French consumers cut spending on everything from restaurants to gambling last year as inflation and an economic slump took their toll.
Shoppers, the main contributors to the euro-region’s second-largest economy, increased spending at the slowest pace in 11 years, a report by statistics office Insee in Paris showed. They trimmed expenditure at cafes and scaled back visits to beauty salons, Insee said.
France’s economy slipped into recession in the third quarter and unemployment is the highest since 2006. While the government expects welfare payments and state aid to buoy spending, households are likely to keep to grip on consumption.
“Spending is going to suffer,” Insee’s chief forecaster Eric Dubois said in a phone interview yesterday. While he still expects consumption to increase this year, “superfluous” spending and “expenses that are the easiest to postpone” may be the first to disappear, he said.
The French government expects the economy to contract 3 percent this year before expanding 0 low fee payday advance.5 percent in 2010. It expects consumer spending to increase 0.3 percent in 2009 and 0.7 percent next. Consumers added 0.5 percent to growth in 2008, when the economy expanded 0.4 percent, Insee said.
Spending on restaurants and cafes dropped 2 percent last year, partly because of a smoking ban that started Jan. 1, Insee said. Spending at hair and beauty salons slipped 1.3 percent, according to the report.
Gambling fell 5 percent, the first drop since 1986. Lottery games were particularly hurt by the falling number of customers at cafés, where gambling is often available, Insee said.
Households’ tapped into their savings last year, helping limit the slowdown in spending. Households may instead start building up their savings this year as unemployment rises, Dubois said.
Investors shouldn’t mistake an economy that’s sliding less rapidly downhill for one that’s poised to start climbing, say Bank of America Corp.’s David Rosenberg and Deutsche Bank AG’s Joseph LaVorgna.
Improvements in consumer spending and home sales have been taken by some investors as signs that the recession, now in its 17th month, may be near a turning point. Partly as a result, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed as much as 22 percent from the recession low it set on March 9.
The data, however, are at best a signal that the worst of the contraction is over, said Rosenberg, chief North American economist at Banc of America Securities-Merrill Lynch in New York.
“Investors seem to have confused an actual recovery with the fact that the economy isn’t detonating anymore,” Rosenberg said in an interview yesterday. “Markets right now are dangerously extrapolating an improvement in the rate of change to an improvement in the actual level of economic activity. These are two very different events.”
The Dow Jones industrials lost 186.29 points, or 2.3 percent, to close at 7789.56 in yesterday’s trading. The index still stands 19 percent above its March 9 level.
The economy shrank at a 6.3 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter, the worst performance since 1982. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg estimate that the rate of contraction slowed in the first three months of this year to 5.2 percent. The Commerce Department will report its initial estimate of first-quarter growth on April 29.
Rate of Decline
“In most cases, what we’re seeing is the rate of decline in activity is diminishing, not that the level of economic activity is rising,” David Hensley, director of global economic coordination at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in New York, said in an interview yesterday.
He points to business surveys such as the Institute for Supply Management’s factory index as evidence of a slowing rate of decline. The ISM index has climbed for three months in a row, while still remaining below 50, the dividing line between contraction and expansion.
“There is a pronounced improvement in key aspects of the surveys, but they remain at levels consistent with steep contraction,” said Hensley.
Similarly, an index of consumer confidence, as measured by the Conference Board, increased to 26 in March from a record low of 25.3 set in February.
‘Not Here Yet’
Even when the economy does hit bottom, it may take a while before robust growth resumes, LaVorgna, chief U.S. economist at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, said in an April 6 interview. “A bottoming out is no longer consistent with an imminent recovery, as it has been in the past. Investors are making the assumption history will repeat itself, yet recovery is not here yet.”
That hasn’t kept investors from viewing better-than- forecast economic indicators as an opportunity to buy. A March 12 Commerce Department report that retail sales decreased 0.1 in February, less than the 0.5 percent drop economists had forecast. The data helped spark a 4.1 percent rally in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index that day faxless payday loan.
