576 hours of Advent in 576 words! An Economic Snapshot Special!

Tis the season to be Economic!

For the 24 days of advent

1^st of December:         The Eurozone risk increased after European manufacturing growth fell at it’s fastest pace for two years. The Chinese manufacturing fell to a 32-month low and Toyota and BMW announced a joint Eco-friendly venture.

2^nd of December:        Angela Merkel has announced the fiscal union and is pushing for it as a way to resolve the Eurozone crisis. The announcements of this closer EU integration lead to stock markets opening higher.

5^th of December:        Merkel and Sarkozy are meeting to discuss the EU fiscal. In other EU news, Eurozone service sector activity shrank and Italy’s borrowing cost fell following Mario Monti’s austerity plans.

6^th of December:        EU markets were down by around 3%, and a panel has discovered that the management of Olympus was “rotten”. Australia’s central bank cut its interest rates to help growth and lowered its cash rate by 0.25% to 4.25%.

7^th December:            China’s exports were set to suffer as Western Markets suffered whilst sales in Europe and US had 40% of their exports compromised. The fiscal compact was announced for Thursday. Elsewhere the Olympus’s board resigned.

8^th of December:        The EU prepared for the summit in Brussels, meanwhile the ECB have cut interest rates as S&P announce plans on reviewing the AAA rated countries. The EU stock markets did make small gains.

9^th of December:        Today was the day that David Cameron insisted an exemption for the UK from some regulations and changes were initially dropped. Elsewhere Moody’s downgraded France’s biggest banks and German exports fell by 3.8%.

12^th of December:      Unemployment was announced as the world’s biggest worry and the EU economy was forecast to contract by 1.5%. Standard Charted bank stated the world’s economy would contract 1.3% unlike the original 0.6% growth.

13^th of December:      Shares in Asia’s computer chip manufacturers have fallen after Intel cut its revenue forecast. Shares in Samsung fell by 1.29% and China mobile was proclaimed China’s most valuable brand. EU Tensions continued to mount.

14^th of December:      China guaranteed growth in 2012 and scandal-hit Olympus has filed different earnings reports in a bid to be kept in the stock exchange. Whilst Hong Kong was announced as the most financially developed.

15^th of December:      The Eurozone downturn slowed revealed by Markit released a survey of thousand of firms. In this, Germany’s manufacturing shrank, 3^rd month in a row and Japan’s sentiment went negative.  Olympus retained stock-exchange listing.

16^th of December:      Stock markets in the euro steadied themselves, in a pre Christmas calm, and Zynga was predicted to raise $1billion on its stock market flotation. Also, India’s Reserve Bank held interest rates at 8.5%.

19^th of December:      Kim Jong Il died and the markets reacted accordingly with South Korea’s currency and stock falling. Saab filed for bankruptcy and Kingdom Holding Company invested $300million into twitter. Etihad Airways increased AirBerlin stake to 29%.

21^st of December:       The ECB loans did very well with huge demand for them. The central bank expected to lend 450billion euros. Italy’s economy shrank by 0.2% and The ECJ deemed the emissions tax valid.

22^nd of December:      Lufthansa sold BMI to IAG, despite protest from virgin and other airlines. Yahoo’s shares increased and the cost of borrowing for Hungary rose and Japan’s economy was expected to shrink by 0.1%.

23^rd of December:       China’s average minimum wages increased by 13% but one province increased by 23.4%, due to labour shortages. As well, Cloucester Coal shares jumped by 30% initially.

Twitenomics! The economy according to the people of the Internet.

What's the internet come to...

