Of the 54 job-seekers hoping to understand why all the world is atwitter about social networking, Linda Holley fell somewhere in the middle.
Unlike the unfortunate Luddite souls who arrived at last week’s Social Media Workshop unable to connect a laptop to the Internet, Holley at least brought a passing knowledge of websites and e-mail to the seminar.
Still, Holley is of a certain age. It was an age when "linked in" described a backyard fence, "delicious" was an ice cream sundae and "twitter" was what their heart did the moment they first laid eyes on the person who would become their spouse.
Holley, an unemployed travel industry sales rep, has come to terms with her limitations.
"I am not," she said, "an early adapter."
To which Steve Drake retorts: better late than ever. Drake was swept up by the Twitter craze in November.
The founder of the Chesterfield management firm Drake & Co. figures if a guy "as old as I am" can become a Twitter aficionado, anyone can.
That’s why the workshop sponsor, Businesspersons Between Jobs, asked him to facilitate the daylong seminar to introduce the social-network challenged to Facebook, LinkedIn, delicious.com (a bookmarking tool) and the ubiquitous Twitter.
From the get-go, it was pretty obvious Holley was going to be a tough sell.
"I was LinkedIn," she said during a break at the New Horizons Computer Learning Center, the St. Louis County facility that hosted the workshop. "But I didn’t have the foggiest idea what to do with it. I’m a reasonably intelligent person, which is why this is so frustrating."
What’s even more bedeviling, Holley added in a telephone interview this week, is the way online social networks suddenly emerged as the bridge between joblessness and gainful employment.
"I still think networking the old-fashioned way is not a bad way of doing things," she mused pay day loans no credit check. Be that as it may, Holley knows she has little choice but to sign up, sign on and network, network, network.
She proceeded cautiously in the days following the workshop, building up to the point where, by Wednesday of this week, I received a private message from her via Twitter.
Not long after, an invitation to join Holley’s LinkedIn network landed in my inbox.
LinkedIn also suggests Holley and I have a mutual business "connection."
And though Holley has joined Facebook, she can’t envision herself wiling away hours searching for names out of the past.
Of that, we are of the same mind: If we really cared about the long-lost friendships that materialize out of the Facebook ether, then we never would have allowed those friendships to lapse in the first place.
More to the point, Holley fails to see how a network that is the face of social interaction will help her get a job. Ditto, Twitter.
"If I want to talk to you, I can’t do it in 140 (characters)," Holley says.
Drake disagrees.
He maintains the abbreviated Twitter messages that come to the attention of recruiters or potential employers initiate a larger conversation about a job-seeker’s qualifications.
"It’s not the 140 characters" that are important, he said, "it’s the (content of the link) you post with it."
Holley, unconvinced, has decided to cast her lot with LinkedIn.
"I’m not going to bother with Twitter, I’m going to bother with getting a job," she announced.
Drake is not surprised.
"For these people, I think LinkedIn is probably the best way to go," said the 65-year-old, pointedly referring to those of a certain age.
Court proceedings that could determine the fate of Chrysler LLC continued Thursday after a marathon session that saw the automaker square off with creditors and auto dealers opposing the automaker’s government-brokered restructuring plan.
Outgoing Chrysler Chief Executive Bob Nardelli was one on a long list of expected witnesses. The proceedings could continue through Friday.
The hearings, held in a U.S. bankruptcy court in New York, are being closely watched by the U.S. auto industry. A central issue for Chrysler is its planned corporate tieup with Italy’s Fiat. The case is also being watched closely by General Motors, which is expected to file bankruptcy within days.
Judge Arthur Gonzalez will decide whether Chrysler may pull its choice assets - its best-performing factories and dealerships - out of bankruptcy and sell them to a newly-formed company called Chrysler Group.
The new Chrysler Group would be controlled primarily by a United Auto Workers union trust, which will own the majority share of 55%. The Italian automaker Fiat will own 20%, at least initially, though it could eventually increase its share to 35%. Minority stakes would go to governments: 8% for the U.S. and 2% for Canada.
