The comments by Atlanta Fed
President Dennis Lockhart, his St. Louis counterpart, James Bullard, and
John Williams of the San Francisco Fed all suggested U.S. monetary
policymakers want to keep their options open headed into a
much-anticipated meeting in Washington on September 17-18. Read more...
Fed officials vague on when to trim U.S. stimulus
Three U.S. Federal Reserve officials weighed in on Friday on the key
question of when to reduce the central bank's bond buying, but their
divergent views offered little more clarity for investors trying to
predict what will happen at a Fed policy meeting next month.
12 Personal Finance Lessons, Broken Down, In Woody Allen's 'Blue Jasmine'
Woody Allen fans accustomed to the psychoanalytic themes of his films
can also learn a lot about personal finance from the latest. “Blue
Jasmine,” which opens nationwide today, depicts the psychological
unraveling of Jasmine Francis (played by Cate Blanchett) after her
husband Hal, a Madoff-style money man (Alec Baldwin) goes to jail for
his misdeeds and hangs himself there.
When we first meet Jasmine she has endured the indignities of...Read more...
When we first meet Jasmine she has endured the indignities of...Read more...
UK economy expanding faster than first thought, GDP revision shows
Britain's recession-scarred economy expanded more rapidly than first
thought in the second quarter of the year, by 0.7%, stoking hopes that
recovery is finally taking hold.
In its second estimate of growth from April to June, the Office for National Statistics said GDP grew more strongly than its first estimate, of 0.6%. The 0.7% jump was the strongest since the third quarter of last year, when the economy was boosted by the Olympics.
The upturn is also more broad-based than first thought, according to the breakdown of the data, helping to assuage fears that the UK is in an unsustainable "Alice in Wongaland" recovery, too dependent on consumer spending. Read more...
In its second estimate of growth from April to June, the Office for National Statistics said GDP grew more strongly than its first estimate, of 0.6%. The 0.7% jump was the strongest since the third quarter of last year, when the economy was boosted by the Olympics.
The upturn is also more broad-based than first thought, according to the breakdown of the data, helping to assuage fears that the UK is in an unsustainable "Alice in Wongaland" recovery, too dependent on consumer spending. Read more...
Business term of the day - Term for August 23, 2013: «Cabotage»
Source: Wikipedia
Cabotage /ˈkæbətɨdʒ/ is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country by a vessel or an aircraft registered in another country. Originally a shipping term, cabotage now also covers aviation, railways, and road transport. Cabotage is "trade or navigation in coastal waters, or, the exclusive right of a country to operate the air traffic within its territory".
Cabotage is used in the context of "cabotage rights", the right of a company from one country to trade in another country. In aviation terms, it is the right to operate within the domestic borders of another country. Most countries do not permit aviation cabotage, for reasons of economic protectionism, national security or public safety. One notable exception is the European Union, whose members all grant cabotage rights to each other.
Example situations
In the context of the freedoms of the air, pure cabotage is the ninth freedom. An example of this situation would be if a service between St. Louis and Denver was offered by a non-U.S. carrier without continuing service to a foreign destination. While this situation is virtually nonexistent in scheduled service, certain charter flights are allowed under U.S. rules.
If service offered between two domestic points continues to or from a foreign destination, the practice is considered continuing cabotage, which is the eighth freedom. If a carrier does not have this right, then on a hypothetical service from Paris to Kolkata via Mumbai, it could not allow passengers to board in Mumbai and fly to Kolkata; only passengers who boarded in Paris could be carried on to Kolkata.
Cabotage situations can also occur as a consequence of hub-and-spoke operations. Consider that Air Canada has a major hub at Toronto that offers flights to several U.S. cities. While a passenger is able to buy a ticket from Boston to Toronto, and a separate ticket from Toronto to Seattle later that same day, both flights cannot be offered on the same itinerary because this would effectively be a U.S. domestic service.
Cabotage in passenger aviation
Australia and Chile allow passenger airlines owned by foreign entities to operate domestic flights. Until 1991 Lufthansa was prohibited from flying to West Berlin, so Pan Am, British Airways, and Air France operated the routes between the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. For a short time in the late 1980s, Trans World Airlines also flew between then-West Germany and West Berlin. During this time, Pan Am flew to Tegel, in Berlin, from Munich-Riem Airport (now closed) and Frankfurt. Air France flew from Düsseldorf. British Airways flew from Munster, Osnabrück, Hannover, and some other cities.
In October 2007, the United Kingdom granted Singapore carriers the right to fly domestic UK routes as part of an open skies agreement, which also allows British carriers to fly to any city from Singapore.
The Closer Economic Relations agreement allows Australian air carriers to fly domestically and internationally from New Zealand and vice versa. Two Australian carriers, Jetstar (a Qantas subsidiary) and Pacific Blue (a Virgin Australia subsidiary) fly domestic routes within New Zealand, and Qantas offers flights connecting New Zealand and North America. Air New Zealand offers one international destination from Australia outside New Zealand, flying between Sydney, Australia and Rarotonga of the Cook Islands. Previously, Qantas Jetconnect and Ansett New Zealand were Australian-owned airlines based in New Zealand.
