but on the contrary, Wells Fargo Advisors' chief macro strategist Gary Thayer, says that his economic earnings will only increase 6% and he does not expect to see a big growth in the market in 2011. Is it time to invest or re-invest in the stock market?
Mosaic
Market cap: $30.2 billion
2009 Revenue: $10 billion
P/E ratio: 15.4
Agrium
Market cap: $12.6 billion
2009 Revenue: $9.1 billion
P/E ratio: 11.8
Dow
Market cap: $36.1 billion
2009 Revenue: $45 billion
P/E ratio: 12.8
Transocean
Market cap: $21 billion
2009 Revenue: $12 billion
P/E ratio: 9.2
Royal Dutch Shell
Market cap: $108 billion
2009 Revenue: $278 billion
P/E ratio: 8.3
Lennar
Market cap: $2.8 billion
2009 Revenue: $3.1 billion
P/E ratio: 25
East West Bancorp
Market cap: $2.6 billion
2009 Revenue: $880 million
P/E ratio: 12.9
Royal Caribbean
Market cap: $8.7 billion
2009 Revenue: $5.9 billion
P/E ratio: 12.6
Entropic
Market cap: $750 million
2009 Revenue: $116 million
P/E ratio: 11.7
Apple
Market cap: $284 billion
2009 Revenue: $43 billion
P/E ratio: 15.7
I personally believe it is time to invest in the stock market. For those that would like to gain experience without risking their money, they can try their skills at a stock market simulator game @ http://www.tradefields.com/
Monday, January 3, 2011
Currency Effects on Global Trade
Global investing is different than investing in your home country in many ways.
For example: If a Canadian investor buys shares from a Japanese company, these shares will depend on the stock price. If the stock price goes up the investment goes up.
Lets assume you did a research about your investment in Canada and you found out that the company produced new i phone 4. Most probably the new product lot of people will buy it. When most people buy the product the stock price will increase so the company will gain more money and your investment will increase and be successful.
However, if your stock decreases your investment also decreases if not many people bought the product the company will decrease its stock price and your investment will decrease.
The ideal scenario is being right about both: the stock price goes up and you get an extra benefit from a strengthening of the currency. The worst case: the stock goes down and the currency loses value relative to the dollar. In other cases, the results will be mixed. No matter what, you can’t afford to ignore the currency effect
http://internationalinvest.about.com/od/gettingstarted/a/currencyeffect.htm
The Fed's 'Tax on the Consumer'
Since Ben Bernanke's comments, the dollar index has dropped by 7%, while goods(priced in dollars) have increased in price. Crude oil has increased in price by 14%, gold increased by 8%. Prices for cotton, corn, sugar, wheat and coffee also increased in price. Everything will increase in price including coffee, bread, pizza, gas, clothing and more. David Giroux stated that" The problem I have with QE2, it behaves like a tax on the consumer". American households already spend $340 Billion dollars a year on gasoline. Recently, the price of a gallon of gas increased by 4.8%. A 5% rise in food prices would eventually force a family to add $350 a year to their grocery budget. This is the Fed's sneaky "tax" on consumers.
Follow This Link: The Fed's 'Tax on the Consumer'
Summarized by Talat Zaitoun 10B1
2011: A hiring boom, even at 9% unemployment
After all the suffering the economy went through, 2011 might bring an recovery.
In 2011 more people will spend more , find more jobs , create new bussines, and more,,
Economists forecast between 2.5 to 3.5 million jobs added in the U.S payrolls in 2011 which will be the best jump since 1999 . ("were looking at some leading indicators on employment,and theyre all flashing green lights," said Bernard Baumohl of the economic outlook group)
People with no houses, college grads, people stuck with their families,friends, They will all move out and buy houses , get jobs, buy goods., All these help the economy to grow.
As well as debt between countries is getting less by issuing countrie trade agreements and contracts. ,, as well as the price of precious metals is decreasing like silver and gold,,, making the consumers buy more of it.
Lastly the unemployment rate is decreasing, job openings by employers rose 17% from june to october in 2010, about 3 million jobs being added over the past 3 years.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
A look at a key feature of McDonald's business
A look at a key feature of McDonald's business:
- In June 2002, a French farmer, Jose Bove, began a jail sentence for destroying a half-built McDonald's restaurant. Bove was sentenced for three months for the act which he said was in protest against US trade protectionism.