Archive for August, 2011

Jean-Pierre Raveneaud caring for plants

Auto Date Saturday, August 13th, 2011

Nestled in the heart of the eighth district of the capital, the herb of the Place Clichy is seen as a vestige of Art Nouveau. Inside, a balance of copper and a hammer enthroned on an old wooden table. All around, stacked bags of dried herbs (valerian, passionflower, eschozia, eleuterocoque) and other medicinal oils. Curved black shirt, close-fitting jeans, Jean-Pierre Raveneau bears little resemblance to the image that could be done by a specialist remedies grandmother. However, the pharmacist is 60 years since 1993 at the head of one of the last of the Hexagon pharmacies still dedicated to the care of the plants (or herbal).And according to him, "business is doing very well."

Some forms of diabetes in sore throat, eczema through … "You can treat 80% of the forms of diseases with medicinal herbs," says he, recalling in passing that the vast majority of traditional chemical drugs are herbal cash till payday. Its customers? "Not that people over 60 years, he starts to sweep any belief. The range is wide: there are young people, environmentalists, and people who are wary of side effects of conventional chemical medicine. "Because according to him, and those of several other experts, these side effects are less much less frequent in herbal medicine.

All preparations of the master are developed locally by its three employees in a small laboratory. Custom made. "All our preparations are masterful," says Jean-Pierre Raveneau.He says he learned the trade through his training as a pharmacist, only profession allowed by law for sale of medicinal plants.

A profession under threat

The pharmacy was established in 1880.

Berlusconi plans to tax high incomes

Auto Date Friday, August 12th, 2011

The Italian government to unveil Friday night during a meeting with the social partners in Rome, all the details of his new austerity plan to get "20 billion euros in 2012 and 25 billion in 2013" and achieve balance budget by 2013, according to the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The adoption of an austerity plan will allow Italy to cancel its public deficit to 3.9% today – by the end of 2013.

According to leaks distilled by the social partners, measures would include for the first time a "solidarity tax" on the highest incomes. This contribution could rise to 5% for every € 10,000 for employees earning over 90,000 euros, and 10% in excess of 150,000 euros. Self-employed workers earning more than EUR 55,000 will be taxed at 41%. However estates and housing will remain free of taxation.A single tax of 20% will be charged on income from capital, currently 12.5% ​​against and 25% of bank deposits. The introduction of fiscal federalism will be early in 2012, the government hopes to make them more aggressive fight against tax evasion saving account pay day loan. The bill payments in cash will be severely restricted. A single municipal tax will also be created.Finally, the Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti said, in an interview with representatives of regional and local authorities, that the government intended "to reduce the number of provinces (departments)" and "consolidate the common" – today the number of 8000.

Heavy sacrifices will be required to Italians in particular with regard to the welfare (social services and family) who will suffer next year the bulk of the effort (about 20 billion euros) all levels of social assistance and transfers to local governments will be affected. However the Northern League had opposed the cuts, pensions will be spared. Women in the private sector will be encouraged to continue working until age 65, or 7 years older than today.

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"Tax increases and pension reform in Italy

Auto Date Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Wall Street has failed to confirm its rebound on Wednesday. At the close, the Dow Jones unscrewed from 4.62% to 10,719.94 points, the Nasdaq 4.09% to 2381.05 loose points and the S & P lost 4.42% to 1120.76 points. As in Europe, signs of nervousness was palpable. The volume of trade has been very substantial and heightened volatility.

Again, the problems of sovereign debt in Europe have focused attention. Greece plans to expand its exchange program to include obligations of the securities in the longer term, which penalizes first private creditors. As the European markets, particularly the banking sector has been attacked in the image of Bank of America (-9.87%), Citigroup (-8.49%), Goldman Sachs (-7.76%), Morgan Stanley (-7.52%), Wells Fargo (-6.17%) and JP Morgan Chase (-6.13%).

In addition, rumors of worsening debt rating by a French rating agency have affected investors. "These rumors are totally unfounded and the three agencies Standard and Poor's, Fitch and Moody's have confirmed that there was no risk of degradation," however, said the entourage of the French finance minister, Baroin.

