India opens up to foreign stock investors

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

(CNN) – India announced plans to allow foreigners to invest directly in domestic companies listed in one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The government “decided to allow qualified foreign investors to directly invest in Indian equity market in order to widen the class of investors, attract more foreign funds, and reduce market volatility and to deepen the Indian capital market,” according to a New Year’s Day statement from India’s Finance Ministry.

Before only institutional investors and Indians living abroad were allowed to invest directly in local companies. The move will allow individuals to buy as much as 5% of a company’s shares. Total shares owned by foreigners, however, will not be able to exceed 10% of a company’s capital, the ministry said. The new rules are expected to take effect January 15.

While among the world’s fastest growing economies, India’s breakneck growth slowed in 2010, slipping to 6.9% in the quarter ending in September – it’s lowest growth rate in more than two years.

India, the world’s most populated democracy, has been involved in a political tug-of-war in recent months over whether to drop prohibitive restrictions on foreign investment in its burgeoning domestic market. The government approved a plan in November to open its retail sector to mega-store foreign competitors such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour, only to backtrack days later after a populist backlash against the plan, fearing it would hurt small local stores.

The nation’s airline industry – hammered by rising fuel costs and the sagging rupee, which fell 16% against the dollar last year – has been in crisis, renewing calls to allow foreign airlines to invest in Indian carriers. At present foreign institutional investors are allowed to acquire up to 49% in Indian carriers but foreign airlines are banned from investing directly or indirectly in domestic carriers.

“This would be an important change because investment by foreign airlines brings with it all kinds of advantages, not least expertise in airline management and other synergies,” Tom Ballantyne, the chief correspondent with Oriental Aviation, recently told CNN. “At the moment, however, in this sort of economic climate, the airlines are having trouble attracting any sort of investment at all.”

Officials hope lowering investment barriers on Indian domestic companies will boost India’s appeal as a foreign investment destination. India received less than $20 billion in foreign direct investment in the first six months of 2011, while China attracted three times as much during the same time period.

The Sensex, India’s benchmark index, fell 25% last year, making the bourse one of the world’s worst performing markets in 2011, according to the Financial Times.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Dublin is oriented for Twitter

Anchors of CNN International business and corresponding attack questions related to the Affairs of the world, and they want your questions and comments.

Cities of the future gives us an inside look at how cities are adapting to the urban challenges of tomorrow.

The pattern is the follow-up to three world class business leaders, for a unique overview of what is to manage a business.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

The wheel of a truck through the Europe debt crisis

Copenhagen (CNN)- Jens Bjorn Andersen, boss of the giant DFS Danish of transport, has a message for European politicians: manage the crisis in Europe as it has streamlined its affairs. Stop spending, trim staff and get a grip on costs.

Those who struggle to curb in the problems of the debt in the euro area may want to listen to. DFS is one of those companies that you haven't heard probably but, once you do, you'll see their logo across the world.

After having questioned Andersen at the headquarters of the DFS Copenhagen, we spent eight hours on the road. To pass the time, we played a game of identification of carriers of the DFS. They have about 17 000 trucks on the road every day, and we spied at least a minute.

DFS helps companies get their goods from a to B, by air, by sea and on the roads: furniture and cordial fruit. They range from Copenhagen to almost anywhere in the world. They employ 21,000 people in the world, and extracted in net sales EUR 5.7 billion annual in 2010.

Andersen is a careerist DFS, after having started as trainee higher. He said the success of the company may in part be attributed to its ability to take market share, but he says: "we actually to pinch ourselves in arm a little, because we were a little surprised."

The transport sector can serve as an indicator to the broader market trends. Trucks on mobility products are made, bought and sold. And DFS is growing after it took dramatic action in response to a success in the recession of 2008-2009. They laid off 5,000 people and refined what they offer customers.

"Europe is under pressure, there is no doubt that," Andersen said. "Consumers are very cautious." We have seen that the Denmark, where consumer spending is low, it was for five years. And of course if consumers do not spend, don't buy televisions flat screen for Christmas, then there will be less for transport as DSV transport companies.

While clients are less ordering and descendant of their stocks - particularly in Europe - DFS is strengthening its presence in markets such as Asia and Latin America.

Andersen said he now focuses beyond borders of Europe - at least until that Europe emerges from its crisis. And while he gives credit to politicians trying to push through change, it does not provide a quick solution.

"Politicians have taken the first steps, but it will be a road very, very long," said. "I actually say"let the guys like us who run these large companies in Europe, we enter in some government offices and tell them how to do this."." »

Andersen argues politicians should think more as entrepreneurs. He suggests that they can work with a flatter, less bureaucratic management structure - a Scandinavian style - for example.

In this way, said Andersen, politicians could lead change much more quickly, without having to wade through the European Union red tape.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Success of the CEO the strength to face difficult choices

(CNN) – For more than a year, we have followed the lives of CEOs around the world - and Sarah Curran is one of them.

Curran configure my wardrobe.com five years after the identification of a gap in the market. The site is the highest range as the stores of the street and less expensive that the shops will design. Sarah sold his house to finance the idea and the bet is refunded.

Now it has almost a million visitors each month, and sales have doubled each year. For some, it would be an opportunity, but to Sarah, this is a problem. It is not known if it is the right person to advance the company and he is faced with difficult choices.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Devil is in the details for 'The Boss'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

CNN International's business anchors and correspondents get to grips with the issues affecting world business, and they want your questions and feedback.

Future Cities gives us an inside look at how cities are adapting to tomorrow's urban challenges.

The Boss is following three world-class business leaders, to get a unique insight into what it's like to run a company.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Hong Kong's top financial Centre

HONG KONG ((CNN)) - Hong Kong has become the United States and the United Kingdom to take first place in index 2011 of the World Economic Forum of development of financial markets - first financial Central Asian to do so.