So what's been going on in the recesses of the Internet this week? With such a monumental time for our world's economy you can guarantee that through the magic of the Internet virtually everyones' opinions, both educated and uneducated, as the case may be for me, can be heard ringing across the pages of websites everywhere.
We began this week on rocky footing with a lot of unrest surrounding the Eurozone crisis and the UK's decision to opt out of the European fiscal. Although lots of time and thought went into this decision on the part of David Cameron and Britain's government it bears thinking about whether if they'd heard Arwynn Hughes' opinion, on Facebook, they'd have come out with the same decision. Ms. Hughes managed to prove the decision wrong with the fair, balanced and reasonable view of "Cameron's decision has left us outside of Europe, I guess we'll just have to stick with sh*tty old Swizerland and Norway... Both countries known for being s**t right?" I can't help but think it's a bit worrying that Arwynn can vote in general elections.
Elsewhere the latest on the ongoing patent war between apple and HTC and Geoffrey Lin picked up on the fact of HTC having both outsold apple in America but also the triviality of the victory, pointing out that "the patent they won is not even major on user interface, anyone can easily work round it." Good to see someone actually researches what they write, before posting.
The news of Russia's joining of the World Trade Organisation prompted another remarkably well thought out post from Hassan Ali Raza saying, among other things, that "access to Russia's markets is a dream come true for the developing countries," as well as offering his approval of the move. A not so insightful approval, however, came from Ferdinand Rosales, "very good Comrade." Isn't the Internet wonderful?
The BBC website was also in rapt discussion about VW's decision, mentioned in today's snapshot, to stop emailing workers, on their balckberrys, in out of work hours. John from Hendon made clear his view with the cry for the employees to " just switch it OFF!" referring to the balckberrys. Whilst the highest rated comment described the situation as an "Orwellian nightmare" as well as also talking about how his wife refuses to buy an Internet connected phone over such concerns.
In the web there have also been updates on opinions from business leaders as to the economy of the world. Lord Sugar took to twitter to show his disapproval of Nick Clegg's proposal to have the members of the House of Lords elected, saying "Clegg's on another loser... Makes no sense whatsoever. We need experts in th H.O.L." entrepreneur Richard Branson also did some tweeting posting out an article in which he expressed his disgust with the British Airways buying BMI. In the article Branson said, "holding a dominant position on London Heathrow BA now wants to tilt the market even further in its favour...the competition authorities ought to step in and stop the deal in its tracks." He described it as an "uncompetitive merger" and mentioned how Labour and the Scottish Nationalist party shared his views. Even more important than these opinions were that of, self proclaimed, business woman Paris Hilton who, whilst holidaying in Italy, a struggling Eurozone country, in the midst of the Eurozone crisis, tweeted out the thought provoking message of "I love being in Europe!" Well done, Paris! Well done!

24 hours of economics in 240 words. An economic snapshot umber 7!

For December 23rd
2:46 a.m. Walmart has been forced to remove a baby formula from all 3,000 of their stores after an infant who ingested it died from a rare illness, it's unknown whether the formulae was the cause.
4:24 a.m. Austrailia's Gloucester Coal has agreed to a $2.2billion takeover from Chinese company Yanzhou Coal Mining.
4:44 a.m. World bank has pledged $5.5billion in aid to Pakistan!
7:36 a.m. Singapore's factory output has declined in the past months by 9.6%, putting it down 30.6% from this time last year.
11:53 a.m. Italy's consumer confidence index fell from 96.1 to 91.6 as fears spread as to a possible oncoming recession.
2:58 p.m. A South western Chinese province will increase its minimum wage by 23% at the start of the year, while most provinces raised theirs by 13%.
4:18 p.m. US income and spending figures disappointed, rising only 0.1%, less than expected, in the past month.
5:39 p.m. VW have agreed to prevent out of hours blackberry emails, after complaints of work and home life becoming blurred.
6:28 p.m. Orders for durable goods in the US have risen by 3.8% in November.
7:23 p.m. The US congress have agreed to a payroll tax cut after the hous of republicans gave in just a day earlier. This rare wins over congress, who have blocked Obama's agenda so-far.

24 hours of Economics in 240 words. An economic snapshot number 6!

For December 22nd
0:29 a.m. Spain names a former Lehman brothers executive as its economy minister.
2:33 a.m. Malaysis announces plans to help boost growth by allowing more foreign investment in their banking sector.
3:11 a.m. Spending on the NewZealand rugby world cup appears to have boosted its economy with a 0.1% rise in the GDP from last quater!
5:19 a.m. Yahoo's shares rose 6% after it was reported that they planned n cutting their stake in Alibaba from 43% to 15%.
6:04 a.m. A record fine for discrimination, of $335million, has been placed on the Bank of America.
11:46 a.m. Economic revisions have placed the UK up at 0.6% for its growth, from the original estimate of 0.5%, whilst the US have been revised down to a 1.8% growth, down by 0.7% from the first estimate of 2.5%. Japan, on the other hand, are expected to shrink 0.1% significantly below the 0.5% growth, initially forecast.
1:19 p.m. IAG, British Aiway's owner, has bought BMI for £172.5million.
3:08 p.m. Italy's austerity package has been cleared by its senate, the package includes: spending cuts, tax rises and pension reforms.
6:35 p.m. UK Uncut has begun the legal process to force the UK bank Goldman Sachs pay more to the government after the HMRC let them off paying interest, which led to an estimated £8million short fall.

An Economic Problem for Dummies. Today's problem: The mobile patent war!

