Alternative energy holds in a cheap fuel world flows.

11:00 AM Alternative, cheap, energy, flows, holds, world No Comments

| By Bruce Kennedy, MSN Money

Even as U.S. oil and gas output is increasing, many companies are aggressively investing in renewable power-especially in wind-in an effort to diversify.

The United States are at an economic and cultural crossroads, when it comes to energy. In the span of a generation, the idea of capturing power from sources other than fossil fuels or nuclear energy of utopian nonsense has gone, up to far in the national power grid.

But now the country is produced also fossil fuels at prices which do not seen that in years of the alternative energy sector in a familiar Bindung--because if fossil fuel prices fall, interest in alternative tends to dry out.

However, the progress is remarkable. According to the national renewable energy laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, renewable energy such as wind, solar, bio-fuels and alternative sources currently accounts for 12% of total US energy supply and 13% of all power generated. In some parts of the country has renewable energy sources commercially with conventional oil and gas production more competitive.

While this means that the United States its dependence on fossil fuels at all times will end soon, does it, we have a variety of energy sources.

Wind, generated for example 4.5% of energy in the USA-compared to about 1% or less five years ago. Last year, a record has been installed by more than 13,000 megawatts of wind generated energy capacity. This is still a modest number, given that 1 MW can power only several hundred houses and the United States have a total power generation capacity of more than 1 million MW. But experts say that it is a good start.

"We have more (wind) installed as the Chinese last year", said Jeffrey Logan, senior energy analyst at NREL, MSN Money. "And a very large supply-chain infrastructure were now in the United States, this kind of production and provide support."

Giving to wind energy further momentum, early June Secretary of The interior Sally Jewell, together with the Director of the Bureau of ocean energy management, announced the Government will auction of leases for offshore wind farms along the 9 nautical miles from Rhode Iceland and Massachusetts that roll in New England an area around. This will be developed the first offshore wind energy project in the United States and more than 3,400 MW-enough to make more than 1 million homes could produce.

Solar energy remains a distant second wind and production notes accounts for less than 1% of the electricity in the United States but Logan, there is also progress to record, with just over 3,000 MW solar photovoltaic (p.v..) installed in the year 2012.

Many traditional energy companies and other companies recognize that diversified need for renewable energy sources and invest aggressively.

General Electric (GE), for example, among the world's leading manufacturers of wind turbines and a major player in solar energy research and development. And while European and Chinese firms dominate like Siemens (SI) and Yingli (YGE) are also looking to wind and solar, Logan says that America has still an innovation edge. "The United States is a leading everyone in the world in the so-called thin-film photovoltaics has", he notes. "These technologies have the opportunity, at much lower cost than traditional silicon-based p.v.. manufactured"

Utilities to invest in renewable energy. Xcel Energy(XEL), the power supplies in eight Central and Western States operated three wind farms produce 4,900 MW to the system at the end of last year. A day-end of 2011 world record Xcel for electricity generated from wind power, as nearly 56% of juice consumed by 1 million customers in Colorado from wind farms came.

But utilities see also renewable energy as a future threat to their traditional business models, especially, when more and more consumers declare their own energy independence and start the installation by own solar panels or wind turbines. And while hard now for renewable energies, to compete against the current oil shale boom, they keep it some strong advantages.

"The public in this whole thing," said Logan, "is that we can be sure that we have a varied and diversified according to risk group of energies, we in future to leave can." That helps us no matter what the climate for the economy or the shale revolution or whatever happens."

This article is part of an MSN Money special report on America's quest for energy independence. Next: 10 strange energy sources, which could change the world.

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Students feel unprepared for world of work

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College graduates say their school hasn't adequately prepared them for work. In this April 4, 2012 photo, college students attend a job fair for students in Manchester, N.H.
A college education is no guarantee of a job and even if they secure internships, a quarter of college students feel unprepared for the working world, according to a survey released on Tuesday.

Graduates face the reality of unemployment among 20- to 24-year-olds at over 13 percent and many potential employers who won't hire them full-time even if they serve as interns for little or no pay.

"We found that a bachelor's degree is the new high school diploma," said Dan Schawbel, founder of Millennial Branding, which released a study of students' views on the job market. The online survey, conducted May 16 with Internships.com, polled 1,345 college students across the country.

It found that while 57 percent think internships will be extremely important in helping them learn real world skills and land jobs, almost as many think colleges aren't providing them the access to internships that they need. "Internships help because it's evidence that you've done work," Schawbel said.

Unfortunately, for many students, the world of internships is not that simple.

In a 2012 survey by Millennial Branding, 91 percent of the employers responding said students should have one to two internships before graduating, but only half had hired interns in the previous six months. Also, a solid majority of companies said they hired no more than 30 percent of their interns for full time jobs, and 87 percent offered internships that were shorter than they liked to see on resumes.

Labor Department rules say that if internships are unpaid, they have to resemble vocational education, and interns cannot be asked to do work that paid employees could perform. But companies may not always follow these rules. In fact, some have been sued by former interns claiming labor rule violations.

Camille Olson, who chairs the complex discrimination litigation practice group at Seyfarth Shaw, says a number of companies have taken steps to beef up their internships.

"A number of them have revised their programs to ensure that they are conforming to the 'benefits to the interns' part" of the rules on internships, she said. And she adds that potential interns can gather intelligence on the quality of internships using social media, or seek out current interns to hear about their experience.

But even if internships are improving, there is the matter of who can afford to seek them out. With tuition at many private colleges running close to $50,000 a year, many students are working while they are in school, and have little time for an unpaid gig.

Olson points out that some colleges offer financial aid or subsidies for students taking internships with nonprofit organizations.

For his part, Schawbel recognizes the potential shortcomings of internships, but says they still offer invaluable training.

"You can't prove yourself by taking a college course. You can prove yourself by getting internships," he said, adding that he himself has had eight. "A lot of students have loans, and to do an internship while working in a restaurant to pay the bills—there is a lot of pressure right now. But that's the the game you have to play. It's the 'do whatever it takes' model."

Memo to Mom and Dad: you might want to get your child's bedroom ready for a returning tenant.

© 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

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Fed has slowed down some options such as world economic growth

1:30 PM economic, growth, options, slowed, world No Comments

For the first time in decades, the fed as a toothless tiger is looking for.

It is clear that is several wheels of the world economy in the unison brakes, pressure on the world's largest Central Bank spur growth Assembly. But with the cost of borrowing already at historic lows, it is far from clear whether further measures, which are cheaper to help on money.

"they have a hammer and they are looking for a nail," said Alan de Rose, Managing Director of the Government trade and finance at Oppenheimer, Reuters.

The Fed Committee meets policy setting next week amid reports that it may be in the close of fresh Act, to stimulate the weakening economy.

Companies concerned about the inclusion of new risk and households ends with struggling to meet new data you show this week on an ongoing slowdown in the United States

The Commerce Department estimate of second-quarter gross domestic product, due Friday, is expected that slowed down to show growth in the first three months of the year from 1.9 percent to 1.2 percent. The slowdown follows a series of monthly reports on a weakening labour market and show a stubbornly high unemployment rate.

Still, the impact of a deepening of the recession in Europe feel American companies. Surveys of Europe's private sector this week, showed that the contraction that began in weaker economies of the eurozone has now spread to Germany and France. In the 17 countries that use the euro, the production has fueled issue. Consumers are gloomy as it 2009 already.

As the European meltdown on the entire U.S. economy weighs, States are dependent on vulnerable heavily on exports, by the deepening crisis overseas.

If the reduced global credit markets in the fall of 2008, central banks around the world quickly exhausted they reliably have used the primary tool, for decades fight financial fires: slashing interest rates given for money directly to banks. Despite these efforts, the world economy into a nasty recession slipped.

Since the Fed has a number of new tools, including the purchase of some $2 trillion in bonds to lower prices on other forms of credit, see you mortgage deals. For a time those movements seemed to revive growth: gross domestic product and setting picked last year, and the housing market seemed stabilized have.

Despite a flurry of press reports of possible new moves, that is not expected fed to make fresh announcements before their next meeting two days policy next week. Even most of the measures under consideration have been tried already.

Buy more bonds could help, support to the financial markets, but would do little to spur lending. With interest rates at or near record low extending the promise, the extremely low prices on 2014 out by itself provided probably not for the promotion of businesses and consumers to take on more risk.

So, with the world economy slows, the Fed deeper in his Toolbox reached.

With borrowers on the sidelines are considering measures to try fed policy, the bankers make more money in the system slide prod. Such a move would be to reward banks that borrowed more loans, an idea to make a recent program launched by the Bank of England. Bernanke indicated to reporters in June that the Fed was considering the plan.

Another measure to the urge to move bankers make more money from their depots and again in the economy would mean cutting the interest rate the Fed pays financial institutions Park which keeps their money at the Central Bank, is that now lies at 0.25 per cent.

But no matter how many new, that they are trying moves, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has acknowledged that the impact of these measures will be limited. When he last week legislators faces of the Central Bank warned that major obstacles, their task of strong growth and stable prices that are beyond their control.

