Eight more days to save the euro

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London (CNN) – We are now on Day Two of Olli Rehn’s 10 days to save the euro and the tempo is heating up.

Mario Draghi, the new European Central Bank president, has tantalizingly hinted he will do more to help out provided euro-member countries start the process of economic unification. As he put it, the sequence of events matters. In our language: Don’t put the horse before the cart.

For Europe’s leaders the promise that the ECB will ride to the rescue is sweet music, perhaps even for Germany’s Merkel and the Bundesbank who are demanding a move to fiscal union as the only preferred long-term solution.

If we needed any reminder of how messy this is getting, the Governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King gave us a hefty dose of reality. He said the euro crises was an “extraordinarily serious and threatening situation” and that Banks should be prepared to withstand the crises. He admitted the Bank of England was preparing contingency plans for what might happen to the euro. (Gulp)

As Day Two comes to an end I paraphrase the famous quote attributed to Otto Von Bismarck: “Saving the Euro is like making sausages. it is best not to watch them being made."

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UK strikes biggest since '89? Doubt it.

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London (CNN) – I’m reading that the public sector walk out to hit the UK on Wednesday will be the biggest strikes in Britain since 1989 - since the Margaret Thatcher era. One union says it will be a historic day.

In the 21 years I lived in London, I’ve seen transportation crippled, schools emptied, streets blocked by strikers and demonstrators. But the unions are telling us we ain’t seen nothing yet.

I’m not convinced. Yes, something like two million people will be on strike and tens of thousands are expected to march. But it will be peaceful. I don’t expect my daughter’s Year 4 teacher to run through the streets. I don’t expect immigration officials or workers at the National Archives to clash with police.

Strikes in the UK are not what they used to be. Firstly, unions have to set a strict time for strikes - this one will be 24 hours from midnight to midnight. Only the unions and affiliates that vote to strike can do so - no sympathy strikes allowed by law - and workers only hurt their cause if they cause trouble.

Further, some workers have to strike because the union has ordered it - private school teachers will not be at work on Wednesday if their union mandates it.

A year long miners’ strike this ain’t.

It’s also important to note this strike is over just one issue - public sector pension reform. The unions stress they have already reformed and that many of their members already pay more for less - noting that some workers are striking just to keep a hold of their £4,000 ($7,000) a year pension when they do retire down the road. Fair enough.

The government says the country must live within its means. It’s cutting jobs, raising taxes and trying to keep borrowing from going higher. After all, the government can only go after those workers whom get a government pay cheque.

Because UK law dictates unions must give details of whom will strike and when, companies and tourists have had plenty of time to prepare. People will work from home, airlines have already cancelled flights into Heathrow since immigration queues will be long and we parents all know that schools will open as normal on Thursday.

I suspect the biggest disruption on Wednesday will be parents who don’t go to work in order to look after the children.

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Indian traders strike over retail reform

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New Delhi, India (CNN) – Traders shuttered shops and markets through India Thursday to protest the federal announcement to open the country's $450 billion retail market to foreign competition.

The move came as lawmakers opposed to the plan paralyzed the national parliament for yet another day.

"Our strike shows how angry indigenous traders are," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), which led slogan-shouting demonstrations in New Delhi.

He said the arrival of global supermarkets would eliminate millions of small businesses. "This number (of small traders) is 200 million and they are dependent on 50 million establishments across the country. Because of these multinationals, these people will have to sell out their jobs. If not now, maybe five to 10 years later," Khandelwal said.

In the Indian capital, major wholesale and retail markets stayed closed as part of the CAIT's call for the day long, nationwide shutdown. Unlike big marketplaces, many residential neighborhood shops remained opened as usual in the city ruled by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress party.

Traders held sit-ins and street protests across the country, demanding reversal of the government's decision to free up the country's long-protected retail sector.

The strikes are piling pressure on Singh's administration to backtrack on its latest liberalization program. So far, it has refused to budge.

Uproar by lawmakers from opposition parties as well as from within Singh's coalition government has led to a stalemate in parliament, which is sitting for its winter session.

The impasse has also been stalling key legislative business, including the passage of an anti-corruption bill. No political consensus until now has emerged to end the deadlock over the retail reform.

Singh has defended the retail reform decision, calling it “well considered.”

His government says the move will help curb inflation. Further, the country’s commerce ministry forecasts an increase of 1.5 million front line jobs over the next five years, with the additional back office jobs pushing that number up to 1.7 million.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the nation's top business lobby, hailed the move toward foreign investment in retail as a "360-degree advantage" for the country.

But Singh faces ongoing resistance. Few regions in a country of 1.2 billion consumers have been supportive of the government's new retail policy.

And the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is also in power in several states, is demanding an immediate reversal of the regulation.

Thursday's shutdown was more pronounced in provinces governed by groupings opposed to retail liberalization. It was partial in states run by Congress.

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India looks to balance China trade

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Editor's note: "Along the Silk Road" is a weekly segment on Global Exchange, that will explore the burgeoning trade and investment links from the Middle East to Asia. Watch Global Exchange, on CNN International, Sunday to Thursday 1100 ET, 1600 GMT and 1700 CET.

Gujarat, India (CNN) –  A prolonged economic slump in the West has prompted India to broaden its economic ties and look east - to China.

Indian exports to China jumped nearly 70% last year, according to an Indian research report. It was partly on account of a loosening of export controls to keep prices afloat, but also a sign that China is becoming an increasingly important export market.

Rajiv Kumar is secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He said: “With the sluggishness in the American and European market, I think it was bound to happen, and I can see within FICCI there is opportunity.

“When a Chinese delegation comes there is greater participation and all of this is a sign that the Indian industry is getting more interested towards the Chinese future.”

China is India's largest trading partner, but trade between the two countries is imbalanced. India's imports from China are worth roughly $40 billion, while its exports are worth around half of that.

While some Chinese imports help these street vendors in India make money, not everyone is happy.

“I'm not pleased at all. It's like someone's taking away your bread and butter,” said Vinit Dalal of Dalal Machine Tools Agency.

Dalal sells used metal forging equipment in India. Now, he says, China is selling brand new equipment in India for the same price. As a result, his sales are slowing down.

“If someone is getting a brand new manufactured machine at the same price as I am supplying a used one, of course he's going to go for the new, with a two-year warranty and everything - so that's the problem,” said Dalal.

FICCI says such imbalanced trade between India and China cannot continue.

“The way it can improve is to facilitate Chinese investment into India and to export from those firms back to China and having a lot more joint ventures in India with Chinese firms, which can create those capacities from which we can export back to China,” said Kumar.

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Can the 'badly designed' euro fail?

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London (CNN) - Sir Mervyn King’s words today are chilling. The eurozone crisis is “extraordinarily serious and threatening” the Governor of the Bank of England said, and the UK’s central bank was drawing up contingency plans in case the zone breaks up.

This is the icing on the cake that has seen more and more politicians and commentators postulate the unthinkable: a breakup of the zone and the currency. The Economist starts this week’s lead article “even as the eurozone hurtles towards a crash.”

For some weeks now I have believed that such an event was nigh on impossible - surely, I reasoned, politicians would do what is necessary. The Economist says the “consequences are so catastrophic that no sensible policy maker could stand by and let it happen." With such ringing words I think it is worth distinguishing exactly what we are talking about.

I do not believe that the euro, as a currency, will disappear. Three hundred million people use it in their every day life. If the euro were to vanish, then we really are talking about turning the lights out and saying goodnight.

As for the eurozone, it’s a different matter. The eurozone probably won’t survive in its current form of 17 countries. The moment George Papandreou – when he was Greek prime minister – announced that his ill-fated referendum would be a “yes or no to the euro” a rubicon was crossed. The referendum didn’t happen but the incident left behind the concept that membership was no longer irrevocable – contrary to what the EU Treaty says. A country could say “we’re off.”

As the strains start pulling apart the economics of the project, something has to give - or the eurozone in its current form will collapse. This may involve one country leaving (or being kicked out) or a group of countries going off on their own. We can’t know yet.

If it is on the larger scale of failure, I promise you, it will be a catastrophe the like of which we haven’t seen. Banks will fail. Companies will go out of business. Jobs will be lost. People will be saddled with debts for generations. Civil unrest is entirely possible.

If it is just one or two countries being booted out, then the disruption will be much less for the rest, but pretty horrible for those countries involved.

Throughout all of this the euro, I have little doubt, will continue in a truncated form. Those using it will be left with an international weakling - ridiculed and ignored as a serious player. Europe will be the laughing stock of the world’s foreign exchanges.

The euro was a badly designed, poorly executed project whose problems were inherent at birth. The fact politicians failed to address them over many years is the reason why we have reached this nasty place.

