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Crisis & solution: Japan cuts interest rates to zero; Italy & Greece receive stimulus package from China
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Bank of Japan surprised the world by cutting it's already low-interest rates to effectively zero.
The Japanese central bank is trying to boost its weak economy by making it cheaper for its businesses and citizens to borrow. It also hopes that the low-interest rates will cause the value of its currency, the yen, which has been rising recently, up 12% in the past six months alone, to fall. A weaker yen could boost exports by making Japanese goods cheaper to foreigners. read more »
Ted Turner:“I’ve never asked for a bailout. Where does it end?” Big Three ask for $25 bil. Market’s bailout doubts
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Time: “What did you think of the $700 billion bailout plan?”
Turner: “When I was running CNN we never had any money and I never asked for a bailout. Where does it end? AIG, you know, they need $40 billion more and we only gave them a hundred billion last week, didn't we? It's just ridiculous. And now General Motors. They said we're going to give them $25 billion to retool. Retool what? They'll run through that money so fast they'll be back wanting more. We can't keep every loser alive.”
Wall Street sputters on weak data, bailout doubts read more »
Now it's official: US in recession since 2007, one of the longest downturns since the Great Depression of 1930's
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The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy.
The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures. The NBER said that the deterioration in the labor market throughout 2008 was one key reason why it decided to state that the recession began last year.
Global financial summit from G7 to G20; new strong voice of BRIC nations: Brazil, Russia, India and China
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Western nations began to cede some control as countries including Brazil, India and China – which with Russia form the so-called BRIC nations – managed to guarantee a greater presence on the international stage.
All three will now join the board of the Financial Stability Forum – the global economic policy powerhouse that to date has been the bastion of the G8.
Each is likely to play a stronger role in the reform of major institutions such as the International Monetary Fund than might previously have been witnessed under the old economic order.
The final summit communiqué also gave particular reference to emerging and developing economies, urging them to undertake commitments consistent with their capacities and roles in the global economy – a clear admission of their increased importance. read more »
The next Silicon Valley? A look at 6 technology launching pads across the US, from Pacific Northwest to Virginia
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Bellevue, Washington
With Microsoft's Redmond headquarters just five miles from downtown, Bellevue attracts a wealth of talented software engineers. (Hitachi and Sun Microsystems also have facilities in the area). The city hosts a number of successful startups, such as Expedia.com, dreamt up by former Microsoft employees, as well as a growing community of videogame developers. Other thriving local industries include telecommunications and wireless technology. For these industries, one of the city's main attractions is investment firm Trilogy Equity Partners, which was co-founded by John Stanton, Western Wireless founder and former CEO of T-Mobile USA, also based in Bellevue.
Portland, Oregon
Some people call it Silicon Forest. That's because the Portland metropolitan area has done an impressive job of attracting entrepreneurial tech talent, thanks in part to the presence of Tektronix, IBM and Intel. In fact, many of the city's computer-technology companies were started by former employees of these tech giants, focusing on areas such as open-source and educational software. But Portland isn't just about computer technology. Over the years, the city has earned a reputation for progressive energy policies, attracting a large sustainable-technology community, as well as the U.S. headquarters of Vestas, the world's largest wind-turbine manufacturer. Support for the Portland tech scene comes from organizations such as Oregon InC, a state-funded venture dedicated to nurturing Oregon's innovation economy. read more »
Main St wonders "people responsible for this are making half a million a year, why do we have to bail them out?"
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Melissa Hamlet worries that the stock market's wild swings will mean fewer potential buyers for her home. Restaurant owner Christopher Tocchio fumes that the government isn't holding failing businesses accountable for their reckless decisions. And Mary Vaughan, a recent widow, wonders why government rescues corporate America while she struggles to pay her bills. "I'm paying enough taxes now, and the taxpayers have to bail these big guys out?" she said.
Anger, fear, and shock about the Wall Street meltdown are percolating through conversations along Massachusetts' main streets. A whirlwind week of unprecedented government intervention to prop up the nation's financial system seemed to confirm people's worst fears: The economy is in peril and recovery is far off. Seemingly overnight, nearly everyone felt poorer - homes lost value, 401(k) investments were battered, and jobs, for some, were in jeopardy.
Lehman bankrupt, Merrill sold; worst day on Wall Street since 9/11 shakes major markets worldwide, shares tumble
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In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Lehman Brothers, the 158-year-old, fourth-largest U.S. investment bank that predates the Civil War and weathered the Great Depression, filed the largest bankruptcy in American history; while Merrill Lynch, the third largest investment firm, has agreed to sell itself to Bank of America, the nation's largest bank.
Investors suffered their worst losses since the terrorist attacks of 2001. Amid worries that the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the sale of Merrill Lynch might not be enough to stop the downward spiral, stocks fell sharply in the last half hour of trading. By the end of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average had dropped 504.48 points, or 4.4 percent, as a record volume of more than 8 billion shares traded hands on the New York Stock Exchange. It was the biggest decline since Sept. 17, 2001 - the day the index reopened after the 9/11 terrorist attacks - when it fell 7 percent, or 684.81 points. read more »
New contender in the browser wars: Google to launch open source web browser Chrome on Tues., takes on Microsoft
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Google is launching an open source web browser to compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox. The browser is designed to be lightweight and fast, and to cope with the next generation of web applications that rely on graphics and multimedia.
Called Chrome, it will launch as a beta for Windows machines in 100 countries, with Mac and Linux versions to come. "We realised... we needed to completely rethink the browser," said Google's Sundar Pichai in a blog post. The new browser will help Google take advantage of developments it is pushing online in rich web applications that are challenging traditional desktop programs. Chrome will be an open-source product, meaning anyone can modify the software code and add features.
Google has a suite of web apps, such as Documents, Picasa and Maps which offer functionality that is beginning to replace offline software. "What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that's what we set out to build," Mr Pichai, VP Product Management, wrote.
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