"Rest in the United States continue to by a number of other headwinds, including the still tight credit conditions for some businesses and households, and the restraining effects of fiscal policy and fiscal uncertainty, be withheld", Bernanke told a Senate Panel.

Translation: Businesses and consumers are still have a hard time for loan. And unless Congress and the White House, head of the emerging $600 billion "fiscal cliff" increased massive taxes and spending cuts, there is little the Central Bank can do to avert a further recession.

The Fed is not alone in its predicament.

Seems to be now locked in a coordinated slowdown with the world central banks around the world have been the system with money to businesses and consumers to borrow and spend prod floods.

But still, that the world economy will lose momentum. The downturn is most evident in Europe, where a deepening debt crisis weigh on business and consumer confidence and hammering of the banking system.

Like the American fight European Central bankers to push money into the economy. But deep Government spending cuts in Greece and Spain many households without content spend leave have. And in the middle of a debt-induced are a financial storm, companies and consumers across the continent to lend no desire. A closely watched European Central Bank survey showed Wednesday, that the demand for loans remains weak in the euro area.

In China show slowed rapidly, the forward movement of the last big economy. Although still is booming compared to the developed economies, try Chinese officials to control their emerging economies on a course, maintains the robust growth but avoid a ruinous run up prices.

After the adoption of measures last year to a new bubble to cool, Beijing moves now to resume growth. But these measures are likely to be too limited to help to revive the rest of the world economy.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Discussion about the State of U.S. markets and whether further Fed action is necessary, with CNBC Contributor Joe Lavorgna and Ron Insana and CNBC by Steve Liesman.

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World food prices only more expensive

1:50 PM expensive, prices, world No Comments

Global food prices rose in March for a third straight month with more hikes coming agency said on Thursday the United Nations add to anxiety before hunger and a new wave of social unrest in poor countries.

Record high prices for basic foodstuffs last year to the Arab spring were one of the most important factors, contributed to riots in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as bread riots in other parts of the world.

The cost of food is this year after descending from a Feb. 2011 Rose record high.

The FAO index which changes measures monthly price of a basket of cereals, oil seeds, milk, meat and sugar, in March, up from a revised average 215.9 points 215.4 points in February, who said United Nations food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Search satisfy your desire, nor more exciting eating and gourmet trends on the bites blog

Although under the February 2011, highlight of 237.9, still higher than during a food crisis of 2007 / 08, price is the index that global alarm.

"The food crisis not since gone", said Emilia Casella, spokeswoman for the UN World Food Programme. "A major concern and a big reason why people eat are remained unsure prizes."

The FAO Senior Economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian of told of Reuters there was room for further price rises in the first half of this year, particularly for corn and soybeans, which could drive the price of wheat.

Higher food prices mean higher import bills for the poorest countries, which produces enough to eat at home.

The net grain import is account of the countries with low income food deficit, known as LIFDCs, expected to a record $ 32.62 billion in 2011-12 from 32.28 billion $ in 2010 / 11 due to the higher prices and lower domestic production increase, said in March the FAO. Poor countries face unrest, if they can't find the money.

"Rising food prices are place fresh pressure on policy makers around the world at a time when many Governments have only less money", said Larbi Sadiki, an expert in North African politics of the Exeter University of UK.

"In North Africa food subsidies are a red line, especially in Tunisia and Egypt," he said. "People can be to await on the road to social justice."

US soybean futures rose plantations around 7 percent in March and about 17 percent in the first quarter of this year, spurred by concerns about tight supplies such as drought in South America and smaller U.S. hit won.

FAO cereal price index 227 points in March up 1 point from February with corn prices show gains, supported by low inventories and a strong soybeans averaged, the FAO said. The FAO oils/greases price index relegated to 245 points in March to 6 points, or 2.5 percent, February.

High oil prices have since earlier this year fanned inflationary concerns. Despite the region's economy stumble consumer prices in the 17 Nations were 2.6 percent in March from a year ago, parts of euro.

"Index of food has be an extremely high correlation with oil prices and oil prices until it becomes difficult not to follow, for food prices," said Nick Higgins, commodity analyst at Rabobank international.

Energy prices affect the production of fertilisers, as well as distribution of food and machinery costs use farm.

"We saw really, that (food index) to sell more in Q4 2011 as anomalous and related offs from the threat posed by the European economic situation rather than agricultural basics rejects," he said.

Tight supplies
The FAO cut down its forecast for the world in 2011 cereal production easily on a still record 2.343 billion tons from a previous estimate 2.344 billion tons. It confirms an earlier forecast for world wheat output 1.4 percent from the last year's record harvest to 690 million tons 2012 drop in.

Abbassian said corn stocks at present far from pleasant were and a substantial increase in the output was necessary in order to replenish them.

Coarse grains stocks, which corn, almost 3 million tonnes to 171.3 million tonnes at the end of season 2011 / 2012, could go back the lowest among them since 2008, the FAO said.

A report of U.S. Government last week with lower than expected estimates of cereal stocks and reduced soybean and wheat plantings in concerns about global grain supplies, drive a rally in grain futures recorded.

Stocks of cereals in the EU are set, a four year low hit by the end of the marketing campaign in 2011-12, with a declining harvest Outlook further setbacks threaten next season, traders and analysts say.

Strong price, the swings because of weather changes in likely important producing countries and a further price volatility could come if U.S. farmers choose more soy plants after baited by high prices, the FAO Abbassian said.

"If I were a farmer and I I would look at the steep increases we have intentions since the report of planting, be a bit more careful do everything in maize and would be soybeans as also a good option," he said.

World market prices for food in the second fall could be half of this year with new cultures easing tension and hit full-year average prices below the record level of 2011 market, he said.

The FAO raised its forecast for sharply observed world cereal stocks carry - the amount of 1 million tonnes from the previous estimate to 519 million tons, 15.6 million tonnes of the season opening level, before all rice stocks thanks increased at the end of the current season marketing - left.

But the persistently high prices this year keep the question at the top of the agenda for policy makers.

"We will died 7.2 billion people on Earth in the year 2015, and more than a million of hunger in 2011." The situation will not improve and in fact the opposite is going to happen, "Pierre REULAND, Interpol Special Representative of the European Union, told a meeting of the European security officials in January." "For poor people, the struggle for life will not be better than it is today."

(C) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012.

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NYT: Apple's world lead in smartphones isn't safe

2:11 PM Apples, smartphones, world No Comments

BARCELONA  — When Ellie Turner decided she wanted an upgrade from her iPhone 3G, she expected to pay more for Apple’s new iPhone 4S than for the other leading smartphones on the market.

Instead, Ms. Turner, a public relations specialist in London, got the fast-selling device free.

She consulted Phones4u, a bulk discounter of cellphones and data packages, which offered her a free iPhone 4S and data plan for ?2, or $3.20, more than what she had been paying each month. She returned to her operator, O2 U.K., which had been selling the 4S for ?99 with the same plan. She told people there about the rival offer.

“They didn’t blink an eye,” Ms. Turner said. “They matched it.”

Apple, the global market leader in smartphones, is enjoying record profits and sales that have transformed it into one of the world’s most valuable companies. But the mobile computing industry it has conquered in just five years is changing rapidly, and nothing, not even Apple’s vaunted brand premium — the ability to charge more than its competitors for premium smartphones — appears guaranteed.

In Britain, for example, the iPhone 4S costs at least ?170 more than the Samsung Galaxy S II with a two-year commitment at O2 U.K. At T-Mobile in Germany, the Samsung model costs about €80, or $108, and the 4S €130. In the United States, the difference between the two models at AT&T is at least $50 and as much as $250.

The premium is Apple’s reward as progenitor of the modern smartphone segment: the sum of its software DNA, intuitive user experience, cash-generating universe of applications, cultivated image of hipness and first-mover advantage.

But Apple’s main rivals — Samsung and other sellers of cellphones using the Google Android operating system, like HTC of Taiwan and Huawei and ZTE of China — are making smartphones for much less, and the iPhone is becoming ubiquitous, threatening to dull its cachet.

For now, said T. Michael Walkley, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity in Minneapolis, the iPhone lineup has momentum and Apple, based in Cupertino, California, should be able to pad its lead over its rivals this year.

“But I cannot say with certainty that five years on, Apple will still be on top,” Mr. Walkley said, noting that Apple and HTC did not even make smartphones six years ago. “I assume they will be, but it is difficult to predict anything in this dynamic market.”

Mr. Walkley estimated that Apple had captured 52 percent of all profits in the smartphone industry during 2011, a share he expected would increase to 60 percent this year.

Apple, following its tradition of participating only in its own promotional events, has no formal presence or exhibition stand at the Mobile World Congress, the industry’s largest annual convention, which begins Monday in Barcelona.

An Apple spokesman in London, Alan Hely, said the company had no comment for this article.

