Slowing Inflation May Give ECB Room to Maneuver on Interest Rates

Slowing Inflation May Give ECB Room to Maneuver on Interest Rates
The inflation rate (ECCPEMUY) in the 17-nation euro area fell to 2.8 percent from 3 percent in November, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said in an initial estimate today. Euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted less than initially estimated last month and French consumer spending unexpectedly declined in November from October, separate reports showed.

Poverty reduction for economic development

Poverty reduction for economic development

THE  impact of economic growth on the pace and magnitude of poverty reduction depends to a large extent on the nature of inequality of income arising from the very growth process. As such, the concept of pro-poor growth strategy appears to point out the crucial association of growth and inequality on the extent of poverty reduction. Adaptation of “pro-poor” growth strategy is thus favoured over growth maximisation in Bangladesh’s planning documents as a means of achieving faster decline of poverty, thereby reducing income disparity. With poverty alleviation being an area of major policy thrust of the successive governments, this year’s poverty figures for Bangladesh have come as a shocker.

The figures show that more than 50% of the population are now living below the extreme poverty level. To measure extreme poverty, the amount of income of a person that the poverty researches agreed upon is equivalent to $1.60 per day. The progress made so far is very poor given the emphasis laid on the issue by the different governments and concern expressed by the donors. In most of the literature on the issue, poverty is looked upon as a kind of ailment. Poverty is a problem isolated from other social conditions within which the affected ones live.

Unsurprisingly, poverty mitigating agencies take the affected the people individually and try to help them out through creating job opportunities for them in a piecemeal fashion. Such interventions hardly make much difference in the lives of the people. Most countries of South and South-East Asia that are now bracketed with the rich nations did not always have such a glamorous status. Poverty was not a stranger to those societies even a few decades back. International agencies, donor countries and governments were active in those countries to lift them out of the curse of backwardness and poverty. If one looks at the history of development of those countries, it would be found that Bangladesh’s status vis-à-vis the more successful countries of South-East Asia was not always like this.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Slowing Inflation May Give ECB Room to Maneuver on Interest Rates: Economy

http://hypoventurecapital-research.com/2012/01/hypo-venture-capital-headlines-slowing-inflation-may-give-ecb-room-to-maneuver-on-interest-rates-economy/

Euro-region inflation (ECCPEMUY) slowed for the first time in five months in December, giving the European Central Bank room to lower borrowing costs further as the economy edges toward a recession.

The inflation rate (ECCPEMUY) in the 17-nation euro area fell to 2.8 percent from 3 percent in November, the European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg said in an initial estimate today. Euro-area services and manufacturing output contracted less than initially estimated last month and French consumer spending unexpectedly declined in November from October, separate reports showed.

Europe’s economy (EUGNEMUQ) is showing increasing signs of a slowdown as governments struggle to contain the region’s debt crisis, adding pressure on the ECB to lower the benchmark interest rate from the current 1 percent, which matches a record low (EURR002W). Economists at IHS Global Insight and ABN Amro forecast the central bank will cut borrowing costs as low as 0.5 percent to fight a recession.

“Euro-zone inflation has now passed its peak and is likely to fall further in the coming months to levels clearly below 2 percent in the second half of this year,” said Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN Amro in Amsterdam. “The favorable medium-term inflation outlook is a green light for further ECB rate cuts over the coming months.”

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Poverty reduction for economic development

http://hypoventure-capital.com/2012/02/hypo-venture-capital-headlines-poverty-reduction-for-economic-development/

THE  impact of economic growth on the pace and magnitude of poverty reduction depends to a large extent on the nature of inequality of income arising from the very growth process. As such, the concept of pro-poor growth strategy appears to point out the crucial association of growth and inequality on the extent of poverty reduction. Adaptation of “pro-poor” growth strategy is thus favoured over growth maximisation in Bangladesh’s planning documents as a means of achieving faster decline of poverty, thereby reducing income disparity. With poverty alleviation being an area of major policy thrust of the successive governments, this year’s poverty figures for Bangladesh have come as a shocker.

