One of the things that Cydcor have been concentration on is the need to improve the living conditions of people that have been affected by the Haiti earthquake. This was a humanitarian disaster that called upon the enterprise and private businesses such as Cydcor to assist in any way that they could.

The Cydcor offices in Haiti became involved in the fund raising activities that raised twenty five boxes worth of essential items to the victims of that disaster. There has been a news release to that effect at www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cydcor-community-service-helps-haitian-earthquake-survivors-83954847.html.

Apart from community development program that aims to improve the lives of the people that live near the Cydcor offices , Cydcor philanthropic efforts have also been extending towards looking at the provision of soldiers that are fighting to protect the United States of America. These gift boxes can help to improve the outlook of the hard working men and women who do this difficult job. This work is also showing appreciation to those soldiers for the great work that they do for this country as well as the global community of nations.

The ethos of Cydcor offices is to live in and improve the community. Thru Cydcor Community Relations Program, it has been able to reach different people within the local setting and then deliver the kind of support that they need to sustain the citizens of that community. It is the social responsibility that Cydcor been practicing, in contributing and giving back to community which they are located.

This can lead to great disappointment when retirement arrives. Understanding what an annuity is and how it works as a retirement account will enable you to make the right choice.

When looking into annuities for retirement there are 10 things that you must consider:

• Understand what an annuity is. An annuity is not an investment plan, it is an insurance policy. Insurance companies are the only type of business that can offer this type of financial product. The insurance company will take the money you pay into this policy and invest it accordingly. As the beneficiary of this policy you will receive a monthly payment from that investment for the rest of your life, once the payments begin. However, you will not be entitled to any dividends or other financial gains made from those investments.
• Understand the different types and compare annuities. The two most common types of annuities are the fixed annuity and the variable one. A fixed annuity will pay you a guaranteed amount each month for the rest of your life based on the amount you invested. Variable ones pay a varying amount depending on how the market is doing. Fixed annuities, once payments have begun, pay a specific amount indefinitely.



• Know the fees associated with an annuity. There are charges issued by the insurance company for maintaining your account. These fees may need to be paid separately once a year or may come out of your payment as a monthly processing fee. When you are looking into a fixed annuity you should compare maintenance fees among companies. While there are generalized costs that people expect to pay, these fees are not regulated and can range significantly in price among the different companies.
• Familiarize your self with the tax consequences. Annuities are a retirement account and therefore fall under specific tax guidelines. Make sure you know, and can afford the taxes that will be due upon the account.
• Acquaint your self with how the payments are to be made and when you will start receiving these payments. This will be very critical when you invest in a fixed annuity. If the monthly payment will not meet your needs you may have to look into another investment product.
• Make sure that the policy has, or offers, inflation protection. As everyone knows, the price of consumer goods will always continue to rise. You have to make sure that the policy will adjust your monthly payment in accordance to these cost of living increases. Purchasing inflation protection may result in a higher initial purchase price, but is well worth the protection.
• Make sure you understand the annuity contract completely. Some contracts only offer death benefits if the insured specifically requests these benefits. Failure to obtain this benefit forfeits your principal to the insurer upon your death, not to your beneficiaries. Other terms and conditions specific to your particular policy will be contained in the contract. Read it carefully.
• Annuities are not insured by the FDIC or any other government agency. This is something that all people must realize and understand completely. If the insurance company that you have your annuity through goes bankrupt, you have lost your investment with no recourse. It is imperative to research the company you are purchasing from before you buy the policy. Purchase only from a financially stable company that has had a significant track record in the industry.
• Annuities should not be the only retirement account you have. While annuities are a terrific opportunity to guarantee yourself a lifetime income, they cannot be your only investment. Once you have invested that money into the account it is no longer liquid. If any event takes place that you need to have fast access to cash you will not be able to use this account.
• Consult with a non affiliated financial advisor. A financial advisor that is not interested in selling you any particular policy will help you find the perfect retirement product. Financial advisors are experienced in creating retirement wealth and their expertise should be fully utilized.

Following these simple, yet logical, steps should help you invest into your retirement with confidence.

Authored by: Lisa Cintron is EVP at AdvisorWorld and OnlineAnnuityRates and a professional financial blogger. She has been published in Technorati.com, WiseBread.com, Examiner.com and many more.

The bouquet of services offered by Premier Mentoring includes top of the line personal mentoring programs, focused employee training modules and targeted marketing strategy that can be employed either exclusively or in combination by both upcoming and established business houses to achieve desired results.

Though the company caters to diverse verticals of the industry, the mentoring programs created, marketed and implemented by it for the Real Estate, Stock Market and Wealth Building sector are easily the best in this line of business.

Each and every personal mentoring program designed by Premier Mentoring aims at making business leaders out of their students by educating them about the basics of the industry in which they seek to make a mark.

In addition, the course structure offers necessary guidance to them so as to enable them overcome various challenges that are a part and parcel of a volatile and competitive market and use the laws of wealth creation to their advantage.

The personal mentors at Premier Mentoring have taken personal mentoring to an altogether new level by identifying the individual potential of the students and enhancing the same through various exercises that aim to help them ascertain the most effective ways to transform their business into an international corporate giant.

Personal mentoring has long been the secret weapon of a majority of the Fortune 500 companies that hire the services of coaches or mentors to motivate their middle as well as senior level managers. This helps in expanding their horizons when it comes to planning and executing innovative strategies to take the company to new heights. This not only aids them enhance their own performance but that of the company as well that has to take on new challenges everyday.

Premier Mentoring has also proved crucial for taking advantage of the opportunities that one comes across in both professional and personal life thus ensuring maximum personal and business successes. Some of the recently conducted studies have already proved that personal mentoring is 400% more effective than traditional training.

If you too want to make the most of this mentoring program, opt for the best in business – Premier Mentoring and turn your dreams into reality.

However there are minimum standards that make the industry more effective in the work that it does. The easy methods are not always the best or effective ways of making money from gold. What might appear to be a short cut might end up the longest journey of your life. Gold prices have recently been reaching record levels so it has been an optimal time to invest in gold. Many people with unwanted gold items such as gold scrap are selling these items to buyers interested in purchasing certain amounts of gold.

The markets that are involved in the gold investment sector will have regular management information about the movements in the product. However they will not seek you out to give you this information. You have to be proactive enough to check out the trends for yourself when you decide to join the gold investment program. The media outlets perform a similar job but once again they require to actively searching for the information that is relevant to your business.

There is a debate to be had as to whether it is absolutely necessary to have the services of a financial adviser when it comes to delivering the best gold investment. Some people believe that they are able to make the investment decision on their own with the help of the information that they have on the internet.

Moreover these people might have prior experience of the industry such that it is relatively easy for them to manage their portfolio without outside interference. This contrasts with the other elements that may be struggling with the need to deal with the different aspects of the gold investment market. These people will need the support of a financial adviser.

What is important is that if you decide to use the services of a financial adviser you pick the right sorts of people that will be able to help you with your investment. It is not just a case of walking into a cake shop and making do with what is available. You have to do the research on the type of adviser that you want. It might also be a good idea to have someone that is attached to a gold investment company so that they can give you up to date information about the industry.

The fact that the investment takes a long time to mature means that sometimes the people that are working within industry fail to update their intelligence on the gold market. They simply buy the bullion and wait for the materialization of the profit. However there are many dynamic variables in the gold market that have to be observed in order to be successful. You have to continue to watch the value of your investment even if you are not intending to sell. This is because the price changes may become suddenly favorable to you.

The duties levied on the companies had also been relaxed between these countries. This program was called as ‘The Border Industrialization Program’. With the implementation of NAFTA called as North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexico manufacturing has tripled.

Earlier, Mexico attracted manufacturers who perform only simple assembling. But, later with the development in this industry many big shots with complex products started flowing in to Mexico. China attracted many inexpensive commodity manufacturing in world level. At this time, US were looking for a similar place like china which could produce low cost products. Mexico manufacturing proved as the exact solution for a situation like this. Many foreign firms started setting up their operations and manufacturing in Mexico.

Methods of implementation :
Mexico manufacturing companies used five common methods:

• Contract or sub-contract manufacturing – This method is a form of outsourcing where Mexico manufacturers manufacture products for another company. This method will be used for companies who like to drive down the production cost involved in setting up infrastructure.
• Joint venture – Two or more firms invest for a single manufacturing.
• Full-owned – As its name suggests, the whole capital and profit belongs to a single company.
• Shelter – In this method, a firm can operate manufacturing and assembly in Mexico without even having knowledge of the subsidiary.
• Outsourcing – This is almost same as contract or sub-contract, except that this method outsources people rather than products.

Advantages :
The price of the land marked as one of unique Mexico manufacturing companies’ advantage for its development. Unlike other developing countries, the land cost remain cheap in Mexico which attracted many manufacturing in Mexico. Many firms which require large engineering content preferred Mexico than to other countries. Its proximity to US also helped the manufacturing companies for coordinating activities. Products got manufactured soon as the raw materials were readily available nearby and the products got delivered in time because the markets were nearby.

An investment club is the place where people with limited amount of investment gather around to learn about investing and sharing their experiences. You don’t have to learn everything by yourself anymore.

The major goal of the investment club is teaching their members about how they could make money using various investment tools, and some could goes with Finances Factoring option in supporting further investment needs. They also will learn how to minimize the risk and increase the profits.

Your success in the investing world is not guaranteed by your investment club. It’s just a place where you’ll learn something new about investment. The investment club could not guarantee you to become a successful person because the most important step to become success and rich in the investing world is your own responsibility. The most important step is take action.

You could join the investment club for years, but if you never take action in the investing world, you’ll get nothing. Fortunately, you could use investing club to motivate you to take action.

To get the most out of your investment club, you need to participate actively in it. For example, when you want to buy some stocks, you need to discuss it first with friends from your investment club. They could show you or give you advice about the best way to get in and get out in the stock market. By doing this, you could minimize your risks and increase you profits.

The successful investment club will have a lot of active members. Use their knowledge to learn more about investing world yourself. You could also gain access to online resources or organization computers if you need to find more about the investment tool that you like.

There are several types of investor group that you could find in the investment clubs. Some of them prefer to get profits as fast as possible, and others prefer a long-term investment and slowly build their investment portfolio. Here are 3 types of investment group that you might want to know:

1. Momentum Investors – These investors prefer technical analysis than fundamental to tracking down the price in the stocks market. Their purchase usually following a direct order from the system that they use and they trust.

2. Growth Investors – These investors prefer fundamental analysis before they do the investment. They check carefully the profit margins, growing sales and earnings, and also the prospect of the company that they want to invest to.

3. Value Investors – Value investors using the same fundamental analysis with the Growth Investors, but they have different measurements. They are looking for the company that has a very low stock price but showing a high growth for the next couple years.
Most investors that you’ll find in the investment club often use the fundamental analysis. You could learn from them how to pinpoint a good stock and avoiding the bad ones.

Investing could be done in many forms, such as in real estate, in building a business, or in the stock market. To make it easier to do the investment, most companies arrange that the investment could be done without leaving your own home. That’s the birth of online investment.

Online investment usually doesn’t have so much difference with the common investment. The major difference is you could do it at home with your computers and internet connection. The internet will allow you to explore some of the best investment opportunities online. You could also get some tips in online investing or advices from the experts.

If this is the first time you do the online investing, you need to know that you should start small. Starting small in any online businesses will allow you to research the opportunity deeper and figure the profits and loss ratio and find out the best way to dealing with it. After you comfortable with the small investment and you feel that you already have enough information about online investing at hand, you could increase your initial investment.

When you’re online, the easiest investing opportunity that you could find is trading stocks or options. You could get lots of tips from the online broker, and start building your portfolio. However, this is not the only way to online investing, you’re also could make some cash from auctioning stuffs online, selling your business products or services, and so on.

If you don’t have enough knowledge to start an online trading, you could go to mutual funds. This is the best choice for investors who doesn’t have enough expertise to deal with individual stocks or doesn’t have enough time to do the watching themselves. If you decide to have a mutual fund, make sure you’re not cash out the investment early. You need to build it until it’s solid and could give you long-term profits.

Just like any other broker firms, the online broker firms also have their own fees and charges. Make sure you choose the legitimate one before you use their service.

Doing the online trading yourself will require you some time to master it. You need to use your own time and brain to exercise, and your own tools to signaling you whether you need to get in or get out of the market. The are so many resources that you could find online that will teach you the right way to do the online investing and make some profits from it.

Unlike common investment, there are some problems that need to be addressed properly if you do the online investing. Some of them are your internet connection, the brokerage server or other natural disaster. This is inevitable since it’s the common problem that you’ll likely to face. If your internet connections having a problem make sure you could contact your online brokerage firm to tracking your online trading.

Online trading is just the same with a common one in the risk aspect. There is no guarantee that you could make profits from it or not. You need to find the right system that you could follow in order to make money in online trading.

Forex is quite popular for some people who want to make it as their startup home business. With as low as $100, they could participate in the Forex market and build their fortunes from there.

Getting started in the Forex market is easy. You’re only need to find some Forex company that could facilitate your online trading, make an account, and you’re ready to trade. One thing you need to remember, this Forex Company won’t do the trading for you. They’re just middlemen that provide you with tools to trade. Whether you want to trade or not, it’s entirely your own decision. This Forex Company often gives you two accounts that you could use. One of them is the virtual account and the other is a real account.

Virtual account is the account that you could use to trade virtually. The Forex Company often fills this account with $5000 amount and up that you could use to exercise your trading method. This is just virtual money that they prepare for you and you can’t withdraw the amount. The real trading account will be the real account that will be used for your trading activity. This is where you real money is.

After you get an account, it’s time for you to pick up the right tools or systems. You could find tons of Forex systems or methods on the internet. Of course not all of them are free. Some of them required you to pay a one time fee to purchase their systems, and others will require you to pay on the monthly basis to access their methods. No matter which systems that you choose, make sure that you pick the right one.

But how do you know that you pick the right one? Simply doing the cross checks for yourself. Go to the Forex forums, and see what other person thinks about a particular method or system. Also, be aware of the people who create the system or method. There are so many scams on the internet, and you need to be smart to tell the difference between the real one and the scam one. Do your own due diligence, and choose your system or method based on it.