Timothy D. Cook, the Apple chief executive, told a Goldman Sachs investment conference this month that Apple would not rest on its laurels after its record fourth quarter, in which it sold 37 million iPhones — 17 million more than it had ever sold in a quarter.

Tongue in cheek, Mr. Cook called the 37 million “pretty good,” drawing laughs, but then put it in stark perspective: “As I see it, that 37 million for last quarter represented 24 percent of the smartphone market. So three out of four people bought something else. And it represented less than 9 percent of the handset market, so 9 out of 10 people are buying something else.

“The smartphone market last year was a half billion units,” he continued. “In 2015, it is projected to be a billion units. When you take it in the context of these numbers, the truth is, this is a jaw-dropping industry. It has enormous opportunities to it. Up against those, the numbers don’t seem so large anymore.”

Carrying the iPhone has benefited operators, who use it to lure new customers. Sprint, the No. 3 U.S. carrier, sold 1.8 million iPhone 4S’s in the fourth quarter, its first sales of Apple models. In that period, the operator added 1.6 million new customers, the biggest such increase in six years.

Deutsche Telekom, France Telecom and Vodafone have also spoken of the positive effect iPhone sales have on their profits. But over time, the iPhone could be undermined by its own success.

“All of a sudden, every teenage girl has an iPhone,” Mr. Walkley said. “The real danger is that Apple becomes so mainstream that there is a breakaway by consumers to something new.”

Apple’s competitors are waiting for that chance, said Mark Newman, the director of mobile research at Informa Telecoms and Media, a research firm in London.

That puts pressure on Apple to continue innovating with each new iPhone. Mr. Newman said that Siri, the Apple voice-activated command function introduced with the iPhone 4S, had been an incremental improvement, not a paradigm change.

“Apple is focused on defending the high end of the market and that is becoming harder to do each year,” he said. “Competitors, such as the Galaxy from Samsung, are starting to catch up. I think it is inevitable that the margin pressure increases.”

So far, there is no sign of that pressure at Apple, which continues to derive more than 40 percent operating profit from the sale of each smartphone, Mr. Walkley estimated.

In 2011, Apple became the world’s largest buyer of semiconductors, according to Gartner. It displaced LG of Korea as the No. 3 maker of mobile phones by volume, trailing only Nokia and Samsung. Apple narrowed the lead held by Android, the free operating system developed by Google. By December, 44.5 percent of all U.S. smartphone buyers were choosing iPhones, up from just 25.1 percent in October. The proportion choosing for Android fell to 46.9 percent from 61.6 percent, according to Nielsen.

Patrick Remy, the vice president of devices at France Telecom in Paris, said he saw no sign of the Apple brand’s diminishing. On the contrary, Mr. Remy said, Apple and Samsung have the financial resources to invest in the marketing, image and innovation that are needed to stay a step ahead of the competition.

“We are not seeing any major part of these brands declining,” Mr. Remy said.

But competition, especially from lower-priced rivals, is not standing still.

By 2016, more than half of all smartphones sold will cost less than $300, according to Informa. Last year, 81 percent — most of them iPhones — cost more than $300. The proportion costing less than $200, which currently makes up 5 percent of the global market, is expected to increase almost fivefold, to 24 percent, by 2016.

It is unclear what effect a proliferation of low-priced smartphones will have on Apple’s niche. But Shao Yang, the marketing director for mobile devices at Huawei — the Chinese maker of mobile networking equipment which has set a goal of being among the world’s top three cellphone makers by 2015 — said consumers would be able to obtain superior performance for less in the future.

“I think currently the biggest trend is not the price, but the capability,” Mr. Shao said. “There is a competition in capability. The function of the phone will change very fast.”

Huawei, based in Shenzhen, sold 20 million smartphones last year, up from 3.1 million in 2010. Huawei sold about half of its smartphones in China for between $150 and $200. Its biggest foreign market is the United States, where Huawei in January presented the Ascend P1 S, calling it the thinnest smartphone at 6.65 millimeters, or 0.26 inch.

The P1 S will not start selling until April and Huawei has not released the price. But Mr. Shao said it would cost less than an iPhone. “Smartphones are going to become cheaper and cheaper,” he said.

Apple, despite the higher prices of the 4S, is not unrepresented in the low-price smartphone segment. The iPhone 3, a predecessor, is being given away with a ?16.50 plan at O2 U.K., while the iPhone 4 is free with a ?36 plan.

This story, "Apple Riding High, but for How Long?" originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright © 2012 The New York Times

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World Bank warns of downturn worse than '08

4:54 AM downturn, warns, world, worse No Comments

BEIJING — The World Bank warned Wednesday of a possible slump in global economic growth and urged developing countries to prepare for shocks that could be more severe than the 2008 crisis.

For the United States, the bank cut this year's growth forecast to 2.2 percent from 2.9 percent and for 2013 to 2.4 percent from 2.7 percent.

As reasons, it cited the anticipated global slowdown and the on-going fight in Washington over spending and taxes.

The bank also cut its growth forecast for developing countries this year to 5.4 percent from 6.2 percent and for developed countries to 1.4 percent from 2.7 percent.

For the 17 countries that use the euro currency, it forecast a contraction, cutting their growth outlook to -0.3 percent from 1.8 percent.

Global growth could be hurt by a recession in Europe and a slowdown in India, Brazil and other developing countries, the Washington-based bank said.

It said conditions might worsen if more European countries are unable to raise money in financial markets.

"The global economy is entering into a new phase of uncertainty and danger," said the bank's chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin. "The risks of a global freezing up of capital markets as well as a global crisis similar to what happened in September 2008 are real."

Separately Wednesday, the government of Germany — Europe's biggest economy — announced it had lowered its growth forecast for this year from 1 percent to 0.7 percent. However, it also predicted growth of 1.6 percent in 2013.

Developing countries that have enjoyed relatively strong growth while the United States and Europe struggled might be hit hard, Lin said. He said they should line up financing in advance to cover budget deficits, review the health of their banks and emphasize spending on social safety nets.

Many governments are in a weaker position than they were to respond to the 2008 global crisis because their debts and budget deficits are bigger, Lin said at a news conference.

In the event of a major crisis, "no country will be spared," Lin said. "The downturn is likely to be longer and deeper than the last one."

The bank's outlook — in its "Global Economic Prospects" report issued twice a year — adds to mounting gloom amid Europe's debt crisis and high U.S. unemployment.

"It is very likely that most European countries, including Germany, entered recession in the fourth quarter of last year," said Hans Timmer, the World Bank's director of development projects.

Investors have cut investments in developing countries by 45 percent in the second half of last year, compared with the same period in 2010, Timmer said.

The report follows similar warnings about the global economy by its sister organization, the International Monetary Fund, and private sector forecasters.

Global growth might suffer from the interaction of Europe's troubles and efforts by China, India, South Africa, Russia and Turkey to cool rapid growth and inflation with interest rate hikes and other measures, the bank said.

China's expansion slowed to a 2 1/2-year low of 8.9 percent in the three months ending in December from the previous quarter's 9.1 percent.

As Europe weakens, developing countries could find "their slowdown might be larger than is necessary to cope with inflation pressures," Lin said.

Developing countries hurt
A global downturn would hurt developing countries by driving down prices for metals, farm goods and other commodities and demand for other exoprts, the World Bank said.

Slower growth is already visible in weakening trade and commodity prices, the World Bank said.

Global exports of goods and services expanded an estimated 6.6 percent in 2011, barely half the previous year's 12.4 percent rate, the bank said. It said the growth rate is expected to fall to 4.7 percent this year.

Prices of energy, metals and farm products are down 10 to 25 percent from their peaks in early 2011, Timmer said.

The United States is already feeling some pain from Europe's crisis. Exports to Europe fell 6 percent in November, the Commerce Department said last week.

AP Economics Writer Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Baghdad tops list of most dangerous cities in the world

9:13 PM Baghdad, cities, dangerous, world No Comments

Mahmoud Raouf Mahmoud / Reuters

Nearly nine years after the U.S. began combat operations in Iraq, violence continues to ravage the capital city of Baghdad.

By Michael B. Sauter, 24/7 Wall St.

Recently, a series of roadside bombs killed 11 people and injured dozens more in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad. The attacks were part of coordinated assaults by insurgent elements around the country that killed 32 people and remind us how violent the area remains.

Research consulting firm Mercer has released its 2011 Quality of Living Report, which includes ranking of the cities according to the level of personal safety. Baghdad is the most violent city on the list. Based on Mercer’s list, 24/7 Wall St. has examined the 10 most dangerous cities in the world.

24/7 Wall St.: Cities where violent crime is soaring

All of these areas suffer from great political instability that has led to politically motivated violence. This climate of instability also has created an ideal breeding ground for crime motivated by profit. Whether the violence is criminal or political in nature, it perpetuates socioeconomic conditions that keep those nations’ economies depressed.

Nearly all the countries of the cities on the list have experienced a violent coup or national war in recent past. In Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a brief but severe military conflict with Russia in 2008 led to long-term economic problems and the increased availability of firearms.

