Regulators close 3 more U.S. banks

February 7, 2009
Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON - Regulators closed banks on Friday in Georgia and California, bringing the total of U.S. bank failures to nine this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said County Bank of Merced, California, was closed by the California Department of Financial Institutions, and the FDIC was appointed as a receiver.

County Bank, which operated 39 offices, had $1.7 billion in assets and $1.3 billion in deposits, according to regulators. Westamerica Bank of San Rafael, California, will assume all of the deposits of the failed bank.

The FDIC said in a release the cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund would be $135 million.

The FDIC also said it became a receiver of Culver City, California-based Alliance Bank and entered into an agreement with California Bank & Trust, a subsidiary of Zions Bancorp , to assume all the deposits.

Alliance Bank was closed by the California Department of Financial Institutions. The bank had $1.14 billion in assets and $951 million in deposits. The cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $206 million, the FDIC estimated.

Regulators said on Friday a third firm, FirstBank Financial Services, had failed.

All deposits of the McDonough, Georgia, bank will be assumed by Regions Bank of Birmingham, Alabama, said the FDIC, which took receivership of FirstBank.

Regulators said FirstBank Financial Services had assets of about $337 million and $279 million in deposits at the end of 2008. The estimated cost to the Deposit Insurance Fund will be $111 million.

In 2008, 25 banks were seized by officials, up from only three in 2007.

Power, education and road connectivity can improve Manipur's economy: Prof Rappai

February 04 2009
Source: Hueiyen News Service

With concern in his voice, eagerness in his eyes and confidence in his mind, Prof MV Rappai today averred that three things would certainly lift the economy of Manipur, which will naturally result in overall development in the state.

Relaxing in a spacious room at the Manipur University Guest House in the MU campus, Canchipur after a long brainstorming lecture and interaction at the Department of Political Science, MU, Prof Rappai told a few journalists this afternoon that power, education and good road connectivity would boost the economy of Manipur, thus creating opportunity for overall development.

Power being the most important factor, the authorities in the state may look at the options of producing power through mini hydro power projects instead of big dams and projects in the state, Prof Rappai opined.

Mini hydro power projects would be suitable in Manipur as there are small rivers, streams and waterfalls.Such mini projects may be set up at many places without disturbing normal life, without having to evacuate a lot of people from their place of settlement.

Mini projects would be more suitable with the local environment, Prof Rappai said.

If ten mini hydro power projects can produce equivalent power as that of a big project, it is better to set up the ten mini projects, he suggested.

In China and Kerala in India, such mini hydro power projects are successfully running and providing the people electricity, he said.

With power available, good roads connecting all villages in Manipur and resources of educated people, the state can make much advancement in economy.

This should be carried out as time bound programmes, the Professor asserted.

In this regard, one may learn from the Chinese, he said, adding that the Chinese are a people, who once have taken a decision, would implement it without fail.

He further said that Manipur is richly endowed with bamboos, handicrafts and herbal plants.

Bamboos can be used in making different products.

Skill of handloom and handicrafts in the state can be honed to meet the challenges posed by products imported from south east Asian countries like China in the local markets.

The Chinese products are flowing in India through the neighbouring countries like Myanmar.

The Chinese products will first be sold at cheaper price with a view to capturing the local markets.

Once their products get a foot hold in the local markets, gradually they will increase the price, thus capturing the local markets.

Therefore, the North Eastern region need to prepare to counter the invading Chinese goods, he said.

Regarding opening of a Chinese study centre in the Manipur University, Prof Rappai said, it is for the state authority to pursue the matter.

He acknowledged that the state Education Minister L Jayentakumar is serious about the matter.

He agreed that opening a Chinese study centre in Manipur would be beneficial for the people.

The Chinese are travelling all over the world, they would arrive in Manipur also as tourists.

In such situation, local people, who are able to communicate with the Chinese tourists in their own tongue, even if not too good, can act as the guides.

Therefore, learning Chinese would be advantageous, he said.

He revealed that the state authority wants to open study centres on Chinese, Korean, Laos and Cambodian in Manipur University.

He has had talks with the state Education Minister regarding the education scenario in Manipur.

He has suggested a ten year free compulsory education for every child in the state.

He has also suggested, out of all the subjects children are taught, at least two should be based on the need of the students areawise.

