Member states of the European Union (EU) have adopted the Euro (€) as the common currency and the sole legal tender. The EU consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. The monetary policy of the EU is set by the European […]
Author: elegant
The U.S. unemployment rate and the job growth
The U.S. unemployment rate stubbornly hover around 8.3 percent according to the latest estimates from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate is fluctuating between 8.1 percent and 8.3 percent so far this year. However, it is still lower than the highest rate of 10 percent encountered in October 2009. The jobless rate […]
An unproductive Congress
The U.S. House and Senate started a five week vacation on August 3, 2012. Most of the Congress will be campaigning for November elections. The current Congress will be known as the most unproductive in the modern history. After the 2008 Presidential elections, Democrats were in the control of the Congress. Major legislation passed by […]
Movie theater massacre in Colorado
An armed gunman killed 12 and wounded 58 in a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado just after midnight during an opening screening of the latest Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises”. The gunman has been identified as a 24-yearold dropout of a neuroscience PhD program at the University of Colorado, Denver. At the time of […]
How Libor scandal affects you
On June 28, 2012, Barclays, the United Kingdom’s second largest bank by assets admitted to a claim by the authorities that it manipulated borrowing cost from 2005 to 2009 and agreed to pay a fine of $455 million to U.K. and U.S. authorities to settle charges. Barclays sets the London interbank offered rate commonly known […]
Apple’s iPhone and navigation
Since its launch in 2007, Apple’s iPhone carried Google’s mapping software on its home screen. This provided iPhone users directions as well as terrain information at their fingertip especially when they are on the road. At the recently concluded Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, it announced that Google Maps will be discontinued […]
After Greece, is Italy next?
Since the Greek election and their decision to work with the Eurozone instead of leaving it, European countries are feeling bit relieved. Spain recently received $125 billion in bank bailout funds. However, now the focus shifts to Italy. Italy is the third biggest economy in the Eurozone. Italy is showing signs of financial trouble for […]
Will the JPMorgan Chase recent loss affects you?
By the time JPMorgan Chase discovered a loss has occurred at its London office on May 10, 2012, it has exceeded more than $2 billion. Its CEO has taken immediate action by removing the responsible parties from the bank. At a hearing before the Senate Banking Committee on June 13, 2012, the CEO stated that […]
Mad cow disease again?
Last week of April 2012, the Internet was bussing about a break of mad cow disease again in a facility in nation’s number one diary producing Tulare County, California. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials have confirmed that they found a cow infected with the disease and the cow in question has been euthanized. […]
Troubles in Mexico for Wal-Mart
First it was an article in the New York Times and then it spread over to the Internet during the last two weeks of April 2012 that a subsidiary of the retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores, Wal-Mart de Mexico, is involved in a $24 million bribery scandal in Mexico in September 2005. It was alleged that […]