In Wednesday’s hearing, which lasted well into the evening, a former Chrysler executive described the company’s efforts to find a business partner.
Chrysler "went around the world" on its search but only Fiat was willing to strike a deal after last year’s economic tumble, said Tom LaSorda, who retired from his position as Chrysler’s president when the company filed for bankruptcy on April 30.
LaSorda said Chrysler started looking into a merger or global strategic partnerships in the fall of 2006.
According to LaSorda, Chrysler sought a deal with Volkswagen, Tata and several Chinese automakers, but they expressed little interest in a deal. The company was particularly interested in a foreign automaker that had a strong portfolio of small cars no fax cash advance.
When auto sales took a sharp dive last year, Chrysler intensified its search, hoping to get cash as part of a deal to shore up its dwindling capital reserves. But the recent market meltdown killed near-deals with foreign automakers Nissan and Kia.
"We couldn’t bring anyone to the altar to bring us five cents," LaSorda testified. "No one would bring us a nickel."
At the end of 2008, Chrysler was not only unable to find a white knight that would give it cash infusion, but Fiat was the lone car company that was even willing to negotiate, LaSorda said.
"I cannot force another auto company to sign a deal with me; Fiat was the only company that submitted a term sheet to us," he said. "We were very lucky to get a player like Fiat."
To keep the company afloat, Chrysler received $4 billion from the Treasury Department in December 2008 and $4 billion more this year. But after many of the company’s creditors rejected a debt-for-equity swap to help the company restructure, the Obama administration forced the automaker to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Chrysler is hoping to go in and out of bankruptcy in just one or two months.
Chrysler is seeking to pull its best-performing factories and dealerships out of bankruptcy and sell them to a newly-formed incarnation of itself, called Chrysler Group. The company would then join with Fiat, selling it an initial 20% stake that could go up to 35%.
Rival General Motors (GM, Fortune 500) also faces a looming bankruptcy filing after it said Thursday that it had reached a deal with bondholders on an amended plan to swap debt for equity.
Big U.S. banks will have to shoulder a larger portion of a one-time industry fee to replenish the fund used to resolve bank failures, according to a rule approved Friday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.
The FDIC will charge U.S. insured depository banks a 5 basis point assessment based on each institution’s assets, minus its Tier 1 capital. It would be collected in the third quarter.
The proposal modifies a prior decision to charge banks a special one-time fee of 20 basis points based on domestic deposits.
The agency also got the power to collect additional special assessments in the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first quarter of 2010 if the deposit insurance fund fell to a level that threatened public confidence.
Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan voted against the measure, calling the shift of the assessment burden "perverse" because the deposit insurance fund has been largely drained by the failure of smaller banks. (Florida bank collapses - firms swoop in)
FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said the revised assessment appropriately shifts the costs, and noted the revised fee will be lower than the original proposal for all banks free car insurance quotes.
"A lot of large banks haven’t failed because of massive government assistance," Bair said. "If it weren’t for those, some big banks would have failed and there would have been costs."
The FDIC also upwardly revised the expected loss for the insurance fund to $70 billion over the next five years. The prior estimate was $65 billion.
The special fee will collect about $5.6 billion for the FDIC, compared with an estimate of $15 billion for the original proposal.
The agency said it will likely have to charge additional special assessments later this year.
News Corp hopes to sell Google Inc access to a greater swathe of its media properties, its executives said, as an advertising deal between the two companies comes up for renewal.
Senior executives at News Corp and its MySpace online service said at the All Things Digital conference on Wednesday that the company was working with Google to try and make their existing advertising deal better for both parties.
“When it comes time to negotiate, one of the things that can be helpful is looking at it from the overall News Corp perspective,” News Corp Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller said.
The current deal allows Google to run its Internet search ads on MySpace’s widely trafficked social media Web site, but is set to expire in about a year and a half, said MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta, who appeared onstage alongside Miller bad credit payday loans.