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Eurogeddon: The 10 failures of EU leaders

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London (CNN) – Just like the credit crunch three years ago, the current eurozone crisis will no doubt spawn endless books and provide many an interesting case study for the world’s future economists. Whether the lessons will be learned and future crises avoided depends largely on whether you believe history repeats itself. And that’s another topic that divides opinion as much as the eurozone itself.

Already academics at Oxford University’s Centre for International Studies have identified 10 key failures of Europe’s leaders in how they have handled the issue, even though the saga is far from over.

Associate Fellow Kirsty Hughes says that the errors are largely political, democratic and economic in nature.

Here’s a list of where Hughes says EU leaders got things so wrong:

1) Lack of European political vision and strategy

Aside from the talk about balancing budgets together and pooling Europe’s giant debt pile, Hughes says what the region needs now is vision “to show that the EU is more than just a single currency, that it has a current and future political, social and economic purpose and dynamic.”  How can you get bond markets to invest in you for the next 10 or 20 years without a clear vision on your combined goals? Especially with countries squabbling about the erosion of sovereignty that may result with proposed changes to the EU treaties– changes Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel says are essential for future integration.

2) Imbalance of power strains relations between member states:

Here’s a question for you: Who really counts in the European Union? The two largest economies, France and Germany? The 17 EU countries that share the euro? Or the full 27, including the 10 more that aren’t part of the currency union?

The answer depends on who you are. As the crisis has deepened, France and Germany – with significant amounts of political and financial capital invested in the euro project – have taken on the lead role. Hughes says the concentration of decision-making on two countries and a handful of unelected officials “represents the worst of all worlds.”

Not only has the process been painfully slow and behind the curve, she says it has often visibly failed to bring other interested parties into the negotiations, namely the other 15 members that share the same fate.

Even less attention has been paid to the ten more EU members that aren’t part of the euro zone.

3) Neglecting the EU’s role on a global stage

Though progress has been painfully slow when it comes to solving Europe’s domestic woes, Hughes also says the E.U. has taken its eye off the ball on its foreign policy at a key time of upheaval in the Mediterranean and Middle East. Hughes says that after the Arab Spring uprisings, Europe should be ‘asserting and defining its role in the new order to retain influence.’

4) Lack of policy choices. Is austerity the only answer?

Throughout the eurozone crisis, the Franco-German wonder cure has been austerity. Those swallowing the medicine like Greece and Portugal have been vocal about their skepticism, saying deep cuts will stifle any future growth and lead to a lost generation however very few credible policy alternatives have been put forward by any of the EU’s members.

5) Failure to put people first

Hughes says Europe’s leaders have acted as though there were almost academic economists, failing to see the hopelessness brewing in places like Spain for instance where unemployment among the young runs at 40 percent. She goes as far as saying those heads of government who do not give hope to their citizens should not deserve the title ‘leaders.’

6) Emergence of technocratic governments

Two eurozone countries – Greece and Italy – are now run by technocrats, unelected by the people. That in itself, Hughes says is a failure of democracy on a national and international level.

7) The EU’s democratic deficits

The EU’s weaknesses were exposed long before the eurozone crisis gained momentum. French, Dutch and Irish voters rejected new constitutional treaties for the bloc, exposing the lack of cohesion. While some argue that transforming the EU into a Federal entity would be the best answer to the crisis, Hughes says given the substantial ‘No’ votes to previous treaty changes, any such moves would be premature at this stage.

8) Macro-economic failures

Germany and the United Kingdom espouse the view that more rigorous budgetary discipline is the answer for countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Italy – nations that have large debts and little hope of paying back their borrowings soon. Having said that, not all economists agree that cuts are always the key to solving a crisis. Such countries were already suffering from low growth and now public sector layoffs and pension cuts could also prompt a slump in demand for goods and services, a drop off in consumer and business confidence, which all in all will dent output.

9) Failure to confront the financial markets

The failure of Europe’s leaders to reassure financial markets early about Greece has magnified the cost and scale of the crisis today and left the region with a situation in which some of its largest economies  (like Italy) may soon be unable to finance themselves as nations normally do: on the open bond markets. Hughes says it’s time to throw out the ‘neoliberalism’ rulebook, in which control is shifted from the public to the private sectors. Or else, Europe’s politicians will continue to repeat the errors of 80 years ago.

 10) Micro-economic failures

The Eurozone project has demonstrated that without similar levels of productivity, the economic strains that monetary union members suffer will continue to become more apparent, Hughes says. Wages, prices, unemployment and a whole raft of other factors will continue to vary widely among member nations. If the balance is right, the country can remain competitive, Hughes says. If it’s wrong, it may well spend to make up for the shortfall – such as building new motorways and airports –which create jobs. Such spending leads to large deficits, which later widen when the economy slows.

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Parliamentary stalemate as India's retail battle continues

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New Delhi, India (CNN) - India's federal government is facing ongoing disruption as the battle continues over its decision to allow foreign supermarkets into the nation's $450 billion retail market.

The uproar by lawmakers forced an abrupt adjournment of India's parliament for another day Tuesday. The impasse has also been stalling key legislative business, including the passage of an anti-corruption bill. An all-party meeting to end the deadlock has also failed.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, meanwhile, is defending last week’s decision to allow international supermarket chains into the country’s retail sector, saying it was “well considered.”

But he faces fiery protests, with those opposing the measures saying foreign competition will eliminate hundreds of thousands of small, family-run businesses.

Nitish Kumar, a widely-respected politician and chief minister of Bihar, one of India's most impoverished states, said he opposed it "tooth and nail... it will ruin retailers and will lead to a point of unemployment beyond imagination in the country."

J. Jayalalithaa, the chief minister of India's fast-growing, southern state of Tamil Nadu - where at least three big cities are located - says she will deny access to foreign retail companies at the outset. "My government will not allow multi-brand global players as permitted under the new policy to set up their hyper markets in Tamil Nadu," she said.

And the leader of the nation's most populous Uttar Pradesh state warned the new regulation would "bankrupt" her province. "If this in retail is allowed, Uttar Pradesh will become kangal (meaning bankrupt in Hindi) in the next five years as local traders will be forced to shut shop," said Mayawati, the state's chief who goes by one name.

Few regions in a country of 1.2 billion consumers have been supportive of the government's new retail policy, which triggered a full-scale political brawl in the national assembly in New Delhi.

The main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, which is also in power in several states, is demanding an immediate reversal of the move.

"Allowing FDI (foreign direct investment) in retail is a lopsided decision," said BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi. "Wal-Mart is not the solution to our economic problems. Why do you want to bring a U.S. ailment here?" the veteran lawmaker argued, referring to the American company as emblematic of global hypermarkets.

Even some within Singh's coalition were critical.

The Trinamool Congress Party, a federal ally that rules West Bengal state, echoed the widespread opposition. So did the Tamil Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam political grouping, another member of the ruling alliance.

Singh's government argues the move will free up a long-protected sector and – amid soaring prices – will help curb inflation. The country’s commerce ministry forecasts an increase of 1.5 million front line jobs over the next five years, with the additional back office jobs pushing that number up to 1.7 million.

And there are supporters outside government. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the nation's top business lobby, hailed the move toward foreign investment in retail as a "360-degree advantage" for the country. "In a true potential scenario, opening up of FDI can increase organized retail market size to $260 billion by 2020," the group said.

But the many critics remain unconvinced and the parliamentary stalemate looks set to continue. Praveen Khandelwal, whose Confederation of All-India Traders has called for a nationwide market shutdown for December 1 , says the government’s claims are "hollow."

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Public sector corruption stymies eurozone debt crisis relief

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Greece and Italy are perceived as corruption-tainted and this is hampering efforts to tackle the eurozone crisis, a new report suggests.

According to corruption watchdog Transparency International, the two countries at the center of the debt crisis scored poorly on the group’s 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index. On a scale of ten, Greece scored 3.4 and Italy 3.9, ranking 80 and 69, respectively, on the list of 183 countries.

The Corruption Perception Index ranks countries according to their perceived levels of corruption in the public sector.  The 2011 edition drew on data from 17 surveys conducted between December 2009 and September 2011, which assessed factors such as bribery, kickbacks, embezzlement, and anti-corruption efforts.  Countries evaluated in at least three of the surveys were included in the ranking.

“Eurozone countries suffering debt crises, partly because of public authorities’ failure to tackle the bribery and tax evasion that are key drivers of debt crisis, are among the lowest-scoring EU countries,” the group said in a release.

Greece and Italy both accumulated massive deficits over the last decade that led to rounds of bailouts and austerity measures this year.  The prime ministers in both countries were forced to step down in November amid intense public outrage.

However the European pair fared somewhat better than Somalia, North Korea, Myanmar, and Afghanistan, the countries at the bottom of the list.