Fourth annual financial report of the development forum, position of Hong Kong has been strengthened by the strong scores in non-banking financial services as IPO activity - the first public sale of shares by a company - and insurance.

The report class 60 major financiers of the word systems according to more than 100 variables, access to different forms of capital and financial services, financial stability, regulation and the availability of skilled workers.

Hong Kong passed the fourth place of the index, in concerns about the financial stability of the United States and scores lower than the United Kingdom on the activity of the IPO and securitization - which is the process in which certain types of property, such as mortgage loans are pooled so that they can be repackaged securities bond-like.

The Belgium was the only country to abandon a largely unchanged top 10, with the Norway recipient.

Top 10

1 Hong Kong of
2 United States of
3 United Kingdom of
4 Singapore
5 Australia
6 Canada
7 Netherlands
8 Japan
9 Switzerland
10 Norway

China (19th) joined the Malaysia (16) as the second of only two emerging countries in the top 20.

"Hong Kong climb to the top of our index marks an important milestone, the first time in the history of the report that the United Kingdom or the United States is a not out on top," Kevin Steinberg, chief operating officer of the World Economic Forum USA, said in a report.

"While the Western financial centres are naturally focused on the challenges in the short term, this report should serve as a wake-up call that their leadership in the long term may be in danger," he added.

The report added that more than 90% of the country were not returned to the levels of the crisis of the pre-financial in terms of access to capital.

"The need to make the various forms of available capital will be essential for future growth and recovery,", said Isabella Reuttner, editor of the report, quotes, carried by the news agency France.

"The challenge will be how to encourage economic activity while feeding is not the next credit bubble, which could have serious consequences on the line.".

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Does good trading day bode well for 2012?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

London (CNN) – Despite the bad prognosis and worrying doomsayers of grim tidings, the new year has got off to a rousing start with London up 2.29%, Frankfurt up 1.5% and even the Parisian market, which has the most to worry about, gaining just under 1%.

There are those who will use this to support the belief that if the first trading day is up, then that bodes well for the year overall. They would be wrong.

Just take last year – on the first trading day of 2011 the FTSE, DAX and Dow all rose. By the end of the year, the FTSE was nursing a loss of 5.5%, the DAX was down a whopping 15%, and only the Dow managed a gain of around 6%.

Going further back won’t help much either. As Mark Hulbert points out, by and large the first market day of the year tells us nothing about how the year will play.

This focus on one day’s trading is a 'liberal' destruction of the old adage 'as goes January so goes the rest of the year.' That canard has proved to be right roughly 70-80% of the time. Unfortunately we have to wait several more weeks before we can drag it out of the cupboard – hence my indecent attention to the first trading day.

So – I hear you say – big deal, Quest. What point are you making?  My point is that whatever the markets say, day by day we need to keep our eyes firmly on the economic and corporate fundamentals, for that is where the direction of travel will be gleaned.

Today was good because of better economic numbers in Germany, the U.S. and the UK. While one month’s data doth not a recovery make, it is a glimmer of hope that maybe the worst prognostications won’t come true. Or maybe I have fallen into my own trap – and seen one swallow and made a summer.

All I know is that I enter 2012 with losses across most of my investments from last year and wondering what on earth I did wrong (besides investing in the wrong things!!).  It won’t be easy to make money in 2012 … but at least we have got off to a good start.

Oops, there I go again …

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

The euro survives... for now

(CNN) - Brussels On the late Thursday evening, there was a highly unusual cheer and the round of beats of hands in the atrium of the mass press in the building of the European Commission.

Journalists were not clapping in the response to save the euro.

It was at the time of the video of new Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo of Belgium was splashed on the screen.

Just the fact that the small country has a Prime Minister, after 18 months to try was enough to add a little time for mixed Belgian journalists among the hundreds of us packed into the square.

Of all the summits, that I covered in Brussels, he was the majority of the journalists that I had seen here. It felt more like a major sports event.

After all, there are representatives of the press for each of the 27 countries, more international broadcasters and the usual smattering of Japanese crews.

We expected two long days of debate. Some people said to be ready to stay weekend. No of the occurred.

The leaders flew in the night of Thursday, had lunch, discussed the future even the euro, isolated from Britain, an agreement, had a press conference around 05, obtained a few hours of sleep, welcomed Croatia in the club and returned to the House.

He then began spinning.

We were told that the meetings were sympathetic. No there was no animosity between Nicolas Sarkozy in the France and David Cameron of United Kingdom.

An official told a small gathering of us that Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has even left the meeting in the same elevator.

Where the deal leaves the United Kingdom?

What was more interesting to me looking at the Hungary, the Sweden and the Czech Republic stay, does not able to commit to the fiscal pact at first light Friday.

So we all started to talk about the euro 17 ++ 6, with four other left behind from the cold. How quickly changed.

The three continental players must have seen the press their grouping with Britain and did not like where he was.

CNN poll: Germans feel worse off in euro

Quickly released a revised agreement and the outsiders, including the Hungary had agreed at least to discuss joining the fiscal pact and take it to the national parliaments, where applicable.

Britain once more on the margins of Europe. Right, I dare say, the British most want to be.

The euro has survived for the time being to live another day.

New deal will solve the problems of Europe?

We all convene here March next for the next Summit where the details should be signed off the coast.

Either it will be another ' last chance' meeting to save the single currency after months of indecision mayhem, disagreements and market. "

The hope here is that March next there is a lot less journalists here in Brussels.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

UK store drops "boys" and "girls" toy floors

(CNN) - London Is - this toy marketing alcian gender stereotypes?

Hamleys, the famous London toy store, took the signs of equality between the sexes for its toys in the wake of a campaign by a blogger feminist than blue and Rose of the marked store floors was sexist.

