Thursday, December 29, 2011

The Enigma of Long-Term Unemployment



The Enigma of long-term unemployment a possible explanation. The story's conclusion is below and the title and the authors; Richard Peach, Josiah Bethards, and Joseph Song.

Labor Force Exits Are Complicating Unemployment Rate Forecasts



The labor force participation rate has fallen sharply since the previous business cycle peak in fourth-quarter 2007. The decline has been more pronounced than one would have predicted based on the trends of the past decade, such that the participation rate is roughly a full percentage point lower than its underlying trend. Forecasts of the U.S. economy for the next several years that are quite similar in most other respects could have quite different paths for the unemployment rate depending on the assumptions made for the labor force participation rate over the forecast horizon. Moreover, a declining unemployment rate does not necessarily imply that the labor market is tightening if it is due to a decline of the labor force participation rate. "



Sunday, December 25, 2011

Santa Tracker

Now Santa is in South America ,,,Peru...

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

"Live with Dignity" Rajabhat University Research



What does $40 dollars means to me? It means the difference of living off $5 a day and living off of $6 a day. A big increase of the UN MDG goals'. It means to me "Live with Dignity".


"Live with Dignity"

Monday, December 19, 2011

North Korea




North Korean and communist party officials "released a notice on Saturday informing" members of the Workers' Party of Korea, military "and all other people" of Kim's passing, according to KCNA.
The son of Kim Il Song, the founder of the communist nation, Kim Jong Il had been in power since 1994 when his father died of a heart attack at age 82.
The enigmatic leader was a frequent thorn in the side of neighboring South Korea, as well as the United States. There have been reports in recent years about his health, as well as that power will be transitioned to his son, Kim Jong Un.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

G20 Mexico 2012




G20 Mexico 2012 A summary of the goals to be accomplished in 2012 in Mexico during the G20 Summit.

  1. A meeting of finance ministers and central bankers on February 25-26, 2012.
  2. The G20 on Friday February 20, 2012 agreed to increase the IMF resources but by how much is the question. 
  3. The European Debt Crisis continuing caused the IMF to ask for  a lending capacity up to$500 billion.
  4. The European Union consist of the 19 members of major economies to support sovereign finance.
  5. Mexico's Deputy Finance Minister said that it is made up of two parts the European part and the IMF part during the 2 days meeting.
Mexico currently holds the presidency of the G20.

Friday, December 16, 2011

Academic Essay at DD

Latte...

G20 Mexico Summit 2012




G20, APEC and EAS Leaders recognised in Cannes that “global recovery has weakened,
particularly in advanced countries, leaving unemployment at unacceptable levels.”
The end-November OECD Economic Outlook made clear the very real
threat of double-dip recession, with growth forecasts now falling practically
daily. Yet the financial market irresponsibility and greed that were largely
responsible for the recession have not been curbed; inequalities are still rising
to the benefit of the 1% and even more of the 0.1% at the top, while sovereign
debt crises put ever greater strain on the Euro, creating a context in which
unemployment is quasi-certain to rise further. The emerging economies in
the G20 are being affected too, and face particular social tensions in finding
jobs for millions of young people seeking work. And the 1.4 billion women
and men living in extreme poverty face little prospect of improvement in a
context of global economic stagnation.

New E-Book Pricing Scheme



An interesting article appeared in The Wall Street Journal  mentioning Apple, Barnes & Nobel and Amazon.
"The problem of so-called "e-book sticker shock" is becoming a reality ever since six of the top book publishers banded together and agreed to set prices for the electronic books they sell, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. In some cases the price for the e-version of a book is actually higher than the physical version, the article said."


"“Under the new pricing model, a $25 hardcover is often priced at $12.99 for the e-book. And because publishers receive 70% of the e-book retail price -- while retailers retain 30% -- that means publishers receive only $9.09. Publishers were willing to accept the lower profits because they felt the new arrangement preserved the value of books and encouraged other retailers to enter the e-book market. Indeed, the new arrangement means guaranteed profits on best-selling titles for retailers like Barnes & Noble Inc., which today claims about 27% of the digital books market, as well as Amazon.”"


"“I bought a Kindle when ebooks cost 9.99. Since Amazon raised the prices for ebooks, my Kindle mostly sits, unused. If I'm going to pay 15 bucks for a book, I want to be able to loan it out or give it away when I'm done with it.”"

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The People's Skype "bifurcated"


The people's skype.

A phone-powered, distributed voice and voting system for the #Occupy Movement


The People's Skype

"This concept first became apparent in the U.K., with the “Uncut” protests. There, student protesters developed a new tool called Sukey to help one another avoid police barricades. " 
"This fall, in New York’s Zucotti Park, occupiers have developed new tools and appropriated existing ones. An early example of the latter was their use of the blogging platform Tumblr, which first gained popularity through New York’s fashion and photography scene. But Occupy Wall Street’s use of Tumblr has transformed the tool itself into one more amenable to advocacy. With every new tag, note and reblog that corresponds to activism, the platform becomes more valuable for organizers."



