Like many of us ‘mere mortals’, CEOs and decision makers have also grown increasingly reliant on mobile technology for their day-to-day operations – be it for communicating with clients and staff or developing business plans and reports on the move.
British taxpayers are unlikely to ever recoup the £66 billion ($105 billion) spent on bailing out the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group during the height of the credit crunch back in 2008, warned a group of lawmakers on Thursday, lambasting the U.K. Treasury for a “monumental collective failure” in understanding and reacting to the financial crisis.
All three major credit rating agencies have warned that the United States could lose its stellar AAA-rating next year if it fails to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff and urged politicians to act in the interest of the economy instead of engaging in excessive political posturing.
As consumers make the switch from print to digital, media companies have been forced to find new ways to monetise and profit from their content. Over the years, websites have resorted to charging subscription fees for content that was once free, a trend known as paywall-ing.
Some 300 newspapers have jumped on the bandwagon since the New York Times pioneered the paywall trend in March 2011. Since then the publication has added nearly half a million new subscribers who pay between $15 and $35 a month for the digital version of the NYT.
France’s decision to quadruple the levy for palm oil from 100 euros ($127) to 400 euros ($510) a tonne has been met with widespread criticism from local food producers and the world’s two largest exporters of the commodity, Indonesia and Malaysia, reported the New York Times on Wednesday, both of whom urged the French government to conduct a rigorous scientific study over palm oil’s health impact before imposing the new tax.
It seems that Americans are not the only ones who are beginning to shun Chinese-made products for those made in the U-S-of-A.
According to a study by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), as cited by Reuters on Wednesday, consumers in China are now willing to pay more for products with “Made in USA” labels, compared to those produced domestically, as they perceive American-made goods to be more durable and of higher quality.
China’s top trade and investment officials have lambasted what they call a rising tide of global protectionism, threatening that it would not invest its massive wealth of $482 billion in countries “that do not welcome us”.
Speaking at the sidelines of the Communist Party Congress in Beijing, Chinese officials warned that protectionism is on the rise on a global scale, not limited only to the epicentres of the economic slowdown.
Trade unions have coordinated a series of general strikes across Spain and Portugal, as well as 20 other countries, with thousands taking to the streets in protest against austerity measures which are destroying public services and jobs.
Organised by the European Trade Union Confederation, the so-called European Day of Action and Solidarity calls on leaders to address growing social anxiety and abandon austerity measures, in favour of jobs, which have been blamed for prolonging and worsening the eurozone’s economic crisis.
Rapid economic growth in Latin America, backed by more inclusive social and economic policies, has seen the region’s middle class grow by nearly 50 percent over the last decade, said a World Bank report released on Tuesday, with the size of the region’s middle class population now rivalling the number of poor people for the first time in its history.
At least $2 billion worth of diamonds have been stolen from Zimbabwe’s eastern diamond fields over the last four years through a network of government ministers and military officials aligned with President Robert Mugabe, claimed a diamond industry watchdog on Monday, with concern growing that the stolen diamonds may be used to finance Mugabe’s elections campaign expected for next year.