Elaborating on his suggestion, Prof Rappai said that if the students hail from a particular village of which main occupation is agriculture, the students can be taught on agriculture and allied subjects.

Likewise students of different villages with different main occupations and needs, they can be taught accordingly.

This will hone the young students' skills in different fields, thus alleviating a lot of problems of unemployment, etc.As regards the Look East Policy of the Government of India, the Professor regretted that though the policy has been declared, not much further work on it has been taken up.

Regarding the maintenance of good health of the Chinese people, Prof Rappai enlightened that the Chinese are early risers and excercise regularly in the early morning.

They excercise Tai-Chi or any other form of physical fitness training.Prof Rappai narrated that the Chinese people's consciousness on good health and physical fitness came about during Mao Tse Tung's revolution.

The Chinese leader then had used coercive measures to make the Chinese people become health conscious.But today, every Chinese citizen must be physically fit.At the time of admission in schools, a child must not only have good marks but also be physically fit.

A child is subjected to physical fitness test at the time of admission.

Therefore, every parents make it a point that their child jogs/runs every morning.

Finally, on a question on the draconian law AFSPA, 1958, Prof Rappai quoted the former Union Home Secretary Padmanabhaiah as telling him one day that the Jeevan Reddy commission had already recommended repeal of the law, and it is for the MPs of the North Eastern states to demand that to be done in the Parliament.

Prof Rappai, who arrived at Imphal on February 2 on a five-day visit to Manipur, yesterday gave a lecture on "Growing influence of China in South East Asia: Impact on North Eastern India" at a reception cum interaction function held at Hotel Imphal, and gave a lecture at the Department of Political Science, MU today.

He has met Education Minister L Jayentakumar, MP Dr T Meinya, many other MLAs, Professors of Manipur University and other scholars.He would be leaving Imphal for Delhi on February 6 .

Honda shuts down Swindon plant for 4 months

2009-01-30

Workers at Honda's Swindon factory made the last cars on Friday before a four-month shutdown caused by a sharp fall in worldwide sales.

Production at the Japanese giant's plant will be halted until June 1, with 4,200 workers receiving full pay for the first two months, reduced to 60 percent for the rest of the shutdown.

Honda has insisted it intends to maintain its Swindon workforce until the Jazz model is due to go into production there later this year.

The shutdown came on a grim day of news for Honda as Japan's second-largest carmaker said its net profit plunged 89 percent in the fiscal third quarter and it slashed its annual earnings forecast by more than half.

It made a net profit of 20.24 billion yen (157 million pounds) for the three months to December, down from 200 billion yen a year earlier.

Japanese car firms have been slashing production and laying off workers to cope with the global economic crisis, which has seen demand for vehicles collapse as potential buyers find finance drying up amid the credit crunch.

In Britain, Nissan has cut 1,200 jobs from its 5,000-strong workforce at its plant in Sunderland in northeast England.

Millions of Chinese set to lose jobs as New Year celebrations end

27 Jan 2009
Source: The Telegraph

As many as 40 million Chinese who moved from the country to the city to find work are expected to lose their jobs this week as the New Year celebrations come to a close.

Instead of returning to work after the public holiday, many will remain in their remote rural homes, having been told not to come back.

Others will make the long journey to China's economic heartlands only to find their source of income has evaporated.

The gloomy prediction came from an official at the Central Communist Party School, who estimated that between 20 and 30 per cent of the 130 million provincial Chinese who moved to the city for employment would find themselves obsolete.

To make matters worse, they will find no guarantee of work at home as sophisticated farming methods reduce the need for labourers and agricultural hands.

In Shanghai, the New Year was ushered in with an unparalleled pyrotechnic display as the population let off steam.

Firework sales rose by a third from last year, and it took more than 30,000 street sweepers to clear the 1,200 tonnes of debris from the streets.

But even in China's financial capital, a sober mood emerged as the economy continued slowing down, raising fears that it may have ground to a halt entirely in the last quarter of 2008.

Xie Xuren, China's finance minister, was moved to issue a sombre New Year greeting. The situation, he said, was now "very severe".

His warning spurred some to ignore the holiday and try to make themselves indispensable.