In many of these cities, the central national violent conflict is ongoing. In Yemen, long-reigning president Saleh has just stepped down, but a large group of citizens are demanding his execution. As a result, firefights between protesters and government troops are ongoing.

For all the cities on the list, the U.S. Department of State has urged Americans to avoid the country altogether and in many cases suggested citizens who remain there leave.

To illustrate the violent conditions in each city, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed travel warnings issued by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Consular Affairs. These reports detail the type of crime or violence in the area, including whether Americans are being targeted. We also included the socioeconomic conditions for each country to reflect how violence and depressed living conditions are almost always interconnected. We referred to adult literacy rates, adult mortality rates and the percentage of the population living on less than $1 per day, based on data from the United Nations. To demonstrate the impact that violence has on the economy, we obtained GDP per capita from the International Monetary Fund.

1. Baghdad, Iraq

GDP per capita: $2,531.15 (66th lowest)Adult literacy rate: 74.1 percentAdult mortality rate per 1,000: 291Population living on less than $1 per day: n/a

Nearly nine years after the U.S. began combat operations in Iraq, violence continues to ravage the capital city of Baghdad. Intermittent suicide bombings, random gunfire, roadside bombs and other attacks still occur throughout the city. In the past two weeks, dozens of Iraqi civilians have been killed in separate events. With American troops leaving the country, many are unsure whether Iraqi security forces can keep the region at even the current level of stability.

24/7 Wall St.: Cities that have fired their police forces

2. N’Djamena, Chad

GDP per capita: $837.01 (34th lowest)Adult literacy rate: 12.2 percentAdult mortality rate per 1,000: 447Population living on less than $1 per day: 58.7 percent

Just 12.2 percent of Chad’s population is literate, the third-worst rate in the world according to the UN. Also, 447 out of every 1,000 residents who reach the age of 15 will not make it to the age of 60. According to the State Department, the capital city of N’Djamena is actually the safest place to be in the country. The fact that the city is still rated by Mercer as the second most dangerous city in the world is proof of how unsafe the country as a whole is. In June, the Bureau of Consular Affairs issued a travel warning to the country, and has prohibited any government employees to travel outside of N’Djamena.

3. Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

GDP per capita: $1,042.52 (41st lowest)Adult literacy rate: 48.7 percentAdult mortality rate per 1,000: 390Population living on less than $1 per day: 20.4 percent

After former-president Laurent Gbagbo refused to give up power following his loss in the October, 2010 election, violence broke out in Cote d’Ivoire. Gbagbo has since been arrested and is set to go on trial at the Hague. However, according to the Department of State, “Although Abidjan (the largest city in the country) is considerably calmer since the arrest of former President Gbagbo, law and order have yet to return to all of Abidjan’s neighborhoods and some parts of the countryside.”

Read the rest of the list at 24/7 Wall St.'s site.

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Nokia Siemens, 17,000 to lay off around the world

4:35 PM 17000, around, Nokia, Siemens, world No Comments

HELSINKI - wireless devices is manufacturers Nokia Siemens Networks slash 17,000 jobs - almost a quarter of the workforce - in a step to annual costs to 1 billion € ($ 1.35 billion) by 2013 cut, company representatives said Wednesday.

The joint venture between Finland's Nokia Corp. and Siemens AG Germany, said that it mobile broadband networks and services would focus on how it down takes you to an independent company.

Nokia Siemens has fought for a prize in the fierce competition in the global market for network-infrastructure - the technology and services to run mobile and fixed network required.

"How we at the prospect of an independent future we need to act now look to improve our profitability and cash generation,", said CEO Rajeev Suri Wednesday.

Nokia in July fell Siemens to sell plans part of their business to private equity firms and said that it would take steps to improve competitiveness as a separate company.

Market observers had speculated that Nokia want to dispose of its stake in the loss-making venture and focus on the development of mobile phones in the new partnership with Microsoft Corp.

If Nokia lost market share to competitors, including Samsung and Apple's iPhone, it remains the world's largest mobile phone manufacturer.

The network joint venture, however, falls behind its competitors, and has shown annual operating losses since it began operations in April 2007.

In addition to traditional competitors such as LM Ericsson from Sweden said Nokia Siemens now strongly by Asian rivals such as China's Huawei and ZTE Corporation analyst Phil is challenges Kendall by Strategy Analytics.

"The Chinese have shaken the operational environment by selling originally cheap hardware, winning companies in this way but have now built up a credible reputation and become very competent technology provider", Kendall said. "All major traditional Western infrastructure manufacturers really had to work hard, to ward off the threat."

Last year, Nokia went ahead to Siemens the majority of Motorola Corp.'s wireless operations for $1.2 billion in a major boost of worldwide stronger foot and access to top American wireless carriers and cable companies, including ATT, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp, the technology infrastructure suppliers depend on.

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The layoffs cut Nokia Siemens 74,000-strong workforce by 23 percent. Suri described as regrettable but necessary cuts. He has not specified what type would be reduced jobs.

"We will continue to press network outsourcing, we focus offers, not so much on field maintenance" Suri said. "That we can use our global deployment and remote management of our Center in India and Portugal and turn to pick up these companies and make money."

Helsinki Stock Exchange jumped on the news, but by 2 percent to €4,09 ($5,48) at the closed Nokia shares.

Headquartered in Espoo, near the city of Helsinki, Nokia has Siemens employees in 150 countries.

____

Online:

www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Copyright 2011 of the associated press. All rights reserved. This material cannot be published, sent, rewritten or redistributed.

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IMF chief: World economy risks 'lost decade'

12:44 PM Chief, decade, economy, risks, world No Comments

BEIJING — The head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that Europe's debt crisis risked plunging the global economy into a "lost decade" and said it was up to rich nations to shoulder the burden of restoring growth and confidence.

Christine Lagarde told a financial forum in Beijing that European plans to bolster a rescue package for Greece were a "step in the right direction," but that the outlook for the world economy remained dangerous and uncertain.

"There are clearly clouds on the horizon. Clouds on the horizon particularly in the advanced economies and particularly so in the European Union and the United States," Lagarde said.

"Our sense is that if we do not act boldly and if we do not act together, the economy around the world runs the risk of downward spiral of uncertainty, financial instability and potential collapse of global demand... we could run the risk of what some commentators are already calling the lost decade."

The "lost decade" reference carries echoes of Japan's experience of persistent deflation, mounting debts and economic impotence through the 1990s and beyond after its real estate bubble burst -- an outcome many analysts fear could be repeated given the debt and property origins of Europe's problems.

The former French finance minister was speaking at the start of a two-day visit in China. Her meetings are expected to focus on efforts to contain the crisis in Europe, which has seen the prime ministers of Greece and Italy forced to announce plan to resign in the past week.

Lagarde said she was hopeful that the technical details of a European Union plan to boost the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) to around 1 trillion euros from its present 440 billion euros would be ready by December.

European policymakers are hopeful that big emerging economies, led by China, will invest some of their vast foreign exchange reserves to help end a debt crisis that has engulfed Greece threatens bigger economies such as Italy.

But there is skepticism in China, where public opinion is firmly against bailing out countries that still enjoy far higher average incomes than Chinese.

Chinese policy makers also worry that European plans are "not complete and not firm," according to a commentary on China's official Xinhua news agency. It criticized a lack of political will, politicians' concerns over their own re-election and a lack of coordination between EU members.

"Like a patient, if several organs are in trouble, taking drugs or surgeries will produce toxic side effects and will largely reduce the desired effectiveness. That's exactly what's happening in Italy and Greece," the commentary said.

Before arriving in Beijing, Lagarde had spent two days in Moscow, trying to convince Russia to chip in some of its petro dollars to boost bailout funds for the euro zone.

But the so-called BRIC nations, comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, have so far been reluctant to invest directly in Europe's rescue vehicle, preferring to contribute via the IMF.

Lagarde, speaking at an event organized by the Institute for International Finance -- the global association of the world's most important banks -- also said that China needed to shift its growth model from being export-led to a more balanced one and that the country also needed a stronger currency.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Tributes to Jobs pour in from around the world

12:20 AM around, Tributes, world No Comments

From the titans of high technology to teenagers armed with iPads, millions of people around the world mourned digital-gadget genius Steve Jobs as a man whose wizardry transformed their lives in big ways and small.

Computer fans in China, one of Apple's fastest growing markets, seemed particularly moved.

"I came here to see how they'll operate on the first day after they had lost Steve Jobs," Jin Yi said in China's biggest Apple store in Shanghai, which opened last month. 

"I also came here to mourn in my own way. It is such a pity today. He created these gadgets that changed people's perceptions of machines," the 27-year-old said. "But he did not manage to witness the last step in which, through his gadgets, people's lives can be effectively fused with these machines." Apple co-founder Steve Jobs dies at 56 The Jobs legacy: Ease, elegance in technology Apple co-founder reacts to Jobs’ death The Internet mourns, celebrates Steve Jobs What Steve Jobs taught us about failure Jobs on biography: ‘I wanted my kids to know me’ How will you remember Steve Jobs? 'Be like Steve'
Henry Men Youngfan said he was shocked by the news that his hero had died, remembering how he felt when he entered graduate school at Peking University's college of engineering.