After you get the account and the system, it’s time for you to test it. Use the virtual account that you get from the Forex Company, and play with your system for at least a month. It’s to familiar yourself with the system, and also checking the profits and losses of the system that you use. After you’re ready, it’s time to use your real account. Put some capital in it, and you’re ready to trade!

To build a better future, you need to make an investment plan. The plan that is not only put some money after you’re retired, but also the plan that keeps growing up. Here are some investment tools that you could take advantage of in building a successful financial life :

1. 401K Plan – This is the easiest and fastest way to save some money for your retirement day. The money will be taken from your payroll, and usually you’ll never realize that you have it before until your retirement day. Make sure you have this 401K Plan. If you haven’t, open a new one.

2. Life Insurance – No one in their right mind will skip the life insurance. It is the best tool to protect yourself against any accidents that may occur to you. It will make your family more secure just in case you passed away and left your children and wife with nothing.

3. Stocks – This one is quite popular today. This investment tool allows you to buy some shares of the company, and they will pay you with dividends for it. This will require a good time of research to find the best company. But after you’re done, you could relax and let them grow themselves.

4. Bonds – Bonds is a promise note from a private company or government. You give them some money as a loan with interest for a number of years until they paid you back, in full. This is usually the lowest risk of investment tool and very useful for people who just starting to investing.

5. Mutual Funds – This is the investment tool that based in gains and loses of shareholder. One person will manage the money from several people or companies, and then spread the investment in several place to minimize the risk that might occur.

6. Money Market Funds – This is a short-term investment tool. You could get in and get out of the market along with your cash in a matter of minutes. You could act as an independent shareholder and manage your own money.

7. Brokered Certificates of Deposit (CDs) – This is an investment tool that require you to invest your money in a set of time. The benefit that you can enjoy from this CDs is that you could take out your money anytime you want without paying any penalty fees.

8. Real Estate – This is the most favorite investment tools all the time. Real estate investment could be your house, empty lands, or rental properties. Many investors love to use this investment tool because it’s steady and the properties price usually rising throughout the years.

No matter which investment tools that you choose, just make sure that you learn something about it first before you jumped off with both feet. You could also ask some advices from the expert in the fields regarding your investment tools before you start investing.

The IRA will be your retirement savings plan. Either you work as an employee or a self-employed; you could save some money and put it into your IRA. This investment is tax-deferred until the distribution date come up. Also, some individuals are permitted to withdraw some or all of their money in their IRA. There is also a retirement savings account called Roth IRA where you can’t withdraw the money. However, when the distribution time comes up, the withdrawals won’t be taxed.

To setup an IRA, you need to find a trustee. A trustee or custodian could be your bank or your brokerage house. If you have any other financial institution, you could use it as a trustee. For this IRA, you can’t be your own trustee.

To contribute in Individual Retirement Account ( IRA ), you need to put at least $4,000 in it every year. Of course you could add more money to put in your IRA if you could. For people with 50+ years old, they usually need to put additional $1000 per year to catch-up with their IRA and save more money for their retirement.

If you have more than one IRA or you have several types of IRA, the same limit will be applied. So, if you and your spouse have a separate IRA, both of you needs to pay the maximum amount of $8000 per year or $10,000 per year for couple more than 50 years old. This amount will be raised up to $5,000 each in 2008 while the additional catch-up amount for people above 50 years old still $1,000.

If you have any emergency need that resulting you not to pay your IRA, it’s not a big problem. It’s because you’re allowed not to contribute the money year after year. You could skip one or several years if you like, and continue the payment for the next year. However, the amount that you skipped before is not allowed to be added in your next contribution.

The money that you contribute for saving in your IRA must be made from compensation such as salaries, wages, commissions and other sources of your earned income. You cannot put the money that you’ve made from sources like dividends, portfolio interests, deferred compensations, or retirement payments. So, make sure you have the right source of income before you put your money in there.

When you reach the age of 70.5 or when you retired, you must begin to take your IRA distributions on every April 1st of the year. These savings would then be your golden eggs during your retirement years, thus you should plan carefully in order to meet the needs during these years ahead.

IRA and Roth IRA have a slightly different terms and rules. Both of them also have their own distribution and contribution limitations. That’s why you need to get some advices either from your accountant, banker, or your financial advisor so you could get a solid grab about each retirement savings account. Doing it this way will gives you choices to get what you need most.

By the end of the 19th century, the capitalist economies were out of breath from the cyclically recurring crises. This was observed by Karl Marx, who was vowing that the capitalist system would collapse after the next crisis caused by the overproduction of goods. And everything told us that the prognosis of Marx was about to come true, because overproduction had become a chronic problem of the capitalist economies – more goods were produced than there were customers. Drastic measures were needed, and the solution was found – the pyramid of consumption was turned. If previously the man first produced and then consumed, now he first consumed and then produced. By the way it was achieved, four forms of socialism can be distinguished.
State Socialism, or the European model of socialism. In this model the distribution of public goods is a state affair. The reasoning is simple: the state removes the excessive efficiency of the companies through taxes and distributes it among the citizens.
Taxes have always existed, but in the 20th century they were collected, not only in favor of the ruling class (the bureaucracy) and public needs, but also to maintain the solvency of all its citizens, which naturally led to an increase in the tax burden. Actually, the money that the state gives to a citizen through various forms of social services and guarantees, are returned to the economy, when he buys goods and services for which he previously would not have had money, respectively, enterprises can easily expand the production of these goods.
But this concern about the proliferation of citizens turned to parasitic attitude. A striking example of this is Germany, where people prefer to grow old living on unemployment benefits, rather than look for a job, the payment of which may be below the public benefit. Thus, the businessman is between the hammer and anvil – high business taxes strike on the one hand and on the other wage workers do not allow to reduce costs by requiring payment not lower than the state standards. And the introduction of minimum wages became generally a lethal drug from poverty.
Of course businessmen have been shifting production to countries where there are no such problems for business. It reached catastrophic dimensions when China chose a path of capitalist development. China, with its relatively educated and hardworking people and very cheap working hands, has become the funnel, which has sucked in the entire world economy.

The second, which is very close to the first, is the Nordic model of socialism. We may call it public socialism, because the primary role in the redistribution of public domain in these countries does not belong to the state, but to local self-governed institutions – municipalities. Moreover, although the level of the social expenditure is even higher than in the rest of Europe, the degree of the governmentalization of the economy is significantly lower. Here such an unprofitable large-scale nationalization of industries didn’t take place, as in other European countries, where this was a way of trying to avoid social disruptions caused by massive dismissals from bankrupt enterprises. And though this model worked even better than the pan-European one, the outcome was the same – bankruptcy.
A special case is Japan. This model can be called “corporate socialism”. In Japan, the brunt of caring for workers is not on the state, but on the corporations in which they work. Corporations, for example, provide their employees with housing. The outcomes of such an economic system are not very good either- corporations have become totally unwieldy. Japan is already in the second decade of stagnation, despite all the efforts of the Government of Japan to revive the economy, be it the zero discount rate, or the maintenance of the low-rate of the yen. Japan is not competitive with the new Asian tigers of economy, which have no such an onerous social system for business.
And finally, the fourth model of socialism – the United States. By way of redistribution of wealth, we can define it as credit socialism. The main feature of this model is, of course, is the developed mortgage system, which is supported by the State. In this model, housing plays a role of locomotive of the economy as a whole, as the increased production in this industry gives a multiplied effect – the construction provides with contracting other industries.
This model of socialism owes its emergence to the Great Depression. Its first institution was the Federal institute for bank housing loans, which was established in 1932, and whose activities are exempt from federal and local income taxes. The bank is something middle between a credit union and the central bank for 12 private regional mortgage banks (by the way, at this moment 8 of these 12 banks are in fact on the verge of bankruptcy). But, of course, the most famous American mortgage institute is the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, established in 1938 by Franklin Roosevelt. In 1968, from Fannie Mae was allocated from the Government National Mortgage Association Ginnie Mae, which deals with social housing, and the Fannie Mae was privatized, but it is still an organization that is sponsored by the U.S. government. In 1970, the U.S. government created the federal mortgage corporation Freddie Mac, which, in essence, is the same as Fannie Mae, but according to the original idea of the States it had to create competition and thereby lower the costs of the mortgage loan. In 1999, Bill Clinton squeezes through the facilitation of the provision of mortgage loan, and the final outcome of it is known to all of us.
The system worked as follows, a mortgage association buys mortgages from banks with the money received by the associations from issuing their own securities, which were bought by both national and foreign investors, including the government. The popularity of these securities was due to the fact that in any case the U.S. government itself would, as it happens, take the responsibility for the payment of these securities. It is a kind of worldwide financial vacuum cleaner for pumping money from the global economy and loading it into the United States. While for the sake of fairness it should be noted that, for example, the easy money of Arab sheikhs has simply nowhere else to go. That is the money earned by them in the export of oil in the United States, are brought back to America.
But the United States is not the only country that went on that path. From the U.S. experience of the “market” stimulation have benefited economies from so many countries around the world. A very impressive example, when the student has surpassed the teacher is Spain, where the mortgage is provided for a term of up to 50 years. By stimulating housing Spain has demonstrated over the past decade a staggering growth, but with the start of the global depression this bubble burst, too.
Thus, at the moment we have, a crisis of all the old capitalist economies, this crisis is not of a conjecture type, as it is often stated by government officials in public statements, claiming that the crisis will stop by itself within one or two years, for which it is only sufficient to boost up consumer demand and provide additional liquidity to banks, but it has touched the very system, affecting the way of formation of consumer demand in developed countries. But the assertion that the main victim of the crisis is the U.S. is not true – the numbers say otherwise.
Many may reasonably argue that not all comes down to cash, that in the modern economy the human capital is crucial. But according to this indicator the world leader is Taiwan. According to the latest testing of students in the framework of the program PISA, which was attended by 57 countries, including all 30 OECD countries, i.e. all countries have the official status of developed countries, Taiwan ranked first in the world by the level of mathematical knowledge, on the second position is Finland, on the third comes Hong Kong, Korea on the fourth, and on the fifth the Netherlands. And, for example, the United States was the 35th, and Russia the 34th. In the rating of the level of scientific knowledge students from Taiwan ranked fourth, the first was Finland, the second Hong Kong, Canada the third and the fifth Estonia. United States in this ranking is in the 29 position, and Russia, respectively in 35. Thus, the level of knowledge, both in the U.S. and Russia, is lower than the average among the countries that participated in the study. By the way, Kyrgyzstan in both ratings took the last 57th position. Unfortunately, nothing can be said about the level of knowledge of Kazakh students, because they were not tested, but considering the above mentioned figures, I am afraid that they would not be very good for Kazakhstan.
Knowledge is, of course, good, but without investment, it will not bear fruit. And then one should pay attention to what occupies the minds of the world powers. At a time when the United States and European countries spend the already holey budgets of their countries to support the banks and broken motor car companies, the Arab and Chinese sovereign funds have started buying up the world and especially the European economy. By the leaders of Western countries, such activity of the eastern investors is welcomed investors, because thanks to it is temporarily stopped the fall in stock indices, and the crisis seems to have ceased to grow rapidly. But the crisis did not go anywhere, as consumer debts to the banks, and bank debts towards each other continue to grow as a snowball.
By giving money to the banks, the governments, first of all, do not allow the financial system to become healthier, and secondly, they strengthen their own debt, and, thirdly, exacerbate the situation with the debts of financial sector. State leaders have forgotten the simple truth, that you cannot save the private sector at the cost of the bankruptcy of the state. And if Europe has already made its choice, the Europeans will be working in enterprises owned by Asians, the United States still has a chance to survive as a great power, but all measures taken up to this time by the U.S. government, force to have doubts as to this question. But I am confident that America has a plan for economic revival, only it is too radical to start bringing it into life now, the crisis has not yet gone so deep as to hold open the bankruptcy of the old economy, and to begin building a new one.

The Vitebsk website of products and services
Compared with other forms of access to foreign markets and their development, indirect exports require scarce resources. Therefore, small and medium enterprises will be happy to attract foreign trade intermediaries at the initial stage of export activity, as they do not have the necessary human and financial resources in their possession to promote their products in foreign markets by other means.
Foreign trade companies and export firms realize the production acquired from domestic enterprises at their own risk. In this case the production company is subject to only small dangers and risks involved in penetrating into foreign markets. One such risk is a short-term drop in the exchange rate, but even this does not have a negative impact on exporting enterprises – more on the export firm.
On the website there are sections on Vitebsk real estate, clubs and other resources of Vitebsk – businesses, companies and organizations.
Foreign trade companies and export firms tend to supply the goods to candy regions and countries where they have foreign trade partners. Indirect exports do not require a lot of organizational effort, staff workers. Even if the company operates an export department, it employs only a small number of employees, as the main work is carried out by foreign trade partners who have obtained an order.
Indirect export can stop relatively quickly if it turns out that it was goalless.
Indirect exports are characterized by some drawbacks. During its use not all the goods (services) can be sold on the international market. If, for example, it is technically complex goods and services, then indirect export is generally excluded.
Although in case of indirect export the exit to foreign markets demands small financial and human resources, but it is not always effective, because in the long run, leads to diminishing returns. Trading partners in most cases, try to get maximum profit from their service as mediators, thus a need arises to transfer goods or services to a reseller with a small profit for the enterprise. Besides, the latter cannot acquire its own experience in foreign markets, has no information on the wishes of clients, the behavior of competitors, general economic conditions in individual countries.
The main disadvantage of indirect exports is that not all brokers are using the optimum market potential and opportunities for marketing, allowing mistakes and miscalculations in their actions that affect the income of producers of export goods. For example, for certain foreign markets are selected “not optimal” goods from those that may be offered to exporters, the price can be set without taking into account the specifics of the market. The company, exporting indirectly, is deprived of direct communication with the end users. This hinders the transition to other forms of work in the markets.
In case of direct (immediate) export foreign trade activities are carried out without resellers. There are two variants of direct exports: direct export, without a mediator, direct export with a facilitator.
Direct export without a mediator is used if the export is directed at the end-user (enterprises, institutions and private clients), or the goods are received in the wholesale and retail trade in a foreign country. In this case, the domestic company sends its employees abroad for sales of goods and services to final consumers and trade agencies.
If sales representatives, agents or major importers abroad are involved in the process of export, there is a direct export through an intermediary. These brokers, unlike the staff of domestic exporting enterprises sent abroad, are legally independent, that is, they do not act as employees of the exporting company and are not affiliated with any directives, on the contrary, they are engaged in self-marketing.
As with all other options for entry into a foreign market, direct export also has its advantages and disadvantages. Thus, direct export is often carried out under an order, the initiator of which is not the manufacturing enterprise, but a foreign mediator. In most cases, foreign orders/requests are unpredictable, so the company, through exports, responds to them more or less randomly. Thus, while not the initiator of foreign trade activity, a specific business enterprise is becoming an exporter.
Through direct export target management and control of the sales become possible which is unrealistic in case of indirect export. The exporting company establishes a direct contact with a foreign trading partner, and not only operates through its own foreign trade companies abroad, but also has the best opportunities for direct participation in foreign transactions. The advantages of direct exports are especially apparent in the export and supply of complex products and services, the sales of which would not have been possible through foreign trade companies and export firms. This applies, above all, to those goods and services that have only a small degree of standardization and a high-line scheme. Direct export is applicable to a wider range of goods and services.
By directs export a larger number of financial and human resources is covered than in the case of indirect exports. However, compared to more complex forms of entry into the market, such as the creation of a personal commodity distribution network abroad, or affiliated organizations with a complete production cycle, the cost of direct exports is still not so significant. Certain financial resources are required for the contacts with clients or business partners, and in the case of direct export without intermediaries, personal human resources are required in the field.
While direct export is applicable to a wider range of goods and services, for certain goods and services direct export is considered inappropriate in the same way as indirect. This applies to goods that are due to a short work life and cannot or are unlikely to be exported; goods, the export of which may be associated with high transport costs, goods which require complex after-sale services, which cannot be granted by resellers. Direct export is fraught with difficulties for the enterprises of the economic kind, such as those associated with the deterioration of exchange rates. If the rate of domestic currency or currencies of third countries increases on the markets where the company carries out the export, it could cause the company to become relatively uncompetitive in overseas markets.