Suing your competition? There's an App for that!
This week apple gave HTC an unwanted Christmas present, that of winning a legal battle over the dispute that HTc was in violation of a number of Apple's patents. This is part of a number of legal cases surrounding the intelectual property of mobile phone makers, with much of the patent war being between apple's iPhone, using iOS, and it's competitors using Android. This follows Apple founder Steve Jobs' plan to drive Android out of the market.
HTC's year has been a less than pleasant one in many regards, starting off on a strong footing, the firm then had it's shares loose two thirds of their original value and dissatisfied it's shareholders with news that it's revenue this year wouldn't be dissimilar to last years. This blow to HTC, which will prohibit the sales of its phones in North America from the 19th of April next year, as North America accounts for 40% of its sales and therefore it and, its operating system provider, Google will need to find a work around the patent if they wish to continue selling in that market.
That said, HTC were surprisingly jovial about the ruling as it found that only 1 patent, of the potential 10 that Apple were claiming HTC infringed on, was actually found to be an infringement. HTC commented that "we are very pleased with the determination and we respect it" adding that they would be able to find a work around and are retaliating by claiming Apple infringed on a number of their patents. Although, initially, Apple won the case which is going to be taken up once again in the near future.
This latest court case is just another punch thrown by apple in the mosh pit that is the world of mobile technology today. Last September Apple successfully got the Samsung Galaxy Tablet banned from sale in Germany, another success seeing as the Galaxy Tab was, although one of the many tablets released in the wake of the famous iPad, it is considered its main competitor. On the same front, Samsung are retaliating claiming e iPhone 4/4S and the iPad 2 all infringe on their patents. Else where in the brawl Apple are suing one of the many iPad knockoffs, in this case a Taiwaneese one and Motorola and Microsoft are involved in a fist fight in Germany whilst Oracle and Google wrestle in America.
In short every mobile technology manufacturer that you've ever heard of is suing every other tech company you've heard of because they breach one of their many patents. It's a messed up world that we live in!
This all falls in with Steve Jobs' plan to give up virtually everything to push Android out of the market for "thievery". Although Jobs is no longer able to give his "last breath", which he stated previously he'd be prepared to give, to kill off Android there is still the $40billion of Apple, which he also said he'd give to end the competing operating system,which Apple are making good use off to slowly take all Android using phone manufacturers to court and bit by bit drive them from the market.
Only time will tell whether Apple will power off the Android or whether Android will turn out to be the worm in Apple's core.

24 hours of economics in 240 words! An economic snapshot number 5!

For December 20th
0:32 a.m. Cuban banks have begun lending to civilians and private businesses, making it another step towards a free market reform in the heavily communist nation.
0:44 a.m. The US Federal Reserve has proposed new measures to prevent future collapses for it's US banks, including forcing them to increase thir minimum amount of held cash.
1:19 a.m. Nike's second quarter takings show an increased demand and profits for its branded sportswear.
9:23 a.m. The UK's borrowing has fallen by £2billion since last year, for November, making it the third month in a row in which Britain's borrowings have fallen.
11:57 a.m. The EU defends plans to, as of the new year, place a carbon tax on airlines flying to and from its 27 members, despite objections from foreign airlines.
1:14 p.m. Spain's borrowing costs fall dramatically with their six and three month bonds raising €1billion more than expected, at interest rates over half of last year!
2:07 p.m. Japan's exports have fallen another 4.5%!
2:37 p.m. Borrowings from the EU's three year borrowing exceed expectations with €489billion being lent, although doubts still remain as to whether the banks will invest in Eurozone sovereign debt.
4:03 p.m. Italy's economy has shrunk 0.2% in the past month.
11:29 p.m. Prosecutors raid Olymus's HQ in ongoing investigation into earnings probe.

24 hours of economics in 240 words! An economic snapshot number 4!

For Dedember 20th
0:10 a.m. AT&T have stopped their $39billion bid to acquire T mobile USA, to make it the US's biggest mobile provider, due to high demands from Duetsche Telekom and discouragement from the American government, claiming it would be bad for competition.
3:42 a.m. Winston Wong, the son of a Taiwanies tycoon, is suing his family for $4billion, claiming his late fathers' assets belong to his company Formossa plastics and not to his relatives.
8:40 a.m. HTC looses patent battle with technology giant Apple after being found to be infringing on one of Apple's patents. All phones using this feature will be banned in April 2012.
11:12 a.m. Confidence in German businesses has risen again for the second month in the row as the latest projections confirm suspicions that Germany is handling the economic downturn the best of the European countries.
1:23 p.m. The EU unveils plans to create better workforce within its professions with the introduction of new minimum trading standards, an electronic certificate and a new alert system to warn when a worker is incompetent.
5:58 p.m. It's been revealed home building in the US rose in November.
8:32 p.m. Sweden cuts interest rates for the first time since 2009, claiming the Eurozone crisis is to blame.
9:04 p.m. ConAgra's profits fall drastically after second quarter earnings fall 14%.

24 hours of economics in 240 words! An economic snapshot, number 3!

