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Business News
for 01/23/2010

(last updated 7:30am EST 01/23/2010)

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• World's top auto market keeps expanding World's top auto market keeps expanding
01/23/2010
Shen Lu just bought herself a red Mazda 3 as a new year present. "It looks beautiful and has large space. I bought it to replace my old car, a small Chery QQ," said the 27-year-old IT practitioner. "Cars with displacement of 1.6 liters, like the Mazda 3, are cheaper with reduced purchase tax," she added. Shen's Mazda is one part of the mushrooming auto fleet that expands by 1,500 new vehicles every day in Beijing, a city that already has 5.7 million drivers and over four million automob ... (1 h ago)

• Brazil's oil giant Petrobras approves pu... Brazil's oil giant Petrobras approves purchase of Quattor
01/23/2010
Brazil's state-owned oil and gas giant Petrobras announced its approval of the purchase of petrochemical company Quattor on Friday. Braskem, controlled by Petrobras and construction giant Odebrecht,actually purchased Quattor for 870 million reais (478 million U.S. dollars). After the merger, Braskem will maintain its name, and will become the largest petrochemical company on the American continent, and the 11th largest in the world. According to an agreement between Petrobras and Odebre ... (1 h ago)

• Peugeot Citroen recalls 263 cars in Chin... Peugeot Citroen recalls 263 cars in China mainland on faulty radio
01/23/2010
French auto maker PSA Peugeot Citroen would recall combined 263 autos of three models sold to the Chinese mainland due to defective radio, China's product quality watchdog has announced. The 263 autos included two of 307 CC produced between July 21 of 2006 to March 19 of 2007, 215 of C4 coupe manufactured between July 29 of 2006 to March 19 of 2007, and 46 of C5 made between July 17 of 2006 to March 20 of 2007, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said ... (1 h ago)

• Wall Street posts biggest 3-day drop sin... Wall Street posts biggest 3-day drop since March
01/23/2010
&$ &$Traders work in the New York Stock Exchange, U.S., Jan. 22, 2010. Wall Street tumbled for the third straight session on Friday, with major averages ending down more than 2 percent, as investors were worried that President Obama's proposals of putting new restrictions on big banks could hurt economic recovery. (Xinhua Photo)&$ &$ Wall Street tumbled for the third straight session on Friday, with major average ... (1 h ago)

• Oil tumbles below 75 dollars on equity l... Oil tumbles below 75 dollars on equity losses
01/23/2010
Oil prices tumbled to one-month low below 75 U.S. dollars on Friday as the energy market shared a sluggish sentiment with stocks which plunged for a third day. U.S. stocks suffered their worst one-day decline in nearly three months as bank shares tumbled after President Obama proposed to impose new limits on the size of the nation's biggest banks as well as restrict their risk-taking abilities. There was little upbeat news from the fundamentals. A government report on Thursday showed that ... (1 h ago)

• Brazil's Vale to sell subsidiary's alumi... Brazil's Vale to sell subsidiary's aluminum assets
01/23/2010
Brazil's mining giant Vale, the largest iron ore producer in the world, Friday announced plans to sell the aluminum assets of one of its subsidiaries to a French company. Its subsidiary Valesul Aluminio S.A. (Valesul) in Rio de Janeiro state has reached an agreement with Aluminio Nordeste S.A., a company of the French Metalis group, on the transaction, it said. The assets included in the agreement are Valesul's anode plant, reduction plant, smelter, industrial services and administrative f ... (1 h ago)

• American Airlines laying off 175 pilots American Airlines laying off 175 pilots
01/23/2010
American Airlines, the world's second-biggest carrier, said Friday it will lay off 175 pilots in the first half of this year due to capacity cuts and fewer retirements. Eighty pilots will lose their jobs at the end of February and a second round of layoffs could be in the spring, American spokeswoman Missy Latham said in a statement. "This was a painful but necessary decision, " said Latham, who said the move will "better align the size of our pilot organization with the size of our curren ... (1 h ago)

• Russian finance minister urges budget au... Russian finance minister urges budget austerity
01/23/2010
One of the priority tasks facing the Russian government in the coming years is to guarantee the budget deficit not to exceed one percent of gross domestic product (GDP), said Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin here Friday. "We do not have the scope to increase spending," said Kudrin at the international conference "Russia and Global World: New Decade Challenges." Future federal budget should also be set down with the oil price no higher than 60 U.S. dollars per barrel, in order to avoi ... (1 h ago)

• Fitch Ratings upgrades outlook for Russi... Fitch Ratings upgrades outlook for Russian economy
01/23/2010
International rating agency Fitch Ratings upgraded its assessment of Russia's economic outlook from "negative" to "stable" on Friday. "The revision of Russia's outlook to stable reflects our greater confidence in economic and financial stability in Russia," said Edward Parker, Fitch's head of Emerging Europe. The assessment was based on the rebound in oil prices, recovery in net private sector capital inflows and economic activity, falling inflation, downside risks reduction in the banking ... (1 h ago)

• Hong Kong attracts record 265 firms to i... Hong Kong attracts record 265 firms to invest in 2009
01/22/2010
The Department of Invest Hong Kong said Friday it helped 265 firms establish or expand their business presence in Hong Kong last year, which is its record in attracting foreign direct investment to the city. Director-General of Investment Promotion Simon Galpin said the figure showed investors' confidence in the city despite the challenging global economic environment. "Hong Kong's strategic location and international exposure make it an ideal two-way service platform for Chinese mainland ... (10 h ago)

• HK firms forecast better Q1 prospects HK firms forecast better Q1 prospects
01/22/2010
Many sectors expect a favorable business outlook for the first quarter of the year, particularly the financing and insurance field, followed by the retail and the real estate industries, according to a survey released by Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on Friday. Up to 29 percent of respondents forecast their business situation to improve while only 10 percent expected it to worsen, compared with 17 percent in the fourth quarter last year, according to the Census and Stati ... (11 h ago)

• U.S. launches trade probe against Chines... U.S. launches trade probe against Chinese drill pipe
01/22/2010
The U.S. government will investigate charges against import of oil well drill pipe from Chinese companies, said the Commerce Department on Thursday. The case, which was filed by the United Steelworkers union and a group of companies from Texas and Illinois, is the first U.S. trade probe of this year against China after about a dozen in 2009. The petitioners have asked for anti-dumping duties ranging from 429 percent to 496 percent. They also want additional countervailing duties to offs ... (11 h ago)

• Sales at Japan department stores decline... Sales at Japan department stores decline in December
01/22/2010
Sales at Japanese department stores declined year-on-year in January by 5 percent, according to data released on Friday. Figures from the Japan Department Stores Association showed sales had fallen by 5 percent when compared to the same month in 2008. It was the 22nd that year-on-year sales have fallen. Department stores in Japan's ten biggest cities saw sales fall by 4.7 percent, while in smaller areas sales declined by 5.6 percent. Away from major cities, it was the 30th consecutive mont ... (11 h ago)

• Shelf life is what you make it | Poll Shelf life is what you make it | Poll
01/23/2010
In a bid to save money and cut food waste, consumers are buying up discounted groceries which are past their best-before dates. Is it something you'd consider doing? (4 h ago)

• The end of free email | Anthony Evans The end of free email | Anthony Evans
01/23/2010
How can companies cut down on the pointless emails clogging up inboxes? Start charging people to send them I recently attended an off-site training program for a FTSE 100 company, and one of the main points of discussion was how to cut down on unnecessary emails . My response was simple: since sending an email is free, people will send too many . If you want to improve things, start charging a fee. Markets work by bridging consumer value and the cost of production. The problem with emails – like so many other things – is that many of the costs are not born by the decision maker. When you copy five people in to an email that you send the additional cost to you is zero. However each of those people need to read through and decide whether it's actionable. You're imposing a cost on them. This is an externality. One of the best ways to deal with externalities is to create a market. This means we start respecting other people's inbox as their own property , and stop dumping into it without consideration. We create a system that forces people to bear more of the costs of their actions. It's a myth that businesses should aim to cut costs. Costs play an important role because they provide hurdles that prevent us from wasting resources. In some cases when costs are hidden such inefficiencies occur. A price system would make those costs more transparent, and make it less likely that pointless emails get sent. The objective here isn't to minimise the amount of emails being sent – no one is in a position to judge how many emails "should" be sent, since this depends on a multitude of factors. Rather, the aim is to optimise the number of emails, given existing conditions. The technology to do this exists. Yahoo has pioneered "CentMail", where users pay a small fee for each email sent to signal that it isn't spam. A similar scheme could be implemented for corporate email, which would actually generate revenue. It might challenge the cultural notion that all resources in a company are shared resources, but such socialism corrodes economies and paralyses an organisation. It'd be nice if we all cared enough about our colleagues to bear their inboxes in mind before we dump on them, but when pressure mounts we tend to act on our pressing needs. Rather than try to change human nature, if you're serious about a more efficient email system then start charging. Email Anthony Evans guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (5 h ago)

• Poles are not trying to escape UK | Krys... Poles are not trying to escape UK | Krystyna Iglicka
01/23/2010
Tougher economic times do not mean Polish workers are returning to their homeland. They are battling to survive in Britain Contrary to some suggestions, Poles are not escaping Britain – we are trying to survive here. Since 2004, more than 2 million Poles – mostly young – have gone abroad in search of work. They left mainly because of the following factors: demographic (the 1980 "baby boom" generation), economic (discrepancies in salaries in Poland) and political (the opportunity to work legally thanks to Poland's entry into the EU). It is very difficult to estimate how many of those two million migrated to Britain, and it is even harder to estimate the number who have returned. Different countries adopt different definitions of a "returning migrant". Sometimes people tell researchers they are thinking of returning, but in reality they try to postpone the final decision for as long as possible. Sometimes they return home and, after not being able to find a job, return to the country where they originally emigrated. Sometimes they try to move to a third country. The history of economic upheavals, such as the oil crisis in 1973, should teach us that recessions do influence the outflow of migrants (it becomes lower). However, they do not stimulate return migration. During recessions most local inhabitants are trying to survive and stop being so mobile (both professionally and within their own country). With jobs insecure or in short supply, it is a time "to wait and see". So it is important that journalists, experts and politicians on both sides share the data available. There is plenty of misleading information in this field which, in my opinion, is mainly harmful for Polish migrants. These are just people who migrated to find a better life abroad and decent working conditions. Most of them are trying to survive an economic crisis abroad, which is a very challenging task. So why do I think Poles are not going home in the numbers suggested by the British government? The most recent estimates by Poland's Central Statistical Office (CSO) , based on census data, put the number of Poles who have migrated for work at 2.21 million in 2008, of whom 650,000 are in Britain. In 2007 the figures were 2.27 million and 690,000 respectively, and in 2006 1.95 million and 580,000. So according to our data there were never a million Poles in Britain – as sometimes reported – but nor did half of them come back home. The number of Poles in Britain dropped by only 40,000 in 2008. However, at the same time countries including Norway, the Netherlands and Denmark observed a small increase in the number of Poles. According to the same source, 70% of Poles stay abroad for at least one year. In order to know what really happened in 2009, we have to wait until July or August of this year, when all the data from various sources will be available to the Central Statistical Office). The observed drop in remittances (of around 20%, in comparison with the same periods during 2008) recorded by the Polish National Bank for the first three quarters of 2009 may suggest that the economic situation of Polish migrants in Britain deteriorated substantially. The history of migration also teaches us that after a period of time – usually five years – migrants' loyalties and ties change from their homeland to the receiving countries, and they therefore stop sending money home. Instead, they try to persuade family members to join them abroad. The small number of dependants of Polish migrants recorded by the Home Office appears to confirm this. Poland Recession Immigration and asylum Krystyna Iglicka guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (6 h ago)

• Kraft pledges to honour Cadbury's Fairtr... Kraft pledges to honour Cadbury's Fairtrade sourcing commitments
01/22/2010
Fears that US food company would stop selling ethically-sourced products after a takeover allayed, but expansion of Fairtrade agreements remains in doubt Kraft has promised to honour Cadbury's current deal to sell Fairtrade chocolate after fears that it would stop selling ethically-sourced confectionery if its takeover goes ahead. Jonathan Horrell, the UK corporate affairs director for the US food conglomerate, said Kraft already worked "extensively" with sustainably sourced cocoa and coffee suppliers and planned to maintain Cadbury's contracts with the Fairtrade Foundation. But he would not confirm whether Kraft would continue Cadbury's ongoing talks to expand its use of Fairtrade cocoa beans into other brands – a major and continuing worry for the Fairtrade Foundation. Kraft's renewed offer last week for Cadbury sparked concerns that it would abandon the British confectioner's ground-breaking deal to use only Fairtrade cocoa in its market-leading Dairy Milk range, which is now being sold in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The foundation raised its fears with Cadbury's executives after Kraft's new offer was announced last week, and motions were tabled both in the House of Commons and the Scottish parliament urging Kraft to honour Cadbury's commitments. Horrell said: "We would expect to honour Cadbury's commitments to sustainable and ethical sourcing, including Fairtrade, if our offer moves forward, but it's premature to discuss any details at this stage." But Horrell said this was as far as Kraft would go, leaving a question mark over proposals to increase Cadbury's use of Fairtrade produce. "That's where the 'premature' comment comes in," he said. "Because we don't actually own Cadbury at this stage, we need to understand more about all these things. As I said, we certainly expect to honour their commitments." The current deal to supply Cadbury with Fairtrade cocoa beans from Ghana is understood to be time-limited, which also leaves it open to Kraft to end the tie-in when the existing contract ends. Cadbury's deal with the Fairtrade Foundation last year was seen as the movement's biggest coup, as Dairy Milk was the first mass-market chocolate in the world to use Fairtrade cocoa; previously, it had been confined to niche products and premium brands. The foundation now supplies Starbucks with coffee and Nestlé with cocoa beans for KitKat bars. Kraft has signed up with the Rainforest Alliance, which promotes conservation and fair dealings with small growers, to supply some coffee beans for its Kenco brand and some other lines. But campaigners believe the Rainforest Alliance is less radical and effective than Fairtrade and has seized on dismissive and critical comments made by Kraft claiming the Fairtrade Foundation is too small for its needs. The foundation said earlier this week that there was "a unique and compelling case for continuing to pursue the Cadbury commitment to their Cocoa Partnership and to Fairtrade, and taking it further in coming months and years." A spokeswoman said on Friday that the foundation had had assurances from Cadbury that it was "business as usual for us." She added: "We're just going ahead, working with Cadbury's as before. We're a certification authority. We don't know if the sale is going to go through; we're not speculating at the moment." Kraft Cadbury Ethical business Fair trade Retail industry Mergers and acquisitions Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (14 h ago)