Data on the Belarusian industrial enterprises, which have direct or indirect export and direct import and barter deals, according to the results of annual surveys conducted by the Research Institute for Economic Ministry of Belarus, are as follows.
The data show that the majority of Belarusian industrial enterprises resorted to direct exports. Moreover, in 2003-2004 direct exports were preferred almost by the three-quarters of surveyed companies. To indirect exports resorted the third of those surveyed enterprises, so in 2002 for its organization 24% of companies have resorted to the services of domestic trade intermediaries, and only 12% have collaborated with foreign traders. In general, the dynamics of the development of direct exports suggest that more and more domestic enterprises will independently realize direct export expansion in overseas markets.
With regard to direct import, which has similar advantages with direct export, then it uses an increasing number of industrial enterprises. This is because the purchase of raw materials, components and products abroad without intermediaries are cheaper. Speaking about the barter as a form of coherent export-import operations, it should be noted that thanks to strong government action, its value is strictly decreasing.

The fall in equity prices will make some companies very vulnerable to absorption by stronger competitors. Companies “predators” have free capital and want to buy cheap shares. Therefore scared of the exchange crisis in 1987, fearing that their shares will be bought by competitors, many U.S. companies, whose share price has fallen, began a massive stock market repurchase of their own shares to preserve their independence. Among them were found even such giants as General Motors, Ford, Coca-Cola, IBM, etc. For many companies, a sharp devaluation of their shares meant bankruptcy.

Historically, two methods of regulation of the securities market were formed, by the State and by the dealers themselves. Prior to the crisis of 1929-33 the state practically did not interfere with the activities of stock exchanges. The crisis and the depression which followed it precipitated the formulation of government regulation of the stock market activities. So far, the law on securities in 1933 and a law on stock exchanges in 1934, remain the basic a document on which rests the state regulation of operations with securities.

The key idea, which was the basis of the state interference in the activities of stock exchanges, has been to maximize non-interference in the process of buying and selling stocks and bonds. A specific embodiment of this idea is found in the principle of “providing information”, on which post-crisis legislative acts are based. Their authors proceeded from the idea that, if the corporation will provide shareholders with detailed and reliable information about the activities of the company, it will automatically lead to the disappearance of the source of all evils on securities market, since the true value of stocks and bonds can be easily identified and their manipulation becomes impossible.

But from the perspective of the society as a whole, stock crisis is only a return to a level that reflects the real situation in the economy. An exchange collapse normally gives rise to the coordination of all economic policy. As a result of a crisis is temporarily restored the relative compliance of processes, occurring in the real economy and in capital formation. However strange it may seem, but in this respect, exchange crises, destroying the “excess” of financial capital, perform a constructive function. Exchange crises have accelerated the development of joint-stock form of property; increasing the concentration of financial capital in the hands of a growing part of the securities, exacerbating the competition between the holders of the shares “for survival,” lead to the bankruptcy of enterprises and banks.

Nevertheless, one can not help seeing that despite all their undeniable negative sides the crises are a prerequisite for the subsequent recovery of the economy. Stock crises, for example, lead to the replacement of backward corporations by advanced, more competitive, beat down the confusing demand for securities, remove from the securities market dealers who are prone to excessive risk, force to seek and introduce new forms and methods of operation of the exchange. (In particular, the stock market crisis of 1987, divided the western economists into supporters of two opposing points of view: some had the notion that stock markets are in need of strengthening the public management, the others remained confident that the market stabilization of the share capital may occur “naturally”, i.e. based on the natural mechanism of action within the exchange).

For small shareholders stock market crises, of course, represent a formidable threat. But rejection of the stock market on the grounds that it is inseparable from speculation and crisis, would deny the economic mechanism a flexible and effective system of capital formation, making the investment process extremely difficult. The availability of the securities market contributes to the capitalization of the income of the members of society, greatly increasing the investment resources of the economy. At the same time, which is very important, there is a real decentralization of the investment process, which gives it the flexibility and dynamism necessary for restructuring of investments.

Finally, the stock market is able to divert a significant portion of cash income of the population, thus reducing the demand for goods and services. This circumstance, which has a very mixed impact on the course of reproduction in developed capitalist countries, may have an important positive value in conditions of a scarce economy.

In practice, the term “exchange” refers primarily to the building, then to the time (Exchange continues from twelve to three), and finally, to a special kind of market. Exclusively with the latter definition, we will deal in the future.

First, one might argue that any stock exchange trade is a trade of replaceable values, and that in exchange hall there are no goods or money. However, markets are not limited to the valuables; there are exchanges, which make their operation in freight (such as the ship-exchange in Ruhrort). In addition, there is also a question related to whether the sale of samples, very often occurring at all stock exchanges, is related to the trade of replaceable values. Secondly, speculation can be described as a characteristic feature of Exchange. However, there is also speculation outside the Exchange. Then we can say that the Exchange is committed to facilitating the trade of goods and securities. This is certainly true, but railroads and many other institutions also serve these purposes, but are not stock exchanges. It is necessary to find other characteristic features of exchanges, distinguishing their traits in comparison with markets.

When people talk about a market, developed before exchange, first and foremost a regular meeting of parties with the purpose of transacting business, happening in a certain place and at certain times, is meant. Place and time – are constant, the parties and operations may vary. Anywhere, where there are no such meetings in a certain place and at a certain time, there can be no question of exchange. The difference between the exchange and the market is mainly in the following three points:

1. In the convertibility of listed on the stock exchange, but absent items

2. The existence of organization in the exchange, in contrast to the free market

3. The existence of formal fixed rates and quotations in the exchange.

Everywhere, where one of these features is missing, it is not an exchange in the stated sense, but rather a market or intermediate levels. Let us analyze in detail the three distinctive traits.

The essence of the Exchange is that it is a special kind of market where trade replaceable values is carried out, while these values and charges for them are not present. What is a replaceable value? This quality is due to the nature of the goods comprising the subject of trade. For example, in the market you buy a particular horse, some flowers, a piece of meat. A hostess buys products of certain quality and class. All these things are there, to examine them in detail. No one buys a pig in a poke. This is followed by the payment and transfer. The characteristic feature of the market is, therefore, in the presence of buyers and sellers, money and goods. At the stock exchange others are often presented, mostly traders. Initially, there were producers and consumers, but they were gradually superseded by merchants. Trading on the stock exchange is not on a physically presented particular product i.e. on the kind of a product, when a bag of rye can be replaced by another of equal quality. Hence the conclusion, that all the goods on the market can be substituted or replaced. The convertibility of goods traded on the exchange leads to one very important consequence: the securities or commodities circulating, i.e., sold or bought on the market may be missing. This fact creates a huge advantage for trade and exchange. The presence of the goods would bring the exchange back into a state of market and the transactions would have been brought up to its size.

Of the convertibility of goods and values, derives the second investigation. Securities or commodities should not be there at the time of purchase, they should not even be available to the owner. These operations form the basis of a stock market speculation. It is based on the fact that each purchase can be compensated with the sale and every sale with a purchase. Or, for example, on the sugar market, the transactions may be concluded for the delivery of sugar supply, when the beets, from which this sugar would be received, were still sown.

The second distinguishing feature of Exchange is the organization. The Exchange is an organized market, i.e. there are bodies for certain functions related to the management, maintenance of order, bringing the exchange transactions to norms, etc. Market does not know such a device. The only body that has the market is the maintenance of order. Sellers and buyers in the market represent a great unorganized mass. But wherever the market rises to the level of exchanges, there appear bodies. However, these bodies are not always the same. Each market has its own organizational structure, but all have at least the stock exchange committee – the chief and the supreme body of the Exchange.

Apart from a clear organizational structure each market also uses the principle of self-regulation, i.e. has inner-Exchange regulations, which are the basis of exchange activity of a specific exchange. These include the Memorandum, Articles of Association and Rules of the trading process.

In the Memorandum are listed the founders of the Exchange, the purpose of its creation and the means of achieving the stated objectives is determined; it is responsible for the obligations of the founders of the Exchange, the initial size of the  statutory fund, its division into shares and how they distributed between the founders, the rights and responsibilities of the founders, the allocation of profits and the establishment of contingency fund, sets out the terms of the termination of the Exchange, indicating the location and details of the Exchange.

As a rule, the Charter of the Exchange includes the following sections:

1. general provisions;

2. creating exchanges;

3. activities of stock exchanges;

4. size, order of formation and change of the authorized capital, funds and profit exchanges;

5. rights and duties of members of the Exchange;

6. management of exchange;

7. accounting and reporting exchanges;

8. termination of the Exchange.

The Rules of the auction reflect the issues such as the participants of exchange trading, and their order, exchange of goods, the order of their setting out and withdrawal from trades; stock transactions, their types, the order of registration, legalization, dissolution, and the recognition of their invalidity; settlement of disputes and sanctions for the violation of the rules of exchange trade.

Stock exchange is an organization with the aim not only to trade in replaceable values, but also the pricing. Pricing on the exchange takes place regularly, and under common control, i.e. behind the authority of the whole assembly or the executive committee. Where there is no such official quotation of prices, there is no exchange.

Now we can define the notion of stock exchange. Stock exchange is an organized market to trade in convertible values on which the process of pricing runs under public control. The objectives of the Exchange are not to supply the economy with raw materials, capital, currency, but the organization, regulation, standardization of commodity, capital and currency markets.

It is not necessary to write about when it was formed, its turnover. More importantly, we need learn how to earn on Forex market.

To get started, you need to get to the Forex market. This is done very simply. There are many companies providing access to trade on the Forex market. Terms and reliability of these companies are different. Many questions arise such as: how to choose a company in which to open an account?

The answer can be how it is done generally. The first step is to go to the website and to read under “about us”. Then choose companies that are not new, as it is a guarantee that the company is stabile and will not disappear with your money. Next, look, whether a license is granted; many major companies that provide access to the Forex market provide on the site as much information as possible about themselves. After that, see the conditions for access to the Forex market. If the company provides too favorable conditions, then you can start having doubts about it. If the company takes great commissions, night, spread, etc., I am hardly going to work with it. Next, you should go to the “news”, and read the pace of its development and its state at the moment. After that, study the software, because through it you will work daily on the Forex market. As you visit the company forum, read the reviews about the company. If you are satisfied with everything, go to the “opening of the account,” read the contract, and if you feel that you like it, open the account and start trading on the Forex market.

With time, as you will earn on Forex market, be sure to open another 2-3 accounts and play on them in turn. This will be a guarantee that if the company closes, you will not be left in the idiots, because you will already be able to return all the money invested and take more from the company. It is done like this: Suppose you invested 3000 rubles on the Forex market, won 3100 on top of it and lifted them to your bank account. Now, you’re already a winner, even if the company closes, you will get all your money back and even take some amount from it as well.

When you select a company and come to the Forex market, it is high time to start earning. The Forex market differs from the stock market and bonds. Its major difference is its technology and its availability. The Forex market is easily accessible. It is more complicated to get on the stock market.

There are two ways of profiting on the Forex market:

To place bets on the event. Thus, currency EUR/USD at 10:00 will be higher than 11:00. There are companies that are doing it.

Have profit from each item of traffic. That is, if the opening bid EUR/USD was at around 1.1200, and after an hour would be at around 1.1220, then for every point of traffic, you lose or win money. If the contract was purchased on the increase, then you’ve earned 20 points (spread not included), but if you opened up for a fall, then you have lost 20 points. The amount of one item is chosen by you. The more money invested in the Forex, the more expensive the point.

On the stock market the scheme is a little different, but it will not be discussed here. The main task here is to learn how to earn on Forex market.

Forex is only a schedule that reflects the expectations of millions of people. Some are involved in the trade, showing their expectations, while others sit and wait for the right moment, also showing their expectations. Forex Market is people’s market. If not for the traders (all who carry out transactions on the Forex market), graphics would stop.

Forex market does not wish anyone evil or good, it is indifferent, it does not know anything about you. If you have lost and it is useless to get mad at the Forex market. Better accept it, find the cause of the loss, and do not to repeat it anymore.

Every trader of the Forex market wants to win money, and he does not think of taking it away from you; his winning is paid by the company.

Many articles and books are written on the Forex market so there are just three important points to be mentioned here:

The choice of a mediator between you and the Forex market
Ways to profit on the Forex market
The structure of Forex market.

Banque PSA Finance SA, registered in June 2008 as the financial branch of French auto concern PSA Peugeot Citroen, is going to buy the above mentioned bank. German Deutsche Bank will be the financial consultant from the part of AIG, whereas the Russian unit of CMS will consult the French side.

