Local Chinese brewers, such as Tsingtao, Yanjing and Zhujiang Beer, are increasingly looking towards the premium beer market as a potential source of revenue as they try to break a monopoly by foreign companies in the world’s largest beer market, where only 5 percent of beers drunk are premium draught beers.
As a consequence of the global recession that began in 2008, prices for photovoltaic solar panels worldwide have receded. The failure of the US federally subsidized company Solyndra, for instance, has also put a damper on the solar power industry as governments start to question their support for alternative energy companies. How has this affected Israel, where energy imports remain a major topic of concern to the government?
America’s top 1 percent of households earned 275 percent more in 2007 than they did in 1997, while the poor only saw an 18 percent growth over the same period.
The latest study by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office reported that the income of America’s richest 1 percent grew 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, compared with a 65 percent gain for the top 20 percent, and an 18 percent gain for the bottom 20 percent.
When the new Affordable Care Act (ACA) came into effect in the US in 2010, many Americans were hopeful that it would help to bring down the cost of health insurance. However, the opposite has happened instead. Rising cost of health insurance meant that healthcare costs also grew for America.
How did this happen and what is being done to reverse the situation?
Motor sales may have been negatively affected by high gas prices and the sluggish economy, but the sale of scooters has been climbing steadily in the United States, up 29 percent in the first half of this year.
Scooters typically make up a small percentage of vehicle sales in the United States. But with the current state of the economy and high oil prices, it is not surprising that Americans are substituting their cars with the cheaper alternative – scooters.
Nearly all research into GM (Genetically Modified) foods is funded by Monsanto, or other bio-tech companies, meaning truly independent data is rare. Some scientists claim only GM foods can feed the world’s booming population, but others say we are only using people as “human guinea pigs”.
The average American spends more on prescription drugs than the citizens of many other advanced economies in the world.
One of the primary reasons for this is because brand name prescription drugs simply cost more in America than they do in other countries. As a result, many Americans routinely decide to order their prescriptions from Canada rather than purchasing them from within the United States.
Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the center of the largest insider trading scandal in the U.S. has been sentenced to 11 years in prison, the harshest sentence meted out for the crime.
Rajaratnam’s sentence brings to a close a prosecution marked by secret wiretaps of Rajaratnam and his partners, in a scandal that shocked much of the investment world.
Facebook has changed to way students interact, both online and offline. According to some studies, Facebook is the most used social network for students, who spend about 100 minutes each day on the site. Professors and American universities are on Facebook too, and research has shown that ‘Facebooking’ has increased engagement and interaction between student and faculty.
Check out this infographic which tracks the timeline of Facebook usage among students, and the different education-related apps that are available on the social network.
After a hot and dry summer this year, the wholesale price of peanuts have skyrocketed from US$450 to US$1,150 a ton. In response, top peanut butter brands are forced to increase their prices: Skippy is up 30 to 35 percent, and other sellers have announced they would also raise their prices in the ranges of 20 to 40 percent.
