Eight years after Zuckerberg launched Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, his social network connects almost 1 billion people and has made him one of the richest people on the planet. He’s selling off around 30 million shares in Facebook’s IPO, raising $1.1 billion, but he won’t be hanging on to most of the cash: Facebook say he’ll use it to pay off a massive tax bill on a stock-options exercise.
NEXT: Sheryl Sandberg
Categories: Banking News Tags: business news, market analysis, Money magazine
During last year’s Super Bowl, GM ran an ad implying that only its Chevrolet Silverado trucks could survive an apocalypse. But apparently, even GM couldn’t live with next year’s Super Bowl ad prices.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — General Motors will not advertise during this year’s Super Bowl game, the automaker said Friday.
It’s a big change for GM which had returned to Super Bowl advertising after sitting out 2009 and 2010 as the automaker recovered from economic disaster and bankruptcy. GM executives have said that ads during the game were very effective.
Advertisers paid an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second ad during last year’s Super Bowl, which was broadcast by NBC. Next year’s game will be broadcast by CBS.
“We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the increased price, we can’t justify the expense,” GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said.
Morrissey would not say how much CBS was asking but he said it was more than was demanded last year. CBS did not immediately return a call asking for comment.
The move was first reported Friday by the Wall Street Journal.
General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) also recently announced it would stop buying paid ads on the social media Web site Facebook, athough the company said it would continue to operate free pages on the site for its various brands.
The automaker is not reducing its overall ad spending, Morrissey said, and may even spend slightly more this year than it has in the past.
GM, the nations’s biggest-selling automaker, has traditionally been among among America’s biggest-spending advertisers. Between 2002 and 2011, GM was the third biggest spender on Super Bowl ads after Anheuser-Busch InBev (AHBIF) and PepsiCo (PEP, Fortune 500), according to analysts at Kantar Media.
The automaker spent nearly $83 million on Super Bowl ads during that time, Kantar Media said.
During last year’s Super Bowl, GM broadcast a controversial Chevrolet truck ad that brought an objection from Ford over a claim that Chevy sold the “longest-lasting, most dependable truck on the road.” 
Categories: Banking News Tags: business news, market analysis, Money magazine
Jim Milligan, 59
Traverse City, Mich.
Worked for: Imation 3M Company, as a general manager
Started in 2007: Fustini’s, an oil and vinegar tasting room and bottling shop that now has 32 employees.
Milligan was intrigued by the success of such businesses in Europe. So he conducted elaborate market research to see if there would be demand for a similar store in the U.S.
Startup costs: $100,000
Revenue in 2011: $2.5 million
Salary in 2011: $150,000
His advice for you: “Look at industry trends in your community. Listen and pay attention to what’s going on in the market.”
NEXT: Hire professionals
Categories: Banking News Tags: business news, market analysis, Money magazine
* G8 favors boosting growth to balance austerity, combat
financial market stress
* Obama reminds European leaders of high stakes in crisis
* G8 monitoring oil prices closely, ready to act
By Jeff Mason and Laura MacInnis
CAMP DAVID, Md., May 19 (Reuters) – World leaders backed
keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take
all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while
revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by
Europe’s debt crisis.
A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down
solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity – an
approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel – with a
new dose of U.S.-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing
euro-zone economies. But it was clear that divisions remained.
“We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and
reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses,
recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of
us,” the leaders said in a joint statement issued at their
meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
The message sent by the summit hosted by President Barack
Obama reflected his own concerns that the euro-zone contagion,
which threatens the future of Europe’s 17-country single
currency bloc, could hurt the fragile U.S. recovery and his
re-election chances in November.
In their final economic communique, the Group of Eight
leaders endorsed calls to broaden Europe’s focus to more
pro-growth remedies and said: “We reaffirm our interest in
Greece remaining in the euro zone while respecting its
commitments.”
It was unusual for the often-bland G8 communique to single
out a relatively small nation. But fears that a political
stalemate in Greece would lead to its departure from Europe’s
monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and
global economic stability have spooked markets.
Spain too has roiled markets by revealing huge bad loans in
its banking system as it struggles to rein in its budget while
facing recession.
