Portugal is ahead of the curve
Log in to the Financial Times online to read the August 10 article, “Eurozone eyes Portugal’s lead on collateral.”
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Breakfast Seminar
Speaker: Dr. Rui Boavista Marques
BOIES, SCHILLER & FLEXNER LLP
575 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022
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An enclave of unbridled capitalism thinks again
IT HAS been mooted since 1932, but Hong Kong has never had a minimum wage. It soon will, however. In July a law was passed. And on August 30th, after endless meetings, an official commission agreed to recommend what the minimum hourly wage should be. That figure was not disclosed, but leaks suggest it will be HK$28-29 ($3.60-3.70).
That is halfway between what labour groups demanded and what business groups reluctantly suggested. It will please no one: the territory’s largest labour organisations vowed to fight for at least HK$33, plus annual increases. Prices are rising and wage grumbles are rife. Bus workers briefly went on strike in August. ...
Will America’s universities go the way of its car companies?
FIFTY years ago, in the glorious age of three-martini lunches and all-smoking offices, America’s car companies were universally admired. Everybody wanted to know the secrets of their success. How did they churn out dazzling new models every year? How did they manage so many people so successfully (General Motors was then the biggest private-sector employer in the world)? And how did they keep their customers so happy?
Today the world is equally in awe of American universities. They dominate global rankings: on the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy’s list of the world’s best universities, 17 of the top 20 are American, and 35 of the top 50. They employ 70% of living Nobel prizewinners in science and economics and produce a disproportionate share of the world’s most-cited articles in academic journals. Everyone wants to know their secret recipe. ...
Counterfeit drugs used to be a problem for poor countries. Now they threaten the rich world, too
DRUG smugglers can expect harsh penalties nearly everywhere—if the drugs in question are heroin or cocaine. Those who smuggle counterfeit medicines, by contrast, have often faced lax enforcement and light punishment. Some governments deem drug-counterfeiting a trivial offence, little more than a common irritant. After all, whose spam filter does not groan with ads for suspiciously cheap “Viagra”?
This could be changing, however. The pharmaceutical industry has persuaded several governments to stiffen regulations against fake drugs and to conduct more aggressive raids (see chart). Companies are also devising novel technologies to outfox the criminals. Even the Catholic church is joining the cause, issuing a stern statement in August that it is in “the best interest of all concerned that smuggling of counterfeit drugs be fought against”. ...
Our story on shocking new accounting rules (“You gonna buy that?” August 21st) contained a shocking error. We should have said that the obligation to pay for a leased item will go in the liabilities column, not the debit column. Sorry.
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Paul Allen has rekindled a controversy over patent trolls
DEEP-FRIED beer may sound scrumptious, but is it patentable? Mark Zable, an inventive Texan, thinks it is. To protect his novel production process, which involves encasing the alcohol in batter and dunking it in a fryer, he recently applied for a patent. He wants to profit if others exploit his beery brainwave.
Without patents to protect their creations, inventors would have little incentive to invent. But some Americans fret that patent protection has grown too strong. The system breeds so many lawsuits, they worry, that it throttles the innovation it is supposed to promote. ...
How the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries
BUYING a mobile phone was the wisest $20 Ranvir Singh ever spent. Mr Singh, a farmer in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, used to make appointments in person, in advance, to deliver fresh buffalo milk to his 40-odd neighbours. Now his customers just call when they want some. Mr Singh’s income has risen by 25%, to 7,000 rupees ($149) a month. And he hears rumours of an even more bountiful technology. He has heard that “something on mobile phones” can tell him the current market price of his wheat. Mr Singh does not know that that “something” is the internet, because, like most Indians, he has never seen or used it. But the phone in his calloused hand hints at how hundreds of millions of people in emerging markets—perhaps even billions—will one day log on.
Only 81m Indians (7% of the population) regularly use the internet. But brutal price wars mean that 507m own mobile phones. Calls cost as little as $0.006 per minute. Indian operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications sign up 20m new subscribers a month. ...
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Log in to the Financial Times online to read the August 10 article, “Eurozone eyes Portugal’s lead on collateral.”
The New York Times has highlighted Portugal’s swift move to renewable, clean energies. The nation is now poised to receive 45% of its energy from clean sources, including wind, solar, wave, and hydropower, a 17% increase from just 5 years ago. Read more here.
On 28 July 2010, the Chamber hosted Professor Luis Cabral, who made a presentation entitled: “Will Portugal be the New Greece? Structural Economic Issues in the Portuguese Economy.” Professor Cabral’s presentation focused on microeconomic indicators and structural aspects of the Portuguese economy in order to address the larger question of Portugal’s future. Professor Cabral has a Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and is Academic Dean of IESE Business School’s New York Center. An optimist, he concludes that Portugal will not be the new Greece. Further, he showed that Portugal’s macroeconomic indicators are not as dire as some would think when compared to other countries. From the microeconomicperspective, Cabral showed that while Portugal has made some important strides, and some Portuguese firms are as competitiveand productive as the best in any other country, there is room and need for further reform to secure Portugal’s future economic growth and stability.View his presentation here.
According to New York Times, Moody’s Corporation cuts Portugal’s credit rating. “The Portuguese government’s debt-to-GDP and debt-to-revenues ratios have risen rapidly over the past two years,” says Anthony Thomas, Vice President - Senior Analyst in Moody’s Sovereign Risk Group. “This deterioration came about due to the government’s anti-crisis measures and the operation of the budget’s automatic stabilizers, such as higher unemployment benefits, when the economy went into recession.” Read full article to learn more.
The annual Spring Networking event included over 600 guests from the various European American Chambers of Commerce in New York. Economist Vinnie Santoro, contributor to the Portugal-US Chamber, sends us a summary.
The Portugal–US Chamber of Commerce in New York was founded in 1979 to stimulate economic development, trade and investment, and cultural exchange between the United States and Portugal. As a member of the Association of Portuguese-American Chambers of Commerce (APACC), it works closely with its counterparts in Portugal, Canada, and across the United States to promote shared interests in Portugal and expose the vast economic opportunities of the country. The Chamber provides its members ongoing opportunities to network with individuals also engaged in Portugal-US affairs as well as numerous channels by which they can obtain essential bilateral support and information.
Membership in the Chamber is open to all individuals who are interested in building a strong economic partnership between Portugal and the United States. Current members range from small businesses to large corporations in the fields of banking and finance, construction, communications, education, import/export, law, and transportation, to name a few.
Membership benefits include: