Fisher Investment Policy Committee have detailed their market and macroeconomic forecast for 2011. In a roundtable discussion with five members of the firm’s committee, forecasts for the balance of 2011 were outlines and investor’s questions answered.
IDC Financial Insight’s looked at 13 markets in the Asia Pacific region and found 6 mega-trends to watch in 2011. The organization predicted banks and technology vendors to make the most sense of the macro-level drivers of the 2011 stage – deciding which strategies and investments of the past few years need to be focused, and which need to be forgotten in today’s changing marketplace.
1. The emergence of super-regionals
Millions of internet searches are queried each day on search engines by people all around the world. Have you wondered what people in different countries are looking for? You’d expect mainstream trends to transcend international borders; searches for social media sites and current affairs.
But people in Russia, just want to know “how to eat sushi” (number 3 search in the country).
The US April jobs report shows the overall wages in that reeling country are remaining stagnant —
despite accelerating increases in both food and energy prices that people have no choice but to pay.
The average hourly wage across the economy — including salaried employees — did not grow at all in March.
It was $22.87, just as it had been in February. And from January to February, it rose only a single cent.
Over the last year, hourly wages have grown 1.7 percent.
Citing concerns about the national debt, a handful of right-wing Missouri state legislators
have blocked a vote to accept federal money to extend unemployment benefits,
effectively cutting financial assistance for more than 10,000 out-of-work residents.
The move, which came despite widespread REPUBLICAN support for extending the benefits,
puts Missouri at the center of a growing national discussion about reining in unemployment benefits
at a time when both the job market and government coffers are in a severely weakened state.
How many deals have you bought from Groupon and other rival sites such as LivingSocial, BuyWith-Me, Rue La La and Urban Daddy? Honestly. The fact is, while Groupon’s rival sites are on the rise, Groupon is actually, on its way down. The company’s revenues tanked 30 percent in February from January – and 32 percent last month (according to Yipit).
Resale and consignment shops, emboldened by the Great Recession, are expanding as Americans cling to their bargain-hunting ways.
No longer relegated to back alleys, these secondhand stores are moving into prime locations,
taking over spaces once occupied by mainstream retailers Linens ‘N Things and Circuit City, now bankrupt, and teen clothier Abercrombie & Fitch.
And they’re going national.
Bellevue, Wash.-based thrift-store chain Savers Inc. is taking on its biggest expansion in decades,
On Tuesday, we detailed in depth how BP’s “new” CEO Robert Dudley had “screwed the pooch”
with the company’s supposed Arctic oil drilling deal with Rosneft, the state-owned Russian oil company.
Then, just in time for the annual shareholder meeting in London yesterday, Dudley and BP got at least a TEMPORARY reprieve.
as the companies agreed to extend a deadline for the talks for another month.
Friendly to Iran even as it serves as a base for the American military, Qatar has long had one of the most creative foreign policies in this unstable region.
But now, by sending its tiny air force to fly missions over Libya and granting other critical aid to the Libyan rebels in their fight for freedom and democracy,
this very rich Persian Gulf emirate is playing a more ambitious and potentially more risky role.
But for an absolute monarchy that was part of an alliance
Housing is a universal problem today, and Russia is no exception,especially Moscow.
Research was conducted to compare the cost of residential property in Moscow and other cities of the world.
The authors of the study also tried to find out whether the cost of residential property elsewhere is anywhere near Moscow levels.
For comparison, the researchers looked at properties priced between $500,000 and $1 million.