According to recent media reports, Google is seeking to renegotiate the deal at a significant discount to the current terms, which popular IT blog Tech Crunch pegged at $300 million a year.
“That’s an important deal for us, but it certainly isn’t a majority of our revenue,” Van Natta said.
News Corps owns a wide range of media properties in television, print and on the Internet. MySpace is the world’s No. 2 social network, behind Facebook.
(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)
North American markets appear set for a higher open Wednesday as investors anticipate a small improvement in existing home sales in the United States.
Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters predict sales of existing homes rose to an annual rate of 4.66 million in April from 4.57 million in March.
If investors get that uptick, it would bolster the growing sentiment in the market that the U.S. economy is approaching recovery.
Investors got a significant boost on Tuesday with the release of consumer confidence figures that surpassed expectations.
The U.S. Conference Board said consumer confidence in May soared to 54.9 from a revised 40.8 in April. Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting 42.3.
May's consumer confidence index is now at levels not seen since September.
The news sent stock markets sharply higher on Tuesday, allowing them to overcome initial concerns about North Korea's nuclear testing activities.
Toronto's S&P/TSX composite index moved 216.4 points higher to 10,285.9.
Bank of Montreal shares were ahead $2.15 to $43.71 after it said higher amounts to cover credit losses helped cut profits by 44 per cent to $358 million during the second quarter despite higher net earnings in its personal banking and capital markets divisions payday cash loan.
New York's Dow Jones Industrial Index jumped 196.17 points to 8,473.49 on Tuesday, leaving it 29.4 per cent above the 12-year low it reached in March. The index, however, is still 40.2 per cent below the record it hit in October 2007.
Ahead of Wednesday's market open, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 29, or 0.3 per cent, to 8,490. Standard & Poor's 500 index futures rose 2.40, or 0.3 per cent, to 911.10. Nasdaq 100 index futures rose 1.75, or 0.1 per cent, to 1,412.50.
The Canadian dollar opened at 89.91 cents US, up 0.45 of a cent from Tuesday's close.
Light, sweet crude rose 58 cents to US$63.03 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei stock average rebounded 1.4 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index soared 5.3 per cent. In midday trading, Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.2 per cent, Germany's DAX index rose 0.6 per cent, and France's CAC-40 rose 0.7 per cent.
Boeing Co. leaders say that the U.S. military’s airlift needs are growing and that a Pentagon proposal to halt future orders for the C-17 Globemaster III cargo plane is premature.
Boeing, whose defense unit is headquartered in St. Louis, is trying to rally support for the C-17 on multiple fronts — arguing that ceasing production would erode the U.S. industrial base, costing thousands of jobs at Boeing plants and those of its main suppliers. But Boeing officials also emphasize the plane’s strategic value.
"Right now, since 9/11, the airplane has been flying at about a 15 percent higher rate than was anticipated," said Donald A. Anderson, Boeing’s C-17 program manager in St. Louis. "In addition, they’re talking about rebasing troops in the United States. They’re talking about an increase in the size of the Marines Corps and the Army.
"So it seems like the airlift requirements are growing. And you need airlifters to meet those needs."
Starting with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ announcement in early April and continuing through last week, the Pentagon has said it can get by with the 205 C-17s that are either in service or on order. The Air Force also uses the Lockheed Martin C-5 Galaxy to transport weapon systems, cargo and personnel to overseas locations.
Republican Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, both of Missouri, have written letters supporting more orders of the C-17, and Machinists Union officials have traveled to Washington to show their support for a program that supports 900 jobs in St. Louis.
"This is high political theater," said analyst Richard Aboulafia of The Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. "The bottom line is I don’t think the line is threatened. But it is up to everybody from Department of Defense to Congress to Boeing to the unions to make it look as though it were."
The Defense Department has not sought funding for the C-17 in the last three years. But Congress has stepped in to add funding for more of the $202 million planes through supplemental defense appropriations bills.
Bond and Boeing officials have asked why Gates would halt C-17 orders while there is a study under way into the military’s future air-mobility needs. The results are expected this fall.
