Tag Archive for percent

IBM?s Mixed Q1 2012: Revenue Flat At $24.7B; Net Income Up 7 Percent To $3.1B

April 19, 2012 num nums

ibmIBM just reported mixed first quarter earnings for 2012. GAAP earnings came in at $2.61, up 13 percent with non-GAAP earnings at $2.78, up 15 percent. Revenue was flat for the quarter coming in at $24.7 billion, up 1 percent adjusting for currency. Analysts expected $2.66 a share and $24.82 billion in revenue. Net income for the quarter came in at $3.1 billion, up 7 percent from last year. ?In the first quarter, we drove strong profit and earnings per share growth. We delivered another excellent software performance, expanded services margins, and continued the momentum in our growth initiatives,? said IBM CEO Ginni Rometty. ?Our investments in growth market countries continued to generate strong revenue growth across software, hardware and services while contributing to the company?s ongoing margin expansion.

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Japan central bank downgrades growth forecast (AP)

January 26, 2012 num nums

TOKYO ? Japan’s central bank said Tuesday it expects the economy to shrink slightly during the fiscal year ending in March instead of expanding as it forecast earlier because of the overseas slowdown.

The Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate the same at close to zero percent but downgraded its growth forecast for the year ending March 2012 to a 0.4 percent contraction from the 0.3 percent expansion it gave in October.

The bank stuck to its projection for a moderate recovery starting the first half of the next fiscal year.

But it lowered its projection for fiscal 2012 to 2.0 percent growth from 2.2 percent growth. It was more upbeat about fiscal 2013, raising that to a 1.6 percent expansion from 1.5 percent.

The bank said the massive debt problems in Europe as well as uncertainty about the U.S. economy are risks for Japan’s outlook.

The strong yen, which erodes the value of exports from the world’s third largest economy, also dragged down growth, keeping economic activity “more or less flat,” it said.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_bi_ge/as_japan_economy

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Germany invites skilled workers from Greece (AP)

November 13, 2011 num nums

BERLIN ? Prosperous Germany has a surprising message for sinking Greece: Help Wanted.

With a shrinking labor force and buoyant economy, Germany desperately needs skilled workers to keep its industrial engine churning forward. Increasingly, it’s seeking them from Greece and other European laggards like Spain and Portugal where unemployment is soaring amid fears of financial implosion.

Germany quickly overcame the financial meltdown that started in 2008 and unemployment is now at a 20-year low of 6.6 percent. Companies are so desperate to fill skilled labor shortages that the government has taken to organizing matchmaking sessions between German firms and job seekers from crisis-hit countries.

Greek civil engineer Christos Kotanidis moved to Erlangen in southern Germany three months ago and quickly found work with industrial giant Siemens.

The 33-year-old’s former company in Saloniki put him on part-time earlier this year because, struck by the financial crisis, it could no longer afford to pay full salaries. It took Kotanidis only six weeks to land a full-time position in Germany.

“I decided to look for a job in Germany because it has a stable economy,” Kotanidis said. “In Greece the economic situation is bad now, but the future looks even worse.”

Unemployment in Greece is currently at 16.7 percent, but among young people it is even higher with more than 42 percent of people under 24 not finding any work. In Spain, overall unemployment hovers at around 20 percent, and more than 45 percent of people under the age of 25 are without a job. Portugal, Italy and Ireland, the other countries bearing the brunt of the debt crisis, also have bleak employment pictures.

There are no hard numbers on how many professionals from Europe’s crisis zone have been hired in Germany. Immigration to Germany has shot up by 13 percent in the past five years, and more than half of the newcomers are from within the European Union. EU citizens do not need to apply for a visa or work permit if they take a job within the bloc.

In the 1960s, Germany recruited millions of unskilled workers from Turkey to help rebuild the country from the ashes of World War II.

Now the focus is on highly skilled professionals ? something the struggling nations of Europe’s southern rim have in abundance.

The Association of German Engineers estimates that Germany has 80,000 engineering jobs that need to be filled; the nation’s physicians’ association says the country’s hospitals require more than 12,000 doctors. The government said this year there’s a shortage of 66,000 information technology specialists.