"My teachers asked me what kind of person I wanted to be and I told them I wanted to be like Steve," Men said in Beijing.

Related: Apple-cofounder Steve Jobs dies at 56

Li Zilong, who was listening to his iPod in front of a Beijing Apple store, worried that Apple's innovation may have died along with its co-founder.

"Jobs was a legendary figure; every company needs a spiritual leader," said the 20-year-old university student. "Without Jobs, I don't know if Apple can give us more classic products, like the iPhone 4."

PhotoBlog: Pictures of worldwide tributes to Steve Jobs

In other parts of Asia, fans for whom the Apple brand became a near-religion grasped for comparisons to history's great innovators, as well as its celebrities, to honor the man they credit with putting 1,000 songs and the Internet in their pockets.

The Internet mourns, celebrates Steve Jobs

In Hong Kong, Charanchee Chiu laid a single sunflower and white rose in front of the city center Apple store.

"I am sad. I think he should have lived longer," he said, acknowledging that he had sent messages to Jobs to advise him on health and Tai Chi, the Chinese form of martial arts reputed to improve practitioners' well-being.

Amalia Sari in Jakarta, Indonesia, said when her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer just over a year ago, she decided to go on a monthlong pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. She bought an iPad for her mom to look at photos sent home and to keep in touch via Apple video conference.

"Without Steve Jobs and his crazy inventions, that kind of thing would never have been possible," she said, adding that after getting the first tweet about Job's death she logged off because she couldn't bear to hear more about it.

"I was really sobbing. It is great loss for me, and for the world as well," she said.

Chinese Apple fans say farewell to 'Master Jobs'

Stephen Jarjoura, 43, said at the flagship Apple store in Australia's biggest city, Sydney, that Jobs' legacy would surpass that of even Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

"I was so saddened. For me it was like Michael Jackson or Princess Diana — that magnitude," he said.

Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Jobs had affected many around the world.

"All of us would be touched every day by products that he was the creative genius behind, so this is very sad news and my condolences go to his family and friends," she said, according to the BBC.

Shares plunge
Apples shares on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, took a hit after after the news was announced.

At 2:16 a.m. ET, the company's shares listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange were 3.3 percent lower.

The death of the man behind iconic products that define his generation — iPod, the iPhone, the iPad — overshadowed concerns about the European economic crisis, at least momentarily, market insiders said.

"This news shrouds even the ongoing discussions on the financial crisis, at least for today," said Roger Peeters, board member at Close Brothers Seydler.

Corporate giants that have all been bruised in dustups with Apple put their rivalries aside to remember Jobs.

Few companies felt Apple's rise more than Japan's Sony, whose iconic Walkman transformed the music listening experience in the 1980s but which proved no match for Apple's iPod after it launched in 2001.

"The digital age has lost its leading light, but Steve's innovation and creativity will inspire dreamers and thinkers for generations," Sony Corp. President and Chief Executive Howard Stringer said in a statement.

Competing companies that watched as Apple's sales — and its stock price — took off over the past decade posted messages of admiration.

Samsung is calling rival Steve Jobs an "innovative spirit" who will be remembered forever.

Samsung Electronics CEO G.S. Choi said Thursday that Jobs "introduced numerous revolutionary changes to the information technology industry."

The announcement of Jobs' death came a day after Samsung said it would file court injunctions in France and Italy seeking to block the sale of Apple's latest iPhone.

The smartphone giants are locked in an intensifying patent fight.

Choi says Jobs' "innovative spirit and remarkable accomplishments will forever be remembered by people around the world."

The companies have been at odds since April when Apple took legal actions claiming Samsung's Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers copy the iPhone and iPad.

"I wouldn't be able to run my business without Apple, without its software," said David Chiverton, who was leaving Apple's flagship Regent Street store in London. "I run a video production company. It's allowed me to have my dream business."

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch said, "Steve Jobs was simply the greatest CEO of his generation."

At an Apple store in Sydney, lawyer George Raptis, who was five years old when he first used a Macintosh computer, spoke for almost everyone who has come into contact with Apple. "He's changed the face of computing," he said. "There will only ever be one Steve Jobs."

© 2011 msnbc.com

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EU Bank Chief: Markets 'in the worst crisis since the second world war'

7:46 AM Chief, crisis, Markets, second, since, world, worst No Comments

MATT LAUER, co-host: but we are starting to massacre here on a Tuesday morning with Monday's Wall Street. CNBCS Maria Bartiromo was here in the midst of chaos. Maria, good morning to you.

MARIA BARTIROMO reporting: good morning, Matt. Shares fell overnight in Asia, Europe followed suit this morning how angst dominated Wall Street. Now is the focus, the Fed. And investors hoping for good news later today after suffering the worst day in two years. Investors responded to the first downgrade of U.S. credit fast and furiously on what was the worst day on Wall Street in two years. The Fed is meeting Tuesday's important now, as the pressure increases for Ben Bernanke and his colleagues policy-makers, fresh impetus to the economy or an other recession threatens.

Mr. ART CASHIN (Director of floor operations, UBS): it is feared that the S & P downgrade can something to consumer confidence do and thus help us a little closer at the infamous double dip, that everyone is concerned.

BARTIROMO: Monday at noon, the President tried to inject confidence into the market.

President BARACK OBAMA: Our problems be solved in the near future, and we know what we do to solve them.

BARTIROMO: But as the President spoke, the Dow was tanking, sale more 400 points after his speech, ending the day 600 or 5.5 percent. S & P-Deven Sharma, President of defended in an exclusive on CNBC the downgrade. Why downgrade the debt when it actually comes to the political process? Mr. DEVEN SHARMA (Standard Poor's President): Yes. The political process is important, because that speaks, how these tax and economic and monetary decisions. The credit influences. BARTIROMO: In addition to the drama, Central Bank tried the European it avert a further spiral, through the purchase of bonds of Italy and Spain. With money moved move assets, investors of shares as secure ports such as gold. It closes at a record of $1700 ounce. Investors flocked also treasuries with an emphasis on a weak economy and the prospect of the low prices for some time to come, instead of the downgrading of the credit. Mr DANIEL gross (Economics Editor, Yahoo! Finance): in theory, if downgraded S & P credit card you should Staats­an­lei­hen dump. It means that less likely back pay. But the Government is so extraordinary, because no one believes that the United States standard.

BARTIROMO: And by the close of trading Monday, investors lost $1 billion in value, one reason for this are, for the good news of Ben Bernanke and company later today, Matt hope.

LAUER: all right, Maria, thank you. We are now joined by your colleagues Jim Cramer on CNBC. JIM CRAMER coverage: morning, Matt.

LAUER: Jim, good morning to you.

CRAMER: Morning.

LAUER: I'm going to start with you, I'm not picking on you...

CRAMER: No problem. WARM:.. But yesterday, the markets opened, she went about 230 points.

CRAMER: Right.

 LAUER: You have been on our agenda for the West Coast live.

CRAMER: Right.

LAUER: You said that you actually encouraged, because it seemed somewhat stable, nothing too pathetic.

CRAMER: Right.

LAUER: Then it went south very. What happened?

CRAMER: Well, remember, we have the perspective that the panic is not a strategy here. We are only 6 percent for the year for the Dow Jones, much better than everywhere else. And where we come off - I point loss white is large, but we remember lost 22 percent in one day, when we were by 508 points in 87. The point decline was almost as strong as not, you know, the percentage decline was not as bad.

LAUER: Is this panic, Maria, or these investors and see something fundamentally wrong with the U.S. economy?

BARTIROMO: I think that is what it is, Matt. I think that people look to an economy that has worsened. It is no longer a soft patch. The question is we for a double bad move? And they say "I am now sell and think later." I agree with Jim. At some point we will find an end. You will feel 'OK, that is a good buying opportunity.', as,

LAUER: Are we close to it?

BARTIROMO: I feel not as it is panic through and through. And that's what you really want to see, be expected to surrender.

CRAMER: Right. And remember, it abroad is still the major problem. It is Europe. Ceiling is obvious problem the debt and then in conjunction with the S & p gives a lot of panic. But Matt, again, I must tell you, unless we have a severe recession is it an opportunity to buy on the way down.

LAUER: And I talk about these possibilities in a second. I was shocked. I'll tell you, I was looking on Monday at the Bank of America fate. This Bank camp...

CRAMER: Right. WARM:.. .went down about 20 percent. I know that you want to be very cautious, Jim.

CRAMER: Yes. LAUER: What happened? Why take it as a hit?

CRAMER: Bank of America is the core of the mortgage crisis in this country. One of five mortgages, which are directly related to the Bank of America. I think the people believe that as long as housing goes down in value, Bank of America who are injured. A lot of people feel it needs more capital. The company says that it's not.

