The US government will announce as soon as Monday a long-awaited plan to try to get bad assets off the books of banks, a cornerstone of its efforts to tackle the credit crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The Obama administration, battling a deepening recession, is set to adopt a three-pronged approach to ridding the financial system of so-called toxic assets, reports said.
The plan would create an entity, backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, a U.S. banking regulator, to buy and hold loans, the reports said.
It would expand a newly launched Federal Reserve facility -- that lends money to investors to buy securities backed by consumer loans -- to include toxic assets. And it would create new public and privately financed funds to buy such securities under the management of private investment experts.
The Obama administration plans to contribute between $75 billion and $100 billion in new capital to the effort although that amount could be expanded, the Wall Street Journal said.
The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve declined to comment. Sources familiar with the government's thinking have told Reuters details of a plan could be announced next week.
The Bush administration tried without success late last year to set up a mechanism to get bad assets off the balance sheets of commercial banks.
The banks have been hammered by losses incurred by mortgage-related debt that has turned sour amid a fall in house prices and a pickup in defaults, sparking a credit crisis that has strangled the US and global economies.
Obama's Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, has outlined a new proposal to soak up as much as $1 trillion in assets through a public-private program.
But investors have grown increasingly concerned that his efforts are running into problems more than a month after he outlined the plan.
The slow start of the new Federal Reserve consumer lending program this week has been seen as a sign that private capital may shun the toxic-asset plan because of public outrage over large executive bonuses.
Many big private investors are worried they could face tough new rules in US financial rescue programs after Congress pressed ahead with efforts to claw back bonuses paid to executives at failed insurer American International Group.
The Wall Street Journal said the Treasury would match private sector finance for the public-private toxic asset funds on a one-for-one basis in most cases.
Washington would be a co-investor also in the new FDIC troubled loans program but could contribute 80 percent in some cases, and would guarantee as much as $500 billion in loans investments, the newspaper said in its report.
The New York Times said the FDIC program could involve government funding for up to 97 percent of the equity.
It also said the plan is likely to offer generous taxpayer subsidies, in the form of low-interest loans, to coax investors to form partnerships with the government.
Agencies
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
AT&T Looks for Customers for Center in India
AT&T Inc., a US-based company offering advanced IP-based business communications services, is set to acquire customers from IT, ITES, manufacturing and finance service companies for its newly launched data center in India.
AT&T set up its India data center in Bangalore last December. Since then the company is looking at the growing demand from multinational customers in India for online data centers with highly resilient facilities and a wide range of IT infrastructure management services.
Talking to CXOtoday, Gopi Gopinath, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Global Network Services India, said, "Since the data center has just become operational, we have not got any customers in India so far, but the data center has been build to 'Green' specifications laid down by the parent company across all data centers."
The Whitefield center has a 5,000 sq ft of capacity and can expand unlimitedly. It is part of a $1 billion planned AT&T global network and portfolio investment for 2009. Data center customers will have access to a wide range of fully integrated managed hosting, application and networking services to support their data and e-commerce needs. Connectivity to the centre can be supported with AT&T's existing suite of managed data services in India.
The data center is built to the same rigid specifications consistent with AT&T's other 37 global data centers and are enabled with services that proactively manage customers' hosting solutions for predictable application performance. They are protected from intrusion and failure with the same multi-layered security, failsafe redundancy, diversity measures, and rapid response recovery measures built into each data center.
"We will be able to support multinational customers in India who turn to AT&T for integrated hosting and network solutions, allowing them to focus on running their businesses," said Gopinath.
The center is directly connected to AT&T's global MPLS backbone to offer a portfolio of hosting solutions with network performance and features. Among them are greater agility when making real-time changes to IT environments, more control to extend applications to the customer's premises or to other data centers, and the ability to include 'on network' capabilities in a customer solution.
CXotoday
AT&T set up its India data center in Bangalore last December. Since then the company is looking at the growing demand from multinational customers in India for online data centers with highly resilient facilities and a wide range of IT infrastructure management services.