"But yet we’re making that decision now to stop the airplane," Anderson said. "So it seems somewhat premature online cash advance."
Bond said shutting down production of the C-17 is a "dangerous gamble" and warned that the U.S. can’t afford to "lose the capability to transport safely our troops and equipment to anywhere in the world."
In a letter to President Barack Obama, McCaskill said the U.S. is "literally flying the wings off these planes," and added "this is not the time to end its production, especially in light of projected global mission sets for the U.S. military."
Both legislators also have gone to bat for Boeing’s St. Louis-built F/A-18 Super Hornet, whose future was placed in limbo under the latest Pentagon spending plan.
The C-17 is assembled at a plant in Long Beach, Calif. But the cargo door, cargo ramp, landing-gear pods, nose and engine pylons are built in St. Louis.
A November 2008 report by the Government Accountability Office recommended "careful planning to avoid shutting down the C-17 line prematurely." Both Boeing and the Air Force believe shutting down and restarting production "would not be feasible or cost effective," the report found.
The GAO cited the high costs of hiring and training a new work force, reinstalling equipment to proper working condition and re-establishing a supplier base.
Boeing has delivered the C-17 to other countries, including Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. The United Arab Emirates has announced its intent to buy four of the planes, and Qatar has ordered two and exercised an option on two additional C-17s.
But Anderson said international sales alone are not enough to sustain the C-17 line. Boeing officials say maintaining C-17 sales to the U.S. Air Force is necessary to keep the price of the planes competitive in the international market.
Defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va., said the C-17 is the best strategic airlifter ever built and "a very cogent case" can be made that terminating production at 205 planes would be too early. At the moment, he said, its future will be dictated by Congress.
"Here’s the bottom line to C-17," Thompson said. "If Congress doesn’t add money, there won’t be any more."
The Japanese government raised its assessment of the economy for the first time in three years on signs the worst of the recession may be over.
“While the economy is in a difficult situation,” the pace of deterioration has “become moderate,” the Cabinet Office said in its monthly report released in Tokyo today, the first upgrade since February 2006. The government last month said the economy is “worsening rapidly while in a severe situation.”
The Bank of Japan also raised its assessment last week and Governor Masaaki Shirakawa today predicted the economy will resume growing this quarter after shrinking at a record pace in the first three months of the year. The government said it was more optimistic about exports and industrial production after companies said they plan to increase output to replenish stockpiles.
“We don’t expect the economy to keep deteriorating at the pace already seen,” said Fumihira Nishizaki, director of macroeconomic analysis at the Cabinet Office. “The economy will be supported by some improvement in overseas demand, inventory adjustments and stimulus packages.”
The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has risen more than 30 percent since it fell to a 26-year low on March 10 freecreditreport. Sentiment among households and merchants improved for a fourth month in April.
The export slump probably eased and production rose for a second month in April, economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect reports to show this week.
Still, the government said it isn’t expecting a full- fledged recovery because unemployment is rising.
“The employment situation is severe and worsening rapidly,” the government said in today’s report, downgrading its assessment for labor conditions.
The jobless rate surged to 4.8 percent in April from 4.4 percent, the biggest gain since 1967, and economists expect a report this week to show that unemployment climbed to a five- year high in April.
“The downward pressure on the labor market will continue to be a downside risk,” Nishizaki said. “The economy is likely to remain in a severe state.”
BERLIN–Magna International emerged yesterday as a favourite to acquire General Motors Corp. unit Opel after top German officials said the Canadian car parts group had submitted a better plan than rival bidders Fiat and Belgian-listed private equity investor RHJ International.
At a briefing in Berlin, Magna co-chief executive Siegfried Wolf laid out its Opel plan for the first time, confirming it aims to team up with Russian partners but leave existing GM Europe managers to run the new group.
Crucially, Wolf vowed to retain all four Opel plants in Germany, where politicians face a federal election in September.