"At this stage, investors dizzy," says Oliver Pursche, president of Gary Goldberg Financial Services.

Fear of a recession

In addition, operators are even very concerned about the state of the U.S. economy. Yesterday, the world stock markets have overreacted, and positive against all odds, to about the Fed. This has indeed ensured that it would maintain its rates at a historical low, and until mid-2013 to support the economy.Its leaders also promised various stimulus, but without specifying its content. It will probably wait until his final release in late August. On the merits, however, the Fed has painted a disturbing report from the world's largest economy. Growth, pointing in particular the U.S. central bank, is growing at an annual rate of less than 1% in the first half, where the institution expected, earlier this year, more than 3%.

The market was undergoing "fears about the economy, which is moving perhaps into a new recession," said Peter Cardillo, Rockwell Global Capital.

In contrast, oil prices were up sharply on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) payday loans for self employed. A barrel of "light sweet crude" for September delivery finished at 82.89 dollars, up 3.59 dollars compared to the previous day.Oil stocks have fallen dramatically and unexpectedly last week in the U.S., according to figures released by the U.S. Department of Energy. Crude inventories fell 5.2 million barrels to 349.8 million barrels in the week ended August 5. Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast the contrary, an increase of 1.1 million barrels.

Note that the budget deficit of the United States continued to fall in July for the fourth consecutive month according to figures released Wednesday by the Treasury Department.The deficit stood at 129.4 billion dollars for the tenth month of the fiscal year 2010-2011, which began October 1, or 22% less than in July 2010, the ministry said.

Disney abused despite good results

On the business side, Cisco (-2.31% to 13.73 dollars) must disclose its fourth quarter results, along with News Corp (-5.77% to 13.71 dollars).

Disney (-9.14% to 31.53 dollars) falls after the media group has yet announced quarterly results better than expected thanks to strong advertising revenue on its cable networks.

The title of U.S. internet group AOL (-8.67% to 10.22 dollars) has lost over a quarter of its value on Tuesday at the New York Stock Exchange after the release of disappointing quarterly earnings and lower forecasts. The stock has dropped 25.75% against the current of a market up sharply.The action even reached 10.36 dollars during the session, the lowest price ever since the split with Time Warner in 2009.

Facebook on Tuesday launched a new application for mobile phones iPhone (Apple) and those equipped with the Android operating system (Google) to send messages to his "friends" on social networking, but also to other contacts. Called "Messenger", the application can send both text messages (SMS) and email.

Apple (-2.76% to 363.69 dollars) briefly delighted, yesterday, Exxon Mobil (-4.59% to 67.90 dollars), its position as the first market capitalization.

Technical rebound in the Paris Bourse

Auto Date Tuesday, August 9th, 2011

Unlike the Asian stock markets, down sharply Tuesday morning despite a slight improvement at the end, the financial center of Paris opens on a note clearly bullish. A surprise Tuesday morning when the magnitude of the losses yesterday on Wall Street (close to 600 points for the Dow, or 5.5% decrease) did not allow a return résager eview a few serenity. While in 7 hours, contracts on European indices showed a decline of more than 5%, the Cac 40 started his session on a net increase of more than 2%, to 3188.27 points. Shared a tendency in Europe: Frankfurt, after opening down, quickly moved into the green, taking Dax 30 0.40% to 5945.94 points. In Madrid, the Ibex 35 advance more frankly about 1.06% to 8549.1 points.Only the London remains in negative territory, with a decline of 0.55% of the FTSE 100 to open.

This new session promises to be that of all the dangers Monday after a black market, then starts under good auspices. This increase, however, more akin to a technical rebound, after falling 18% in the Paris index in eleven session than a real upward trend. Yesterday, the Cac 40 was chosen for optimism at the opening, welcoming the mobilization of European central bankers, but had fallen into the red before you dig its losses throughout the afternoon to finish on a down 4.7%.