New Zealand came in first place with a score of 9.5, followed by Finland and Denmark with scores of 9.4.  Two thirds of the list had scores below 5.0, with new entrant North Korea ranking at the bottom with a score of 1.0.  Other notable rankings within Asia included Singapore in 5th place with a score of 9.2; Hong Kong in 12th with 8.4, and China in 75th, scoring 3.6.

RANK                   COUNTRY                  SCORE

Top 5

1                           New Zealand                  9.5

2 (tie)                   Denmark                          9.4

2 (tie)                   Finland                             9.4

4                           Sweden                             9.3

5                           Singapore                        9.2

Bottom 5

177 (tie)               Sudan                                1.6

177 (tie)               Turkmenistan                1.6

177(tie)                Uzbekistan                      1.6

180 (tie)               Afghanistan                     1.5

180 (tie)               Myanmar                          1.5

182 (tie)               North Korea                     1.0

182 (tie)               Somalia                              1.0

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"Long battle ahead” for Hong Kong maids

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Hong Kong, China (CNN) – “There’s still a long battle ahead.”

That’s what Mark Daly, the lawyer for Filipina maid Evangeline Vallejos, first told me after a Hong Kong court today ruled to uphold a prior judge’s historic verdict.

That September 30 judgment: His client – and all other eligible foreign domestic workers here – are entitled to apply for permanent residency. Also known as PR, it has been a right afforded to most white-collar foreign workers but foreign maids have traditionally not been eligible. Partly because of this, many have complained they are treated as second-class citizens.

But perhaps not anymore.

Following Wednesday's court ruling, Daly expects Hong Kong has no choice but to declare Ms. Vallejos a permanent resident. She has worked in Hong Kong for 25 years. Current law stipulates a foreign worker can apply for PR after working in the territory for seven years.

The finding also has ramifications for the estimated 292,000 other foreign maids in Hong Kong. About 117,000 of them – or nearly 40% – can now apply to live here for the rest of their lives.

Emmanuel Villanueva, spokesman for Hong Kong’s Asian Migrants Coordinating Body, conveyed his happiness to me via text.

“This is a victory not only for her but for all foreign domestic workers who have been treated by the HK government unfairly. We hope that the government will implement the judgment immediately.”

That hope, however, may already be dashed. The Hong Kong government filed another appeal right after the ruling.

In previous arguments, Hong Kong officials have cited this socio-economic doomsday scenario: Current Hong Kong taxpayers would be hit with more than $3 billion in social welfare spending for up to half a million new immigrants, spouses and children.

But two analyses in just the past few weeks now counter that.

Hong Kong’s Mission for Migrant Workers released a study aimed at debunking the argument that the extended family of maids would be a burden to Hong Kong society. Of the 162 foreign domestic workers who responded, only 54% of them were actually eligible to apply for PR. Nearly 59% had no dependents under the age of 18.

Furthermore, Paul Yip, a professor of Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong – who also holds a PhD in biostatistics – analyzed the government’s evidence and concluded the findings were “crude, biased, highly-questionable, unrealistic, if not entirely misleading.”

As for fears of a flood of Hong Kong maids, Villanueva of the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body readily admits it has been difficult to find foreign domestic workers who want to apply for PR status.

The reason is economic reality: You don't need PR to earn Hong Kong dollars, which provide big bang for the buck for families back in the Philippines and Indonesia.

Says Villanueva, “The right of abode is not a top of concern. Higher wages, shorter working hours and better job protection is more important than getting PR. Foreign domestic workers would rather have jobs here, earn some money and send it back home. (The basic monthly salary of) $3470 can get you one entry-level iPad here. But in the Philippines that can send your children to school. That can feed your family.”

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Sony Buys Ericsson’s Stake in Phone Venture

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October 27, 2011, 12:19 PM EDT By Jonathan Browning and Mariko Yasu

(Adds Ericsson CEO comments starting in seventh paragraph.)

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp. agreed to buy Ericsson AB’s 50 percent stake in their 10-year-old mobile-phone venture to integrate the smartphone business with its gaming and tablet offerings.

Ericsson will get 1.05 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in cash for its shares in Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, the Stockholm-based company said today. The proceeds from the deal are higher than the book value of Ericsson’s stake. The Swedish company rose 6.1 percent to 70.75 kronor in Stockholm trading. Sony climbed 5.4 percent to 1,650 yen in Tokyo.

The deal will help Sony tap demand for smartphones as Japan’s largest exporter of consumer electronics is seeking a new earnings driver after losing a total of 476.3 billion yen ($6.3 billion) from its main television operation in the past seven fiscal years. Full control of the venture will add smartphones using Google Inc.’s Android system to Sony’s device business, while freeing Ericsson to concentrate on sales of wireless transmission equipment and services.

“The deal will increase management freedom at the mobile phone unit to speed up development of new products,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments Ltd. in Tokyo, which manages about $28 billion in assets. “It’s up to products whether Sony can survive in the wireless industry.”

Android Focus

Sony Chairman Howard Stringer said he will change the mobile venture’s brand following the deal. Sony Ericsson has turned to smartphones based on Android to lessen market share losses amid competition from Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The company aims to distinguish itself from rivals through its integration with Sony’s entertainment range and distinctive hardware designs such as the Xperia Play, an Android phone with Playstation console controls and games.

Ericsson and Sony set up the venture on Oct. 1, 2001, giving themselves five years to dethrone Nokia Oyj as the world’s biggest mobile-phone maker. Sony Ericsson’s market share slid to 1.7 percent in the second quarter from 3 percent a year earlier, according to researcher Gartner Inc.

Ericsson will have a “positive capital gain” from the deal as the proceeds exceed the book value of its stake, Chief Executive Officer Hans Vestberg said on Bloomberg Television’s “Last Word” with Maryam Nemazee.

Ericsson carried its share of the venture at 2.4 billion Swedish kronor ($372 million) as of the end of last year, declining from 6.7 million kronor in 2008, according to its annual report.

The 1.05 billion euros for Ericsson’s stake are less than predicted by RBS analyst Didier Scemama, who this month said that a valuation of about 1.3 billion euros would be “fair.”

‘Past Its Time’

The venture “was pretty much past its prime” because Ericsson is focusing more on infrastructure and managed services and less on devices, said Duncan Clark, Beijing-based chairman of BDA China, which advises technology companies. Sony views smartphones, which can control TVs and play games, as a way to strengthen its position against competitors including Samsung Electronics Co., he said.

“Sony should be a big player in the digital home,” Clark said. “The mobile phone is becoming much more central to electronics. If they are going to be successful and fend off Samsung, they need to do this.”

Following the deal, Sony may consider merging its handset and tablet businesses, said Janardan Menon, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London.

“They are a consumer electronics company where their mainstream is not faring well,” Menon said.

Exclusive Movie Access

Sony, the maker of Vaio laptops, last month started offering its first tablet computer that features a 9.4-inch LCD display as well as front and rear cameras, in a pursuit of Apple whose iPad spurred a surge in demand.

“TVs aren’t going to go away but consumers will watch content on smartphones, they will watch it on tablets,” Stringer said in an interview in London today. “We have the opportunity to give people something to watch and they won’t be able to get it anywhere else as far as they can get it here.”

Sony will be able to “deliver a lot of movies early” through its Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. film studio business, he said.

Stringer has previously sought to end losses by outsourcing production to contract manufacturers and eliminating thousands of jobs.

Asian Demand

The transaction is the fourth biggest for the Japanese electronics maker, topping the company’s purchase of Sony BMG Music Entertainment from Bertelsmann AG in 2008, according to Bloomberg data.

Sue Tanaka, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for Sony, said the company is looking at various options to finance the deal. Sony has enough cash to pay for the stake, she said.

The transaction, subject to authority approvals, will probably be completed in January 2012, the companies said.

Sony Ericsson on Oct. 14 posted third-quarter sales and pretax profit that exceeded analysts’ forecasts after sales climbed in Asia while Western European revenue suffered from withering consumer confidence.

Asia sales gained 81 percent to 985 million euros while Europe, Middle East and Africa declined 43 percent to 480 million euros. Sony Ericsson has about 12 percent of the global unit market for Android handsets, it said at the time.

Sony Ericsson also has more than 4,000 of its own telecom patents and has a license to all the Nortel Networks Corp. patents that were auctioned this year, the venture said in August. Both Ericsson and Sony were part of a group, which included Apple and Microsoft Corp., that agreed in July to pay $4.5 billion for a portfolio of patents from the breakup of Nortel.

A sale of the venture would be positive for Ericsson since it would reduce the risk of additional funding obligations, Fitch Ratings said Oct. 7. Ericsson said today SEB Enskilda is acting as its sole financial adviser in the transaction.

-- With assistance from Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo and Ed Lococo in Beijing. Editors: Simon Thiel, Kenneth Wong.

