Global payments and travel company American Express on Thursday (Oct. 30, 2008) said it will cut 7,000 jobs, which is about 10% of its workforce worldwide. This move is expected to result in cost savings to the tune of $1.8 billion in 2009.
American Express is the latest entity to join a flurry of US companies including financial services giant Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and beverages major Pepsico which have already elimination of jobs.
With that AmEx would be suspending management level salary hikes for next year apart from freezing the hiring for open positions. The plans aimed at cost savings of 1.8 billion dollars includes “reducing staffing levels and compensation expenses, cutting operating costs and scaling back investment spending,” American Express said in a statement.
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Airticket is will be more expensive from Saturday (1Nov. 2008) for those who buy tickets through travel agents. All airlines have decided to stop paying commission on ticket sales. So, travel agencies have decided to charge a transaction fee of Rs 350 to Rs 500 on domestic tickets sold by them.
For the international tickets, the fee will be higher. Agents will be charging Rs 2,500 per ticket for economy class and Rs 5,000 for business and Rs 10,000 for each first class ticket to all parts of the world except southeast Asia and the Gulf.
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The US economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3% in the third quarter. This fall is sharpest contraction in seven years and a clearly indicates that the world’s largest economy is in recession.
The commerce department said the third-quarter contraction in gross domestic product was the steepest since the corresponding quarter in 2001 though it was slightly less than the 0.5% reduction Wall Street economists had forecast. The third-quarter contraction was a striking turnaround from the previous quarter’s 2.8% rate of growth.
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Whirlpool Corp. said on Tuesday (Oct. 28, 2008)that it would cut about 5,000 jobs by the end of 2009 because of the global finance/credit crisis.
The whirlpool Corp. also reported that its earnings fell 7 percent during the third quarter on lower global unit volumes and higher material costs.Shares of Whirlpool has also dropped by 9.9%, or $4.96, to $45.05 in early trading.
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Prime Minister of India,Manmohan Singh on Friday suggested few steps that India wants to be taken to lift the current global economy crisis. Manmohan singh addressing leaders of 45 Asian and European countries at the ASEM summit in Beijing, said the first step would be to “de-clog” the global credit markets which had choked up as a result of the crisis.
Second step should be, multilateral financial institutions (MFI) like World Bank and IMF should step in with larger resources to invest in large infrastructure projects in developing countries, which can act as a stabilizer in the global economy.
Singh mentioned that The primary need should be coordinated action to restore confidence in the credit market.
India will make two important recommendations at the G-20 summit, both of which would be derived from the ASEM summit discussions. First, that there should be a “global monitoring authority” to help along “supervision and cooperation” in the global financial system. This is because the global economy is so integrated that its impossible for anybody to function in isolation. Second, that credit rating agencies - which gave investment grade ratings to toxic assets - should come under some kind of supervisory mechanism.
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Finding an online car loan is much easier these days as the online car finance is growing at a very rapid rate. Online car finance is much faster and hassle free than those conventional ones where people need to visit the market and look for all sort of available financers. Visiting a financer also doesn’t gives you a good chance of finding car loans. In online system, it’s just a matter of a few clicks and yes, you are done with it. You simply need to choose the site that offers car finance online, just check out all the available rates. If you feel interested in the rates, you can get a quote. Some websites directly offer you to fill the online application straight away. The company you applied for gets back quickly offering you car finance in agreeable cases and you can start off getting car finance. Only the basic details are required in form filling. When asked, one might have to contact their nearest branch for document submission, maybe, an address proof or something. The amount of interest vary from one site to another. Read the rest of this entry »
The Indian currency, rupee on Friday cross its crucial 50-level against US$.
At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the Indian currency was struggling between 49.93 and 50.05 in the initial thirty minutes of trading.
The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex also fall down by 277 points at 9,494.38 in early trade on Friday.
On Wednesday, the Indian government eased norms on overseas borrowing for Indian companies to boost inflows and help corporates raise funds for projects. But all these measures failed to cap the rupee movement.
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India is also affected by the global financial melt down, but some strong fundamentals and a pro-active monetary policy management will possibly allow India to ride this global financial crisis, a World Bank study says.
Some steps like prudent foreign debt management, high savings rate, solid financial sector health, and a pro-active monetary policy management that will likely allow India to ride the crisis without destabilising the financial sector.
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Microsoft on Tuesday announced a global initiative under the banner of ‘Global Anti-Piracy Awareness Day’ that will include educating consumers as well as enforcing legal action.The programme is launched in 49 countries, aims to end the trand of pirated softwares.
The anti-piracy initiative includes intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partner businesses, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates.
This initiative was rolled out in 49 countries. But after this also Microsoft’s director of intellectual property in Australia told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper that the Redmond-based software giant would not be able to solve the problem fully ever.
“Are we able to solve absolutely every problem? No… there are some people who will always not want to pay for something and there are always people who will want to exploit,” she said in an interview to the Australian newspaper.
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The global financial crisis could cost some 20 million jobs worldwide, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned Monday. ILO Director-General Juan Somavia issued the warning in Geneva, coupled with the advice that “we need prompt and coordinated government actions to avert a social crisis that could be severe, long-lasting and global”.
By current calculations, worldwide unemployment could rise from 190 million last year to a level of 210 million by the end of 2009. With that number of people having to exist on less than $1 a day could rise by 40 million, he warned, “and those at $2 a day by more than 100 million”.
Almost all sector including construction, automotive, tourism, finance, services and real estate would be among the sectors to be hit hardest by the current crisis.
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