Previously, the fifth floor of the flagship Regent Street store - where figurine and war-themed toys have been sold - was marked by a blue sign "Boys". Gone, too, is the third sign of "Girls" floor that sells dolls and toys of craft.

Blogger Laura Nelson began the campaign with a position of October that the accused the store of promoting "gender apartheid".

"We have a serious shortage of women in senior positions, in our society and a serious problem of inequality," she wrote in his blog, Delilah. "Only 22% of UK parliamentarians are women." "A survey of the best 100 companies in Britain find that 329 Executive Directors, only 20 are women".

"There are very different toys on the floor of the girls, as opposed to the floor of the boys," Nelson said Richard Quest of CNN. Nelson, who has a degree in neuroscience, believes that the roles of such strengthened by the selection of toys hurt the number of women taking on the roles of leadership in science and business.

Whether it is politically correct "gone mad", she said: "I am absolutely delighted that people are having a debate and talk now because it is more the issue out into the open."

His campaign began just days after a brief online and Twitter campaign against the retailer UK that Marks & Spencer noted that a set of astronomy was only listed in boys toy section of the online store, not girls. The company responded the same day, changing its catalogue online.

Hamleys, for his part, told the press that the change was a coincidence of the campaign of Nelson.

"While we appreciate all customers and interested parties on the improvement of Hamleys, in this case, that we regret that the amendments to our signs were not due to any campaign," the store said in a statement. ""

"We are in the process of detailed planning for a complete overhaul of our store on Regent Street." In this planning, it was clear we by consultants and identified customers that our store signage has been source of confusion. Thus we started changing all of our brands in October of this year to improve the flow of customers. »

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

We survived 2011, now hold on for 2012's shocks

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

London (CNN) – I have an Financial Times cartoon on my desk by Banx which shows a man reading a book of "Greek Myths" to a child, with the tag line "...and the EU got all its money paid back in full." I don't cut out many cartoons but this one sets the tone for 2012.

We've known since October that Greece won't have to pay back all the money it has borrowed. Banks are already in deep discussions to reach a deal for a 50% "haircut" on some of the Greek government bonds they hold. Once that is agreed to, Greece is a step closer to getting some of the $168 billion loan - part of its second bailout - agreed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

So what do we know going into 2012?

Let's be clear: A 50% haircut will not be enough. Greece's budget deficit numbers are getting worse, not better. Greece is not increasing the amount of tax that is swallowed up in the country's black economy. The Greek people face another $8 billion or so in austerity measures for 2013-2015, that is, if the coalition government of Lucas Papademos can pass the new measures through parliament ahead of the expected Spring election.

With the debt talks looming over the country,  the government has started the new year by reminding its citizens the alternative. As a government spokesman, quoted in The Wall Street Journal notes: "we are out of the markets, out of the euro."

Could you imagine such a statement at the start of 2011.

In some ways, the markets seem to be sanguine about all this. Greece is, and will remain, a basket case within the euro. It will remain in recession, it will not pay back all the loans, it will need ever more transfer of funds from Northern countries to keep the euro ticking over. That is the price Germans and French taxpayers will have to pay to keep monetary union alive.

Speaking of France, we also know the country will soon lose its triple-A rating from Standard & Poor's. And this will come just months before a presidential election.

The markets have factored it in, surely, but I suspect stocks will fall heavily on that day.

Still, the Greece and France troubles are baked into the market numbers. So, what could be the greatest shock of 2012?

The rumblings in Hungary are worrying, and this non-euro economy could emerge as the problem child of 2012. Consider the huge rallies taking place as people worry about political freedoms - this, inside an EU country. Brussels and IMF might just refuse a loan which means Budapest will have to rely on funding itself through the markets.

Will Spain ask for a bailout? It doesn't need one for now, so why do some people believe unsubstantiated rumours that it wants a stand-by with the IMF?

Will the EU summit at the end of January enhance a split between the UK and the other 26, or, as I suspect, see more non-EU countries fall in line with Britain and not sign up right away to closer euro integration? Sweden and the Czech Republic already started that process before Christmas.

But the shocks in 2012 will not be a repeat of 2011. Things were said and steps were taken last year that could not be envisioned. The markets have a much higher tolerance for drastic steps by Berlin and Paris.

We also know that Europe is in recession and will remain so until banks increase their risk appetite.

Watch what European banks do. For now, they are parking their money at the European Central Bank. Until they start to use that money to buy shares, buy sovereign debt and start to loan to each other, Europe will remain sick.

At least the euro is weakening, which could help exports, and at least the United States economy looks set to grow faster than Europe, which could suck some of those exports.

Just like in 2011, it's all about confidence.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Bhutan hopes hazelnuts equal happiness

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Thimphu, Bhutan (CNN) – Bhutan, the last of the Himalayan kingdoms, has largely been closed to foreigners and foreign business. But while its government measures progress by "gross national happiness," it is now looking to develop economically, and is looking to its neighbours for help.

Bhutan’s culture has remained intact for centuries and its landscape, as well as the government's mandate to keep its people happy, has a mystical quality. But it is also a developing nation struggling to find prosperity for its people.

Bhutan’s Prime Minister Jigme Y Thinley told CNN’s Sara Sidner: "The truth is, Bhutan is a poor developing country that is still significantly dependent on the support and the goodwill of the international community. We are in other words an aid-dependent country."

For centuries, Bhutan cut itself off from the outside world. There were no roads until the 1960s, no foreign tourists allowed until the 70s and no television until 1999. But there is a significant shift going on here in the 21st century.

Bhutan is now opening up to business beyond its borders. But the leadership refuses to do business at the expense of its unique environment and demands that businesses inside and outside the country are in line with its unique policy of “gross national happiness.”

