Retail sales rise in US

Retail sales jump in US. Retail sales posted the biggest monthly gain in four months in February, despite a dip in consumer confidence and rising fuel prices. The Commerce Department said sales at the nation’s retailers rose 1 percent from January, and it revised January’s increase to 0.7 percent, twice its previous estimate.

“While built-up demand and positive job growth will continue to boost industry sales, the recent dip in consumer confidence and climb in fuel prices are a concern,” said Sandy Kennedy, president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association in Arlington. “It remains to be seen how much of an effect it will have on spending and if it will hamper the recent progress the economy has made.”

Consumers are paying more at the pump and higher gasoline prices were partially reflected in the increase in retail sales. The price has increased about 40 cents in the last three weeks in Austin to about $3.40 per gallon. Department store sales rose 1 percent, sales at electronics and appliance stores rose 0.9 percent and sales at restaurants rose 1.2 percent. Read more: Retail sales jump in February.

Carlos Slim is world's richest man

Carlos Slim is world's richest man. The richest man in the world remains Carlos Slim, according to Forbes magazine's list of billionaires. The number of billionaires increased by 199 in the past year, according to the magazine, but it was the Mexican telecom magnate Slim, who kept the No. 1 spot for the second year by increasing his worth by $20.5 billion to $74 billion.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, who is worth $56 billion, is No. 2 on the list. Investor Warren Buffet comes in at No.3 with a net worth of $50 billion.

The fastest growing net worth belongs to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who more than tripled his wealth to $13.5 billion, putting him at the No. 52 position on the list, the magazine reported.

How Carlos Slim made his fortune?
Slim had a pretty cushy life growing up, his father became wealthy by working as a real estate salesman. After graduating with a degree in engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Slim began investing in multiple businesses throughout Mexico. Soon, these businesses became the base of his conglomerate Grupo Carso.

It turns out, the economic crash of 1982 was a good for Slim because during that time period he was able to crack into billionaire status. By using some business tactics and savvy negotiating Slim was able to purchase companies at extremely low prices and have a say in their various interests. With strong management skills Slim was able to increase their value exponentially in the next ten years.

Carlos Slim Helú made a great portion of his earnings with his ownership of Teléfonos de México or Telmex. The money earned from Telmex allowed him to broaden his scope to technology and U.S. firms. When Telmex was privatized Slim was able to strengthen the monopoly and increase his earnings. This year, Slim was reported as having a $74 billion net worth which is a $20.5 billion increase from last year.

BP CEO Bob Dudley Apologises for Oil Spill

BP Chief Executive Robert Dudley inherited quite a bit of a mess from former CEO Tony Hayward, he of the loose lips, in the the form of last year's terrible oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But Dudley wants everyone to know that he's totally sorry.

"I am sorry for what happened last year," he told the lunch crowd at CERAweek conference in Houston today, reports Forbes. "BP is sorry. BP gets it. BP is changing."

"We are determined we will once again restore that trust and I realize this requires action, not words."

He says they've done various things like paying out billions in claims and investing in the Gulf of Mexico Research intiative, as well as independent third party verification of "blowout preventers and better testing for cement jobs, well-integrity, rig safety. The company will no longer take rigs that don't meet safety standards."

You had us at "blowout preventers," but yeah, making sure unsafe rigs are no longer floating around ready to gush tons of oil is also probably a good idea.

Dudley is going even further and creating a new group that dispatches safety specialists around the globe, which has already shut down a production platform in Azerbaijan, and another in the Gulf of Mexico for infractions that needed to be addressed before they continued to operate. He hopes that the changes BP makes will spread to others in the industry, in order to make sure no one else causes such a calamity. View full post on BP's CEO Is Super Sorry About That Oil Spill. In othernews, Alice in Chains Bassist, Mike Starr Dead at 44.

What's Next For The Mobile Industry?

Metrico Wireless Inc., a leading provider of mobile device performance information and solutions, just unveiled one of the most comprehensive evaluations yet of the end user experience offered by the Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless versions of the iPhone 4.

How did they stack up? It depends on how the customer is using the device. For instance, the AT&T iPhone experienced double the mean data download speed of the Verizon iPhone, but the mean load time for an average Web page was about the same on both devices.

