2010年5月11日 星期二

RRJ5

SKY
EAP1
May 4, 2010

Reference:
Goldman, David(April 29,2010). ‘Baidu jumps $90 on profit from Google's China exit', republished by CNNMoney.com. Retrieved May 4,2010, from http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/29/technology/baidu/index.htm

Summary:
According to the ‘Baidu jumps $90 on profit from Google’s China exit’, Google company exited the search business in China to Baidu company’s stock rose $90. Goole’s stock has fallen more than 12%since January, because they decided to quit the search business in China; meanwhile, Baidu has risen up more than 80%. Goole was asked o leave China, so a lot of companies had to change their search engine to Baidu. In last three months, Baidu’s market share rose up 64% in China, but Goole went down 31% in China. Baidu showed their first-quarter net income rising up to 165%compared to last year. Baidu said they still had enough space to develop. Jennifer Li, who is Baidu’s CFO,said they would focus on developing technology and changing their business to better than before. Some analysts thought that the rate of the rise depended on Goole, which with that quit its search business in China. Danil Ruby, research director at Chitika Inc, disagreed with that. He thought Baidu would find some good way to increase its market share. This growth was not temporary.

Reaction:
Baidu is the largest search engine company in China. It has become so strong, because Google did not attach importance to him in many years ago. When Goole was attracted to Baidu, it had been the second largest search engine company in China. Goole is in the top 500 companies in global world. It tries to give people everything that people want to know. Some countries want to keep their countries safe, so they will tell Goole to keep information which they do not want to show to their nationals, such as China, India and England. Goole did not want to deprive peoples’ rights, For business that was a really bad way to do it, becase no governments favor this company for business in their own country. For peoples’ power that was a good way. People can know the truth or news from everwhere. Baidu coms from China. It follows the Chinese government rules, and the government wants to develop its national industry. Goole quit the Chinese business; that will help Baidu grow up quickly and monopolize easily in a short time. Unfortunately, in a long term in the future, it is bad fr market development. If Baidu wants to become a mighty company, it needs to do it without Chinese government protection, and go overseas do more search business in other languages. Now Baidu is a gigantic company in China. It needs to catch this chance, and collect enough capital, and use WTO rules correctly do some business outside.

Vocabulary:
Profit: the excess of revenues over outlays in a given period of time (including depreciation and other non-cash expenses)

Share: any of the equal portions into which the capital stock of a corporation is divided and ownership of which is evidences by a stock certificate.

Analysis: the abstract separation of a whole into its constituent parts in order to study the parts and their relations.

Benefit: financial assistance in time of need

Analyst: an expert who studies financial data (on credit or securities or sales or financial patterns ets.) and recommends appropriate business actions

Earning: earn on some commercial or business transaction; earn as salary or wages.

Revenue: the entire amount of income before any deductions are made

Monetization: establishing something (e.g. gold or silver) as the legal tender of a country

Bullish: expecting a rise in prices

2010年5月5日 星期三

RRJ4

Reference:
Werdigier, Julia (2010, April 27). Pace of Recovery in Britain Slowed by a Cold January, republished by The New York Times.
Retrieved April 27, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/business/global/24pound.html?scp=1&sq=cold%20weather&st=cse
According to Pace of Recovery in Britain Slowed by a Cold January, the U.K economic has grown up, but it’s very slowly. In the first quarter of this year, the British G.D.P. raised 0.2%. The Office for National Statistics said cold weather was effect the British economic recovery. Both retail and industrial sectors get heavily hurt. Some economists think the new G.D.P. will upward in next three months because they think the weather will help the marketing. But Michael Taylor who is a senior economist at Lombard Street Research in London thinks the economy is losing power. Last week the Confederation of British Industry said the next quarter the economy will rise up quickly. The unemployment, a weak housing market and the outcome of the general election are influence people’s confidence. Some analysts’ think whether which party wins this election, it will work out the largest deficit since the Second World War. Many families and companies still borrow little money from bank for business. Some companies’ plans are not do it quickly. Howard Archer who is chief European and British economist at HIS Global Insight said the British G.D.P. growth will come down to 1.1% in this year. But many companies think the business has still challenging.
Reaction:
Peoples’ confidence like an old man need more time to recovery. Just a little bad new will give them heavy hurt, because a lot of people think the crisis has not leave them. Cutting spending and working a long time are very popular. The British G.D.P.