• Letter: Let them eat cake – as long as i... Letter: Let them eat cake – as long as it's low-fat
01/22/2010
Food products such as cakes, biscuits and pastries are not necessarily "obvious" contributors to saturated fat intake ( Know your fats , G2, 19 January). In fact, several members of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents the manufacturers of many of Britain's best-loved brands, no longer use animal fats in their products except where they are required to by law, or if the nature of the product specifically requires it (eg all-butter shortbread and all-butter pastries). For a number of years, FDF members have been rising to the challenge of the highly complex task of reformulating existing products and developing new ones to be lower in saturated fat without compromising on taste and texture. FDF's biscuit, cake, chocolate and confectionery (BCCC) members are well represented in this work, being especially active in reducing saturated fat levels in their products despite the many technical, quality and cost challenges associated with reformulation, for example by replacing saturated fats with non-saturated fats like sunflower oil. Consumers now have a wide variety of products on the market to help them reduce their saturated fat intake – including cakes, biscuits and pastries – and the number of products available continues to increase. Data from independent consultancy Mintel found that since 2007 more than 700 reformulated products have been launched on to the market. Manufacturers are committed to playing a positive role in the health debate and to ensuring consumers continue to have a range of products available to help them choose a healthy diet. Martin Turton Manager of Biscuits, Cakes, Chocolate and Confectionery sector group, Food and Drink Federation Food & drink industry Food Food safety Health Health & wellbeing Health policy guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• ICA warns staff it could close by May ICA warns staff it could close by May
01/22/2010
Institute could fall victim to recession with costs needing a £1m trim In the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London there is a bloodstain on an office wall. This Is Norman's Blood, reads the label – the traces of a fistfight between former ICA curator Sir Norman Rosenthal and actor Keith Allen. More blood, of the metaphorical variety, is soon to be shed at the institute. Staff members have been told that a financial deficit currently at around £600,000 might rise to £1.2m and if radical steps are not taken the ICA could be closed by May. Minutes of a sometimes bad-tempered staff meeting held last month have been seen by the Guardian. The meeting was also attended by Alan Yentob, the BBC creative director, and Tessa Ross, Channel 4's head of film and drama, both of whom sit on the ICA's council. The meeting saw ICA director Ekow Eshun explain that a staff bill of £2.5m will have to be reduced by £1m for the organisation to survive. Without a wholesale restructuring, he argued, the ICA could be the first major British cultural organisation to fall victim to the recession. The ICA's management is now consulting on staff redundancies, with the process due to be completed by the end of March. Since its early beginnings just after the war, when the ICA was one of the few institutions to introduce avant garde art to Britain, the organisation has played a significant role in the UK's cultural and intellectual life. But critics believe that it has lost its sense of purpose, particularly when contemporary art is now well represented in London's museums and galleries. The financial problems emerged, Eshun told the Guardian yesterday, as a result of "a perfect storm of events that all came together". A fundraising auction of works donated by artists including Damien Hirst in October 2008 failed to raise its estimated £1.3m, instead realising about £673,300. Over the 2008-9 financial year, the ICA raised only £200,000, or half the projected revenue, from hiring out its premises on The Mall in London for commercial use, a problem put down to the recession. Eshun said that other traditional streams of income, such as the bookshop and the ICA film distribution arm, also suffered because of the recession. The ICA has been granted a package of £1.2m over two years by Arts Council England's (ACE) Sustain fund, which is designed to help arts organisations hit by the recession. The total turnover of the ICA is £4.5m, and it receives an annual ACE grant of £1.3m. But Eshun said the problems at the ICA ran deeper than the current financial climate, and in May last year, even before the scale of the immediate financial problems had emerged, a consultancy firm was commissioned to report on structural problems within the organisation. Yentob told the Guardian: "We've been managing a programme with a large staff running numerous individual projects. When trouble emerged and financial problems surfaced because of the recession it was as if we had been ambushed from every side." Instead of several, often competing departments devoted to exhibitions, talks, or films and so on, three larger teams – one devoted to the artistic programme, one to finance and operations, and one to communications – will be created to "deliver a more integrated programme", said Eshun. He said that the organisation's renewed vision would "address the big questions and lead debate and enquiry into culture and the arts ... We are here to bring together artists and audiences to ask questions about who we are and how we live." The minutes of the meeting seen by the Guardian, compiled informally by staff, report that one attender said he "didn't want to hear the word 'vision' coming from Ekow Eshun again – he had heard it at every staff meeting this year and it meant nothing to him". Eshun, who has been director of the ICA since 2005, said that he did take "responsibility for the ICA's present and future over the time that I've been here. But it has been going for 60 years. Trying to turn it round isn't straightforward." According to Yentob: "The ICA council acted nearly a year ago in consultation with the Arts Council, in commissioning the organisational review. Perhaps it could have happened even earlier, but this is a big step with serious consequences for many of our staff, so it was not a decision that could be taken lightly. Everyone on the ICA council believes that these changes will enable the ICA to fulfil its creative brief more effectively." Art on the edge The ICA was founded in 1947 by the critic Herbert Read, along with artists including the surrealist painter Roland Penrose and sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi. It mounted early shows of pop art and abstract painting, and provided a meeting place for radical artists. It continued at the cutting edge with events such as Mary Kelly's infamous "nappy show", an exhibition in 1976 officially called Post Partum Document, which included her baby's dirty nappies. The same year it was among the first venues to host a gig by the Clash. In the 1990s it played host to the first British showings of work by the sculptors Miroslaw Balka and the late Juan Muñoz, both of whom later created installations for Tate Modern's turbine hall. Staff alumni include Sir Norman Rosenthal, the retired exhibitions secretary of the Royal Academy of Arts; Sandy Nairne, the director of the National Portrait Gallery; and Iwona Blazwick, the director of the Whitechapel Gallery. Arts funding Arts policy London Recession Charlotte Higgins guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• CCTV in the sky: police plan to use mili... CCTV in the sky: police plan to use military-style spy drones
01/22/2010
Arms manufacturer BAE Systems developing national strategy with consortium of government agencies Police in the UK are planning to use unmanned spy drones, controversially deployed in Afghanistan, for the "routine" monitoring of antisocial motorists, protesters, agricultural thieves and fly-tippers, in a significant expansion of covert state surveillance. The arms manufacturer BAE Systems, which produces a range of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for war zones, is adapting the military-style planes for a consortium of government agencies led by Kent police. Documents from the South Coast Partnership, a Home Office-backed project in which Kent police and others are developing a national drone plan with BAE, have been obtained by the Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. They reveal the partnership intends to begin using the drones in time for the 2012 Olympics. They also indicate that police claims that the technology will be used for maritime surveillance fall well short of their intended use – which could span a range of police activity – and that officers have talked about selling the surveillance data to private companies. A prototype drone equipped with high-powered cameras and sensors is set to take to the skies for test flights later this year. The Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates UK airspace, has been told by BAE and Kent police that civilian UAVs would "greatly extend" the government's surveillance capacity and "revolutionise policing". The CAA is currently reluctant to license UAVs in normal airspace because of the risk of collisions with other aircraft, but adequate "sense and avoid" systems for drones are only a few years away. Five other police forces have signed up to the scheme, which is considered a pilot preceding the countrywide adoption of the technology for "surveillance, monitoring and evidence gathering". The partnership's stated mission is to introduce drones "into the routine work of the police, border authorities and other government agencies" across the UK. Concerned about the slow pace of progress of licensing issues, Kent police's assistant chief constable, Allyn Thomas, wrote to the CAA last March arguing that military drones would be useful "in the policing of major events, whether they be protests or the Olympics". He said interest in their use in the UK had "developed after the terrorist attack in Mumbai". Stressing that he was not seeking to interfere with the regulatory process, Thomas pointed out that there was "rather more urgency in the work since Mumbai and we have a clear deadline of the 2012 Olympics". BAE drones are programmed to take off and land on their own, stay airborne for up to 15 hours and reach heights of 20,000ft, making them invisible from the ground. Far more sophisticated than the remote-controlled rotor-blade robots that hover 50-metres above the ground – which police already use – BAE UAVs are programmed to undertake specific operations. They can, for example, deviate from a routine flightpath after encountering suspicious activity on the ground, or undertake numerous reconnaissance tasks simultaneously. The surveillance data is fed back to control rooms via monitoring equipment such as high-definition cameras, radar devices and infrared sensors. Previously, Kent police has said the drone scheme was intended for use over the English Channel to monitor shipping and detect immigrants crossing from France. However, the documents suggest the maritime focus was, at least in part, a public relations strategy designed to minimise civil liberty concerns. "There is potential for these [maritime] uses to be projected as a 'good news' story to the public rather than more 'big brother'," a minute from the one of the earliest meetings, in July 2007, states. Behind closed doors, the scope for UAVs has expanded significantly. Working with various policing organisations as well as the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, the Maritime and Fisheries Agency, HM Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency, BAE and Kent police have drawn up wider lists of potential uses. One document lists "[detecting] theft from cash machines, preventing theft of tractors and monitoring antisocial driving" as future tasks for police drones, while another states the aircraft could be used for road and railway monitoring, search and rescue, event security and covert urban surveillance. Under a section entitled "Other routine tasks (Local Councils) – surveillance", another document states the drones could be used to combat "fly-posting, fly-tipping, abandoned vehicles, abnormal loads, waste management". Senior officers have conceded there will be "large capital costs" involved in buying the drones, but argue this will be shared by various government agencies. They also say unmanned aircraft are no more intrusive than CCTV cameras and far cheaper to run than helicopters. Partnership officials have said the UAVs could raise revenue from private companies. At one strategy meeting it was proposed the aircraft could undertake commercial work during spare time to offset some of the running costs. There are two models of BAE drone under consideration, neither of which has been licensed to fly in non-segregated airspace by the CAA. The Herti (High Endurance Rapid Technology Insertion) is a five-metre long aircraft that the Ministry of Defence deployed in Afghanistan for tests in 2007 and 2009. CAA officials are sceptical that any Herti-type drone manufacturer can develop the technology to make them airworthy for the UK before 2015 at the earliest. However the South Coast Partnership has set its sights on another BAE prototype drone, the GA22 airship, developed by Lindstrand Technologies which would be subject to different regulations. BAE and Kent police believe the 22-metre long airship could be certified for civilian use by 2012. Military drones have been used extensively by the US to assist reconnaissance and airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq. But their use in war zones has been blamed for high civilian death tolls. Surveillance Police BAE Systems Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• I can't believe it's not … healthy! I can't believe it's not … healthy!
01/22/2010
First butter was bad for you, then margarine. Now a new front has opened in the battle of the spreads, with fresh calls for trans fats to be banned. But will any of this really prevent heart disease? The butter v margarine wars, so reminiscent of 1970s advertising, were back this week. A flurry of headlines about which type of fat is better for you announced their return, just as the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was trying to launch its carefully calibrated campaign to reduce our unhealthy level of saturated fat consumption. Leading doctors, in the form of the respected Faculty of Public Health, called for a ban on trans fats to cut obesity and heart disease, for which read artificially hardened margarines and fats in biscuits, cakes, snacks, spreads and fast foods. At the same time, a heart surgeon from University College London hospital (UCLH), Professor Shyam Kolvekar, called for a ban, not on trans fats in margarines and spreads, but on butter, to reduce the sort of artery damage he sees in victims of heart disease. The FSA called for a ban on neither, focusing instead on changing our milk and meat habits. Confused? You are meant to be. The wars between the industrial fats and the dairy industries have been fought on and off for more than a century. Conflicting commercial interests have long determined what type of fat we absorb into our bodies, and made an art of co-opting the medical profession. They are as active as ever. It was when watching an advert for polyunsaturated margarine in the late 1970s that the bizarre relationship we have with fat first struck me. The message seemed to be that not only did real men not eat quiche, they really ought to give up butter too. "Stop, ought he to be eating Flora?" "The margarine for men." "Isn't it time to change your husband?" No doubt there were others for other brands, but Unilever's stuck in my mind. "What does Mum do? Polywassernames …" The ads marked my first awareness that instead of being allowed the pleasure of eating foods such as butter that had been happily consumed for centuries, we were being encouraged to think of food as potentially dangerous. The official advice at the time was that we should substitute saturated fats and cholesterol in the diet with polyunsaturated fatty acids, and manufacturers such as Unilever were quick to find ways to help us. Kolvekar's call for a butter ban this week turns out to have been timed to coincide with the FSA's campaign, by a PR agency called KTB, that also runs the account for two of Unilever's fat spreads: Flora pro.activ and Bertolli Light. The agency also runs what it calls a saturated fat information service, satfatnav.com , which is "brought to you by Unilever". In the KTB press release, the eminent heart surgeon is quoted giving calculations on the value of switching from saturated butter to fat spreads based on Flora. I asked the FSA whether it thought the latest "ban butter" intervention was helpful. "The FSA does not agree with banning any food," it told us. Kolvekar was unavailable to discuss why he had made the call this week, but a UCLH spokeswoman said his views were personal ones that did not necessarily represent those of the NHS trust. She said there was no financial link either between Kolvekar or his company KK Media Services and Unilever but said KTB had paid a fee to the hospital for filming Kolvekar performing heart surgery as part of Unilever's campaign to highlight the dangers of eating too much saturated fat. Unilever confirmed that Kolvekar has never received payment for his regular support for Unilever's heart health campaigns. He does it because he passionately believes in it, they said. The margarine and spreads industry has cultivated close links with the medical profession since the 1950s, when scientists sounded the first alarms about the epidemic of heart and circulatory disease in the west. By the 1960s these diseases had become big killers. Heart disease still causes about one in five deaths in men and one in six in women, even though rapid advances in treatments have brought the death rates down since the 1980s. In the early days cholesterol in the diet was said to be part of the problem, though this notion has now been discounted. Raised blood cholesterol is a risk factor for heart disease, but there is no direct correlation between cholesterol in the diet and levels of blood cholesterol. Gradually the current consensus emerged: that it was too much saturated fat in the diet that raises blood cholesterol. Doctors were asked to work with the industrial fats industry to come up with polyunsaturated spreads that could be substituted for dairy products that were high in saturated fat. NHS dieticians were encouraged to recommend them. Thanks to millions spent by the industry on advertising and sponsored public health education campaigns, margarine managed to put itself at the forefront of the fight against heart disease. That it did so was remarkable, since margarine had spent most of it brief life as a decidedly poor relation. Originally developed by a French chemist in the late 19th century, margarine was a response to a call from the French government to invent a cheap, long-life butter substitute that could feed its armies on the march. When the Dutch took up the process they imported rendered animal fat from the notorious Chicago meatpacking yards. Organisation among workers helped raise wages and push up prices, stimulating the development of technology to take cheaper liquid vegetable oils and artificially harden them. The physical properties of fats reflect their chemical properties. Polyunsaturated oils are usually liquid at room temperature. Saturated fats, on the other hand, are relatively solid. The process of hydrogenation allows manufacturer's to alter the molecular structure of oils to change their melting point. They can thus create different fats for different effects: chocolates with fats designed to melt at mouth temperature, or baking fats that are harder, to make croissants crisp. Hydrogenation involves mixing vegetable oils with a metal catalyst and heating them to high temperatures. Hydrogen gas is then pumped through the hot oil in a high-pressure reactor. Fully hydrogenated fat is incredibly hard, like plastic beads, but the process can be stopped part-way when manufacturers want oils that are still soft but more stable, and it is this partial hydrogenation that creates trans fats (see panel). Hydrogenation opened the way for a transformation in European fat consumption. The oils used varied depending on economic conditions. Vegetable oils from the colonies in Africa took their turn with the cotton seed oil that was a byproduct of the US cotton industry and even with whale oil. The fight against heart disease gave a big boost to the margarine industry and the 1960s saw a rush of new products. Flora was launched in 1964 and advertised on TV in 1965. By 1970 Unilever had begun promoting its use direct to the medical profession, and through the 70s and 80s Flora built a following as the brand that was high in polyunsaturates and better for you. There have always been sceptics of the fat = heart disease hypothesis. They point to the French paradox – that the French eat large quantities of butter, cream and meat but do not suffer high rates of heart disease. They also point out that many of the studies that have switched people to low-fat diets have not produced the expected decline in rates of disease. But the great blow to the fat industry, built on claims around heart health, came in the 1990s. Early in the decade, scientific evidence emerged suggesting that the trans fats produced by hydrogenation affected foetal and infant growth. Then in 1993 Professor Walter Willett, the principal investigator in the Harvard nurses study – on which much of the current advice for heart disease and cancer is based – published evidence that nurses in the study who ate significant amounts of trans fats were twice as likely to have a heart attack as those who consumed few trans fats. In 1997 he called hydrogenation "the biggest food processing disaster in US history". In 2004 he told an interviewer that the advice to switch from butter to vegetable oils hydrogenated into margarine had turned out to be "a disastrous mistake". When hydrogenated, the polywassernames were seriously bad news. The official advice had in fact made things worse. In Britain in 1993, an entrepreneur took out adverts for a "Whole Earth Superspread" made without hydrogenated fat, presenting consumers with "the facts that could save your life". The entrepreneur was Craig Sams, a Californian who went on to chair the Soil Association and to launch Green & Black's organic chocolate. Hydrogenation of fats had never been allowed in certified organic foods. His advert said that trans fats from hydrogenation were the biggest single dietary hazard of our time. Unilever, as manufacturer of Flora, complained to the Advertising Standards Authority. Sams lost and was told not to use his adverts again, not on the grounds that his information was inaccurate, for he had mounted a vigorous defence, pointing to the science, but on the grounds that the advert appealed to fear to sell its products. Sams was monitoring commercial rivals' products at this point, and said his tests found that Flora contained 21% hydrogenated fat at the beginning of his campaign for his new Superspread, but that even as Unilever was complaining about his ad, it was altering its flagship product. But for an uncomfortable period, Unilever found itself selling a product marketed as being good for your heart when it was heavy on trans fats now known to be bad for your heart. I put the figures and the account Sams had given me to Unilever in 2006 and asked why it had continued to market margarine with trans fats as healthy, when the evidence had come out against them. Its director of external affairs Anne Heughan told me that Unilever's work with polyunsaturated fats had begun when doctors approached it in 1956 to come up with a product that would help in a practical way to achieve what scientists and public health policy makers wanted: for the population to cut its intake of saturated fat. It had thought, like everybody else, that it was doing the right thing. "As a responsible manufacturer we can only go with the evidence at the time. When Walter Willett's evidence in 1993 indicated that trans fatty acids were as bad as saturated fats we felt that the weight of evidence had moved and we set about removing them. It took about two years." Flora was free of partially hydrogenated fats by the end of 1994. Unilever changed its other brands slightly later. The company told me that before reformulation, its spreads contained an average of 19.3% trans fats. The average for Flora was 10%. By 2004 trans fats had been reduced to less than 0.5% in all its fat spreads. Although Flora was not made with hydrogenated fat after 1994, a large number of other fat spreads were until very recently. When a researcher and I conducted a survey in 2005 of what was on sale in UK supermarkets and asked manufacturers what type of oil they used and how it was processed, Unilever was clearly ahead of the rest in removing hydrogenated fats. A decade after science confirmed the problem, parts of the industry were still dragging their feet, one of the reasons the Faculty of Public Health doctors have spoken out on trans fats this week. The evidence for the role of saturated fats in cardiovascular disease is strong. WHO advice is still that they should be replaced with polyunsaturated fats. But looking back, what is remarkable about much of the advice is how subject to revision it has been. Not surprisingly, the public has become sceptical and retreated to natural products such as butter. Butter and fat spreads between them make up just one-eighth of our total fat intake. In the UK, the biggest source of fats overall and of saturated fat in particular is meat, particularly highly processed meat products such as sausages and pies. Cereal products including biscuits, cakes and breads are the next biggest sources of fat, then milk products. Butter and fats spreads come after that, which begs the question why they became the frontline in the war on saturated fat in the first place. Potato snacks and crisps account for about the same amount of fat, and it is the shift to an overwhelmingly industrial fast-food diet that really needs to be addressed. So why does Unilever continue to focus on promoting healthy spreads, the latest of which contain cholesterol-lowering ingredients? "The brand has consistently and effectively campaigned on issues such as heart health and cholesterol awareness – for which we make absolutely no excuses," a spokesman said. City analysts JP Morgan point out a further powerful commercial reason in their report on how the food industry is responding to the obesity crisis. According to their estimates, Flora pro.activ fat spread sells at a premium of more than 300% on standard products. Eat Your Heart Out by Felicity Lawrence is published by Penguin Food Food safety Food & drink Unilever Felicity Lawrence guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• Business schools put ethics high on MBA ... Business schools put ethics high on MBA agenda
01/22/2010
In the wake of the financial crisis, MBA students are being taught about corporate social responsibility As the bodies responsible for teaching so many of the "masters of the universe" who did so much to cause last year's economic meltdown, it is perhaps not surprising that business schools have spent the past year doing some serious soul-searching about their culpability for the recession. Go back to the 1980s and 1990s, when many of today's corporate leaders were studying for their MBAs, and business ethics and sustainability – in other words, issues around corporate governance, social responsibility and long-term decision-making – played little part in business school curricula. Pre-credit crunch, the need for MBAs to be "ethical" as well as show you how to fast-track your career and make a load of cash was not that high on the agenda, concedes Mark Stoddard, accreditation projects manager of the Association of MBAs (Amba). "Schools have recognised there have been gaps and they have needed to make changes in the way MBAs are taught," he says. "Three to four years ago you might have got students complaining about having to take ethics courses. You don't now." "I think some of the criticisms made of business schools were valid and, within some, at least, ethics did come to be seen as something that did not have much value. It was interpreted as a bit 'soft'," agrees Paul Palmer, professor of voluntary sector management at London's Cass Business School. "But making bad ethical decisions can be just as damaging to your career. It is about moving from just teaching skills to teaching wisdom," he adds. Cass, like many business schools, has been reviewing how its courses are taught. Last year it set up a "business ethics teaching and learning taskforce" and is reviewing the content of all its courses, both undergraduate and postgraduate, over the next two years. Prospective MBA students need to look closely at how a programme is taught and its structure and, if necessary, simply get in touch and ask, explains former PR executive Scott Addison, 32, who started a full-time MBA at Cass in the autumn. "One of the things that attracted me to Cass is that, rather than having this thing called ethics that is looked at in isolation, perhaps as part of one module, it is something laid over the entire spectrum of the discipline," he says. "So, for example, in one of the core financial modules we might be speaking about derivatives or hedging – something that, incidentally, might not even have been taught 10 or 20 years ago, which shows how things have changed – but there will be a discussion about the ethical challenges. "Ethics and sustainability are issues that do not always present themselves in nice, tidy yes-and-no situations. So it is about recognising your need to look at things not only in the context of whether that will be the most efficient or profitable decision, but also whether it is the right way to do things for the longer term," Addison says. A survey of business schools and MBA alumni by Amba and Durham Business School in December found growing recognition that ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) did need to play a larger part within the MBA landscape. Eight out of 10 of the 500 graduates questioned said ethics had become more important, while a similar proportion of the 100 business schools polled agreed that CSR needed to underpin the actions of organisations. Business schools were recognising this even before the credit crunch, points out Giselle Weybrecht, author of The Sustainable MBA: The Manager's Guide to Green Business, and a London Business School MBA graduate. "What has happened is that this has been pushed much more into the public eye, so a lot of business schools have been speeding up initiatives they have perhaps been thinking about for the past 10 years," she says. The increasing importance of these issues at board and executive level within many organisations has also led to growing demand for specialist CSR MBAs, says Wendy Chapple, deputy director of the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at Nottingham Business School, one of the first in the UK to offer such a qualification. But these remain quite specific qualifications. For more general MBAs, the important thing is simply to look at the emphasis given to sustainability and ethics as a whole. "We, for example, now have sustainability as a core module on our general MBA, so it is something everyone has to do," says Chapple. "We want managers who are able to reflect and look at the implications of their action or, just as importantly, their inaction." Nic Paton is author of The Complete Career Makeover, published by Guardian Books. To order a copy at £12.99 with free p&p, visit guardianbooks.co.uk Graduate careers Work & careers CSR MBAs Business and management studies guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (15 h ago)