In addition, the findings showed that when the iPhone is mobile, the AT&T iPhone successfully completed around 10 percent more data download sessions than the Verizon iPhone. The results were opposite when the iPhones were stationary; the Verizon iPhone was more consistent uploading data when stationary in comparison to the AT&T iPhone, with a 10 percent better success rate.

The iPhone 4 is the latest of more than 80 smartphones evaluated to date as part of Metrico’s unique Smartphone Mobile Experience (M.E.) evaluation program. “The mobile industry is competing on performance, and anecdotal performance information isn’t good enough to drive management and marketing decisions,” said Richard McNally, VP, Information Products, Metrico Wireless. Source: The Mobile Industry is Competing on Performance.

China’s Wen Targets Inflation

China’s Wen Targets Inflation. Fighting inflation is China’s top economic priority this year as the government aims to limit the risk of social unrest, Premier Wen Jiabao said in his state-of- the-nation speech. “We cannot allow price rises to affect the normal lives of low-income people,” Wen said in a report to the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress in Beijing today. “This problem concerns the people’s well-being, bears on overall interests and affects social stability.”

Wen, 68, confirmed targets of 4 percent for full-year inflation and 8 percent for economic growth, as the Communist Party seeks to maintain support for its 61-year rule. In the past two weekends, the government has deployed hundreds of police in Beijing and Shanghai after Internet calls for so- called Jasmine protests, inspired by revolts in the Middle East and North Africa.

“Inflation is a potential trigger point for social discontent,” said Liu Li-Gang, an economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group in Hong Kong who formerly worked for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the World Bank. The government needs to boost lending and deposit rates by 0.75 percentage point by year-end, as well as raising wages and giving subsidies to the poor, he said.

Wen identified illegal land seizures, food safety, “exorbitant” house-price increases and “rampant corruption” in some places as among top public concerns. The government will “decisively” counter inflation and make it the “top priority in macroeconomic control,” he said. View full post on businessweek.com.

Jobless Claims Decrease Last Week

Jobless Claims Drop. Service industries expanded in February at the fastest pace since 2005 and fewer Americans unexpectedly filed claims for jobless benefits, adding to evidence the U.S. recovery is gaining strength. The Institute for Supply Management’s index of non-manufacturing businesses increased to 59.7 last month from 59.4 in January. A reading above 50 signals growth. The number of initial applications for unemployment insurance payments fell by 20,000 to 368,000 last week, the lowest since May 2008 and fewer than the most optimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey, figures from the Labor Department showed.

Stocks rose as the figures supported the Federal Reserve’s assessment that the labor market is on the mend following the loss of 8.75 million positions during the recession. Brighter prospects about personal finances are bolstering consumer confidence, another report showed, increasing the odds that Americans will keep spending at stores like J.C. Penney Co. and Macy’s Inc. See more about Jobless Claims Drop.

“You’re getting a picture of an economy that is quite strong already and perhaps gathering momentum,” said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Pierpont Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “Sentiment has been picking up over the last two or three months and that stands to reason -- the stock market has done better, the economy has certainly done better, and, most importantly, the labor market is improving.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 1.7 percent to 1,330.97 at the 4 p.m. close in New York for its biggest gain in three months. The index is up 21 percent in the past six months. Source: businessweek.com

Collective bargaining protests to resume

With a vote in the Ohio Senate considered likely this week, opponents of Senate Bill 5 plan to resume protesting Tuesday against the restrictions on public employee collective bargaining, this time with a musical backdrop. ProgressOhio, a liberal advocacy group, announced that “The Street Dogs”, a Boston band fronted by the founding singer of the “Dropkick Murphys”, will perform outside the Statehouse at 1 p.m. Tuesday.

The band has recently performed at protests outside the Wisconsin Statehouse, where a similar battle over public employee collective bargaining is raging. Also, ProgressOhio has launched a website, sb5ohio.com, to keep up with events surrounding the issue. Meanwhile, Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, used a news release to rip into Senate Democrats for declining to participate in negotiate possible changes in the bill.