Other terms of the transaction have not yet been disclosed.

It should be recalled that the net loss of AIG for the Ist quarter of 2009 decreased by 44 per cent and amounted to 4.35 billion dollars, while a year earlier the company recorded a net loss of  7.8 billion U.S. dollars. In doing so, the losses in terms of one share in the I quarter of 2009 amounted to 1.98 dollars while a year ago they were recorded at U.S. 3.09 dollars per share.

The company AIG has been one of the biggest victims of the world financial crisis. In autumn of the last year it was on the brink of bankruptcy, and the government had to actually buy back the entire company, spending tens of billions of dollars. Since then, AIG has begun to restructure, gradually getting rid of its units and moving to a less bulky structure of the company.

In April of this year AIG agreed to the sale of its insurance business named 21st Century Insurance Group to Swiss insurer Zurich Financial Services Group. Under the deal, one of the “daughters” of Zurich Financial will pay 1,9 billion dollars to AIG, of which U.S. $ 1.5 billion will be paid in cash and another 400 million dollars – in the form of debt securities guaranteed by Zurich Insurance Company, the principal operating unit of Zurich Financial.

Thus, an information has been released from the depths of GM that the American company intends to sign a statement of intentions, which does not require any obligations with the Chinese car manufacturer company BAIC, and also with financial investor RHJ. There is no doubt that its goal is to increase the pressure on Magna in order to secure new assignments. For example, GM has started talking again about one desirable option, which is the possibility of buy-back of Opel, a variant that is accepted neither by Magna, nor by the German authorities. Those who are familiar with the situation at GM – Handelsblatt sources claim that the top leadership of the General Motors cherishes the hope that after the bankruptcy of GM it can restore its former strength, and may again purchase back Opel.

In his turn, the head of the Savings Bank (Magna partner in the transaction) German Gref said on Friday at a meeting of shareholders of the Bank that if General Motors made the new terms of the transaction of Opel acceptable for the Bank, then by the most optimistic scenario, the transaction may be concluded in September 2009. According to him, intensive consultations are currently undergoing with the shareholders fo the auto concern, and an agreement of purchase between Sberbank and the owners of Opel may be concluded in July this year. Meanwhile, Magna, according to the sources of the German media, said the purchase of Opel with the new requirements of GM would not be possible.

Absolute certainty that the transaction between Magna – Opel will take place, does not exist also in the Ministry of Economy of Germany. It is no coincidence that the head of the board of trustees for the trust management of Opel Fred Irwin pointed out in an interview with Handelsblatt that the statement of intent signed between Magna and General Motors is not legally binding and does not oblige to anything, and that new applicants for the purchase of Opel were welcome.

Thus, some extra time is needed in the tugging for Opel. The Chinese delegation from BAIC is continuing intensive study of financial records of the German carmaker in its headquarters in Ryusselshayme and active talks are taking place with the managers of Opel. What may spur them is that another Chinese company – Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., may abandon the purchase of brand Hummer from General Motors because of the dissatisfaction of the regulatory authorities of China with the deal, because Beijing is pursuing a policy aimed at reducing energy consumption and manufacturing low-cost, economical cars.

Yet much says in favor of the fact that in the end the choice will be made all the same in favor of Magna, in fact negotiations with the Canadian-Austrian corporation are in a much more advanced stage compared to those with other competitors. Yes, and GM understands that, because of the difficult economic situation of Opel the time to negotiate of the Americans is not unlimited.

The point is that the German government interim loan that is given to Opel, which has millions of dollars in losses every day, will only last until the autumn, insiders believe. And the political apex of Germany is seeking to make a final decision on the Opel before 27 September, that is, before the German parliamentary elections.

As a result of the deal, the shares of the ownership will be distributed as follows: 40 per cent of the shares will go to Porsche and the family Pitch that owns it, 20 per cent will go to the owners of the land of Lower Saxony, a major holder of shares of Volkswagen, 15 per cent of the shares will become the property of Qatar, that wishes to make a partial investment in the deal, and 5 per cent will go to an unnamed investment fund. And nothing is reported about what will happen to the remaining 20 per cent.

Management of Porsche has to decide whether it agrees to such an option or not until the end of July of this year. In case of a negative decision from the part of Porsche, the management of Volkswagen will require payment of the loan of 700 million euros provided by VW to Porsche in order to stabilize its financial situation.

It should be recalled, that Porsche, which is a relatively small producer of sports cars, has pursued an ambitious goal of absorption of the largest auto concern in Europe over the past years.

Last autumn, Porsche announced that it had acquired options to buy 75 per cent stakes of Volkswagen, but it still owns only 51 per cent of securities of the group. In pursuit of its aim Porsche gained a debt of 9 billion euros, and was forced to abandon the idea of full control of VW.

Instead, the companies have agreed to merge, the exact formula of which has not yet been able to be developed.

Brazil is not against dedollarization of the global financial system and trade, but this process should take place gradually, through a “safe action”, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil Celso Amorim.
“I do not know whether the world is ready to say “let’s replace the dollar with special drawing rights (SDR) or something similar”, but why should not we go in the direction of this?” – S. Amorim told reporters at the UN headquarters.
According to the Brazilian minister, the rapid abandonment of the dollar as the world main reserve currency would be terribly wrong as the leading developing countries keep their international reserves in dollars, transmits Reuters.
Earlier, China and Russia advocated the development of a new, more equitable and balanced international monetary system, in which national reserve currencies could take the place of the dollar.
However, economists note that in the foreseeable future, the dollar is unlikely to be removed from its dominant position in international finance.

The U.S. GDP in the I quarter of 2009 decreased by 5.5 per cent according to the final data. The data was presented on Thursday, June 25, by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Analysts expected that the decline in GDP would be about 5.7 per cent. That was the number that previously was reported.
The fall in U.S. GDP was 6.3 per cent in the IV quarter of 2008 .
Growth of GDP deflator was confirmed at 2.8 per cent, and turnover rates were revised downward: in the final data, export fell by 30.6 per cent (previous data was by 28.7 per cent) and import went down by 36,4 per cent (previously a decline of 34.1 per cent was reported). The decline of export was the biggest one since 1969. And the decline of imports – since 1937.
The base price index PCE (not taking into account the costs for energy and food) rose by 1.6 per cent according to the final data. Data on the growth of consumer spending slightly adjusted downward in the I quarter of this year – to 1.4 per cent instead of the previously announced 1.5 per cent.
Business investment declined by 37.3 per cent, investment in real estate went down by 38.8 per cent.

American auto concern Ford, the only one of the Detroit three which was able to avoid bankruptcy, will still receive almost 6 billion U.S. dollars from the government. That, however, is not for the purpose of saving the company from bankruptcy: Ford will receive funding for the development of «green» technology. Analysts, however, note that any credit from the government will support the auto company during the crisis.

The money will be allocated by the Ministry of Energy in accordance with the Energy Bill, adopted back in 2007, by which auto concerns are required to increase the fuel efficiency of their cars by 40 per cent by 2016. For this purpose concessional loans of U.S. 25 billion dollars are allocated; in addition to Ford other auto companies of the United States will also receive government support – Nissan will receive U.S. $ 1.6 billion under the organization of the release of electric vehicles in the country. Tesla will receive a further U.S. $ 465 million for manufacturing electric sport cars. As for Ford, it will be provideded 5.9 billion U.S. dollars for the purpose of modernization of 11 of its plants in five states, that according to the company, will increase the efficiency of 2 million cars a year, as well as for developing its own electric cars.

Representatives of the American Ministry of Energy also said that they are conducting negotiations in order to provide loans from the Chrysler eco-funds, and they intend to begin negotiations with GM, when the company emerges from bankruptcy procedures.

Economics of the EU can not cope with the sharp increase of government expenses directed at combating the crisis and maintaining the growing number of unemployed, said the latest report of the European Commission. The Commission calls on EU countries to sharply tighten financial discipline so that the economic growth does not stall when the economic recession comes to the end.

In 2009-2010 the total anticrisis package of the EU countries made 600 billion euro (5 per cent of EU GDP). However, according to the recent European Commission report, this amount may become very small compared to the one when the European banking sector enters, which, according to authors of the study will range from 2.75 per cent to 16.5 per cent of the GDP of the EU. The outcome depends on many factors, but the study of 49 financial crises that have occurred in the world since 1970, says that on average the figure will be about 13 per cent of GDP of the EU.

In addition, the heavy burden of keeping a growing number of unemployed people has also fallen on the state budget : according to studies unemployment in the EU will reach 11 per cent in 2010. Its contribution has also made the demographic situation: Europe is becoming «old», and the burden of pensions has also been put on the shoulders of the treasury. As a result, the average debt of the EU could rise to 80 per cent of GDP next year, compared with 60 per cent in 2007. «The latest statistics says that the EU economy is still very fragile and vulnerable», – said economist of the National Bank of Australia David Tinsli. In June PMI business activity index rose much less than were the expectations of experts – by 0,4 per cent to 44,4 per cent. And while it remains no more than 50 per cent, it indicates a continuing decline.

However, until now there is nothing to please them with. At the beginning of the week the World Bank (WB) published another negative forecast that the world economy will decline to 2.9 per cent this year. This projection finally frustrated investors and caused a sharp decline in world stock and commodity markets.

Meanwhile, just a few weeks ago, the investors and market participants were almost full of happiness. The American market had grown by about 40 per cent for the past few months, as investors had believed in the ending of the crisis and the imminent recovery of the global economy. However, the forecast WB deprived the investors of their dreams for happiness, and earlier this week the U.S. stock market closed with the biggest loss over the past two months, and the index S & P 500 dropped below the levels at which it concluded the last year.

The U.S. dollar managed to win back its losses slightly against the backdrop of heightened optimism; and the U.S. currency quotes grow each time the world market shares fall. “At the moment, all allegations of an early restoration of the world economy seem to be at least debatable. The market feels uncomfortable and this discomfort is reflected in the value of the shares”, – said Citigroup analyst Shiyam Devani.

In her turn, Tullett Prebon economist Lena Komileva believes that the recent rally in commodity and stock markets was due not just because of the positive economic statistics. According to her, after the gradual stabilization of the global economy, investors finally freely sighed and began to buy up shares of companies and commodity assets this spring . “But we should not forget that the stabilization and recovery are not synonymous. Until the financial markets get out of the crisis, it is not worth waiting for the restoration of the world economy ,” – adds the expert.

This assertion is difficult to be disagreed with. All the actions taken by the world’s Central Bank to exit the crisis has not yet yielded virtually any results. Moreover, as the head of Johnson-Illington Advisors, Hugh Johnson pointed correctly, consumers sell all that they can and reduce their spendings instead of increasing it. “It is hard to imagine the economic recovery in such circumstances”, – added the analyst. He estimated that the growth in the American economy could only begin by this year’s end, and that it would be extremely weak. “I think the world’s equity markets will adjust even at least by 5-15 per cent”,- he said.

It seems that this point of view is shared by the leading specialist for Harris Private Bank Investment Jack Ablin. According to him, the recent stock market rally was just another correction, and now “everything has returned to its own place.” Indeed, the investors are not too pleased with the statistics: unemployment in the United States is at the level of 26-year peak, while European banks, according to ECB estimates, will write off at least 283 billion U.S. dollars this year.

Strategists the French bank BNP Paribas believe that in order to return the confidence of the investors of the FED, which carries out the functions of the Central Bank of the United States, it should be understood that discount rates will remain unchanged in the nearest future. However, it should be noted that the lower refinancing rate will not have the best impact on the U.S. currency and may even eventually trigger a sharp rise in inflation. “In any case, the U.S. legislators will have to decide what is more important – economic growth or astable dollar,” – concluded the leading market analyst of FX Solutions Jozeph Trevizani.

ZeniMax Media, which is the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, the developer of computer games TES and Fallout 3, announced about the acquisition of a not less famous and serious company IDSoftware, which is the developer of Doom, Wolfenstein and RAGE.

However, the new acquired company did not not become a place for innovations or changes. Representatives of ZeniMax Media have officially stated that there will not be any personnel changes at ID Software – Todd Hollenshead and John Carmack have signed long-term contracts and will continue to remain at the helm, and the id Software will continue to work in its usual mode.

CEO of ID Software Hollenshid Todd commented on the deal: “This is a unique opportunity for our team to merge with a smart and powerful editor, such as Bethesda Softworks, where the interests of studios and publishers will be fully coordinated in the process of development and marketing. In addition, we will now have serious financial and business resources to support the future growth of ID Software, and also amny enormous benefits, and as a result of that deal our fans will get more quality games. “

“This transaction offers excellent prospects to move forward for id Software ” – said John Carmack. “Now we have every opportunity to grow and expand our franchises under one roof, with all the promising practices of various groups. I am very happy for the deal.”

Russia and Venezuela signed an agreement establishing a joint bank with an authorized capital of up to 4 billion U.S. dollars some days ago. The document was signed by the outcome of the negotiations that were conducted between the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Venezuelan Vice President Ramón Alonso Karrisalesa, when the latter visited the capital of the Russian Federation Moscow the day before the negotiations.
As Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin explained to reporters the bank will be established on the basis of Eurofinance-Mosnarbanka. Its current shareholders have agreed to assign part of their shares in favor of Venezuela.

It is highly expected that the Venezuelan side of the bank’s new shareholders will include the State Treasury and the Bank of the Venezuelan oil corporation. The founder of the Bank from the Venezuelan side could become the Venezuelan Petroleum Corporation or the state development fund.
It is anticipated that the bank will be created in the course of this year. The share of Russia will most likely be 51% and it will be controlled by the bank VTB and Gazprombank.
According to D. Pankin, the bank will participate in the financing and implementation of many joint programs and projects between Russia and Venezuela. The headquarters of the new bank will be located in the capital of the Russian Federation – Moscow.

“I think that in the long run, this problem may actually become relevant. However, it can affect the shares of Visa and MasterCard even now” – said the expert Citigroup Donald Fandetti. Concerns about this law have already made their contribution in a 10 per cent decline in the shares of Visa and a 5 per cent decline in the securities of MasterCard for the last month. Their shares are very likely to fall in price further, analysts believe. “The Bill will pull down the stocks at least as long as we do not have any clarity,” – considers the representative of Cowen & Co company Moshe Katri.
It is also worth noting that the bills on the service charge that are now under discussion may be a supplement to the recent law, which approves limiting fees and interest rates on credit cards. The new bill will give wholesalers and retailers the opportunity to discuss service charges with banks. This bill came as a result of longstanding complaints from the owners of shops that banks operate in a conspiracy, set the fee structure, and do not allow the sellers to negotiate with Visa and MasterCard.

