Euro crisis flares again, with a vengeance

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/euro-crisis-flares-again-with-a-vengeance/article4570083/?cmpid=rss1

In the worst financial crisis humanity has ever faced since the Great Depression, it is evident now that 4 years is not enough time for European leaders to agree on a clear path to recovery, let alone recover its economy.

The article discusses how European countries such as Greece and Spain are facing extremely high unemployment rates (25% for Spain) and at the same time facing the brunt of government austerity measures, which aims to reduce the governments’ ballooning debt problem.

However, the problem lies in the very fundamental economics itself.

The reason why these countries are facing such high unemployment cannot be blamed solely on austerity because the public sector counts for a small portion of what the proivate sector employs. The reason why unemployment is so high is because of the lost of competitiveness of the European workforce.

By regaining competitiveness, countries can reduce unemployment, increase tax revenue and then tame the debt, reduce austerity which can be used for future oriented programs such as education to increase future competitiveness.

Governments must realize this fundamental error and work to remodel the economy in a way which emphasizes its strengths and reduce foreign dependencies.

Any specific plans to share about how this could be done?

Nokia apologizes for faked footage in Lumia 920 smartphone ad

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/09/06/tech-nokia-fake-ad.html

A few hours after the unveiling of a product which many praise as an impressive attempt to crawl its way back to consumers’ mindshare and global smartphone market share, controversy immediately emerged when it was revealed that the camera used in the advertisement was not the actual camera of the Nokia phone itself.

Deceptive advertising has been commonplace among businesses regardless of size. Apple, the world’s largest corporation based on market capitalization, has a long history of deceptive advertising, as shown in the video below:

Siri Commercial – “Rock God” – Is Apple’s Ad Accurate?

Despite this fact, Nokia’s deceptive advertising somehow caught on with consumers which caused a backlash. This lead Nokia to create disclaimers and at the same time invited journalists to test the performance of the actual camera of the Lumia phone, which turned out to be as impressive as advertised. Source

So this blog post will end with a (or three) question(s):

Is deceptive marketing acceptable as long as it’s done in a way thay consumers are okay with it (i.e. Apple’s way)? Or is it okay when the actual product performs similarly to what is advertised? Or is it ethically unacceptable at all?