To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Browning at jbrowning9@bloomberg.net; Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kenneth Wong at kwong11@bloomberg.net; Michael Tighe at mtighe4@bloomberg.net

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Canadian businesses score poorly on succession planning

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After a lot of blood, sweat, tears and long nights, your small business is thriving. Smart planning helped you get through the recession, and you managed to avoid some of the most common mistakes on the road to building a profitable enterprise. You’ve done well, but one day you start to think it might be nice to step back and do something else.

The only problem is that so much time and energy went into getting the business up and running, you never stopped to think about when you might be ready to hand over the reins. So now what?

According to TD Waterhouse's early October Business Succession Poll of 609 small business owners, just 24 per cent of small business owners surveyed said they had a succession plan worked out for retirement.

The good news is, you’re not alone.

With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, a large number of companies are expected change hands in the coming years. When the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) polled its members recently about when they planned to exit their businesses, almost two-thirds said they would do so in the next decade.

That’s a huge number of businesses, but the same CFIB poll found that barely 10 per cent of entrepreneurs had any sort of formal plan in place to make it happen.

According to TD Waterhouse's early October Business Succession Poll of 609 small business owners, just 24 per cent of small business owners surveyed said they had a succession plan worked out for retirement.

Of those polled, whether they had a formal plan or not, 23 per cent said they would simply close their business when it came time to retire; 20 per cent planned to sell their business to a third party; 18 per cent expected to transfer it to a family member; 12 per cent said they'd sell to a partner or employee; and 27 per cent said they were not yet sure what they'd do.

Whether retirement from your business is an urgent development or a dream for years in the future, it’s never too early to start planning for it, experts say.

Getting a windfall for selling a good business to someone is a key cog in ensuring a financial sound retirement. Having it all fall apart because of poor planning can be devastating.

“I always say the succession planning process ideally starts the minute you open your doors and start your business,” consultant Susan Smith says. “That’s rarely the case, but in an ideal world it happens.”

She knows of what she speaks. Formerly an accountant, Smith sold her stake in an accounting firm she founded about a decade ago.

“I woke up one day and realized I didn’t want to own an accounting firm any more, so I set about finding the best way to make it happen,” she said.

More than the financial payout, one of her major concerns was making sure her clients would be satisfied with any transition. Because she had a plan in place that identified her major concerns, the search for a successor went smoothly. She ended up selling her business to a rival accounting firm relatively quickly.

Her customers were happy with how things turned out, as were Smith and the purchaser. “I knew I wanted to stay in touch with my clients for consultancy work, but I had no intention of trying to work with them as an accountant ever again,” she said.

Because she had done her homework, Smith was able to structure a deal that kept everyone happy. The buyer paid for a client list, and the people on it remained loyal and continued to need accounting work.

Smith, meanwhile, was able to ensure her clients were happy, but she was also allowed to continue to work with them on other projects without stepping on the toes of the purchasing firm.

“They’ve gone on to buy two or three other accounting practices over the last decade and they still tell me mine was their happiest purchase because every angle was taken care of,” Smith says.

It all went smoothly because Smith had a plan that looked at a number of succession-related issues and was well thought-out in advance. No matter the business, a number of factors need to be considered before the owner plunges into negotiations.

A family business often presents unique challenges, for example. It’s not just the life’s work of a parent and the major source of income for an entire family, that’s being handed off, there’s also pride and family dynamics at stake.

Entrepreneurs are notoriously bad at putting a fair price tag on their business because they often can’t step back objectively and look at the operation without bias.

“If your business is family run, emotional ties make these decisions even more difficult,” says Martin Rochwerg, a senior partner at Miller Thomson LLP.

Handing over the keys to a son or daughter is the dream for many small business owners. But even in cases where there’s a child ready and willing to take it on, there are pitfalls.

Valuation can be a mess, for one thing. For a fee, a chartered business valuator can help figure out what, empirically, a business is actually worth. Entrepreneurs are notoriously bad at putting a fair price tag on their business because they often can’t step back objectively and look at the operation without bias.

“They’ve typically spent decades building the business to be what it is, so it can be hard to pull back and have an outsider come in and put a number on it,” Smith says.

Even if everyone can agree on a number, emotional problems can arise with other members of the family. Even if the successor is clearly the most qualified and has earned the right to buy the business, other children may feel cheated out of their inheritance.

“If you plan to leave the shares of your business to one of your children, you might want to leave non-business assets of equivalent value to your other children,” Rochwerg advised in a CIBC report on succession planning recently.

“Unfortunately, you also have to plan for the worst-case scenarios,” Rochwerg says.

If no suitable heir inside a family exists, the next typical exit strategy is to sell to existing employees or partners

“The management buy-out can be advantageous in ensuring continuity of personnel and the business itself,” a CFIB handbook for small business owners advises. “Many proud owners of small- and medium-sized businesses don’t want to risk losing their company’s identity or seeing loyal employees transferred or terminated after the sale. These risks are more likely to be offset with a management buy-out rather than a sale to an outside party.”

While selling to employees is often preferable, experts say it’s important to identify a possible successor early on and get them as involved as possible while the entrepreneurs is still in the picture.

“You need to figure out if one of your employees wants the business and can run it before you’re thinking of getting out, not after,” Smith says.

Not that it always works perfectly. Smith recently worked with a customer who was doing everything right. She had identified an employee at the company who was capable and seemed eager to take over the reins one day. As it turns out, she just didn’t start the process early enough.

As the time neared and discussions got down to dollars and cents, the employee got cold feet. “At the last minute, she decided she didn’t want to pay for it,” Smith said. “She decided to open up next door and sell to all her old clients from her new company.”

“You can imagine, that wasn’t a fun conversation,” she says.

That ugly situation could maybe have been avoided, Smith says, if she had been brought into the process sooner. Laying the groundwork for a handover years in advance, with a succession plan and transparent business evaluation would have laid the groundwork for a better outcome.

One of the most common mistakes that experts come across with small businesses is a lack of succession planning simply because the entrepreneur can’t imagine life outside their small business.

“I see them all the time,” Smith says. “They’re working 80 hours a week, they have no interests outside of work — these are the ones I know are going to have a hard time with the process because they think they’re ‘never going to retire.’”

Some only think about a succession plan once they’ve made a decision to retire. Or worse, they’re exiting the business kicking and screaming because of family or health issues, which means they won’t be satisfied with what comes next.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to stay active in something you’ve created. But having an up-to-date strategy for the inevitable day when you need to move on ensures your needs are met, no matter what they are.

“It’s important to review your succession plan at least once a year to make sure it accurately reflects your current wishes and situation,” Rochwerg says.

And when it comes right down to it, some entrepreneurs don’t need a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

“You need to figure out if you’re building a business you’re going to sell one day, or if you’re just building a job for yourself, one you’ll be happy to just walk away from one day,” Smith says.

Both are valid options, but they have different requirements that take the owner down divergent paths while the business is running.

“Both are fine, but you need a plan to get there,” Smith says.

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Greeks Fear They Are Losing Their Sovereignty

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Nikolas Giakoumidis/AP

A teacher walks by during a parade in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki on Thursday. Parades were held across Greece on Thursday to mark the 61st anniversary of the country's resistance to Axis forces, which dragged Greece into World War II. Some bystanders also seized the opportunity to shout anti-austerity slogans.

World markets rallied Thursday after European leaders agreed on a plan to deal with the eurozone debt crisis. But in Greece, the most imperiled country, there was skepticism that the deal will do much to help the country out of recession.

In addition, many Greeks also fear that they are losing their sovereignty, and are uncomfortable about the role Germany will be playing in the country's financial future.

The Nuntius stock brokerage firm is, unlike similar offices in New York or London, deathly quiet. So many people have been laid off that the offices are nearly empty.

The firm's president, Alexandros Moraitakis, sits behind a big desk, his cell phone ringing with calls from clients eager to know about the EU deal that was reached at dawn Thursday.

His own profession is in critical condition. In the past two years, the Greek stock market has lost 75 percent of its volume. Personally, he doesn't like the EU deal. He says the EU, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — known as the troika — have his country's fate in their hands.

"Greece does not decide, now the troika people decide, and they make experiments in the Greek market," he says. "Up to now they were unsuccessful. Without growth, nothing will be done."

They are pressing the knife deeper and deeper, they insult us more every day, driving us toward violence and to an explosion that could also be destructive for them.

- Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, speaking of austerity measures demanded by Germany

All Pain, No Gain

Moriatakis lists some other troika results: Unemployment has doubled, and despite two years of draconian austerity measures, Greece is in recession and spiraling downwards. Many commentators echo this negative view.

And there's widespread criticism that the troika is going to have a permanent office in Athens for the rest of the decade.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made clear that over-indebted eurozone countries must be closely overseen by international inspectors.

Many Greeks see this as the first step of a loss of national sovereignty.

