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Practical Skills for The Practical Executive
The ability to communicate and negotiate effectively can set a successful executive apart from a struggling executive. Every businessperson dedicated to achieving real success in his or her career must master business communication skills. Unfortunately, very few individuals are born with these skills. Instead of waiting to learn them by trial and error, motivated executives [...]
Futures Prices of Corn at Highest Levels Since 2008
The price of a bushel of corn traded at the highest levels allowed as fear mounts that the rise in inflation related to agricultural commodities will only increase after a government report that forecasts supplies and acreage planted. This past winter has been tough, it has been cold throughout the United States with times where [...]
Supreme Court: No Love For Secrets
Today the Supreme Court in short order, rejected a bid by the Clearing House Association (a trade group representing large banks) to keep the information regarding the loans made to financial institutions via the Federal Reserves’ discount window during the 2008 crisis a secret. The high court without comment refused to consider any of the [...]
Buffet on Japan: “Great Buying Opportunity”
Warren Buffet has pointed out what most investors knew as a result of the March 11th earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent nuclear reactor problems that have affected the area north of Tokyo in Japan. The billionaire investor believes that this series of truly life-changing and horrifying events are the genesis of an extraordinary time where excellent [...]
Oil Pressure Dropping
As news of the effects of the earthquake in Japan continue to captivate the world, we are seeing easing in the global commodity fuels markets. The very real chance of a prolonged disruption to the economy of 3rd largest consumer of oil in the world shows again how geo-political events have the largest impact on [...]
Lubrizol Purchased By Berkshire Hathaway
On Monday, Berkshire Hathaway announced that it would purchase the specialty chemicals company Lubrizol for approximately $9 billion. This would mark the one of the largest acquisitions every by the Warren Buffet led firm and also make for the second large investment made by the cash-flush fund in as many years. By paying nearly 28% [...]
Backstop For The EURO
On late Saturday night, early Sunday morning of the past weekend, at a time when most of us were worrying about daylight saving and changing our clocks, the members of the EU agreed on expanded terms of a program that would added additional weight to the bailout program the member countries have come up with. [...]
Gasoline Futures Movement after the Japanese Quake
Trading in commodity futures of gasoline and crude oil fell today after reports of the strong Japanese earthquake caused oil refineries in the area to close. This initial reaction by the market may seem like the exact opposite of what one might thing would happen after a natural disaster of this type, but keep in [...]
AIG Buy Back Offer
“The Federal Reserve has received a formal offer from AIG to purchase the assets in Maiden Lane II, LLC (MLII). The Fed has been aware of AIG’s interest in those assets for some time. Any decision on a possible disposition of these assets will be made in a way that maximizes the proceeds to the [...]
Moody’s Downgrades Spain
As referenced in our discussion on High Yield Debt, it was announced today that the ratings agency Moody’s Investor Service downgraded debt issued by Spain to Aa2. This follows a similar downgrade of Greek debt a week ago. While this is by no means “junk” status, the move downward is a bad signal for an [...]
Financial Times – US homepage- Chinese activist ends odyssey in USDeparture of Chen and his family brings to an end the worst diplomatic spat between Beijing and Washington in over a decade […]
- G8 splits over stimulus versus austerityMerkel resists efforts by other G8 leaders to push eurozone to do more to stimulate growth […]
- Murdoch quashes talk of UK paper spin-offNews Corp’s chief has moved to quash talk about selling its tainted UK newspaper business, saying publishing would remain ‘a core component’ […]
- Alibaba nears buyback deal with YahooThe deal under discussion would involve the US group selling about $7bn of its stake in the Chinese ecommerce group, valuing Alibaba at $35bn […]
- Faltering start for the new FacebookGlitches delayed the opening of trading and underwriters had to intervene to prevent the group’s shares falling below the $38 price set on Thursday […]
- Moderate leads field among Egypt’s expatriatesOf 38,000 ballots cast by Egyptian expatriates in a dozen diplomatic outposts, Dr Aboul Fotouh received nearly 30 per cent of the votes […]
- Resource stocks mirror global economyDecline of groups involved in supplying essential raw materials for business show how investors really feel about the global economy’s direction […]
- China linked to ‘economic espionage’The Pentagon report says the country will continue to be an ‘aggressive and capable’ collector of sensitive US technological information […]
- Obama ground forces braced for air warPresident’s team says massive grassroots campaign will be needed to withstand bombardment of negative attack ads from Romney and super-Pacs […]
- Spain hit by rise in bad bank loansValue of bad loans held by banking sector increased a third during the past year to €148bn and accounted for 8.4% of their entire loan portfolios […]
- Chinese activist ends odyssey in US
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