Evidence that investors remain unconvinced today by the measures taken in Europe and the United States to consolidate public finances and boost growth.Even the 2 billion euros pledged by the European Central Bank (ECB) on Monday to buy back bonds in Italy and Spain, will very temporarily restored a little breath on the markets. According to a consensus of managers interviewed by Reuters, the institution should indeed buy at least 100 billion of sovereign debt in Spain and Italy to strengthen the euro area and reduce the pressure on the markets.

Yesterday, the intervention of President Barack Obama, who spoke during the meeting believing that the United States still deserve their triple A, had absolutely no effect. Somewhat disturbing sign that the political voice has more influence on investors in markets obsessed with the risk of debt and economic recession in the world.This has not prevented the U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, to find that governments and central banks, have "largely on the margin" to address the crisis. European side, the statements are also increasing on Tuesday morning. Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, calling on governments to "do their job" and put in place as soon as possible bailout of Greece, adopted on July 21.

Policy responses are not sufficient to calm the

Is this the case? Hard to say, as investor psychology seems to look for a disability policy to find new tools to address the current situation. For eleven sessions, no action appears to relieve the market and finally break the vicious circle in which is immersed in index in Paris for nearly two weeks.From this point of view, little news is expected today on the macroeconomic front. While the Monetary Policy Committee of the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) will meet today to decide what to do to try to prevent a further slowdown in growth. However, the conclusions of this meeting should not be made public until 20:15, Paris time, and will therefore not affect the European markets.

Therefore, investors will focus on the publication at 14.30 on U.S. productivity figures for the second quarter, which could give a little more on the state of the world's largest economy. In this dark period, however, good news came this morning from the Department of Budget, which reported just before a stock market stabilization French public deficit at the end of June, to 61.3 billion euros.At noon will also be released by INSEE oil prices and imported materials for July. For its part the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will release its monthly report.

The barrel still under pressure

A report should be carefully watched, the price of oil is very strong pressure for 15 days in a market that has lowered demand forecasts. A decline which continued Tuesday, but less than the opening. In electronic trading in Asia, the "light sweet crude" for dropped below 80 dollars (77.78 dollars in mid-day in Asia, 7 pm, Paris time), while Brent crude was down the floor of 100 dollars to 101.04 dollars back then.

As for the last exchange, the dollar continued to fall on Tuesday against the yen and the euro.Around 6:00, the European single currency climbed to 1.4223 dollars, against 1.4196 late Tuesday. Note that the face of these uncertainties, gold continues to play its full safe-haven status. Tuesday it reached a new high during the meeting in Hong Kong dollar to 1754.24, after crossing the threshold on the eve of 1720 dollars for the first time.

Side analysts, speeches remain cautious, noting that "the large volumes show that we are not in a sluggish market, typical of the holiday, but in a situation of significant liquidations of positions, as and as the traders confidence evaporates, "according to Jonathan at Capital Spreads Sudaria.

The side of values ​​to follow:

Financials (BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Axa, Credit Agricole, Dexia …) should be the most again surrounded.Moreover, given the sharp fall in equity markets, the Financial Markets Authority (AMF) did not consider it unnecessary at this stage to ban short selling in these securities, said Monday a carrier word of the stock market regulator.

GDF Suez. the group has reached an agreement with the Chinese sovereign wealth fund CIC. Beijing will take a pole in its exploration and production investments and participate in the French group in Asia Pacific, told Reuters on Monday sources familiar with the matter.

Archos. The specialist tablets unveiled Monday a net profit after market semi-annual 1.7 million euros against a loss a year earlier. The group also confirmed its objective of a gross margin above 20% for the full year.

Euro Disney.did not state, shortly before the opening of the Exchange, an increase of 7% of its quarterly revenue (T3), to 344 million and announced an increase in spending per visitor.

The criticism comes on the decision of S & P

Auto Date Sunday, August 7th, 2011

"From madness in its purest form," "a descent into hell", "a second recession" … The decision by S & P to sacrifice the "AAA" America is strong criticism from the investment community, acted unreasonably, and falls to the "worst moment", while financial markets come to wipe the worst week since the 2008 crisis . The U.S. government itself deplores the decision of the agency, marred by a miscalculation.