2010年4月29日 星期四

RRJ3

Sky
EAP1
April 12, 2010
Business Economic
Reference:
Sahad, Jeanne (2010, April 12). ‘Earthshaking’ ways to fix U.S. debt, republished by CNN.
Retrieved April 12, 2010, from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/12/news/economy/reducing_defict/index.htm
Summary:
According to ‘Earthshaking’ ways to fix U.S. debt, the U.S. government will find some ways to cut U.S. debt. President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission will meet to talk about it in a few weeks. It is impossible to cover all of the debt, so this commission will decide how to control the increase of debt compared to the economy. This commission will try to set the debt below than 3% of the GDP starting in 2015. They have three ways they can do this, raising taxes, cutting spending or by doing both. Now nobody knows which opinion will be best. If the commission chooses raising taxes to decrease the deficit, they will increase by taxes one-third. The taxes focus on highest-income families. The second way will only reduce spending. Sullivan said that spending cut by 40% discretionary spending without Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and interest on the debt. A plan which would include both raising taxes and cutting spending would result in a tax raise of 8% and a spending cut of 7%. This option might be recommended by the commission, according to Sullivan. If the plan works, it will lead to a fall of debt to between 70% and 75% of the GDP by 2018. But for achieving the goal which is to reduce the deficit to 60% of the GDP, actions like tax reform, budget reform and changes to major programs such as Medicare and Social Security would have to take place in the future.

Reaction:
The U.S. debt is a serious problem for President Obama’s fiscal commission. Is there a simple reason why no U.S. president ever reduces the debt? Because they just know how to keep their job and get a good reputation. The next president will again deal with the debt. Outside, many countries like to buy American bonds. They think it is a good and safe way to the value of the money like China and Japan. China and Japan are the top two credit countries in the world. America uses it bonds to control other countries’ economics. When the American government thinks they cannot pay enough money to the credit countries, they will reduce the exchange rate, which if a country has some American bonds they will lose money. These countries lose a lot of money, and they have no way to resolve it. Inside, high taxes bring vast stress to the middle class, which is the most important contributor for the GDP. As for the highest-income families, they have enough money to survive. The taxes are like a mite on an elephant in their spending. The lowest-income families can return the taxes. Only the middle class avoid paying more money than is possible, because they will use much more money to get the same thing as before. The increasing rate will affect their life’s levels. So the government workers first think of how to help people increase their income instead of helping them keep their jobs.
Vocabulary:
Debt: a specific sum of money or a performance due another esp. by agreement (as a loan agreement).
Fiscal: Of or relating to government expenditures, revenues, and debt
Gross domestic product: The total market value of all the goods and services produced within the borders of a nation during a specified period.
Tax: a charge usually of money imposed by legislative or other public authority upon persons or property for public purposes
Budget: An estimation of the revenue and expenses over a specified future period of time.
Proposal: the act of offering or suggesting something for acceptance, adoption, or performance.
Policy: a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, or political party.
Lawmaker: a person who makes or enacts law; legislator.
Revenue: The dollar amount of sales during a specific period, including discounts and returned merchandise. It is the "top line" figure from which costs are subtracted to determine net income.
Discretionary spending: spending set by annual appropriation levels made by decision of Congress. This spending is optional, and in contrast to entitlement programs for which funding is mandatory.
Medicare: a U.S. government program of hospitalization insurance and voluntary medical insurance for persons aged 65 and over and for certain disabled persons under 65.Compare.
Mandatory spending: funds not controlled by annual decision of Congress. These funds are automatically obligated by virtue of previously-enacted laws.