• Childrenswear chain Adams falls back int... Childrenswear chain Adams falls back into administration
01/22/2010
Buyer being sought for clothing company to keep it running as a going concern Troubled childrenswear chain Adams has fallen into administration for the third time in as many years, putting more than 2,000 jobs at risk. Staff were told today that restructuring firms MCR and Gerald Edelman had been appointed as joint administrators to parent company JS Childrenswear and that a buyer was being sought for the company. "The company is trading as normal at present while all options are considered," said MCR partner Paul Clark, who added that suppliers had been going unpaid for some time. "We are now looking at the viability of the business with a view to securing a going-concern sale." The troubled retailer, which also supplies the Mini Mode range to Boots, has already been through several restructurings that have seen its store estate more than halve in size to 125 shops. Adams, which was founded in Birmingham in 1933 by Amy Adams, was once one of the UK's largest children's clothing chains and at its height had 271 stores and concessions trading under the Adams Kids name. However its recent history has been chequered. It was bought out of administration by Northern Ireland businessman John Shannon for the first time in February 2007 and he stepped in again when it hit trouble the following year. He sold it to Pakistani firm Habib Alvi Investments in September of last year and it has since been dogged by rumours of poor trading and late payments. "Like many retailers, Adams has experienced a difficult trading environment during the past 12 months which has been exacerbated by a further downturn and general tightening of the credit market," said Clark. Earlier today head office staff and area managers were being briefed as administrators sought their continued support, said Clark, who added: "We fully appreciate the difficult position in which the staff find themselves so soon after Christmas." The recession had picked off the weakest players in each retail subsector with independent chains like Adams struggling to compete with the might of Asda, Tesco and Primark who dominate the childrenswear market. Adams sells babywear, school uniforms and clothes for children aged between two and 10 years but increasingly parents are buying clothes online, while schoolwear has become a price battleground for the supermarkets. It tried to reposition itself with new-look stores and ranges but ultimately has struggled to compete with the might of its rivals. The collapse of Adams follows that of book store Borders, which went under last November taking 1,150 jobs with it, and First Quench group, operator of off-licence chains Threshers and Wine Rack, which employed nearly 6,300 people at the time of its October failure. Adams Retail industry Recession Zoe Wood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (19 h ago)

• Gordon Brown to push for 'Tobin tax' Gordon Brown to push for 'Tobin tax'
01/22/2010
PM believes US move indicates willingness in Washington to contemplate radical reform of markets Gordon Brown plans to exploit Barack Obama's surprise crackdown on Wall Street banks to step up Britain's campaign for a new global transaction tax on financial products. The prime minister believes the dramatic US move to curb risky activities by major US banks indicates a new-found willingness on the part of Washington to contemplate radical reform of markets. Amid signs that key opponents of a transaction tax in Obama's administration have been sidelined, Brown intends to use a series of meetings in the coming weeks and months to build international support for a "Tobin tax", which he floated at last autumn's G20 meeting. Lord Myners, the City minister, is to host a crucial mini-summit on Monday at which US officials will spell out the details of the Volcker plan – through which Obama intends to stop banks running hedge funds, private equity arms and taking bets on markets with customer deposits. Myners had called G7 members to the Downing Street talks before the White House stunned the financial world with Thursday's announcement, seen as the biggest Wall Street shakeup since the Glass Steagall reforms of the Great Depression. Publicly, Myners maintained today that the government was ahead of the US in its reform programme and that its plans for banks to create "living wills" so they could be broken up quickly if they collapsed had the same effect as Obama's. He said: "He's developing a solution to what he sees as the American issues. We've already taken the necessary action in the UK." Privately, however, government sources admitted that they been caught unawares by Obama's bombshell and were now reassessing whether Britain needed to go further. Fears in the City that the government would embrace Obama's line continued to rock shares, particularly those in Royal Bank of Scotland and Barclays. The FTSE 100 was down 33 points at 5303 while RBS, 84% owned by the taxpayer, recovered earlier losses to end at 32.29p. Barclays was down 11p at 256, another 4%. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones fell for a third day running, its biggest sustained fall since last June. Greg Gibbs, global strategist at RBS, blamed the uncertainty caused by Obama for the market upheaval. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evo Securities, said: "The banks can hardly complain – after the crisis of 2008 they needed to show humility and restraint, and have failed to do so spectacularly." Banking Gordon Brown Paul Myners Economic policy Barack Obama United States US economy London Stock Exchange Larry Elliott Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (20 h ago)