Over the past few months, the Federal Employment Agency has organized several meetings to match German companies with job applicants in Spain, Portugal and Greece.

“We really need physicians, nurses and engineers ? and we have started recruiting them in those EU countries with high unemployment,” said agency spokeswoman Beate Raabe.

Germany’s skilled workers shortage is only projected to increase as the country’s population ages. Mid-sized companies in particular have added lots of new jobs to fulfill industrial orders.

Against that backdrop, the country pushed through new legislation this year to speed up the recognition of foreign qualifications and degrees.

Some companies have started recruitment drives in crisis-hit countries. After organizing two job fairs in Ireland this year, Globalfoundries, a semiconductor manufacturing company in Dresden, hired and brought 30 Irish engineers to the eastern German city.

Ivan O’Connor was one of them. The 31-year-old technology engineer from Ballinhassig in Cork started working for Globalfoundries last December.

“I really like living and working here, the quality of life is very good and I was seeking a job when the opportunity came up,” O’Connor said in an email to the AP.

His move to Germany was helped by the fact that the office language at Globalfoundries, as an international company, is English.

That’s an exception, as most German companies expect foreign employees to speak German. The Goethe Institute, which offers German language classes around the globe, has noticed more Europeans seeking to overcome that language barrier.

At Barcelona’s Goethe Institute, the number of language students has gone up by 54 percent in the past two years and more than 70 percent of the students say they’re learning German to improve their career chances, said Diar Amin, a spokesman for the Barcelona Goethe Institute. The situation is similar in other Spanish cities, the institute says.

With a university degree in hand and not a job in sight in his native Barcelona, 22-year-old Enrique Serratosa saw brushing up on his German as the first step toward finding work in Germany.

“The situation here is very hard, unemployment is high, and it’s all just getting worse and worse,” said Serratosa, who signed a contract with chemical company Wacker in Munich after taking language lessons to supplement his college German.

“About 80 percent of my friends are looking for jobs abroad and many of them want to go to Germany ? we can learn a lot there and salaries are also higher.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111113/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_germany_help_wanted

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More Evidence That HPV Vaccine Shields Against Cervical Cancer (HealthDay)

November 12, 2011 num nums

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 9 (HealthDay News) — A new study suggests that the Cervarix cervical cancer vaccine may provide “excellent” protection against a precancerous lesion that is often a forerunner to invasive cervical cancer.

Cervarix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, protects against human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18, which cause 70 percent of cervical cancers. The vaccine is particularly effective when given to adolescent girls before they become sexually active.

Cervarix is one of two HPV vaccines approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the other being Merck’s Gardasil.

The four-year study included nearly 20,000 women aged 15 to 25 in 14 countries in North America, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region and Europe. The vaccine was found to be more than 93 percent effective against the CIN3 lesion, a precancerous anomaly that often appears before invasive cancer.

The vaccine was 100 percent effective against cancer in young women who were not infected with HPV before they were immunized, the study found, and it was 46 percent effective against CIN3 and 77 percent effective against cancer in the general population of women (who may or may not have been previously exposed to HPV).

Cervarix was 100 percent effective against CIN3 lesions specifically linked to the HPV 16 and HPV 18 strains in previously unexposed women, and it was nearly 46 percent effective in the general population.

The study appears online Nov. 8 in The Lancet Oncology.

One expert said the new findings “are further evidence of the benefits of HPV vaccine.”

Dr. Stephanie V. Blank, an assistant professor in clinical gynecologic oncology at NYU School of Medicine, said, “Although not perfect, this study is the largest trial of HPV 16/18 vaccine to date. It is significant because with longer time of follow-up, we are better able to show the true effect of the vaccine.”

Blank added that the study “shows that the HPV vaccine will be most protective among adolescent girls but that it is also effective among HPV-exposed women.”

Along with specifically targeting HPV 16 and 18, Cervarix also partially protects against four other types of HPV (31, 33, 45 and 51) that account for 15 percent of cervical cancers, according to another study in the same issue of the journal.