American entrepreneur Daniel Spitzer is a pioneer in Bhutan. He is the first to gain permission to run a 100% foreign-owned business in the country. Spitzer and his team worked for six years to finally land what they think will be a lucrative business - growing and exporting hazelnuts.

"We grow the trees and process the nuts here and then we export the nuts," he said. "The two primary markets are Europe, which is the traditional buyer of hazelnuts, and increasingly in Asia China and Japan buy lots of hazelnuts. It's a snack food which is highly valued."

Spitzer and his team are training farmers in isolated villages in eastern Bhutan to cultivate farmland that was sitting idle and unfit for other crops.

Many of the farmers taking on the project had never heard of the hazelnut - there isn't even a name for the nut in Bhutan. But the chance to make a profit instead of living hand to mouth has attracted many farmers, such as Karma Tenzin.

"I was worried because this is a new crop that they are introducing, a new crop that I am going to grow, but based on their technical plantation and their advice I am pretty sure that this crop will be helpful to us," said Tenzin.

Because the hazelnut trees can grow on steep ridges their roots can prevent landslides. The project has become so popular the government says it will eventually employ about 15% of the impoverished population.

"This would benefit about 10,000 households, mainly in the eastern part of this country, and together they should be able to produce something like 3% of the world's hazelnut demand," said Thinley.

Currently, more than 60% of Bhutan’s GDP comes from selling electricity to India. There are no traditional power plants though - the electricity is generated by eco-friendly hydropower plants.

Government leaders say other major opportunities for foreign investment are in areas such education and tourism; three international luxury hotel chains have been operating for some time now.

In Bhutan doing business is not easy but those who do say the rewards and fascinating nature of the country will soon find their way into the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs looking for a unique challenge.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Is Apple losing its cool factor?

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

London (CNN) – Shock! Horror! Crisis! Apple’s iPhone was not the top selling phone at Christmas – Samsung’s Galaxy S II was. Can this be? What has gone wrong? Surely some mistake?

OK – I need to declare I am not an Apple worshipper. Yes, I have an iPad, which I l love, and an old iPod which I use when travelling, but otherwise I am a PC person through and through.

I tell you this in advance because there is nothing more polarizing that the subject of Apple versus the rest of the world.

Apple users believe they have seen the light and are messianic about the company. Everyone else thinks the Appleites have drunk the Kool-Aid, probably need therapy and gleefully look forward to when the Apple empire’s cool veneer starts to wear thin.

Now there are whispers that that process may have begun. In addition to beating out Apple’s iPhone over Christmas, Samsung, which uses the Android platform, is now the biggest seller of smartphones in the world, according to the latest data.

The train is getting up a head of steam – partly led by Brian Deagon, who predicted in an Investors.com article that “Apple will lose its cool factor” in 2012.

“The iPhone is boxy, flat and feeling stale. The Samsung Galaxy smartphone seems cooler,” he writes. “Smartphones and tablets will become commodity items and Apple will be eaten by the collective Android gang.”

It seems Samsung has managed to do something that eluded others – cloak themselves in the coolness that was previously Apple’s.

The latest ambush ad from Samsung hits Apple users’ “I’m too sexy for my shirt” attitude right between the eyes. The message: while cool is OK, if someone else has a better product, suddenly your coolness looks like your parents disco-dancing in the village hall under florescent lights.

For Apple, the jury is still deliberating on the effect Steve Job’s death will have on the company. Android has very well funded partners and a strong business model. If this sniping continues, Apple will be forced on the defensive.

By now Appleites are frothing and ready to hit their MacBook Air keys to put me down. Well go ahead – but never forget Apple fell from grace once before. There is no immutable law that says it can’t happen again.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Living in the age of the mighty mobile

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Editor’s note: These are edited highlights of a speech CNN’s Richard Quest gave at Nokia World, October 26.

London (CNN) – It is now almost one hundred years since RMS Titanic hit an iceberg, and sank, on its maiden voyage to New York. Just imagine how the news might break if it was happening now, in the age of the almighty mobile.

The tweets might look something like this:

(11.40pm) @passenger1 OMG! Massive bang onboard Titanic. Think we've hit something.

(11.41pm) @passenger2 Titanic under attack. Sirens and staff running everywhere.

(11.41pm) @boatengineer1 Just seen water surging through lower deck.

All hands on deck sirens blaring.

(11.45pm) @WhiteStarPR RMS Titanic on course for record crossing, says captain. For pics and live updates click http://titan.ic/hubris

And on they would go...

(00.51am) @WhiteHouse President briefed on attack against ship bound for New York. Initial reports suggest Al Qaeda involved.

That's all in the land, or should I say sea, of the 'eternal subjunctive' – how it might have been.

And here's how it actually was on January 15, 2009, when U.S. Airways Flight 1549 took off from La Guardia with 150 passengers and five crew on board, en route Charlotte, North Carolina.

Just three minutes after take-off the Airbus flew into a flock of Canadian geese and three minutes after that, it came down in the Hudson River.

It's been described as the "Miracle of the Hudson" and "the most successful ditching in aviation history."

Not one of the 155 souls on board suffered any serious injuries – and the news was broken by people using their mobile phones.

This is truly is the age of the almighty mobile, and the citizen journalist.

As jkrums put it so neatly in his tweet:

"There's a plane in the Hudson. I'm on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy!"

My own personal first experience of the mobile phone was as a cub reporter, in London, in 1985.

I was given a mobile the size of a small brick and sent off to cover the auction at Christie's of John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls Royce.

I remember phoning my mum, just to tell her I was calling her from a mobile. And I remember, she was excited too – it was such a novelty in those days.

I realised then, from that first experience, the potential power, the new freedom, offered by the mobile phone.