Service charges have increased by 14 per cent to about 48 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for approximately 1.75 per cent of the total amount of purchases just on the basis of the last year. In their turn, Visa and MasterCard have said that merchants have an opportunity to discuss the reduction of charges with them. In doing so, companies that issue credit cards add that they will not be affected by the new law because they are not engaged in levying service charges.

“It is very unlikely that the Congress will regulate the service fees by law or will set prices”, – says the president of Visa of North America, William Shidi. In his turn, the President of MasterCard in the U.S. market Makvilton Chris wonders whether the American government is planning to enter the game in order to control the price in the free market. “In the end, this is a price control, and it is not very good”, – adds K. Makvilton.

It should be recalled that in late May, U.S. President Barack Obama signed a law protecting the rights of holders of credit cards. The new law restricted the right of the card issuers to increase interest rates and commissions, and ordered them to inform clients about changes in the terms of the contract in advance. The official name of the document is The act of accountability, responsibility and information disclosure in the industry of credit cards.

Stock trades ended mainly by growth in the United States on June 19. High-tech companies closed with mixed session. Quotations of the world’s largest software manufacturer Microsoft Corp. increased by 2.43%, after analysts of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended to add it to the list of companies whose securities have assured purchase. At the same time, shares of Apple Inc., that had marketed a new model of its popular phone iPhone, added to the price by 2,65%. Meanwhile, the value of the shares of its competitor Research In Motion Ltd. decreased by 4.92% as the company’s earnings guidance for the II quarter of this year were below analysts’ expectations.

Shares of manufacturer of fiber-optic networks Ciena Corp. went straight up by 8.27%, after analysts Stifel Nicolaus & Co. increased the recommendation for them to “buy”.

Against the background of declining prices of raw materials paper prices of energy companies went cheaper. Quotations of the world’s largest oil company, ExxonMobil declined by 0.55%, while the shares of the smaller representative sector Chevron went cheaper by 0.54%.

At the same time, the share prices of the United States largest cruise operator Carnival Corp. went up by 7.39% , after analysts Wachovia Corp. recommended the paper of the company to be purchased.

Favored bidding closed for the companies of the financial sector. JPMorgan Securities, and Bank of America went up by 2.43% and 2.48% respectively, and quotes Wells Fargo rose by 2.07%.

As a result of trades Dow Jones index fell by 15.87 points (-0.19%) – up to 8539.73 points. NASDAQ Index rose by 19.75 points (1.09%) – up to 1827.47 points and S & P – by 2.86 points (0.31%) – up to 921.23 points on 19 June .

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hopes that the oil prices will increaseto $ 100 per barrel. Thus he has asked for help from Russia. The Venezuelan president wrote a letter to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, which calls for “the unity of major oil-producing countries”, transmits Associated Press.
According to U. Chavez, the Vice-President of Venezuela Ramon Karrisalesthe, arriving in Moscow on 22 June will take the message from the Russian head of state.
The export of crude oil makes 93% of the export structure of Venezuela. The drop in oil prices from their peak of $ 147 per barrel in the last year was a painful hit to the revenues of Venezuela, and also led the Russian government to redraw the budget seriously.
At the last trading session in New York crude oil futures prices for Light Sweet closed at around 69.55 U.S. $ / bbl.

World market prices for oil declined on the basis of bidding at the leading oil exchanges on 19 June 2009. Official prices of oil futures next month of delivery were:
in London on InterContinental Exchange Futures – IPE e-Brent Crude Futures Electronic – 69,19 (-1,87) $ / barrel. in New York for the New York Mercantile Exchange – Light, Sweet Crude Oil – 69,55 ( -1.82) U.S. $ / bbl.
During the last day the price rose – the purchase of oil has been attributed to the fact that during the period 12-16 June, the price of oil futures declined more significantly than they have subsequently increased over the last two trading days (17 and 18 June), which technically allowed market participants to continue to enhance the game.
However, the main factor in the fall of the value of “black gold” was the information that stocks of gasoline had substantially increased over the past week in the United States.
It should be recalled that, as of June 12, stocks of gasoline in the United States rose to 3.4 million barrels for the week, exceeding the expectations of industry experts by nearly six times.

Pharmaceutical Industry of the United States is prepared to spend 80 billion dollars over 10 years for the reform of American health care, which is being developed by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Democrat Senator Max Bokus has managed to negotiate with pharmaceutical associations on the bill on the reform to transfer part of program costs on the shoulders of businesses, passes Associated Press.
The agreement between the White House, lawmakers and the pharmaceutical industry should facilitate access to prescription drugs for millions of older Americans and reduce costs of the federal government.
B. Obama welcomed the agreement that was reached by the senator and pharmaceutical companies, describing it as a “turning point” in improving the national health system.
The current U.S. public health system, by the general view of American politicians, is imperfect and is in need of immediate reform. Approximately 46 million people in the country are not covered by a health insurance program, the budgetary costs of Medicaid and Medicare programs are growing at a daunting pace and the budget already has a huge deficit.
Congressmen, working on the reform bill, hope that the cost of the plan will not exceed 1 trillion U.S.

Reports on the proposed sale of Volvo appeared last year. A number of buyers claimed for the Swedish company, most likely of which were automobile corporations of China and the consortium of European investors. Geely said earlier that it wanted to gain access to technology and the dealer network of Volvo.

The biggest concern among the fans of Volvo is the question whether the current image of the Swedish car as one of the safest in the world will remain. According to the expert of the London School of Economics Thomas Kirhmayera, by buying the leading European car brands, the Chinese are seeking new technologies in order to strengthen their presence in the global market. «The Future of Volvo depends on what strategy the Chinese will choose. They can minimize the production in Europe and transport equipment to their country or leave everything on their places, – the expert said. – However, several signs indicate that they will keep the production in Europe».

Perhaps, Volvo will remain in its usual form thanks to all the strict requirements from Ford. The company warned that the future owner of Volvo must fully comply with the tradition of the brand. There can be no compromise regarding this issue, as opposed to the price. In 1999, Ford bought the Swedish company for more than 6.4 billion dollars, but since the rumors in the market about a possible sale of the brand its value has ranged from 1.2 billion to $ 3 billion. Net loss of Volvo amounted to U.S. $ 510 million in the first quarter of this year. « It is the best time for the Chinese to acquire foreign companies against the backdrop of world recession », – is confident Jia Singuan, the analyst of the leading Chinese National Automotive Industry Consulting and Development Corp.

For Geely brand Volvo is useful not only in the struggle for European consumers, but also for the domestic market of China. Unlike the American brands, the European ones, including Volvo, are known and popular among the Chinese. According to forecasts, in spite of the crisis sales of cars in China will grow by 17% and exceed 10 million units this year. Geely has already doubled its sales, bringing them up to 101 thousand cars from January to May.

The U.S. government implemented payments through TARP program after the bankrupt of Lehman Brothers shocked the financial markets last fall. 125 billion U.S. dollars were allocated in order to help major banks, which had to be sufficient during the current economic crisis.

Despite the fact that the banks’ return of their previous emergency government financial help demonstrates their strength, it is too early to talk about full recovery of American, as well as European banks: stock rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S & P) downgraded the rating of 18 U.S. banks.

«Prospects for the industry are very dark», – commented S & P analyst Rodrigo Kvintanilla on the event. This action affected, in particular, the fourth-largest U.S. bank Wells Fargo, which credit ability was evaluated to level AA- by S & P.

S & P is painting a gray picture also for the banks in Europe. «We expect the volume of reserves to grow significantly in order to cover potential risks in the loan business», – said analyst Scott Boogie,” which predicts that the delays in repayments in many European countries will double this year compared with the ones of the last year. According to the calculations of S & P, the 50 largest banks in Europe consolidated 128 billion euro as a reserve to cover potential risks in the loan business last year.

Experts of S & P believe that the banking sector in Europe and the U.S. will face some serious changes. «Industry is on the verge of aggressive changes, and in all likelihood, we will witness some dramatic shifts», – emphasized Mr. Kvintanilla.

Significant changes in Russian corporate bonds are not observed. The negativity of the United States is continuing to push on the market, but the correction has only been viewed in the long segment of the curve Eurobonds, notes Promsvyazbank.

According to the IC “Troika Dialog”, Eurobonds of oil and gas sector fell against the backdrop of falling oil prices on Wednesday. For example, TNK-BP – 17 dropped to 80.75, while TNK-BP – 18 – to 85.25. The price of the recently posted release RSHB-14 (9 per cent) decreased to 101.25, compared with the level of 101,750-101,875 observed a few days earlier. Eurobonds of “Vympelcom” continued to decline, increasing the losses which had incurred in the previous three days. VimpelCom-16 dropped to 87.50. The price of VimpelCom-18 also fell – to 87.50. Evraz-13 dropped in price to 80.375; however, as it is supported by Russian investors, the price did not go below that point.

On Wednesday, the details of the possible new issue of Eurobonds VTB were announced: it will be 7-year notes with a 3-year option “put”. The amount of the loan will make amount 1-2 billion dollars. The coupon is expected to be on the level of 9 per cent. According to experts of MDM Bank, the investors could like the new release.

Meanwhile, analysts of IC “Troika Dialog” think that the expected coupon rate of 9 per cent and a three-year offer for early redemption of the paper will “rise” in the yield curve of traded Eurobonds VTB, without any premium. The News ruined the mood of the market. This is especially in contrast with the new release of Rosselkhoz, which completed the deployment last week. It should be recalled that the volume of applications for the bonds of the latter exceeded the offer five times, and the pent-up demand spilled on the secondary market and contributed to the growth of other securities of the issuer.

Of course, large-scale crisis plans of the authorities had their effect, and investors are gradually beginning to return their confidence. But some experts warn that the crisis is not yet finished, and soon many banks will have to write off their assets. This is particularly true of European banks, underscore the market participants.

According to estimates of some analysts, European banks will have to cancel orders of about $ 280 billion of bad assets over the next year and a half, and a lot will depend on their ability to attract new capital. “Banks should be able to earn money and solve their problems. Investors’ attitudes to them depend largely on these skills, – said bank analyst of Hugh baths Shtinis Morgan Stanley. – Of course, investors are asking how many banks will need time to recover from the crisis”. In early March shares of European banks fell to their lowest level over the past 17 years. Then they were able to somewhat balance their decline and the growth of bank securities in Europe grew by about 20% during the period of this year. However, we should not forget that in the event of a panic among investors the quotes of companies of the banking sector may once again collapse; even though the threat of collapse of the European banking system is left behind. Meanwhile, rating agency S & P warned earlier this week that the financial environment still leaves much to be desired, and that not all European financial groups will survive the current crisis. “Earlier this week, another rating agency Moody’s downgraded the ratings of 25 European banks. Among the “low” rated banks were Spanish bank BBVA, German Deutsche Bank, French BNP Paribas and a huge number of smaller banks. In turn, UBS analyst John-Paul Kratchli notes that the European banking sector still “lacks capital.”

The most interesting thing is that U.S. banks have managed to attract new capital much better than the European ones have done. For example, during the period of this year European banks have attracted about 42 billion dollars of new capital. Last year the figure was 126 billion dollars. For comparison: the U.S. banks attracted 68 billion U.S. dollars only during this quarter. And there is every reason to assume that the European banks will have to try to find the money as soon as possible.

In May, the number of permits issued for construction of new homes rose by 4% – up to 518 thousand units compared to April. The number of permits for the construction of new homes declined by 47% in May 2009 compared to May last year.

According to the report of API, oil reserves of energy in the United States were characterized by the following week changes as of June 12:
- Crude oil: reserves fell by 1.262 million barrels and amounted to 356.634 million barrels;
- Gasoline: stocks rose by 2.140 million barrels, and amounted to 207.694 million barrels;
- Heavy distillates (fuel oil and diesel fuel): stocks rose by 881 thousand barrels and amounted to 151.545 million barrels.

Import of crude oil rose by 832 thousand barrels per day – up to 9.350 million barrels per day.

Even before the opening of the trading session, the U.S. Department of Commerce (US Department of Commerce) reported a sudden increase in construction of new homes. According to the data, this index increased by 17.2% – up to 532 thousand units in May compared with that of the previous month. This is significantly better than the expectations of analysts, which forecasted a growth of up to 500 thousand units, and it allowed bidders to forget about the recession for some time. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Labor of the States (US Department of Labor) reported that industrial prices (index PPI) of the United States increased by 0.2% in May 2009 compared to the previous month, while analysts had expected growth rate by 0.7%.

Positive news from the housing market was somewhat balanced by a greater-than-expected decline in industrial production in the United States in May. The indicator has decreased by 1.1% in monthly terms, while experts predicted a decline of 0.9-1%.

At the end of the trading day Dow Jones index fell by 107.46 points (-1.25 per cent) – up to 8504.67 point, NASDAQ – by 20.20 points (-1.11 per cent) – up to 1796.18 point, S & P – by 11.45 points (-1.27 per cent) – up to 911.97 points.

The Government of Germany and the authorities of the German lands, where the main businesses of Opel are located, approved the investment plan of Canadian-Russian consortium.
Magna and Sberbank claim for a controlling stake of Adam Opel GmbH, which combines Opel and its sister brand Vauxhall. Under the plan of Magna, General Motors will retain a share of 35% in the Opel, another 35% will have Sberbank, 20% – Magna, and the remaining 10% will be owned by Opel employees.
Capital infusions of new investors in Opel should make about 500-700 million euro. The industrial partner for Opel, as planned, will become “GAS” group. Canadian Magna International expects to complete the transaction for the purchase of Opel by September 2009.

It should be recalled that the German authorities approved the provision for the European Branch of the American auto concern General Motors – General Motors Europe bridge loan of 1.5 billion euros on 1 July this year.
With that German automaker Opel and British Vauxhall will continue to operate regardless of the bankruptcy of the American parent company. In the next five years, Opel plans to increase itsannual sales volume of cars up to 2 million units.