Fen Yi, a 26, software developer said: "One of my New Year resolutions is not getting sacked. I am working again on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, giving up my holiday time.

"The unemployment rate is rising and the economy is falling, 2009 will be a dangerous year for China, and a sensitive year with all the anniversaries coming up, like the one for the riots in Tiananmen Square. "The general mood is not as bullish as it is supposed to be for the year of the Bull."

In the southern province of Guangdong, where millions of factory workers have lost their jobs, a daily queue has started to form in front of a giant golden bull: one of capitalism's most potent symbols.

The Charging Bull, a three-tonne sculpture cast in the 1980s to symbolise the might of Wall Street, may be tarnished in the eyes of the West.

But a replica of the statue at Changlu Farm in Shunde is attracting tens of thousands of Chinese visitors every day, hoping for a touch of luck in the coming year.

"The Wall Street bull is famous and influential," said He Siyuan, the manager of the farm. "It's very impressive, so we built our own and organised a 'touch the gold bull, boost the stock market' initiative for Chinese New Year. People like to ride it and take pictures."

According to Chinese astrology, the Ox stands for prosperity through fortitude and hard work, an attitude that the Chinese government has encouraged amid plunging exports and job losses.

People born under the sign are thought to be natural leaders, and include Barack Obama, Saddam Hussein, Margaret Thatcher, Adolf Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte. The People's Republic of China was also created in the year of the Ox.

Older Chinese reflected, however, on the transformation of the country since the last year of the Ox. "Twelve years is like a blink. Last year of the Ox, we did not have air conditioner, now my place has three," said Wang Jing, a 56-year-old property manager.

"We didn't have a computer or a car. Everything looks brighter now, but the people have also changed. We used to be simpler and more honest. Now everyone worships money."

In 2008, the glory of the Olympics provided little cheer after the traumas of the riots in Tibet, the frozen harvests and the Sichuan earthquake, which killed 90,000 people.

One popular text message, sent by millions of Chinese, read: "Goodbye to the snows of 08, the quake of 08, the pain of 08, the bitterness of 08. May 2009 be bullish for you."

27,000 jobs to go at NEC and Hitachi

30 January 2009
Source: The Guardian

NEC and Hitachi, the Japanese electronics makers, will between them cut at least 27,000 jobs worldwide to try to counter falling demand and plummeting prices.

NEC said today that its third-quarter losses had reached ¥130bn from ¥5.2bn for the same period last year. It also forecast losses for the full year.

Hitachi, which makes everything from home appliances and TVs to IT systems and medical equipment, predicted it would post a huge net loss this fiscal year and said it would slash about 7,000 jobs as part of a global restructuring plan.

NEC, a major producer of semiconductors, said about half of the job losses would affect full-time employees and that 40% would be in Japan.

"We are aiming for 20,000 or more," NEC's president, Kaoru Yano, told a news conference. "It is regrettable that we have to announce such a big downgrade. We must cut waste."

The redundancies, to be made by the end of March next year, will help bring savings of ¥80bn over two years, the company said.

NEC expects a net loss of ¥290bn for the year to the end of March, having predicted a ¥15bn profit only three months ago. It also cut its sales estimate to ¥4.2tn compared with an initial forecast of ¥4.6tn.

The firm announced its earnings results after its shares fell 6.5% during trading in Tokyo.

Officials refused to comment on reports that NEC is planning to merge its semiconductor business with Toshiba's chip operation. Toshiba, which is also battling falling prices and demand, has warned it is on course for its biggest-ever annual loss.

Analysts said a merger would bring little comfort to either company amid plummeting demand for electronic parts for personal computers and cars.

"It's a losers' union," SMBC Friend Securities manager Fumiyuki Nakanishi told Reuters. "The domestic chip industry appears at the brink of death."

Battered by plunging demand, Hitachi today forecast a net loss of ¥700bn ($7.7bn) for the fiscal year to 31 March, a stark reversal from the ¥15bn profit it forecast in October.

Hitachi also cut its operating profit projection by 90% to ¥40bn.

The company blamed sharply falling sales in most of its main businesses, including electronic devices, power and industrial systems, and consumer products.

Thousands layed off in Singapore in fourth quarter: Govt

Jan 30, 2009
Source: AFP

Companies in Singapore laid off 7,000 workers in the last three months of 2008, as the economy slipped deeper into recession, the government said Friday.

