Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Oil up, jobs down

Bond markets betting on QE3


Investors should prepare themselves for a third round of quantitative easing, Simon Maughn, co-head of European equities at MF Global, told CNBC Wednesday.
“The bond market is going in one direction which is up-falling yields which is telling you quite clearly the direction of economic travel is downwards. Downgrades. QE3 (a third round of quantitative easing) is coming,” said Maughn. “The bond markets are all smarter than us, and that’s exactly what the bond markets are telling me.”

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

EU bails out Greece

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-31/new-aid-package-for-greece-to-be-decided-by-end-of-june-eu-s-juncker-says.html

European Union leaders will decide on additional aid for Greece by the end of June and have ruled out a “total restructuring” of the nation’s debt, said Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the group of euro-area finance ministers.
Inspectors from the EU, the International Monetary Fund and theEuropean Central Bank are set to wrap up a review of Greece’s progress in meeting the terms of last year’s 110 billion-euro ($158 billion) bailout in the next few days. The EU will then formulate its plan for further aid to Greece, which remains shut out of financial markets a year after the rescue.
“We are waiting for their final judgment,” Juncker, who is also Luxembourg’s prime minister, said yesterday in Paris after meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy. “Their position will partly determine our position, so it’s too early. We will try to solve the Greek problem by the end of June.”

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Bitcoin Market


Bitcoincharts provides financial and technical data related to the Bitcoin network. If you're not familiar with the numbers on the left you can find explanations here.

Bitcoin Virtual p2p currency

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer currency. Peer-to-peer means that no central authority issues new money or tracks transactions. These tasks are managed collectively by the network.
http://www.bitcoin.org/

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Ready to Erase Whiteboards, IdeaPaint Lands 1,700 Lowe’s Stores

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-25/ready-to-erase-whiteboards-ideapaint-lands-1-700-lowe-s-stores.html

Ready to Erase Whiteboards, IdeaPaint Lands 1,700 Lowe’s Stores 

Digital advertising shop HUGE has close to two-thirds of its Brooklyn, N.Y., office’s walls covered with IdeaPaint. “You can feel free with your ideas, and not all of them are going to be great. That’s okay -- you can just erase it and start all over,” says HUGE partner Michal Pasternak. Promising sketches are photographed before they are erased, then shared like documents. Flexible office space facility Cambridge Innovation Center in Boston started using the paint expansively last fall; much of its 130,000-square-foot space is covered now. “It definitely has the ‘cool factor’ that we strive to include to make our space unique and keep our clients coming back,” says Anna Whitlock, a customer ‘relationship manager’ at the space.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Dollar Drop Boosts Tourist Spending in U.S.


The price is right for foreign shoppers in the U.S. as the sagging dollar boosts their purchasing power on everything from jewelry to vitamins.
“When I come to New York, it feels like I am getting great deals,” said Molly Lewis, a 40-year-old nurse from Manchester,England, who spent an afternoon last week hunting down bargains on Louis Vuitton handbags in Manhattan. “Things are much cheaper here than back home.”
The British pound had climbed 13 percent against the U.S. dollar in the past year, along with gains in the euro and Canadian and Australian dollars. That’s given travelers a zest for spending, which may help U.S. retailers make up sales as budget-wary U.S. consumers stick to the sidelines. Travelers from abroad spent $8.9 billion on food, lodging, gifts and entertainment in the U.S. in February, up 7 percent from last year, according to the Department of Commerce.
The Mall of America, the biggest shopping center in the U.S. with 520 stores, is reporting a surge in international visitors, hitting retailers from Columbia Sportswear Co. (COLM) to Coach Inc. in search of American goods.
The dollar has weakened by about 4 percent this year, according to Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Currency Indices. The measure of 10 developed-nation currencies has fallen 15 percent in the past year amid concern the Federal Reserve’s accommodative monetary policy will debase the value of the dollar and spur inflation.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

IMF Strauss-Kahn Setup alleged



From the Media Research Center
While reporting on the sexual assault case against International Monetary Fund Chairman Dominique Strauss-Kahn on Tuesday's Today, NBC correspondent Jeff Rossen noted how the would-be Socialist Party candidate for the French presidency had "worried his political opponent, current French President Nicolas Sarkozy, would try to frame him with a fake rape..."
Rossen further added that Strauss-Kahn once told a French newspaper that the rape victim would be "promised 500,000 or a million euros to invent this story" by Sarkozy. Following Rossen's report, correspondent Michelle Kosinski highlighted French outrage over Strauss-Kahn's arrest: "I would say that the reaction ranges from disbelief to outright disgust. To see their VIP paraded before cameras, the socialists are calling it 'inhumane'....they're saying that this looks like a humiliating public exhibition like something from ancient times."
The headline on screen during the segment read: "French Conspiracy Theories; Was Banker Set Up as Part of Political Plot?"
After Kosinski's report, co-host Meredith Vieira discussed the case with the former head of the New York City Sex Crimes Unit, Linda Fairstein. Vieira began by touting: "There are some people in France who are speculating that this could be a political set-up." The headline on screen at that time had changed to read: "Sexual Assault or Political Plot?; The Case Against French Banker Strauss-Kahn."