Archiv ‘USA’

Sonntag, 18. Mai 2008

Unerwartete Steuereinnahmen

Auch Kalifornien scheint Mühe zu haben, mit unerwartet hohen Steuereinnahmen umzugehen. Gouverneur Schwarzenegger schlägt in einem Interview die Schaffung eines „rainy-day fund“ vor, um die Fluktuationen zwischen einzelnen Steuerjahren auszugleichen:

It’s only because, as I said, when there’s a spike in revenues … they grab off that money and spend it and commit it to ongoing programs…. And then everyone expects that this will now continue, but in fact it doesn’t because, as Davis experienced, the next year it was down and the revenues were flat. […]

What we want to do, kind of, is eliminate that problem and say … any revenues that come in that’s beyond 5% goes into a rainy-day fund, and keep it there. And when the revenues are down like right now … we can use this rainy-day fund to supplement the shortfall and soften the blow, not that you can solve the problem, but soften the blow….

Quelle: Schwarzenegger on taxes, immigration and more

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Labels: Politik, USA

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Sonntag, 18. Mai 2008

Kaliforniens Wirtschaft schwächelt

Bankenkrise überstanden – Konsumenten bankrott:

Thornberg sees a recession in California being closer to the recession of the early 1990s in severity rather than the briefer recession after the Internet boom ended. But while California is not suffering from an industrial bust, as it did when aerospace was hit after the Berlin Wall came down, its consumers are poorly set to weather a recession.

Quelle: Californians leading the way to consumer bust – Print Version – International Herald Tribune

Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Sonntag, 18. Mai 2008

Das nahende Ende einer Ära

Der in den USA über die Parteigrenzen hinweg geschätzte [Ted] Kennedy ist der jüngste und einzige noch lebende der vier Kennedy-Brüder: Der älteste Bruder Joseph kam bei einem Flugzeugunglück im Zweiten Weltkrieg um, Expräsident John F. Kennedy wurde 1963 ermordet, 1968 fiel auch Robert Kennedy einem Attentat zum Opfer.

Quelle: Ted Kennedy in Spital eingeliefert – Ausland – Tages-Anzeiger

Labels: Gesellschaft, Politik, USA

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Samstag, 17. Mai 2008

Airlines ohne Spielraum

The bigger carriers with deeper pockets (and more unsold seats) have kept prices relatively low while burning through cash reserves as their own fuel costs mounted. American Airlines is now losing about $3.3 million a day, and at the current rate, could burn through its $5 billion in cash reserves in as little as four years. And it has the biggest cash reserve in the industry.

Quelle: Peak Oil and the Rail Revolution

Mal schauen, ob die Erdöl-Schockwelle in den nächsten Monaten auch Europa erreicht … Auf jeden Fall erachte ich minderwertige Jobs in dieser Industrie als höchst unsicher:

Simon Fraser University professor Anthony Perl, author of the new book Transport Revolutions, predicts that in 2025, no more than 25 airports will be functional.

Spekulanten aussen vor

Eigentlich noch Schade, nicht?

There are no airline ETFs, and for good reason. It’s mostly a money losing business, with extremely slow growth rates and enormous risk and capital requirements.

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Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Mittwoch, 14. Mai 2008

Die Fed mutiert

The Fed has gone from being a balancing (liquidity) mechanism to being a funding (equity) mechanism, and what’s worse, the collateral they are holding may not be worth the amount of loan they have outstanding.

Quelle: Market Ticker

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Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Montag, 12. Mai 2008

Danke, US-Konsumenten!

Eigentlich ist ja meine USA-Bashing-Woche durch, doch weil es so Spass gemacht hat, darf folgende Erwähnung nicht fehlen:

Some day, when the economic history of this current period is better understood, people will see that the world owes a huge debt of gratitude to the American consumer. Against his own interest, he has put himself deep in debt so that others could have prosperity…and have it in greater abundance.

Quelle: Investors Sold Japan Along with the Emerging Markets

Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Samstag, 10. Mai 2008

Der bevorstehende Kredit-Big-Bang in den USA

Soon, as credit card delinquencies rise and losses on pools of securitized credit card debt mount, those supplying the credit will finally get wise to the fact they will never get their money back. As a result the market for such debt will dry up even more quickly than did the market for subprime mortgages. Cards will therefore be much harder to come by and will have much lower limits then they do today. Limited to only the cash in their wallets, Americans will finally be forced to dramatically curtail their spending, and the recession will finally gather serious momentum.

Quelle: Credit Card Debt Ticking Time Bomb

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Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Donnerstag, 8. Mai 2008

Woran Weltreiche krank(t)en …

As a business model, Rome’s strategy was obviously flawed; like a credit bubble, it required constant expansion. Still it was nice in the beginning. The early days of the Roman Empire were like the early days of the British Empire or the American Hegemony. Expansion opened up new markets and brought in new supplies of raw materials at better prices. Not only was there booty; there were also slaves.

Quelle: No Modern Government Policy is So Stupid that the Romans Didn’t Think of it First

Doch das Ende war und ist immer rasch absehbar:

[…] the Romans had a solution for every problem. And every solution brought new problems…until the weight of them crushed the whole empire.

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Labels: USA, Wirtschaft

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Donnerstag, 8. Mai 2008

Nach dem Subprime-Debakel nun auch noch dieser Tinu Liechti

A top banker at UBS has been „briefly detained“ by the US authorities investigating whether the Swiss bank helped its American customers evade tax. […] It refused to name the banker but the Financial Times identified him as Martin Liechti, head of UBS’s wealth management operations in North and South America.

Quelle: Top UBS banker detained in US

Für ein paar Rappen Bonus würden diese UBS-Banker wohl auch noch ihre Schwiegermütter Panini-Bildchen Goldfischchen im Aquarium verkaufen …

Wie sagt man so schön: „Ist der Ruf erst ruiniert, lebt sich’s völlig ungeniert.“

Nachtrag

Wie immer ganz interessant die Kommentare dazu auf reddit:

A Swiss bank helped Americans evade taxes… isn’t this what Swiss banks are FOR?

Quelle: A top banker at UBS has been „briefly detained“ by the US authorities investigating whether the Swiss bank helped its American customers evade tax.

Selbstverständlich fällt die Diskussion rasch auf das Heimatland des Steuerflüchtlings zurück – erst die dortige Situation zwingt den quasi in Notwehr handelnden Steuerhinterzieher dazu, sein geliebtes Geld aus dem Land zu schaffen:

I am interested to see redditor’s opinions on tax evasion. On one hand the evasion of the wealthy to pay taxes puts the burden on those who can’t afford swiss banks, yet on the other hand it could be almost patriotic at this point to be denying the government your taxes.

Wobei ich mich dieser Meinung – bezüglich der USA – für einmal anschliessen kann (schliesslich sind wir ja in der USA-Bash-Week) …

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Labels: Schweiz, USA

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Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2008

Marketing richtet alles

MBA – Mal Besser Arbeitslos?

What’s clear is that Sprint is run by MBA-trained executives who see everything as a general “business” problem. In their minds, the same things apply to selling phones as toothpaste. How about this idea: Take $100 million and use it to design a better phone?

Quelle: Sprint Spending $100 Million to Advertise iPhone Knock-Off

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Labels: Apple, Funny, USA, Wirtschaft

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