“As I sat down today to review the amendments submitted by Friday’s deadline, I expected to see their constructive ideas on how to address the concerns they’ve expressed, but they refused to submit a single change,” Niehaus said. “Much like their counterparts in Wisconsin, they apparently would rather grandstand in defense of the status quo.” Source: daytondailynews.com

Celebrating Darwin Day on February 12

On Saturday, February 12th people around the world observe Darwin's birthday and his theory of evolution. First celebrated in 1909, Darwin Day was celebrated occasionally throughout the 20th century, but has recently been revitalized by educators around the world. This year alone there are over 500 planned public events are listed at DarwinDay.org, with gatherings hosted internationally and in all fifty states. Events range from small, low-key dinners to educational seminars designed to inform the young and old about Darwin's impact on our everyday life. And for the first time, Rep. Pete Stark of California proposed a resolution on the floor of the House of Representatives that "recognizes Charles Darwin as a worthy symbol on which to celebrate the achievements of reason, science, and the advancement of human knowledge."

While holidays are meant for fun and celebration, an annual event like Darwin Day is important in today's educational climate. As a national holiday, it trumpets not only the achievements of its namesake, but the accomplishments of the scientific community as a whole. Darwin's discoveries greatly advanced the human understanding of fields as various as genetics to epidemiology and his example is one worth emulating and celebrating.

Some celebrants also combine Darwin Day with a celebration of Abraham Lincoln, who was also born on February 12, 1809. Still others like to celebrate the many noted individuals that influenced or were influenced by Darwin's work, such as Thomas H. Huxley, Charles Lyell, Alfred Russel Wallace, Carl Sagan, and Ernst Mayr. Celebrating Darwin Day on February 12.

world food prices rising fast

World food prices continued to rise sharply in December, bringing them close to the crisis levels that provoked shortages and riots in poor countries three years ago, according to newly released United Nations data. Prices are expected to remain high this year, prompting concern that the world may be approaching another crisis, although economists cautioned that many factors, like adequate stockpiles of key grains, could prevent a serious problem.

The United Nations data measures commodity prices on the world export market. Those are generally far removed from supermarket prices in wealthy countries like the United States. In this country, food price inflation has been relatively tame, and prices are forecast to rise only 2 percent to 3 percent this year.

But the situation is often different in poor countries that rely more heavily on imports. The food price index of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization rose 32 percent from June to December, according to the report published Wednesday. In December, the index was slightly higher than it was in June 2008, its previous peak. The index is not adjusted for inflation, however, making an exact comparison over time difficult.

The global index was pushed up last year by rising prices for cooking oils, grains, sugar and meat, all of which could continue to remain high or rise.

"We are at a very high level," said Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist for the organization, which is based in Rome. "These levels in the previous episode led to problems and riots across the world." Abbassian said that bad weather affecting commodity crops in many exporting countries might help keep prices high over the next several months. Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

Stock index futures pointed to a slightly higher

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures rose on Tuesday as optimism continued to permeate the market ahead of data on factory orders and car sales. * The climb in futures followed a rise in U.S. stock indexes on Monday on encouraging signs about the outlook for manufacturing around the world that prompted investors to inject new money into equities.

* Coming on the heels of recent data pointing to a growing economic recovery, investors will eye the Commerce Department's release of November factory orders at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT), with economists expecting a drop of 0.1 percent, compared with a 0.9 percent fall in the prior month.

* Monthly auto sales figures will also be closely watched. Fifteen economists surveyed by Reuters forecast December auto sales of about 12.3 million on the annualized and seasonally adjusted basis tracked by the industry.

* S&P 500 futures rose 4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures gained 48 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures added 7.5 points.

Pressures Still Remain On Dollar

The U.S. dollar is likely to remain weighed down this week by mounting expectations that the Federal Reserve will adopt new stimulus measures, and the pressures on the greenback are unlikely to ease until more details of the Fed's plans are known.

The dollar has notched broad declines in the past month, slumping in recent sessions to landmark lows against some of its rivals. The Fed is considering whether to launch a program of quantitative easing, purchasing long-term Treasury bonds to push down long-term interest rates and boost economic growth. The market equates quantitative easing with printing money, so it has a damaging effect on a country's currency.

Monetary policy and currency levels have become dominant themes across asset classes in recent weeks and are expected to play a role as finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations convene in Seoul this week.

"What you may hear from the G-20 finance ministers meeting is some sort of attempt to calm the markets," said Carl Forcheski, director of foreign exchange at Société Générale in New York. "Some countries are getting a little bit concerned about the dollar's fall."