Troy ounce of gold became cheaper by U.S. $ 13.2 on COMEX on June 15, and it resulted to the fact that the official price of gold fell by a further 1.4% on the market. Reducing the price of gold was due to a visible strengthening of the dollar in world currency market. Dollar Index (spot), reflecting the change of exchange rate of the American dollar to the “basket” of six leading world currencies, rose by 1% for the first time in the past three weeks on June 15, which exceeded the point 81.

The dollar went up compared to the euro and other currencies except the Japanese yen, making the buying of gold unattractive. The increased investment demand for the dollar, as believed by experts, has caused a statement by the Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation Alexei Kudrin at a meeting of G8 finance ministers in Lecce (Italy), that it is too early to look for an alternative to the dollar, which will still remain the principal reserve currency in the world.

Oil prices fell by an average of 2% in stock markets on June 15, which technically also helped the gold price reduction. Over the past two trading days the price of gold on COMEX has fallen to 34.5 U.S. $ per ounce, or by 3.4%, which was also due to a lack of fresh investment in physical gold.

The reserves of gold of the world’s largest specialized investment fund SPDR Gold Trust did not change and amounted to 1 thousand tons 132.15 as of June 15. This is the lowest point since May 29. It should be recalled that the gold of SPDR Gold Trust had reached a new record value – 1 thousand 134.03 tons on June 1, but since that day it has fallen to 1.88 tons.

The price of silver on COMEX fell to its lowest level over the past three weeks on June 15. Thus, the official price of silver in relation to its active futures (July) amounted to 14.030 U.S. $ per ounce. This is the lowest point since May 18 of this year, the price of transactions with silver settled in the range of 14.030-14.875 U.S. $ per ounce.

Troy ounce of silver became cheaper by 84.5 cents on COMEX on June 15, and as a result the official price of silver fell by 5.6% on that day. The price of silver on COMEX has remained below 15 USD per ounce for the last two trading days. Over the past two sessions the price of silver fell by nearly 1.5 U.S. $ per ounce, or about by 10%, which was technically due to falling prices for gold and copper.

It should be recalled that the price of gold lost 3.4% over the past two trading days. At the same time, the price of copper fell by 6.5% on COMEX since the second half of the last week, which in combination provided a decreased demand for silver and its sale.
The price of platinum fell by 3.6% on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) on June 15 and settled at its lowest level over the past two weeks. The official price of platinum with respect to its active futures (July) amounted to 1,213.7 U.S. $ per ounce. This is the lowest point since May 29 of this year, and the prices of transactions settled in the range 1206.1-1255.9 U.S. $ per ounce.

The price of palladium fell by 3.2% on NYMEX on June 15 and settled below $ 250 per ounce for the first time in one and a half weeks. Thus the official price of palladium amounted to 246.00 USD per ounce with respect to its active futures (September). This is the lowest point since June 3. The prices of transactions settled within the range 243.00-253.25 USD per ounce. The reduction of the price of palladium has continued since the beginning of this week. Troy ounce of palladium became cheaper during one day by U.S. $ 8.10 on NYMEX on June 15. As a result the price of palladium fell nearly by 13 U.S. $ per ounce, or nearly by 5% over the last three trading days.

The drop in the price of palladium was technically due to a general weakening in demand for precious metals, primarily in platinum. At the same time, it should be noted that the price of palladium settled higher than the prices of other precious metals on the basis of the trading day. Thus, the price of palladium became at its lowest level for one and a half weeks on June 15.

As the leadership of GM announced, Opel needs the assistance of European governments in the amount of about 3.3 billion euros, as well as a new investor for its survival. German automakers want to become an independent European joint stock company in which GM’s shares will be minimal. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged to provide guarantees for the new investor. According to the head of GM Fritz Henderson, business GM Europe, 80% consisting of Opel, thanks to the introduction of eko premium is doing better than expected. Liquidation of GM in the European unit is likely to last until the end of the year.

Meanwhile GM’s hopes for the new investor in Europe are strengthening. «I am very encouraged», – said the head of the council of general productiveness of Opel Klaus Franz to the newspaper Handelsblatt, after the auto giant described the success in finding investors. As Mr. Henderson said during the teleconference, he had already talked with more than half a dozen applicants for the German automakers. Among the potential buyers are financial investors, and some auto concerns. According to Fritz Henderson, now they have the financial statements of the company. Commerzbank, which has attracted German automakers to seek investors, recently posted the first part of the documents to potential buyers to increase their interest.

Recently, an Italian newspaper reported about the interest in Opel by the Italian auto company Fiat. The head of the supervisory board of Fiat Luca Cordero, however, refuted this information. As the head of GM said, he believes that one of the major challenges is the restoration of the competitiveness of the American concern: «If we have to do this through the bankruptcy, we will do it». The U.S. government is obliged to the automaker to settle billions of dollars of claims by creditors and the union UAW until the end of May. «The clock is ticking», – Mr. Henderson is forced to recognize. Detroit auto concern has already received 13.4 billion dollars from the state, without which it would not survive. According to the edition of Detroit News, the U.S. government is going to approve an additional 5 billion USD for the short-term help to GM this week. Its rival Chrysler can get support from the state in the amount 500 million dollars.

The financial results of VW in the first quarter exceeded expectations of the experts so much, that the company, that has become very optimistic, cautiously forecasts growth throughout 2009. At the motor show in Shanghai, Mr. Vinterkorn introduced the latest versions of popular models of Volkswagen, as the Golf and Passat. Now China is the biggest market for VW. In 2008, the concern was able to sell 1.02 million vehicles here (8.6% more than the previous year). By 2018 the automaker from Bayer plans to double sales volume. Audy company has a similar case. The automaker from Ingolstadt predicts a serious increase in the Chinese market. As the head of Audi Rupert Stadler said, the company expects to increase sales to 200 thousand cars per year by 2015. Last year the company became the most successful one among the producers of premium-class cars in the Chinese market, realizing 120 thousand cars. This year the company is also doing rather well. According to Stadler, «in March record of sales was recorded – 11 800 vehicles, and April was also no less than sensational». At this car show in Shanghai it presents an updated version of Audi Q7.

The main rival of Audi, BMW company has experienced serious shakes in regard with the crisis, but it hopes to remedy the situation by very successful sales in the Chinese market and has high hopes for a stable demand in the Chinese premium class auto market. As the company’s marketing director Ian Robertson said, according to the forecasts of the company sales in 2009 should exceed the ones of the last year (75 thousand cars).

The volume of retail sales in the United States grew by 0.5% in May 2009 compared with that of April and amounted to 339.99 billion dollars. Such data was released on Thursday, June 11, by the US Department of Commerce. Analysts had expected that this figure would increase by 0.6%.

In annual terms, retail sales in the United States decreased by 9.6% in May 2009.

According to revised data, the volume of retail sales decreased by 0.2% in April of this year.

Alliance Oil announced the start of the open placement of convertible bonds for 225 million dollars and shares in the new issue in the form of Swedish Depository Receipts (SDR) for 100 million dollars yesterday. Code Listing of bonds, maturing in 2014, will take place on the Luxemburg Stock Exchange. The loan may be repaid in three years if the price of SDR exceeds 130% of the value of bonds. The papers provide a quarterly coupon rate which will be determined in the range of 6.75 – 7.5%. SDR is expected to remain listed on NASDAQ OMX Nordic. According to a source familiar with the situation, the book of applications will be closed today, it is passing without a price corridor, and the results of the deployment are scheduled to make public on Friday.

In 2008, Alliance Oil (up to May 28, was bearing the name of West Siberian Resources Ltd.; WSR) teamed up with NC «Alliance». The result was a vertically integrated oil company operating in both Russia and Kazakhstan. Its total proven and probable reserves amount to about 65 million tons, the current level of production is about 2.5 million tons of oil annually. By 2011, Alliance Oil plans to add over 4 million tons. The main processing asset is the Khabarovsk oil refinery, which adopted just over 3.3 million tons of oil in 2008. The net profit of WSR amounted to 50.5 million dollars in the first quarter of 2009, a 10% increase over the previous year. Revenue for that period decreased by 40% – from 549 million to 328 million dollars. In doing so, the profitability of WSR in EBITDA and net profit amounted to 30% and 15%, which are better than that of other Russian oil companies.

Alliance Oil demonstrated a good performance in the first quarter, and chose a good moment for the placement of SDR and bonds, says UniCredit Securities analyst Artem Konchin. The decision taken by the owners of the company to enter the market was done taking into account the results of the work, done from the beginning of the year, adds a source in the industry. In the face of oil price rising Alliance Oil may get even more value than stated, believes the analyst of IR «Veles Capital» Dmitry Lyutyagin. Accommodation at a low rate of 6.75-7.5% in the current situation is interesting to the company itself, as before domestic structures tried to take 9.5% annually. «To the investors its an opportunity to continue entering the capital of the company after the conversion of bonds, and a fixed premium of 25-30% which can be realized already within 1-1,5 years can be attractive to them», – considers Mr. Lyutyagin.

Funds received during the planned deployment will be spent on improving the balance sheet and liquidity of the company, as well as reducing short-term debts, expressed in the Alliance Oil. The company needs the proceeds primarily to refinance its short debts, said Artyom Konchin. In the first quarter the debts of Alliance Oil dropped by 27% and amounted to 629 million dollars, 65% of that amount (just under 410 million) is for short-term debts. A big portion of funds – up to 350 million – can go on investment in expanding production, as it is interesting in terms of lower prices for new licenses and settling trades, said Dmitry Lyutyagin. The main investment project of «Alliance» – the modernization of the Khabarovsk oil refinery – will continue through credit guarantees for 700 million dollars, which have already been received from the state insurance agency of Spain CESCE.

According to the current value of the shares of Alliance Oil, the market can be filled with an additional order of 7.3 million shares in addition to existing 161.5 million. This way, the shares of Bazhaev family, that controls nearly 53% of the company’s shares, will fall by slightly more than 2%.

The trade balance was positive in the amount of $ 31.3 billion, which is $ 38.8 billion less than that in January-April 2008. In the trade with foreign countries the balance was equal to $ 24.7 billion (down 34 billion dollars), and with the CIS countries – 6.6 billion dollars (a decrease of 4.8 billion dollars). Export of the Russian Federation in January-April 2009 amounted to $ 77.8 billion as against that of January-April 2008 – a decrease by 47.7%, including export to foreign countries – $ 65.5 billion (down by 48, 1%), and the CIS countries – $ 12.3 billion (down by 45.4%).

“Reduction of the value of Russia’s exports in January-April 2009 was due to a fall in average prices of exported goods and because of the physical volumes of export supplies”, – said FCS. The basis of Russia’s exports in January-April 2009 to foreign countries amounted to fuel and energy goods, the share of which in the commodity composition of exports to these countries amounted to 67.4% (in January-April 2008 – 72.8%).

Imports of Russia in January-April 2009 amounted to $ 46.5 billion, which decreased by 40.9% compared with that of January-April 2008, including from foreign countries – to $ 40.8 billion (down by 39.5%), and from CIS countries – 5.7 billion dollars (a decrease of 48.9%). “Reducing the cost of Russia’s imports in January-April 2009 is due to a decline in average prices of imported goods, and the collapse of their volume”, – said FCS. In commodity composition of imports from foreign countries the share of machinery and equipment accounted for 45.5% in January-April 2009 (in January-April 2008 – 55.5%).

The main trade partners of Russia in January-April 2009 among the foreign countries were: China, trade with which amounted to 10.7 billion dollars, Germany – 10 billion dollars, Netherlands – 9.5 billion dollars, Italy – 8.5 billion dollars, Turkey – 5.7 billion dollars, United States – 4.9 billion dollars, Japan – 4.5 billion dollars, France – 4.5 billion dollars, Finland – 4.1 billion dollars, Poland – 4 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the positive trade balance of Russia on the methodology of the balance of payments in April 2009 decreased by 1.7% over March 2009 and reached 6 billion 688 million dollars, said the report published today by the Bank of Russia. In general, for January-April of this year the surplus was 26.442 billion dollars, which is 2.4 times lower than that of the same period of last year.

At the same time, as compared to April 2008, the trade surplus decreased 2.2 times (from 14 billion 835 million dollars).

Exports of goods from Russia in April 2009 compared with that of March 2009 increased by 0.5% and amounted to 21 billion 279 million dollars. Imports to Russia in April 2009 increased by 1.55% – up to 14 billion 591 million dollars. Export from the Russian Federation decreased by 47.1%, import – by 42.6% Compared with those of April 2008.

Thus, foreign trade turnover on the methodology of the balance of payments in April 2009 amounted to 35 billion 870 dollars, which is 0.9% higher than that in March 2009.

Russian GDP may decline to 6-7% and inflation may become below 10% while maintaining the trend of stabilization in the economy in 2009, predicts Oleg Vyugin, the president of the board of directors of MDM-Bank, ex-head of Federal Financial Markets Service. “If Russia’s economy is going towards stabilization, we can get a reduction of GDP at the level of 6-7% the following years, taking into account the effect of the fourth quarter of 2008. Inflation under such scenario may be less than 10%”, – said Vyugin.

The new work of the RF Ministry of Economic Development forecasts a fall in GDP in Russia by 6-8% this year, a number of officials and experts do not rule out a deeper downturn in the economy. The official forecast for inflation this year is 13%. “I would describe the present situation in the Russian economy as stabilizing. I think later (in the short term) we will flounder somewhere at the current level, which is now reached”, – said Vyugin.

In his view, the projections for the longer term can be built no earlier than autumn of this year. “This is due to the fact that consumers’ and producers’ views on the trends of development of economy and the strategy of their behavior results from the signals that they receive from the economy during a few months. I think that by the fall of this year final opinion on the further development of the Russian Federation can be formed on the model of the letter L, not W, as some think now, “- said Vyugin.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) signed a Memorandum of Understanding. It is aimed at protecting the environment during the preparations for the Olympics and its implementation with the Russian National Committee for the Olympic Games.

Under this Memorandum, UNEP will provide technical support for Russia in its efforts to organize «environmentally friendly» Olympics.

At the signing ceremony the representative of UNEP Teodore Aubin stated that he hoped that the new arrangements would be a sort of guarantee that during preparation and holding of competitions measures will be taken to protect nature in Sochi and the whole Krasnodar region as well.

Organizers of the Olympic Games in Sochi plan to invest 1.75 billion dollars in projects on energy saving and renewable energy. So they want to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from energy use, air travel and other modes of transport. Other environmental initiatives include the development of «green belt» around town and reforestation in the Sochi National Park.