LAUER: In order. Stay on the market, Maria? I mean, is said to Jim, this is not 2008, there are options here. Where are the opportunities in your opinion?

BARTIROMO: Well, I agree that long-term this probably is a buying opportunity at some point, but it worse, can be before they get better, because it is based on real basic weakness in the economy. Bank of America one separate history from this...

CRAMER: Right.

BARTIROMO:.. .upset on the need for the capital. But I think we are still in it, and we have come some messed up.

LAUER: a few seconds for each of you to stop.

CRAMER: Right. LAUER: I liked your interview yesterday with the President of standard & poor's. Of course, you are on the defensive. People, the fingers on it for the downgrading of U.S. debt rating. The President on it, which begin to Finance Minister, but now you say a lot of people listen to, "wait a minute, the right thing done." New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. Other people say, 'We can thank them in the long term for what they have done.' Feel like both of you to do this?

BARTIROMO: I think that ultimately we should thank them, because there are real problems.

CRAMER: Right. BARTIROMO: Everyone understands that we are more money than we are. Something has to give. If this is a wake-up call, more power for standard poor ' s.

CRAMER: right. We deserve it. I was surprised that the President didn't say ' do you know what, we again that AAA,' instead of just saying, that we are a nation of AAA. Facts, real substance, real budget cuts, real revenue increased their requirements. I think that everyone in the world thinks if she goes United States to step up and do the right thing?

BARTIROMO: LAUER: bumpy day today here?

CRAMER: Yes.

BARTIROMO: Yes. LAUER: Yes? More bumps in the road?

BARTIROMO: Yes, sure. Volatility.

LAUER: Order, Jim Cramer, Maria Bartiromo. And don't forget, you can take a look at the markets and follow, los all day on CNBC. Thanks, guys, appreciate it. You 1A and Ann we go back to the Studio.

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Rough week: $2.5 trillion wiped off world shares

9:32 PM Rough, Shares, trillion, wiped, world No Comments

> good evening. I'm Lester Holt in tonight for Brian. Watch the steep ascents and share prices falls, which today was not for the feint of heart, especially after the yesterday's 513 point free fall of the Dow. but for all of the drama and it, there were many the market, which today is largely flat. the Dow gained 61 points. the NASDAQ lost 24 and the s & p fell to a point. but look at how we got there. After this big drop yesterday on a start today the Dow bounced up and down in a 416-point range. not easy to see, in particular for all those Americans who saw a huge chunk of nest eggs this week in the midst of global debt concerns disappear. These concerns were still very much at work today, along with news about the American job picture. We are all here today evening starting again on the New York Stock Exchange with cnbc's Maria Bartiromo covers. Good evening.

> the Dow Jones industrial average of this week was 7%, the worst week since the financial crisis 2008. It has 2.5 wiped out trillions of dollars in value of global stocks and it struck fear in the hearts of investors, large and small. the Dow up 172 points send a wild finish to a rough week on Wall Street as a buyer soon flooded the market word that 117,000 jobs created the United States. but fears over Europe soon sent hurdles stocks back down, 245 points lower to shares rose again. Messages that could get a bailout from the European Central Bank Italy.

> I would ask everyone to remain calm and breathe deeply and are really looking for in the economic fundamentals.

> Reporter: but it can be more than to reassure investors. > we want to see corrections immediately in our markets. We want to see corrections in our economy immediately. and I think we need to understand that it takes time to really back where we should be.

> Reporter: to Thursday sale, Jack and Herman Halichi, dan's sub are shop outside l.a. own fear. > here we go. very stressful. We were concerned about our future lies in our investment, or not to retire if we will ever be.

> Reporter: and it's not only their own investments, making them of care. > the market tanks like now, we see catering store our business customers.

> Reporter: in Atlanta, some investors work hard to help everyone out to optimize.

> right - now, my eyes from the stock market, the Internet considered to keep, and hopefully it will go up later.

> I will take care in five years.

> to buy $15.

> Reporter: and Kathy Boyle says, this is a bad idea, the time now don't have the time, which is panic, it is not the time to bury your head in the sand.

> none of us really know what will happen tomorrow. We think we do. We all have sadly predict the market. but really what we have to tell people is that you have a plan.

> Reporter: Lester, the mixed catalyst happens on Tuesday next week, when the Federal Reserve this regularly scheduled meeting. and the question is, which fed will bring support to QE-3 or any kind of appeal this weak economy. back to you.

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US is 'Parasite' on world economy, Putin says

7:26 AM economy, Parasite, Putin, world No Comments

SELIGER Lake, Russia - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin accused Americans Monday "Living like parasites" on the world economy, pointing out that Russia has a large amount of U.S. debt.

"they are beyond their means life and shift a part of the weight of their problems on the global economy", Putin said the Kremlin during the tour youth group Nashi lakeside summer camp be some five hours north of Moscow.

"they like parasites from the global economy and its monopoly of the dollar life," Putin at the open-air meeting saw with young Russians in what testified before parliamentary and presidential elections to admire surveys such as the early campaigns.

Announced to cut $2.4 trillion from the US deficit a last desperate much sooner than a decade ago, avoid a crushing debt default and stave off President Barack Obama the risk, that the nation of AAA-rating would be downgraded.

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The deal originally calms fears and heights resulted in three months Russian shares jump jitters about the possibility, but remained a credit downgrade.

"I thank God that she had enough common sense and responsibility to make a balanced decision" Putin added.

But the Russian Prime Minister, who often U.S. foreign policy has criticized, pointed out that Russia holds a lot of US bonds and Government bonds.

The young Russians "If over there (in America) is a systemic failure, this affects everyone," said Putin.

"Countries like Russia and China hold a significant part of their reserves in American securities..." There should be other reserve currencies, "he added."

Gesauerter U.S.-Russian relations as Putin's 2000-2008-presidency but have significantly his protege and successor, heated, as President Dmitry Medvedev on Obama's request stated responds for a "reset" in bilateral relations.

Casually dressed in khaki pants and a white striped shirt, Putin by helicopter flew camp in the context of a string of appearances, closely observed the elections in that.

He did not say whether he plans a return to the Kremlin or aside are for Medvedev, his partner in Russia's leadership tandem will run for a second term.

But young people crowded round Putin, caught up in the election campaign spirit created by huge portraits of Putin hung from trees, were not shy to say they wanted as President.

"Russia's next President will be small, bald and look like Putin," 17-year-old Ilya Mzokov joked with reporters. Why not pay Medvedev was a visit in which he said summer camp: "Only serious people come here."

Macho-image
Young people chanted Putin's name and applauded his remarks as he strolled around the camp in which U.S.-style business seminars, extreme sports and political mudslinging on the subject were offered.

Putin, whose macho-Image appeals to many Russians, a climbing wall, briefly swung to a first half by a bevy of State television cameras filmed.

Nashi, which means "Our People", a pro-Moscow counter to popular dissent was activism by the Kremlin for youth helped to overthrow the Government in the Ukraine 2005 Orange Revolution.

The group worked to Putin and regularly to spread a cult of personality campaigns against the Kremlin critic.

Opinion polls show that Putin still widely regarded as the greatest leader of the country retains close to 70 percent approval.

But his party United Russia seeks to help reverse a slide in the popularity a strong shows parliamentary polls before December in the hope it use to Putin in the March 2012 presidential election.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Create a better toilet and is the world...

7:26 PM better, Create, toilet, world No Comments

NAIROBI, Kenya - in the crack of dawn every Sunday, Joseph Irungu leads an army of 50 men T-shirt hand carts with old 42-gallon oil drums through the narrow streets of one of the most densely populated slums of Kenya's equipped.

With their bare hands, they use buckets to the feces of pit latrines in Korogocho, draw, fill the oil drums and push them to a river, to deposit the waste. The men with patches of waste water leaves every trip on her face and hands.

Irungu has these hygiene Brigade leader since 1998 as the City Council of Nairobi his request to the pit latrine on his property rental houses rejected drain.

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"It was too much," he said. "I had to do something, so I picked up a bucket and it drains me." "I know that many other landlords with similar problems faced and a business opportunity presented itself."

Irungu was the entrepreneurial spirit across the continent, Tuesday, when the world's largest charitable foundation announced the latest venture: try the toilet to safe, clean reinventing hygiene to millions of poor people in developing countries.

At the AfricaSan Conference in Kigali, Rwanda, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced$ 42 million in grants for the promotion of innovation in the collection, storage and re-use of waste as an energy resource.

More than 2.6 billion people around the world don't have access to safe sanitation. Associated with sewer lines instead of toilets, most are their waste on the ground or in a ditch or pit. The result is unsightly, unhygienic and contributes to the disease.

Approximately 1.5 million children die each year from diarrhoea-related diseases. As the foundation of gates, that most of these deaths could be avoided with proper sanitation, clean drinking water and improved hygiene believes, are to start Foundation officials in Africa this week, this new initiative.

Sets the Foundation to toilets and sanitation, in extracts, Frank Rijsberman, Director of the foundation of water, sanitation and hygiene initiative said, because it is the least attractive part of the development of the world.

