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

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (97323)	12/23/2012 11:22:41 PM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 220054

US Big Three look to auto alternatives young people are delaying learning to drive and more young professionals are moving to city centres. By Robert Wright in New York The big three US carmakers are eyeing increasing involvement in alternatives to private car ownership such as e-bikes and buses, amid a dip in car use and ownership. The three – General Motors, Ford and Chrysler – are reacting to figures that show young people are delaying learning to drive and more young professionals are moving to city centres. The vehicle manufacturers are increasingly involved in local car-sharing services intended to serve urban professionals who occasionally need a car but prefer to avoid full-time ownership. The new thinking marks a significant change for companies that once encouraged the US’s steady shift in many areas towards almost total reliance on the private car. Sheryl Connelly, Ford’s futurologist, said the carmaker started studying the changes’ impact after noticing the proportion of 16-year-olds holding a driving licence in the US fell from 50 to 30 per cent in the 30 years to 2008. Ford recognised there would be days in a city such as London where a commuter would conclude train travel made most sense, Ms Connelly said. On others, it would be more practical to rent a car. “The future of mobility is going to be multi-modal,” Ms Connelly said. “It’s going to be context and purpose-driven.” Peter Kosak, GM’s executive director for urban mobility, said increased urbanisation worldwide – including an apparent drift towards formerly rundown inner cities in the US – had changed the carmaker’s thinking. Among GM’s responses had been its investment – which it increased in November – in Proterra, a North Carolina-based builder of electric buses. The company is also studying whether to start manufacturing, selling or managing sharing systems for electric bicycles. E-bike use is growing fast in many parts of the world. “Bikes and e-bikes are going to be a part of urban mobility solutions to a growing extent,” Mr Kosak said. “So, certainly, that’s something we’re looking at as well.” JoAnn Heck, Chrysler’s director of consumer and market insights, said carmakers would increasingly work with local governments and other companies to provide customers with choices about how to move about. “It may be that companies think more about addressing a business model associated with open ownership,” Ms Heck said. “Particularly in cities, there are a lot of ways that this can be addressed.” Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (97323)	12/24/2012 4:27:15 PM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 220054

merry christmas to all who celebrates such, and happy new year to all re food stamps for the better-to-do, even as they are also having problems, i note that the 'fiat money inflation in france' script is tracking true and playing well in the nation for which the book was about and named for, and we have enough reasons to believe that the entire script should play out pretty much the same way as last time i have always puzzled over the 'why did not people run before events engulfed them?' i fear we shall have our answer w/i our life time recommendation: getgold, visit france a few more times before the madame makes appearance en.wikipedia.org , and leave france the same can be said for a lot of places i figure re gold and the story below, we here in hk are stocking up on gold flakes and champagne, for they go well together along with candlelight and new years eve m.cnbc.com French 'Sadness' Hits Champagne Sales Financial Times \| December 23, 2012 \| 04:27 AM EST The French are popping fewer champagne corks and spending less on toys as higher taxes, a deteriorating economy and an exodus of national icons sap the country's joie de vivre . "There is a moroseness, a sadness among the French population at the moment which has led to our compatriots drinking a little less champagne this year," says Paul-Franois Vranken, chairman and chief executive of Vranken Pommery Monopole, one of the country's best-known Reims-based houses. "Champagne consumption follows the mood of the country. Today, there isn't a mood conducive to celebration." The gloom has deepened in recent days after an undignified spat between the country's Socialist government and actor Grard Depardieu, who objected to President Franois Hollande's plan to increase the top tax rate to 75 per cent - the world's highest - on January 1. The star of Oblix the Gaul and Cyrano de Bergerac said last week that he would hand in his passport after being "insulted" by Jean-Marc Ayrault, the French prime minister, who called his decision to abandon France for lower-tax Belgium "pathetic". Bernard Arnault, the billionaire head of the LVMH luxury goods group and France's richest man, has also applied for Belgian nationality. French spirits have literally fallen this year, after a 14 per cent increase in excise duties on the alcohol. Aniseed-based drinks were hit particularly hard.Pernod Ricard, the Paris-based producer of Ricard, the country's bestselling tipple, blamed the tax rise for an 8 per cent drop in sales in France during the three months to the end of September. Champagne sales in France fell 5 per cent in the first 10 months of the year and 6 per cent in the rest of Europe, according to the CIVC champagne industry figures. Even toys have been hit. "For the first time, toys this year have become a variable [in household budgets]," Serge Papin, head of the Systme U supermarket chain, said. "People are no longer choosing between types of toys - it's only the price that counts." Mr Hollande said yesterday that next year would be "difficult" after gloomy predictions from Insee, the French statistics office. "We've all had it," said Marc Fiorentino, a radio commentator and chairman of brokerage Euroland Finance. "That in sum is Insee's economic forecast for France. No growth in 2013 and unemployment to exceed 11 per cent. Joyeux Noel!"