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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (1956)	11/9/2005 4:00:06 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217767

The Economics Fueling the French Riots. It's becoming quite clear how unsustainable a system is that actually fosters sky-high youth unemployment -- and not just in France businessweek.com By Michael Mandel The Economics Fueling the French Riots It's becoming quite clear how unsustainable a system is that actually fosters sky-high youth unemployment -- and not just in France Could the riots in France spell the beginning of the end of the European economic model? So far the unrest, which started in a Paris suburb and has now spread to more than 300 French towns, including Orleans, Nantes, and Rouen, has been mainly attributed to religious, ethnic, and immigrant issues. And the arson, car burnings, and other attacks so far seem to be centered in Muslim and African communities, fueled by pervasive discrimination and genuine grievances. Advertisement Yet the outbursts were supercharged by an economic system that not only tolerates but actually fosters sky-high youth unemployment. In September, an incredible 21.7% of 15- to 24-year-olds in France were unemployed, compared to only 11% in the U.S. and 12.6% in Britain. France isn't alone -- other European countries, such as Belgium, Spain, Greece, Italy, and Finland -- also have persistent youth unemployment rates above 20%. Such sky-high levels of idle youth are a by-product of the welfare-state mentality that's still pervasive across much of Europe. The idea is that government's main role is to provide a safety net for the population, in terms of jobless and health benefits. Generating growth and creating jobs takes a distinctly lower priority, resulting in high unemployment, especially among the young. UNDIRECTED ENERGY. By contrast, in the U.S. economic model, rapid economic growth and low unemployment can help pull young people over racial and ethnic hurdles. When businesses need lots of new workers, they are willing to take chances, as they did in the late 1990s. From 1996 to 2000, for example, the unemployment rate for young Americans dropped from 12% to just over 9%. The problem for Europe -- and France in particular -- is that no society can long survive when 20% of young people, with plenty of energy and no place to put it, are unemployed. It's not simply an immigrant problem. Romano Prodi, the leader of the center-left coalition in Italy, says living conditions are terrible in that country's suburbs, even in areas made up only of Italian citizens. One important lesson of the French riots is that the European economic model is leaving too many people behind, and that's not sustainable. READER COMMENTS

To: TobagoJack who wrote (1956)	11/9/2005 9:24:35 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217767

TJ, sell gold: Cosan is making an initial public offering of about 16 million shares on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Bovespa in order to raise capital for acquisitions to keep up with consolidation in Brazil's huge cane industry, analysts said. Do you think I should tell MQ to sell QCOM and get on board too?? cosan.com.br Brazil's Cosan IPO offers sugar-ethanol boom stake Wed Nov 9, 2005 7:47 AM ET Printer Friendly \| Email Article \| Reprints \| RSS (Page 1 of 2) By Reese Ewing SAO PAULO, Brazil, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Cosan SA, the world's largest sugar and ethanol producer, will offer investors a stake in Brazil's sugar-ethanol boom and generate capital to fund company expansion, analysts said. Cosan is making an initial public offering of about 16 million shares on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange Bovespa in order to raise capital for acquisitions to keep up with consolidation in Brazil's huge cane industry, analysts said. Company shares were supposed to be assigned an opening price on Tuesday and begin trading on Thursday. But on Monday Brazil's CVM market watchdog suspended Cosan's IPO until Nov. 17 for alleged violation of market regulations prohibiting making statements during the quiet period. Cosan denied on Wednesday that it or its lead investment bank Morgan Stanley had divulged information beyond the company prospectus. But analysts say the delay will not affect the IPO. "Even though I don't recommend the stock based on its (expected) opening price, I don't think the CVM's suspension will affect the success of the IPO. Demand for it is big," Fama Investimentos analyst Celso Boil Jr. said. He said that shares in the most recent local IPO, of retail bank Nossa Caixa,on the Bovespa were so over subscribed that investors only got about 5 percent of what they had ht. Analysts said there is a healthy demand for just about any offering in Brazil. The recent IPOs of Nossa Caixa, Dasa, Porto Seguro, Submarino, Gol, ALL, Natura and others were all oversubscribed, after several years without initial pubic offerings in Brazil due to unfavorable market conditions. Boin said the opening share price range of Cosan of between 40 and 46 reais each was roughly the range in which his estimates put the company's value, and thus offered little bargain for the risk of investment. "Moreover, the capital they are raising is unlikely to pay down debt or for cash flow but for acquisitions," he said. But other analysts were more optimistic about Cosan's market share in Brazil's blossoming sugar and ethanol sector. Brazil's Cosan IPO offers sugar-ethanol boom stake Wed Nov 9, 2005 7:47 AM ET Printer Friendly \| Email Article \| Reprints \| RSS (Page 2 of 2) "This is really the first chance for small investors to get in on one of Brazil's major agricultural booms, something that was previously reserved for medium to big investors," analyst Fabio Anderaos at Geracao Futuro brokers said. He said with the expected gradual decline in trade barriers in sugar and the demand for alternative fuels due to oil prices, the future of the cane sector looked very bright. Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of sugar and ethanol. The cane sector has entered into a new expansion cycle in the past years. It is expected to soak up a good share of the world's white sugar market that will come up for grabs with the end of EU sugar subsidies, after Brazil won its case against them at the World Trade Organization earlier this year. The successful debut in Brazil in 2004 of flex-fuel cars that run on ethanol, gasoline or any combination and record high oil and gasoline prices have boosted demand for cane-based ethanol at home and abroad. Brazilian mills are facing a serious challenge expanding cane production and processing capacity fast enough to keep pace with growing demand in sugar and ethanol. The Brazilian government said it was negotiating to lessen trade barriers against ethanol exports, which reached a record 2.5 billion liters in 2005, and could challenge high tariffs in end-markets such as the United States at the World Trade Organization if friendly negotiations failed. "Brazil's cane sector started a slow consolidation in 2001," KPMG consultants partner Andre Castello Branco told Reuters. "Many of the 300 odd mills are still small family-owned operations." "There is big potential for consolidation which takes capital. Many are already underway -- Louis Dreyfus' Coinbra, the Jose Pessa Group, Carlos Lyra ... now Cosan," Branco said.