The figures show that more than 50% of the population are now living below the extreme poverty level. To measure extreme poverty, the amount of income of a person that the poverty researches agreed upon is equivalent to $1.60 per day. The progress made so far is very poor given the emphasis laid on the issue by the different governments and concern expressed by the donors. In most of the literature on the issue, poverty is looked upon as a kind of ailment. Poverty is a problem isolated from other social conditions within which the affected ones live.

Unsurprisingly, poverty mitigating agencies take the affected the people individually and try to help them out through creating job opportunities for them in a piecemeal fashion. Such interventions hardly make much difference in the lives of the people. Most countries of South and South-East Asia that are now bracketed with the rich nations did not always have such a glamorous status. Poverty was not a stranger to those societies even a few decades back. International agencies, donor countries and governments were active in those countries to lift them out of the curse of backwardness and poverty. If one looks at the history of development of those countries, it would be found that Bangladesh’s status vis-à-vis the more successful countries of South-East Asia was not always like this.

Hypo Venture Capital Zurich Headlines:Republicans Make Power Play To Gut Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

http://hypoventurecapital-news.com/2011/05/hypo-venture-capital-zurich-headlinesrepublicans-make-power-play-to-gut-consumer-financial-protection-bureau/

“We will not support the consideration of any nominee, regardless of party affiliation, to be the CFPB director until the structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is reformed,” reads a letter, co-authored by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), ranking member of the Banking Committee.

Congress created the CFPB, despite GOP opposition, as part of the Wall Street reform law, to protect consumers from predatory actors in the financial industry. Its intellectual godmother is Elizabeth Warren, whom President Obama has tasked with standing up the agency. Despite her popularity, she’s been a long-shot to run the Bureau when it officially launches — largely because of financial industry and Republican (and even some Democratic) opposition. Indeed, former Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) — who poured cold water on the idea of nominating Warren — warned that if Democrats tried to jam a director through the Senate without bipartisan support, Republicans would go to war against the Bureau and try to gut it.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Forget in-depth financial analysis- Now even Wall Street is turning to Twitter for clues on the stock market

http://hypoventurecapital-financialideas.com/2011/05/hypo-venture-capital-headlines-forget-in-depth-financial-analysis-now-even-wall-street-is-turning-to-twitter-for-clues-on-the-stock-market/

Johan Bollen, a professor of informatics at Indiana, co-authored a study that linked a computerized assessment of the ‘mood’ of millions of Twitter posts with stock marketperformance.

Mr Bollen’s analysis of Tweets was said to have an 87 per cent chance of successfully predicting stock prices within three or four days of online discussion of the company in question.

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To reach his conclusion, Mr Bollen analyzed a total of 9.6 million tweets over nine months in 2008, using two mood-tracking tools.

One program assessed whether a tweet about a particular company was positive or negative, while the other tried to drill down further and categorize tweets through six modifiers: calm, alert, sure, vital, kind and happy.

Hypo Venture Capital Headlines: Fake collar bomb mystery deepens as Australian police focus on note

http://hypoventurecapital-headlines.com/

Police said the note was the most crucial piece of evidence being used by investigators to track down the culprit. They were also examining a USB stick left inside the fake bomb.

Struan is the lead character in James Clavell’s book about a wealthy and violent businessman who is bent on destroying his rivals.

He is described as a “pirate, an opium smuggler, a master manipulator of men, a ruthless intriguer and a mighty lover.”

In the book, which police hope will shed light on the identity of the man behind the bizarre attack on Miss Pulver, Struan and his business rival Tyler Brock use extortion, threats and violence in an attempt to get the better of each other.

In one chapter, an extortion threat is made against Straun and a price is put on the heads of his wife and daughter.

Struan’s character, while ruthless, is portrayed as tough and resourceful.

Throughout the book Straun fights to protect his family and his trading company, Noble House. He eventually dies in a typhoon before he can fulfil his mission to destroy Block.

The book was made into a film in 1986 starring Australian actor Bryan Brown.

Clavell reportedly based the character on 19th Century Scottish doctor and merchant William Jardine who co-founded a Hong Kong conglomerate.