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Thursday, 12 August 2010 |
Payments to the unemployed continues to remain high for the past couple of months, whereby millions are still unemployed and are depending on the federal government’s jobless benefits in order to make ends meet. In fact, there was an interruption to the payments to the jobless people, whereby there was a standoff in the Congress, which disrupted the payments to the unemployed.
And according to the statistics released by the Feds, it seems that the payments average at $300 a week, while a solid two and a half million Americans are receiving these benefits on a weekly basis.
Nevertheless, Obama has apparently extended the jobless benefits for people who have used up their 26 weeks of state jobless benefits. In fact, the recently approved bill will extend the benefits to up to 73 weeks of federally financed benefits to the unemployed. And the latest figures also showed that about half of the 5 million people in the program are already categorized as ineligible to receive the benefits, since June the 2nd.
Personally, I find the federal government’s move to extend the jobless benefits to be good, but surely, the government can’t continue to support the jobless, as clearly, they will need to increase their efforts in finding jobs in the market. Perhaps the federal jobless benefits are also discouraging the general public from finding jobs in the market?
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Sunday, 08 August 2010 |
According to several reports and studies conducted by leading marketing firms in the market, it seems that both the rich and average Americans are not spending their money like they used to. In fact, unemployment still lingers at the stubbornly high double digits region, while the housing market is in shambles, which really cast doubts on a fully economic recovery.
Although some might regard the economy as somewhat bleak, there are companies which continue to thrive in the market. In fact, several multinational firms have reported amicable growth for their financial performances, and these companies are Intel, Caterpillar, 3M and UPS. And taking a closer look at their financial performances, some economic analysts are even positive that these companies might even help to lead the economy to a full recovery.
And tugging not far behind is none other than AT&T, as well as Union Pacific railroad. Peter Buchanan, who is also a senior economist at CIBC World Markets, mentioned that he believes these two juggernauts are already seeing better financial performances this year. In fact, he predicts that the two juggernauts will perform even better at the end of the year, whereby their overall revenue will pick up considerably by then.
Personally, I believe that a full economic recovery is possible, provided that companies continue to practice stringent cost cutting measures in their overall business operation. I also believe that by tightening up their belts, I’m sure they would definitely have the financial resources to turnaround the company.
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Wednesday, 04 August 2010 |
Amazon unveiled their technological marvel called the Kindle on November 19, 2007, and this particular device is one of the hottest selling devices on Earth. In fact, Amazon has sold millions of Kindles to consumers, and their sales are not showing any tipping point at the moment. And with the advent of the e-book reader called the Kindle, book manufacturers have started converting their physical books to an electronic version, with hopes of selling these electronic books to people who are using the Kindle.
According to Amazon, they have recently announced that they have sold more e-books than existing hardcover books that are currently circulating in the market. In fact, Amazon has dominated the hardcover book market for the past 15 years, something that the Kindle did in just 3 measly years.
On the other hand, certain groups of people are foretelling that the age of books is ending, whereby future generations of our children might experience the extinction of books. And with more advanced versions of the e-book readers being introduced into the market, the likeliness of an extinction is very probable.
Do you think that the Kindle and e-books will make existing physical books extinct in the near future?
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Saturday, 31 July 2010 |
We all know that most electronic devices which utilizes electricity, emits some form of radiation. Take the cell phone for example, it is a wide known fact that cell phones emit a noticeable amount of radiation to the unsuspecting user.
Generally, the city of San Francisco has recently approved a law which requires cell phone stores to post necessary information to inform consumers on the levels of radio energy emitted by a cell phone unit.
Apparently, such laws angered certain key players in the wireless industry, whereby they have taken the city of San Francisco to the U.S. District Court. The group argued that the radio energy levels emitted by a respective cell phone could be obtained through the FCC website, and posting such information in every the cell phone store isn’t necessary.
Mayor Gavin Newsom has reiterated that by providing such information to consumers, is a quite modest measure that allows better transparency and information that is vital for consumers to make the right choice when shopping for electronics, such as the cell phone.
Do you think that it is necessary for every cell phone store to display radiation levels emitted by cell phone units which are sold in their retail outlet?
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Tuesday, 27 July 2010 |
Verizon has recently announced that they company made a loss of $198 million for Q2 2010. Verizon added that they made such a huge loss for that quarter of the year, due to the fact that they opted for a buyout for 11,000 workers.
Generally, the respective news have sent Verizon’s earning per share to 7 cents lower that what market analysts have forecasted earlier. In fact, Verizon’s financial performance for Q2 2010 hovered at 52 cents per share.
On the other hand, Verizon’s revenue also slipped 0.3 percent lower, whereby they posted $28.8 billion in revenue for 2010, which is comparably a little lower that previous year’s of $28.9 billion.
Earlier, Verizon made a bid to buyout union workers in May, whereby they have offered workers a $50,000 one-time bonus per employee. On the other hand, Verizon also made promises to improve pension payouts and other benefits as well. Generally, Verizon wants to downsize their traditional phone business, whereby this market segment is seen to be shrinking over time. And according to Verizon’s records, the company ended the quarter with 210,800 employees, which is 24,500 fewer when compared to a year ago.
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Friday, 23 July 2010 |
The White House has recently made speculations that the US budget deficit will eventually reach a whopping $1.47 trillion this year. In fact, analysts have calculated that the government in indeed borrowing 41 cents, for every dollar that they have spent. Although the budget deficit might reach such a staggering figure, the administration added that the figure is actually a little better than what was predicted in February.
On the other hand, the White House also highlights the unusually high unemployment rate in the country, whereby unemployment rates are still at 9.5%. And according to the officials, they are forecasting the unemployment rate to be at 9% next year, which is a marginal improvement. Top economists in the country are also forecasting that unemployment rate will not sink back to the normal rate of 5.5% to 6% in this decade.
However, analysts believe that the US budget deficit will significantly improve in 2012, whereby they are forecasting that the deficit will be lowered to $1.42 trillion, or 37 cents of borrowing for every cent spent. Also, it seems that they are still quite optimistic over the developments of the economy in the future, but surely, Obama needs to focus more of his energy to help stimulate the economy, and to create more jobs in the market, so that the stubbornly high unemployment ratio would be lowered to a much more manageable level.
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Tuesday, 20 July 2010 |
The United Arab Emirates have disclosed that the BlackBerry poses as a social and security risk to the country. In fact, the UAE mentioned that the device can easily be misused and ultimately threatening security of the country.
In fact, the UAE strongly oppose to the usage of the BlackBerry Messenger software that can be used to distribute local news. On the other hand, the Gulf might also take appropriate measures to limit the usage of certain applications on the BlackBerry.
Personally, I believe that the UAE should take pro-active steps to upgrade their existing telecommunications infrastructure, so that they can curb the abuse of using BlackBerry devices. I’m pretty sure that security risks are one of their top-most agenda, and thus technology can help them avert disasters from happening.
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