It is changing the world. The Arab Spring has demonstrated the power of mobile telephony as never before. This was the first revolution ever driven by social media.

Brave amateurs on the spot were able to get to places beyond the reach of professional journalists, with however much top quality kit they had with them, however many zillion dollars they had behind them.

These new citizen journalists were tweeting from behind the curtains and courageously posting their reports, on the record, electronically, even though they knew the possible consequences – good and bad.

Perhaps Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson should now be nominated for Nobel Peace Prizes rather than any political leader, however powerful?

So what of the future?

Reports indicate mobile phones already outnumber toothbrushes worldwide and that next year, 2012, there will actually be more mobile phones abroad than there are people to carry them. A billion in India and China. Six billion in the rest of the world – that's the approximate prediction for 2012.

Africa has already jumped a whole generation and the new, developing world will never bother with installing landlines like the Old World always did.

In real terms, the centre of gravity has shifted. The digital revolution is putting power into the hands of the people.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Cracking the Code to get a job

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

New York (CNN) – Wished you had paid a little more attention in computer class? Learned to do more than just surf Facebook? You are not alone.

While companies and governments have been shedding jobs and paring back benefits, tech job openings continue to soar. According to Fortune magazine, software developers who specialize in applications will rise by over 30% by 2018. Jobs for computer system analysts will jump 20%.

And the pay is good – average salaries are around $94,000 a year.

That is good news for the hoards of young people who are already in the process of switching their college major from art history to computer science, but what about the rest of us?

Zach Sims thinks he has the answer.  Or at least some much needed help.  Anxious to upgrade his own considerable computer skills, the 21-year-old Connecticut native teamed up with a Columbia University friend Ryan Bubinski and started Codecademy, a free website which teaches the basics of writing computer code.

In the first four days of 2012 alone, the site has signed up more than 130,000 new users.

"I think we knew that programming was going to be the new version of literacy but at the same time it's pretty staggering to see the number of people who have signed up," said Sims.

You need to have Google Chrome or Firefox to access the site, but once you are on it, it is completely free and extremely easy to navigate. The site is designed so that people with no experience in coding can use it, but it is also easy enough to jump ahead if you have some background and just want to improve on your skills.

Sims makes no bones about the fact that this site isn't going to suddenly make you a computer expert or guarantee you a job.  But it can help you gain the knowledge to build a website to support your small business.

Codecamy has only been up and running since August, but Sims said he is committed to keeping the site free to users and wants to avoid turning to advertising to raise revenue. Instead, he hopes to a team up with corporations who may want to use the site to recruit.

As you can see from the piece we shot, my first attempt was a little rocky, but I am going to try and do the course. It may not get me my next promotion, but I hope it will help me better understand the gadgets which have become indispensible to me.

Are you interested in trying it?  Let me know what you think.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

The tidy business of trains - but messy business of railways

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Germany (CNN) – I thought that building trains would be a greasy, oily, noisy business. But as Marketplace Europe discovered on a trip to Germany, building trains is tidy - the messy bit is figuring out how to get them travelling easily across Europe's borders.

When we arrived at Siemens Rail systems factory, just outside Dusseldorf - the home of 2,000 workers - it was like we had landed inside a giant train-set. It was neat, shiny and bright.

Building trains in the 21st century is pretty much mess-free. Apart from welding and painting, it is all about assembling component parts, rather like wiring a highly complex computer - albeit one that will move at 300km per hour.

It is only when you see it that you realize just how much technology goes inside each train. Each car has about 60km of cabling packed inside the walls and flooring. So it is no wonder that every engineer here has had a minimum of three years training, much of that at a specialist center on site.

And those engineers can feel quietly confident about their jobs, Dr Ansgar Brockmeyer, CEO of high speed and commuter rail for Siemens Rail systems, tells me. “The impact (of the financial crisis) has been nearly nil," he said. “There were huge stimulus programs which helped us through the crisis. It helped us that we did not have to lay off any personnel here so we had huge contracts to work on.”

We saw the team working on the next generation of Velaro D, which Europe’s rail passengers will recognize as the “ICE” family of high-speed trains, plus the very first new-style Eurostar’s aluminum body shell, marked “001” in blue felt-tip pen.

More high-school than high-tech? Perhaps not here at Krefeld, where they say that sooner or later every regional and high-speed train built by Siemens in Germany will pass through.

But a playground mentality is arguably getting in the way of Europe having a seamless rail network. Governments are developing rail infrastructures in conflicting ways and at varying pace. For example, Brockmeyer tells me, countries have their own signaling system and electrics - and the train has to deal with all of it.

It would be a whole lot simpler - and cheaper - if European nations coordinated their plans to build infrastructure. Because while these trains are made to go at top speed, the journey can only be stop-start across the continent while it work remains splintered across countries.

I also interviewed the EU’s Transport Commissioner, Siim Kallas, in Belgium. These “missing links” are one of his frustrations, and he believes they could seriously impede the region’s economic growth.

Kallas’s vision for a new European network will connect 83 main European ports with rail and road links, 37 main airports with rail connections into major cities and upgrade 15,000km of railway line to high speed, all by 2030.

But 2030 might be a bit ambitious for a project with so many interested but disparate parties. Indeed the commissioner said so himself, telling me off-camera that just publishing a would-be rail map of Europe was a battle. “Oh there is going to be such a big row!” he told me. “Everybody wants their village connected. It took us such a long time to get to this stage. It is very hard to agree.”

So we left feeling a little deflated. What hope is there really for a joined-up Europe, on the rails, roads or otherwise, if the commission itself doesn’t ooze confidence in the success of their own endeavors?

