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.
Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label finance. Show all posts
James Shorris
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the self-regulatory arm of the U.S. brokerage industry regulator, said Friday that one of its top enforcement officers is resigning to join a law firm. James Shorris has been responsible for directing FINRA's investigations and prosecution activity for much of the past seven years. He served `s FINRA's interim head of enforcement after his former boss, Susan Merrill, quit in March 2010 to join the Bingham McCutchen law firm in New York.
Shorris was passed over for the top job in October when FINRA hired Bradley Bennett from law firm Baker Botts to run its enforcement division.
Shorris joined the National Association of Securities Dealers, Finra's predecessor, in 2003 as deputy enforcement chief. He advanced to the top position in 2006, but ceded the post to Merrill after the NASD merged with much of the New York Stock Exchange's regulation unit. Merrill was head of enforcement at NYSE Regulation. Shorris was a lawyer at Bingham McCutchen LLP in Boston prior to joining the NASD. Source: Reuters.com
Shorris was passed over for the top job in October when FINRA hired Bradley Bennett from law firm Baker Botts to run its enforcement division.
Shorris joined the National Association of Securities Dealers, Finra's predecessor, in 2003 as deputy enforcement chief. He advanced to the top position in 2006, but ceded the post to Merrill after the NASD merged with much of the New York Stock Exchange's regulation unit. Merrill was head of enforcement at NYSE Regulation. Shorris was a lawyer at Bingham McCutchen LLP in Boston prior to joining the NASD. Source: Reuters.com
Event Planning? How to Benefit your Pocket!
The special events industry has grown enormously during the last two decades. The annual spending of events worldwide is estimated to be at $500 billion. It is no secret that the economic status worldwide of businesses and companies is not at its peak. Therefore, the need to keep employees and clients interested and motivated is crucial in a time like this. In addition, companies have recognized that only so much work can be conducted thru the phone, texts, and emails. This is when the ideas to create special events, seminars, meetings and/or conventions are taken into consideration.
Now that we have established the need and importance of the production of corporate events, let's establish how an event planning company makes its revenue. According to the web article, How to Start an Event Planning Service, at entrepreneur.com, it is crucial to know that the goal in pricing a service is to mark up your labor and material costs sufficiently to cover overhead expenses and generate an acceptable profit. It is said that first time business owners often fail due to unknowingly low service rates, therefore make sure you are gaining profits from your services.
There are two types of events; social and corporate, for our interest we will focus on corporate events. On the corporate events industry planners typically charge a fee for their services, plus a handling charge for each item they contract. Another option is charging clients a "flat fee" or a "project fee", this is often used in large events and/or when corporations want an estimated figure to stay on budget.
Fees are generally determined by three factors.
1. Market Segment (Corporations- using flat fees)
2. Geographic Location (For example, fees are higher in the northeast part of the United States)
3. Experience and Reputation of the planning company (If you are starting out it is only reasonable to charge a lower service fee)
This is why knowing your target market and doing your market research is so important. Most event planning companies’ price their fees-for-service using the Cost Plus Method (CPM), it involves calculating the unit cost of producing the product and adding on a target profit margin. This means, that you contract out the labor, supplies and materials involved in producing an event and then charge clients a service fee of about 10 to 20 percent of the total cost of the event, with 15 percent being a rough average. However, in order for your company to know the final net income, I advise you to produce a pro forma (for more information on Pro forma click here) this will determine how your company will make its revenue, determine expenses and much more.
Below is an info graphic of the event planning industry you might like. Enjoy.
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| By: Melanie Rodriguez / Market Research |
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.
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.
More fiscal issues
Following up on Steve’s post, I visited the discussion forum for the web cast on Public Health Survival: Leadership in a Falling Market (which is now posted). One of the respondents wrote in to tell about his predicament – to save money, the City Council had dismantled his public health department, transferring some functions to other departments, cancelling others, and leaving this respondent as a “department of one.”