Almost taboo
"It is almost taboo." Who wants to talk to shit? It isn't an issue in polite conversation ", he said."

The Foundation wants to have before the end of the year 50 to 60 groups working on ideas for the next generation of toilets, which should run without water and electricity and are connected to a sewer. Rijsberman said that it targets, who turned in more than a way that is useful, the waste into something that can be used for a toilet for energy.

If all goes as planned, said it will serve in three to five years a handful of solutions, which will lead to millions of people, products or innovations.

Irungu, 47, says the main problem in communities such as the Korogocho slum, the lack of sewage facilities and access to water is. He has seen are positive the cholera outbreak already of its efforts, including a drop in.

"This place to smell, because people would go to the toilet in (plastic) bags and throw them in the streets, because she could not go to the toilets which were crowded with waste," he said.

To use pay, clean toilets and water is extra effort which can't afford many of slum-dwellers, so that they end up with dirty facilities that they can be exposed to diseases. The use of a toilet costs about two cents or two Kenyan shilling.

If better toilets introduces Irungu loses his business, but he says he feels guilty disposing waste in a river. He says he has no alternative. The slum built on rocky land, so many landlords digging shallow pit latrines, which fill quickly, because they are sometimes used by more than 30 people.

Drains for every latrine Irungu takes home over $2, a solid returns in an area, where many residents of less, that earn $1 per day. Through this work he said able to educate his five children, he.

Korogocho resident Veronica Wanjiru, 29, has two children at the age of 7 and 11, says that cleanliness is a problem.

"Select most of the tenants to use, that you a donor-funded toilet facility 2 shillings figures", she said. "Many of us this fee does not provide, so that our children use potty training until they still 14 years are or for those who cannot afford, they use paper bags, which are then thrown into a ditch."

WANJIRU said that if her family twice a day used the public toilet, it would you 12 shillings (13 cents), costs that they cannot afford. Instead, let their children their waste in a portable, self-contained toilet Chair. It gives the content into a ditch.

"I know that the disposal of feces in the ditch is bad, but I have no other choice." I have no toilet. I have a steady job, "WANJIRU said, washes clothes for a living." "Disposing is bad, the feces in the ditch because that's where my kids play."

The Gates Foundation was founded in 2000 by Microsoft Corp. Chairman and his wife. (Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

Copyright 2011 associated press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Revel world rich in art, luxury report

11:02 AM luxury, Report, Revel, world No Comments

You obtain obtain Zurich - for art, watches, rare wines, vintage and other offbeat investments that set pulses racing in advanced 2010 as wealth recovered levels of the world's super rich are by the financial crisis a report Wednesday said.

But most are millionaires still plays it safe, keep much of their money in safe assets such as cash and squeezing profit margins for wealth managers, the latest Merrill Lynch CapGemini world wealth report. While markets recover some investors range as shares had tried to continue to hold $18.6 billion or 43.5% their wealth in conservative instruments such as bonds or cash back into riskier assets.

Increasing prosperity in emerging markets, especially in Asia-the Europe of millionaires and prosperity in the year ubertroffen-- a revival in the art and luxury markets helped boost investment, said the authors of the report.

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"The value of many categories of investment of passion rose and HNWI (high net worth individuals) for the aesthetic and emotional appeal and its potential of value from acquisitions made," said Capgemini and Merrill Lynch in the report.

In times of low interest rates and volatile equity markets provide alternative investments investors through the purchase of assets with low correlation to global financial markets offers to diversify potential protection from market turbulence.

Almost a third of these investments were luxury collectables such as fancy cars, boats and aircraft in 2010. Chinese demand for expensive cars, the Mercedes-Benz and Ferrari (part of Fiat) jumped in the past year, according to the report.

Individual tastes tend to be to determine whether a millionaire in cars, watches, or wine, invest, while works of art are rather on its potential value to be purchased, wrote the authors.

"Newly wealthy Chinese buyer has widely, bidders and buyers in galleries and auction houses interested, above all, that quickly reduce to purchase supplies of works of local artists", said the authors of the report.

Art lovers seemed, to high prices at Art Basel, world's fair of modern and contemporary art willing to pay top of what's on the art market crisis is Summit last week, back.

In the meantime, demand for diamond and gold jewelry and coins benefited from rising prices for these commodities.

Investors were particularly keen on the expensive gems "Record prices for diamonds at international auction in 2010 exemplified the investments as safe and fast-growing growing trend among the world's large to large diamond to see alternative", according to the report, adds Russian, and in the Middle East.

Uncertainty abounds
According to the report decreased wealth management margins 320 basis points in 2010, add to a steady decline, the 2006 started.

"This has occurred, as a company (staff) costs increased compensation provisions absorbed and invested in conservative instruments, while investors remained strong to generate the limited charges," according to the report.

"High net worth individuals remain uncertain that markets will remain stable and, that is the financial crisis over, and they fear that new, unforeseen systemic shocks arising," according to the report.

This continued, anxiety under the world Empire partly reflects a continuing distrust of markets and regulatory agencies, the survey said.

It was said that only 44 percent of rich people believe in oversight bodies and almost one-third "actively distrusted" watchdogs have.

Before the financial crisis investment products were popular higher margin like hedge funds rich investors.

The market crash, after the failure of Lehman Brothers and fallout of the Madoff scandal many investors nursing heavy losses and risk taking leave has however still not recovered.

Allocations to alternative investments dipped to 5 per cent in 2010, from 6 percent in the previous year and 10 per cent in 2006 before the crisis hit.

But while additions to relatively risky assets still wealthy crisis levels, the survey found that more of their money had assigned millionaires shares during 2010.

By the end 2010 detained 33 percent of their investments in shares, sufficient investors 29 percent a year earlier, so the report, the prediction that the share is expected to further increase, if the global economy continues to recover.

Allocations to emerging markets remained flat, but only if rich investors poured into the first 11 months of the year prior to the sale to profits than the year record quantities in the sector

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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Clinton says not pursuing World Bank job

2:53 PM Clinton, pursuing, world No Comments

Dijon Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday, said it was not in the discussions on the top job at the World Bank and was followed not the post.

Clinton is in Zambia as part of a five-day Africa trip that is overshadowed by the news is that she had expressed interest on the way to the head of the World Bank.

"I have no discussions with someone, I took no interest to anyone and I have been following this position, not" reporters Clinton.

According to sources, Clinton and the Obama expressed interest in the World Bank move management, when current World Bank President Robert Zoellick's term ends in mid-2012.

Department denied the White House and State on Thursday cited a Reuters report, the three sources familiar with the discussions. Told by the official denials, said the sources of which story is accurate.

Revelations about Clinton nominated potential Bank are sensitive, because they come during a period of major foreign policy challenges for the Obama management.

It annoys also emerging markets, which are clamoring for more influence in global institutions and discussions like this as evidence that the orders are determined in advance.

A source said that the report of Clinton's interest had come at a difficult time for the Administration, had only just begun to consider that question should follow the, the Zoellick.

Clinton's name was as part of a strategy in the development, discussed according to a source, had the knowledge of the talks.

Zoellick has not revealed his plans for the future or whether he has an interest to a second term in Office at the Bank, the billions of dollars in loans and grants to developing countries.

Under normal circumstances, would the names of potential candidates for the World Bank only months before the post free will surface. But the timing of the discussion is not unusual this year given the sudden opening of the top job at the Bank sister institution, the IMF.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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World minting millionaires at breakneck speed

8:06 AM breakneck, millionaires, minting, speed, world No Comments

NEW YORK-the rich to keep getting richer, both here in the United States, and especially in emerging economies around the world marketed.

Public and private investment are controlled by the richest families expected to more than double value to $202 trillion by 2020 from 92 trillion this year according to the survey of millionaires in 25 countries by Deloitte LLP.

In the meantime, also increased the ranks of the families with more than a million dollars, to two thirds to 55.5 million in the developed world. You will more than double to 10 million in emerging markets such as Brazil, China and India.

Story: Luxury comes back with a vengeance

Deloitte predicts yet, the majority of the world's richest families will be found still, obsession with emerging markets in the United States and Europe despite the wealth management industry.

"There is no question that are, these markets of fundamental importance in the long run, but wealth managers can see the value of their home base," said Andrew Freeman, Executive Director of the Center for financial services Deloitte.

Deloitte notes that China, Brazil, Russia and other emerging markets will shape new millionaires faster than established markets, powered by expansion, commodity prices, and development.

Millions of Americans not yet eat can afford.

10 Emerging markets millionaire is household wealth seen tripling to $25 billion from $7 trillion this year. By 2020, China is the top connect 10 richest economies with $3.6 trillion of wealth probably the series.

India's average millionaire would be wealthier than the average American millionaire

Deloitte China expected in the emerging markets remain the driving force in the growth of the millionaire wealth, followed by Brazil and Russia be. In the developed markets, the millionaire will have Australia and Singapore the fastest growth rate of households.