Increasing vaccination rates, particularly among young females who aren’t sexually active, should be a focus of HPV vaccination efforts, Dr. Mark Schiffman and Sholom Wacholder of the U.S. National Cancer Institute stressed in an accompanying commentary.

Blank agreed with that assessment. “There are several take-home messages here: Vaccinate early; catch-up programs are also worth it; the positive impact of the HPV vaccine may be even more than we had expected; and the vaccine has an effect even if a woman is already exposed to HPV,” she said.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about HPV vaccines.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20111109/hl_hsn/moreevidencethathpvvaccineshieldsagainstcervicalcancer

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Americans spending more with income almost flat (AP)

October 29, 2011 num nums

WASHINGTON ? Americans are making a little more money and spending a lot more.

Under normal circumstances, that would be a troubling sign for the economy. But a closer look at some new government figures suggests another possibility: People are saving less money because they’re earning next to nothing in interest.

Saving is already difficult because of more expensive gas and food. It’s even tougher because of the lower returns ? the flip side of super-low interest rates that the Federal Reserve has kept in place since 2008 to help the economy.

Critics say the Fed is punishing those who play by the rules ? those careful enough to set aside money for savings or people who built up a nest egg and are living on fixed incomes that depend on interest.

Americans spent 0.6 percent more in September, three times the increase from the previous month, the government said Friday. Spending was especially strong on durable goods ? things like cars, appliances and electronics.

At the same time, what they earned was mostly flat. Pay increased 0.3 percent, and overall income just 0.1 percent. After deducting taxes and adjusting for inflation, income fell for a third straight month.

So to make up the difference, many have cut back on savings. The savings rate fell to its lowest level since December 2007, the first month of the recession ? and right about the time the Fed started its dramatic series of interest-rate cuts.

Considering how little you can get for parking your money at a bank, it hasn’t been a tough choice.

“Consumers have hit a level of saturation in their savings,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with market research firm The NPD Group. “The propensity is to spend.”

The annual yield on six-month certificates of deposit was unchanged this week at 0.23 percent, according to Bankrate.com. Five years ago, it was 3.62 percent. If you put your money in the six-month CD today, you’d make about enough to buy a burger.

Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, said the trend could mean more spending by Americans. But it will take robust personal spending ? along with improvement in the depressed housing market ? to get the economy going again.

Ashworth said his firm is not too concerned with the decline in savings because it partly represents “a sharp decline in debt servicing costs.” In other words, low interest rates mean it’s cheaper to borrow money.

The Fed began cutting interest rates four years ago at the start of the financial crisis. The rate cuts took the federal funds rate, the key for short-term interest rates, from 5.25 percent down to near zero, where they have stayed since December 2008.

The central bank has said it will keep rates super-low into 2013 as long as the economy stays weak. While that means low returns for savers, it is designed to encourage people and businesses to borrow more.

Many borrowers tend to be young families who are spending most of their income anyway. The loss in interest income tends to hit older households, which are saving for retirement and counting more on bonds and other fixed-income securities.

Consumer spending is closely watched because it accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity. A sharp rise in spending over the summer helped the overall economy grow in July, August and September at the fastest pace in a year.

Still, the economy would have to grow twice as fast to put a dent in the unemployment rate, which has stayed near 9 percent since the recession officially ended more than two years ago.

At the same time savings accounts and other fixed-income investments are paying less, the cost of food and gas has gone up.

Elizabeth Smith, who works in teacher education at the University of Arkansas, has cut her monthly contribution to her retirement savings in half to meet necessities.

“Every time I go to the store, butter, cheese and milk are more expensive,” she said. Child care costs for her two children have also risen this year.

On the other hand, Smith has benefited from lower interest rates. She and her husband refinanced the mortgage on her home a year ago, which lowered their monthly payments by $200, freeing up more cash.

The Fed’s policies are “designed to reward spending and effectively punish savers,” said Eric Green, chief U.S. economist at TD Securities.

___

AP Business Writers Anne D’Innocenzio in New York and David Pitt in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111028/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/us_consumer_spending

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‘Occupy’ protesters find allies among the wealthy

October 22, 2011 num nums

The ?Occupy Wall Street? protesters ? also known as the ?99 percent? ? have struck a chord with at least a few members of an unexpected audience: America?s rich and privileged.