"Under our concept, the German sites are seen as assets and we want to keep as many jobs as possible," Wolf said. "There is a lot of know-how within the German Opel plants."
German economy minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg emerged from a meeting of top ministers at which the offers were evaluated and said none of the bidders had been ruled out, but that the Magna offer had strengths.
"It would be premature to write anyone off. But it is true that we have heard many concrete things from Magna," he said.
German foreign minister and vice-chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the Magna bid as the only "sustainable" plan among the three and said it would be examined closely.
Both ministers said a decision on a preferred bidder would come next week after another meeting of ministers Monday.
But state premiers from the four German states where Opel has plants had diverging views on the Magna plan. Most backed it but Juergen Ruettgers, of North Rhine-Westphalia, said it was unacceptable and needed changes.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne was cautious about the prospects for Fiat’s bid in brief remarks to reporters.
"It’s hard to say how it will end up," he said in Rome on his way to a dinner with bankers. "It’s a complicated business because this is an election year in Germany."
He was quoted in the Italian press a day earlier as saying Fiat’s chances were better than 50-50.
Opel unions also voiced opposition to the Canadian firm’s plan, under which about 10,000 jobs would be cut in Europe, including some 2,500 in Germany. All but a few hundred of those would come from the Bochum plant in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Outside of Germany, GM Europe has plants that employ a combined 15,000 in Spain, Poland, Belgium and Britain, where British Vauxhall-branded versions of Opel vehicles are produced. Sweden’s Saab, also part of GM’s assets in Europe, is being sold separately.
GM and the German government are in a race against time to finalize a sale of Opel cash advance loan no fax. Headquartered in Ruesselsheim, near Frankfurt, it traces its roots in Germany to the 19th century.
The U.S. government has given GM until June 1 to restructure its operations or face bankruptcy.
The decision on who gets Opel will be made by GM. But the German government will play a big role because it is expected to provide billions of euros in financing guarantees to the eventual winner.
Magna is competing for Opel against Belgium-listed industrial holding company RHJ International, as well as Fiat.
The bidding has been coloured by politically charged pre-election debate in Berlin.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, including Guttenberg, are keen to preserve Opel jobs but want to limit the state’s role in any rescue.
The rival Social Democrats, led by Steinmeier, say the government should do all it can to save Opel and have sought to portray Merkel as insensitive to the fate of its workers.
Marchionne has led a public relations campaign in recent weeks, racing around in a Maserati and his trademark wool sweaters to meetings with top government officials.
Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini late yesterday put Fiat’s chances at 50-50 and dismissed talk that Magna’s bid would be successful as "preliminary skirmishing."
Marchionne wants to create the world’s second-biggest automaker behind Japan’s Toyota by adding the assets of Opel and British GM unit Vauxhall to a stable that includes the brands of Fiat and U.S. car maker Chrysler, now restructuring under U.S. bankruptcy protection.
The company has said it foresees fewer than 10,000 job cuts in Europe, but Germany would be harder hit than under the Magna plan, several politicians said.
The Fiat plan is seen by some in Germany, including Opel unions, as overly ambitious and unwieldy.
Also, Fiat has told the German government it would need up to 7 billion euros in support from relevant governments for its scheme, about 2 billion more than Magna and RHJ say they would require.
Magna’s Wolf said that, under his company’s plan, GM and Russian partner Sberbank would each hold a 35 per cent stake in Opel, with Magna taking 20 per cent and employees 10 per cent.
Russian car maker GAZ would be an industrial partner and the goal would be for Opel-GM to gain a 20 per cent market share in Russia in the short term and eventually sell 1 million vehicles there.
Wolf suggested that job cuts would centre on Opel sites in Belgium and Britain. The Magna consortium would invest 500 million to 700 million euros in Opel, he said.
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers struck a deal with General Motors and the federal government Thursday to cut labor costs, close factories and change the way retiree health care is funded.
The agreement could ease one of GM’s biggest problems: The cost of its work force. But the automaker is still struggling with a crushing debt that may drive it into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
General Motors Corp., which has received $15.4 billion in federal loans, faces a government-imposed June 1 deadline to finish a major restructuring or be forced into bankruptcy protection.