Newspaper publisher and journalist George Kirtsos says it's one thing to yield sovereignty in the name of a more united and integrated Europe.

"And it is another thing yielding sovereignty because you have failed in your economic management and now have to face the reality of German domination," he says. "No government can sell this to its people, to its own electorate."

Kirtsos points out that statements by German politicians disparaging the Greek people have revived old memories of the brutality of the German occupation during World War II.

Anger With Germany

There have even been suggestions in the media that the German-driven austerity measures are part of a plan to reshape the Greek nation. But Kirtsos says this in no way resembles what the Americans offered with the Marshall Plan, which pumped lots of money into the Greek economy, devastated by World War II.

"So you can do nation-building provided you pay the bill," he said. "But if you want to do nation-building and force the Greeks to pay the price for the German nation-building in Greece, this is something that cannot be done in political terms."

Anti-German sentiment is boiling. A slew of cartoons have depicted Greek government officials as Nazi collaborators. There are growing fears that Germans are plotting to buy Greek monuments and islands on the cheap, and there's a revival of anger over Greek demands for compensation for Nazi atrocities.

A local EU office run by a German is referred to as the Gestapo.

Even world-famous composer Mikis Theodorakis — of Zorba the Greek fame — joined the anti-German crusade in a call to a radio talk show.

"They are pressing the knife deeper and deeper, they insult us more every day, driving us toward violence and to an explosion that could also be destructive for them," Theodorakis says.

But at a press conference Thursday, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos tried to reassure Greeks that their national sovereignty is intact. He justified the troika's permanent presence in Athens, saying it's needed to avoid what he called communication problems.

And he insists that responsibility for and implementation of the EU bailout program lies with the Greek government alone.

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All Things Considered–

U.S. importers are encountering delays, changes in contracts and products not showing up at all.

Greeks resent the power that financial institutions will have over their country.

The deal that is supposed to solve the European debt crisis has been unveiled.

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Tainted Aqua Dot beads leads to $1.3 M fine

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The U.S. government slapped a hefty $1.3 million fine on a Toronto-based toy company that sold popular arts-and-crafts beads that were linked to a dangerous drug and sickened about a dozen children.

The civil penalty, announced Thursday, marks the third largest toy-related fine issued by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The Aqua Dots toy beads were imported by Spin Master in 2007 and recalled after tests showed they were coated with a chemical that, when ingested, can metabolize into the so-called "date-rape" drug gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB). The compound can induce unconsciousness, seizures, drowsiness, coma and death.

The commission alleged that Spin Master knowingly failed to report a defect and hazard associated with Aqua Dots. It also accused the company of knowingly importing and selling a banned hazardous substance. CPSC said Spin Master, based in Toronto with a subsidiary in Los Angeles, agreed to the settlement but denies allegations that it knowingly violated the law.

The toys consisted of tiny colored beads that stick together when sprayed with water, forming fun designs and shapes. About 4 million of the kits were recalled in November 2007.

The commission says Spin Master had enlisted an outside testing company to see whether the toy beads were safe, but the testing was inadequate.

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Irish Spy Opportunity in Greece’s Debt Hole

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October 27, 2011, 7:02 AM EDT By Dara Doyle

(For more on Europe’s debt crisis, see EXT4.)

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Greece’s difficulty paying its debts may turn out to be Ireland’s opportunity.

Greece’s failure to cut spending and boost revenue by enough to meet targets set by the European Union and International Monetary Fund prompted bondholders to accept a 50 percent loss on its debt. While Ireland won’t seek debt discounts, the government might pursue other relief given to Greece, including cheaper interest payments on aid and longer to repay it, according to a person familiar with the matter who declined to be identified as no final decision has been taken.

“There’s a political problem for the government,” said Gavin Blessing, a bond analyst at Collins Stewart Plc in Dublin. “The Greeks, who are seen to be behaving badly, get rewarded, whereas the Irish, the top boys in the class, get nothing.”

While Irish bonds delivered the world’s best returns during the past three months, they have pared gains on concern slowing economic growth worldwide will derail the government’s efforts to revive the country’s fortunes through exports. The yield on debt due in 2020 rose 63 basis points in October to 8.26 percent yesterday, albeit down from 15.5 percent in July.

Ireland was the second euro member to need a bailout and Prime Minister Enda Kenny is ruling out reneging on its bonds. Yet, he said this week he’s pushing his European partners for alternative ways of reducing Ireland’s “crushing” debt.

Different Road

“What is being done for Greece, including the steps that will need to be taken to make its debt sustainable, reflect a uniquely difficult situation,” Kenny told parliament in Dublin yesterday. “I cannot say it often enough or strongly enough; we will not be going down the same road.”

Changes to Ireland’s plan could include replacing taxpayer- funded bank bailouts with European money, new structural funds, lower interest rates and longer repayment times for official aid, according to the person familiar with the matter.

The cost of insuring against Ireland defaulting for five years dropped to 723 basis points from 1,296 since July 18, according to CMA prices, implying a 46 percent probability of Ireland failing to meet its obligations. The likelihood of a Greek default is 91 percent, swaps signal.

Bond prices suggested Greek investors anticipate losing as much as 60 percent of their investments, with the nation seeking aid from euro-region governments and the IMF worth at least 109 billion euros ($152 billion). European leaders meeting in Brussels today persuaded bondholders to take 50 percent losses on Greek debt and boosted the firepower of the rescue fund to 1 trillion euros.

‘Total Insolvency’

Leaders were prepared for a “total insolvency” of Greece if bondholders resisted the writedown put on the table, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told reporters after a summit that delivered a revamped debt-crisis strategy.

In Dublin, pressure is building on Kenny to seek more debt relief after the government injected about 62 billion euros into the Irish financial system.

“Why is it acceptable to write down Greek debt, when the Irish pay private bankers’ debts?” Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, said in parliament on Oct. 25.

Kenny told Adams he’s seeking debt reduction on a “number of fronts.” The IMF said on Sept. 7 it estimates Ireland’s government debt will peak at 18 percent more than the country’s gross domestic product in 2013, equivalent to almost 200 billion euros. That’s up from 25 percent of GDP in 2007.

The government has already signaled it may seek to shift some of the costs of bailing out the banking system to Europe, relieving the burden on the taxpayer.

Sharing Burdens

“Had a European bank resolution fund been in place, some of the resolution of Irish banks would have been part of that,” said Alan Ahearne, economics professor at Galway University, who acted as adviser to former Finance Minister Brian Lenihan. “The Irish government has a legitimate claim that there should be some sort of burden-sharing on a European level.”

The government might also seek lower interest rates and more time to payback its 67.5 billion loans from the EU and IMF. The state is saving about 10 billion euros from concessions granted at a July 21 summit, according to Kenny.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan also may seek to tap any structural funds designed to drive economic growth in Greece. The Greek economy is set to contract 5.5 percent this year and 2.5 percent next, according to the country’s 2012 budget.

Anglo Irish

Another option is to pursue a discount on the emergency funding being provided by the Irish central bank and the European Central Bank to Anglo Irish Bank Corp., according to Blessing at Collins Stewart. The nationalized lender, which is being wound up over a decade, owed 40.1 billion euros to central banks and monetary authorities at the end of June, the bank said in August.

“The Irish Government needs something to reassure the general public that we aren’t being treated unfairly,” Blessing said. “Haircuts on Ireland’s sovereign debt may be ruled out given the negative consequences, but there may be other, less dramatic ways of achieving debt reduction by less visible, less damaging means.”

--Editors: Rodney Jefferson, Mark Gilbert

To contact the reporter on this story: Dara Doyle in Dublin at ddoyle1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tim Quinson at tquinson@bloomberg.net

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City bonuses seen falling 38 percent

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LONDON | Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:20am BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Bonuses in London's finance sector for this year will likely fall 38 percent, reaching lows not seen for nearly a decade and sharply reducing the tax take collected on the payouts, according to an economic thinktank.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) slashed its forecast for 2011 bonuses, having initially predicted they would be up 6 percent on the 6.7 billion pounds awarded for 2010.

It now estimates the bonus pot in London's financial industry, known as the City, will come in at 4.2 billion pounds, just over a third of the 11.6 billion peak in 2007, shortly before the financial crisis.

One of the toughest periods since then for stock and bond trading has pummelled investment banks globally as worries over the euro zone debt crisis spiralled, depressing revenues in the third quarter and leading them to slash jobs and bonuses.

However, overall compensation at some banks has held up well relative to the sharp falls in income.

Salaries have risen dramatically in the past two years as a result of bonus regulations and tax levies, which the CEBR said had partly contributed to the fall in bonus pots.

U.S. and European banks have announced over 100,000 layoffs already, and there may be many more to come. The CEBR said earlier this week that London would lose 27,000 City jobs this year.

It added on Friday that bonus payouts would were unlikely to rebound until 2013, and would not return to pre-crisis highs until after 2015 at the earliest.