• Government pressured to bring in Obama-s... Government pressured to bring in Obama-style bank reforms
01/22/2010
• Opposition parties announce plans to follow US initiative • City minister defends existing proposals for regulation Opposition parties were piling pressure on the Treasury tonightto produce a new blueprint for the City as Whitehall scrambled to respond to Barack Obama's latest initiative designed to prevent a fresh financial crisis. As policymakers played for time, seeking clarification from the US administration on what the reforms would mean for UK banks, both Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives unveiled plans that would replicate US reforms. The City grappled with concerns about which banks might be most affected, with attention turning to Barclays and RBS. Analysts at Keefe Bruyette & Woods predicted that on the continent Credit Suisse, UBS and Deutsche Bank – also big employers in the City – would be hit. Anticipating that Obama's proposals will face a long and acrimonious passage through Congress, the Treasury believes it could take months before the final shape of the new US legislation is clear. Further uncertainty arose tonight as two more Democratic senators indicated that they would vote against the nomination of Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke for a second term in office, meaning his re-election is now in serious doubt. In the meantime, Alistair Darling is keen to work with Timothy Geithner, his US counterpart, on securing international co-operation on raising capital levels for banks and on "living wills", which are intended to stop banks needing bailouts if they collapse, before the election. Lord Turner, chairman of the Financial Services Authority, and Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England, both maintained a discreet silence today, leaving the City minister, Lord Myners, to defend the government's reform agenda. King will have to give his views at the Treasury select committee on Tuesday when he will be asked for clarity on his opinions on how to tackle banks that are "too big to fail". Turner has previously ruled out separating the risky investment banking arms from high street operations but instead suggested tougher capital requirements and enhanced regulation. Myners insisted that the US, in banning proprietary trading, hedge funds and private equity, was tackling a problem that did not apply to the UK. "President Obama came out with a solution to the idiosyncratic problems that he sees in the American banking system, which is around investment banking in particular," Myners said. But the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, said: "This is a welcome move by President Obama that accords very much with our thinking … [he] has created a lot of space for the rest of the world to come up with what I think would be a sensible system of international rules." The Lib Dems pointed out that they had been calling for "narrow" banking since the crisis began. The party's Treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, said: "Barack Obama understands that the bonus culture in the banking system has got entirely out of hand and must be curbed. The days of excessive risk-taking on the back of taxpayers' money must stop now." Europe, which has shown a stronger appetite for cracking down on banks in the wake of the crisis, reacted positively to the White House initiative, although analysts pointed out that France and Germany in particular would be unlikely to adopt the Obama package because of the structure of their banking systems. French and German banks tend to combine investment and retail banking to a greater extent than banks in the UK. French economy minister Christine Lagarde said it was a "very, very good step forward". A German finance ministry spokesman said: "We see the new proposals as a helpful suggestion for the continuing discussions on an international level. And we're obviously aiming to find a solution to the problem of the 'too big to fail' issue." What would Tories do? A Conservative government would emulate Barack Obama's crackdown on Wall Street banks, the shadow chancellor, George Osborne, has said. After the US president announced stringent rules for the banking sector, the Tories said they would seek to separate retail banking from investment banking at the "riskiest end" of the market but would seek international support rather than doing so unilaterally. Osborne said the Conservatives would not separate all retail banking from investment banking, adding: "We don't want to return to the crude Glass-Steagal separation of retail banking and investment banking. It's the riskiest end of investment banking, it's when they're taking risks with the bank's own money." He said Obama's announcement "creates a lot of space for the rest of the world to come up with what will be a sensible system of rules and agreements". The Treasury minister, Lord Myners, said differences between the British and US financial sectors meant Labour would not copy Obama and accused Osborne of "jumping on the bandwagon". The Tory leader, David Cameron, said banks should not be stopped from offering the opportunity to speculate. Allegra Stratton Banking Economic policy Barclays Royal Bank of Scotland Mervyn King Paul Myners Alistair Darling Hedge funds Larry Elliott Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (20 h ago)

• Striking BA cabin crew will lose perks Striking BA cabin crew will lose perks
01/22/2010
• BA says failed Christmas strike cost airline 'millions of pounds' • Poll of cabin crew shows strong support for industrial action British Airways has warned cabin crew that they will be stripped of travel benefits if they take part in a strike over staffing cuts. BA said that any employee who joined the walkout would no longer receive discounted or free fares. Many French and Spanish cabin crew rely on the BA travel scheme to commute to the airline's Gatwick and Heathrow bases and would be left out of pocket by the move, according to trade union sources. The Unite trade union, which is locked in an increasingly bitter dispute with BA, described the move as "shocking" and "another act of provocation". A BA spokeswoman confirmed that the airline has written to its 13,400 cabin crew ahead of a strike ballot that opens on Monday to warn that taking industrial action would see participating staff lose travel and pay benefits. The airline added that Unite appeared set on a lengthy strike despite having a 12-day Christmas walkout ruled unlawful by the high court last month. "As a responsible employer and in view of Unite's apparent wish for a lengthy strike, we have written to crew individually today to set out the consequences of different ballot outcomes," she said. Increasing the pressure on employees, the BA executive in charge of cabin crew, Bill Francis, has admitted in a letter to cabin crew that the failed Christmas walkout has cost the airline "millions of pounds" in lost revenue as passengers booked elsewhere. "We cannot go on like this. In December we saw what our customers and the wider public thought about a strike. Their patience is running out. It is time to be absolutely clear about what will happen if a strike takes place." Francis added that the standard of hotel that staff use when abroad would be reviewed and warned that anyone who called in sick during the strike would be assumed to have joined the industrial action. "History tells us that absence rises significantly during industrial action." Len McCluskey, assistant general secretary of Unite, said the warning on staff travel perks was an act of "pettiness". He added: "Whoever dreamt up this scheme is presumably trying to inflame the situation. Managers who are macho generally aren't macho. More talking and less posturing will resolve this dispute." The ballot of Unite's cabin crew branch, BASSA, will close on 22 February and the earliest possible date for strike action will be 1 March. However, Unite said this week that it will not strike during Easter after the high court ruling referred to the timing and duration of the planned Christmas walkout. However, an ongoing poll of BASSA members indicates strong support for a strike lasting longer than 10 days if, as expected, the 12,000 cabin crew affiliated to the union vote for a walkout. British Airways Travel & leisure Trade unions Employee benefits Dan Milmo guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (20 h ago)

• Nearly half of young black people out of... Nearly half of young black people out of work
01/22/2010
Rate compares with fifth of white young without job but it is society's unfairness, not racial bias, which is being blamed The recession has left almost one in two young black people without a job, appearing to contradict claims by the government that it would shield the most vulnerable from the effects of the downturn. The left-leaning Institute for Public Policy Research said 48% of black people aged 16 to 24 reported that they were out of work, compared with 20% of white people of the same age. Not only had the absolute level of unemployment risen for young black people, but as a group they suffered the sharpest leap in joblessness: black unemployment has jumped 13% since March 2008, compared with 8% among white people and 6% among Asians. The thinktank looked at data from the Labour Force Survey, a quarterly sample of about 60,000 households. Within that, the institute said it looked at the responses of 16- to 24-year-olds, a total of 7,200 people, in November 2009. The figures appear to fly in the face of assurances by ministers that class rather than race is a greater factor in holding people back and come at a time when there are concerns about rising poverty levels in a time of penury. However in an number of interviews with young black unemployed people many refused to accept that race discrimination was solely behind the joblessness – saying instead simply that "society was unfair". Godfrey Kingsley, a 17-year-old who has been unemployed since September, and is now on a programme run by Tomorrow's People, a charity helping the unemployed back into work, said: "I am not saying there is no racism but you cannot hold a grudge against the system. How many black people are selling cars in Jaguar showrooms or clothes in D&G? Not that many. "But the point is that you need to be the best and that means not accepting that mindset of 'it's because I am black'. My problem was that my college was closed down by Ofsted and the teachers were sacked. That left a hole in my cv. No fault of my own." The government defended measures it had taken to protect the most vulnerable of the population during the recession. Jim Knight, the employment minister, said the problem was partly that there were more young people in the ethnic minority population and the recession had "hit young people harder than most". Academics said the reasons for the rise in youth unemployment among black youths were manifold: underachievement in the classroom, a disadvantage when it came to friends and family connections helping them find jobs, and the disappearance of the traditional blue-collar jobs. "One in two young black people being unemployed is quite a shocking figure," said Steve Strand, associate professor at Warwick University's institute of education. "If you think that education is a gatekeeper to a future there are gaps between black and white performance. But that is not big enough to account for the differences in employment." Others point out that even in good times a third of young black people are out of a job, a "scarring effect" that meant there was a persistent loss of skills, and a longer and harder road back into the workforce. "What's of concern is that you have especially young Afro Caribbean people who are out of work for long periods of time," said Prof Richard Berthoud, of Essex University. "That means you have a group who are not so embedded in the workforce. So when the economy recovers and they try and find a job they continually have to answer employers who say 'what's wrong with you?'" The possibility that the recession could permanently damage prospects for young black people echoes the experience of African-Americans in the US, who have fared much worse than those in the white population during the recession. Data last month showed that among young black American men without a high-school diploma, nearly half did not have a job. Feature films such as Precious, which is released later this month in Britain and explores the grim but ultimately triumphant life in inner city New York of a young Afro American woman, have been criticised by some for sending out a negative message. However, Femi Oyeniran, the 23-year-old actor who made his name in the 2006 film Kidulthood and in its 2008 sequel, Adulthood, said that his movies had been criticised at the time for "casting black people in a negative light". He said: "But it was fiction not reality. The recession means that we have to look at a lot of factors and some of them are down to black people themselves." Race issues Recession Job hunting Randeep Ramesh guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (21 h ago)

• PartyGaming talks up Bwin merger odds PartyGaming talks up Bwin merger odds
01/22/2010
• Online poker group in discussion with sports betting rival Bwin • PartyGaming merger would deliver commanding position The online poker group PartyGaming is understood to be in talks with its Austrian sports betting rival Bwin about a merger that could be worth more than £2bn and give it some much-needed clout in internet sports betting. The two companies are believed to have been in discussions since last summer and there was intense speculation about a deal before Christmas . But after a press report on Bwin's interest, PartyGaming was forced to admit to negotiations. The company also said it was talking to other potential partners, pushing its shares up more than 6% to 285.5p on hopes of a bid battle. "The board of PartyGaming confirms that it is continuing to hold discussions with a number of companies in the gaming sector regarding potential consolidation opportunities," the firm said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. "As all such discussions remain at a preliminary stage, there can be no certainty as to whether or not such discussions will result in any form of transaction." The Austrian financial magazine Format quoted Hannes Androsch, Bwin's chairman and largest shareholder, as saying: "Talks are going on but we don't know yet whether they will succeed." PartyGaming, owner of the PartyPoker website, is keen to be involved in the consolidation of online gambling. Last July the company, which gets almost 80 million players a day, announced the takeover of Cashcade, owner of Foxy Bingo, for just under £100m. In November it snapped up the assets of WPT Enterprises, organiser of the World Poker Tour. Merging with Bwin would give PartyGaming a commanding position in sports betting. The Austrian company is not the only potential partner with which it is talking, although PartyGaming refused to name other potential partners. London-listed 888 Holdings and Sportingbet, and Sweden's Unibet, are all understood to be looking at consolidation opportunities. The acquisition of WPT, meanwhile, signalled PartyGaming's desire to return to the US, a market that has caused some real headaches for the firm in the past. Having shot into the FTSE 100 when it floated in 2005 at a value of £5bn, which netted its four founders almost £1bn, the company became embroiled in a fierce fight with the US authorities when they cracked down on online gambling. PartyGaming had to close its US operation and then last April it agreed a $105m (£71.3m) settlement with prosecutors there to reflect the proceeds of the internet gambling services it provided from 1997 to 2006, when PartyGaming offered internet gaming to US players, including real-money poker and casino gaming. The company admitted that even before the 2006 crackdown – which forced it to abandon the US market – some of its third-party activities had broken US law. Analysts noted a number of strategic and cost-saving benefits from a merger with another company. Numis Securities' analyst Wyn Ellis said consolidation was seen as largely inevitable in the young online gaming industry and there were savings to be had from combining technology and other operations. "Everybody has been talking to everybody," he said. He noted that a combination of PartyGaming and Bwin would give them the top slots in online casinos and bingo, the best sporting bets book and enhanced liquidity in poker. "The strategic logic is very strong … It fits together neatly," he added. Ellis said merger talk also reflected gaming companies' move into business-to-business projects where they provide products and services to third parties such as media companies wanting to launch gaming offshoots. That focus would only increase as more countries start to regulate and issue licences, which are likely to go to the big incumbents in those markets. Established firms can then use that position to raise business from newcomers. Talk of a Bwin tie-up for PartyGaming follows Thursday's announcement of a deal between Aim-listed gaming software firm Playtech and the Nasdaq-listed lottery operator Scientific Games in the US. PartyGaming Gambling Mergers and acquisitions US economy Richard Wray guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (21 h ago)