The government has told the automaker to cut costs, close factories, shed dealers and brands, and persuade at least 90 percent of its bondholders to sign on for the stock-for-debt exchange. But thousands of bondholders are expected to shun the company’s offer to take 10 percent of its stock to wipe out $27 billion in unsecured debt.
Harlan Platt, a professor at Northeastern University in Boston who teaches corporate turnarounds, said the UAW deal could be the catalyst for more bondholders to accept GM’s offer.
GM shares rose more than 32 percent on Thursday — an increase that Platt says indicates that investors see value in the company. Platt believes the stock could climb to around $4 because GM will be able to restructure out of court, emerging with far less debt, lower costs, fewer brands and factories, and a rejuvenated vehicle lineup health insurance.
GM has offered bondholders 225 shares for every $1,000 of debt.
"If you’re getting 225 per $1,000 and the stock goes to $4, which I think it will, you’re getting all your money back," he said. "This is going to be significantly more than they will get in a bankruptcy."
But Douglas Baird, a University of Chicago law professor who specializes in bankruptcy cases, said the bondholder obstacle is nearly insurmountable.
"There’s a collective action problem," he said. "There are a lot of these bondholders. Even if there are a lot of them on board, that’s not the same as 90 percent on board."
Still, the UAW deal could help shorten the length of time GM stays in bankruptcy protection, Baird said, making it easier for the court to concentrate on remaining matters such as the bond debt.
The UAW was withholding details about the deal until plant-level union officials were briefed. The union summoned local officials to Detroit on Tuesday for the explanation, and local union leaders expected voting to end late next week.
Several emerging market currencies in Asia hit 2009 highs on Friday, but the rally on the back of surging stocks may soon hit a roadblock made up by doubts about the stamina of any global economic recovery.
Foreign investors have flocked to put money into regional equities and bonds, encouraged by signs the global downturn may be bottoming out following the most severe crisis in decades.
But caution is the watch-word as markets try to determine if the rebound seen so far reflects sustainable demand or a rush of orders to replenish stocks depleted during the downturn.
The outcome is critical for Asia because it relies heavily on trade earnings, which can drive up currencies over the longer-term.
“Economic expectations are stabilizing, although we may still have many more months of volatility,” said Callum Henderson, chief global currency strategist at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore.
On Friday, the Indonesian rupiah hit its highest level since October. Thai baht, India rupee and Taiwan dollar are trading at 2009 highs and the Singapore dollar and the Malaysian ringgit are their strongest since January. But analysts suspect the rally will fade.
“While the region’s balance of payments have begun to right themselves, they are not yet strong enough to generate a sustainable rally for the Asia ex-Japan currency bloc,” said Stewart Newnham, a strategist at Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, said in a client note.
The currencies tracked the rise in regional stocks, making them vulnerable if fickle investors start to doubt the strength of the global recovery and sell off equities again 24 hour payday advances.
RUPIAH, WON, PESO
After dumping a net $14 billion in stocks across South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, India and Thailand, and the Philippines in the last three months of 2008, investors have bought back $16.8 billion since early March, Nomura figures show.
The helped the MSCI index of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan rally as much as 50 percent.
A positive daily correlation with the index over the past year of between 0.88 and 0.95 percent suggest the Korea won, rupiah and to a lesser extent the Philippines peso are the most exposed currencies in emerging Asia to a stocks sell off.
Newnham picked out both the Singapore dollar and rupiah as having limited scope to advance since they are now trading well above their 1990-2008 averages, suggesting their values are stretched.
The Singapore dollar is the most dependent economy in Asia on exports, which generate the equivalent of 190 percent of its GDP, so it’s outlook relies on the direction of global trade.
The rupiah has long been one of Asia’s most volatile currencies. High interest rates attract a wave of investment when risk appetite grows, but equally the currency is hit hard when risk concerns rise.
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