“It’s good to see anything in the economic front that beat expectations,” David Heupel, who helps manage $60 billion at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in Minneapolis, said that day. “Any news that is not bad right now is good for the market.”
Not every investor buys that view.
‘Very Low Levels’
While the market’s rally shows a sense of some economic stabilization, “we’re talking about stabilization admittedly at very low levels,” Leo Grohowski, chief investment officer at Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management, which oversees $140 billion, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television yesterday. “Investors should continue to position their portfolios for a prolonged period of subdued economic growth.”
The Dow added 178 points, or 2.5 percent, on March 17 after a government report that housing starts unexpectedly jumped 22 percent in February from the previous month, snapping the longest streak of declines in 18 years.
“There’s a feeling that maybe the economy has hit the bottom,” Chip Hodge, a managing director at MFC Global Investment Management in Boston, who oversees a $9 billion natural-resource-company bond portfolio, said that day. “For the first time in a while we aren’t looking at mostly negative headlines.”
Even so, economists warn that the negative will continue to dominate the news for months.
Warsh’s View
“Though the pace of decline is likely to abate, I am decidedly uncomfortable forecasting a sharp and determined resumption of growth in the coming quarters,” said Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh in an April 6 speech in Washington.
Rosenberg agrees. “I really don’t believe the contours of this recession will achieve clarity until we’re in the opening months of 2010 at the earliest,” said Rosenberg. That leads him to predict a stock market bottom sometime in the fall.
Since 1949, the average time between the stock market cycle low, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, and the end of a recession is 5.3 months, according to Westport, Connecticut- based Birinyi Associates Inc. In 2001 the economy turned up just 2.3 months after the stock market did.
Between the crash of October 1929 and the market’s bottom in July 1932 there were five rallies of 20 percent or more, with one of them a 48 percent jump.
“There were peaks where that market got started again only to get knocked back down,” said Charles Geisst, a professor of finance and economics at Manhattan College in New York and author of “Wall Street: A History.” He said this stock market reminds him of the early years of the Great Depression.
“There’s a false optimism out there,” Geisst said in an interview yesterday. “It’s a sign that we don’t understand much about what’s happening in the economy.”
The Bank of England’s $70 billion plan to spur lending by purchasing corporate bonds is aiming at the wrong targets because it won’t help borrowers that are shut out of debt markets, according to analysts.
“Buying investment-grade, non-financial corporate debt in the secondary market helps out investment funds and bank trading desks, but not the companies that actually need liquidity,” said Simon Surtees, who helps manage more than 18 billion pounds ($25 billion) at Gartmore Investment Ltd. in London. “I can’t honestly see what the Bank of England is trying to achieve.”
Governor Mervyn King said in February he’ll buy up to 50 billion pounds of debt “as soon as possible,” after cutting interest rates to a record failed to open debt capital markets to the companies that need cash most. The last borrower with non-investment grade ratings to sell bonds in pounds was Dutch electric-generation company Intergen NV in July 2007, when credit markets froze for all but the safest borrowers.
The bond-buying program comes after the central bank started to purchase commercial paper last month, and is the next stage toward so-called quantitative easing, where governments increase money supply to reduce its cost and stoke the economy. Policy makers are trying to ease access to funding after banks worldwide lost or wrote down $1.2 trillion since the start of the credit crisis.
A Bank of England spokesman, who declined to be identified citing policy, wouldn’t comment on the debt-buying plan. A spokesman for the U.K. Treasury referred inquiries about the bond purchases to the bank.
Dysfunctional Markets
Most investment-grade companies, those rated above Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Services and BBB- by Standard & Poor’s, can still sell bonds directly to investors. The central bank’s plan may be more effective targeting markets that aren’t functioning, such as bank debt or mortgage-backed bonds, according to Tim Barker, head of credit research at Aviva Investors in London.