United under the banner ?We are the 1 percent: We stand with the 99 percent,? a band of entrepreneurs, trust fund babies, professionals and inheritors has taken to the web to share their abhorrence of corporate greed and support for tax code changes that would see them pay a higher share of their considerable wealth.

Among other things, they?re posting their stories on a Tumblr page created by Wealth for the Common Good and Resource Generation, two groups dedicated to working for “fair taxation and just wealth distribution.”

Some are probably not actually in the top 1 percent wealthwise ? calculated at earning a yearly salary of more than $506,000, according toThe Wall Street Journal? but all are certainly well off and supportive of reforms that would narrow the widening gap between America’s elite and poorest citizens.

Msnbc.com contacted some of the posters and others affiliated with the website?s creators to hear what they had to say.Here, in their own words, is what they told us:

Farhad A. Ebrahimi, 33, who shares his inherited wealth through a charity that he founded, says he attends the Occupy Boston protest every day. He has donated tents, helped with organizing, raised funds and written for the protesters’ blog. He said that his inheritance put him squarely in the top 1 percent, plus he makes enough on investment income every year to be in the highest tax bracket. But he lives what he calls a ?Spartan? life compared to other members of his family.

At the protest, he often wears a homemade T-shirt that reads: ?I?m a member of the 1 percent and I fully support the 99 percent? on the front, and, ?Tax me, I?m good for it,? on the back.

Why are you at Occupy Boston?

?I think my taxes are at a historical low ? and also, I think that the ability for someone like me who has financial privilege to influence our government is at an all-time high. I?ve never been comfortable with those ideas. They?ve always seemed like to me things that should change and to … play a role in the movement and to try to advocate around those issues was just a tremendous opportunity.?

What specific changes would you like to see?

?The big picture for me personally is any sort of restructuring, any demands that can be met that make our tax code more progressive. So campaign finance reform in general would be another one, to make the ability for money ? whether it?s personal or corporate ? to play a role in politics, anything that diminishes that would be on my list of goals to see out of this movement.?

What kind of role can 1 percenters play in a movement of the 99 percent?

?Participating in any way that does not directly involve my privilege. ? And I think one of the things I find very compelling about the occupation (movements) is that by practicing direct democracy through the general assemblies every day, we?re essentially trying to practice what we preach and trying to make decisions as a group, where various kinds of privilege don?t have the sort of outside influence that they have in society as a whole.?

?… I think for me it?s very important to be visible and it?s very important that everybody there be comfortable with the idea of somebody like me being there. So far I?ve received nothing but positive feedback for being sort of honest and transparent about that.?

Burke Stansbury, a 35-year-old communications specialist for nonprofit groups, has been loosely involved with the protests in Washington, D.C. (known as Occupy K St), donating homemade food, tarps and money. He inherited a little more than $1 million and stands to inherit more. He doesn’t believe he officially qualifies to be in the top 1 percent, but says he grew up with all the advantages of being wealthy.

Why did you get involved with the ‘Occupy’ protests?

“I think it?s a beautiful movement of people that really gets at the heart of what’s wrong with our country right now in terms of the really obscene level of inequality that exists and the institutions that have sort of influenced that.”

What would you like changed?

“A lot of us have honed in on the tax code piece as something that?s tangible, that can be changed and we have a kind of unique role in speaking out on, as people in the 1 percent. So certainly I feel really strongly that people with wealth, high income people, should be taxed at higher levels and not just in terms of income tax but in terms of the … capital gains tax as well.”

You said you worked with your parents to start a foundation and have given money to nonprofits and grassroots groups. Can’t the wealthiest Americans make a difference that way?

“It’s all well and good that we maybe have family foundations for giving away a lot of money ourselves to good causes, but that?s not enough, like that isn’t going to change the big problems, the really extreme inequality that exists. ? It has to come from the government, it has to be a sort-of involuntary … redistribution of wealth because the few altruistic wealthy people giving (away) their money isn’t going to do it.”

Were other protesters aware of your status?