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Chinese provincial debt reaching crisis point

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Hong Kong (CNN) - Fears that China could soon be facing its own Lehman-style banking meltdown are being fueled by a National Audit Office report which found 531 billion yuan (US$84 billion) worth of irregularities in local government debt.

According to the Chinese government website (www.gov.cn), the audit found 10.7 trillion yuan of local government debt at the end of 2010, a result of easy loans made possible by the government’s 2008-2009 stimulus injection.

Most of the money, say analysts, has found its way into the construction industry, creating entire cities, complete with apartments and offices that remain empty and unsold.

Many companies also have unpaid inventories, according to the government audit, and have little or no oversight of accounts.

“The audit discovered that 1033 such companies have problems such as false-financing, the registered capital being unpaid-in, illegal provision of funds and the withdrawing of them by local governments and departments, involving a sum of 244.15 billion yuan,” the audit said in its findings.

“As the investment of debt funds is mainly directed by these companies at projects serving public welfare or quasi-public welfare whose recovery of funds takes a fairly long time, their profit-yielding capabilities are rather weak.

“A total of 1734, or 26.37%, are loss-making companies.”

Stimulus money has also made it easy for provinces to get involved in massive infrastructure projects, such as high-speed railways, remote airports and even port projects that remain largely unused, analysts say.

Larry Lang, professor of finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, was reported by The Epoch Times as saying that China’s economy is on the “brink of bankruptcy” and that “every province is a Greece.”

The remarks were made in a lecture by Lang in Shenyang City in northern China’s Liaoning Province and reported after they were posted on YouTube.

In a controversial series of claims, Lang said that overall debt in China was as much as 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion), official inflation figures of 6.2% were as high as 16%, domestic consumption represented only 30% of economic activity and that there was “serious excess capacity.” He added that despite government headline figures of 9% growth in GDP, production had actually shrunk in China.

He also said China had one of the highest overall tax rates in the world and that Chinese businesses were paying as much 70% of their earnings in direct and indirect taxes.

“Once the economic tsunami starts, the regime will lose credibility, and China will become the poorest country in the world,” Lang concluded in the lecture.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Warren Buffett to sing online in China

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Hong Kong (CNN) – Billionaire Warren Buffett is giving China the old song and dance routine. Literally.

He’s recorded a video for this year’s Spring Festival gala which will be aired online for the Chinese New Year, according to a report from state news agency Xinhua.

Wang Pingjiu, a production executive from China Network Television says Buffett sings and plays the guitar in the video, but did not disclose what song is involved.

“We all know that Buffett is good at investment, but few knew he also did well in singing," Wang was quoted as saying.

In addition to his investing prowess, Buffett’s long been known for his passion for the ukulele – you can watch his 2007 performance at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting here. He also showed off his musical talents in this 2010 ad for his insurance company Geico, where he impersonated Guns N’ Roses start Axl Rose (pictured above).

The online gala is targeted at younger viewers, and will include Chinese celebrity Jackie Chan along with a number of viral videos and short films. CCTV says last year’s version got 12 million views.

Buffett’s reach will be much larger if his video makes the television version of the Spring Festival Gala. The program, a Chinese cultural staple, is one of the world’s most watched television shows. The past few years around 400 million viewers have tuned in, nearly one in three people in China. Competition for sponsorship is intense, with companies paying up to $30 million for the best time slots.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Summers: 'Risks have been reduced'

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

CNN International's business anchors and correspondents get to grips with the issues affecting world business, and they want your questions and feedback.

Future Cities gives us an inside look at how cities are adapting to tomorrow's urban challenges.

The Boss is following three world-class business leaders, to get a unique insight into what it's like to run a company.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Cracks appear in the Europe agreement

(CNN) - London The new European Treaty - nicknamed the "tax compact" - is facing some hard realities on the ground. Signs that the agreement could be difficult to switch to euro and yield emerging country.

In Warsaw, demonstrators are are aligned against, among other things, tacit agreement of the Poland in losing some sovereignty to join the club of European Treaty. In London, political wrangling continues over British Prime Minister David Cameron to the European Agreement veto.

In Ireland, a referendum can must take, with the Irish Minister Enda Kenny noting certain legal considerations and detailed techniques are still to be clarified. Anders Borg Swedish Finance Minister, said the country - that is not using the euro - not all the rules of budgetary discipline accept. And Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas, indicated that the proposed Pact is still just an empty piece of paper.

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the Bundestag the path to stability continued. In Italy, the new Prime Minister Mario Monti said that the transaction had done enough to calm markets.

But on Wednesday, U.S. stocks falls, the euro fell to its lowest level in 11 months and Italian bond yields rose.

European leaders promised to sign on this tax compact at the Summit of the leaders of its next in March. The markets will give them the time to complete the details... and cracks?

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Samsung topples Apple with its smartphone sales

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

Hong Kong, China (CNN) – All things considered, Samsung simply had a stellar year. The South Korean electronics maker toppled arch-rival Apple in smartphone sales in the third quarter. Now thanks to those sales, Samsung estimates its fourth quarter profits will shatter its current record.

For the October to December period, Samsung said it expects to add $4.5 billion to its bottom line. For the same quarter in 2010, it hauled in $2.6 billion. That’s a 73% pop.

The reason? When you think Samsung profits, think smartphone popularity.

Sales of the company’s high-end mobile phones helped boost 2011 profits into the stratosphere.

South Korean analysts estimate Samsung sold as many as 35 million smart phones in the fourth quarter. Looking ahead, total smartphone sales could soar to 170 million units by the end of this year, according to a report by BNP Paribas and Korea Investment and Securities.

And it’s numbers like those that may keep Samsung king in the global smartphone world - and safe from Apple’s advances.

To be sure, there have been setbacks along the way. The most recent happened this week.

