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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (553121)	3/4/2010 1:14:04 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1575293

“As a citizen, I hate it. As a global employer, I have the luxury of hiring the best engineers anywhere on earth. If I can’t get them out of M.I.T., I’ll get them out of Tsing Hua” — Beijing’s M.I.T. This is a huge threat. BRIC more and more is not sending their best and brightest to be educated in the US. They have developed their own schools. That's a significant pool of talent we are starting to lose. If the government just boosted the research and development tax credit by 5 percent and lowered corporate taxes, argued Otellini, and we “started one or two more projects in companies around the country that made them more productive and more competitive, the government’s tax revenues are going to grow.” With the generous research and development tax credits and lower corporate taxes they receive, Intel’s chief competitors in South Korea basically have “zero cost of money,” said Otellini. Intel can compete against that with superior technology, but many other U.S. firms can’t. The US can cut those taxes. What it also can do is make everything else better....we have a higher quality of life.....keep enhancing that aspect. We have a huge consumer market.....keep enhancing that. We used to have state of the art facilities.........we need to do a major upgrade. The US is like the North was after WW II when it was losing a lot of industry to South because the South had cheaper labor and land costs. Those northern cities like Boston, MPLS, Seattle, Madison, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh etc that reinvented themselves continued to thrive. Those that didn't are struggling badly now. Does the Obama team get it? Otellini compared the Obama administration to a “diode” — an electronic device that conducts electric current in only one direction. They are very good at listening to Silicon Valley, he said, but not so good at responding. Can't cut taxes yet.....give it a year.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (553121)	3/4/2010 1:18:53 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1575293

Chilean economy well placed to rebuild By Will Smale Business reporter, BBC News While the human tragedy of the earthquake in Chile will be long-lasting, the impact on the country's economy is expected to be "limited and short-lived". Despite the Chilean quake being stronger than the one in Haiti in January, the difference between the two nations is vast. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, while Chile is the world's 46th richest. More pressingly, Chile is widely regarded as having the best-run economy in the whole of Latin America. In the immediate aftermath of the two quakes, this meant that, thanks to Chile's stringent building regulations, far fewer buildings collapsed than in the Caribbean nation. And as both countries rebuild, while Haiti is all but totally dependent upon overseas aid, Chile has the financial clout to recover without recourse to foreign support. 'Solid fiscal position' According to Eqecat, a company that helps insurers model catastrophe risks, the Chilean quake will likely cost the country up to $30bn (£20bn), equivalent to about 15% of its annual economic output. Curtis Mewbourne, investment group Pimco Separate figures from research group Capital Economics predict that $30bn will the highest possible figure, and that the financial cost could instead be as low as $15bn. More importantly, Capital still predicts the Chilean economy will expand 5% this year, as it continues to recover from recession in 2009. "Chile's infrastructure and construction standards are much better [than Haiti] - a reflection of the fact that it is the most advanced, and just about the best-managed, economy in the region," says Neil Shearing, senior emerging markets economist at Capital. He adds that while the reconstruction work will "present a major challenge" to President-elect Sebastian Pinera when his centre-right government takes office in two weeks time, "the country's solid fiscal position means there should be little constraint on public funding". Financial prudence But why is the Chilean economy in such good shape? Since the country returned to democracy in 1990, successive left-leaning governments have combined a free-market economy with prudent government spending. Instead of wildly spending the country's vast copper reserves - it has one-third of the world's supplies - governments have saved a lot of these funds. As a result, Chile has one of the lowest government debt to economic output ratios in Latin America. At the same time, its inflation rate is currently at 1.5%, and the Chilean interest rate is 0.5%, where it has been since August of last year. Taken together, these all mean that Chile has a strong credit rating. This will make it relatively easy and cheap for it to borrow any funds it needs on the international markets to aid the reconstruction work. Meanwhile, the forthcoming Pinera-led government is expected to continue the prudent economic approach of its predecessor. 'Ample resources' "The direct economic impact of the earthquake [could] be limited," says Curtis Mewbourne, of investment group Pimco. President-elect Sebastian Pinera will take over in two weeks "As the priority shifts from the urgent humanitarian needs to reconstruction, the strong state of government finances in Chile will facilitate these efforts." Credit Suisse strategist Carola Sanda agrees, saying: "Chile has ample resources abroad to help finance the cost of its rebuilding efforts. "Alternatively, it should be in a comfortable position to tap external and/or local debt markets," she adds. Copper boost Economists' confidence in Chile's ability to bounce back from the earthquake has been strengthened by the fact its copper mines suffered minimum damage, and soon resumed operations. With global copper prices widely expected to rise this year, led by China continuing economic growth and recovery in the US and Europe, this will only further help the speed of Chile's recovery. "The upshot is that recent events in Chile are without doubt a colossal human tragedy," says Mr Shearing. "But, for now at least, the implications for the economy and markets are likely to be both limited and short-lived." news.bbc.co.uk