Talking to CXOtoday, Gopi Gopinath, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T Global Network Services India, said, "Since the data center has just become operational, we have not got any customers in India so far, but the data center has been build to 'Green' specifications laid down by the parent company across all data centers."
The Whitefield center has a 5,000 sq ft of capacity and can expand unlimitedly. It is part of a $1 billion planned AT&T global network and portfolio investment for 2009. Data center customers will have access to a wide range of fully integrated managed hosting, application and networking services to support their data and e-commerce needs. Connectivity to the centre can be supported with AT&T's existing suite of managed data services in India.
The data center is built to the same rigid specifications consistent with AT&T's other 37 global data centers and are enabled with services that proactively manage customers' hosting solutions for predictable application performance. They are protected from intrusion and failure with the same multi-layered security, failsafe redundancy, diversity measures, and rapid response recovery measures built into each data center.
"We will be able to support multinational customers in India who turn to AT&T for integrated hosting and network solutions, allowing them to focus on running their businesses," said Gopinath.
The center is directly connected to AT&T's global MPLS backbone to offer a portfolio of hosting solutions with network performance and features. Among them are greater agility when making real-time changes to IT environments, more control to extend applications to the customer's premises or to other data centers, and the ability to include 'on network' capabilities in a customer solution.
CXotoday
US axes 651,000 jobs in February; unemployment rate highest in 25 years
US employers axed 651,000 jobs in February, pushing the unemployment rate to its highest in 25 years, as companies buckled under the strain of a recession that is showing no signs of ending, according to a government report.
While that figure was near economists' expectations for a 648,000 drop in non-farm payrolls, January and December job losses were revised sharply higher.
The Labor Department on Friday said the unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent in February, the highest level since December 1983. That was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent.
January's job cuts were revised to show a steep decline of 655,000, while December's payrolls losses were adjusted to 681,000, the deepest since October 1949. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has purged 4.4 million jobs, with more than half occurring in the last 4 months.
Job losses in February were broad based, with only government, education and health services adding jobs.
"Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated among people who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor force," said Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall
The manufacturing sector shed 168,000 jobs in February, after eliminating 257,000 positions the prior month. Construction industries bled 104,000 jobs in February after losing 118,000 in January.
The service-providing industry slashed 375,000 positions after shedding 276,000 in January.
Agencies
While that figure was near economists' expectations for a 648,000 drop in non-farm payrolls, January and December job losses were revised sharply higher.
The Labor Department on Friday said the unemployment rate surged to 8.1 percent in February, the highest level since December 1983. That was above market forecasts for a rise to 7.9 from January's 7.6 percent.
January's job cuts were revised to show a steep decline of 655,000, while December's payrolls losses were adjusted to 681,000, the deepest since October 1949. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the economy has purged 4.4 million jobs, with more than half occurring in the last 4 months.
Job losses in February were broad based, with only government, education and health services adding jobs.
"Since the recession began, the rise in unemployment has been concentrated among people who lost jobs, as opposed to job leavers or people joining the labor force," said Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Keith Hall
The manufacturing sector shed 168,000 jobs in February, after eliminating 257,000 positions the prior month. Construction industries bled 104,000 jobs in February after losing 118,000 in January.
The service-providing industry slashed 375,000 positions after shedding 276,000 in January.
Agencies
Has SAP lays off unspecified numbers in India?
The German software giant SAP AG reportedly laid off an unspecified number of employees recently as part of its previously announced plan to trim 3,000 jobs.
The lay offs were confirmed by a company spokesman according to the report. The spokesman said that the cuts were not directed at any one particular discipline or area of our business and were spread across the board.
SAP, which implemented cost savings in October after sales dropped sharply, said it would continue to slash costs and announced that it intended to reduce its workforce to 48,500 by the end of this year from 51,800 now.