Millionaires in Singapore, a hub for wealth management in the far East, can Switzerland by 2015 with $4.5 million, the study by Oxford Economics as the world's highest per millionaire wealth Excel.

In other words, should the United States still has the most millionaires, to 20 million households by 2020 from this year doubled. The entire wealth under U.S. millionaires an annual growth rate of 9 per cent will reach 87 billion dollars by 2020.

As a result banks said of Deloitte Freeman, broker and trusts have many growth opportunities in States such as California, Florida and New Jersey that by 2020 the largest density of U.S. millionaires will have.

Prosperity in the study includes financial assets (stocks, bonds and other investments) and non-financial assets, including primary residence, commodities, business equity and other resources.

Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters.

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NYT: China inflation is high risk for world trade

8:36 AM China, inflation, trade, world No Comments

SHANGHAI?? As the United States and Europe struggle to get their economies rolling again, China is having the opposite problem: figuring out how to keep its revved-up growth engine from generating runaway inflation.

The latest sign that things were moving too fast came on Sunday, when China?s central bank ordered the biggest banks to set aside more cash reserves.

The move essentially reduces the amount of money available for loans, and is an attempt to cool down the economy. It follows the government announcement on Friday that China?s economy was growing at an annual rate of 9.7 percent, by far the strongest performance by any of the world?s biggest economies.

Because China is now the world?s second largest economy, after the United States, and because the country has been a leading source of global growth during the last two years, money problems here can reverberate from Wal-Mart to Wall Street and the world beyond.

High inflation endangers China?s status as the low-cost workshop for the world. And if the government?s efforts to fight inflation cause the economy to stumble, that will cloud the outlook for international businesses ? whether multinationals like General Electric or copper miners in Chile ? that have been counting on China for growth.

Internal threat
Inside China, inflation also poses a threat to social stability, a particular worry for Beijing, especially since authoritarian governments in North Africa and the Middle East have become the focus of popular uprisings.

?China?s inflation is a big concern, and actual numbers are worse than officially reported,? said Carmen M. Reinhart, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

She says Beijing is engaged in an economic tug of war, trying to encourage sustainable growth while struggling to control inflation.

Food prices are soaring, and the government said on Friday that the consumer price index in March had risen 5.4 percent, its sharpest increase in nearly three years. Hoping to tame inflation, in the last six months Beijing has tightened restrictions on bank lending and raised interest rates on loans (to discourage borrowing) and deposits (to encourage savings).

The decision on Sunday to raise the capital reserve ratio for banks, to 20.5 percent of their cash, was the fourth such increase this year.

The government has also increased agricultural subsidies to curb food prices, and tried to forbid some Chinese companies from raising consumer prices. These efforts stand in contrast to those in the United States, where inflation is low (the underlying annual inflation rate was 1.2 percent last month) and where the debate centers on how much to stimulate the economy given the size of the deficit. Inflation is also running low in Europe, where some countries are imposing harsh austerity measures to pare their budget gaps.

But analysts say the results of this economic management have been mixed. Growth has begun to moderate from its torrid pace of about 10 percent annual growth but inflation has become worse.

For example, housing prices continue to climb even though Beijing has long promised to curb the property market and to spend billions of dollars over the next few years on affordable housing.

The average apartment in central Shanghai now costs more than $500,000. Even in second-tier cities like Chengdu, in central China, the price of a typical home costs about 25 times the average annual income of residents.

Analysts say too much of the country?s growth continues to be tied to inflationary spending on real estate development and government investment in roads, railways and other multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects.

In the first quarter of 2011, fixed asset investment ? a broad measure of building activity ? jumped 25 percent from the period a year earlier, and real estate investment soared 37 percent, the government said on Friday.

Some of the inflationary factors, like global commodity and food prices, may be beyond Beijing?s ability to influence. Gasoline prices have also jumped sharply, in line with global oil prices. As the world?s largest car market, China?s demand for fuel is soaring, and gasoline prices are close to $4.50 a gallon, up from $3.82 a gallon in late 2009.

Rising food prices, meanwhile, are showing up in various ways ? including higher prices at fast-food chains, like Master Kong, which in January raised the price of its popular instant noodles by about 10 percent.

Fearing the bubble
China?s current supercharged boom began in early 2009, during the global financial crisis, when Beijing moved aggressively to increase growth with a $586 billion stimulus package and record lending by state-run banks.

The loose monetary policy, and big investments in local government projects, did revive economic growth. But even at the time there were already concerns about soaring property prices, undisciplined bank lending and the huge debts being amassed by local governments.

The fear among some experts is that the bubble will eventually burst, leading to a wave of nonperforming loans at the big state-owned Chinese banks, which have been the main financiers of the nation?s phenomenal growth dating to the economic reforms in the 1980s.

Some economists have begun to argue that high inflation may be around for some time. Here again, the tug of war is evident.

To encourage the growth of a consumer market that will help meet the Chinese people?s demand to share the nation?s wealth, Beijing and many municipal governments have required employers to raise wages.

The government has raised minimum wages in the hope of reducing the big income gap between the rich and the poor, and the urban and rural. But higher wages drive up the costs of production, leading to higher prices. Some experts say rising wages may be an unavoidable inflationary force for years to come.

?China is moving into a new era, a new norm,? said Dong Tao, an economist at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong. ?In the previous decade, inflation was about 1.8 percent a year; in the next decade, it may be closer to 5 percent.?

The implications of such a shift are huge, not just for domestic consumers but perhaps even more so for exports. As wages and production costs rise, coastal factories are demanding higher prices for the goods they ship overseas. That means Americans, Europeans and other buyers will have to pay more for those goods or seek lower-cost suppliers elsewhere. In some cases, retailers are bidding for goods at prices the exporters consider too low.

?I hear that many Chinese exporters are rejecting orders from Wal-Mart and other Western retailers,? Mr. Tao said. ?I?ve been covering the Chinese economy for a long time, and I?ve never heard that before.?

'May take a long time'
Many analysts say the government is going to have to do even more to slow the economy, through measures like placing additional restrictions on lending and continuing to raise interest rates, the textbook methods of fighting inflation by tightening the nation?s money supply.

But the mixed results so far do not inspire widespread confidence. In fact, some experts say that despite the Communist Party?s efforts to manage the economy by committee, the absence of a top autonomous central banker ? Beijing has no equivalent of the United States Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke ? means no one actually has a hand on the growth throttle.

?The roots of inflation were laid down after the financial crisis, with the stimulus policy,? said Zhang Weiying, a professor of economics at Peking University.

After a big stimulus, stamping out inflation is not easy, Professor Zhang said. ?It may take a long time.?

Citizens like Wang Jianren, 56, a retiree in Shanghai, a bustling city of 20 million, say that over the years China has benefited from its rapid economic growth. But like so many here, he complains that inflation is beginning to erode those gains.

?Prices have gone up a lot,? Mr. Wang said at an indoor vegetable market on Friday. ?Unstable prices make people nervous and make society unstable. In this sense, our generation even has some nostalgia for Mao?s era.?

Xu Yan contributed research from Shanghai.

This article, "Soaring inflation poses risks beyond China's borders," originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright ? 2010 The New York Times

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Life Inc.: The morale of around the world

2:03 PM around, morale, world No Comments

OECD

By Allison Linn, senior business writer

We talk workaholics much here in the United States, but it turns out, we have much competition when it comes to keep busy.

A study of 34 countries has found that Mexican, Japanese and Portuguese nationals every day on work, study most of the time and spend household tasks.

Belgian, Danish and German spend the kurzestmogliche time out on paid and unpaid work, according to a study by the Organisation for economic cooperation and development.

And as for us Americans? Despite our reputation, all work and no play place we ninth, to countries such as Austria and Canada.

The OECD said the research was divided into two categories: study, paid work and unpaid work such as cooking, cleaning and shopping. You use the organization it its 34 member countries used surveys and other data to to come up with the rankings.

It saw people time commitments in all seven days a week, including holidays, and contain both employed and unemployed people of age 15 to 64. This explains why the daily tallies may seem relatively low.

Although Japanese and Mexican people she most worked, the division between paid and unpaid work was slightly different.

The researchers found, that Mexicans spent almost 10 hours a day on work, study and perform tasks on the seven-day week. Contained about 5.7 hours per day on paid work or study, and the rest on tasks.

Japanese spent some more time to paid work or the study-6, 3 hours a day--but less time on tasks.

In the United States spent every day at work people approx. 8.2 hours a day on the paid and unpaid work, including 4.8 hours or study.

The Belgians seem it work-life balance thing really have found. The researchers said they spend around 3.8 hours every day to work and to study, plus another 3.3 hours on other tasks.

The OECD, made in the course of the second WELTKRIEGS and financed by its member countries should promote policies that improve economic and social well-being of the people.

Tip of the hat to business insider, which first reported on the study.

New statistics have been published today, showing which countries most, working both in the Office and at home. Mexicans are the toughest global citizens work during Belgian have on average shortest work day. Americans spend the least time cooking at home, although more than 500 cable cooking shows.

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