“I don?t go around telling everyone, ‘I’m a millionaire.’ But I’m also pretty and fairly open about it if it comes up. A lot of people have signs, you know, targeting the 1 percent, oftentimes really angry messages. … I don?t think people would like jump up and attack me, but I think I would just want to be able to like really talk through it with them and explain what that means to me and have that conversation.”

“… I think it?s a great opportunity to kind of bridge that class divide and it?s going to hopefully lead to great things in terms of building a bigger movement.?

What role do you think the 1 percenters can play here in this movement?

“We can bring this message that like there is still collective humanity in those that have more wealth, too. Many of us actually want to see the same kind of change that the people that are down on … ‘Occupy Wall Street’ everyday, want to see.”


Elspeth Gilmore, a 33-year-old co-director at Resource Generation, said she made waves when she went down to Occupy Wall Street with her sign. Gilmore, who believes she is close to qualifying as a 1 percenter and was raised in a life of privilege, helped launch the Tumblr page last week.

What is the idea behind the 1 percenter site?

?The Tumblr site was our response as Resource Generation and Wealth for the Common Good, who have been collaborating around what it looks like to organize and mobilize young people in the 1 percent to stand with the 99 percent. … The Tumblr blog was following the lead of the We Are the 99 Percent blog to actually tell our stories and show that there are both young people in our community ? but then also a broader community of people in the 1 percent ? who are standing in support and are working for a world of economic equity and a just distribution of wealth.?

Who are the 1 percent?

?What we?re talking about when we say the 1 percent is that we?re ? part of the population that has more than we need, that has access to resources,? she said. ?It?s more of a framing of what does it look like to be in a place where the majority of people in the country are not ? getting enough to live well and are struggling and what does it mean for those of us who are actually supposedly benefiting from society but actually … believe that we would all be better off in a world with a more equitable distribution of resources and of wealth.?

“One of the solutions that we support is taxing the rich and changing tax policy, and saying there is more than enough money for all of us. We stand with the demands of the 99 percent ? this is the betterment for all of us.?

“A number of people came up to me and said, ‘Hey, I love your sign, and ? that?s me.?”

“… For me being open and public about being wealthy ? is a huge part of me being able to be fully in this movement. … if I can affect other people who have money to be able to be open and honest about that, they?re going to be so much more effective in making change you know for the next many years ??

Leah Hunt-Hendrix, a 28-year-old Ph.D. student of political theory at Princeton, said she has attended the “Occupy Wall Street” general assemblies and helped to form one of their many working groups.She believes her family would be at the upper end of the 1 percent, though she has chosen to live in a modest apartment in Brooklyn and doesn’t see their wealth as a main part of her identity.

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How involved are you in Occupy Wall Street?

?I go pretty regularly. I?m still not sure what my best role (is) ? I think I will probably want to write about the movement.”

Why did you get involved?

?I’ve been concerned about the role of corporations in American politics for a long time and so I went down originally to see if the people at ‘Occupy’ were also talking about a constitutional amendment or (revocation of) corporate personhood as ? a possible demand. But the more I went down, the more I realized that they?re really on target to not have any specific demand. I think this will lead to ? policy changes. But I think that they are right to wait and let the movement grow ? before choosing anything too specific.?

Do you consider yourself a 1 percenter?

?I personally don?t have a large income because I have chosen not to pursue anything that makes money. I think the point is ? that there are people who are immensely privileged and there are people who are suffering terribly. I think that this movement should involve everyone ? like 100 percent.?

What role do you think the 1 percenters can play?

?I think definitely show our solidarity ? (and) we can help fund it. I think we can also help represent the fact that it?s not about good people versus bad people ? there are people trying to work for change on both sides.”

Were you ?out? as a wealthy person at ‘Occupy Wall Street’?

?I am more of an activist in general and that?s more of my identity so that?s how I went down there.?

?… If I went down and said I have a lot of money, you know, I?d like to help, I don?t think anybody would care and they might be very suspicious. ? I think (in) the movement, as far as I can tell, people are very concerned about where funding comes from and don?t want any money that would tie them to any donors.?

? 2011 msnbc.com Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44973689/ns/us_news-life/

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