• John Bellows, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury

In a note posted on his blog, John Bellows has detailed the error of 2000 billion, and deplores the fact that S & P has not reconsidered its decision and has not "given an extra day to reassess carefully the analysis. (…).The size of this error, and the speed with which S & P changed its primary justification when he presented this error, raise fundamental questions about the credibility and integrity of the decision by S & P on this note, "he added.

• Warren Buffett, one of the gurus of global finance

"If there was an A + grade four, this is it I would give the United States," launched the famous billionaire 80 years on the air Fox Business News. "I do not think we (the U.S.) live a second recession," said the oracle of Omaha.

• Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize for Economics

"These people are certainly not in a position to make judgments," he was lampooned on Saturday, recalling the "AAA" distributed by S & P and its competitors to "toxic" cause of the crash world of Fall 2008.Same story with Robert Reich, former labor secretary in Bill Clinton: "The intrusion of S & P in American politics (…) is ironic because, as I noted recently, much of our debt today is directly or indirectly due to failures of S & P, "he wrote on a blog.

• Daniel Alpert, Westwood Capital founder

"The size of the economy of the United States, the wealth of their citizens and assets of the federal state itself are certainly more than adequate to repay with interest all of a few billion and 14,000 dollars of debt in the country, "said he.

• Mohamed El-Erian, head of Newport Beach

Degradation will "feed the uncertainties in the functioning of the global economy, since no other" AAA "which is able and wants to supplement or even replace the role of the United States at the center of the system Global Financial "

• Steen Jakobsen, chief economist at Saxo Bank

"Welcome to Crisis 2.0! 1.0 The crisis was the failure of the banking system to wipe the losses stemming from U.S. mortgages at risk (…).This has created a run on banks that have policies determined by moving the debt burden of the private sector to the public sector, "says he."It worked in the short term, but as seen in Europe, the market questions the ability of governments to repay their debt."

• Jean-Hervé Lorenzi, President of the Circle of economists in France

This decision is "madness in its purest form because the Americans are in their ability to repay debt."

• Elie Cohen, an economist and director of research at CNRS

"In the current crisis," the degradation "adds an extra log on the fire that is taking," he laments.

• Paul Dales, analyst at Capital Economics

"The fact that Standard and Poor's has finally pulled the trigger by passing the debt rating of the United States from AAA to AA + will undoubtedly shake the financial markets opening Monday at their (…).If the mess in the markets continues, the risk of recession will increase further, "he warns.

• Ciaran O'Hagan, rates strategist at Societe Generale

"Even if it was half expected, it is a serious decision. The impact will be far reaching, "Ciaran O'Hagan omen, who fears that we have opened a" Pandora's box. " He said the decision will affect somewhat the "risk-free assets (government bonds) but the response will focus on the highest risk assets, including shares and agencies directly guaranteed by the federal government."

• Charles Wyplosz, an economics professor for Advanced Studies in Geneva

The decision by Standard and Poor's "will cause ripple effects on Spain and Italy and France put pressure (…).The euro area falls into the abyss, "he alarmed.

• Thomas Chalumeau, in Terra Nova, close to the PS

In the bond market, "we are moving towards a sustainable price increases in interest rates applied to debts of the States, the United States and Europe (…). There will be an adjustment of public expenditure by raising taxes and charges.The systematic risk of a greater austerity is to maintain unemployment at a high level, "puts it on hold.

The defense of S & P

The unprecedented deterioration of the U.S. sovereign debt "is not a sanction, much less punishment," said his part Jean-Michel Six, chief economist for Europe, Standard & Poor's.

Simply, according to David Beers, head of the department in charge of sovereign debt rating from S & P, "The downgrade reflects our view that the efficiency, stability and predictability with regard to the development policy measures and political institutions of the United States have weakened, in a time of fiscal and economic challenges that continues, even more pronounced than what we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the note on 18 April 2011. "For him, "the bipartisan plan to reduce debt was not strong enough to bring long-term fiscal situation of the United States on a sound.