2010年4月12日 星期一

RRJ2

Reference:
Sutton, Chavon (2010, April 1). Jobless claims match 19-month low, republish by CNN. Retrieved April 5, 2010, from
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/01/news/economy/initial_jobless_claims/index.htm
Summary:
The government said the American unemployment insurance has fallen down to the lowest level since August 2008. The Labor Department's weekly report said that the number went down 6,000 before last week. According to Briefing.com there are still 4,662,000 people offering claims in the week ended March 20, but it is the lowest number since Decmber20, 2008. Unfortunately, the economists’ predict the number of claims is lower than the true number. The number shows the data without counting the number of people who already received the government’s help for 26 weeks. The continuing claims are not good for the recovery of economy. President Obama decided to extend the unemployment insurance and made a law to cut many taxes for helping businesses. The congress uses these measures to keep the whole country’s unemployment rate to not more than 9.7%, Friday’s report shows more about the non-farm payroll for March. Economists expect that there will be more than 190,000 jobs which are mostly census-related positions instead of full-time jobs in the private sector. Now the important thing is as Dye said they needed a healthy economic system without the government help.
Reaction:
This year the world economy has resumed. Peoples’ mentalities are better than before. All kinds of data are showing that the White House business stimulating measures are useful, but the government uses some data to cheat people. They also calculate without jobless people who got the government unemployment insurance or have moved to state or federal extensions. They use much more money to save some companies, which the government feels should not go bankrupt. This emergency money came from all the people who pay the tax for the government and the government’s bonds. Unfortunately, a lot of money is flowed into some companies’ CEO pockets. Their jobs are secure, so they can use more and more time to research how to lay off employees who are not really important to the company in stead of thinking how to lead their company’s development onto new markets. Throughout the history, every time there is a recession, the common employees always undergo much more afflictions than the bosses. The education is the country’s future. The government should add money in the education system without cutting money to help some companies. The government needs to learn in a great river great fish are found; but take heed lest you be drowned. The best material in this century is people who get the high education of having some useful technologies.

2010年4月8日 星期四

Appalachian dulcimer

The Appalachian dulcimer is usually 75 to 90 cm long. The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted stringed instrument of the zither family, typically with three of four strings. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and it fretting is generally diatonic. It s hourglass shaped and features a spruce top and Acaia Koard back and sides. There are four same size hearts on the dulcimer. There are 17 fingerboards on it. There is a belt for people to carry the instrument. The instrument is made of wood. It is painted in brown. The top is similar to fiddle.
This is a picture for Appalachian dulcimer
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Dulcimer_%28UP%29.jpg

2010年4月5日 星期一

RRJ1

Reference:
Powell, Bill (March 29, 2010) what China Inc. wants next, republish by CNN. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/29/autos/volvo_geely_china.fortune/index.htm

Summary:
Recently, a vast Chinese company named “Geely” bought a global famous brand “Volvo” from Ford Motor. That recalls the memory that since the computer maker-Lenovo take over IBM’s personal computer business six years ago, more and more trades between China and Western countries had been made. The Chinese car factory “Geely” uses 1.8 billion to buy Volvo from the Ford Company. This is an example that shows us the significance of that china’s tremendous markets and powerful companies for the world’s economy. China is very interested in natural resources in the world. This kind of companies belongs to the government, and is helped by state-owned banks to complete trades. Chinese uses much more money for investments than other countries do. There are only a few companies under the comfortable condition of assets in China to make deals with western countries. The Medias always disseminate the information that Chinese economic has amazingly grown up during recent two decades. Just like what Edward have said that they thought too much about this trade. The situations that China faces nowadays is not as the same as the situations that Japan in the 1990s deals with when yen was strengthened. Beijing opened the Chinese business to global only 30-year, so Tse said people expected too much to think for China. China now always focuses on the investment in the developing countries. There is a similar question for the Geely-Volvo deal. For the Chinese report, maybe $500 million come from government and $1 billion come from the state-owned Bank of China. The Ford really wants to sell the Volvo that way helps Geely, which is private company, neglecting political factors of the deal. The Geely hopes that they will get an award and move up-market for this trade. The business involving china and some western counties is not yet a common symptom.