The world's biggest maker of business management software gave no target for its key software and software-related sales this year but based its margin forecasts on the assumption that core sales would be flat or 1 percent lower than 2008 sales of 8.62 billion euros.
Co-chief executive Leo Apotheker told Bloomberg television in January that SAP was still seeing demand for software despite the global economic slump and that it intended to avoid forced layoffs. However, seems that approach is not working.
SAP said it expects the staff reductions to result in 300 million to 350 million euros in annual cost savings beginning in 2010 but also in restructuring charges this year in a range of 200-300 million euros.
That would weigh on its 2009 operating margin by 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points, the company said. It forecast an operating margin of 24.5 percent to 25.5 percent versus 28.2 percent last year.
SAP said 2008 operating profit rose 4 percent to 2.84 billion euros ($3.75 billion) and total software and software-related sales gained 14 percent to 8.46 billion euros.
Agencies
The lay offs were confirmed by a company spokesman according to the report. The spokesman said that the cuts were not directed at any one particular discipline or area of our business and were spread across the board.
SAP, which implemented cost savings in October after sales dropped sharply, said it would continue to slash costs and announced that it intended to reduce its workforce to 48,500 by the end of this year from 51,800 now.
The world's biggest maker of business management software gave no target for its key software and software-related sales this year but based its margin forecasts on the assumption that core sales would be flat or 1 percent lower than 2008 sales of 8.62 billion euros.
Co-chief executive Leo Apotheker told Bloomberg television in January that SAP was still seeing demand for software despite the global economic slump and that it intended to avoid forced layoffs. However, seems that approach is not working.
SAP said it expects the staff reductions to result in 300 million to 350 million euros in annual cost savings beginning in 2010 but also in restructuring charges this year in a range of 200-300 million euros.
That would weigh on its 2009 operating margin by 2 percentage points to 3 percentage points, the company said. It forecast an operating margin of 24.5 percent to 25.5 percent versus 28.2 percent last year.
SAP said 2008 operating profit rose 4 percent to 2.84 billion euros ($3.75 billion) and total software and software-related sales gained 14 percent to 8.46 billion euros.
Agencies
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Will Common service centres generate 400,000 jobs in India?
The government's common service centre (CSS) initiative will generate around 400,000 direct employment opportunities and as many as indirect jobs in rural India, a top government official said here on Thursday.
"The scheme was likely to generate over 400,000 direct jobs opportunities as well as indirect employment avenues of a like number in rural India," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar told reporters after inaugurating a conference on 'Common Service Centres: The Change Agents'.
The CSC is a government-run one-stop shop that offers web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including various application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.
"The scheme was structured to promote rural entrepreneurship. By creating appropriate support structures that enable demand-driven services as well as capacity building and training, entrepreneurs can be empowered as change agents for rapid socio-economic change in rural India," he said.
Earlier, while inaugurating the conference, Chandrasekhar said inclusive growth and rural empowerment were the major goals of the CSC initiative.
He added that the government would set up 100,000 CSCs across the country under the public-private partnership model by year-end.
Last month, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja had said that the government would invest Rs.57.42 billion (Rs.5,742 crore) for setting up CSCs.
Agencies
"The scheme was likely to generate over 400,000 direct jobs opportunities as well as indirect employment avenues of a like number in rural India," Cabinet Secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar told reporters after inaugurating a conference on 'Common Service Centres: The Change Agents'.
The CSC is a government-run one-stop shop that offers web-enabled e-governance services in rural areas, including various application forms, certificates, and utility payments such as electricity, telephone and water bills.
"The scheme was structured to promote rural entrepreneurship. By creating appropriate support structures that enable demand-driven services as well as capacity building and training, entrepreneurs can be empowered as change agents for rapid socio-economic change in rural India," he said.
Earlier, while inaugurating the conference, Chandrasekhar said inclusive growth and rural empowerment were the major goals of the CSC initiative.
He added that the government would set up 100,000 CSCs across the country under the public-private partnership model by year-end.