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EU: luxury watches in Colima

Auto Date Saturday, August 6th, 2011

After considering the price of flour in supermarkets and those of certain financial products, the European Commission is vigilant in fine watchmaking. The competition regulator on Friday launched an investigation into the agreements and dominant positions among manufacturers of luxury watches, trying to see if they have agreed to refuse to supply spare parts to independent repairers.

"The Commission informed the parties concerned and the competition authorities of the Member States of the opening of the proceedings in this case," said the European Commission in a statement.

The investigation follows a complaint filed in 2004 by the European Confederation of Associations of watch repairers (CEAHR) for alleged violation of competition rules of the European Union.Multi-brand repairers had indeed used to make many of the repairs of luxury watches same day payday loans. But from 2002, according to CEAHR, manufacturers of luxury watches began to refuse to supply spare parts to multi-brand repairers who were not part of their repair networks. The CEAHR therefore seeks the condemnation of the practice, saying it could force independent repairers to put the key under the door.

The European competition regulator rejected its complaint in 2008 for lack of Community interest. Then the decision was overturned by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in December 2010. This does not prevent the European Commission to be cautious about this.She stresses that the opening of an investigation does not mean it already has evidence about the existence of an offense. And yet, no manufacturer of luxury watches is specifically under investigation.

Of giant towers grow in emerging markets

Auto Date Thursday, August 4th, 2011

It's a real competition gigatisme. After the announcement by Prince al-Walid to build a tower more than a thousand feet high, the Burj Dubai skyscraper almost seem "small." Yet, this tower, which rises to 828 meters currently holds the record for the tallest tower in the world. And the number of buildings approaching that height now record, will increase in coming years.

The popularity of the towers is very strong especially in emerging countries, which will soon appear three new skyscrapers lying in a range in height from 500 to 800 meters. Symbols of modernity and economic development, they show by their names prosperity of their city or country. The Makkah Clock Royal Tower (601 m) should be opened in Saudi Arabia at the end of this year.The draft Jakarta Tower (588 m) in Indonesia, launched in 1997, should finally set up in 2012. As for the tallest tower in China, the Shanghai Tower (632m), with completion scheduled for 2014.

United States, where the tallest buildings are just above half a mile, top of a building 541mètres should dominate the sky in 2013. This is a skyscraper built on the ruins of the World Trade Center.

Twitter: the ambitions of the site that was worth 8 billion

Auto Date Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

The test has indeed been transformed. On its official blog, Twitter announced on Monday having completed a fundraiser designed to boost its development. The operation, which rumors had gone crescendo in recent weeks, was conducted by the Russian investment fund Digital Sky Techonologies (DST). Overall, the micro-blogging site have raised some $ 800 million, valuing the group now $ 8 billion.

Property Yuri Milner, a leading investor in Internet technologies, which is already DST-equity Facebook, Zynga, Spotify or Groupon-would have provided $ 400 million in micro-blogging site, according to reports in The New York Times published in late JuneAn envelope which must be added an additional $ 400 million, released by shareholders already in the capital, led by the fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Twitter plans to use these resources to "innovate aggressively, hiring new talent, and increase of [his] international expansion," we read on his blog. A course that is not new, as its CEO, Dick Costolo, has so far prevail growth on profitability, without revealing whether the company was non-profit.

A growing industry

For now, Twitter has 600 employees. It boasts of seeing more than 200 million exchange of "tweets" on their platform every day, against only 65 million a year ago cashadvance. However, only a small number of its subscribers would be really active.Since its inception in 2006, the site, despite its growth, maintains a label "geek", unless the public that the social network Facebook.

In parallel with its desire to grow faster, the champion of 140 messages in signs, doing its best to monetize its platform. Recently, he particularly focuses on the "tweets" sponsored by advertisers, and makes no secret, according to Dick Costolo, invest the growing sector of e-commerce.

Through this fundraiser, the social network also shows that it does not let himself get an ever-increasing competition in an industry become the darling of investors. After taking a stake of more than $ 6.5 million investment fund Capital GVS on June 27, Facebook displays a valuation of $ 70 billion.For its part, LinkedIn is now valued at 9.55 billion dollars after his sensational debut on the stock market in mid-May At this rate, Twitter and social networks could well give birth to a new bubble.

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