I was shocked by the drastic nature of this city council’s actions, and it struck me that a lot of drastic stuff might be going on out there that we in academia are not fully aware of. It would help us to know what is going on for you… that way we can think about things we could do or offer that would better serve you through these trying times. In any event, as a community of practice, it would be good for us all to know what’s going on and how different individuals, organizations, and communities are dealing with it. For example, the man who is the only member of his department is working on changing his role from one of “directing and controlling to one of advising and consulting,” he said on the discussion forum. Ideally, he is drawing upon connections he’s made in the past to work with others who are now doing the work he and his colleagues used to do. He asked, at the end of his post, whether there were any role models for such a drastic transformation. All I could think of was the importance of making sure you have a community of people and organizations who understand what public health is and why it is important to them that the public stay healthy and safe: that way you'll never truly be a "department of one." But I'd rather hear from you...
If you get a chance, please write in with your stories about “providing leadership in a falling market” – whether yours personally, or those you have heard from others, and what you are doing right now to cope with the challenges of these times. And we realize there are still the day-to-day challenges – what is getting cut in your health department? Are you seeing a change in your clientele as a result of the economic downturn? Also, if you’ve undertaken public health business planning in the past, are you having any positive results of work you’ve done building partnerships, using business practices, and the like?
- Anne
I was shocked by the drastic nature of this city council’s actions, and it struck me that a lot of drastic stuff might be going on out there that we in academia are not fully aware of. It would help us to know what is going on for you… that way we can think about things we could do or offer that would better serve you through these trying times. In any event, as a community of practice, it would be good for us all to know what’s going on and how different individuals, organizations, and communities are dealing with it. For example, the man who is the only member of his department is working on changing his role from one of “directing and controlling to one of advising and consulting,” he said on the discussion forum. Ideally, he is drawing upon connections he’s made in the past to work with others who are now doing the work he and his colleagues used to do. He asked, at the end of his post, whether there were any role models for such a drastic transformation. All I could think of was the importance of making sure you have a community of people and organizations who understand what public health is and why it is important to them that the public stay healthy and safe: that way you'll never truly be a "department of one." But I'd rather hear from you...
If you get a chance, please write in with your stories about “providing leadership in a falling market” – whether yours personally, or those you have heard from others, and what you are doing right now to cope with the challenges of these times. And we realize there are still the day-to-day challenges – what is getting cut in your health department? Are you seeing a change in your clientele as a result of the economic downturn? Also, if you’ve undertaken public health business planning in the past, are you having any positive results of work you’ve done building partnerships, using business practices, and the like?
- Anne
Fiscal issues
If you didn't see it live, take a look at the webinar on public health survival in a falling market-- should be archived at the site in the next week or so.
Here are two things that came out of the session that stuck with me and that seem to apply to our continuing discussion here:
Here are two things that came out of the session that stuck with me and that seem to apply to our continuing discussion here:
- Reach Out To Partners: Now may feel like the time for your organization to circle the wagons, pull back, go into your shell.It isn't. Jim Marks at Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says now is the time to reach out, and Bobby Pestrunk, the new director of NACCHO, agrees. Here's my take on why: resource deficits make it tough on many different organizations that are trying to make communities more healthy. Bobby points out "your partners are hurting too." The fiscal crisis makes it more important-- and perhaps paradoxically easier-- for you to work together now. Leah Devlin (state health director in NC) talks about going after big grants and lining up health care partners, for instance.
- Look For New Resources: Of course. Yes, the budget is shrinking. Some things that your organization had been doing will no longer be possible. So what things do you stop doing? The opportunity here is to stop doing things that are inefficient and unimportant... and use the newly-discovered time and energy to do something new, different, more effective, more useful to your constituents, more valuable to your funders, more timely and relevant. As recently as last year, I had public health leaders tell me that their plates were too full, they had more programs and partners than they could track, and that they wished they could get out of some of their long-term commitments!
--Steve Orton
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