Euro's Next Battleground: Spain

The euro zone's No. 4 economy, Spain has an unemployment rate of 19%, a deflating housing bubble, big debts and a gaping budget deficit. Its gross domestic product contracted 3.6% in 2009 and is expected to shrink again this year, leaving Spain in its deepest and longest recession in a half-century.

Via WSJ

Google Cleared to Buy Energy in Bulk

U.S. energy regulators approved a request by Google Inc. to become an electricity marketer, allowing the Internet giant to buy and sell bulk power like a utility.

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The Internet company currently doesn't own generation facilities or transmission lines to deliver power(…) Most electricity marketers are utilities or power generators, but some large power users such as grocer Safeway Inc. and consumer-products maker Kimberly-Clark Corp. have been granted the authority by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Google has said its interest in the power markets stems from a desire to manage its own energy supplies and gain better access to renewable power. The company doesn't provide information on its electricity use, but operates massive networks including large data centers. 

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WSJ.Com

El consumo de los hogares vuelve a crecer tras dos años a la baja

El consumo de los hogares españoles volvió a crecer en el cuarto trimestre de 2009, al avanzar el 0,3% sobre el tercero, según los datos de Contabilidad Nacional del Instituto Nacional de Estadística, que constatan que en ese periodo el PIB todavía retrocedía el 0,1%. Una cifra que confirma que España es la única entre las grandes economías que sigue en recesión

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El gasto de las familias no crecía desde hacía dos años -desde el cuarto trimestre de 2007

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ElPaís.Com

Krugman and the 'Euromess'

The real story behind the euromess lies not in the profligacy of politicians but in the arrogance of elites — specifically, the policy elites who pushed Europe into adopting a single currency well before the continent was ready for such an experiment. (...)

To make the euro work, Europe needs to move much further toward political union, so that European nations start to function more like American states. (...)

But that’s not going to happen anytime soon. What we’ll probably see over the next few years is a painful process of muddling through: bailouts accompanied by demands for savage austerity, all against a background of very high unemployment, perpetuated by the grinding deflation I already mentioned. (...)

Paul Krugman for The New York Times

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Obama Is Hiring a Twitterer - WSJ

Calling all job-seekers:

President Barack Obama is looking for an official Twitterer.

via blogs.wsj.com

 

Posted via web from Zoid's reading the Wide Web

Nissan May Need New Small-Car Partner After Suzuki Deal With VW

Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third- largest automaker, said it may need to find a new partner to manufacture its European small cars after Volkswagen AG bought a stake in Suzuki Motor Corp., which supplies Nissan’s Pixo model.

BusinessWeek

Amazon.com Resumes Selling Some Macmillan Books on Web Site

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Under the agreement, Macmillan will set the price of e-books, with most new titles costing $12.99 to $14.99. That compares with the $9.99 Amazon.com had been charging for most bestsellers. Macmillan will also get a 70 percent cut of sales, the publisher said. Amazon.com had typically given authors 50 percent of the list price and set the retail price, according to the Authors Guild, a New York-based group that advocates for writers.

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Via BusinessWeek

Top 10 Themes from 2010 Davos

Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, signed a summary at Business Week with the top 10 key themes from this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos:

1.     The state of the world is not good.
2.     Everywhere new collaborative models are emerging to solve global problems.
3.     Rethinking the financial services industry's role in society.
4.     Executive pay, especially for bankers, needs fixing.
5.     Sustainability's time has come. Business is moving from talk to action.
6.     The world needs better governments.
7.     It turns out that the Internet does change everything.
8.     Girls, women, and gender: A sea change is underway.
9.     We need new measures of progress.
10.    A new big idea: The Global Commons.

A #MustRead article, on Businessweek.com

 

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La cerveza en España, cosa de tres / EL MUNDO

España: Mahou San Miguel, Heineken y Damm controlan el 93% de un mercado que aporta casi 6.000 millones de euros a la economía nacional y 225.000 empleos.

La cerveza en España, cosa de tres / EL MUNDO