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

To: dalroi who wrote (98685)	2/12/2013 7:43:31 PM
From: Zincman	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 218107

Does this link work? books.google.com

To: dalroi who wrote (98685)	2/12/2013 11:15:08 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 218107

The US and the EU will launch negotiations for a bilateral transatlantic trade deal, Barack Obama announced in his State of the Union address, in a long awaited decision which restores trade to centre of efforts to spur growth in large industrial economies. "Tonight, I am announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union -- because trade that is free and fair across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs," Mr Obama said. The go-ahead for the trade talks was central to a speech in which the US president returned to the theme of his re-election campaign, of promoting policies that he said would help middle-class families. "It is our generation's task, then, to reignite the true engine of America's economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle class," Mr Obama said. The US and the EU and its 27 member states already have a huge trade relationship, worth $2.7bn per day in goods and services, but since November 2011, they have been exploring ways to deepen ties amid rising global competition, particularly from China. The main focus of a trade agreement between the US and EU would be harmonise standards and tackle the non-tariff barriers that have frequently caused disputes across the Atlantic. The audience on Capitol Hill for the State of the Union included many invited guests whose relatives had been the victims of gun violence, to highlight Mr Obama's effort to push new firearm restrictions through Congress. Mr Obama's remarks included small initiatives to promote manufacturing, workers' skills and preschools -- and a threat by the president to take unilateral action to cut greenhouse emissions unless Congress acted on climate change. Mr Obama also called for Republicans in Congress to unwind the automatic $1.2tn in spending cuts, half from the defence budget, that will kick in from March 1, saying they threatened the economy and national security. "Nothing I'm proposing tonight should increase our deficit by a single dime. It's not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth," he said. The stand-off over how to cut the budget by $1.2tn over 10 years hangs over Mr Obama second term, with sharp reductions likely to slow growth significantly and drain momentum from a gradual improvement in the jobs market. Mr Obama is demanding that the next round of deficit reduction includes more revenues, largely from closing personal and company tax loopholes, while Republicans insist that the cuts be funded by spending reductions alone. The White House also waded into the complex politics of cybersecurity on Tuesday, issuing an executive order requiring stronger protections over vital infrastructure. Mr Obama took the step after several legislative proposals were rejected by Congress last year following opposition from business organisations against new regulations, and from civil liberties groups that feared government intrusion into online privacy. A senior administration official said ahead of the speech that the objective was to establish voluntary standards for infrastructure companies, such as power plant and railway operators, to protect themselves from cyber-attack. The order also allows for the government to share classified information about potential cyberthreats with more private sector companies. The official said the executive order was not a substitute for legislation.

To: dalroi who wrote (98685)	2/22/2013 9:54:02 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 218107

The economic slowdown that has shaken the eurozone’s periphery will continue to bleed into the currency bloc’s core this year, with France and Germany barely growing, according to highly anticipated forecasts published on Friday by the European Commission. EU forecasts paint grim economic picture By Peter Spiegel in Brussels The economic slowdown that has shaken the eurozone’s periphery will continue to bleed into the currency bloc’s core this year, with France and Germany barely growing, according to highly anticipated forecasts published on Friday by the European Commission. The worsening economic picture – where France’s gross domestic product is expected to grow just 0.1 per cent and Germany’s by 0.5 per cent in 2013, both 30 basis point downgrades from three months ago – will see the eurozone as a whole shrink 0.3 per cent this year. The commission had predicted growth of 0.1 per cent in November. The disappointing outlook curbed the euro’s gains on Friday, while more optimistic data from Germany, where the Ifo institute report showed business confidence in Europe’s largest economy had risen to a 10-month high, sent Bund yields higher.“The weakness of economic activity towards the end of 2012 implies a low starting point for the current year,” Olli Rehn, the EU’s economic affairs commissioner, said in a statement. “The current situation can be summarised like this: we have disappointing hard data from the end of last year, some more encouraging soft data in the recent past and growing investor confidence in the future.” The deepening recession will hit particularly hard in countries that have required EU financial assistance, particularly Greece, Spain and Portugal, which are expected to suffer deeper recessions this year and barely return to growth next year, according to the new forecasts. After shrinking 7.1 per cent in 2011 and 6.4 per cent last year, Greece is expected to see its sixth year of economic contraction in 2013, suffering a 4.4 per cent cut in economic activity – another downward adjustment from the 4.2 per cent predicted in November. Greek unemployment is expected to hit 27 per cent this year, up from 24.7 per cent in 2012, while Spain’s jobless rate will grow to 26.9 per cent. Portugal, where broad-based political support for the austerity measures accompanying its €78bn bailout has begun to fracture, will see unemployment peak at 17.3 per cent this year, according to the forecasts. The bleak picture threatens to upend eurozone efforts to bring down debt levels across the region. Eurozone government debt is expected to hit 95.1 per cent of GDP this year, the highest levels since the creation of the single currency. It will also make it difficult for several eurozone governments to hit EU-mandated deficit targets. France, which has become the subject of particular concern, is expected to post a deficit this year of 3.7 per cent of GDP, a significant miss of its 3 per cent target and a forecast that could lead Brussels to force the anti-austerity government of President François Hollande to impose new cuts in order to hit the target. We have disappointing hard data from the end of last year, some more encouraging soft data in the recent past and growing investor confidence in the future- Olli Rehn, EU economic affairs commissioner Mr Rehn must now decide whether France’s worse than expected deficit figures were due to a lack of action by the French government or because of an unexpected economic shock. If he decides that it was due to factors beyond Paris’s control, he could postpone the deadline by a year, especially if he determines Mr Hollande has done enough to reform the French economy to foster growth in the future. Mr Rehn granted Spain a similar extension last year, but senior European Central Bank officials have cautioned against giving Paris a pass. The commission’s 143-page winter economic forecast gives some signals Mr Rehn is preparing to give France a reprieve. It states that new tax measures are expected to bring in additional revenues amounting to 1.5 per cent of GDP and explicitly states that much of the missed target is due to the economic downturn. “GDP growth projected well below potential will negatively affect the headline deficit,” the report states, adding that Mr Hollande has reduced France’s structural deficit – a more subjective measure of the impact reforms will have in the long term – by 1.25 per cent, above a 1 per cent target set by Brussels. Although Spain has been already given a waiver, the new data reveal just how difficult the road ahead is for Madrid to hit even the new, more lenient targets. Spain was supposed to lower its deficit to 5.3 per cent of GDP last year, but instead came in with nearly double that: 10.2 per cent, by far the highest in the EU. This year, Spain’s deficit is projected to hit 6.7 per cent, well off the 3 per cent goal it was supposed to achieve. Without any additional austerity measures, Madrid’s deficit it projected to balloon again to 7.2 per cent in 2014, the forecast predicts.

