Abu Dhabi shops stock up items for Ramadan

By Anwar Ahmad

8 September 2007

ABU DHABI — With the holy month of Ramadan beginning this weekend, the markets in the capital have stocked up foodstuff to cater to the needs of all the nationalities. Some supermarkets are offering Ramadan promotions in order to attract customers.

A leading supermarket in the capital is offering an Umrah raffle draw for 50 winners in their sale promotion.

Dates imported from the holy cities of Makkah and Madinah are on display at stalls all over the city.

The sales at supermarkets have reportedly gone up by 20 per cent as the consumers are purchasing foodstuff in abundance for Ramadan. Many supermarkets have expanded their range of products.

Prayer calendars, timetables and Ramadan planners are being distributed among the people.
The supermarkets are displaying commodities that suit customers belonging to various nationalities.

“The supermarkets know this is a very big season for them and they are well-prepared for Ramadan. We have over 700 Ramadan-focused items with the best prices in the market. We will give away 50 tickets for Umrah and Dh100,000 as cash through raffle draws during promotion campaign. Each of the 50 winners will get an Umrah ticket and Dh2,000,” said Bejoy Pulicken, Advertising and Marketing Manager at the Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society.

The Abu Dhabi Cooperative Society has also arranged for 1,000 Iftar meals to be sent to the mosques everyday. It will also arrange Iftar at two places, one at its Mina branch and another at Abu Dhabi Mall, added Pulicken.

Abdul Mannan, supervisor at the Madina Zayed Supermarket, said, “We have special dates for Ramadan and a special price for Qamaruddin, an apricot product consumed by most of the people during Ramadan. The meat prices at our supermarket have been reduced by Dh3 for the Ramadan period.”

Source : http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2007/September/theuae_September217.xml&section=theuae

Wall St eyes Fed rescue

8.9.2007. 12:40:11

Bruised Wall Street investors, facing a suddenly weaker economic outlook, have pinned their hopes on a Federal Reserve rescue.

The stock market was punished over the past week as investors were hit with news that US job creation had stalled in August, and that job gains earlier in the year were less than previously estimated.

With fears rising about a full-blown recession emanating from the US housing slump, the focus has turned to the central bank. But some observers say chairman Ben Bernanke may not be as willing to ease credit as the market expects.

Slump

In the holiday-shortened, four-day week to Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slumped 1.83 percent to 13,113.38.

The broad market Standard & Poor's 500 index shed 1.39 percent to 1,453.55 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.18 percent to 2,565.70. The key action came Friday after markets were stunned by a drop of 4,000 payroll jobs in the US economy in August, the first decline in four years and far below market expectations.

The government also revised down job growth estimates for June and July by 81,000.

Recession fears

The report stoked fears of a recession, despite assurances from the Fed that the economy was holding to a modest growth rate and that the slump in housing had been contained.

"The Fed can no longer believe that the housing, subprime, commercial paper, hedge fund, etc. turmoil is contained," said David Kotok at Cumberland Advisors.

"There is a rising recession risk." Housing crisis Some analysts say the US can avert a recession if the Fed acts swiftly and aggressively to lower borrowing costs, which could help ease the housing crisis and the credit squeeze.

"The current economic outlook is about as uncertain as it gets," says Lehman Brothers economist Paul Sheard. "There are many paths that the US and global economy could conceivably end up following.

“Our own baseline view is that the global economy, led by the US, will slow but avoid a serious downturn, partly because of aggressive Fed moves to head off such an outcome. “But we are not banging the table on that.

" Warning Gregory Drahuschak, analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, warns against counting too much on the Fed.

"The Fed is in an interesting box," he says. "On one hand, the employment growth weakness pressures the Fed to do something we suspect it does not want to do now.

The softened but still constant references to inflation will inhibit the Fed's willingness to cut rates, but at the same time, by not doing anything the Fed potentially subjects itself to criticism if the economy slips too much."

A number of analysts say the Fed will try to help ease the credit squeeze with a cut in its base interest rate of 25 basis points at its September 18 meeting, stopping short of a more dramatic 50-basis point move, and then assess the situation. The federal funds rate is current pegged at 5.25 percent.

Source : http://www.worldnewsaustralia.com.au/region.php?id=139746&region=4

World business briefs: Luxury automakers report healthy sales increases for August

Fri, Sep. 07, 2007 10:15 PM

Lap of luxury
Luxury automakers BMW, Audi and Mercedes on Friday reported healthy sales increases for August. Demand from Asia and the U.S. drove gains amid mixed results in their home markets, the companies said.