• Unite tells Cadbury investors to say no Unite tells Cadbury investors to say no
01/22/2010
• Takeover appears certain after rival bidder Hershey withdraws • Union voices concern over future for UK and Ireland workers The Unite union has written a letter to Cadbury's shareholders urging them to reject Kraft's £11.9bn offer for the confectionery firm. Investors have until 2 February to decide whether to accept the 850p cash-and-shares offer on the table from the American food conglomerate, which owns household brands including Philadelphia and Maxwell House. Announcing the deal on Tuesday, Cadbury's chairman, Roger Carr, conceded that there would be job losses and Unite argues that despite Kraft having boosted its original offer by 15%, the deal is "bad news" for workers and shareholders alike. It has also been criticised by the famous investor Warren Buffett , whose investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, is Kraft's biggest investor with a 9.4% stake, as a "bad deal". Unite's national officer, Jennie Formby, said: "We sincerely hope Cadbury shareholders will look before they leap into the takeover. Our huge fear is for the many thousands of workers in the UK and Ireland who depend on Cadbury for their livelihoods. They are devastated that the company and its values will change beyond recognition." The takeover now looks an inevitability after the only possible rival bidder, Hershey, withdrew. In a statement to the stock exchange, the company confirmed that it did not intend to make a bid but stressed that it reserved the right to get involved if Kraft's offer was unsuccessful or another bidder emerged. Neither possibility seems likely. Insiders said Hershey's decision followed a unanimous vote by the company's board of directors late on Wednesday. Kraft only needs the support of 50% of Cadbury's shareholders to win control. It is a figure that looks achievable as despite objections from British institutions such as Standard Life, 40% of its shareholders are American funds, which have no objections to owning Kraft stock. Some 20% are short-term investors such as hedge funds, which have indicated that they would accept 850p. Unite said it had been inundated with messages from smaller shareholders who were not in favour of the deal. "The City boys and hedge funds, who are only interested in turning a quick profit and care nothing for the people or communities of Cadbury, cannot be allowed carry the day," said Formby. The union, which is asking Kraft to promise not to close sites or erode terms and conditions on its watch, said it planned to lobby parliament to press for support from the government and MPs in its fight to protect Cadbury jobs and investment. Cadbury Kraft Warren Buffett Job losses Zoe Wood guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Alibaba.com has the magic touch Alibaba.com has the magic touch
01/22/2010
• 96% of 1.9 million US users of the site register as buyers only • In Britain 19% of traders have registered as buyers and sellers Britain's status as a leading trading nation is alive and well, according to David Wei, the boss of Alibaba.com, China's largest commercial online marketplace. While most businesses sign up with Alibaba to import cheap goods directly from Chinese factories – from electrical appliances, sheet metal and plastic mouldings to solar panels and oak flooring – a large and growing number of UK firms want to sell to China as much as they want to buy. While the debate rages over the damage done to Britain's industrial heartlands during the recession, Wei's message is that small and medium-sized businesses around the country rank among the most far-sighted in the world in their drive to trade. In a centuries old tradition, they want to sell to the Chinese everything from speciality chemicals to graphic design services, accountancy, engineered car parts and fragrant soap. David Wei, one of China's most prominent businessmen, says the distinction is crucial. "Most companies sign up on our website to buy cheap goods from China to support their own manufacturing. But the UK is no longer a manufacturing centre and so it doesn't need the raw materials or plastic parts sold on our site. It wants finished goods. And it wants to trade. The UK is one of the few countries that wants to buy and sell from other Chinese businesses. We love to see a country that is more involved in trading and sees the relationship on our site as two-way." Wei runs Alibaba.com from its base in Hangzhou, south of Shanghai. Far from being a pantomime joke, in the last 10 years Alibaba has become a $15bn (£9bn) internet trading platform the largest of its kind in China and widely seen as a gateway into the country by businesses in the West – an eBay for companies involved in international trade. "If you look at the US, we have 1.9 million users, but more than 96% of them register as buyers only. Compare that with the UK where 19% have registered as buyers and sellers," he says. Alibaba and its chairman Jack Ma recently sparked controversy in the US after he backed the Chinese government over its spat with Google. Ma, who sold shares worth $35m last September, is willing to comply with strict rules governing access to China's internet, while Google, smarting from complaints by customers alleging government-backed hacking of their accounts, has threatened to shut its operations. Some analysts believe Ma is happy to see Google shut to clear the way for a revival of Yahoo in China. He runs the Chinese arm after Yahoo sold it in 2005 as part of a deal to acquire a 40% stake in Alibaba. The row put him in conflict with Yahoo, which took sides with Google, but Ma appears unperturbed by disputes with his largest shareholder. His business is now one of the largest and most valuable in China. Ma's other main offshoot is taobao.com, a consumer auction site that dominates the market after eBay shut its China operation in 2006. Wei believes the financial crisis is behind a sharp rise in online trading. "Businesses wanted to cut costs and find new customers, so they use the online platform to get them through the worst of it and build new relationships." It recently noticed a big jump in demand for secondhand goods, especially from downmarket retailers in the US and Britain offering cheap products to poor families. They buy secondhand goods in bulk on Alibaba and trade them in their shops. During its 10 years, Alibaba has remained largely unknown to the British public, something the company wants to change. An advertising splurge last year followed the introduction of its AliPay facility to the UK, which attempts to rid its website of fraud (it already has more than 150 million users in China). The introduction of factory inspections next year is designed to go a stage further. "Factory inspections add to our overheads, but they are necessary to cut down on fraud. We can't eradicate fraud, but it will help. And the situation is not so bad. We de-listed 100 of our "gold" suppliers last year out of 90,000. Wei is aware that much of the unsolicited publicity around Alibaba has centred on the potential for fraud as sellers, often individual factory owners, disappear with buyers' cash without delivering any goods. EBay has suffered similar criticism. The new Alipay system creates an escrow account that holds cash until delivery is complete. It may seem cumbersome, but compared to obtaining a letter of credit from a local bank, it is cheaper and easier to arrange. Wei's praise for entrepreneurial Britain is tempered by his criticism of the UK's bigger companies and their slavish capitulation to the short term demands of investors. It is a timely comment, given the recent takeover of Cadbury for what is widely believed to be a bargain price. He said: "Older industries work for capital markets when capital markets should facilitate industry. You can tell something about a business when you look to see if the shareholder is number one or the customer. We are a business that is completely focused on the customer." He despairs of the influence held by hedge funds and other short term investors in western markets, especially the UK and US. "People ask me how long they should hold their shares and I tell them if you plan to hold them for three days, there is nothing I can do for you, but if you plan to hold them for three years then I will pay attention to what you say." Last year, Ma told a meeting of his shareholders to "go invest in other companies that put shareholders first," if they wanted quick returns. Ma said an internally "controversial" decision to sacrifice his company's profit margin was needed to save China's small-and-medium enterprises, which suffered a collapse in exports after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy in 2008 . Ma cut subscriber fees by 60% to sign up more SMEs. Fees have stayed low because most SMEs have benefited little from a credit boom driven by bank lending to larger Chinese firms. Ma told the same meeting that his goal was not to create "the most profitable company in China or the world," but to give China a global brand that will match the biggest in the US. "If Alibaba cannot become a Microsoft or Wal-Mart, I will regret it for the rest of my life." Playing safe Chinese women concerned about the safety of toys made in their own country have bypassed local shops and bought direct from Japanese retailers, according to Alibaba.com boss David Wei. The latest scandal involved Chinese manufacturers substituting lead with the more dangerous heavy metal cadmium in sparkling charm bracelets and shiny pendants. To avoid contamination, mothers have turned to Japan via Alibaba's taobao.com consumer auction site. Wei said the new middle class also wanted upmarket prams, cots and clothes, which is where the Japanese retailers clean up. Reputation is everything, he said. Chinese women keep up with the latest fashion trends by sourcing clothes directly from Italy and cosmetics by the tonne from Korea. "When Chinese shoppers cannot get what they want on their own high street, or they have a problem with Chinese products, they don't accept it, they use our site to find what they want. Skin care products from Korea are very popular. "Also, the one baby policy means parents want only the best for their child and that often means buying nursery equipment and baby products direct from Japan," he said. International Trade China Recession Global recession Phillip Inman guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Google sees advertising recovery Google sees advertising recovery
01/21/2010
Google has suggested that the advertising market is beginning to return to normal, after announcing profits of nearly $2bn for the last three months of what it called a "rollercoaster year". Announcing its latest quarterly financial results, the company said that it had received a substantial boost in the period from October to December 2009 - pushing profit for the quarter to $1.97bn. That figure came on the back of a 17% year on year growth in revenues, up to $6.67bn from $5.7bn during the same period in 2008. Led chief executive Eric Schmidt to make an optimistic assessment of the current state of affairs. "Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year," he said. "Our performance in 2009 underscored the strength of our management team, the resilience of our business model and the pace of innovation within our product and engineering teams, which continued unabated throughout the downturn." While profit was higher than Wall Street analysts had expected, however, there was disappointment that revenue growth was not higher - an example, perhaps, of Google suffering from the weight of expectation. "All of those things they report at a basic level were fine," Martin Pyykkonen, senior analyst at Janco Partners, told Reuters. "The reason the stock is down is that it wasn't a blowout. I think the stock will recover. I don't think it will fall through the floor." In Britain, one of Google's most important markets outside the US, revenues came to $772m - the same proportion of the company's income as it was this time a year ago . At that point, the internet giant was pushing through the deepest trough of the recession - cutting jobs and axing new projects. In a conference call with reporters and analysts, Google executives said that they were now investing heavily in the future, with substantial efforts in search, the social web, mobile phones and the company's suite of business offerings. Asked about the company's conflict with the Chinese government - which some have worried could end up with the company frozen out of the world's biggest new market - Schmidt remained relatively quiet. "In a reasonably short time we'll be making some changes there," he said, indicating that the company would press ahead with its threat to uncensor the Chinese version of its search engine in protest at attempts by local hackers to break into its systems. Shares in Google dropped 5% in after hours trading. Google Advertising Internet Eric Schmidt Bobbie Johnson guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (1 d ago)

• Cadbury takeover raises doubts over Kraf... Cadbury takeover raises doubts over Kraft's business ethics
01/20/2010
• Fairtrade Dairy Milk chocolate bars were launched in July 2009 • Campaigners see Kraft as being hostile to fair trade movement Kraft's proposed takeover of Cadbury has raised widespread fears that the US food group will abandon a landmark deal by the British confectioner to buy only Fairtrade cocoa beans for its Dairy Milk brand. The Fairtrade Foundation has begun urgent talks with Cadbury's executives to see if the company's agreement to buy all its cocoa beans for Dairy Milk direct from the foundation's farmer-led co-operatives will continue after the takeover. Jack McConnell, the former first minister of Scotland, tabled a motion in the Scottish parliament urging Kraft to honour the deal while at Westminster, the Labour MP Mark Lazarowicz put down a similar motion in the Commons. Kraft is widely seen amongst development campaigners as being hostile to the Fairtrade Foundation in particular after it criticised the movement for only dealing with "an extremely small number" of companies, claiming it was too small scale for its needs. Todd Stitzer, Cadbury's chief executive, appeared to bitterly criticise Kraft's business ethics at a fair trade retail conference last September when takeover hostilities were in their infancy. Without naming Kraft directly, he attacked the "unbridled" capitalism of large, heavily indebted firms, and urged shareholders to keep Cadbury's independent. He said "principled capitalism [was] woven into the very fabric" of his company. Without it "you risk destroying what makes Cadbury a great company," he said. Lazarowicz, a long-standing fair trade campaigner and MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, said: "It was a major breakthrough when Cadbury agreed to work with Fairtrade, and it would be a tragedy if that breakthrough was now to be set at nought." McConnell, who has close links with the development movement in Africa and was proposed in 2008 as high commissioner to Malawi, is to contact campaigners in the US to pressurise Kraft to honour the Cadbury deal and extend it to the US. "There have been concerns expressed for many years that Kraft has never shown any enthusiasm for fair trade and therefore this must be under threat as a result of the takeover," he said. "I've seen with my own eyes the very positive impact that fair trade has on individuals and communities across Africa." Cadbury's decision to rebrand all its Dairy Milk bars with the Fairtrade logo last year was seen at the time as the movement's biggest coup: it was the first mass market chocolate in the world to use Fairtrade cocoa, and brought the product into 30,000 UK stores. The foundation has since brokered major deals of supply Starbucks with coffee and cocoa beans for Nestlé's Kit-Kat bars, and believed Cadbury was ready to expand its range of Fairtrade-branded sweets. Cadbury's planned to expand the sale of Fairtrade Dairy Milk to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Kraft insists it supports the principle of sustainability after signing up with the Rainforest Alliance, which promotes conservation and fair business dealings with small growers, to supply some coffee beans for its Kenco and other brands. But Oxfam has accused Kraft of undermining attempts to treat small farmers fairly, defending the fairtrade scheme as "the only system that guarantees farmers a price that allows them a good return [whilst] at the same time working towards a sustainable future." A Fairtrade spokeswoman confirmed that the London-based foundation had made contact with Cadbury soon after Kraft's offer was accepted, to ensure that their contract would be honoured. "We've had a very productive relationship and this landmark switch has come about as a result of it; of course we would like it to continue, and at some point see further switches," she said. Cadbury's deal tripled the amount of fairly traded, higher value cocoa sold by Ghana to 15,000 tonnes. The foundation said after Kraft's offer was accepted by Cadbury's board that it believed the success of the deal "presents a unique and compelling case for continuing to pursue the Cadbury commitment to their Cocoa Partnership and to Fairtrade, and taking it further in coming months and years." Kraft Cadbury Fair trade Ethical business Severin Carrell guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Jobs data: Part-time working surges Jobs data: Part-time working surges
01/20/2010
• Claimant count drops 15,200 to 1.61 million • Government claims success in 'helping people through the recession' • Bank of England voted 9-0 to hold rates and QE A rapid growth in part-time jobs may prevent the jobless total rising above the 3 million mark after unemployment unexpectedly fell for the first time in 18 months in November. The Office for National Statistics said the broadest measure of unemployment fell by 7,000 to 2.458 million, the first quarterly decline since May 2008, leaving the jobless rate at 7.8%. The narrower measure of people claiming unemployment benefits dropped by more than expected in December, falling by 15,200 to 1.61 million, the biggest drop since early 2007. But the fall masked an increase in the number of people in the labour force who are neither working nor looking for work, with the inactivity total rising above 8 million for the first time since records began in 1971. The rise was largely driven by an increase of 81,000 in the number of students not looking for work. Full-time employment fell by 113,000 to 21.2 million, while part-time employment did not rise fast enough to compensate, increasing by 99,000 to 7.7 million. As has been the pattern for months, the figures are being driven by women finding part-time jobs while men, predominantly, are losing full-time ones. There was better news for the under-24s, who saw a fall in joblessness of 16,000 to 927,000, but that still left a fifth of young people out of work. Other figures showed the number of people out of work for more than a year jumped 29,000 on the quarter to 631,000, the highest level since late 1997, as companies continue to shed jobs in the teeth of the UK's worst recession since 1921. Today the power company E.ON announced the closure of a call centre in Essex with the loss of 600 jobs, while last week Bosch said it was closing its car parts factory near Cardiff, losing 900 workers. Unemployment continues to hit regions of Britain differently. The jobless rate rose again in the north-east, to 9.8%, closely followed by the West Midlands on 9.6%. By contrast, the east and south-east had the lowest rates of any region, at 6.3% and 6.2% respectively. The ONS also reported that wage growth slowed to the lowest on record at just 1.1% year-on-year, excluding volatile bonus payments in the three months to November. For November alone, private sector pay showed no growth at all from a year earlier. Colin Ellis, economist at Daiwa Capital Markets, was concerned that wage growth had slackened and that it could affect consumer spending this year. "The rise in unemployment during this recession has undoubtedly been smaller than expected, which should support consumer spending. But the flipside of a smaller-than-expected adjustment in labour market quantities has been greater adjustment in terms of prices, with earnings growth weakening markedly." John Wright, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, warned that many of the jobs created in the run-up to Christmas might not last long. "Many small firms, especially in the retail sector, will have taken on seasonal staff to help them through the busy Christmas period. However, small businesses need help to make these seasonal jobs into permanent jobs and the government must lend a helping hand if small firms are to really tackle the challenge of rising unemployment," Wright said. Separately, minutes of the latest meeting of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee showed all nine members voted in January to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.5% and to maintain its £200bn quantitative easing scheme. The MPC said signals were mixed but the economy appeared to be growing again, albeit weakly. It said large policy stimuli and a weaker sterling exchange rate were still the main supports for growth but noted powerful headwinds remained, as Bank governor Mervyn King had said in a speech on Tuesday Unemployment and employment statistics Recession Green shoots Economics Ashley Seager guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds (2 d ago)

