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

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (46039)	1/31/2009 10:21:17 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217808

The result of higher USD "exports plummeted 19.7% in the last 3 months of 2008. This is is ominous sign when the USD should cheap to allow US to become a export juggernaut. Another bad portent was a sharp decline in exports. U.S. sales to other countries had been strong in recent years, boosted by high demand overseas and the relatively low value of the dollar. But that situation reversed sharply in the last three months of 2008, with exports plummeting 19.7%. latimes.com

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (46039)	1/31/2009 10:33:17 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217808

Protesters rally against Kremlin's economic course. Thousands of protesters rallied across Russia on Saturday to criticize the government's economic course and its response to the global financial crisis. The protests, among the strongest yet, reflected public anger over worsening economic conditions and posed a challenge to the Kremlin, which had faced little threat from the fragmented opposition and politically apathetic population during the years of oil-driven boom. About 2,500 people marched across the far eastern port of Vladivostok to denounce the Cabinet's decision to increase car import tariffs, and some shouted slogans urging Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to resign. Many in the region make their living from importing cars. Police, who brutally dispersed a similar protest in Vladivostok last month, did not intervene. In Moscow, about 1,000 Communist demonstrators rallied on a central square surrounded by heavy police cordons. There, Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov said the government must abandon Western economic models and conduct broad nationalization. Several hundred police blocked the square but did not try to break up the protest, which had been sanctioned by authorities. Eduard Limonov, leader of the banned National Bolshevik Party, was detained by police at another Moscow square. Limonov is one of the most radical critics of the Kremlin, and members of his group have taken a leading role in many previous street protests.

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (46039)	2/2/2009 5:04:15 PM
From: Snowshoe	Respond to of 217808

Why is the USD holding up? Because America has abandoned wastrelism... ;) In a Sole Revival, the Recession Gives Beleaguered Cobblers New Traction Penny Pinchers Bring Trade Back From Brink; Makeover for Dog-Mauled Manolo Blahniks FEBRUARY 2, 2009 By SARAH E. NEEDLEMAN LAKELAND, Fla. -- "I haven't seen shoes like this in 25 years," marvels Jim McFarland. The narrow hall of his small shoe-repair shop is piled high with reheeled stilettos, resoled boots and polished oxfords. Mr. McFarland, a third-generation cobbler, is riding a shoe-repair boom. Since mid-November, he has been juggling roughly 275 repair jobs a week -- about 50% more than usual. "I'm so busy right now it's unbelievable," he says. The recession is battering big swaths of the U.S. economy, but it's given a new lease on life to the tiny shoe-repair industry, which has been shrinking for decades. Nationwide, cobblers and their suppliers report markedly higher revenues than a year ago, as newly frugal Americans opt to repair their shoes rather than replace them. "Our business is very, very strong in an industry that has been depressed and declining for many years," says Lee Efronson, owner of Miami Leather Co., a wholesaler of shoe-care products to cobblers since 1959. In assorted nooks of the national economy, the recession has provided a welcome jolt. Résumé writers have seen an upsurge in business from customers looking for jobs. Auto mechanics say they are getting busier keeping old cars on the road. And employment lawyers are picking up clients swept up in the waves of layoffs. It appears that the good news for cobblers means bad news for shoe retailers. Retail sales of adult footwear declined 3.2% in the 12 months that ended in November, from the year-earlier period, according to NPD Group Inc., a market-research firm. Lawrence Sutton hadn't set foot in a shoe-repair shop in years. In November, the 36-year-old insurance-company owner walked into Mr. McFarland's storefront in a strip mall in this town east of Tampa to drop off his wife's black Prada pumps, which had a broken strap and worn heels. "It's better to pay $40 to fix them than $500 for a new pair," he explained. His job is secure, he said, but he's concerned about the economy and is watching his wallet. There are just 7,000 shoe-repair shops left in the U.S., down from more than 120,000 during the Great Depression, according to the Shoe Service Institute of America, a trade group. Today's cobblers lament that young people are less inclined to learn the trade from their fathers or take it up on their own. more: online.wsj.com