As Gordon Brown announces the UK is following the US in recession, saying it was caused by ‘complete market failure’, data shows that cattle ranching is experiencing double-digit growth in the US.
So, if you’re looking for a job and you’re worried the British financial services sector will shrink over the coming two years, why not try work on a cattle ranch, where growth and peace of mind are guaranteed.
I’ve had problems logging onto the internet all morning but, finally, I managed.
I am still energised by the extremely important role the inernet played yesterday during President Obama’s inaguruation. It was fantastic seeing people comment on Twitter and Facebook and watching the inauguration live on Cnn.com/live.
However, as soon as I came back to check the market’s reaction following Obama’s inauguration speech, I found that that the outlook on Wall Street was still bleak. Why?
Wall Street thrives on results. But, so far, we have only seen rhetoric coming from Obama. So that might be a reason. However, I think there’s more than what meets the eye.
Let’s assume that financial markets are places where people meet to take decisions. Now, we all know that the best decisions are informed-decisions. So we need informaton in order to take decisions.
Are we sure the kind of information markets are receiving is enough? I don’t think so. The current crisis is proof of wrong decisions taken on wrong information.
This means information needs to change. How? Social media might be the answer.
In fact, the World Economic Forum, which groups more than 2,500 experts from al over the world is this year using MySpace and YouTube to get the reactions of normal people ahead of a summit with a special title: Shaping the Post-Crisis World.
The post-crisis world should be based on greater social itneraction. We are already witnessing the beginning of change. But more needs to be done.
CNBC just announced that Royal Bank of Scotland, one of the major banks in Britain, has posted a $30 billion loss for 2008.
This is the biggest loss in Britian’s corporate history.
“If the banking system collapses, every single one of us would see the obvious problems. The economy would come down with it,” said Alistair Darling, Britian’s Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This news comes as the UK government prepares to take over as much as 70% of the bank in a bid to rescue it. This is part of a £300bn rescue package that was announced this morning.
Some sectors of the press are however already doubtful whether this second bank bailout will be successful.
Professor Peter Spencer from York University however argues, “We must not lose sight of the fact that they [bank bailouts] have prevented the collapse of the monetary system.” Were this to happen, this would spell disaster for the whole global economy.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard however states that “this does not mean that recovery is imminent’.
I do not envy anyone who has to deal with this financial mess.
Desperate times call for desperate measures, says a friend of mine. Singapore’s senior minister Goh Chok Tong seems to agree.
The Financial Times in fact reports that the southeast Asian state is ready to tap into its cash reserves in order to fund investment into the economy. Singapore’s economy is expeced to go down by 3% this year.
However, the artcle also reports that the government is also prepared to tighten laws making public protests a criminal act in a bid to curb efforts of a major Singapore opposition party.
This is shameful. You do not invest in the economy while dvesting people of their freedom of expression.
It is time civil society and states speak out in favour of democracy in Singapore.
Britain may be experiencing the worst economic decline in peaceful times since 1931, argues a report to be released by Ernst & Young Item club next week which was seen by The Times today.
Unemployment in Britian is expected to hit the 3.25m mark, the same report says.
Meanwhile, the British government prepares to bail out its banks with a further £100 billion, The Times says.
The past hour in news was not, however, all doom and gloom.
Barclays is in fact set to report a £6 billion pre-tax profit next month, The Telegraph says. The bank had announced 2,100 layoffs earlier this week.
American car web site Edmunds.com is offering $10 million of its advertising space for adverts encouraging Americans to buy cars, AdAge.com reported yesterday.
The ad, which will run for 90 days, argues that this is a great time to buy a car in the US as there are huge discounts available.
Jeremy Anwyl, CEO of Edmunds.com argued that his company felt impelled to show its support to the American car industry. ‘We’ve got to shock people into the market,’ he said.
The year 2009 will be an annus orribilis for graduate job seekers in the UK.
Data published today in fact shows that vacancies for graduate job seekers in the UK will go down by a fifth, The Independent reports.
This means there will be 7,000 jobs less for students graduating this year, argues The Telegraph.
‘There is understandable panic on campus that this is shaping up to be one of the worst years of the last two decades to be graduating from university,’ says Martin Birchall, managing director of market research company, High Fliers Research, in comments to the BBC.
The Independent also got in touch with Wes Streeting, President of the National Union of Students who said, ‘these figures will be extremely worrying for those who are preparing to graduate in 2009. But it isn’t just graduate jobs which are at risk from the credit crunch. Many students have to work part-time to finance their studies and we may see more of them having to drop out if they lose these jobs.’
‘Let’s see how far we’ve come’, says the song of an advert by Nortel Networks, a Canada-based company and sponsor of the next Olympic Games. It could ahve not gone farther than tomorrow as reports suggest, had it not filed for bankruptcy protection ahead of a gigantic interest payment which is due tomorrow.
The company, which employs 30,000 staff spread over 30 countries, said this move was part of a process of reorganisation aimed at making it stronger.
Efforts were made to stimulate growth in employment rates for both men an women, argues Christina Romer, the soon-to-be chair of a comittee of economy advisers in the White House in a YouTube interview.
These comments came after women’s groups in the US started voicing their concern that the stimulus plan would largely target the male dominated construction and manufacturing industries.
From The Huffington Post:
In conversations with several women’s issues officials, you do indeed get the sense of legitimate worry that the makeup of the stimulus package will be too focused on construction and manufacturing — traditionally male areas of work.
“There is great concern,” Martha Burk, formerly chair of National Council of Women’s Organizations, told the Huffington Post, “not only that women won’t get the jobs, but that unemployment itself is not helping women in the same numbers as men.”
We should follow the example set by Obama and make gender equality one of the main targets when creating policy.
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