Last month, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja had said that the government would invest Rs.57.42 billion (Rs.5,742 crore) for setting up CSCs.
Agencies
Can an iPod be a poor man's iPhone?
I try to keep a stiff upper lip about not having an iPhone. Just couldn't afford it — not with the $75 a month or so AT&T charges for service on top of the $199 upfront cost for the device.
I could, however, afford the $229 iPod Touch — and got it as a gift, as it happened. It has most of the same goodies: a Web browser, e-mail, YouTube. And it stores way more music than the iPhone. (Ha!) Plus, the other day I used it to call China.
Yup, a call around the world — on a device that doesn't have a phone. A handful of applications on Apple Inc.'s iTunes store will let you do this, as long as you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot.
My iPhone complex hasn't disappeared, but at least now I have a device that looks just like it, has no monthly service fees, and lets me make free or cheap phone calls.
The best part of these applications — which require the second-generation iPod Touch that came out last year — is that they are free to download, and calls to other people using the same app won't cost you anything.
Two of the services I've tried, Truphone and Fring, will also let you make free calls to Google Talk users and type instant messages to friends online. Both automatically queue up a list of buddies from different services you might have, including Gmail chat, AIM and MSN Messenger, once you log in.
But it's Truphone's pay feature that puts it ahead of the others. TruPhone charges you to make calls to landlines or regular cell phones, but generally at better rates than most wireless carriers. And it's upfront about what you pay.
Your balance — which you can add to with a credit card, either on the device or on your computer browser — pops up with the dial screen. Calls in the U.S. are all 5 cents per minute (2 cents if you sign up to pay a $4 monthly fee).
Rates outside the U.S. vary wildly but you can check in the application before you dial. To call cell phones in China, for instance, is only 5 cents per minute, while France is 25 cents. Antarctica? A whopping $2.25.
You can make regular calls with Fring using a Skype account, but that's another layer to deal with.
The calls on these services sound pretty good, a little tinny but clearer than my regular cell phone connection. IPod Touch users will need Apple's $29 ear buds that have a tiny microphone on the back of the volume control along the cord.
The most serious drawback is the most obvious: While the iPhone uses AT&T's wireless network to provide Internet access anywhere, on the iPod Touch you'll need to stick to Wi-Fi hot spots. For rural or suburban dwellers who don't encounter lots of free Wi-Fi zones, that may very well mean limiting yourself to your house, or other places where there's a computer with the same Internet phone call capabilities anyway.
That means these apps probably won't replace your cell phone. But they can moderate your iPhone envy.
Agencies
I could, however, afford the $229 iPod Touch — and got it as a gift, as it happened. It has most of the same goodies: a Web browser, e-mail, YouTube. And it stores way more music than the iPhone. (Ha!) Plus, the other day I used it to call China.
Yup, a call around the world — on a device that doesn't have a phone. A handful of applications on Apple Inc.'s iTunes store will let you do this, as long as you're in a Wi-Fi hot spot.
My iPhone complex hasn't disappeared, but at least now I have a device that looks just like it, has no monthly service fees, and lets me make free or cheap phone calls.
The best part of these applications — which require the second-generation iPod Touch that came out last year — is that they are free to download, and calls to other people using the same app won't cost you anything.
Two of the services I've tried, Truphone and Fring, will also let you make free calls to Google Talk users and type instant messages to friends online. Both automatically queue up a list of buddies from different services you might have, including Gmail chat, AIM and MSN Messenger, once you log in.
But it's Truphone's pay feature that puts it ahead of the others. TruPhone charges you to make calls to landlines or regular cell phones, but generally at better rates than most wireless carriers. And it's upfront about what you pay.
Your balance — which you can add to with a credit card, either on the device or on your computer browser — pops up with the dial screen. Calls in the U.S. are all 5 cents per minute (2 cents if you sign up to pay a $4 monthly fee).
