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

To: TobagoJack who wrote (68128)	11/14/2010 2:02:42 AM
From: bull_dozer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218005

The other elephant For American workers the most worrying thing about all this is the flight of brain-intensive jobs to India. Americans reconciled themselves to the loss of manufacturing jobs with the thought that they would keep the smart jobs. But they reckoned without two things: the power of the internet and the hunger of emerging-market companies. India has long since turned itself into the world’s back-office—subjecting paper-processing hubs such as Kansas City to the same forces of competition that devastated former industrial cities such as Gary, Indiana. Now Indian-based companies are moving into an wider range of services: reading CT-scans and X-rays, processing legal documents and helping with animation. They are also moving into sophisticated niches. TCS and Infosys compete directly with IBM and Accenture in consulting. American companies are adding to the trend by moving more of their important operations to India: John Chambers, Cisco’s boss, has decreed that 20% of the firm’s leadership should be in Bangalore. Companies in India are challenging American ones in an area that they have long considered their own—innovation. The Boston Consulting Group’s 2010 survey of innovation notes that the number of American companies on its list of top innovators is declining while the number of Indian companies is rising. It also points out that the Indian firms place a higher value on innovation than the American companies. Most strikingly, Indian companies have produced a new type of innovation, variously dubbed “frugal”, “reverse” and “Gandhian”. The essence is to reduce the price of a product or service by a breathtaking amount—80% rather than 10%—by removing unnecessary bells and whistles. Tata Motors is selling its “people’s car” for $3,000; GE’s Indian arm offers a medical ECG machine for $400; Bharat Biotech sells a single dose of its hepatitis B vaccine for 20 cents and Bharti Airtel provides one of the cheapest wireless telephone services in the world. These frugal products are likely to disrupt established Western companies (including GE itself) by forcing them to engage in a bloody price war. economist.com

To: TobagoJack who wrote (68128)	11/14/2010 3:13:10 AM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218005

Anyone wanting to know just how daft and self defeating the EU’s latest utterences (SIC) on the Permanent Crisis Resolution Mechanism (the structure through which sovereign bailouts would be conducted) really are, should take a look at the note just published by Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit Group. I’ve got no link for this, so I’ll quote his digest in full: “The Eurozone’s credibility deficit is getting larger by the day. The most recent antics on the Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism are a breath-taking mixture of suicidal irresponsibility and farcical incoherence, and risk inflicting lasting damage to the recovery prospects of the most troubled peripheral countries and to the credibility of the eurozone’s economic governance framework. “Germany had seemed determined to have agreement on a SDRM. But now from Soul, EU finance ministers tell us that that any SDRM would only apply to new debt issued after the mechanism has been approved and put in place, that is 2013 at the earliest. Debt currently outstanding, and any debt issued over at least the next two years, would therefore be safe. But this commitment is time-inconsistent, and therefore not fully credible. If by 2013 countries like Greece, Ireland and Portugal are still in a shaky position, with weak fiscal accounts and weak growth, any new debt issued with SDRM clauses will carry exorbitant yields, inconsistent with debt sustainability. “The EU would then have to choose between a full-fledged, open-ended bailout, and reneging on the promise that existing debt would not be restructured. Will German voters then accept higher taxes to save their profligate neighbors? Perhaps, but we can hardly take it for granted. The apparent time inconsistency of the Seoul promise implies that we might get the worst of both worlds: spreads will not come in significantly, as investors will doubt that existing debt is really safe, while high-debt countries will still hope that they will be helped and not left to the cruel mercy of the markets. We will get instability and bailouts rather than discipline.” But as Mr Annunziata points out, unless countries such as Ireland, Greece, and Portugal, have by then got their finances back in order, which doesn’t seem likely, the yields demanded on new debt will be so high as to require a restructuring of existing debt anyway. Either that, or the rest of the eurozone would have to give an open ended guarantee. This crisis is set to run and run. P.S. Some understandable confusion of terminology is setting in here. The European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) mentioned by the finance ministers is the existing €750bn fund set up last May to help countries with difficulty repaying their debts. The Permanent Crisis Resolution Mechanism (PCRM) is what they propose should replace it in 2013. I’m assuming that Mr Annunziata’s Sovereign Debt Restructuring Mechanism is the same thing. All clear now? blogs.telegraph.co.uk

To: TobagoJack who wrote (68128)	11/14/2010 3:53:18 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 218005

Nov. 7th: China, France enter new era of strategic partnership China is doing Marshall Plan for Europe. Rescuing from the ruins. See my posting about Portugal below. Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday wrapped up a fruitful visit to France, opening a new chapter in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries. China is playing their diplomatic card well. Learned with Lula to travel and persuade... China has been helping Europe with dismantling old factories and shipping them to China. Has taken, both, outdated and newer technologies and kept Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel and Siemens afloat. No one publishes that but we in the SI premier thread know that. Compare that with the hoopla about China supporting commodities exporters but no word about helping technology companies by providing cheap products for them to put mark up and gorge in profits...