Eddy Financial Blog

Asian Growth Prospects are Bleak, says WB

http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/07/asia-world-bank-markets-economy-forecast.html

The current recession in Asia is unlikely to end in the near future with unemployment levels continuing to rise. Countries in the region are suffering from a sharp fall in demand, both domestic and international, for their products, and this is creating havoc with their finances and the economy, the World Bank has said in its latest report. While China is expected to grow at a rate of 6.5% in 2009, other developing nations in the region are expected to grow by a meager 1.2%. However, the governments in these countries have been quick to respond and have announced stimulus measures to boost capital spending aimed at boosting employment and production. Nevertheless, all these measures will take time to yield positive results and the near-term growth prospects remain bleak.

Reforming The Financial System

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29892211/

The
U.S. treasury secretary Timothy Geithner shared the Obama administration’s plans to overhaul the financial system and restore some semblance of order. While it still awaits congressional approval, the plan attempts to enforce greater control over the markets which apparently collapsed due to insufficient regulation. It also includes greater powers that will help prevent the collapse of institutions that can destabilize the economy.

US Unemployment Jumps To Record High

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/06/news/economy/jobs_february/

The unemployment level has reached its highest point in the past 25 years. Deteriorating economic conditions continued to batter the employment situation in the country with the total jobs lost during the past six months standing at more than 3.3 million.

A government report has revealed that employers slashed 651,000 jobs in February, down from a revised loss of 655,000 jobs in January. The job cuts figure for December was also revised as higher to 681,000 jobs, a 59-year high for job losses in one month. The unemployment rate rose to 8.1% in February from 7.6% in January. Job cuts were spread across varied industries including manufacturing, construction, business and professional services firms. Massive job cuts mean a negative impact on consumer spending which has also witnessed a significant decline in the recent months. The Obama administration has vowed to take remedial steps to rectify the depressing situation.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssFinancialServicesAndRealEstateNews/idUSLG58764320090216

Britain’s top share index fell by 0.5 percent on Monday, as uncertainty on the funding position of insurers triggered by bank losses added to the gloom. Legal & General faced the highest fall in the blue chip category. It went down 6.3 percent. The company was supposedly in talks with the FSA regarding the amount of money that it should set aside in order to cover defaults present in its bond portfolio. However, L&G denied the news and said that it was only involved in general talk with the regulators.

Lloyds Banking Group lost more than 32 percent after it announced that its HBOS unit had made a pre-tax loss of 8.5 billion pounds ($12.28 billion). Prudential was down by 4.2 percent and Aviva by 2.6 percent. The energy stalks did not fare too well either.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/06/stimulus/index.html

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that a vote could be expected on Tuesday on the stimulus plan. US senators have begun debating on the massive package on Friday after a working coalition of Democrats and some Republicans reached a compromise.

Centrist Democrats and Republicans were against the earlier version of the plan because they felt that the $900 billion price tag was too much. They feel that there is a lot of wasteful spending in the earlier version.

The latest version has been trimmed down to $827 billion. Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska said that the plan would help create and save jobs.

It is good to hear that finally things are moving forward. And President Obama is right in saying that something needs to be done fast otherwise US will face a catastrophe. 3.6 million Americans have lost jobs ever since the recession started. I do not think we should waste any time in reviving the economy.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sun-bud-super-bowl-ads-feb01,0,3631246.story

During Super Bowl, the Anheuser-Busch commercials have always been a big draw. During Super Bowl XXIX, the three frogs sequentially croaking “Bud,” “Weis,” “Er” had all in splits. You were equally amused by Cedric the Entertainer dousing a hot date in beer in an ad for Super Bowl XXXV.

Anheuser-Busch has always liked to catch the eye of the audience through its ads for the big game. However, things might change now what with the last year’s sale of Anheuser-Busch to InBev.  Belgium-based InBev is not an aggressive marketer. 

It’s going to be a whole ‘new thing’ with ‘new bosses’. It remains to be seen how the ads are going to get affected. Maybe we should gear up for fewer ads because of the ongoing recession?