To: dalroi who wrote (98685)	3/3/2013 2:17:59 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 218107

That raised quite a stir in Leuven...Interbrew had been a comfy, generous employer guided both by strict Belgian labor laws and an old-school European approach to business, inherited from the dozens of small, often family owned breweries it took over during its own acquisition spree. Some of its breweries in Belgium, the primordial home of craft beer, were run by ancient orders of monks. But mostly they were just run by well-entrenched unions and very well treated workers. Say hello to Savage Capitalism! Will Heinz Get the Brazilian Treatment? By Tom Gara One way to look at the future for Heinz as it is bought out by Warren Buffett and Brazilian-owned 3G Capital is to see how other big international deals driven by 3G’s co-founder, Jorge Paulo Lemann, have played out. Most prominent among them has been the global expansion of AmBev, the Brazilian beer company he controlled as it made a sweep across the globe. First it merged with Belgium’s Interbrew, owner of famed brews including Stella Artois. The merged company InBev ABI.BT +0.65%, later joined up with Anheuser-Busch to become AB InBev. After all that wheeling and dealing, Mr Lemann now owns 10% of AB InBev, worth just over $11 billion at today’s price. He’s also the richest person in Brazil. And he got there by being deadly efficient with his money. Even though Interbrew technically took over AmBev in their 2004 merger, Brazilian managers from AmBev, which dominates beer markets across much of Latin America, were quick to work their way through the corporate headquarters of the merged company. They brought with them a no-nonsense management style straight out of Brazil, where AmBev was known for ruthless efficiency and competitiveness, and a stingy approach to costs. That raised quite a stir in Leuven, home of the InBev headquarters, where Interbrew and its predecessors had been brewing since the 1300s. Interbrew had been a comfy, generous employer guided both by strict Belgian labor laws and an old-school European approach to business, inherited from the dozens of small, often family owned breweries it took over during its own acquisition spree. Some of its breweries in Belgium, the primordial home of craft beer, were run by ancient orders of monks. But mostly they were just run by well-entrenched unions and very well treated workers. To this old-world company the Brazilians brought the AmBev concept of zero-based budgeting — an approach to financial management where all departments start the annual planning process with a budget of zero, rather than a baseline of the previous year’s number. They then have to fight for every single dollar above zero, rather than battle over increases or decreases from the last year. Zero-based budgeting, along with plant closures, staff cuts and tight management turned InBev into a brewer with a reputation for brutal efficiency by the time it merged with Anheuser-Busch. It will be interesting to watch whether Mr Lemann will bring the Brazilian touch to Heinz HNZ +0.06%, a historic American name that drew criticism for its relaxed approach to costs. A few differences here: first, he is investing in partnership with Warren Buffet, who has a more benevolent reputation in his approach to business. And second, he isn’t taking over Heinz via a Brazilian food company — there isn’t the cadre of managers ready to transplant into the American company like there was with AmBev. But there is a lot of money on the line, and Mr Buffet likely chose his partner for something more than just access to money, which has not historically been a Warren Buffet problem. From his InBev experience, Mr Lemann knows how to run a brutally efficient business that bottles a consistent-tasting product and pushes it to its consumers, and it looks like the Brazilian approach will be making its way to Heinz sooner or later. Related: Erik Holm has details on Markets Hub.