Are you happy at your workplace right now? Well, according to a recent survey by City & Guilds, a leading vocational education organisation in the U.K., the most important factor that achieves workplace happiness is when employees feel recognised and appreciated for their work.
Argentina could less than a month away from defaulting on approximately $24 billion worth of debt, reported the Associated Press on Thursday, after a US court barred the government from paying off investors who had agreed to swap their holdings of defaulted sovereign bonds for new securities, unless it also paid other bondholders suing for full repayment.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that the United States could enjoy a “good year” in 2013 if the fiscal cliff is resolved. Failing to avoid the cliff, he said, would pose a “substantial threat” to economic recovery.
Uncertainty about the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling appears to be weighing on the economic climate in the US, said Fed Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a speech in New York on Tuesday.
China’s currency regulator has announced it will loosen rules and reduce red tape for foreign direct investment, the latest step in efforts to buoy slowing inflows.
China’s State Administration for Foreign Exchange announced yesterday that it would ease the complex review procedures related to capital flows and currency quotas of foreign enterprises.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged domestic industries to adapt quickly to the new market conditions that have arisen from the nation’s entry into the World Trade Organisation (WTO); and warned that the initial adjustment to WTO regulations may cause the overall economy to suffer in the short-term.
Syria will need at least $60 billion in external assistance to rebuild its infrastructure once the regime of President Bashar al-Assad falls, said a leading opposition figure on Wednesday, as rebels continue to fight to unite opposition-held areas before a ‘final push’ towards the capital Damascus.
Greece’s international lenders failed on Wednesday to secure a deal to give Greece the next tranche of its bailout, paving the way for a default. Greece’s next debt repayment is due in mid-December.
Following nearly 12 hours of talks in Brussels, the Eurogroup said it had made progress on a package of measures to reduce Greek public debt, but needed more time for technical work.
In the U.S. alone, 280 billion plastic bags are used each year, which is enough to stretch around the earth nearly 30,000 times. China, on the other hand, uses 3 billion plastic bags each day. How can we reduce our appetite for plastic and protect our environment?
Making and using plastic bags requires a lot more resources and has more repercussions than you might think. In fact, 37 million barrels of oil are used to produce plastic bags each year.
Check out the following infographic to see how exactly plastic bags affect our cities, our environment and even our economy.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the world’s second largest company by 2011 revenue, is set to invest around $1 billion annually in its upstream businesses in China starting from this year, said its CEO Peter Voser to the China Daily on Tuesday, citing the company’s desire to capitalise on the increasing demand for natural gas across the nation.
Individual Americans have donated nearly $8 million this year – outside of federal taxes – to try and pay off part of the nation’s public debt, said a report by CNN Money on Tuesday, with the sum collected thus far already more than double what was received in 2011.