UNEP recalled that in 2008 Russia on the advice of international experts decided to postpone a number of Olympic facilities. In particular, it was decided to find alternative places for the sledge, bobsled track, Olympic Village and the water intake, which were previously planned to be built on the outskirts of the fragile natural Caucasus Reserve.

Then, in 2008, Prime Minister of Russia Vladimir Putin proposed to build «disputed objects» in other places at the meeting on the problems of compliance with environmental requirements in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2014, saying that if their construction violated the environmental system, it could not be restored. «In determining priorities – money or ecology – we choose ecology. If the balance of nature is broken, it can lead to a situation that would be impossible to correct for any money », – said Vladimir Putin.

The head of the UN Environment Program Achim Steiner welcomed the Russian Government’s commitment to environmental sustainability in preparation for the Olympic Games in Sochi. He called the decision of Russia an important step towards the «green» Olympics-2014.

Theodore Aubin stressed that the obligations, enshrined in the new memorandum, would not remain only on paper, because the organizing committee «Sochi-2014» joined UNEP «plant billion trees» project on the day of the signing.

At the same time, experts point out that this union of Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton will be good for their Brazilian rival Vale, as it will strengthen the position of suppliers of iron ore in negotiations with Chinese customers.

In addition, the number of companies participating in the annual price negotiations with steel workers will decline, and it will just happen at the same time when China will be fighting for a greater price declines than the one agreed to by the steel companies of Japan and South Korea.

Upon deciding to merge its iron ore business with BHP Billition, Rio Tinto has already abandoned the sale of the shares to Chinese metallurgical company Chinalco. The cost of the transaction was to amount to 19.5 billion U.S. Experts note that if the transaction took place, China could gain access to the Australian iron ore and even would be able to influence the pricing in this market.

“The establishment of a joint venture of BHP Billition and Rio Tinto is profitable for Brazilian Vale, because it will increase the price discipline. Furthermore, as a result of this transaction the total investment of the two companies in the mining of iron ore will decrease. Thus Vale will be able to boost its presence in the market “- believes the independent analyst Michelle Epplbaum.

It is also worth noting that every year, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Vale negotiate the prices of iron ore with customers, and the total price becomes indicative for the entire industry. Such a system, existsting for 40 years, guarantees the stability in the market, but it becomes less effective with increasing volatility in commodity markets. This year, Japanese and South Korean steel companies agreed on 33% drop in prices, but Chinese demand not less than 40% reduction from last year’s prices. China explains these requirements of high volatility in world commodity markets.

Some analysts say, and that the transaction between the two companies will strengthen the position of Australian suppliers in the Chinese market, because they have an advantage over Vale thanks to geographical proximity and, consequently, lower transportation costs. However, the expert brokerage company Agora Christian Viana believes that the best quality of ore can help the Brazilian company to maintain its position in the Chinese market – the only one in the world where growth in consumption is expected. Anyway, one thing is clear: the fact that what is profitable for iron ore industry will eventually benefit all producers of iron ore, including Vale, conclude market participants.

Statistics of the euro zone, published on Monday, showed growth of investors’ optimism. According to the German research group Sentix, optimistic sentiment of European investors reached the maximum in June of this year. Instead of the expected growth to minus 31.0 points, the rate soared from minus 34.3 points to minus 27.0 points in May.

According to experts Sentix, the main factor in the growth of optimism in business circles in Europe has been the improvement of macroeconomic statistics, released recently in the countries of the euro zone. Against the backdrop of slowing economic downturn, confidence in the region is growing that the worst times of recession are behind us and the beginning of the restoration of economic growth is not far off.

An additional factor that stimulated the optimistic tone of market participants became macroeconomic data, released in Germany. The Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden reported that the volume of Factory Orders in April of this year had not changed in comparison with that of the previous month. In annual terms it fell by 37.1%, while the predicted decline was 33.0%. In the statement the Ministry of Economy of Germany said that the medium-term prospects for the development of the German economy looked much better.

Thus, expectations that the European economy is ready for the start of reconstruction are stepping up the sale of debt obligations of European governments. At the same time, the players prefer to make predictions for short-term outlook, where apparent improvement in the economic situation is not expected. Therefore, by the end of the trading session the short-term debt securities of most European governments showed increase in price as opposed to long-term securities, which fell on the basis of quotes of the day. The leading benchmark of European government bonds showed the following results half an hour before the closing of trading session: yield of 2-year German Bunds rose by 5, 10-year-olds dropped by 4. Spread between 2-year-old and 10-year German Bunds has shrunk from 204 to 195.

According to analysts, the rally in global equity markets may continue until the end of June, as the month is the final one for the second quarter. Consequently, the desire to complete the quarter with the high rates will be determinative for many investment funds. In addition, the yield of long-awaited positive macroeconomic indicators, giving reason to believe that the “bottom” of economic decline of the European region is reached and the beginning of the process of economic recovery is not far off, no doubt, will further catalyze the growth of prices in world stock markets.

But real estate in Bangkok is usually bought by businessmen who are in the capital of Thailand for their business affairs or by employees of major international companies. According to Homes Collection Nigel Kornik, CEO of Raimon Land Company, these investors are attracted by the availability of home prices compared with those of other capitals of Southeast Asia. Singapore, for example, is 8 times more expensive than Bangkok and Hong Kong is ten times more expensive.

It should be remembered that there are some legal restrictions, in which a foreigner can not buy a house in Thailand in his name. In fact, from a legal point of view of the house – it is not only the structure but also the land on which it stands. And by law the land in Thailand can not be sold to a foreigner. The barring can be evaded by the acquisition of the so-called “legal status” – that is, by registering a Thai company. This happens as follows: Thai lawyer, who works with the Agency for Real Estate, registers a legal entity, obtains for it a house and later maintains its case.

Any real estate is a good piece, and the price level even of an apartment in the same house may differ significantly. The real estate market in Thailand in this regard is no exception.
As elsewhere, the price depends on the location of houses, proximity to the sea and shopping centers, transportation accessibility, the quality of the building and its interior design, social environment, infrastructure.

While it is impossible to estimate the average cost per square meter, the lower segment of the market can be considered a house that costs $ 550-950 per sq. m. A little more expensive are single apartments built in the complex on the island of Samui – about $ 55.9 thousand for the 48 sq. m., they are 800 meters from the beach.

In the upper price segment prices start from $ 3200 per sq. m. and are limited only. For example, a small villa on the island of Phuket in the area of residential buildings Laya Tara is offered at a cost of approximately $ 290 thousand for 79 “squares.”

“The economic recession, which is expected in the current year, for the most part, is a consequence of massive disruption in the global economy and the consequent drastic reduction in our exports,” – quotes a leading paper from the speech of Minister of Economics and Technology of Germany Karl-Theodor zu Gutenberg at the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers.

According to him, the two existing government programs to improve conditions allow Germany in a national scale “to survive better” compared with other countries. In this regard, zu Gutenberg sees no benefit in taking the third market program, as called for by some politicians and experts.

“Anyone who believes that we must “add” a third program will get just the opposite effect: undermining the confidence of investors, consumers and taxpayers. Waiting and frustration – this is the last thing our country needs “, – stressed the Minister.

He said that the further stabilization of the banking and financial sector was the main problem in the process of solving the issue of returning the German economy on a course of stable growth.

“So I think that the primary purpose of developing a rapid and effective solution is the isolation of “toxic securities” on bank balance sheets” – said the head of the Ministry of Economy of Germany.

He also expects further decline of exports this year, but also predicts, that the global economy recovery will stabilize in this sector in 2010.

Almost the same predictions, according to experts in the ministry, can be attributed to the construction investment. “The government market program has a direct supporting influence on it,” – it is said in the press release.

Less encouraging forecast is given in the paper for the field of employment: “In the current year, unemployment will increase by an average of 450 thousand and will reach the level of 3.7 million people, and next year it will increase approximately by 900 thousand and will be 4.6 million people.”

The Minister called personal consumption an important stabilizing factor, which in this period will be exposed to only a very slight decline due to short-term program of government (in particular, reduction of tax on incomes of citizens, reduction of the size of mandatory contributions to health insurance, payment of benefits to children and increase of pensions).

Wide economic benchmarks of the spring forecast, as noted in a press release, will be the basis for the planned evaluation of tax revenues, as well as for meetings in the Council of financial planning, in regard with federal budget, land, communities, and contributions to social insurance.

Not so long ago the figure was about 60%. As “RBC daily” writes, the first time since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the XIX Old and New Light will yield the palm to developing countries led by China.

CEBR previously predicted that the economic hegemony of the West would soon end, because even in 2007 China was the third in world economies, but the turning point was named in 2015. After the financial crisis made its adjustments, the process of redistribution of forces in the global economy only increased.

“The Center of the financial crisis is in developed countries, so a recession in the economy of the West is expected. As a result, developing countries, especially China, will increase their share in global GDP this year. This will accelerate the existing trend of moving the economic power from the Group of Seven major Developing States to developing countries”, – said Oxford University economist Linda Yue.

Thus, CEBR expects that China will become world’s second economy this year, thus getting ahead of Japan. The forecast is very realistic, since when the crisis began the Land of the Rising Sun has been experiencing a huge drop in demand for its products.

Analysts point out that all countries are facing the economic recession, but in developing countries it takes place in a mild form. And the recovery process there will be more successful. This can be seen even now. Over the past three months the stock market in Latin America showed an increase of 78%, East Asia (excluding Japan) – rose by 66%. For comparison: American index S & P 500 rose by only 35%.

Bill Gross, the head of one of the world’s largest asset management company Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO), also talked on the precariousness of the economic prospects of the absolute leadership of the U.S. last week. He pointed out that the growing budget deficit and uncertain prospects for further economic growth pose a threat to the highest credit rating (AAA) of the United States, which they currently have.

The Minister of Finance of the United States arrived in China. Economies of the two countries are so tightly linked to each other that any wrong movement can lead to the collapse. Head of Finance of the U.S. came to persuade Chinese colleagues not to do sudden movements.

“A successful transition to a more balanced world economy will require significant advances in the world. But the most important changes must occur in China and the United States. The welfare of the rest of the world will depend on our success. And the effectiveness of U.S. policy in part will depend on China,” – said Gaytner.

But the questions of the effectiveness of this policy make China nervous. All the recent years, the country has bought U.S. treasury bonds – sort of IOU of America. They have always been considered very reliable: after all American economy is backing them. As a result, almost 70% of China’s reserves are located in dollar-denominated assets; their reliability is under big questions now.

And if China suddenly decides to start getting rid of dollar reserves, it is clear that it will be followed by a collapse, which will affect both the United States and China. Because of that the tone of statements is similar to that of ultimatum. “It is in the interest of China that the U.S. economy once again begins to show growth. We will rise or fall together. We are in the same boat, and it is good that we paddle in one direction,” – U.S. Secretary of State declares Hillary Clinton.

But the concern of China in recent years is only growing. The United States are trying to solve all the problems solely by printing new dollars and releasing more and more debt bonds. The last example is the bankruptcy of General Motors. At first glance everything seems to be done by the rules of the market economy: debt restructuring, sale of assets, if it was not for one significant “but” – this is again done with the money of the government. And it is not taken from taxpayers, but is simply done by re-printing and producing U.S. IOU.

A special board in New York shows the astronomical amounts of debt – the United States owes globally more than 11 trillion dollars – to 94 thousand dollars per household. To rescue its economy the United States is going to issue debt receipts for another 3 trillion dollars this year. However, the more they are produced, the more doubts are heard about their reliability. So suddenly oil prices got higher once again – almost of pre-crisis rates; and stock markets are also rising.

This means that it is very difficult to build long-term projections, including budget and schedule of entire countries. Over the past 3 months almost all of the world indices have increased – the Russian stock exchange has risen by 80%, German – by 40%, and the Chinese – by 25%. But one can not exactly say whether that means improvements in the real economy or not.

Dutch bank ING has announced that he ceases to sponsor the team Renault in Formula One. The Bank has supported the Renault and Fernando Alonso in the past few years, but now it comes out of sponsorship for the purpose of saving up. The decision will come into force next season after the current contract ends this year.

New Year continued the trend of the last year. The largest-ever registration performance decline in the production of cars in Spain was recorded in January this year. The disappearance of the demand led to a 53% reduction in relation to the level of last year, and conveyors let out only 123′762 new cars.

The market of commercial vehicles is also in very bad situation. The number of trucks registered in January in Spain was the lowest in history, and compared to last year’s rate was less of about 72%. The organization of employees SEOE asked for donations from the Prime Minister in the amount of € 3′000-12′000 to stimulate sales of industrial vehicles.

Many truck drivers have no choice but to declare themselves bankrupt. During these six months more than 6′000 transportation companies have closed down and many have lost all, faced with a large unpaid traffic and closed doors of private lending institutions. About 200′000 trucks are parked – which make 40% of total truck number in Spain.

The cost of housing in the United States in March fell by 2.2% compared with that in February 2009. In the 1st quarter of 2009, prices fell by 19.1% compared to those of the same period in 2008, which makes it the maximum decrease from the beginning of tracking such data in 2001.

Meanwhile, sales in the secondary housing market in the United States increased in April on annual cost accounting by 2% and reached 4.66 million homes. Such forecast was issued by Bloomberg News after survey of several experts. In March 4.57 million homes were sold.

Currently, the quota for the extraction for 11 countries in the organization (Iraq is not subject to the quota) is set at 24.845 million barrels of oil per day, and most analysts did not expect any changes at the May meeting, reminded the “Interfax”.
As the Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Nuaimi said, OPEC has maintained quotas in anticipation of recovery in demand for oil by the end of this year. Thus, the organization does not change the quota for the second meeting this year.

Meanwhile, the cost of oil since the last OPEC meeting in March has risen by 36%. Recently, crude oil has traded above $ 60 mark per barrel. Before the OPEC meeting the President and Minister of Petroleum of Angola, José Maria de Vasconcelos Botel said that OPEC member countries needed to complete the reduction of oil production in order to achieve full compliance with the quotas, because the cost of oil had not yet reached the desired level of 70-75 dollars per barrel.

Member countries of the Organization have decided to reduce oil production from 1 January 2009 to 4.2 million barrels per day (bpd) compared with the actual level of production in September, which amounted to 29.045 million bpd. However, the April production was 25.81 million bpd, an increase of approximately 225 thousand b/d compared to that of March. This was the first increase in nine months. Thus, the announced reduction of production conducted only at 77%.