Investment-grade companies including Tesco Plc, the U.K.’s biggest supermarket operator, and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, the maker of West and JPS cigarettes, have sold 27.9 billion pounds of bonds in Britain’s currency this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s almost three times the amount issued in the same period of 2008.
“If the Bank of England buys the exact same debt that everyone else is fighting frenetically to get their hands on, liquidity won’t return to the market as investors may not choose to invest in cheaper yet riskier assets,” said Lucette Yvernault, a portfolio manager at Schroder Investment Management Ltd car loans. in London.
Record-High Yield
Investors demand a record-high 25.4 percentage points over similar-maturity government bonds to hold speculative-grade U.K. borrowers’ debt, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.’s Sterling High-Yield Index. The benchmark includes 56 bonds issued by companies including British Airways Plc and drinks maker Allied Domecq Plc. That compares with the 6.15 percentage-point spread on investment-grade bonds, Merrill data show.
Buying just high-grade bonds “could exacerbate the current situation, where good companies that have non-cyclical earnings get even more highly bid, and those that don’t are still excluded” from debt markets, said Aviva’s Barker.
The central bank announced in a statement on Feb. 6 that it plans to buy corporate debt to “reduce liquidity premia on high-quality corporate bonds” and “remove obstacles” to companies seeking cash. The bank hasn’t published details of all the assets it plans to buy.
Interest-Rate Cuts
Policy makers have reduced the U.K.’s main interest rate from 5.75 percent to an all-time low of 1 percent since the end of 2007, and will cut it to 0.5 percent on March 5, according to the median forecast of 60 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Britain’s economy shrank 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the biggest contraction since 1980, as consumer spending declined.
Credit-default swaps on U.K. government debt cost 153.5 basis points, according to CMA Datavision prices at 9:15 a.m. in London. That means it costs $153,500 a year to hedge against losses on $10 million of U.K. bonds for five years. The contracts, used to speculate on a borrower’s ability to repay debt, have risen 10-fold in the past year.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling suggested in an interview in the Daily Telegraph yesterday that the central bank could start quantitative easing, or printing money to buy bonds, as soon as this week.
“If the BOE’s plan doesn’t work, the funk we’re in will last considerably longer,” said Richard McGuire, senior fixed- income strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in London. “What’s at stake here is whether recession turns into depression.”
GM also plans to reduce production by adding weeks of shutdown at some plants.
The Wentzville location, where workers make the GMC Savana and Chevrolet Express full-size vans, will be down the week of March 2, said Bob Wheeler, the plant’s communications manager, on Monday. That’s in addition to the weeks — starting Jan. 5, Jan. 12, Feb. 16 and Feb. 23 — already announced.
GM has been making deep cuts to its global production during the first quarter of 2009 to align its inventory with weakened demand payday loan.
Canada’s currency may extend its biggest annual decline on record, as tumbling crude prices hobble foreign investment in the country’s oil patch, according to the world’s biggest strategists and economists.
The Canadian dollar fell 18 percent this year as a global recession cut demand for commodities, which generate half the country’s exports. Canada’s current-account surplus, the broadest measure of trade, will turn into deficit in 2009, said Toronto- based Scotia Capital Inc., a unit of Canada’s third-biggest bank.
“A scaling back of foreign direct investment is a negative for the Canadian dollar,” said Eric Lascelles, chief economics strategist in Toronto at TD Securities Inc., a unit of Canada’s second-largest bank. “If there is less investment in oil sands, there will be less production and less exporting down the road,” he said, referring to the world’s biggest energy pool outside Saudi Arabia.
Canada’s dollar, dubbed the “loonie” for the aquatic bird on the one-dollar coin, may weaken to C$1.28 by the end of the first quarter from C$1.2221 yesterday, according to the median estimate of 42 analysts and economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It may end 2009 at C$1.24, the poll’s results show. One Canadian dollar buys 82.24 U.S. cents.
