Manufacturing in the USA
As a matter of business finance, one of the most critical decisions a CEO can make is where product will be manufactured. It’s easy for patriotic consumers to say “bring your manufacturing back to American soil and we will buy more from you,” but the reality is something more of a gray area. During a recent documentary on this topic on directv, one of the biggest high tech sector corporations in America, Apple, Inc., came under fire due to the rumored mistreatment of its workers in sweat shops in China, and the fact that their profit margins are probably high enough to support homeland manufacturing. The pressure is on for such companies to improve their operations and logistics and move those jobs back home, so that American workers can assemble products designed here.
Year-End Tax Savings
There are not too many days left of the year 2011. While most might be looking forward to simply celebrating the new year that is about to roll in, you are probably sitting at your desk stressing over how to get some serious tax breaks before 2012 comes barreling in. There are a ton of resources out there on how to get these necessary tax savings, but most of them deal with your investments and such. Putting more money in your IRA is not the only way for you get a break though. Here are some tips on finishing up the year with tax savings.
Millennials: Work It Out
The largest group making up the American workforce today are the Millennials. These people are those born between 1980 and 1995 and they are on a mission to find work and stick with it. Thanks to have been giving pretty much everything that they have wanted in life, this group has an all about me mentality, but don’t let that make you think they cannot handle working. This crew is ready to work. The technology and new gadgets of today are, in fact, extensions of their body. They take hard work seriously because the harder they work, the more they can play. These group of workers are able to multi-task with ease and are incredibly resourceful and eager to make changes for the better.
Argentinean Lessons For A Greek Default
As we look towards a Greek default sometime in the near future, it might be useful to yield to past examples to determine whether or not a default is really necessary, or even beneficial at all. Looking at the Argentina 2001 default, they were even in a much better position than Greece, and are still feeling the devastating effects of their 2001 default every single day. They still have $9 billion in debt to pay off to the Paris Club, and several more billion tied up with other private interests, though the country has already paid off its largest debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But Argentina still can’t get back on the borrowing markets to borrow again without having to swallow an interest rate double its South American neighbors. As Jamie Abut, a business consultant in Rosario, said about the Argentinean default, “A default is not free. You have to pay the consequences and for a long time. Argentina is no longer considered a serious country.”
UK Refuses to Bail Greece Out
In the most recent news concerning the ever-widening Greek credit crisis, the United Kingdom has refused to provide bailout funds in a euro zone package designed to give the bleeding country more money to get back on its feet. Great Britain contributed funds to the last bailout as part of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but has been weary of contributing to financial assistance in other areas. This partly has to do with the country’s public opinion, which, in addition to having a very strong anti-euro-zone sentiment, is concerned with how this second bailout will even help any, considering the lack of progress the first Greek bailout received. Many people believe that there’s no amount of money that could be thrown at the situation to alleviate the Greeks’ pain, and that another bailout is a waste of money that won’t address or accomplish the restructuring that needs to be done within the country.