Of the 4.2 billion pound City bonus pool, 2.5 billion pounds will be collected by the UK taxman, down from 6.8 billion in 2007, the CEBR projected.

(Reporting by Sarah White; Editing by Will Waterman)

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Ericsson to leave Sony Ericsson

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Sony Ericsson's Android-based Xperia smartphones, such as the Xperia Play, account for more than 80 per cent of its sales. Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

LM Ericsson and Sony Corp. announced Thursday they will go separate ways as Ericsson sells its 50 per cent stake in mobile phone maker Sony Ericsson to Sony for 1.05 billion euros($1.46 billion).

Sony Ericsson will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony and integrated into Sony's broad platform of network-connected consumer electronics products, the Japanese company and Swedish wireless equipment firm said.

The transaction gives Sony an opportunity to quickly integrate smartphones into its portfolio of network-connected consumer electronics device, such as tablets, televisions and personal computers, the companies said.

The move was widely anticipated by analysts, who have argued Sony Ericsson could become more competitive in the tough smartphone market under sole Sony ownership.

'Sony Ericsson has no strategic value for Ericsson anymore.'—Helena Nordman-Knutson, analyst

Shares in Ericsson rose by 4.3 per cent to 69.55 kroner ($10.60) in early Stockholm trading, while Sony stock climbed 5.4 per cent to 1.65 yen ($21.70) before closing in Tokyo.

"I believe this improves the outlook for Sony Ericsson, because Sony can take full responsibility for the company and use the unique things that they have," said Greger Johansson, an analyst with research firm Redeye. "The opportunity to integrate the phones with their other products improves."

Johansson said the smartphone market is "extremely tough" and Sony Ericsson's competitors are also developing quickly.

He said the price Ericsson received wasn't great, but it will be a relief for the Swedish company to be able to focus on its core wireless equipment business and offload the mobile phone maker that has taken up a lot of management time.

"Sony Ericsson has no strategic value for Ericsson anymore," added Helena Nordman-Knutson, an analyst with Ohman Fondkommission in Stockholm.

Ericsson and Sony combined their unprofitable handset ventures into the joint venture Sony Ericsson in 2001 and enjoyed some early successes with its Walkman and Cyber-shot phones.

In recent years it has suffered from the competitive climate in the smartphone market and earlier this month the company posted a break-even third quarter result.

The company adopted Google's Android operating system for its smartphones in 2008, and has said it now controls about 11 per cent of the Android-based smartphone market. Its Android-based Xperia smartphones account for more than 80 per cent of its sales.

Thursday's deal will provide Sony with an intellectual property cross-licensing agreement, covering all products and services of Sony as well as ownership of five essential patent families relating to wireless handset technology.

"We can more rapidly and more widely offer consumers smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions that seamlessly connect with one another and open up new worlds of online entertainment," Sony CEO, Sir Howard Stringer said, adding this includes Sony's own network services, the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network.

Stringer said the acquisition will also afford Sony operational efficiencies in engineering, network development and marketing.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, but has been approved by appropriate decision-making bodies of both companies.

Ericsson said the shift in the mobile market, from simple mobile phones to smartphones that include access to internet services and content, means the synergies for the company in having both a telecoms services portfolio and a handset operation have decreased.

"Ten years ago when we formed the joint venture, thereby combining Sony's consumer products knowledge with Ericsson's telecommunication technology expertise, it was a perfect match to drive the development of feature phones. Today we take an equally logical step as Sony acquires our stake in Sony Ericsson and makes it a part of its broad range of consumer devices," said Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.

Ericsson said it will now focus on the global wireless market as a whole and how wireless connectivity can benefit people, business and society beyond just phones.

Ericsson and Sony will also set up a wireless connectivity initiative aimed at driving and developing the market's adoption of connectivity across multiple platforms, they said.

The agreement is expected to close in January 2012.

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David Carr: The News Diet Of A Media Omnivore

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Enlarge Mario Tama/Getty Images

"We are entering a golden age of journalism," says David Carr of The New York Times. "I look at my backpack ... and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30-40 years ago."

Mario Tama/Getty Images

"We are entering a golden age of journalism," says David Carr of The New York Times. "I look at my backpack ... and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30-40 years ago."

David Carr has a cold. On Sunday night, the media columnist for The New York Times tweeted to his more than 335,000 followers that he realized he probably had a variation of the common cold — because his drugstore was out of his favorite cold remedy.

"Sometimes you want to grab what is in the air, so to speak, and just put it out there," he says. "One time after [the Winter Olympics ended], I just said, 'I miss the Olympics.' That got re-tweeted almost more than anything I've ever written about ... it's just something that's in the air."

Carr joins Terry Gross on Fresh Air to discuss his Twitter usage, the future of newspapers, error correction, his own media consumption, religion and the accountability of social media. He says that he thinks of Twitter as a personalized "human-enabled RSS [feed]" that allows him to follow what his friends are reading and thinking about at any given moment.

"It serves to edit what's going on in the world, and it puts a human curation on this huge fire hose of data that's washing over us all," he says. "The question becomes where to look, and it's nice to have some other people pointing the way."

Initially, Carr says, he wasn't a Twitter fan. But now he tweets on average 8-10 times a day, and often re-tweets things of interest from the 600 or so accounts he regularly follows.

"As a reporter, it was an important listening tool, and that's how I first used it — less as a megaphone and more [as a listener]," he says. "But then I realized that back when I was an editor of a newspaper, I was a decent headline writer — and that links would carry a lot more information, and annotating those links would have significant value to the people who follow me."

'What Do You Think Is Going On?'

Carr was one of four journalists recently profiled in Andrew Rossi's documentary Page One, which provides an extended look at the Times newsroom through its media desk. At the beginning of the film, Carr tells one of his sources that the story he's working on is likely to be big. "What do you think the story is that I should tell?" he asks.

Carr says that's a question that he rarely used to ask. But during the book tour for his memoir The Night of the Gun, he was interviewed by two types of people: those who told him what his story was about, and those who asked him simple, direct questions.

"Historically, I had been a reporter who was very fond of making speeches and very fond of telling people what their stories were about," he says. "[As journalists], we're people who just show up and declare ourselves instant experts on all manner of stories. And we often are only taking a very blunt-force guess about what's going on, and I think it always behooves us to ask the people, especially if you're aspiring to do something good, 'What do you think is going on? What do you think this is about?' "

Carr tells his sources that they shouldn't expect a fluff piece; he doesn't want anyone to be genuinely surprised by what they find in his stories.

"I don't want to sit up in the middle of the night and wonder whether I was unfair to the person — that I didn't communicate to them what is coming," he says. "I don't want anybody to open up one of my stories and have their nose broken by what they read — although I do have to say, at the beginning of the week, I wrote a really mean column, and I didn't tell anybody involved, so I guess that's not always true."

That piece — "Why Not Occupy Newsrooms?" — asked why there wasn't an Occupy movement in media, because some newspaper executives were guilty of "bonus excess despite miserable operations." Carr says he didn't call Gannett this time around because he had called them for a previous column on bonuses in June — and they didn't call him back.

"I spent four days [in June] trying to get comments on Gannett [executive] bonuses, and on Sunday night they said, 'We're not going to comment on these bonuses.' And I just said, 'Really? You're a newspaper company. You're a publicly held company. These bonuses are a matter of public record, and you have nothing to say about them?' And I just found that appalling, and I think some of that was reflected in the piece [this week]."

Carr's Media Diet

Carr checks his Twitter feed every morning and has The Wall Street Journal, The New York Post, The Star-Ledger and The New York Times delivered to his house. "The day before, all this stuff has gone whizzing past me, and I seem to know a lot, but I don't really know which part of it is important," he says. "I came to want that resting place ... There's both real-time news ... and a way to look back at what has happened."

My persistent concern is that I'll become so busy producing media that I won't consume enough of it.

- David Carr

All of that content can be overwhelming. Carr says his nightstand is filled with books he'd like to read, his iPad is filled with stories from his RSS feed, and he's constantly inundated with information wherever he goes.

"My persistent concern is that I'll become so busy producing media that I won't consume enough of it," he says. "So that what I produce becomes less and less rich over time."

He notes that his younger colleagues don't have this problem: They're able to both consume and produce media at the same time.

"I can remember when bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces, about the time I was [thinking], 'maybe we should do a blog post about this,' I opened up the media blog I work on, and Brian Stelter, my colleague, already had 700 words up there," he says. "It's like I'm working through jello and he's not. He's in a different sort of universe."

On the golden age of journalism

"We are entering a golden age of journalism. I do think there has been horrible frictional costs, but I think when we look back at what has happened, I look at my backpack that is sitting here, and it contains more journalistic firepower than the entire newsroom that I walked into 30 to 40 years ago. It's connected to the cloud, I can make digital recordings of everything that I do, I can check in real time if someone is telling me the truth, I have a still camera that takes video that I can upload quickly and seamlessly.

"I think that the ability to sit at your desk and check everything against history and narrative, it's part of how newspapers ended up becoming ... daily magazines. All the analytics are baked in because the reporters are able to check stuff as they go. ... Now the business model has not kept up with that.

"The movie Page One does a really good job of capturing a really scary time when fundamental questions of survival were being asked about The New York Times. Did I worry that somewhere in there, when I was doing a big job cut story, that I would type my own name? Yes, I did."

The web is kind of a self-cleaning oven and what you have up there can grow more accurate as time goes by. That's never true of print. It's always there for the ages.

- David Carr

On how he tells sources that he's writing a serious piece

"I say, 'This is going to be a really serious story, and I'm asking very serious questions, and it behooves you to think it through and really work on answering and defending yourself, because this is not a friendly story.' And if they don't engage, I just tell them, 'Well, you better put the nut-cup on, because this isn't going to be pleasant for anybody.' "

On error correction

"After I started [at the Times], I quickly ended up on page two ... the Corrections. They're not buried to us; that is a hall of shame ... it's a page you want to totally stay off of ... It doesn't matter where the error occurs — it always follows you around.

"Part of the deal of working at The New York Times is that your readers, a portion of whom are church ladies and copy ninnies and fact freaks, they wait like crows on a wire for you to make the slightest error and then descend, caw, caw, caw-ing, every time you screw up. It still is something that wakes me up at night.

"... At least on the Web, you can amend. The ethic of the Web is to say what you know as quickly as you can, and then reiterate over and over again. The Web is kind of a self-cleaning oven, and what you have up there can grow more accurate as time goes by. That's never true of print. It's always there for the ages."

On productivity

Am I going to give up following the NFL? ... Am I going to give up riding my bike? Or am I going to cut back on some of these digital habits I have that are eating me alive?

- David Carr

"This is the first year that I think my productivity has dropped because [of my media consumption]. I'm looking at the coming year and thinking, what am I going to give up? Am I going to give up following the NFL? Am I going to give up listening to music and going out and seeing it? Am I going to give up riding my bike? Or am I going to cut back on some of these digital habits I have that are eating me alive and some of these ... endless panels about the future of journalism? The future of journalism is wearing badges and talking on panels, as far as I can tell."

On religion

"I'm a churchgoing Catholic, and I do that as a matter of, it's good to stand with my family. It's good that I didn't have to come up with my own creation myth for my children. It's a wonderful community. It's not really where I find God. The accommodation I've reached is a very jury-rigged one, which is: All along the way, in [substance abuse] recovery, I've been helped ... by all of these strangers who get in a room and do a form of group-talk therapy and live by certain rules in their life — and one of the rules is that you help everyone who needs help. And I think to myself: Well, that seems remarkable. Not only is that not a general human impulse, but it's not an impulse of mine. And yet, I found myself doing that over and over again. Am I, underneath all things, just a really wonderful, giving person? Or is there a force greater than myself that is leading me to act in ways that are altruistic and not self-interested and lead to the greater good? That's sort of as far as I've gotten."

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People may be scratching their heads over the campaign ads, but they are talking about Cain.

The media columnist for The New York Times reflects on old media, new media and the future of print.

In a 60 Minutes interview, Ruth Madoff says the time after her husband's arrest was "horrendous."

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Air Canada expanding Montreal call centre

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Air Canada says the expansion of its Montreal customer service call centre will create more than 150 new jobs.

Canada's largest air carrier says it has filled 50 positions in October and will add another 100 jobs in the next few months.

The expansion will boost the Montreal call centre's workforce to more than 250 people.

Air Canada operates other Canadian call centres in Saint John, N.B., Toronto and Winnipeg.

Its U.S. call centre is in Tampa, Fla.

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Deficit-Cutting Supercommittee: 'We're Not There Yet'

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The 12-member supercommittee charged with finding at least $1.2 trillion in budget cuts next month met publicly for the first time in six weeks Wednesday — and agreed on little more than the fact that time is indeed growing short for them to approve a deal. Co-chairman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said a lot of hard work has been done to find common ground and agree on a balanced, bipartisan plan for deficit reduction. But, she added, "We're not there yet."

Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ARI SHAPIRO, host: Here in Washington, D.C., more than a trillion dollars in automatic budget cuts will take effect if a congressional panel does not agree on at least that much in savings by Thanksgiving. The panel has six Democrats and six Republicans. And at a rare public meeting yesterday, their divisions became clear. NPR's David Welna has the story.

DAVID WELNA: Supercommittee co-chairman Patty Murray opened yesterday's hearing with an update. The Democratic senator from Washington asserted a lot of hard work's been done to find common ground and agree on a balanced bipartisan plan for deficit reduction. But, she added, we're not there yet.

Senator PATTY MURRAY: Over the next few weeks it's going to be up to us to demonstrate to the American people that we can deliver the kind of results that they expect and that they deserve.

WELNA: One thing most panel members did seem to agree on is that the spending Congress normally has no say over - the 60 percent of the budget that's mandatory spending - should be a source of deficit reduction. Dave Camp is the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. He pointed out to Congressional Budget Office director Douglas Elmendorf, who was the hearing's only witness, that mandatory spending has soared in recent years.

Representative DAVE CAMP: Doesn't this illustrate that as part of what we're trying to do, the need to reign in mandatory spending is obviously one of the priorities that we need to address?

DOUGLAS ELMENDORF: Again, it's up to the committee to choose what changes in policy it wants. But certainly the growth in mandatory spending, particularly for healthcare and also in Social Security, is the feature of the budget that makes the past unrepeatable.

WELNA: Democrats kept pressing their case for taxing the wealthy to cut deficits. House Democrat Xavier Becerra of California pointed to a study on income disparity just released by Elmendorf's office.

Representative XAVIER BECERRA: You, I think, highlighted some pretty startling numbers about the disparity in income and wealth in America today.

ELMENDORF: So we found, as other researchers have found, Congressman, very pronounced widening of the income distribution in this country, with reductions in the share of national income going to the bottom four quintiles over the 1979 to 2007 period, and a very large increase, roughly a doubling, in the share of national income going to the top one percent.

WELNA: Still, Republicans on the panel remain opposed to raising any taxes. And Democrats say more taxes must be part of any deal. So as the clock ticks down, the supercommittee's impasse continues. David Welna, NPR News, the Capitol.

Copyright © 2011 National Public Radio®. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to National Public Radio. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

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U.S. economy grows 2.5% in third quarter

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The U.S. economy grew modestly over the summer after nearly stalling in the first six months of the year, lifted by stronger consumer spending and greater business investment.

The Commerce Department said Thursday that the economy expanded at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent in the July—September quarter.

That's the strongest growth in a year and nearly double the 1.3 per cent growth in the April—June quarter. It's also a vast improvement over the anemic 0.9 per cent growth for the entire first half of the year.

While 2.5 per cent growth is enough to ease recession fears, it's far below what's needed to lower painfully high unemployment, which has been near nine per cent for the past two years. Analysts project similar growth for the October—December quarter.

Nonetheless, the report on U.S. gross domestic product, or GDP, sketched a more optimistic picture for an economy that only two months ago seemed destined for another recession.

"The fourth quarter may see some pullback in U.S. economic growth," said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist for BMO Capital Markets, "but the positive details underlying the GDP report should help ease fears of a U.S. recession ... somewhat."

Consumers helped drive much of the growth. They spent at an annual rate of 2.4 per cent — more than triple the rate in the spring. They bought more cars, furniture and clothing.

Households also increased their spending on services by the most in more than five years.

Spending on services rose a solid three per cent. Much of the gain was because they spent more on health care and to cool their homes during an unseasonably hot summer.

Still, Americans spent more even though they made less money. Their after-tax incomes adjusted for inflation fell at a rate of 1.7 per cent in the summer, the biggest decline since the third quarter of 2009 — just as the recession was ending.

Economists believe that growth in consumer spending, which accounts for 70 per cent of economic activity, will be restrained until incomes start growing at healthier levels, which is unlikely until hiring picks up.

"Households funded their extra consumption by running down their saving rate," said Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist for Capital Economics, who predicts growth will cool off in the fourth quarter and next year.

Businesses also helped boost third-quarter growth by stepping up their investment in equipment and software. That category surged 17.4 per cent — nearly three times the rate from spring.

They also invested more in new buildings, a sign that some could be expanding despite the sluggish economy.

The GDP report measures the country's total output of goods and services. It covers everything from bicycles to battleships, as well as services such as haircuts and doctor's visits.

In August, many thought the economy was destined for another recession after the government said growth fell to less than one per cent for the first six months of the year.