Reaction:
Now Chinese has a lot of companies want to buy some classy brands eagerly during the session of recession. They think that these can help them expanding their influence on the global economy as soon as possible. Thirty years ago, the government of china decided to allow many typical abroad companies to build factories in China. When Chinese people acknowledged that the disparity between themselves and people in the western countries, thousands of Chinese students leaved their hometown to the United states or European countries for studying. Now those people who back to china after studying abroad get important jobs in Chinese vast companies. A big problem about how to keep increasingly foreign exchange values remains for Chinese government. The government helps some companies, either belong to the government or privately owned, if they really want to open and enlarge oversea operation. The representative example is the Geely-Volvo deal. Unfortunately, just a few companies, which have good managing conditions, get the chance. I am afraid that some of the Chinese companies use the whole country’s power to compete with other companies for natural resources in the Africa. The deals of natural sources can help china to develop the economy and makes it grows up quickly during a long period of time, but also can break the world’s business systems at the same time. Now China is still a developing country. The government should focus on how to help nationals lift up the life standards instead of paying huge amount of money to buy some abroad companies’ assets. These will create some unnecessary anxieties in some countries. In the future, there will be more Chinese companies which have enough power to do these without government support. It means china would have been on its way of developing. China right now just like a little boy who is not strong enough.

2010年3月4日 星期四

rrj5

Sky
March4, 2010
Business Economics

Reference:
Goldman, David. (Feb 24th, 2010) “G-20 summit: 6 countries in recovery: United States: Painful rebound, Japan: Cautious improvement and China: Massive stimulus”. CNNMoney.com. http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/news/0909/gallery.g_20_summit/index.html

Summary:
On February 24th, the G20 summit that there are six countries which are United States, Japan, China, Germany, France, and United Kingdom recover gradually from the recession. United States economy had been through four quarters of decline, and just starts to climb up. The financial market and interbank lending have shown signs of improvement. Although the consumer spending is still in a low point and business have kept cutting back on spending, many economics even the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believe that the economy conditions on the path of recovery. Japan’s economics recovers greatly from the lowest point of GDP during the second quarter of 2009. The recovery was mainly influenced by the $275 billion stimulus package. It is still hard to say that Japan’s economy is in a truly recovery as the business spending on inventories was cut so low in prior quarter, and the economists are still concern about the growing deflation rate, unemployment rate and the 2times larger debt than GDP. China’s GDP almost climb upon the point used to be before the recession from the lowest point ever of the first quarter of 2009. The attempts of China’s state-controlled banking system and government make a big difference on the economy. The government of china report that china would “remain the world’s fastest-growing economy”.

Reaction:
According to the report from G-20, “challenges remain but most appear on the path to recovery.” It is a good sign showing the economies of G-20 are under better conditions than they used were. The world’s economy would follow the trends to climb up. People would be inspired by this news to have faith on the economy in the future. The faith would leads the spending of individuals or firms increase and then stimulus the economy rebound faster and better. During the recession, people cut spending a lot, and I think it is one of the reasons why the world’s economy gets worse and worse. There are problems such as high unemployment ongoing, so people may not sharply increase the spending. But as the economic conditions in getting better, the unemployment rate should decrease soon in the future.

Vocabulary:
Rebound: to spring back on or as if on collision or impact with another body
Inflation: a continuing rise in the general price level usually attributed to an increase in the volume of money and credit relative to available goods and services.
Stabilizing: to make stable, steadfast, or firm
Shrink: to lessen in value
Construction: to make or form by combining or arranging parts or elements
Inventory: an itemized list of current assets: as (1): a catalog of the property of an individual or estate (2): a list of goods on hand.
Boost: increase, rise.
Recession: a period of reduced economic activity.
Bare bones: the barest essentials, facts, or elements
Cautious: watchful and discreet in the face of danger or risk.
Deflation: a contraction in the volume of available money or credit that results in a general decline in prices.
Fiscal: of or relating to taxation, public revenues, or public debts.