Fisher Capital Management World News

G20 leaders leave Washington on Monday after moving forward with a complex plan to rebalance the world economy and to avoid a 2007-style global financial crisis.

The IMF is attempting to guide major economies like China and India – but after the Asian financial crisis of the last decade many Asian nations are reluctant to let the IMF guide them on managing huge flows of capital into their economies, saying it would hinder rather than help.

Long Yongtu is a Chinese government official who heads a G20 institution, the G20 Research Centre.

He told the BBC’s Juliana Liu that Beijing is wary of interference from the G20 in its domestic economic policy, and is already taking steps to boost domestic consumption.

Facebook survey scammers, the hardest-working crooks in cybercrime, are exploiting Facebook’s loosely-controlled photo-tagging technology to develop more attention-grabbing scam lures.

The starting point of the scam commonly appears with users finding themselves tagged in their online friends’ photo albums.

Clicking to investigate further will lead to a link seemingly promoting a game based on the upcoming movie Twilight: Breaking Dawn. Other themes have also been seen, for example pictures of food sold at the Olive Garden restaurant chain, posted without permission of the eatery.

In reality, no Twilight game nor pictures are on offer. Would-be marks are simply encouraged to install a rogue application that earns scammers money by encouraging users to complete a worthless survey. Once granted permission, the rogue app messes around with a users’ photo album and claims that the user “likes” the rogue app, among other things.

Inexperience and rash decisions are to be blamed for challenges facing the coalition People’s Partnership (PP). This is the view of political analysts who firmly believes the first anniversary of the “Fyzabad Declaration” that saw five national leaders coming together to form a political party, should be used as a learning experience rather than a reason to celebrate. In fact, as the PP gears up to celebrate its first anniversary of its crushing electoral victory over the People’s National Movement on May 24, the analysts are warning that decisive action must be taken and a change in governance must be adopted immediately if the political party intends to contest another election. The PP is also being urged to address the issue of crime that is said to be negatively impacting the Government and affecting citizens.

WATERVILLE, Maine — The installation of cutting-edge equipment at the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers is being counted as the latest triumph in Efficiency Maine’s quest to reduce the state’s reliance on foreign oil.
The project, which consists of humble thermostats throughout the five-building campus, wiring and a sophisticated computer panel in the dark recesses of a boiler room, may lack the luster of a more high-profile building project, but according to Executive Director Sharon Abrams, it will save the organization up to $10,000 a year for its core mission: helping children and families.

“At this time last year, this was just a dream,” Abrams said Tuesday during a press conference called in advance of Earth Day, which is Friday. “Then we heard about an Efficiency Maine grant. We’re saving money as of today.”

Efficiency Maine, an organization that was established by the Maine Legislature in 2002, provided $17,625 toward the $35,000 project.

TOKYO, April 24 (Yonhap) — Top trade officials from South Korea, China and Japan agreed Sunday to conclude a joint study on the feasibility of a trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) at an earlier date, South Korean officials said. In a meeting held at a Tokyo hotel, South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon, Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda and Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming reached the agreement.
The agreement calls for the three countries to get the study, launched last year with industrial, government and academic figures of the participating nations, done before the summit the nations’ leaders will hold next year in China. A South Korean official said, “The three countries had originally planned to finish the study shortly before next year’s summit. But they reached an agreement to move up the conclusion of the study to a date way earlier than the summit.”

TOKYO | Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:14pm EDT

(Reuters Life!) – In what has become a too-familiar experience in Tokyo, a crowded subway train screeches to a sudden halt. From around the car, mobile phones start to ring.

The sound is an emergency earthquake warning from an iPhone app that lets subscribers know when the quake will come, where the epicenter will be located and how strong the shaking will be. Often, seconds after the phone rings, the shaking starts.



Following the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which have left nearly 28,000 dead and missing, Japan has been hit by hundreds of aftershocks of varying strengths.

The app called Yure Kuru, or shaking coming, was developed by RC Solution Co, a Tokyo-based firm that specializes in providing disaster-related information services, such as relaying warnings or letting people confirm the safety of friends and family.

(WFI) Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is considering an investigation into the 2009 takeover of the world’s oldest league club, Notts County, which was part of an elaborate scam that hoodwinked former England manager, Sven Goran-Eriksson, Britain’s former spymaster Sir John Walker and the North Korean government.

The move comes after fresh claims made in a BBC Panorama documentary broadcast Monday, in which Eriksson said he was duped into signing for the lower league club.

The Financial Services Authority has passed over to the SFO an investigation into allegations that Russell King was behind the scam. The SFO investigates the country’s most serious corruption cases.

“We are interested in it and will be making a decision on what to do when we have assessed all the information,” the SFO was quoted by the Financial Times.

King, who once served two years in jail for insurance fraud, was accused in last night’s programme of being behind the Byzantine fraud.

Join Stoel Rives attorneys Thomas R. Wood (program chair) and Geoffrey B. Tichenor as they present a live webcast seminar on “Boilers and Fuel Regulations: Sweeping Impacts on Industry”.

At this webcast, presented by the Seminar Group, you will gain an understanding of EPA’s new Boiler MACT and Boiler GACT Regulations. In addition, learn about the New Definition of Solid Waste as it relates to Fuel and Ingredients in Manufacturing Processes, and how these new Regulations Impact You.



Join them for these topics:

EPA’s Rulemaking Background
New Definition of “Solid Waste” Fuel
Area Source Boiler Rule (GACT)
Major Source Boiler and Process Heater Rule (MACT)
Incinerator Rule
How does this all fit together? What can we expect going forward?

WASHINGTON (Commodity Online) : The IMF in its World Economic Outlook report said global financial conditions continue to improve after the global crisis, although they remain unusually fragile.

The IMF report emphasizes the need to keep interest rates low in advanced economies like the UK in order to strengthen their recovery.

International Monetary Fund added that oil prices and inflation in emerging economies pose new risks to global recovery but are not yet strong enough to derail it.

Soaring costs for basic staples stoked the social and economic tensions that have roiled the Arab world. Street protests have toppled dictatorships in Egypt and Tunisia, and left leaders in Yemen and Libya fighting to cling to power.

The Fund said inflation pressures were likely to build in developing countries as people pushed for higher wages in the face of pricier food and fuel.

Finance ministers and central bankers from around the globe are in Washington this week for the semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank on April 15-16. Finance officials from the Group of Seven meet on Thursday, while officials from the broader G2O hold a working dinner on Thursday followed by a longer session on Friday. The International Monetary and Financial Committee, which is the IMF’s steering committee, meets on Saturday.

Following is a schedule of the top events. All times listed are in Washington local time/GMT.

All times EDT/GMT Wednesday, April 13


0900/1300 – Press Briefing on the Global Financial Stability Report by Jose Vinals, financial counsellor and director of the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department.

1000/1400 – IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn speaks before Brookings Institution “The Global Jobs Crisis: Sustaining the Recovery through Employment and Equitable Growth” event