Cabotage /ˈkæbətɨdʒ/ is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country by a vessel or an aircraft registered in another country. Originally a shipping term, cabotage now also covers aviation, railways, and road transport. Cabotage is "trade or navigation in coastal waters, or, the exclusive right of a country to operate the air traffic within its territory".
Cabotage is used in the context of "cabotage rights", the right of a company from one country to trade in another country. In aviation terms, it is the right to operate within the domestic borders of another country. Most countries do not permit aviation cabotage, for reasons of economic protectionism, national security or public safety. One notable exception is the European Union, whose members all grant cabotage rights to each other.
Example situations
In the context of the freedoms of the air, pure cabotage is the ninth freedom. An example of this situation would be if a service between St. Louis and Denver was offered by a non-U.S. carrier without continuing service to a foreign destination. While this situation is virtually nonexistent in scheduled service, certain charter flights are allowed under U.S. rules.
If service offered between two domestic points continues to or from a foreign destination, the practice is considered continuing cabotage, which is the eighth freedom. If a carrier does not have this right, then on a hypothetical service from Paris to Kolkata via Mumbai, it could not allow passengers to board in Mumbai and fly to Kolkata; only passengers who boarded in Paris could be carried on to Kolkata.
Cabotage situations can also occur as a consequence of hub-and-spoke operations. Consider that Air Canada has a major hub at Toronto that offers flights to several U.S. cities. While a passenger is able to buy a ticket from Boston to Toronto, and a separate ticket from Toronto to Seattle later that same day, both flights cannot be offered on the same itinerary because this would effectively be a U.S. domestic service.
Cabotage in passenger aviation
Australia and Chile allow passenger airlines owned by foreign entities to operate domestic flights. Until 1991 Lufthansa was prohibited from flying to West Berlin, so Pan Am, British Airways, and Air France operated the routes between the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. For a short time in the late 1980s, Trans World Airlines also flew between then-West Germany and West Berlin. During this time, Pan Am flew to Tegel, in Berlin, from Munich-Riem Airport (now closed) and Frankfurt. Air France flew from Düsseldorf. British Airways flew from Munster, Osnabrück, Hannover, and some other cities.
In October 2007, the United Kingdom granted Singapore carriers the right to fly domestic UK routes as part of an open skies agreement, which also allows British carriers to fly to any city from Singapore.
The Closer Economic Relations agreement allows Australian air carriers to fly domestically and internationally from New Zealand and vice versa. Two Australian carriers, Jetstar (a Qantas subsidiary) and Pacific Blue (a Virgin Australia subsidiary) fly domestic routes within New Zealand, and Qantas offers flights connecting New Zealand and North America. Air New Zealand offers one international destination from Australia outside New Zealand, flying between Sydney, Australia and Rarotonga of the Cook Islands. Previously, Qantas Jetconnect and Ansett New Zealand were Australian-owned airlines based in New Zealand.
Business term of the day - Term for August 22, 2013: "Busy work"
Source: Wikipedia
Busy work (also referred to as make-work and busywork) can refer to activity that is undertaken to pass time and stay busy. In educational settings, busy work has precedence as a means to corroborate and reinforce lessons and curricula by allowing students time to practice new learned skill-sets independently. Busy work also occurs in business, military and other settings, in situations where people may be required to be present but may lack the opportunities, skills or need to do something more productive. People may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity, in order to avoid criticism of being inactive or idle.
Educational settings
In the context of education, busy work allows students to work independently, to test their own knowledge and skills, and to practice using new skills learned in the educational setting. It can consist of various types of schoolwork assigned by a teacher to keep students occupied with activities involving learning and cognition while the teacher focuses upon another group of students. The functionality of busy work is associated with levels of interest students have with the content of the work, levels of enjoyment students have in performing the work, how purposeful the work is, and how accomplishment of the work is perceived by students. The perceived results of the work by students is significant: when students feel that they've succeeded in accomplishing a functional task, it's congruent with learning and the attainment of new skills.
Busy work can also be used to keep the students occupied with educational tasks during idle times, such as instances when time in school remains but the day's curriculum has already commenced. This application of busy work to consume idle time was common in primary education, but the need for work to have educational content, rather than existing just to consume time, is now preferred.
Busy work has historical precedent in primary education. Entire books have been published that document various busy work activities and curricula per student grade levels, types of activities and how the work is associated with various types and stages of learning. Examples include Plans for Busy Work (published in 1901) and Education by Doing: Occupations and Busy Work for Primary Classes (published in 1909).
The assignment of homework to students over summer vacation between grades has been described by some as potentially being busywork that may lack substance congruent with the processes of learning.
Business and work settings
In business and work settings, people may engage in busy work simply to appear like they're being busy and productive, with the primary goal of actually simply maintaining an appearance of activity in efforts to protect their employment status (i.e. to avoid termination or sanctions). Maintaining very high levels of constant busyness may actually be detrimental to the operations of a business or organization, in which new tasks are not undertaken in a timely manner due to workers already being in a state of continuously being very busy. This can also lead to workers taking shortcuts to accomplish tasks more quickly, which can negatively affect the quality of work results. Busy work also can be counterproductive in work settings because it may not be aligned with the overall objectives and priorities of an organization's plans for attaining and maintaining success in its ventures.