• Stocks and Bonds: 3-Day Slide Sends Mark... Stocks and Bonds: 3-Day Slide Sends Markets Down About 5 Percent
01/22/2010
The main focus remained President Obama’s plan for tighter restrictions on the banks, but worries about Bernanke’s confirmation also played a role. (9 h ago)

• China Rebuffs Clinton on Internet Warnin... China Rebuffs Clinton on Internet Warning
01/22/2010
Denouncing a speech against Internet censorship by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, China showed it was ready to fight back on the issue. (9 h ago)

• Defending Their Dealerships Defending Their Dealerships
01/22/2010
Hundreds of General Motors and Chrysler dealers are fighting to get back their businesses through an arbitration process that will begin next week. (9 h ago)

• Korea Air Returns to Profit as Travel Pi... Korea Air Returns to Profit as Travel Picks Up in Asia
01/22/2010
Passenger and air freight numbers rallied in the Asia-Pacific region in December, and Korean Air returned to profit during the last quarter of 2009. (9 h ago)

• No Progress in Talks for Financing of Eu... No Progress in Talks for Financing of European Military Plane
01/22/2010
The seven countries who ordered the Airbus A400M transport plane failed again to agree on how to pay for cost overruns. (9 h ago)

• Google’s Sales Rose 17% in the Quarter, ... Google’s Sales Rose 17% in the Quarter, Fastest Pace in a Year
01/22/2010
The results topped Wall Street’s expectations. Revenue for the quarter was $6.67 billion, up from $5.7 billion a year earlier. (9 h ago)

• China First Heavy Announces Shanghai I.P... China First Heavy Announces Shanghai I.P.O.
01/22/2010
China First Heavy Industries, a maker of heavy machinery, said Friday it would start an initial public offer in Shanghai next week to raise at least 8.4 billion renminbi, or $1.23 billion. (9 h ago)

• Off the Charts: Debt Burden Now Rests Mo... Off the Charts: Debt Burden Now Rests More on U.S. Shoulders
01/22/2010
China lent an estimated 4.6 percent of the money the United States borrowed in 2009, down from 20.2 percent in 2008. (9 h ago)

• Asian Hotel Brands Make the Journey to E... Asian Hotel Brands Make the Journey to Europe
01/22/2010
With more Asian tourists traveling to Europe, Asian brands, which have a solid reputation in their own backyard, are hoping to capitalize on their name recognition. (9 h ago)

• Swiss Ruling Jeopardizes Deal for UBS Cl... Swiss Ruling Jeopardizes Deal for UBS Clients’ Names
01/22/2010
A Swiss court ruled that account details of a wealthy American may not be disclosed, despite an agreement between U.S. prosecutors and UBS. (9 h ago)

• Russian Oligarch’s Long Road to a Hong K... Russian Oligarch’s Long Road to a Hong Kong I.P.O.
01/22/2010
Oleg V. Deripaska pursued unusual sources of finance for his giant aluminum company, Rusal, which has nearly $15 billion in debt. (9 h ago)

• Supplier Accused of Bribes for U.N. Cont... Supplier Accused of Bribes for U.N. Contracts
01/22/2010
Federal prosecutors have accused Richard T. Bistrong of paying business bribes to get contracts to supply protective gear to United Nations peacekeeping forces. (9 h ago)

• Bernanke’s Bid for a Second Term at the ... Bernanke’s Bid for a Second Term at the Fed Hits Resistance
01/22/2010
Even if Ben S. Bernanke’s nomination is approved, the anxiety surrounding it shows how both parties are trying to understand anger toward the government and Wall Street. (10 h ago)

• Oracle’s Acquisition of Sun Wins Approva... Oracle’s Acquisition of Sun Wins Approval of Europeans
01/22/2010
The approval of China and Russia is still needed for Oracle to complete its takeover of Sun Microsystems. (15 h ago)

• Treasury Weighs Fixes to Foreclosures Pr... Treasury Weighs Fixes to Foreclosures Program
01/22/2010
The effort to revamp the Making Home Affordable program comes amid growing pressure to do less for banks and more for households. (1 d ago)

• G.M. Starts Revamp in Europe by Closing ... G.M. Starts Revamp in Europe by Closing an Opel Plant
01/21/2010
The Antwerp factory employs about 2,600 workers and produced nearly 89,000 Astra compact cars in 2009. (1 d ago)

• Out of Bankruptcy, Genetics Company Drop... Out of Bankruptcy, Genetics Company Drops Drug Efforts
01/21/2010
The Icelandic gene-hunting company said it would continue its research and its gene-based diagnostics as a private company and would abandon efforts to develop drugs. (1 d ago)

• Strong Year for Goldman, as It Trims Bon... Strong Year for Goldman, as It Trims Bonus Pool
01/21/2010
Goldman Sachs reported strong earnings on Thursday, but the bank reduced the share of revenue going to bonuses. (1 d ago)

• Music Industry Counts the Cost of Piracy Music Industry Counts the Cost of Piracy
01/21/2010
Sales of digital music rose 12 percent worldwide last year, but that growth was insufficient to compensate for plunging revenue from compact discs. (1 d ago)

• Swedish Bank Fee Sets Example for Americ... Swedish Bank Fee Sets Example for America
01/21/2010
Sweden has enacted a direct tax on banks to pay for their own bailouts, similar to President Obama’s proposal aimed at recovering bailout money. (1 d ago)

• Video: Obama: I Will Not Stop Fighting Video: Obama: I Will Not Stop Fighting
01/22/2010
Facing mounting opposition, President Obama has emerged with a bolder and more defiant tone while addressing the issue of high unemployment during a trip to Ohio. Chip Reid reports. (14 h ago)

• Newspaper Group Files for Bankruptcy Newspaper Group Files for Bankruptcy
01/22/2010
Affiliated Media, Owner of Denver Post, San Jose Mercury News and 52 Other Newspapers, Files for Chapter 11 (16 h ago)

• Wall St. Ends Bad Week With Steeper Slid... Wall St. Ends Bad Week With Steeper Slide
01/22/2010
Dow Loses 217 Points Friday, 430 Points for Week; Obama's Proposed Financial Regulations Still Spook Market (16 h ago)

• Bernanke Faces More Senate Opposition Bernanke Faces More Senate Opposition
01/22/2010
White House Expects Federal Reserve Chairman to Get Enough Support for Second Term, In Spite of Growing Opposition (18 h ago)

• McDonald's Sales Rise in Economic Downtu... McDonald's Sales Rise in Economic Downturn
01/22/2010
Fast Food Giant Earns $1.22 Billion in Last Quarter of 2009 (23 h ago)

• GE Sees Hope in 2010 Despite 4Q Losses GE Sees Hope in 2010 Despite 4Q Losses
01/22/2010
Net Income Fell 19 Percent to Close 2009, but Drop Was Smaller Than Previous Quarters (23 h ago)

• Video: Corporate Campaign Ads Video: Corporate Campaign Ads
01/21/2010
A divided Supreme Court ruled the ban on corporate spending for campaign ads violated the right to free speech. The ruling demolished the foundation of campaign finance laws. Jan Crawford reports. (1 d ago)

• Video: Big New Laws For Big Banks Video: Big New Laws For Big Banks
01/21/2010
Vowing that the American people will never be "held hostage" by a bank too big to fail, President Obama announced sweeping new regulations for Wall Street. Anthony Mason reports. (1 d ago)

• Video: Is Salt Deadly? Video: Is Salt Deadly?
01/21/2010
A new study says that there would be 92,000 fewer deaths a year if American cut out just three grams of salt each day. Dr. Jon LaPook explains why. (1 d ago)

• Obama Calls for Tougher Bank Regulation Obama Calls for Tougher Bank Regulation
01/21/2010
President Wants to "Rein in Excess and Abuse" and Limit Big Banks' Ability to Engage in High-risk Trades; Stocks Plummet (1 d ago)

• Gas Pedal Glitch Prompts Toyota Recall Gas Pedal Glitch Prompts Toyota Recall
01/21/2010
Toyota Recalls 2.3 Million U.S. Vehicles to Fix Sticking Accelerator Pedals (1 d ago)

• Wall Street Slides on Obama Banks Plan Wall Street Slides on Obama Banks Plan
01/21/2010
Dow Jones Plummets 213 Points as President Pushes for Tighter Banking Rules (1 d ago)

• Video: Obama "Ready To Fight" Banks Video: Obama "Ready To Fight" Banks
01/21/2010
President Obama took a bold stand against financial institutions by announcing new measures to curb their risky activities. (1 d ago)

• Indicators Suggest Spring Economic Growt... Indicators Suggest Spring Economic Growth
01/21/2010
Research Group Reports Forecast of Future Economic Activity Jumped 1.1 Percent in December (1 d ago)

• Goldman Sachs Earns $4.79B in 4th Quarte... Goldman Sachs Earns $4.79B in 4th Quarter
01/21/2010
Aggressive Trading, Reduction in Employee Compensation Fuels Nation's Most Stable Bank (1 d ago)

• New Jobless Claims Up Unexpectedly to 48... New Jobless Claims Up Unexpectedly to 482K
01/21/2010
Job Market Recovery Slow, Uneven; Total Unemployment Rolls also Increase Sharply (2 d ago)

• Buffett Won't Sell Stake in Kraft Buffett Won't Sell Stake in Kraft
01/20/2010
Oracle of Omaha Continues to Disapprove of Kraft's Acquisition of Cadbury, Doesn't Plan to Sell Kraft Stock (2 d ago)

• NYT to Charge for Full Online Access NYT to Charge for Full Online Access
01/20/2010
Effort to Draw More Revenue Online Will Allow a Limited Number of Free Articles Starting in 2011 (2 d ago)

• BofA Loses $5.2B as it Repays Bailout BofA Loses $5.2B as it Repays Bailout
01/20/2010
4Q Loss Also Impacted by Consumers' Struggle to Make Mortgage and Credit Card Payments (3 d ago)

• Report: AIG to Sell Unit to MetLife Report: AIG to Sell Unit to MetLife
01/20/2010
Bailed-Out Insurance Company in Talks Over Sale of One of Its Largest Insurance Assets Alico (3 d ago)

• With Kindle, the Best Sellers Don’t Need... With Kindle, the Best Sellers Don’t Need to Sell
01/23/2010
Here’s a riddle: How do you make your book a best seller on the Kindle? Answer: Give copies away. (5 h ago)

• Leno to Speak at the White House Corresp... Leno to Speak at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
01/22/2010
Jay Leno was announced Friday as the choice to be the keynote speaker for the White House Correspondents’ dinner in May. (8 h ago)

• Chief of Hollywood Trade Group to Step D... Chief of Hollywood Trade Group to Step Down
01/22/2010
Dan Glickman is to become president of the relief organization, Refugees International. (9 h ago)

• The TV Watch: Where’s Johnny? Good Manne... The TV Watch: Where’s Johnny? Good Manners Take Hiatus
01/22/2010
Viewers of the Leno-O’Brien fracas witnessed an explosion of incivility burning through the late-night bonhomie. (20 h ago)

• Fingers Still Pointing, NBC and O’Brien ... Fingers Still Pointing, NBC and O’Brien Reach a Deal
01/22/2010
Conan O’Brien is expected to receive about $32 million and be able to return to television by September, though NBC is claiming to own some of the show’s comedy bits. (20 h ago)

• Apple Courts Publishers, While Kindle Ad... Apple Courts Publishers, While Kindle Adds Apps
01/22/2010
A tablet computer from Apple could threaten Amazon’s Kindle, but the Kindle, which now accounts for 70 percent of electronic reader sales, is getting more versatile. (20 h ago)

• Advertising: Campaigns Walk the Invisibl... Advertising: Campaigns Walk the Invisible Tightrope
01/22/2010
Some marketers are being upbeat and sometimes combative, while tempering optimism by staying away from Pollyannaish claims. (23 h ago)

• Food Network and HGTV Back Aboard Cablev... Food Network and HGTV Back Aboard Cablevision
01/22/2010
Cablevision and Scripps Networks settle a long-running dispute over fees, returning two popular channels to three million subscribers. (23 h ago)

• Naming Leaders, a Nonprofit News Outlet ... Naming Leaders, a Nonprofit News Outlet Takes Shape in San Francisco
01/22/2010
The Bay Area News Project named Jonathan Weber, a co-founder of The Industry Standard, as its editor in chief, and Lisa Frazier, from McKinsey, as its chief executive. (1 d ago)

• Air America, the Talk Radio Network, Wil... Air America, the Talk Radio Network, Will Go Off the Air
01/22/2010
With too few advertisers, the progressive network plans to seek bankruptcy protection after years of financial struggles. (1 d ago)

• Steven Lovelady, Editor With a Deft Touc... Steven Lovelady, Editor With a Deft Touch, Dies at 66
01/21/2010
Mr. Lovelady was a respected editor with a deft touch who played a significant role in award-winning journalism at The Philadelphia Inquirer and magazines owned by Time Inc. (1 d ago)

• The Times to Charge for Frequent Access ... The Times to Charge for Frequent Access to Its Web Site
01/21/2010
Starting in early 2011, nonsubscribers who visit NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for access. (1 d ago)

• YouTube Takes a Small Step Into the Film... YouTube Takes a Small Step Into the Film Rental Market
01/20/2010
The video site’s venture will focus, at least initially, on providing an outlet for independent movie makers. (2 d ago)

• Advertising: For Super Bowl XLIV Adverti... Advertising: For Super Bowl XLIV Advertisers, Synergy Is the Name of the Game
01/20/2010
The ad during the big game now must be supplemented with repeats on YouTube and promotions with sites like Twitter and Facebook. (2 d ago)

• Q.&A. on NYTimes.com Q.&A. on NYTimes.com
01/20/2010
While many details are incomplete, subscribers will continue to have free access to the Web site under the newspaper’s subscription plan. (2 d ago)

• Front Row: Fashion Takes a Lie-Down Front Row: Fashion Takes a Lie-Down
01/20/2010
As the new spring fashion advertisements begin circulating in earnest this month, you may be tempted to ask when it became O.K. for models to lie down on the job. (2 d ago)