Merkel, increasingly isolated by a French-led push for a
more growth-oriented approach, sought to play down the
differences, saying: “Solid finances and growth belong
inseparably together and should not be put into contrast.”
Obama, who has pressed Europe for more growth-boosting
measures like those he pursued at home, used his closing
statement to remind euro-zone leaders that the stakes were high
and there could be “enormous” costs to the global economy if
they failed.
“Growth and jobs must be our top priority,” he said,
reaffirming his view that Europe has the capacity to meet the
challenge.
Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers
Harriman, said: “It is significant that a group as weighty as
the G8 backs Greece and reinforces the idea that Europe needs a
strong union. It strengthens its hand.”
In another move to shore up shaky global growth, the G8
leaders said they would monitor oil markets closely and stand
ready to seek an increase in supplies if needed. While crude oil
prices have declined by 10 percent over the past month, the
threat of sanctions on Iran loom next month.
The G8 said the global economic recovery shows promising
signs but “significant headwinds persist.”
CASUAL SETTING, TENSE ISSUES
The mountain cabins at Camp David where a shirt-sleeved Obama
hosted the G8 leaders contrasted with recent tense meetings in
European capitals about a sovereign debt crisis that just keeps
getting worse.
The economic communique endorsed a recent political shift
away from the budget-cutting austerity that has been championed
by Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron as the route
to prosperity.
Instead it recognized a common need to combine budgetary
discipline with a growth strategy. This strengthens the hand of
newly elected socialist French President Francois Hollande
before a crucial European Union dinner on Wednesday to discuss
growth.
The euro zone crisis took another lurch downward late last
week when Spain revealed huge losses in its banking system and
partially nationalized Bankia.
Cameron, after an early morning gym workout with Obama, said
he detected a “growing sense of urgency that action needs to be
taken” on the euro zone crisis. London relies heavily on
international finance and banking instability would strike a
fresh blow to an economy already in recession.
“Contingency plans need to be put in place and the
strengthening of banks, governance, firewalls – all of those
things need to take place very fast,” he told reporters.
European leaders seemed keen to stress that they would stand
firm in protecting their banks, after news of escalating bad
loans raised the specter that rescuing Spain’s banks would crash
the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.
“We will do whatever is needed to guarantee the financial
stability of the euro zone,” European Union President Herman Van
Rompuy said, using language that ended up in the statement.
Hollande suggested using European funds to inject capital
into Spain’s banks, which would mark a significant acceleration
of EU rescue efforts. But there was no direct mention of Spain
in the communique or any indication of action leaders would take
to combat the financial stresses.
GERMANY SOFTENING ON AUSTERITY
There already were signs of a softening in Germany’s
austerity stance as the meeting began.
Germany’s largest industrial union, IG Metall, struck its
biggest pay deal in 20 years early on Saturday. The 4.3 percent
pay increase, more than double Germany’s inflation rate, will
boost worker buying power in the euro zone’s richest nation and
lift consumption. That is something the United States has urged
as a means to bolster overall growth throughout the world’s
second largest economic region.
In the G8 group photo outside the presidential log cabin,
Obama also sought balance. He stood with the leaders of Europe’s
two largest powers – France and Germany – to his right and his
left respectively.
G8 leaders also raised pressure on Iran over its nuclear
program, which they suspect has military objectives, by
committing to a common approach. They pledged to implement
sanctions fully against Tehran and indicated they would act
together to lower oil prices if needed.
“Our hope is that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful
fashion that respects Iran’s sovereignty and its rights in the
international community, but also recognizes its
responsibilities,” Obama told reporters.
The Camp David summit kicked off four days of intensive
diplomacy that will test world leaders’ ability to quell unease
over the threat of another financial meltdown as well as plans
to wind down the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
After the Camp David talks, Obama and several of the G8
leaders headed to his home town of Chicago where he will host a
two-day NATO meeting at which the Afghanistan war will be the
central topic.
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Reuters reports, US Dollar Report
CAMP ROUND MEADOW, Md. May 19 (Reuters) – British Prime
Minister David Cameron urged countries on Saturday to put in
place strong contingency plans to deal with fallout from the
euro zone debt crisis as fears grow that Greece could be forced
out of the European single currency.