More than half of the layoffs were in the key manufacturing sector, which has been hit by a sharp decline in demand for the city-state's exports, the Ministry of Manpower said in a statement citing preliminary estimates.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 2.6 percent in December, up from 2.2 percent in September and 1.7 percent in December 2007, it said.

The 7,000 workers laid off in the December quarter compared with 2,346 employees who lost their jobs in the preceding three months and 1,966 for the same period in 2007, the ministry said.

For the whole of 2008, there were 13,400 workers laid off, up from 7,675 the year before.

Employment also slowed significantly to 26,900 in the fourth quarter of last year, from 55,700 people who were hired in the preceding quarter and 62,500 in the same period in 2007.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam warned last week the country is facing its worst recession since independence 44 years ago and announced a record stimulus package of more than 13 billion US dollars.

Singapore in October became the first Asian economy to enter recession, falling victim to a global slowdown sparked by a crisis in the US housing market.

Finance crisis claims government, 85,000 jobs

January 27, 2009
Source: The Straits Times / AFP

NEW YORK (AFP) - - Companies forecast more than 85,000 job cuts in a single day as the rampant financial crisis hit workers in factories and offices across the globe and brought down a government on Monday.
In a sign of the deepening social impact of the US-born crisis, several companies announced an avalanche of cuts, piling pressure on US President Barack Obama as he pushes a stimulus plan for the world's biggest economy.

The financial catastrophe also claimed a scalp as Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde announced the resignation of his government after months of protests over economic policies that brought the country close to bankruptcy.

Obama warned the recession-hit United States could not afford delays in Congress over his 825-billion-dollar (630-billion-euro) stimulus plan.

He called for "swift and extraordinary" action, after earlier saying the downturn could get "dramatically worse."

In New York, construction equipment giant Caterpillar said it planned 20,000 job cuts worldwide to cope with plunging sales.

New York-based drug maker Pfizer announced it would acquire its rival Wyeth for 68 billion dollars, the largest pharmaceutical takeover deal in nearly a decade amid a dearth of corporate dealmaking due in part to a credit squeeze.

It said it would also cut its global workforce by around 10 percent -- meaning at least 8,000 posts cut in a company that currently employs almost 82,000 people in more than 150 countries.

General Motors announced plans Monday to cut 2,000 jobs at two US plants as it prepares to submit a long-term viability plan in exchange for billions in loans from the US government.

US telecom operator Sprint Nextel announced 8,000 cuts -- 14 percent of its staff -- and top US home improvement retailer Home Depot said it would cut 7,000.

Japan's top 12 automakers expect to cut a total of 25,000 jobs between now and the end of March, a survey by Jiji Press concluded on Monday.

Dutch banking and insurance group ING announced 7,000 job cuts and a deal for the Dutch state to guarantee billions of euros' worth of troubled assets.

Dutch electronics giant Philips said it would eliminate 6,000 jobs.

The announcements by the two Dutch companies came ahead of confirmation that Europe's second-biggest steelmaker, Indian-owned Corus, said it would cut more than 3,500 jobs around the world, most of them in Britain.

Workers arriving early Monday were gloomy about their prospects. "People feel gutted. I have already had to take a 10 percent pay cut," said 45-year-old Douglas Mayhill, a worker at a Corus plant in Port Talbot, southern Wales.

"I was told on Friday I have a choice -- either accept a 10 percent pay cut or take redundancy -- that is no choice."

The US Congress was meanwhile due to begin debate this week on Obama's stimulus bill, designed to haul the US economy out of a paralysing recession.

In his first presidential radio address at the weekend, Obama raised the spectre of double-digit unemployment and a massive erosion of family incomes if Congress did not act on the bill.

Obama was to meet later this week with Republican leaders hostile to the bill. The lower House of Representatives was expected to vote Wednesday on the stimulus, with the Senate to follow later.

European shares surged on Monday however with sharp gains in the banking sector on positive news from British group Barclays, whose share price surged more than 75 percent on unexpectedly strong profit expectations, analysts said.

London closed 3.86 percent higher, Paris added 3.73 percent and Frankfurt climbed 3.54 percent.

US stocks opened narrowly mixed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.25 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq edged up 0.08 percent.