• Bernanke future in doubt as Dems defect Bernanke future in doubt as Dems defect
01/22/2010
Fed chief Ben Bernanke's confirmation for a second term received another body blow when a few key Democrats said they would be opposed to letting him continue to steer the economy. (15 h ago)

• Combative Obama pushes job creation bill Combative Obama pushes job creation bill
01/22/2010
A combative President Obama exhorted Congress Friday to pass a new job-creation bill with tax breaks for small business hiring and people making their homes more energy efficient. (15 h ago)

• Obama's bank pushback sends stocks lower Obama's bank pushback sends stocks lower
01/22/2010
The stock market suffered its worst setback in more than 10 months as investors rejected President Obama's plans to restrict big banks and earnings reports that just weren't good enough. (16 h ago)

• Ford, rivals betting small is beautiful Ford, rivals betting small is beautiful
01/22/2010
Higher fuel prices and the drive to save on production costs have automakers lining up a slew of compact models. But are Americans interested in small cars or do they just want more fuel-efficient SUVs. (17 h ago)

• NBC faces long road back after O'Brien d... NBC faces long road back after O'Brien drama
01/22/2010
NBC may have put a public relations nightmare behind it with the departure of "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien, but the network faces a costly road to revive its sagging fortunes. (17 h ago)

• Hershey: No plan now for Cadbury bid Hershey: No plan now for Cadbury bid
01/22/2010
The Hershey Co. on Friday conceded the race to acquire British candy maker Cadbury, opting for a slower road to international expansion but also possibly a tougher battle for shelf space. (18 h ago)

• Banks banking on online financial tools Banks banking on online financial tools
01/22/2010
Banks are scrambling to beef up their Web sites by adding pie charts, budget calculators and other gizmos designed to help people manage their money. (18 h ago)

• Unemployment rises in 43 states in Decem... Unemployment rises in 43 states in December
01/22/2010
Unemployment rates rose in 43 states last month, the government said Friday, painting a bleak picture of the job market and illustrating nationwide data released two weeks ago. (19 h ago)

• Burger King: Want a beer with those frie... Burger King: Want a beer with those fries?
01/22/2010
Burger King is opening a restaurant in Miami Beach that will serve beer along with burgers and fries, the chain's first U.S. location with alcohol. (20 h ago)

• Exec admits affair with billboard woman Exec admits affair with billboard woman
01/22/2010
A co-president of software maker Oracle acknowledges he had an affair with a woman he was shown snuggling with on billboards in New York, Atlanta and San Francisco. (20 h ago)

• 12 tips for business success 12 tips for business success
01/22/2010
These 12 attributes put you in the right mindset and give you an edge over the competition. (22 h ago)

• Ruling could give companies even more cl... Ruling could give companies even more clout
01/22/2010
The Supreme Court's decision to remove campaign finance restrictions on corporations means a tsunami of company cash is likely to flood through the political system. (22 h ago)

• New technology makes business cards pass... New technology makes business cards passé
01/22/2010
Paper business cards are becoming passe as new digital networking tools emerge. (23 h ago)

• Investor optimism at highest in two year... Investor optimism at highest in two years
01/22/2010
More U.S. investors believe the stock market is poised to rise in the year ahead than any time in the past two years, a survey showed on Friday. (1 d ago)

• Senate OKs tax break for Haiti gifts Senate OKs tax break for Haiti gifts
01/21/2010
Taxpayers will be able to write off charitable donations to Haiti quake relief efforts when they file their 2009 taxes, under a bill that received final congressional approval. (1 d ago)

• Newsweek: Is taxing big banks unconstitu... Newsweek: Is taxing big banks unconstitutional?
01/20/2010
Let's see if this makes sense. The Fed deciding unilaterally to assume hundreds of billions of dollars of financial companies' liabilities: That's totally constitutional. Congress passing a law suggesting that a portion of the industry pay a fee for running huge balance sheets: That's unconstitutional. (2 d ago)

• GE profit falls; CEO strikes optimistic ... GE profit falls; CEO strikes optimistic tone
01/22/2010
General Electric Co.'s fourth-quarter net income fell 19 percent, hurt by lower profits on products like jet engines and continuing troubles in commercial real estate lending. General Electric - Business - Jet engine - Commercial property - Real estate (1 d ago)

• Red Tape: The how, and why, of switching... Red Tape: The how, and why, of switching banks
01/22/2010
Business - Supplies - Tape and Strapping - Tape drive - Entertainment (1 d ago)

• Supreme Court rolls back campaign cash l... Supreme Court rolls back campaign cash limits
01/21/2010
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress, easing decades-old limits on business efforts to influence federal campaigns. Supreme Court of the United States - Supreme Court - United States Congress - United States - Politics (1 d ago)

• Goldman Sachs 2009 pay up, profit soars Goldman Sachs 2009 pay up, profit soars
01/21/2010
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. dished out 47 percent more in pay and bonuses to its employees in 2009 versus the previous year. Business - Goldman Sachs - Financial services - Banking Services - Banks and Institutions (1 d ago)

• YouTube getting into movie rental busine... YouTube getting into movie rental business
01/20/2010
YouTube is making its debut as a rental outlet Friday to help promote some of the movies that will be shown at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival. Sundance Film Festival - Movies - Arts - YouTube - Film Festivals (2 d ago)

• Starbucks’ first-quarter profit beats fo... Starbucks’ first-quarter profit beats forecast
01/20/2010
Starbucks Corp. says people spent more money in its stores during its fiscal first quarter, and its profit more than tripled. Starbucks - Business - Retail Trade - Retailers - Coffee (2 d ago)

• Gen Re settles AIG fraud claims for $92.... Gen Re settles AIG fraud claims for $92.2M
01/20/2010
The insurer General Re Corp. has agreed to pay $92.2 million to settle charges by federal authorities' and shareholder claims over its alleged role in accounting misconduct schemes. American International Group - Fraud - General Re - Business - Insurance (2 d ago)

• Sponsored By: Sponsored By:
01/20/2010
(2 d ago)

• New York Times to charge for articles on... New York Times to charge for articles online
01/20/2010
The New York Times says it will charge readers for full access to its Web site starting in 2011. New York Times - World Wide Web - New York - United States - Business and Economy (2 d ago)

• Asian markets fall after Obama bank plan Asian markets fall after Obama bank plan
01/22/2010
Asian stock markets tumbled Friday after President Barack Obama proposed a sweeping overhaul of Wall Street banks to avert future financial crises. Barack Obama - Wall Street - Stock market - United States - Business (1 d ago)

• Sponsored By: Sponsored By:
01/21/2010
(1 d ago)

• China declares crisis past, inflation a ... China declares crisis past, inflation a concern
01/21/2010
China declared it is over the global crisis and signaled a shift in focus to controlling inflation, sparking concern it could hamper growth and the country's contribution to a worldwide rebound. China - Inflation - Asia - Economic - Business and Economy (1 d ago)

• Lenders threaten to auction Olympics sit... Lenders threaten to auction Olympics site
01/20/2010
The Whistler ski resort, home to next month's Olympic downhill, could be auctioned off in the middle of the games after creditors moved to auction off the assets of Intrawest LLC. Intrawest - Ski resort - sport - Auction - Olympics (2 d ago)

• Iran to cut zeros off currency to fight ... Iran to cut zeros off currency to fight inflation
01/20/2010
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his government is planning to cut zeros from its currency in an apparent effort to fight Iran's double-digit inflation. Iran - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Middle East - Inflation - Education (2 d ago)

• Belgian breweries tapped out over protes... Belgian breweries tapped out over protests
01/20/2010
The world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, shut down production in its home country Wednesday, in an escalation of a standoff over job cuts with its Belgian workers. AnheuserBusch - Belgium - InBev - Brewery - Beer (2 d ago)

• Buffett sour on Kraft's candy deal Buffett sour on Kraft's candy deal
01/20/2010
Warren Buffett said Kraft Foods Inc.'s proposed $19.6 billion acquisition of Cadbury Plc is a "bad deal" and questioned how Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld chose to pay for it. Kraft Foods - Warren Buffett - Irene Rosenfeld - Cadbury plc - Business (3 d ago)

• India outsourcers booming with U.S. cont... India outsourcers booming with U.S. contracts
01/20/2010
India's top three outsourcing companies are ramping up hiring and increasing pay as global corporations, mainly from the U.S., send more work offshore to cut costs. Outsourcing - Business - United States - Corporation - India (3 d ago)

• Asia the prize, not JAL, in Delta-Americ... Asia the prize, not JAL, in Delta-American fight
01/20/2010
Japan Airlines isn't the real prize in the fight between Delta Air Lines and American Airlines over who gets to partner with the troubled carrier. Japan Airlines - American Airlines - Delta Air Lines - JAL - Airline (3 d ago)

• Productivity gap between U.S., Europe wi... Productivity gap between U.S., Europe widens
01/20/2010
The gap in productivity growth between the United States and Europe widened sharply as U.S. businesses were more aggressive in laying off workers. Business - Gap year - United States - Education - United States and Europe (3 d ago)

• GE loses Peacock pride GE loses Peacock pride
01/23/2010
General Electric boss Jeff Immelt is probably glad NBC Universal could soon be someone else's problem. The entertainment giant was again the outlier within the giant company, posting a 28 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit at a time when most of GE's other businesses were on an upswing... (7 h ago)

• Tishman's teetering Tishman's teetering
01/23/2010
One of New York's biggest apartment complexes could slip from real-estate mogul Jerry Speyer's grasp. A disgruntled lender for Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village is trying to have Tishman Speyer canned as manager of the 80-acre complex after the real-estate developer -- which co-owns StuyTown -- defaulted on its... (7 h ago)

• Bernanke likely to survive close vote Bernanke likely to survive close vote
01/23/2010
You can breathe easy, Ben. One of the chief architects of rescue efforts during the financial crisis, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke is looking at one of the closest confirmation votes in history. As the Jan. 31 deadline for his confirmation looms, a growing number of senators from both... (7 h ago)

• Geithner on the outs with Obama Geithner on the outs with Obama
01/23/2010
Call him "Tiny" Tim. As President Obama turns up the heat on Wall Street, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner appears to have a diminished role in shaping policies pertaining to the financial sector amid talk that he has reservations about the tack that the White House is taking to try to... (7 h ago)

• Business briefs Business briefs
01/23/2010
Gorman gets James Gorman, who became Morgan Stan ley's CEO at the start of this year, was awarded deferred stock grants valued at about $8.6 million for his perform ance last year, when the shares rose 85 per cent even as profit lagged peers.McD earns McDonald's... (7 h ago)

• Helmsley brokerage shut Helmsley brokerage shut
01/23/2010
The brokerage arm of Helmsley Spear, the real estate business founded by the late Harry Helmsley, has been shuttered by Kent Swig, who will buy investment properties using the venerable name. The firm's dozen brokers and various staffers were given the bad news yesterday morning by Swig, a real... (7 h ago)

• UBS client wins data release case UBS client wins data release case
01/23/2010
A client of Swiss bank UBS won an appeal to prevent her account data from being given to the United States as part of a US probe into possible tax evasion among wealthy bank customers. The case raises doubt about the future of the effort to identify US citizens who... (7 h ago)

• Google guys to sell stock Google guys to sell stock
01/23/2010
SAN FRANCISCO -- Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each plan to sell 5 million shares of their company stock periodically during the next five years, according to regulatory documents filed yesterday. At current prices, 5 million shares of Google stock would fetch $2.75 billion. After the divestitures... (7 h ago)

• Judge: Butler to serve 5 years Judge: Butler to serve 5 years
01/23/2010
Government prosecutors finally scored their first lockup tied to the financial meltdown yesterday. Eric Butler, an ex-Credit Suisse broker, was sentenced to five years in prison and fined $5 million for duping investors into buying bonds backed by junk mortgages. The 38-year-old was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy to... (7 h ago)

• Marts in 2-day rout; banks tank Marts in 2-day rout; banks tank
01/23/2010
US stocks sank, capping the market's biggest three-day tumble since March, as financial shares slumped on President Barack Obama's plan to rein in banks and results at Google disappointed investors. Bank of America led the S&P 500 Financials Index to a 3.3 percent drop as uncertainty... (7 h ago)

• Wealth Matters: At Bonus Time, Less Appe... Wealth Matters: At Bonus Time, Less Appetite for Toys
01/22/2010
Recipients of bonuses, whether in cash or stock, are focused on their current needs, safe investments and managing for uncertainty. (9 h ago)

• Patient Money: Dealing With the Financia... Patient Money: Dealing With the Financial Burden of Autism
01/22/2010
Medical costs for an autistic child can run as much as $72,000 a year and insurance does not cover many treatments. (9 h ago)

• Your Money: Free Checking Could Go the W... Your Money: Free Checking Could Go the Way of Free Toasters
01/22/2010
Overdraft fees had helped to subsidize free checking, but as those fees begin to fall, free checking may disappear. (10 h ago)

• Would You Pay for a Checking Account? Would You Pay for a Checking Account?
01/22/2010
Comments on this week's Your Money column, about whether banks will start charging for checking accounts and whether we should all be paying. (20 h ago)

• A Guide to the New Good Faith Estimate A Guide to the New Good Faith Estimate
01/22/2010
Shopping for a mortgage is less confusing, thanks to a newly designed Good Faith Estimate. (21 h ago)

• Friday Reading Friday Reading
01/22/2010
The planned revamp of the Making Home Affordable program, free GPS navigation software for your smartphone and other consumer-focused items from Friday's Times. (23 h ago)

• Donations to Haiti May Be Deductible on ... Donations to Haiti May Be Deductible on 2009 Returns
01/22/2010
If you've made a charitable contribution to help Haiti, you may be able to claim a deduction on your 2009 tax return. (23 h ago)

• Annual Poll of Freshmen Shows Effect of ... Annual Poll of Freshmen Shows Effect of Recession
01/22/2010
The recession hit this year’s college freshmen hard, affecting how they chose a school as well as their ability to pay for it, according to an annual nationwide survey. (23 h ago)

• Banks See a Leveling Off in Bad Consumer... Banks See a Leveling Off in Bad Consumer Loans
01/20/2010
The number of loans turning sour remains extraordinarily high, and any new hit to the fragile recovery could reverse the trend. (2 d ago)

• Obama Pressing for Protections Against L... Obama Pressing for Protections Against Lenders
01/20/2010
Despite the president’s influence, Democrats may drop a consumer protection agency from the financial bill. (3 d ago)

