November 23, 2011

“The personal savings rate rose to 3.5% last month, a slight tick up from 3.3% in September, according to data released Wednesday by the Commerce Department.”

This means that people are still spending much less than what they earn. IN October the personal income rose by o.4% and the spending rate only rose by 0.1%.

When there is an economic crisis people already feel that they have less money then what they have and they therefore spend less, just damaging the economy even more because there is less flow of money. The solution to every crisis is spending. The more money flows around, the more productive an economy can be and therefore improve. On the other hand if everyone saves, then there is a lot of money that is stuck and does not help productivity.

People need to realize that reasonably spending is the best solution.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/23/news/economy/savings_rate_income_spending/index.htm

November 22, 2011

For Black Friday shopping, two malls, “– Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va. — will track guests’ movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.” They say to not be looking at singular shoppers but rather crowds of consumers to see where people are going to and therefore strategize their selling techniques. They claim to not be looking at private settings but however I question how ethical this is. Consumers are able to turn their cellphones in order to not be a part of this strategy, but shouldn’t they be asked first? It sounds a little freaky that someone can know where you’re going to through your own personal phone. I believe it is questionable weather this is crossing the ethical lines of privacy or not.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/22/technology/malls_track_cell_phones_black_friday/index.htm?iid=SF_BN_River

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/21/news/international/saudi_arabia_solar/index.htm

November 21, 2011

Saudi Arabia poised to become solar powerhouse

It appears that Saudi Arabia will become the next solar power king nation.  They are not just the most powerful country when it comes to oil, but now when it comes to solar power too. This has to do with the fact that “The Saudis currently generate over 50% of their electricity by burning oil, which can consume up to an eighth of the country’s total oil output.” As a result to this, the electricity consumption is said to double within the next nine years.

This may seem off for the Saudis to be doing this as it will decrease their oil exports, but it is surprisingly a great business opportunity for them.

They realize the limitations of oil and that they will not last long and therefore are searching for alternative opportunities, in this case the extensive sunburning desserts they have. Saudis are becoming a very powerful country and an economic efficient too. Specially, at this times of economic crisis. They truly are rising up the bar.

Google is a relatively new and innovative company that two Stanford graduates have driven it to success. They have a specific organizational structure that has allowed their company to work to its maximum potential. They have a decentralized structure that allows flexibility within the employees and therefore easy and rapid approach to executives and managers.

I agree with Maricel Saenz in the sense that this is a very successful structure and is one of the reasons why Google has been so successful. This way of work keeps the employees happy and they are therefore happily working to their maximum potential< thus increasing productivity and profits.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/12/japan-opens-fukushima-plant-journalists

November 12, 2011

Japan’s Fukushima plant opened to journalists.

After the tsunami and earthquake in Japan, studies have been made about the conditions inside the Fukushima nuclear plant, and real damage has been detected. Just recently, reporters where let inside the plant since March, when the natural disaster happened. Martin Fackler, who works for NY Times said: “There’s debris all around where the reactors are – twisted metal, crumpled trucks, large water tanks that have been dented and bent. You can see that this stuff has been strewn around and it has not been picked up and it’s been there for eight months. So I think that more than anything is a testament to how difficult a time they’ve had in trying to get those reactors under control.”

It is very sad to see how a single situation can really affect a whole country and population. Things were so bad from the tsunami that they haven’t even had time or resources to control and deal with the nuclear power leak, thus making lethal harm around the area.