Deutsche Bank AG of Frankfurt, the world’s biggest currency trader, forecasts the Canadian dollar will weaken to C$1.30 by the end of 2009, while Zurich-based UBS AG, the second-biggest trader, sees it depreciating to C$1.33.
Bad ‘Signal’
“Foreign companies will be very unlikely to start new projects unless the price of oil rebounds,” said Dustin Reid, director of currency strategy at RBS Global Banking & Markets in Chicago. “It clearly is not a good signal for the Canadian dollar from a longer-term perspective.”
Royal Dutch Shell Plc, based in The Hague, and StatoilHydro ASA, Norway’s biggest oil producer, are among companies that deferred or canceled at least 14 projects this year in Alberta’s oil sands. Oil collapsed more than $100 since July to a low of $32.40 a barrel, less than half the price needed to make oil- sands projects economically viable, according to estimates by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.
A $1 drop in oil prices lowers the Canadian dollar by 0.3 cent against the U.S. dollar, according to analysis this month by TD Securities. Crude is the largest component of the Bank of Canada’s Commodity Price Index, accounting for 21 percent. The Paris-based International Energy Agency, an adviser to 28 nations, said this month that global oil demand contracted in 2008 for the first time since 1983 and cut its outlook for 2009.
Reaching Parity
This year’s decline came after Canada’s currency reached parity with its U.S. counterpart in September 2007 following a 60 percent climb in the prior five years that was fueled by rising commodity prices. Foreign investment in Canada’s energy industry jumped by almost half in that period to C$86.7 billion ($71.4 billion), according to Statistics Canada in Ottawa.
Much of that money was pegged to western Canadian oil sands, the site of 175 billion barrels of proven reserves, according to the province’s Energy Resources Conservation Board online cash advances. Oil-sands projects will be profitable if crude is priced at $95 to $100 a barrel in coming decades, said Ryan Todd, a Deutsche Bank analyst in New York.
“Much of the activity in the oil patch was investment, not production,” said David Watt, a senior currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. “That production is set to start in coming years but recent decisions on mothballing put some risk into that conclusion.”
RBC expects Canada’s dollar to weaken to $C1.31 by mid-2009 before ending the year at C$1.25.
‘Support Level’
Efforts by governments, including an economic stimulus plan being put together by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, to stem a worldwide recession may bolster the currency, according to Jack Spitz, managing director of foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. He said Canada’s dollar may break through its “support level” of C$1.1980 and rally to C$1.15.
“I’m becoming more bullish on the Canadian dollar as long as equity markets and energy markets stabilize,” Spitz said. There may be “added momentum should Obama underscore recent comments with respect to less reliance on Middle-East oil.”
Strategists at CIBC World Markets, part of Canada’s fifth- largest bank, predicted last week the loonie will strengthen to C$1.18 by mid-year before finishing 2009 at C$1.09.
Political turmoil and falling interest rates may hinder any recovery in the currency.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minority government may fall next month if an opposition coalition votes against his budget, due to be presented in parliament on Jan. 27.
Falling Rates
The Bank of Canada on Dec. 9 reduced the target rate for overnight loans between commercial banks by 0.75 percentage point to 1.5 percent, the lowest since 1958. The central bank will cut the benchmark to 1 percent next quarter, according to the median estimate of 11 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Another drawback for the currency is that the country’s bonds are losing their allure. Two-year Canada bonds yield about 34 basis points, or 0.34 percentage point, more than Treasuries, down from almost 100 basis points as recently as October.
Canada’s current-account surplus, which includes investment in the nation’s securities, is already dwindling, shrinking by almost a third between July and September as profits that companies earned abroad fell and exports slowed.
Receipts from outside Canada exceeded payments sent abroad by C$5.64 billion last quarter, down from C$8.21 billion in the previous three-month period, Statistics Canada said Nov. 28.
In 1997 and 1998, the last time the current account was in deficit, the Canadian dollar weakened to C$1.5382 from C$1.3705.
“A deficit can only mean bad things for the currency,” said Carlos Leitao at Montreal-based Laurentian Bank Securities, who was ranked second among the world’s most accurate economists in a survey by Bloomberg News last month. “If oil remains in this range of $40 or even less, the Canadian dollar won’t be going up.”
The economy continues to recede, leaving massive job losses in its wake. But while layoffs are widespread, they are not across the board. Some industries are thriving — and hiring.
On Friday the Labor Department reported that 533,000 jobs were lost in November, which puts the year-to-date layoff total at a whopping 1.9 million. And with the unemployment rate now at 6.7%, job seekers face the worst job market in 15 years.
But it’s not all doom and gloom: A range of industries are posting gains in employment figures. Here’s a look at them:
Education. With more people out of work and considering new careers, interest in degree programs, certifications and additional training has never been greater.
"Obviously some people will be out of work and see that as a chance to get additional education," said Dean Baker, director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, DC, which will provide support - and jobs - to those in the field.
The education industry already added 9,800 jobs in November, the Labor Department said in its monthly report issued last week, and "there’s still a wide range of opportunities available," according to Janette Marx, senior vice president of Ajilon Global, professional staffing firm. "It runs the gamut in the education field" beyond teachers and professors, she added.
In addition to greater demand for educators, also lending support to the sector is government financing, according to Baker. "Education will be an area that governments will try to protect because there’s a lot of political support," he said.
Health services. With an aging population and greater demand for care, health services is also adding jobs in a down market.
"The healthcare industry continues to be the healthiest sector in the U.S. job market," said Diana Fitting, vice president for staffing company Adecco. "The Baby Boomer generation is aging and it’s helping to keep healthcare growing."
Even in the midst of the economic fallout, healthcare employment grew by 34,000 jobs in November. Over the past 12 months, healthcare has added 369,000 jobs, according to the Labor Department said fast pay day loans.
"Throughout 2008 the industry has continued to add thousands of new jobs each month despite the broader labor market turmoil — and this is one trend we don’t see ending any time soon," Fitting said.
At the Columbia University School of Nursing’s Entry to Practice Program, applications are up 50% from last year. Mary Mundinger, dean of the school, credits the sharp uptick to the promise of relatively lucrative job opportunities and flexible schedules in an otherwise dour job market.
Options also abound at pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms and medical-equipment companies, said John Challenger, chief executive of global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
In fact, healthcare products and pharmaceuticals were two of only nine industries that announced hiring plans in November, according to Challenger’s latest job cut report.
Accounting. It’s no surprise that accounting is gaining momentum as well. "This is our busiest time in terms of recruiting because we’re gearing up for tax season," said Saran Johnson, human resources manager at Marcum & Kliegman, a New York-based accounting and consulting firm.
Johnson said overall "hiring has remained steady, while other business are cutting back or letting go," making accounting even more attractive to job seekers.
Especially in a recession, "accounting is a great field," Challenger said. "Companies are trying to cut costs and not over spend, that puts more importance on good financial controls which requires accountants."
In addition, with financial firms under intense scrutiny and regulation in high demand, there will likely be an increase in auditing firms going forward, added Lee Pinkonitz, associate professor at Georgetown University McDonough School of Business.
"There is always a need for mission-critical roles like accounting," added Kimberly Bishop, vice chairman of Chicago-based executive search firm Slayton Search Partners.
NEW YORK — A measure of U.S. manufacturing activity contracted more than expected last month, hitting the lowest level since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as new orders slowed dramatically.
The Institute for Supply Management on Wednesday released a September reading of 43.5, the lowest level since October 2001. The reading dropped from 49.9 in August, the largest one-month decline since January 1984, when it fell to 60.5 from 69.9.
A reading below 50 signals contraction.
"The headline ISM has plunged into recession territory," said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics.