Rates outside the U.S. vary wildly but you can check in the application before you dial. To call cell phones in China, for instance, is only 5 cents per minute, while France is 25 cents. Antarctica? A whopping $2.25.
You can make regular calls with Fring using a Skype account, but that's another layer to deal with.
The calls on these services sound pretty good, a little tinny but clearer than my regular cell phone connection. IPod Touch users will need Apple's $29 ear buds that have a tiny microphone on the back of the volume control along the cord.
The most serious drawback is the most obvious: While the iPhone uses AT&T's wireless network to provide Internet access anywhere, on the iPod Touch you'll need to stick to Wi-Fi hot spots. For rural or suburban dwellers who don't encounter lots of free Wi-Fi zones, that may very well mean limiting yourself to your house, or other places where there's a computer with the same Internet phone call capabilities anyway.
That means these apps probably won't replace your cell phone. But they can moderate your iPhone envy.
Agencies
Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 8
Microsoft Corp is set to publicly launch Internet Explorer 8 early on Thursday, the latest version of its market-dominating Web browser.
The application, an integral part of Microsoft's eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system, can be downloaded from Microsoft's website from 9 am Pacific time, free for people using licensed Microsoft operating systems.
IE8, as it is commonly referred to, has been in public beta testing for about a year, but Thursday's launch marks its full public rollout.
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, said IE8 will run with Windows Vista, its latest operating system, and also Windows XP, the previous version which some users still prefer over Vista.
The application replaces IE7, which has a lock on the browser market. According to a recent survey by IT consultants Janco Associates Inc, Internet explorer has a 72.2 perc ent market share, ahead of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser with 17.2 per cent. Google Inc's new Chrome browser has only 2.8 per cent of the market, while Apple Inc's Safari has less than 1 per cent.
Microsoft has run afoul of US and European antitrust regulators for bundling its browser with its operating system, which competitors say is an attempt to drive them out of the market.
Last month, Google joined Mozilla and Norway's Opera in protesting Microsoft's dominance in the browser market. In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers.
Microsoft has already announced that users of Windows 7, expected later this year or early next year, will be able to turn key programs like Internet Explorer off, making it easier to use other browsers.
New features in IE8 include right-clicking on addresses or other Web features to go straight to a map or put into a blog or other website, which Microsoft calls an "accelerator". Users will also be able to put in keywords in the address bar to recall sites visited related to that word.
The new browser also has enhanced security protection, for example warning users if they are about to download something from a site known to be a source of malicious software, or "malware".
Agencies
The application, an integral part of Microsoft's eagerly awaited Windows 7 operating system, can be downloaded from Microsoft's website from 9 am Pacific time, free for people using licensed Microsoft operating systems.
IE8, as it is commonly referred to, has been in public beta testing for about a year, but Thursday's launch marks its full public rollout.
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, said IE8 will run with Windows Vista, its latest operating system, and also Windows XP, the previous version which some users still prefer over Vista.
The application replaces IE7, which has a lock on the browser market. According to a recent survey by IT consultants Janco Associates Inc, Internet explorer has a 72.2 perc ent market share, ahead of the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser with 17.2 per cent. Google Inc's new Chrome browser has only 2.8 per cent of the market, while Apple Inc's Safari has less than 1 per cent.
Microsoft has run afoul of US and European antitrust regulators for bundling its browser with its operating system, which competitors say is an attempt to drive them out of the market.
Last month, Google joined Mozilla and Norway's Opera in protesting Microsoft's dominance in the browser market. In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers.
Microsoft has already announced that users of Windows 7, expected later this year or early next year, will be able to turn key programs like Internet Explorer off, making it easier to use other browsers.
New features in IE8 include right-clicking on addresses or other Web features to go straight to a map or put into a blog or other website, which Microsoft calls an "accelerator". Users will also be able to put in keywords in the address bar to recall sites visited related to that word.
The new browser also has enhanced security protection, for example warning users if they are about to download something from a site known to be a source of malicious software, or "malware".
Agencies
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