The dollar's slide is largely tied to a stumbling U.S. economic recovery at the same time that Europe and Asia appear to be emerging faster from hard times. But stimulus measures could inflict additional pain on the dollar, because they would keep U.S. interest rates very low, lessening the appeal of dollar-denominated assets even more.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has justified U.S. central-bank measures to boost economic growth, saying inflation is running below the Fed's objective of 2% and the economy is on a course to grow too slowly to bring down unemployment.

"There would appear—all else being equal—to be a case for further action," Mr. Bernanke said Friday in a speech in Boston.

A handful of currencies touched notable highs after Mr. Bernanke spoke. The euro hit $1.4161, its highest level since January, while the Australian dollar hit parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1983, when the Aussie was freely floated. The U.K. pound ticked above $1.61 for the first time since January. A day earlier, the Canadian dollar traded at parity with the greenback, for the first time since April.

Mr. Bernanke said the Fed, which meets Nov. 2-3, must proceed "with some caution," given the uncertainties about whether such easing would be successful. Until details of the Fed's approach to a second round of quantitative easing are known, the dollar is likely to stay under pressure.

In the meantime, markets will be keenly attuned to any clues on asset-purchase programs or other steps to stimulate struggling economies in the U.S. and abroad.

And as the yen trades at heights that distress Japanese authorities, investors will be watching for signals on official buying operations. Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda kept alive the possibility of intervention to curb yen strength, saying Friday the government will take "decisive" steps if necessary.

Despite official sales of two trillion yen (US$24.6 billion) on Sept. 15 to slow the Japanese currency's appreciation, the yen has continued to move higher, with the dollar touching 15-year lows below 81 yen both Thursday and Friday.

Also on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department put off a decision on whether to label China a "currency manipulator" until after the G-20 summit, increasing the pressure on world leaders to find a way to tamp down growing fears of a global currency conflict. A number of countries, led by the U.S., have charged that China deliberately undervalues its currency to boost its economy. The possibility of such disagreements becoming more serious and resulting in punitive trade measures is yet another negative factor hanging over the dollar, analysts said.

Business Unusual Could be the Future of Wool

Federated Farmers believes the future of wool will come from turning consumers away from oil-based products by developing breathtaking innovative new uses for wool. Business unusual is the future of wool. Federated Farmers believes the future of wool will come from turning consumers away from oil-based products by developing breathtaking innovative new uses for wool.

“Federated Farmers believes business unusual could be the future of wool,” says Bruce Wills, Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre chairperson. “What it also shows is that instead of hanging on to the apron strings of the past, as the wool levy locked us into, we have to create our own future business.

“We see a glimpse of that future in Wellington based textile designers, The Formary, creating WoJo. This revolutionary fabric comprises 70 percent strong and mid-micron wools from Wools of New Zealand, with 30 percent jute, recycled from the Starbucks’ own coffee sacks.

“It’s an inspiring twist on the adage of something new and something old.

“While the initial focus of WoJo is upholstering Starbucks’ 8,000 stores outside of the United States, The Formary has really created a whole new ecologically friendly fabric.

“With the manufacturing partnership with Yorkshire-based Camira, we have a genuine opportunity to get wool back into people’s minds for their homes, offices, schools and even public transport. Not just here but right around the globe.

“It’s easy to overlook the nearly $600 million that wool generates each year for New Zealand. Yet we feel the potential is more than five times that sum, if, and that’s the key word, we can spark wool’s renaissance.

“The Formary’s commitment to wool shows it is possible and we believe New Zealand Trade and Enterprise can see the vast potential that wool has.

“It’s this kind of joined-up approach to market and product development with the exporters, that will make consumers take that all-important second look at wool.

“WoJo is a triumphant Kiwi contribution to London’s Wool Week, which is part of HRH Prince Charles’ Campaign for Wool and is being supported by the New Zealand Council of Wool Interests.

“The Formary is in London to accept the Campaign’s Sustainable Innovation Award. As part of London’s Wool Week, Selfridges have sent two flocks of yellow sheep down Oxford Street while Savile Row closed for a day to become a farm, with two farmers decked out in Anderson & Sheppard bespoke wool suits.

International Monetary Fund's annual meetings

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn dismissed chances of a return to the currency accords of the 1980s and said the fund can help member countries define policies that are coherent with a balanced recovery. “I’m not sure the mood is to have a new Plaza or Louvre accord,” Strauss-Kahn told reporters in Washington today at the start of the IMF’s annual meetings. The IMF has a role to play “to have a better understanding of what should be done by each party” and help foster “a consistent policy by the big shareholders at the fund.”