Wall Street economists had predicted a much stronger reading of 49.5, according to the consensus estimate of those surveyed by Thomson/IFR. The index has been hovering on what economists call "the boom-bust" line for most of the year.
The survey of purchasing managers found new orders fell to 38.8 in September from a reading of 48.3 in August payday loans. Employment, deliveries, inventories and manufacturers’ order backlogs also fell.
Industries reporting contraction included apparel, furniture, machinery, transportation equipment and electrical appliances.
High prices for commodities, along with tight credit conditions, have begun to squeeze companies. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., the nation’s largest chicken producer, said last week it expected a "significant" fiscal fourth-quarter loss.
Separately, the Commerce Department on Wednesday said construction activity was flat in August, better than the 0.5 percent fall economists expected. The big surprise was a 0.3 percent rise in residential activity, the first increase in housing since March 2007.
Still, the government revised July activity to show a much bigger drop of 1.4 percent, compared to the 0.6 percent decline initially reported.
Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have received Federal Reserve approval to become bank holding companies.
The last two giant investment banks on Wall Street concluded that they would have more flexibility and opportunity if they submitted to supervision by the Federal Reserve. They will be able to offer Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. deposit insurance and have access to the Federal Reserve Bank Discount Window and expanded opportunities for funding. That may allow them to avoid the fate of their former rivals Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch.
Goldman, Sachs & Co. has an office location in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex near downtown Dallas on Crescent Court, while Morgan Stanley has at least three associated offices in the area.
“While accelerated by market sentiment, our decision to be regulated by the Federal Reserve is based on the recognition that such regulation provides its members with full prudential supervision and access to permanent liquidity and funding,” says Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs, in the firm’s statement announcing the change paydayloans.
John Mack, chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, said in its announcement: “This new bank holding structure will ensure that Morgan Stanley is in the strongest possible position — with the stability and flexibility to seize opportunities in the rapidly changing financial marketplace.”
Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) plans to boost the assets of its Goldman Sachs Bank USA from $20 billion to $150 billion and further grow deposits through acquisitions.
Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will convert its Morgan Stanley Bank, an industrial bank based in Utah, to a national bank.
Thai Finance Minister Surapong Suebwonglee, a contender to become the nation's next prime minister, said economic growth may be derailed this year and next as political turmoil paralyses government spending.
“If we cannot solve the political conflict in the very short term, GDP may be below 5 percent'' this year, Surapong, 51, said in an interview in Bangkok today. “We still hope that we can achieve 5.5 percent.''
Thailand has been without a prime minister since Samak Sundaravej was forced to resign by a Sept. 9 court ruling that he violated the constitution. The central bank has said political instability has overtaken inflation as the biggest threat to Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, which slowed for the first time in two years in the second quarter.
“Most of the political observers think the new government may not last longer than a couple months,'' Surapong said. “Political turmoil is a very crucial factor for the economy.''
The government's economic advisory agency on Aug. 25 said expansion may be as much as 5.7 percent this year. That compares with Merrill Lynch & Co.'s 5.1 percent estimate. Gross domestic product expanded 4.8 percent last year.
`Cloudy' Outlook
“For Thailand, there is more downside risk than upside,'' said Song Seng-Wun, an economist at CIMB-GK Securities Pte in Singapore. “Even a nomination of a prime minister this week may not resolve anything. This kind of risk continues to weigh down on sentiment. Next year may be even more cloudy.''
Surapong, a medical doctor, is secretary-general of the People Power Party, which controls 315 of 480 lower-house parliamentary seats in a six-party coalition. The former spokesman for Thaksin Shinawatra, the premier ousted in a 2006 coup, will be a contender in a party vote today to decide on the next prime minister.
The government had been counting on domestic consumption to buoy the economy this year amid an expected slowdown in exports, which account for 70 percent of GDP. Shipments were buoyed by rubber and rice in the second quarter amid record commodity prices, which have since fallen.