An Italian court ruled against Samsung’s bid to stop sales of the iPhone 4S and follows similar rulings from a French court last month and a Dutch court last October. In those cases, Samsung argued Apple violated some of its patents. Not only that, Apple won three injunctions against Samsung in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands.

And yet these protracted patent battles don’t seem to have dented Samsung’s profits much.

On Friday, Samsung’s share price fell nearly 1.5% - but that’s largely considered to be profit-taking. Many investors had already been expecting the good news and it had been priced in.

As Samsung rings in a new year, its shareholders and investors expect to hear even better profit news – loud and clear.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Nokia launches Windows smartphones to challenge Apple and Android

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

London, England (CNN) – Mobile phone giant Nokia unveiled two new smartphones in London Wednesday as it sought to boost its flagging fortunes in the booming market.

The Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 - Nokia's first handsets using the Windows Phone operating system - are the company's attempt to gain traction in the smartphone market, dominated by Apple's iPhones and Google's Android operating system.

As he revealed the Lumia 800 Nokia, Chief Executive Stephen Elop said the company was "signaling our intent right now here today to be today's leaders in smartphone design and craftsmanship."

The Lumia phones put the emphasis on music, navigation and sport, offering music mixes, navigational tools and a partnership with ESPN for mobile sports coverage.

The announcement follows Nokia's partnership with Microsoft in February. The new handsets were revealed at the company's annual Nokia World conference. The phones, Elop said, were part of "a new dawn for Nokia."

Nokia also launched four new mobile phones which it said blurred the line between smartphones and more traditional handsets, offering keyboards and touchscreens, combined with internet access and integrated social networking.

Elop is under pressure to rejuvinate the company which, despite selling the highest volume of mobile phones worldwide, has suffered in the smartphone market. Earlier this year, Apple overtook Nokia to become the world's top smartphone maker.

Nokia announced last month that it plans to cut 3,500 jobs by the end of 2012. These are in addition to 4,000 job cuts announced in April, and a part of a major restructuring.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Europe suffers fiscal hangover

(CNN) - London The latest developments in the crisis of the euro are the holiday parties, we will at the time of the year. Make us merry, binge - and then suffer horrible hangovers in the days following. Long did it take for the euro-gueule of wood to arrive. The bonhomie of the euro-deal has disappeared.

I decided to wait a few days before writing on the Brussels agreement. It is easy to succumb to the enthusiasm of a late-night agreement, believing that he will bring "peace in our time" and a "chicken in every pot". To hear leaders EZ17 + Friday, it was certainly a question of dotting the is and crossing the Ts. Only with the reflection of a few days can see you what works, what is not - and will change their mind.

Rise and fall of euro

The "fiscal pact" was a beautiful piece of engineering German-French, in the best traditions of euro-fudge. It establishes the "tax rule" requiring a balanced budget for all the signatories of the Treaty, followed automatic of sanctions for those that lack of fall.

In any event, it offered vast new powers to the European Commission and the European institutions, but did not address the guarantees of the country as the Ireland who may need referendums to approve their. He left much to be negotiated between now and March is not surprising that the Czech Prime Minister Petr Necas described now as a sheet of blank paper.

Jargon buster

The objection greater, that I have in this new Treaty, is that it assumes that the deficits are a bad thing. There is no flexibility to General deficits and yet, as shown in the past three years, flexibility in the development of policies is crucial.

The ability for the United States to have the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a stimulus and ultra low monetary policy all the roles played by ensuring a recession did not become a depression. The UK introduced quantitative easing, or EQ, then of2, while the Government runs a deficit of 9%. And yet, the economy has slowed to a recession. Imagine if they had been chained with the nonsense of this agreement.

Ultimately, this cannot importance because European countries have shown a remarkable ability to do what they want, when they want. Everyone is conveniently forgetting the fact of Europe had a previous strict regime on deficits: the Maastricht criteria, which becomes part of the stability pact. Nations were supposed to have deficits of 3% or less. Except the Germany and the France, two other bludgeoned by suspending the Pact in 2005, when the going got tough.

Map of Europe debt

In other words, they have changed the rules. They have done before, and the results are clear see. They can do again. Now party while hard time. There is a future more hangover.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Reduced prices and infringement sap Christmas

(CNN) - London While the Christmas Countdown continues, shoppers around the world are pounding the sidewalks for the present perfect.

The holidays are a real boon for retailers, many of which are a large part of their profits in the last month of the year.

Even 2011 saw these businesses devastated by higher costs, the floods in Australia, which prompted the skyrocketing prices of wool and Arab spring, pushing up the price of textiles.

At a time where stores should be passing on some of these costs, a quick glance on the fronts of the shop in the Centre of London confirms what many analysts suspected for some time: the only way to get people through the door is to offer a discount.

Sarah Linfield and Stephanie Eason were among a few gifts-hunters to carry bags on Carnaby Street this week. But the two said that they bought their items in the sales, which this year began weeks before the holiday season.

EASON said that she had planned an austere Christmas and has had the opportunity of an interview to remind young viewers CNN that "this year it is a present per person." A single! »

Linfield said that the prospect of a recession is omnipresent in the minds of the people, forcing them to be more careful with their money.

Retail sales month last through the collapsed United Kingdom 0.4%. Stripping on daily essentials such as gasoline for cars, the figures are still dark: decrease of 0.7%, an image which the British Retail Consortium described as "completely miserable".

But it is not just the price reductions which play the Christmas Grinch for shops in Britain. Infringement also catch it the eye of a large number of a thrifty client.

A survey conducted by the firm UK Clarke Willmott has found more than one-fifth of the people said that they would buy false goods because they are cheaper.

The report proposes some interesting ideas - if unexpected - in sex habits, various age groups and income expenditure levels.