Cameron, speaking at a summit of the Group of Eight major
economies, also appeared to hint that the European Central Bank
should follow the example of the Bank of England by embarking on
an asset purchase program to try to boost the economy.
“What is required is a sense of urgency and then clear
actions for strong banks, strong deficit reduction plans, strong
governance and strong contingency plans for whatever might
happen,” Cameron told reporters, setting out what he believes
must be done to tackle the euro zone crisis.
Cameron has stepped up his warnings this week that the euro
zone needs to act swiftly to solve its debt crisis, saying on
Thursday that Greece was “on the brink” and the survival of the
euro was in question.
British officials are deeply worried about the impact that a
breakup of the euro and a further deterioration of the euro zone
crisis could have on Britain’s recession-hit economy.
Britain is outside the euro zone but about 40 percent of its
exports go to the single currency bloc.
After early morning talks on the economy with U.S. President
Barack Obama while both leaders worked out at the gym, Cameron
said he detected a “growing sense of urgency that action needs
to be taken” on the euro zone crisis.
“We are addressing here the two biggest threats to all our
economies and that is of course the euro zone crisis but also
the very high oil prices that translate into high prices at the
pumps and we are making progress on both,” he told reporters.
Group of Eight leaders meeting at the U.S. presidential
retreat of Camp David, Maryland, backed keeping Greece in the
euro zone and vowed to take all steps necessary to combat
financial turmoil while revitalising their economies.
Cameron appeared to call on the ECB to take a more
accommodative monetary stance to lift growth in the euro zone.
“Clearly, just as Britain benefits from a strong government
with a strong deficit reduction plan and strong banks but also
an independent monetary policy giving us low interest rates,
helping to push demand in the economy, so the euro zone I
believe needs that approach as well,” he said.
A government source said Cameron’s comment was a veiled
suggestion that the ECB should copy the quantitative easing
program followed by the Bank of England.
The Bank of England has bought 325 billion pounds ($520
billion) of government debt with newly created money to try to
boost Britain’s ailing economy.
The ECB has taken its own crisis measures to avert a
financial meltdown in the euro zone, putting more than 1
trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of low-cost, three-year funds
into the banking system since the end of December.
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Reuters reports, US Dollar Report
* G8 favors boosting growth to balance austerity
* Obama reminds European leaders of high stakes in crisis
* G8 monitoring oil prices closely, ready to act
By Jeff Mason and Laura MacInnis
CAMP DAVID, Md., May 19 (Reuters) – World leaders backed
keeping Greece in the euro zone on Saturday and vowed to take
all steps necessary to combat financial turmoil while
revitalizing a global economy increasingly threatened by
Europe’s debt crisis.
A summit of the G8 leading industrialized nations came down
solidly in favor of a push to balance European austerity – an
approach long driven by German Chancellor Angela Merkel – with a
new dose of U.S.-style stimulus seen as vital to healing ailing
euro-zone economies. But it was clear that divisions remained.
“We commit to take all necessary steps to strengthen and
reinvigorate our economies and combat financial stresses,
recognizing that the right measures are not the same for each of
us,” the leaders said in a joint statement issued at their
meeting at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.
The overarching message from the summit hosted by President
Barack Obama reflected his own concerns that the euro-zone
contagion, which threatens the future of Europe’s 17-country
single currency bloc, could hurt the fragile U.S. recovery and
his re-election chances in November.
With Greece’s political and economic upheaval high on the
summit’s agenda and stoking concerns over instability in Spain
and Italy, Group of Eight leaders sought to calm the situation.
In the first line of their final economic communique, they
essentially endorsed calls to broaden Europe’s focus beyond
German-backed fiscal belt-tightening, calling it “our
imperative” to promote growth and job creation.
Anxious to quell investor fears, the G8 said: “We reaffirm
our interest in Greece remaining in the euro zone while
respecting its commitments.” But leaders offered no specific
prescription for extracting Athens from its worsening crisis.
It was unusual for the often-bland G8 communique to single
out a relatively small nation. But fears that a political
stalemate in Greece would lead to its departure from Europe’s
monetary union at unknown costs to the financial system and
global economic stability have spooked markets.