BMW AG, the industry’s top luxury car company, said its global sales rose 13 percent last month from a year ago, with 99,755 BMW, Mini and Rolls-Royce automobiles sold. Audi AG said it sold 66,400 cars worldwide in August, up 4.2 percent from the same month in 2006.
And Chrysler LLC said its Mercedes Car Group saw sales increase 9 percent in August compared with last year, reaching a record 96,200 Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and Smart brands sold.

Borse appeal
Borse Dubai on Friday appealed a regulator’s ruling that it violated Swedish takeover laws in its efforts to acquire Nordic stock exchange operator OMX AB.

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority had stated on Aug. 19 that Borse Dubai had breached the rules by declining to call its Aug. 9 OMX stock purchase announcement a public takeover bid. One week later, the owner of the Dubai stock exchange launched a $4.05 billion bid for OMX, challenging a previous offer by the U.S.-based Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.
Borse Dubai said it “remains of the belief that it acted in good faith and according to applicable Swedish law process,” and was therefore appealing the decision.

Swedes raise rates
Sweden’s central bank raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75 percent and signaled further increases ahead.

The Riksbank said its board also decided that the repo rate — the interest rate received or paid by banks on money deposited in or borrowed from the central bank for seven days — needed to be raised further.

British insurer sold
Private equity firm Advent International Corp. has agreed to buy British insurer Domestic & General Group PLC for about 524 million pounds ($1.06 billion).

Advent had approached Domestic & General in May. The London insurer specializes in extended warranties for electrical appliances and repair protection for central heating systems.

Pirates raise ire
Pirate attacks along Guyana’s rivers and Atlantic coast have prompted the South American country to set up an emergency radio network for boaters and place special markings on engines to track stolen equipment.

Fishermen outraged by more than two dozen raids reported in the past two months met this week with Cabinet ministers and complained that armed sea bandits had stolen catches of fish and shrimp and even small vessels.

Source : http://www.kansascity.com/business/story/265527.html

The Hole Where the Job Drain Goes

Written by Realist

September 07, 2007

Here it is, Friday, September 7, 2007, and the stock market is continuing to decline. But not because of the continuing mortgage debacle, mind you! Now it's employment that is dragging down the hulk of the Bushtanic.

A report from the Labor Department shows that 4,000 jobs were lost compared to the previous month instead of the 100,000 new jobs expected to be created. This news wasn't assuaged by the news that the numbers of new jobs that were created in the previous two months were reduced by 81,000, leaving little headroom for a decline in employment. The July payroll increase was revised 24,000 lower, while the June increase was also cut by 57,000 from its previous reading, the second time - (ahem) THE SECOND TIME the June increase has been reduced. This is why one shouldn't believe the initial boasts of the Bush administration when the numbers go up. They are lying for effect!

Let's see what The Wall Street Economic Socialists have to say about this decline in market indices:

Eliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., wrote, "This employment report is shocking to most Wall Street observers but not to the thousands that have been thrown out of work in the housing and mortgage industries."

Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment officer with Windham Financial, notes that "This indicates we may already be going into a recession."

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is in the mood to deliver an economic history lesson at an economic conference organized by the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity. Bubbles can't be defused through incremental adjustments in interest rates, he observed. "The behavior in what we are observing in the last seven weeks is identical in many respects to what we saw in 1998, what we saw in the stock-market crash of 1987, I suspect what we saw in the land-boom collapse of 1837 and certainly [the bank panic of] 1907," lectured Professor Greenspan.

Maybe the lecture subject should be another topic. Jesse Jackson - whose recent political pedigree leaves much to be desired - makes a plea for the pet government of the investor class to turn their eyes back toward their native land and Invest in US! There are advantages for the investor class to put their money to work in America, or else the Russian steel maker Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Work wouldn't have heeded the sales pitch delivered to them by Ohio Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and decide to build a new plant in Scioto County.

Meanwhile, in the capital of the United States, the efforts of the "leader" of the nation is working in the opposite direction, inspiring American farmers to grow crops on rented Mexican fields despite the adverse effects on American farm state middle-class jobs which support agriculture, and the increased potential for homeland security problems. But the reality is, as one Californian farming in Mexico puts it, "I don't have to worry about ... losing my labor force because of an immigration raid."

But the American labor force has to worry about immigrants raiding their jobs. In Missouri, State Rep. Nathan Cooper (R-Cape Girardeau) recently pled guilty to fraud over a plan to use Mexican immigrants as "temporary" truck drivers. He used shell companies, false documents, and legitimate visas purchased from their owners to provide low-wage Mexican drivers to companies too cheap to pay the wages necessary to attract American citizens to apply for their jobs.

But now that "The Deciderer" has decided to fully comply with the lousy NAFTA and GATT Agreements (something for which Bill Clinton SHOULD have been impeached!) and allow Mexican truckers to legally drive our highways, a trucking company owner in El Paso sees only trouble for his company as the Mexican companies will offer lower rates due to much lower wages, according to KFOX-TV.

