How can it be that, at a time when the economy is struggling, economic forecasts are gloomy, the government is cutting back its spending significantly, “shareholders in UK companies enjoyed strong growth in dividends”? Growth in commodity prices helped mining companies in particular. Vodafone, in a sector reported to be “struggling”, posted the largest total …
Category archives: Social
World grain output grows
Although US grain production was hit by bad weather, global production of wheat, rice and corn have risen on the back of higher market prices — by around 10%-40% in the past 11 years. Russia is still imposing an export cap, the Thai government is stockpiling rice, and grain supplies remain “on a razor’s edge” …
Even billionaires can struggle
It is not only low income families who are struggling at the moment — billionaires have their problems too. The Bakrie family in Indonesia has a track record of buying companies, mortgaging them and using the new capital to buy more businesses. Its debt now stands at more than $3bn and the family has interests …
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for…
While protesters Occupy Wall Street for the third week it is interesting to stumble across an article in Vanity Fair (written in May this year) that says almost exactly the same things. The top 1% of Americans earn almost 25% of the national income and own 40% of the assets. Both figures are up on twenty five years ago …
Obama’s priorities
President Obama chose to focus on three priorities in a press conference yesterday. He cited the credit crisis in Europe as “the biggest headwind” holding back the US economy. And he criticised Wall Street for banks’ fees, saying that the anti-Wall Street protest spreading across the USA was on the recognition that “not everybody’s been …
Bosses ethics criticised
…according to a survey carried out by Management Today magazine and the Institute of Leadership and Management. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ceb08890-edd8-11e0-acc7-00144feab49a.html
Cattle futures reach record high
Despite increased supplies of corn from countries around the Black Sea, the balance between supply and demand at a global level is tightly balanced. This has left markets “vulnerable to leading to intense price swings”, despite a drop in the price from recent highs. Corn is the main ingredient in cattle feed. This uncertainty, combined with …
The plenitude economy / plenitude society
As Einstein famously pointed out, you cannot solve a problem by using the same thinking that created the problem in the first place. This short video proposes one idea for how we could move forward: shorten the working week from five days to four, and increase the number of employees (all on lower salaries).
Social tensions rise
After two weeks the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests are growing, not shrinking. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4243f648-ed34-11e0-be97-00144feab49a.html The American Dream is no longer a house in the suburbs, it is a secure job. And almost any job will do. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d49abc24-eb5a-11e0-9a41-00144feab49a.html And in the UK, the financial services sector is set to shed 8,000 jobs in the next 3 months …
Barter economy growing in Greece
“Battered by Economic Crisis, Greeks Turn to Barter Networks” http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/world/europe/in-greece-barter-networks-surge.html?pagewanted=all