"Occupiers are also the most recent activists to take a stab at creating a “mesh network,” or a localized, independent version of the Internet. (It doesn’t use central hubs that can be shut down by governments.) During the Egyptian uprising in early 2011, mesh networks garnered interest as a viable workaround for future Internet blackouts, like the one instated by Hosni Mubarak. The Egyptian experience inspired projects called Open Mesh and Apps for the Apocalypse. And now Occupy has ignited The Free Network Foundation which, like its precursors, aims to harness the momentum of today’s protests to create technological solutions that will serve actions of tomorrow."
"The new tools that have emerged from Occupy protests are direct responses to user needs. For example, when it became clear that cellphone microphones were insufficient for disseminating information across Zucotti Park, technologists joined with activists to create a phone-powered tool for real-time information sharing. The People’s Skype turns many phones into distributed PA systems, provided the devices have speakerphone capability and their users know the dial-in and pin number. The tool also allows for real-time voting using mobile keypads."
"A new application for Facebook called the Occupy Network provides a simple but important fix for online organizing. Rather than sifting through the various groups, pages and events related to occupations, anyone can use this app to search by location and see which of his Facebook friends are involved."
"Technology and social networks haven’t yet been able to accurately anticipate the needs of would-be users. Only enhanced communication between technology developers and users will foster advancement. Until then, major movements are taking the reins."

"Once upon a time, when major news events were chronicled strictly by professionals and printed on paper or transmitted through the air by the few for the masses, protesters were prime makers of history. Back then, when citizen multitudes took to the streets without weapons to declare themselves opposed, it was the very definition of news — vivid, important, often consequential. In the 1960s in America they marched for civil rights and against the Vietnam War; in the '70s, they rose up in Iran and Portugal; in the '80s, they spoke out against nuclear weapons in the U.S. and Europe, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, against communist tyranny in Tiananmen Square and Eastern Europe. Protest was the natural continuation of politics by other means."

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2101745_2102132_2102373,00.html #ixzz1gWDrFQHu"

Mobile English Free for Awhile


From the US State Department, it is free for awhile. You be the judge...
Mobile English

Friday, December 9, 2011

How Mobile Technology is Reshaping the Global Landscape Seminar


Participants can follow the conversation on Twitter using the hashtag #CTIMobile.
"With smart phones now outnumbering personal computers, there has been a sea change in the way people access and share information. Powerful mobile devices and sophisticated digital applications enable users to build businesses, access financial and health care records, expand educational opportunities, conduct research and complete transactions anytime, anywhere." 

"On December 8, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings will launch a new mobile economy project, which will examine and document the impact of the mobile revolution on the economies of developed and developing countries, with a forum exploring how mobile technology can ease the everyday lives of Americans. Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies, will moderate a discussion with Chris Dede of Harvard University and Allan Friedman of the Brookings Institution. Peggy Johnson, executive vice president and president of Global Market Development at Qualcomm, will provide opening remarks."

"After the program, panelists will take questions from the audience."

Friday, December 2, 2011

Academic Essay "Written Word" at Starbucks The End of Year Summits Under The G20 Framework


Introduction:
The annual summits, which begin last month, started with the G20 and lead to the APEC Summit.
The ultimate goal agreed upon by all the countries is to bring about a "Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific" (FTAAP) by 2020. There were no divergent views among the countries.


Point 1:
There have been many Summits over the last two years, and a creation of frameworks of economic partnerships. The ASEAN nations are at the core; ASEAN + 3, which involves Japan, China and Republic of Korea, or ASEAN + 6, which adds India, Australia and New Zealand. As well as, a joint research on a Trilateral FTA among Japan, China, and the ROK would be brought to a conclusion in 2011.


Point 2:
The 2011 East Asian Summit (EAS) is the first time the U.S. and Russia will participate. After a decade spent on war, the US can get back to an economic framework. Evidence can be seen, for the first time in a decade, Secretary of State Clinton visited Myanmar. The next worrisome problem are the 11 emerging economies or, so-called N-11, which includes, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Turkey, and Vietnam; that will play a more important part in driving global growth over the next decade.


Point 3:
The policy of how to reach the goal of growth or no growth is perceive as the problem, especially in the realm of economic policy, for example, attempts at multilateral economic partnerships, it is very difficult to get every one to agree.The details of each bilateral agreement between two countries as in the Organization of Economic Cooperative Development (OECD) developed countries manage the lost of control and face to the developing or emerging countries in the globalized world making growth the perceived dominate factor of there is a choice between growth or decline. It can be summed up as (The Dependency Theory), a rich country has a choice of growth or decline and vice versa "the other way around" a poor country has a choice of growth or decline.


Conclusion:
The summits were a missed opportunity in terms of strategy and policy. The world needs a clear macroeconomic strategy for recovery in addition to a framework, which would allow deficit countries to grow their way out of debt rather than get caught in austerity-induced downward spirals. Hopefully, the strategies policies can be discussed at that point.