The interview with our American farming in Mexico provided an example of this wage differential. In California, he was paying $11 an hour, but in Mexico he pays only $9 A DAY. Which of you Texas Trailer Trogs wants to try to live on a Mexican's income? Such pay wouldn't even cover the cost for your "defensive" shotgun shells, much less grow that "valuable" portfolio which is doing so well lately! You would earn better wages cleaning Camden Yards!

But it isn't just the difference in wages that should attract your attention to this matter. As Mexican trucks are allowed to carry up to 100,000 pounds of cargo (versus the 80,000 pound American trucks that the Federal government allows on the Interstates), might that not cause more bridges to collapse? After all, "Your Money" pays to keep those bridges open so that the Mexican truckers can make bigger profits for you in the hauling trade! Would you not want to protect "Your Investment" in the American infrastructure?

But wait! It doesn't end there! Clear up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, WHP-TV reports on the security concerns involved with Mexican truckers. Considering that Mexico opened its border to U.S. trucks, should they not have some security concerns of their own?

But getting back on the crumbling American pavement, Thomas Kinsey - "Proud to be an American truck driver!" - wrote to The Times and Democrat of Orangeburg, South Carolina about "some facts that should concern you over these Mexican drivers" and the legal requirements that American drivers must meet to keep their licenses are not being applied to their new competition.

It doesn't stop with the drivers. Layover.com, an Akron, PA-based Internet resource site for truckers, advocates that unsafe Mexican vehicles be banned from entering the US, and damn the WTO torpedoes!

But despite loud protests on the behalf of American truckers emanating out of the Congress, don't think that the Republicans are alone in this effort to provide serfs to the self-appointed economic nobility. The GOP "opposition" across the aisle is in this racket of screwing the American people to benefit corporate interests as well. In a round-about way of being true to conservative stereotypes concerning the Democrats (such as this one), the "liberal" party is again attempting to promote welfare - for corporations this time.

One blogger might be aware of the real issue when he asserts: "Politicians want the border open, not truck drivers." And, as decries Boston Globe Columnist James Carroll, "Welcome to the free market, a free-for-all that destroys freedom."

David Sirota reports that top Democrats are stumping their side of the aisle to pass Panama Free Trade Agreement, just one of many bills of a similar nature involving other nations that will provide major tax avoidance benefits to corporations - and cost the American taxpayer dearly for them to do so.

It takes taxes to pay for the Customs agents who are supposed to inspect all the cargo carriers entering the nations, but said officials lack the necessary funding to ensure that Bin Laden Express isn't shipping in something like that frightful Islamic suitcase nuke with his overdue video that drives the anti-Islamists insane.

Insanity must be contagious, as a clearly conservative-oriented blogger has the temerity to ask Why Is Bush Bowing to Mexico? Wouldn't it be upsetting to him to discover that the liberals he's been taught to despise just might have his answer!

Teamster President Jim (He sure ain't like his disappeared daddy!) Hoffa is quoted as declaring that "This is kind of a conspiracy of big business" to eliminate minimum wage limits and "costly" safety requirements. Such impediments to profits are high on the executive hit list.

But if the liberal Hoffa isn't to our conservative bloggers taste, there are also conservatives Hal Lindsey and Phyllis Schlafly to share the opposition load against the Cheney-Bush plan for selling out America.

Seeing as the complaints are coming from both sides of the two-party racket, one would think that it's time to break it apart and allow for a political structure more in line with the wishes of the populace to emerge, but that isn't going to be allowed. The GOP is already infamous at enforcing party discipline, the Democratic Party is reported to be learning lessons from Republican methods.

Dr. Jan Schneider ran as the Democratic challenger in Florida's 13th Congressional District against Republican Katherine Harris in 2004, and lost. Her 2006 bid to replace Harris, who resigned her seat to run for the Senate, was met with opposition from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), headed by Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Dr. Schneider asserts that Emanuel had her race information removed from the DCCC website, which indicated no primary in the Florida 13th District - and no campaign contributions for anyone but Schneider's opponent, former Republican Christine Jennings.

Schneider expressed her frustration with the Democratic Party in May 2006 while appearing on The Colbert Report: "I'm pretty disgusted with both parties these days - the Republicans for what they stand for and the Democrats for what they don't."This is going to become a more common comment. With fewer people remaining employed and more about to lose their homes, the need for relief from the disaster that is Bush will only grow.

Only we will be like the poor souls of New Orleans in Katrina's wake, abandoned to our fate so that the few can benefit from what remains.

Source : http://blogcritics.org/archives/2007/09/07/231333.php