For December 19th
0:34 a.m. Chancellor Osborne is to announce a ring fence in banking to prevent any further risky investments following a report into banking, by John Vickers.
5:46 a.m. The Indian government has approved a bill to provide cheap food for the poor residents in its country, over half the population.
8:06 a.m. Saudi owned Kingdom Holding Company has announced a three hundred pound investment in social network site twitter.
11:20 a.m. Etihad airways are set to raise their stake in air Berlin from 3% to 29%!
0:35 p.m. Head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, praises the Nigerian economy ahead of first official visit to the country.
1:30 p.m. Higher deposits,mproperty limitations and property tax finally are seen to have an affect on China's climbing housing prices, as it is announced that the prices in 45 out of 70 Chinese houses have fallen in the past month.
3:25 p.m. Saab, struggling Swedish car manufacturer, have now officially filed for bankruptcy following failing to gain an investment from potential Chinese investors, including Lotus.
4:42 p.m. South Korea's shares slide following the announcement that it's neighbour's, North korea, leader, Kim Jong-Il, has died. Experts state that with the potential North Korean power struggle to take place investors will want to stay clear of ALL Korean markets, including the uninvolved South Korea.

An Economic problem for Dummies! Today' problem: The Eurozone Crisis

A Greek, an Irish and a Portugeese man walks into a bar and each order a drink. Who pays the bill? A German!
Come the start of 2012, assuming the Mayans don't have their way and we don't make it that far, the 26, of 27, countries who signed up for the European fiscal will begin bashing out the treaty. The UK, having walked away from this, will no longer be directly affected by this treaty but will have a large influence and continue to be the EU's financial capital. All is well.
Sadly, the actual future may be less pleasant. The treaty has all the possibilities of being rejected by the market or by a minority of the EU's countries. Plus with the UK having walked away it is likely it's influence may be lessened and the treaty may be intact leading the Euro in a bad direction. This crisis is a race against time. Time that we don't really have.
Now that you have one more thing to worry about whilst lying awake at night, it makes sense to explore how we ended up in this situation.
The EU fiscal is a treaty that aims to manage the EU's countries' debts and their spending. It essentially let's the EU keep an eye in them and help prevent this crisis getting any worse, preventing any such further crisis and ultimately save the Euro!
The UK pulled out because David Cameron wanted safe guards in place to protect the single market and to make some of the financial decisions require a unanimous vote. When the EU did not meet the ransome of the changes for a vote the UK pulled out of the preceedings. This seemed largely in the favour of the British economy in the short term which seems to be on the slow path to recovery as we are not directly affected by the Euro's value and don't want to waste our money bailing out others with no gain for ourselves.
Alas, In the long term things look more serious. If the Euro were to collapse, as feared, then although Mr Cameron would be allowed to say "I told you so" our economy would also be badly affected due to the large amount of trading between us and the rest of the EU. Making it in our best interests to prevent to Euro's collapse.
If the Euro does recover, however, our problems are equally bad, we face being sidelined from the EU as they won't forget how Britain held it's vote to ransome at a crucial point, defending policies that many blame for our now dire financial situation. Also, with the Lib Dems and the Tourrie Eurosceptics at each others' throats the future of the UK's finance and role in the Eu seems stormy.
But, all is not lost! If our country attempts to ease relations with its fellow EU members, as it's already started doing, by being more lenient and assisting countries in need both possible outcomes may be avoided and we may see the EU and Britain's economy make a full recovery.
Only time will tell!

24 hours of economics in 240 words. The Economic snapshot number 2!

For Decemer 17th
10:12 a.m. Cameron Inernatinal Corp. has agreed to pay BP $250 million to settle any legal claims arising from the spill last year, caused by some faulty equipment that Cameron provided.
11:32 a.m. It has been revealed today that, in the wake of the EU giving banks unlimited access to 3 year funding from European Central Funding, the European banks need to generate 115 billion euros in extra capital to offset the fall in value of government bonds.
12:58 p.m. Hostilitys increase as Martin Marriete attempts to, in an unfriendly manner, take over Vulcan materials. The two company's have been planning a merger for the past weeks but Vulan Materials has hit out describing it as a "hostile takeover", heavily suggesting that they believe Martin Marriete's offer is an undervaluation.
3:58 p.m. The Mid American Energy Holdings company has decided to invest a 49% share in a solar farm, being worth $1.8 billion, owned by NRG, to increase it's involvement with renewable energy.
4:43 p.m. HMV has called an urgent suppliers meeting after their shares dropped to 3.87p after Christmas sales failed to deliver. They are expected to report losses of up to £40million for their first-half.
7:00 p.m. Lawyers have begun furiously working on drafting up the European fiscal which, in design, should help restore order to the EU and it troubled economy.