Military settings
Busy work is used in armed forces to keep men from becoming bored, inactive and idle. Tasks of this sort include drill, spit and polishing footwear and other cleaning chores such as scrubbing the deck.
Busy work (also referred to as make-work and busywork) can refer to activity that is undertaken to pass time and stay busy. In educational settings, busy work has precedence as a means to corroborate and reinforce lessons and curricula by allowing students time to practice new learned skill-sets independently. Busy work also occurs in business, military and other settings, in situations where people may be required to be present but may lack the opportunities, skills or need to do something more productive. People may engage in busy work to maintain an appearance of activity, in order to avoid criticism of being inactive or idle.
Educational settings
In the context of education, busy work allows students to work independently, to test their own knowledge and skills, and to practice using new skills learned in the educational setting. It can consist of various types of schoolwork assigned by a teacher to keep students occupied with activities involving learning and cognition while the teacher focuses upon another group of students. The functionality of busy work is associated with levels of interest students have with the content of the work, levels of enjoyment students have in performing the work, how purposeful the work is, and how accomplishment of the work is perceived by students. The perceived results of the work by students is significant: when students feel that they've succeeded in accomplishing a functional task, it's congruent with learning and the attainment of new skills.
Busy work can also be used to keep the students occupied with educational tasks during idle times, such as instances when time in school remains but the day's curriculum has already commenced. This application of busy work to consume idle time was common in primary education, but the need for work to have educational content, rather than existing just to consume time, is now preferred.
Busy work has historical precedent in primary education. Entire books have been published that document various busy work activities and curricula per student grade levels, types of activities and how the work is associated with various types and stages of learning. Examples include Plans for Busy Work (published in 1901) and Education by Doing: Occupations and Busy Work for Primary Classes (published in 1909).
The assignment of homework to students over summer vacation between grades has been described by some as potentially being busywork that may lack substance congruent with the processes of learning.
Business and work settings
In business and work settings, people may engage in busy work simply to appear like they're being busy and productive, with the primary goal of actually simply maintaining an appearance of activity in efforts to protect their employment status (i.e. to avoid termination or sanctions). Maintaining very high levels of constant busyness may actually be detrimental to the operations of a business or organization, in which new tasks are not undertaken in a timely manner due to workers already being in a state of continuously being very busy. This can also lead to workers taking shortcuts to accomplish tasks more quickly, which can negatively affect the quality of work results. Busy work also can be counterproductive in work settings because it may not be aligned with the overall objectives and priorities of an organization's plans for attaining and maintaining success in its ventures.
Military settings
Busy work is used in armed forces to keep men from becoming bored, inactive and idle. Tasks of this sort include drill, spit and polishing footwear and other cleaning chores such as scrubbing the deck.
Small-business jobs rising as economy strengthens
Small-business hiring and confidence about the future are rising, a
signal of the economy's growing strength and diminishing concerns about
employee insurance coverage required by the new health care law.
Job creation at small companies has almost doubled in the last six months, reaching 82,000 jobs at firms with 49 or fewer employees in July, according to payroll processor ADP. Borrowing by small businesses and sales of new franchises have also climbed, indicating business owners are willing to take on new expenses and risk.
Surveys by the National Federation of Independent Business say business-owner confidence has risen this year but remains below pre-recession levels. Read more...
Job creation at small companies has almost doubled in the last six months, reaching 82,000 jobs at firms with 49 or fewer employees in July, according to payroll processor ADP. Borrowing by small businesses and sales of new franchises have also climbed, indicating business owners are willing to take on new expenses and risk.
Surveys by the National Federation of Independent Business say business-owner confidence has risen this year but remains below pre-recession levels. Read more...
The global economy - The emerging-market squeeze
THE flow of troubling news
out of emerging markets is picking up. Equity indices around Asia
continued their recent losing streak this morning. Though India has
borne the brunt of recent market punishment—the rupee's epic slide has
continued this week—there is plenty of pain to go around. Indonesian
stocks have tumbled more than 10% over the past few days. Growth is
cratering around the region.
Most news stories relate the carnage to anticipated changes in Federal Reserve policy: "tapering", which may begin in September or October, of the pace of stimulative asset purchases. But why should that matter?
Large-scale asset purchases, or quantitative easing (QE), are generally described as working through several channels. One is an expectations channel. Purchases may help communicate central bank goals or increase policy credibility. Purchases can have a fiscal effect; by lowering expected government borrowing costs QE may reduce expectations of future taxation, encouraging more work and investment in the present. Read more...
Most news stories relate the carnage to anticipated changes in Federal Reserve policy: "tapering", which may begin in September or October, of the pace of stimulative asset purchases. But why should that matter?
Large-scale asset purchases, or quantitative easing (QE), are generally described as working through several channels. One is an expectations channel. Purchases may help communicate central bank goals or increase policy credibility. Purchases can have a fiscal effect; by lowering expected government borrowing costs QE may reduce expectations of future taxation, encouraging more work and investment in the present. Read more...
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