Exchange rate intervention reached its heyday in September 1985 when the world’s five major economies signed the Plaza Accord to weaken the dollar. The Louvre Accord was introduced two years later to buoy the U.S. currency. The Group of Seven hasn’t intervened in a coordinated way since September 2000 when it rescued the euro.

Japan last month sold the yen for the first time in six years to spur exports and economic growth, joining countries across Asia and Latin America that have tempered gains in their currencies against the dollar. Brazil’s Finance Minister Guido Mantega warned Sept. 27 of a “currency war” and said that his government will buy all “excess dollars” in the market to curb the real’s appreciation.

Strauss-Kahn said the term “currency war” is “maybe too military,” though “it’s true to say that many do consider their currency as a weapon and that’s certainly not for the good of the global economy.”

John Lipsky, the No. 2 official at IMF, was asked about Mantega’s remarks about a “currency war” and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner’s characterization yesterday of a “damaging dynamic” over pressures to weaken currencies.

“I certainly wouldn’t want to disagree with my good friend the finance minister of Brazil, Guido Mantega, but hopefully we’re not in a war,” Lipsky said in an interview in Washington today on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness” with Margaret Brennan. “I think what Secretary Geithner was talking about was avoiding a destructive dynamic.”

“We need to maintain a broad-based collaborative effort in setting economic policies in order to promote a strong, sustainable and balanced recovery,” Lipsky said.

China is accused of artificially undervaluing the yuan, having limited its gains against the dollar to about 2 percent since a June pledge to make it more flexible. The country held the yuan at about 6.83 per dollar two years prior to that to shield its exporters from the global crisis.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner yesterday said a “damaging dynamic” of large economies keeping their currencies undervalued can cause quicker inflation and asset bubbles, and restrict growth.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday reiterated his view that a rapid increase of the yuan would hobble China’s economy, dealing a fresh rebuke to U.S. and European calls for a higher exchange rate.

As IMF members negotiate to give emerging economies more clout at the institution, Strauss-Kahn said gained influence will imply increased responsibility. “If you want to be at the center of the system, which I understand is a request by many big emerging countries that want to have more say at the International Monetary Fund, which is absolutely legitimate, it goes also with having more responsibility on what you do, and the consequences of what you do in the global economy,” he said.

How to Get a Perfect Car Loan

If you want to get the perfect car loan that fits your budget, it is foolhardy to just sign-up when you have not determined all of your available options. Before doing so, you might to consider first the figures that you will be working with.

Once you have determined the model of the car that you want, where you will be getting the loan from, and your monthly allowance for the used car loan payment, you may proceed with signing up. Then you will be on your way to owning the vehicle that you want.

There are a lot of web sites online which offer auto loan rate calculators. These rates vary by state and city. There are also online lenders who offer a cheaper rate, as compared to getting car loans via banks who – more often than not – deny your loan application, especially for used vehicles.

Research online and visit the used car dealers in your area. Collect the price quotes first to determine the current rates for the used cars available in the market.

You can also ask around for the rates. You are bound to get more results by word of mouth, especially if you know car enthusiasts. Take the following as an example of the current used car rates.

In California, three lenders who offer used car loans are the Bank of America, Capital One Auto Finance and Wells Fargo Bank.

For a used car loan, the Bank of America offers 20% down payment and an 11.2% rate. You would add to this a $75 fee and a .25% discount with auto debit.

The second lender, which is Capital One Auto Finance, offers a 6.25 % rate and a 20% down payment. There are no application fees and prepayment penalties.

Wells Fargo Bank offers an 8.88% rate and a 20% down, a $50 application fee and a .25% discount with auto debit.

At the end of the day, just compare these three rates and determine which offer would fit your budget.

Also consider the distance, mileage and the final asking price.

One more thing that you should consider when comparing rates is the number of months for you to make the payments.

There are several options. Some lenders offer a 36 month used car loan. For higher asking prices, longer payment terms are available. For a 36-month used car loan, for example, the rate offered is 8.31%. This rate increases as the number of months increase. After researching and looking through all of your options, choose the lowest rate that you can get and remember not to overspend when you have already reached a certain target budget.