High gas prices, the growing debt crisis in Europe and wild fluctuations in the stock market also contributed to those fears, which have receded in recent weeks after reports showed improvements in hiring and consumer spending.

Economists project growth in the range of 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent for the October-December quarter and for all of next year — just enough to keep the unemployment rate from rising.

For the 14 million people who are out of work and want jobs, that's discouraging news. And it's an ominous sign for President Barack Obama, who will be facing voters next fall.

There have been some encouraging signs.

A measure of business investment plans rose in September for the second straight month and by the most in six months, according to a government report Wednesday on orders for longer-lasting manufactured goods.

And consumers stepped up their spending on retail goods in both July and September. The main reason for the September gain was more people bought new cars, a purchase people typically make when they are confident in their finances.

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Cameron Says London Is Under ’Constant Attack’ From Brussels

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October 28, 2011, 4:09 AM EDT By Gonzalo Vina

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron said London’s financial center is under “constant attack” from bureaucrats in Brussels and he will seek to prevent closer integration by countries using the euro from hurting the City.

This week’s agreement to bolster the euro area’s defenses against the sovereign debt crisis will lead to “more meetings alone” and the prospect of “caucusing” among the 17 nations that share the single currency, he said.

That will increase chances that decisions taken without Britain, which isn’t a member of the euro group, may damage London’s standing as the continent’s leading financial center and benefit Paris or Frankfurt.

“London is the center of financial services in Europe,” Cameron told reporters as he traveled to Perth, Australia, where he meets Commonwealth leaders today. “It’s under constant attack through Brussels directives. It’s an area of concern, it’s a key national interest that we need to defend.”

British politicians fear EU efforts to control financial markets following the financial crisis that began in 2007 will do little to reduce risk and damage the industry. Germany wants a financial transactions tax introduced across the 27-nation European Union, while the European Commission has proposed plans that could hurt derivatives trading in London.

“It is very important that the institutions of the 27 are properly looked after and that the Commission does its job as the guardian of the 27,” Cameron said. “As the 27, we need to make sure that the single market is adequately looked after.”

This week, European leaders persuaded bondholders to take 50 percent losses on Greek debt and boosted the firepower of a rescue fund to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion), responding to global pressure to step up the fight against the financial crisis.

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne this month won concessions from other European Union finance ministers on derivatives legislation. Ministers agreed to restore a provision that would allow “open access” to clearinghouses for all trades, which had been removed from earlier drafts.

--Editors: Paul Tighe, Peter Hirschberg

To contact the reporter on this story: Gonzalo Vina in Perth, Australia on gvina@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net

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Norway 'Oil Fund' hit by euro zone crisis

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OSLO | Fri Oct 28, 2011 9:37am BST

OSLO (Reuters) - Norway's sovereign wealth fund experienced its second-weakest quarter in its history as Europe's debt crisis and a fear of a worldwide recession weighed on stocks in the third quarter, Europe's biggest equity investor said on Friday.

The fund's return on investment was -8.8 percent in the quarter, against 0.3 percent growth in the previous quarter.

The value of the central bank-run fund stood at 3.055 trillion Norwegian crowns at the end of the third quarter, down from 3.111 trillion at the end of the second quarter.

On Friday, the fund was worth 3.09 trillion, according to its website.

The return was 0.3 percentage points below the fund's benchmark portfolio. Some 55.6 percent of the fund was allocated in stocks versus 60.5 percent at the end of the second quarter.

It was the second-weakest quarter in the fund's history, the fund said in its quarterly report.

"Europe's debt crisis and fears of a global economic slowdown weighed on stocks in the quarter," said Yngve Slyngstad, chief executive of Norges Bank Investment Management.

Commonly known as the "oil fund", the central bank-run fund invests the Norwegian state's tax revenues from oil and gas activities abroad to save for future generations.

The fund is one of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds.

(Reporting by Oslo newsroom)

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European Stocks Gain as Renault Climbs; U.S. Index Futures Fall

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October 28, 2011, 4:24 AM EDT By Adam Haigh

Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks rose, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index extending its best month since April 2009, as the region’s debt deal and results from Renault SA to Electrolux AB reassured investors that the global recovery is intact. Asian shares increased, while U.S. index futures slid.

Renault, France’s second-biggest carmaker, gained 4.5 percent as third-quarter sales topped analysts’ estimates. Electrolux surged 7.5 percent as the Swedish maker of household appliances reported net income for the third quarter that exceeded forecasts.

The Stoxx 600 rose 0.4 percent to 250.39 at 8:58 a.m. in London. The gauge has climbed 4.8 percent so far this week as the region’s leaders boosted their rescue fund’s capacity to 1 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) in a bid to stem the debt crisis and earnings at companies from BASF SE to Merck KGaA beat analysts’ estimates.

“They’ve thrown a reasonably good package together,” said Phil Webster, who manages pan-European equity funds at Aberdeen Asset Management Plc in London. “They’re agreeing on something. Yes, banks and politics and economics have been raging on one side, but I actually think companies are in pretty good shape all in all.” Aberdeen has about $200 billion in assets under management.

Futures contracts on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index expiring in December slid 0.4 percent and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index advanced 1.2 percent.

European Stock Valuations

The Stoxx 600 has fallen 9.2 percent this year amid concern that the euro area’s sovereign debt crisis will hamper growth. The gauge is trading at 10.8 times the estimated earnings of its companies, compared with the average multiple of 12 during the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. More than half of the 134 companies in the Stoxx 600 that have released earnings since Oct. 11 beat analysts’ profit estimates, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

In the U.S., reports today will probably show increases in income and spending as well as an upward revision to consumer confidence, Bloomberg surveys of economists indicate.

Renault jumped 4.5 percent to 31.68 euros. The carmaker said revenue increased to 9.75 billion euros from 8.71 billion euros a year earlier. That beat the 9.63 billion-euro average of four analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Societe Generale SA upgraded its stance on the shares to “buy” from “hold.”

Electrolux rallied 7.5 percent to 127.40 kronor. Third- quarter net income fell to 826 million kronor ($130 million) from 1.38 billion kronor a year earlier. Sales dropped to 25.65 billion kronor from 26.33 billion kronor. Both profit and sales exceeded analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Linde AG, the world’s second-biggest maker of industrial gases, climbed 1.6 percent to 117.80 euros after reporting third-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, helped by cost savings and higher demand from emerging markets.

SSAB AB surged 11 percent to 69.45 kronor after posting third-quarter net income and sales that topped estimates.

--With assistance from Steve Rothwell in London. Editors: Will Hadfield, Andrew Rummer

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net

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Arthritis costs Canada $33B a year

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Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in Canada, putting serious strain on public health care and the economy, according to a new report.

Thursday's report by the Arthritis Alliance of Canada estimated that osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis costs the Canadian economy $33 billion last year in direct health-care costs and indirect costs such as lost productivity. Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory joint disease. iStock

The report's authors said currently more than 4.4 million Canadians live with osteoarthritis, a progressive joint disease that occurs when damaged joint tissues are unable to normally repair themselves, resulting in a breakdown of cartilage and bone.

More than 272,000 people are living with rheumatoid arthritis, the most common inflammatory joint disease.

"Too many people dismiss arthritis as an old person's disease," said Dr. Dianne Mosher, a rheumatologist in Calgary who heads the group and was one of the lead authors on the report.

"Canadians need to understand that these diseases are painful and debilitating. They can affect anyone, at any age."

People with arthritis can have trouble walking and standing, and chronic pain can disturb sleep and lead to fatigue and depression, Mosher said.

In 30 years, the more than 10 million or one in four Canadians is expected to have osteoarthritis.

The report's authors propose four potential steps to mitigate the burden of the disease and manage its impact on the healthcare system and economy:

Increasing access to total joint replacement.Decreasing obesity rates by 50 per cent since obesity is a major risk factor for osteoarthritis.Developing adequate pain management strategies for hip and knee osteoarthritis.Early diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with medications.

The group is seeking greater awareness about arthritis.

"In our specialty, our patients don't die," said Dr. Claire Bombardier, director of the rheumatology division at the University of Toronto.

"Our patients live in pain and often in silent pain, invisible pain, and it becomes obvious when they break down. They have to stop working or their husbands leave them. There are all sorts of impacts on life: people have to move house [because] they aren't able to go up and down stairs, they're not able to go to the toilet, they need other people to help them."

The Arthritis Alliance, which released its report at a scientific conference in Quebec City, is calling on government policy-makers, the corporate sector and the insurance industry to join with advocacy groups in creating a national strategy to reduce the burden of arthritis on Canadians.

At the conference, delegates will spend two days discussing the report and topics including the future of the arthritis community, inflammation in chronic disease, the patient experience, rarer forms of arthritis and personalized medicine.

With files from The Canadian Press

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