OPEC, which accounts for about 40% of the world’s oil supply, is composed of 12 countries: Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Venezuela.

This was stated by EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton following a meeting with Russian Minister of Economic Development Elvira Nabiullina on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

Nabiullina also commented with enthusiasm on the prospects of joining the WTO.

“Indeed, there is a feeling that we are coming to an agreement with the EU. We hope that we will complete major negotiations by the end of the year. We have built a schedule that must be completed by that date” – brings the words of the Minister agency RIA Novosti. She stipulated that an unresolved issue remains in the negotiations with the EU; that is the issue of export duty on Russian forests, which is not beneficial for such European countries as Finland.

Deputy of Nabiullina Maxim Medvedkov, who has headed the Russian delegation in negotiations on the WTO for a long time, pointed out that several months will pass between the completion of negotiations and the actual entry of Russia into the WTO. “We have actually agreed with the EU on the understanding that negotiations would be completed before the end of the year. But between the completion of negotiations and acceptance at least six months will pass” – said Deputy Minister.

Catherine Ashton and the U.S. representative for trade negotiations Ron Kirk are the highest ranked foreign guests of the Forum, where many Russian leaders will have speeches, including President Dmitry Medvedev.

Russia has been negotiating with the WTO member countries more than 10 years. The organization includes 153 countries; all of them must give their consent to the entry of Russia in this organization.

Russia remains the world’s largest economy outside the WTO.

Previously the obstacles for Moscow to become a member of WTO were its strained relations with neighboring countries, such as the introduction of the ban on the importation of wines from Georgia in 2006.

As BNP Paribas Bank President Philippe Delpal told the Russian service of BBC, the main theme of the forum should be the investment climate in Russia. “I would like to know how we should restructure our strategy to conduct business in Russia. How we, foreign investors, can invest more in the country, and how we can create a safer place for investments in Russia”,- explained Delpal.

Organizers have invited over 2 thousand participants to the forum, including representatives of the political elite and leaders of major corporations such as Exxon Mobile, Gazprom, TNK-BP, and ONEKSIM. But shortly before the forum it has been revealed that not all of the invited people will attend the program. “The crisis is not the best time to overspend” felt heads of international corporations, and stayed home.

But even those who come are unlikely to listen to the recommendations of the forum on the crisis. The program, offered by the organizers, at first glance, is large: there is a session to discuss the causes of the crisis, its impact on different sectors of business, even the history of previous crises, and there are also planned roundtables for the companies in banking sector, oil, transport, and even film.

The forum members give particular attention to the subject of reserve currency. Opinions about the fact that dollar, as such, needs to have an alternative appear increasingly in recent times. A few weeks ago, representatives of China and Brazil discussed the possibility of using national currencies instead of dollar in trade transactions.

In general, however, from the 13th Economic Forum in St. Petersburg experts and analysts are not waiting for anything good. Members who attend the forum will most probably leave without a prescription from anti-crisis, and without hope for the new rules of doing business in Russia. And even the planned concert of the group Duran Duran on Palace Square is threatened to be spoiled by rainy weather.

However, it is clear that innovation comes along with money, or after it. So, it was necessary to take steps that would allow investors to feel comfortable on the Chinese soil. And Chinese took into account that fact – only 30 years of reform China has attracted $ 860 billion in foreign direct investments to its economy. During this same time, 650 000 enterprises with foreign participation were created, which not only eliminated the dependence of a number of industries from imports, but also became the leading suppliers to the world market. As a result, China went to the first position in the field of high-tech engineering products, ensuring 500 per cent increase in exports of manufactured goods from the level of 2002.

Today, the number of researchers in China is approaching to the one of the United States. The number of graduates in information technology each year grows to 200 000 people, which is five times faster than in the West. The big advantage of China is linked with the age structure of scientists – most have not so long ago graduated.

In order to establish a national innovation system, China will have a long and difficult path. In any case, building technology inside the country, China will not abandon the “purchase” innovation. On this occasion, the Middle Kingdom continues to buy. And the case given is relatively easy – crisis, when many are ready to sell, just to survive. It is no coincidence that at the end of April during the meeting of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao with his Finnish counterpart Matti Vanhanenom a question was raised about the establishment of a Helsinki district of China Innovation Center. And yet the Chinese Prime Minister praised Finland’s credit-worthiness, and expressed his hope that Finland would allow its citizens to buy bonds of Suomi. To this end, Beijing is going to send a purchasing and innovation delegation to Finland. For this purpose Celestial is ready for feats. And Chinese people have achieved their goals more than once before.

Shmatko, who did not go to Brussels, said that the situation was serious – gas «reality show» could happen again. He lamented that the EU is not enough active in this matter. «We have informed the management that, in our opinion, EU countries do not have a proactive position regarding this matter», – emphasized the minister.

In his turn, Vice Premier, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, reported on June 1 that the head of the Russian government Vladimir Putin had sent a letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he drew attention to the importance of financial support to Ukraine so that it does not disrupt deliveries of Russian gas to Europe.

Kudrin added that a similar letter was sent to the EU which, given the criticality of the situation simply must respond. «We believe that the EU should also be concerned to avoid failure. Ukraine is on the line where it is not able to fully provide payments for gas », – Kudrin emphasized.

Meanwhile, Ukraine ceased pumping predetermined volumes of gas into storages and, accordingly, ceased to pay for the lost fuel. The fact that she had almost nothing to pay for gas, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko acknowledged at the meeting with Vladimir Putin, in Kazakhstan, May 22. She asked Russia to provide payment for gas transit for five years in advance, because that was the only way to solve the problem. But – she was refused.

The official representative of «Gazprom» Sergei Kupriyanov indicated that the shortage of fuel complicated Ukraine gas transit to Europe. «We are concerned about this situation and try to convey this concern to our colleagues in Europe. If now, in summer, underground storage facilities in Ukraine are not adequately filled, it will be very difficult for the Ukrainian colleagues to comply with their obligations to transport gas “, – he said.

Surprisingly there is no reaction from the EU yet. In March of this year it signed a treaty with Ukraine behind Russia’s back that it would modernize the Ukrainian gas transmission system. But Brussels is not in a hurry to invest in the salvation of the Ukrainian economy. And also the meeting of the European Commissioner for Energy and the head of the Minernego of Russia foiled. It is clear for everyone: if the gas crisis happens again, the sufferers will be European consumers.

Analysts of JPMorgan Chase & Co. also increased recommendations on the shares of one of the leading manufacturers of LCD-monitors, Nippon Electric Glass Co. to “above market”, and as a result the quotes the company soon grew to 8.2 per cent.

At the end of the session the quotes of some chemical companies also rose because of rumors that deals to merge some members of the sector could increase its profitability. As a result, shares of the company Tosoh Corp., specializing in the production of caustic soda, and those of the chemical concern Mitsubishi Chemicals Holdings Inc. added to the price of 0,96 per cent and 0,9 per cent respectively.

In the sector of electronics manufacturers market leaders became TDK Corp. (+1,36 per cent), Toshiba Corp. (1.36 per cent) and Olympus Corp. (1.89 per cent). Among automakers the following companies’ quotes rose – Honda Motor Co. (+1,95 per cent), Toyota Motor Corp. (+1.3 per cent) and Mazda Motor (+0,39 per cent).

At the same time in the red zone the session was closed for the financial sector, which happened after the decline of quotations of American financial companies on the stock market in the United States with a statement of some of them of their intention to raise funds through additional issue of ordinary shares in order to recover state money received under the program TARP. Against this background, quotes of the largest bank in Japan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group dropped 1.13 per cent, while shares of smaller ones – Mizuho Financial and Sumitomo Mitsui lost 1.26 per cent and 0.27 per cent respectively in value.

As a result of trades on 3 June 2009 Nikkei index rose 37.36 points (0.38 per cent) – up to 9741.67 points. Dollar rate against the Japanese yen decreased by 0.68 yen over the previous trading day, and as a result became 95.62 yen per dollar.

General Motors told the court that its overall debt has reached $ 172.8 billion, that is twice the value of its assets, and it could not undertake a restructuring. This is the largest-scaled of bankruptcies in the American industry.

Restructuring under the leadership of the American state would require the U.S. government $ 50 billion, in exchange for this the U.S. government will receive about 60% GM. The government of Canada, on which territory there are a number of GM factories, will receive 11.7% stake in GM in exchange for loans of $ 9.5 billion. A further 17.5% stake in the health insurance fund will go to the union United Auto Workers, acting on a North American factories GM. Owners of GM bonds will receive 10% of the shares of automakers, since their share can be increased by another 15%.

«The new GM» must occur in 60-90 days, after which the company will get out of court protection from creditors. Basically, the restructuring will bring to a quick sale of unprofitable assets and the elimination of unprofitable brands such as Saturn and Hummer. At least 11 North American factories of GM will be closed. Also, due to a new contract with United Auto Workers union costs for labor will be reduced. About 21 000 members of the 54 000 workers at GM plants in North America will lose their jobs.

As a result of the restructuring the «new GM» should reduce its debt by half and reserve the brands Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC in the U.S. market. However, it is clear that as a result of the restructuring the «new GM» will be much smaller than the «old» one.

Almost simultaneously with the GM, Crysler, the third-largest U.S. automaker declared about its voluntary bankruptcy. Italian Fiat will restructure its assets.

Immediate effect from the bankruptcy of the pillars of the American automobile industry will be the sharp decline of its share in the domestic market, which inevitably will take the competitors. Asian companies – Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai are more likely to do so.

Every year in June, the newspaper The Financial Times publishes top FT 500, which is the rating of the largest capitalized companies in the world. A month before the publication of the rating, it became apparent that despite the crisis and the fall in oil prices, the fight for the championship will be the oil industry: the Chinese governmental PetroChina and American private company Exxon Mobil.

On May 25, the world’s news agencies reported that the capitalization of PetroChina on the Shanghai Stock Exchange rose by three per cent and reached the mark of the 336 billion dollars. At first glance in this mediocre news there was only one thing interesting: namely, the three per cent was the lacking number for the Chinese company in order to become the most expensive company in the world.

The point is that the main competitor of the Chinese company – Exxon Mobil – cost 335.9 billion dollars as a result of trades on Friday, May 22. On May 25, they were not able to beat the record of PetroChina: the tender in the United States on that day did not take place because of the national holiday – the Day of Remembrance.

On May 26, shares of PetroChina in Shanghai went down by 0.08 percent. Thus, the investors of the American company had only to slightly increase the value of Exxon Mobil in order to regain its title of the largest in the world. And so it happened: on May 26, Exxon Mobil shares went up by 1.42 per cent, while the capitalization became 340.65 billion dollars.

Who will be put on the first place of FT 500 is already known, as the classification is drawn up by market capitalization by March 31. If this time no surprises happen and reporting date will not be changed, then ExxonMobil will be the first.

Since the results of bidding for major world markets are published in real time, we have an opportunity to see how the capitalization of the largest companies has changed in the world during the past year. Thus, despite the fall in oil prices, their places among the largest companies retain not only Exxon Mobil and PetroChina, but also another oil and gas corporation – Royal Dutch Shell.

Another candidate for the considerable drop in the ranking became “the bronze prize-winner” of last year – General Electric. During not the whole year the capitalization of company decreased from 370 to 139 billion dollars. So this time, General Electric will almost certainly not be in the first three. True, although the almost all American manufacturer in the world (from light bulbs to aircraft engines) should not worry: in 2009 it headed one of the most prestigious rankings – Global 2000, which is compiled on the basis of market capitalization, revenues, assets and profits.

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The Congressional Budget Office had originally projected the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program would cost taxpayers $189 billion.

The additional cost, which applies to TARP spending for fiscal years 2009 and 2010, was included in the CBO’s March projection of a $1.8 trillion deficit for fiscal 2009, which ends September 30.

The TARP cost projection was raised due to changes in financial market conditions, new transactions and a shift in expected timing of payments, the CBO said.

The Treasury Department announced plans to use some of the money to help avoid home foreclosures and made new deals with Bank of America and American International Group. Those programs involved higher subsidy rates than previously estimated, the report said.

Congress passed the Wall Street bailout program in October with the goal of stabilizing banks and reassuring jittery markets.

Google Ventures will wholly belong to the Cupertino company and will actually look for firms through which Google will increase its revenue in this hard times.

Rich Miner and Bill Maris will manage the fund, and as Miner said, Google Ventures is looking for probably all kinds of companies including information technology, health care and biotech, etc..

“Just as we were founded by entrepreneurs, we think we can help some of those next entrepreneurs with the next great idea,” said Miner.

Pixazza Inc, an photo-based online service and Silver Spring Networks are among those companies, which already had already got investments from Google Ventures.

Google Ventures investments will rang from tens of thousands to “several tens of millions” of dollars according to its managers.

The price of US light crude fell by $1.95, or 3.6%, to $52.39 a barrel. London Brent oil fell $1.57 to $51.89.

On Thursday, prices hit their highest level of the year as economic optimism led to hope of increased demand.

But bad economic data from Japan and the US sent Wall Street lower and helped put an end to the recent rally.

‘Depressing data’

Recent price hikes have led some analysts to call the start of a bull run in oil prices.

But “depressing economic data have put a halt to the recent rally”, said Christopher Bellew at Bache Commodities.

“People are getting way ahead of the game,” added Michael Lynch at Strategic Energy & Economic Research.

Data showed that retail sales in Japan saw their biggest fall in seven years in February, while growth in US consumer spending in the month slowed compared with January.

South Korea and Vietnam also reported weak economic data, providing more evidence that the global slowdown is hitting Asia’s economies.

Leaders from 16 major economies have been invited to a “preparatory session” on April 27-28 in Washington to “help generate the political leadership necessary” to achieve an international pact to cut greenhouse gas emissions later this year, it said in a statement.

It said the meeting would spur dialogue among developed and developing countries about the issue, “and advance the exploration of concrete initiatives and joint ventures that increase the supply of clean energy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions.”

The major economies include: Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, South Africa and the United States.

Denmark, which is hosting a U.N. meeting at the end of this year to forge a pact that would take over from the Kyoto Protocol, and the United Nations were also invited.

The group’s preparatory sessions would culminate with a major meeting on the subject in Italy in July.