Greek voters this month toppled a government that had agreed
to painfully austere terms of an international bailout plan, and
uncertainty hangs over the next election set for June 17.
Spain too has roiled markets by revealing huge bad loans in
its banking system as it struggles to rein in its budget while
facing recession.
Merkel, increasingly isolated by a French-led push for a
more growth-oriented approach, sought to play down the
differences, saying: “Solid finances and growth belong
inseparably together and should not be put into contrast.”
Obama, who has pressed Europe for more growth-boosting
measures like those he pursued at home, used his closing
statement to remind euro-zone leaders that the stakes were high
and there could be “enormous” costs if they failed.
“Growth and jobs must be our top priority,” he said,
reaffirming that Europe has the capacity to meet the challenge.
Marc Chandler, currency strategist at Brown Brothers
Harriman, said: “It is significant that a group as weighty as
the G8 backs Greece and reinforces the idea that Europe needs a
strong union. It strengthens its hand.”
In another move to shore up shaky global growth, the G8
leaders said they would monitor oil markets closely and stand
ready to seek an increase in supplies if needed. While crude oil
prices have declined by 10 percent over the past month, the
threat of tighter sanctions on Iran loom next month.
The G8 said the global economic recovery shows promising
signs but “significant headwinds persist.”
CASUAL SETTING, TENSE ISSUES
The mountain cabins at Camp David where a shirt-sleeved Obama
hosted the G8 leaders contrasted with recent tense meetings in
European capitals about a sovereign debt crisis that just keeps
getting worse.
The economic communique endorsed a recent political shift
away from the budget-cutting austerity that has been championed
by Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron as the route
to prosperity.
Instead it recognized a need to combine budgetary discipline
with a growth strategy. This strengthens the hand of newly
elected socialist French President Francois Hollande before a
crucial European Union dinner on Wednesday to discuss growth.
The G8 said it had “an interest” in specific measures from
Europe, signaling it wants concrete steps from a dinner meeting
of European Union leaders later this week and an EU summit in
June.
Cameron, after an early morning gym workout with Obama, said
he detected a “growing sense of urgency that action needs to be
taken” on the euro zone crisis. London relies heavily on
international finance and banking instability would strike a
fresh blow to an economy already in recession.
“Contingency plans need to be put in place and the
strengthening of banks, governance, firewalls – all of those
things need to take place very fast,” he told reporters.
European leaders seemed keen to stress that they would stand
firm in protecting their banks, after news of escalating bad
loans raised the specter that rescuing Spain’s banks would crash
the euro zone’s fourth largest economy.
Hollande suggested using European funds to inject capital
into Spain’s banks, which would mark a significant acceleration
of EU rescue efforts. But there was no direct mention of Spain
in the communique or any indication of action leaders would take
to combat the financial stresses.
GERMANY SOFTENING ON AUSTERITY
Obama and Merkel, on opposite sides of the
growth-versus-austerity debate almost since the U.S. president
took office in 2009, discussed what one White House aide called
an “emerging consensus” in one-on-one talks after the Camp David
summit.
There already had been signs of a softening in Germany’s
austerity stance as the G8 meetings began.
Germany’s largest industrial union, IG Metall, struck its
biggest pay deal in 20 years early on Saturday. The 4.3 percent
pay increase, more than double Germany’s inflation rate, will
boost worker buying power in the euro zone’s richest nation and
lift consumption. That is something the United States has urged
as a means to bolster overall growth throughout the world’s
second largest economic region.
G8 leaders also raised pressure on Iran over its nuclear
program, which they suspect has military objectives, by
committing to a common approach. They pledged to implement
sanctions fully against Tehran and indicated they would act
together to lower oil prices if needed.
“Our hope is that we can resolve this issue in a peaceful
fashion that respects Iran’s sovereignty and its rights in the
international community, but also recognizes its
responsibilities,” Obama told reporters.
The Camp David summit kicked off four days of intensive
diplomacy that will test world leaders’ ability to quell unease
over the threat of another financial meltdown as well as plans
to wind down the unpopular war in Afghanistan.