• A push to clarify ink cartridge labels A push to clarify ink cartridge labels
01/22/2010
The National Conference for Weights and Measures will soon kick off, and attendees will consider how to make the cost of ink more transparent to consumers. Ashley Milne-Tyte reports. (21 h ago)

• What prices really mean What prices really mean
01/22/2010
Pricing mechanisms for virtually everything in our economy are tilted in favor of sellers. William Poundstone, author of "Priceless," talks with Kai Ryssdal about why we pay what we pay for items. (21 h ago)

• Taco Bell: A gateway to acceptance Taco Bell: A gateway to acceptance
01/22/2010
Many foodies may not think too highly of Taco Bell. But commentator Gustavo Arellano says with the recent death of the fast-food chain's creator, it's time to praise the fruits of his creation. (21 h ago)

• Weekly Wrap: Obama's bank plans Weekly Wrap: Obama's bank plans
01/22/2010
Clusterstock's John Carney and Reuters blogger Felix Salmon talk with Kai Ryssdal about whether President Obama's plans to limit the size and risks of Wall Street banks will work. (21 h ago)

• GSK to fund film on emotional eating GSK to fund film on emotional eating
01/22/2010
Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline plans to fund a documentary about the hazards of mindless eating. Gregory Warner reports. (21 h ago)

• Ruling opens up political ad frontier Ruling opens up political ad frontier
01/22/2010
In the wake of the Supreme Court's decision on campaign financing, the companies who will turn corporate and union money into political ads look to win big. Mitchell Hartman reports. (21 h ago)

• What another recall means for Toyota What another recall means for Toyota
01/22/2010
Toyota has issued another recall to fix faulty accelerator pedals. What are Toyota drivers supposed to do? Alisa Roth reports. (21 h ago)

• Insurers look to find new markets Insurers look to find new markets
01/22/2010
With the health care overhaul bill stuck in Congress, insurance companies are grappling with nearly 30 million potential new customers disappearing. Now it's back to square one in a tough econmy. Nancy Marshall Genzer reports. (21 h ago)

• Goldman Sachs calls in the sniffer dogs Goldman Sachs calls in the sniffer dogs
01/22/2010
Relations between the banks, the US Government and the public are now in new and dangerous territory with the New York Post reporting that Goldman Sachs used police barricades and called in bomb-sniffing dogs when it announced its record $4.95 billion earnings result. So while the rest of America is struggling, Goldman Sachs continues to rake it in. And in a nice bit of public relations manipulation, Goldman Sachs departed from the industry's practice of ear-marking half its revenues for compensation and actually subtracted ... (10 h ago)

• Pressure on the Washington-Beijing axis Pressure on the Washington-Beijing axis
01/22/2010
Are we looking at the emergence of a trade war between the US and China? One that will tip the world into a double dip recession?Links between the United States and China are now coming under more pressure with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton lambasting China lambasting China over Internet censorship following Google's clash with China."The internet has already been a source of tremendous progress in China, and it is fabulous. There are so many people in China now online. But countries that restrict ... (11 h ago)

• The Supremes suck up to big business The Supremes suck up to big business
01/21/2010
Just when the Democrats thought it couldn't get any worse. The spirit of George W lives on!! Soon US taxpayers will hear more from big banks and pharmaceutical companies about their preferred candidates for office with the extraordinary decision of the US Supreme Court allowing corporations and unions to run commercials for and against candidates. The ruling will have an impact on the 2010 elections.Until this week, corporations and unions were prohibited from getting directly involved in elections. The question is whether we're going ... (1 d ago)

• God in their sights God in their sights
01/21/2010
Does Afghanistan amount to a US crusade or holy war? That would be the implication behind the involvement of US defence contractor Trijicon in that part of the world.We have already had reports that the Michigan company had inscribed references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ on high powered rifle sights. References include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as "the light of the world."The company has claimed it is not breaking the law, despite US ... (1 d ago)

• Warning signs from China Warning signs from China
01/21/2010
Another set of red flags from China, warning signs that the Chinese economy is overheating with it returning to double digit growth in the fourth quarter, with a jump of 10.7% year-on-year. The big worry is that a lot of this includes speculation in the stock market and property. The best solution to stimulate consumer spending. Now, while the consumer spending stats in China are up, a lot of that includes government consumption. We just don't know how much consumer demand there is out ... (2 d ago)

• "Risky rich" debt crisis "Risky rich" debt crisis
01/21/2010
We have seen the fallout from the debt crisis in Dubai and Greece. But are these events a harbinger of what could happen in the United States and Japan?Dr Doom, economist Nouriel Roubini warns there is a big risk that this will happen, particularly if the Democrats lose in the mid-term elections this November and after Massachusetts, that's looking likely. If that happens, there will be no tax rises and spending cuts will be put on hold. The only other solution is the last ... (2 d ago)

• Corruption fuels Taliban support Corruption fuels Taliban support
01/20/2010
President Barack Obama says the US withdrawal from Afghanistan could begin as early as July 2011, provided the Afghanistan security forces are ready, but you can bet the rest of the country won't be.The place is totally corrupt and a United Nations report says the corruption is creating support for the Taliban.According to the report, one Afghan out of two has had pay a kickback to a government official. Afghans paid out $2.5 billion in bribes, the equivalent of 23% of that country's GDP ... (3 d ago)

• Why Google is failing in China Why Google is failing in China
01/20/2010
Much has been made about Google threatening to leave China, saying it will not tolerate censorship anymore and disclosing a sophisticated cyberattack on the e-mail accounts of advocates of human rights over there. It's a Mexican stand off with the Chinese government saying of foreign internet firms are welcome to do business there "according to the law". The US government has entered the dispute, saying it wants China to fully investigate the hacker attacks.It's created a difficult situation and Google has effectively painted itself ... (3 d ago)

• In world of wine, accidents can be good In world of wine, accidents can be good
01/22/2010
Accidents happen, the people at the Accidental Wine Company like to say. Good thing for them that they do, too, or the Accidental Wine Company would be out of business. Wine - Shopping - Food - Recreation - Drink (22 h ago)

• ConsumerMan: Just leave me alone! ConsumerMan: Just leave me alone!
01/21/2010
Your personal information is now just another commodity, like corn or wheat, that’s collected and sold. In the world of marketing, knowledge is power. Wheat - Agriculture - Commodity - Cereal - Field Crops (1 d ago)

• Macy’s to open first Bloomingdale’s outl... Macy’s to open first Bloomingdale’s outlets
01/21/2010
Macy's Inc. said Thursday it will open its first Bloomingdale's bargain-priced outlet stores this summer and fall in a bid to attract value-conscious shoppers. Bloomingdale - Macy - Outlet store - Business - Department store (1 d ago)

• In cap flap, Miller Lite told to change ... In cap flap, Miller Lite told to change beer ads
01/20/2010
It's a flap over a cap. An ad industry watchdog wants MillerCoors to modify its claims about flagship Miller Lite because it hasn't made changes as the ads imply. Beer - Miller Lite - MillerCoors - Drink - Recreation (2 d ago)

• Uno’s Chicago Grill chain files for bank... Uno’s Chicago Grill chain files for bankruptcy
01/20/2010
Burdened by debt from a 2005 private equity takeover, the Uno pizzeria chain's parent company filed for Chapter 11 protection Wednesday. Chapter 11 Title 11 United States Code - Parent company - Law - United States - Services (2 d ago)

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Who knows where to download XRumer 5.0 Palladium?...
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out of control
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The poor thing! Once so high and mighty and far ab...
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It always amazed me how eagerly people flocked to ...
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• When your calendar is a moral document: ... When your calendar is a moral document: Video interview with Rev. Jim Wallis
01/22/2010
The CEO of the social-justice organization Sojourners discusses rethinking values in the wake of the crisis. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly > Topics: Governance Interviews Nonprofit Audio Video (23 h ago)

• A lighter touch for postmerger integrati... A lighter touch for postmerger integration
01/20/2010
Some Asian companies take a different, hands-off approach to M&A outside their borders. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly > Topics: Asia-Pacific Corporate Finance Organization (2 d ago)

• A strong foundation for M&A in 2010 A strong foundation for M&A in 2010
01/20/2010
M&A activity was more resilient in 2009 than commonly believed, and conditions are improving for 2010. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly > Topics: Asia-Pacific Corporate Finance Organization (2 d ago)

• M&A teams: When small is beautiful M&A teams: When small is beautiful
01/20/2010
Large M&A departments aren’t essential for making successful deals. Small, project- based teams can be preferable. Read more on the McKinsey Quarterly > Topics: Asia-Pacific Corporate Finance Organization (2 d ago)

• In world of wine, accidents can be good In world of wine, accidents can be good
01/22/2010
Accidents happen, the people at the Accidental Wine Company like to say. Good thing for them that they do, too, or the Accidental Wine Company would be out of business. Shopping - Wine - Food - Recreation - Accidental Wine Company (22 h ago)

• Obama cracking down on contractor tax ch... Obama cracking down on contractor tax cheats
01/22/2010
President Barack Obama on Wednesday ordered a new crackdown on federal contractors who don't pay their taxes. Barack Obama - President of the United States - United States - Politics - Candidates and Campaigns (22 h ago)

• PetSmart fires man who brought dog to wo... PetSmart fires man who brought dog to work
01/22/2010
PetSmart fired employee Eric Favetta for "theft of services" after he parked Gizmo, his 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, in the store's doggie daycare facility during an overnight shift. Dog - PetSmart - Belgian Shepherd Dog - Belgian Malinois - Pets (22 h ago)

• New technology makes business cards pass... New technology makes business cards passé
01/22/2010
Paper business cards are becoming passe as new digital networking tools emerge. Business card - Business - Shopping - print - Supplies (23 h ago)

• Venture Capital Was Tight for Tech Start... Venture Capital Was Tight for Tech Start-Ups in ’09
01/21/2010
Venture capitalists invested 37 percent less money and made 30 percent fewer deals last year than in 2008. (1 d ago)

• Case Study: Looking to Expand, but Feari... Case Study: Looking to Expand, but Fearing It, Too
01/20/2010
Can Thinking Caps Tutoring of Manhattan, which employs 30 tutors and serves 300 students annually, expand while maintaining the quality of its services? (2 d ago)

• The N.F.L. Is Squeezing Discounters Over... The N.F.L. Is Squeezing Discounters Over Apparel
01/20/2010
The league’s game day line of gear will be available only to companies that do a certain amount of business. (2 d ago)

• Finding the Money to Get Started Finding the Money to Get Started
01/21/2010
© Jon_Marshall If you want water from the well, you have to prime the pump. It's the same with money. But often the question becomes: Where do you get that first little bit? Inc.com had a piece recently on raising startup capital. It's a tedious and demanding task - but an essentail one if you want to start out with the resources you need.Gone are the days of pitching investors with hot new technology ideas. Today, entrepreneurs are much more likely to dive into ... (1 d ago)

• Seen that? - funding for WAN optimizer Seen that? - funding for WAN optimizer
01/21/2010
funding for WAN optimizer TJ's Weblog Often new companies bring solutions for problems which yet have to be found. Riverbed -- a company that develops software that improves the performance of distributed systems is very much different. Riverbed just received $10 ... (1 d ago)

• Look Over Your Family Budget and Fine-tu... Look Over Your Family Budget and Fine-tune It
01/22/2010
© KrissZPhotography The purpose of setting up a family budget is to be able to control where the money goes. This works two ways: to stop the money loss, and to put the money where you want it. While some people are successful at limiting uncontrolled money loss, it still may not end up where it ought to go - into saving money. This means that saving money needs to be considered a priority in the family budget - not as an unnecessary or ... (20 h ago)

• Have You Set Up A Budget for 2010 Yet? Have You Set Up A Budget for 2010 Yet?
01/20/2010
© edinburghcityofprintMost people are well aware that it is a good idea to have a budget. Perhaps you realize it, too, but as you know, unless you have those budgeting tools in operation, the value of one will not benefit you. It's time to do something about it. We all know that budgeting your money is probably a good idea if you are to have any kind of control over it, and end up staying debt free, or being able to save money. So, ... (2 d ago)

• Self-Employed? Tax Time Is Coming Self-Employed? Tax Time Is Coming
01/21/2010
© alancleaver_2000 It's almost that time of year. I never was a Beatles fan, but you've probably heard the lyrics...Let me tell you how it will be; There's one for you, nineteen for me. Should five per cent appear too small, Be thankful I don't take it all.I have it by Stevie Ray Vaughn. And he makes it sound even more cynical and depressing. Taxes don't have to be that bad. But if you've moved recently from a staff position to being self-employed, you need to change ... (1 d ago)

• Seen that? - Looking for Products to Sel... Seen that? - Looking for Products to Sell Online?
01/22/2010
Looking for Products to Sell Online? Home Based Business One of the easiest home based businesses to venture into is buying and selling products online, but what products should you buy and sell? This is a crucial question you have to ... (13 h ago)

• Obama bank plan, China's moves to cool e... Obama bank plan, China's moves to cool economy boost fear factor on Wall Street
01/23/2010
U.S. stocks fell for a second straight week, sending the market to its biggest drop since October, as banks plunged on a White House proposal to limit financial risk-taking and China moved to cool economic growth. (1 h ago)

• Cayman Islands Hit By 5.8 Quake Cayman Islands Hit By 5.8 Quake
01/20/2010
The Cayman Islands were hit by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake Tuesday at 9:23 am ET, the earthquake took place 30 miles southeast of Grand Cayman Island. The major offshore hedge fund center in the Caribbean maintains 12 bilateral tax information arrangements with Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom and the United States. "No injuries have been reported and there have been no reports of damage to buildings. Business and schools have remained open and residents ... (3 d ago)

• Aavishkaar: India’s First Social Venture... Aavishkaar: India’s First Social Venture Capital Fund
01/20/2010
Meet Vineet Rai, CEO of Aavishkaar, which can be termed as India's first social venture capital fund. With a corpus of just over Rs 1.65 billion, it is just a tiny drop in the Indian economy but that doesn't fetters Vineet. The social venture capital fund drawing cheers also challenges the skepticism over the prevalent idea that profit and social justice can never be combined. Rai started working when Indian economy got into the liberalization mode and while being posted at a remote village ... (2 d ago)

• Tips for Making the Sale Tips for Making the Sale
01/21/2010
© timparkinson Matt Bell pointed out recently that startup companies today talk and blog about lots of nice stuff - like company culture, raising investment capital, and finding a good business location. But they don't talk much about the heart of any new business - which is, well, sales.A company with strong sales can build a great culture, hire anyone and take the time to figure out its strategy. Without sales, nothing else matters.And he's right, of course. Plenty of business starve to death despite ... (1 d ago)

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