He concluded:

• Men are 50% more likely than women to buy false products

• 14% of those who have asked, said that they would buy a fake because the recession had eroded their purchasing power

• The unemployed are more likely to buy funny products

• Those aged 25 to 34 are more likely to succumb to the appeal of fakes

Even more surprising: attitudes towards the receiving forged documents.

Yet again, more than a fifth of respondents said that they would be happy to receive a gift infringed, especially if the donor could not afford the real thing.

This means that change attitudes to cheaper copies.

In an era of low budgets but high aspirations, those who want to "keep up with the Joneses" would rather a rip off that a much more economical, without mark. But buyers you care prey fall to the unreal, especially online elements. Some 61% of respondents said that they were being victimised by buying a fake.

Roy Crozier, a partner in the intellectual property with Clarke Willmott, explains the trend is not just confined to the high-end fashion and jewellery. Buyers are being fooled by suspicious car parts and electronics as well.

"As always, if it sounds too good to be true, then it is probably," he says. ".

The UK offers a snapshot of a global trend that threatens the labels of luxury and companies across Europe and beyond.

The world market of the knock compromise expected to reach between 1.2 and 1.8 trillion $ here 2015.

For retailers, Christmas is usually a moment of joy. But in Britain cuts and counterfeits can mean shoppers are not spending as much this year.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

Potential India eyes Africa

Cape Town (CNN)- Asian trade and investment in Africa is growing, but where investment in Africa have traditionally concentrated on natural resources, the India seeks to diversify its interests in the African continent.

In recent years, the India made new entering African markets. Tata, who owned one of the richest men in the India, recently built a new plant for the manufacture of trucks outside Pretoria, South Africa, producing heavy vehicles that are sold in Africa.

"You can't constantly keep import vehicles finished," Raman Dhawan, who heads operations in Africa of Tata, said CNN's Robyn Curnow.

"We really starts with Assembly just commercial vehicles, which is the trucks and bus chassis, and so we move forward, Yes, we will explore other," he added. "Therefore, the fundamental thing is that you need to make investments, adding value locally and this is what we really followed."

Tata, says that the value of its projects of South Africa - from cars to telecoms on metals and hotels - totals approximately $ 1.6 billion.

The India, quickly known as modernization of industries and middle class growth fuelling some of this growth on African markets.

Patel Safiya is a lawyer in mergers and acquisitions, which specializes in helping clients Indians. "We have witnessed an acceleration of investors Indians in South Africa over the past five years", she said. "It was phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal."

"At this time, we help investors in a range of sectors." Pharmaceutical products is great, but I would say mining is top of the list now, and it is because the India itself is a challenge enormous power and coal is a product that is highly sought in India, ", she added."

Abdullah Verachia advises companies on the emergence of economies BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

"As we are today, 57% of the world's population is either Chinese, Indian or African and strategic implications", he said. "Political implications, implications for South-South cooperation and implications for the business sector in Africa, India and China."

China's investment far exceeds the India. China should invest more than 100 billion in Africa, this year, more than double the 46 billion invested by the India, according to the India Africa Business Network.

But a difference between China and the India is that Indian Affairs is dictated by the private - sector especially successful family businesses such as the Tata conglomerate - who are tempted by the strong growth and new markets in Africa.

But this influx of investments is relatively one sided so far. The rate of African countries, set up the store in Asia is low and some fear that Chinese and Indian companies are harming local manufacturing such as textiles, sectors with their cheaper products at the wheel of African business to business.

Analysts say tariffs on African exports must be lowered in India and reduce the red tape if Africa is really participate and benefit from these new Eastern investment flows.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More

China's carbon tax snub opens new front in EU battle

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota

London (CNN) – The decision by China’s airlines to snub Europe’s carbon emissions tax opens a new front in the battle of European Union versus the Rest of the World.

From this year, airlines which use EU airports must pay a carbon tax, regardless of the carrier’s nationality. They pay for the emissions of the whole flight - not just the bit in European air space.

Carbon credits are issued for up to 80% of emissions, meaning airlines are left with hefty bills to cover the balance.

What has enraged the Americans, Chinese, Latin Americans - in fact just about everyone - is that the EU imposed a blanket scheme.

The industry believes that there should be a global solution - backed by the UN aviation body ICAO - not this unilateral go-it-alone policy.

Now China’s airline industry group has stuck a finger up at the EU and said its airlines won’t pay - and one can assume they would not have taken this step without approval from Beijing.

U.S. carriers say they will obey the law while their government is talking of taking “appropriate action,” possibly introducing a tax on EU carriers to redress the balance.

The Europeans were always worried about the U.S. response, but now it seems it’s the Chinese who could cause problems.

The first carbon credits don’t need to be paid for until the first quarter of next year, so there is time for an agreement to be reached. But don’t bank on it.

Worst of all, there is little airlines can do to reduce their carbon footprint quickly, because so many variables are outside their control.

More fuel efficient engines and aircraft are slowly being introduced - but they are expensive. And, in case regulators hadn’t noticed, the aviation industry hasn’t made decent multi-year profits in decades.

Air traffic control in Europe is a hodgepodge cluster of delays, with little chance of improvement. Long lead times, huge investments and complex regulation are the hallmark of this industry.

As for the EU’s scheme – well, it takes real skill to annoy everyone at once.

Even airlines such as British Airways, which support “cap and trade” as a way to reduce emissions, took offense at the Europeans effectively declaring: “Our way or the highway.”

This scheme has taken years to put in place, has required thousands of hours of monitoring and reporting - and who knows how much it is costing the airlines to administer.

Cutting carbon emissions is important and a start has to be made. But you don’t do it by angering your trading partners, making enemies of allies and ultimately destroying your own cause.

Debt Financing

Career Advisor

Read More