After the Camp David talks, Obama and several of the G8
leaders headed to his home town of Chicago where he will host a
two-day NATO meeting at which the Afghanistan war will be the
central topic.
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Reuters reports, US Dollar Report
Last updated:
May 17, 2012 5:21 pm
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Currency Markets News, Financial Times, Forex News
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Currency Markets News, Financial Times, Forex News
May 18, 2012 4:20 pm
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Currency Markets News, Financial Times, Forex News
This weekend, the United Farm Workers is holding its fiftieth anniversary. In 1962, Cesar and Helen Chavez and Dolores Huerta began their struggle to improve the life of farm workers.
Last week, on Cinco Mayo in San Diego’s Barrio Logan, the United States Navy christened and launched the USNS Cesar Chavez over Republican opposition for naming the cargo ship after the civil rights leader and union activist. Earlier, Senator Barbara Boxer, D-California, credited the Navy “for continuing the Navy’s rich tradition of naming these supply ships after pioneers, explorers and visionaries by honoring Cesar Chavez, who worked tirelessly to promote fair working conditions and equal rights for all Americans.”
The USNS Cesar Chavez is the fourteenth and final ship in the Lewis-and-Clark class of cargo ships. The first, in 2001, was the Lewis and Clark named after the pioneers who ventured, overland from the East to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
The names of the other 12 Lewis Clark cargo ships are:
The USMS Medgar Evers named after the slain African-American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi.
The USNS William McLean, named for a Navy physicist, who developed the Sidewinder missile.
The USNS Washington Chambers named in honor of a pioneer in naval aviation.
The USNS Charles Drew named after a physician who researched blood transfusions and blood banks that saved thousands of lives in World War II.
The USNS Matthew Perry named after Commodore Matthew C. Perry who led the Nineteenth Century to open Japan to trade with the West.
The USNS Wally Shirra named for one of the first astronauts and the only one to fly in all three pioneering space programs – Mercury, Gemini and Apollo.
The USNS Carl Brashear named after the first African American to become a U.S. Navy Master Diver despite having lost a leg in bomber crash.
The USS Amelia Earhart, name after the historic female aviator and women’s rights advocate.
The USNS Robert E. Peary named for the Arctic explorer.
USNS Richard E. Byrd named after a polar explorer.
The USNS Alan Sheppard named for the first American in space, Rear Adm. Alan B. Sheppard Jr.
The USS Sacagawea, named after the Shoshone who acted as guide and interpreter the Lewis Clark expedition.
Several years ago, Barack Obama said, “As farm workers and laborers across America continue to struggle for fair treatment and fair wages, we find strength in what Cesar Chavez accomplished so many years ago. It’s time to recognize the contributions of this American icon.”
The recognition was displayed at the launching of the USNS Cesar Chavez when Assistant Secretary of the Navy Juan Garcia told the thousands of spectators, many of whom were those who built the ship, “This is the perfect name of an American hero who embodied American values that will inspire a generation of sailors.” Garcia told the audience that the Navy named ships in the Lewis Clark series after persons whose achievements had a positive impact on the lives of many Americans. He told those in attendance that Chavez had joined the Navy when he was 17, in a time when Hispanic and African-American sailors were relegated to working in the kitchen, deck or chipping paint. Garcia proudly reflected that naming a Navy ship after Chavez shows that we continue to overcome racism and inequality.
Admirals who spoke at the christening, reminded the audience that as a Lewis Clark cargo ship, the USNS Cesar Chavez would be a world ambassador providing food and water to the desperate like the Japanese after the tsunami or in Central or South America after a hurricane.
At the moment of launching of the USNS Cesar Chavez, with the fireworks exploding overhead and “from sea to shining sea” blaring, the 689 foot ship briskly slid into the San Diego bay. The spellbound crowd returned my thoughts to hearing De Colores sung by striking Delano farm workers at a vigil for fasting Cesar Chavez.
After the launching of the USNS Cesar Chavez, Cesar’s widow Helen smiled and nodded when I said, “Cesar would be Proud.” But the struggle to improve the working conditions of farm workers continues. Farm workers are still dying from heat when they toil in California’s 100 degree fields.
Categories: Currency Exchange News Tags: Forex News, Forreign Exchange News