The Bank of Thailand forecasts the nation's economy will grow between 4.3 percent and 5.8 percent next year. Merrill Lynch estimates a 4.7 percent pace.
Slowing Exports
Export growth may slow to 16.5 percent this year from 17.3 percent last year, according to the government's economic adviser. Deepening global financial market turmoil may cool demand from the nation's key markets — the U.S., Europe and Japan, according to a Sept. 11 Merrill Lynch report.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. last month estimated that half of the world economy already faces recession, with richer nations faring the worst as emerging markets continue to expand americashadvance. The global economy faces a 25 percent chance of recession in the next year, according to UBS AG economists.
A state of emergency imposed in Bangkok on Sept. 2 after deadly clashes between pro- and anti-government demonstrators was lifted yesterday. More than 10,000 mostly middle-class Bangkok protesters who have occupied Government House since Aug. 26 say they will stay put. Parliament is due to vote on a new prime minister on Sept. 17 after lawmakers boycotted a Sept. 12 session.
Other People Power Party candidates include acting Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat, 61, a former judge and Thaksin's brother-in-law, and Justice Minister Sompong Amornvivat.
`Uncertainty'
“I don't think an appointment of any three of them will be seen as a huge improvement,'' said Han Sia Yeo, a currency strategist at Bank of America Corp. in Singapore, adding investors may not get a full picture of economic policies for “a few months. There's still so much uncertainty.''
Consumer confidence in August fell to the lowest this year. The SET Index of stocks has sunk 26 percent since May 25, when the protesters began calling for Samak's ouster. The baht is close to its weakest level per dollar in more than a year on concern that the political impasse will drag on.
Fitch Ratings last week said politics have affected the nation's economic policies, posing a negative risk for the sovereign rating. The rating agency ranks Thailand's long-term debt as BBB+, the eighth-highest investment grade. Moody's Investors Service earlier this month kept its stable outlook on the nation's Baa1 credit rating, indicating it's disinclined to change it.
“We are getting more concerned about political risk,'' said James McCormack, Hong Kong-based head of Fitch's Asian sovereign ratings. “There is no evidence so far where the resolution will come from.''
Credit Suisse warned Sept. 3 that Thailand risks becoming “ungovernable'' as the political situation “remains far from reaching anything resembling equilibrium.''
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup that followed street protests led by the same group behind the campaign against Samak. The so-called People's Alliance for Democracy says the government contains too many allies of Thaksin, the People Party's patron, and is calling for a mostly appointed House of Representatives to replace the fully elected body.
Google Inc is adding YouTube-like video communications features to its business application suite, looking to make video-sharing among office workers as easy as trading e-mails or instant messages.
Unlike YouTube, which is aimed at consumers, Google Video for business is designed to be shared among designated users within an organization’s own Web domain, protecting executive speeches, product training, sales meetings or other employee video messages from unauthorized disclosure outside the company.
Google Video for business is being incorporated into the Internet search leader’s Google Apps Premier Edition, which costs $50 a user for year for a package of business software, e-mail, scheduling and Web site design capabilities.
“What YouTube did in the consumer world, Google Video for business is going to do in the enterprise,” said Matthew Glotzbach, product management director of Google’s Enterprise division, the unit responsible for Google Apps.
From Septr 8, educational users of Google Apps can try out the service free for six months and will be charged $10 a user to continue using video afterward.
Unlike videoconferencing services that require specialized hardware and software installations in offices, Google Video for business users can simply trade Web site addresses to view videos as the videos are delivered from Google computers.
“It’s for anyone who says, ‘I can’t remember how to do that step’,” said Nucleus Research analyst Rebecca Wettemann payday loans. “Google Video for business brings back some of the context to what we have lost by communicating with e-mail or IM.”
And unlike YouTube, which typically limits videos to less than 10 minutes, Google Video for business can run for an hour or more. The company has also developed an automated service that identifies scene transitions and creates a quick way to skip to specific segments of a video.
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