An Indian “witch doctor” who beheaded an 11-year-old boy and offered the head as a sacrifice to a goddess to improve his fortunes has been sentenced to death, police said Tuesday. A local court in impoverished Chhattisgarh state in central India convicted 32-year-old Dilip Rathia on…
By Jeeves! Britain experiencing a butler boom
LONDON, UK — Amid an otherwise bleak landscape, Britain’s economy is showing one unexpected bright spot: The job market for butlers is booming. The rising fortunes of the world’s wealthiest are creating a global demand for butlers unsurpassed at any time in the last 50 years.Not just any domestic help will do.Discreet, impeccably elegant and as comfortable typing on a Blackberry as uncorking a champagne bottle, the image of British butlers makes them requisite status symbols on par with Ferraris in the garage — and they’re being exported to the houses and private yachts of the planet’s uber-wealthy in droves.The demand is giving new life to a once-dying profession. Britain had 30,000 working butlers in the 1930s, according to the International Guild of Professional Butlers. By the 1980s, as the aristocratic estates portrayed in shows such as “Downton Abbey” faded into history, there were barely 100.Continue Reading… … Read More
Investors dump Microsoft, PC stocks following bleak report
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — If fewer people are interested in buying a new personal computer, then fewer investors want to own stakes in companies whose fortunes are tied to the sales of laptop and desktop machines.That logic ruled Thursday as Wall Street reacted to fresh evidence that PCs are turning into a dying breed of technology as consumers and businesses embrace smartphones and tablet computers as their preferred computing devices.The stocks of PC software maker Microsoft Corp. and PC maker Hewlett-Packard Co. absorbed significant hits on the news that PCs suffered an unprecedented sales decline during the first three months of the year. Other companies connected to the PC industry, such as Intel Corp., also were affected, although not to the same degree as the industry bellwethers.Microsoft’s stock fell $1.35, or 4.4 percent, to close at $28.93, while HP’s shed $1.44, or 6.5 percent to finish at $20.88. Intel shares decreased 43 cents, or nearly 2 percent, to $21.83.First-quarter shipments of PCs plummeted by 11 percent to 14 percent from a year earlier, according to separate estimates issued late Wednesday by Gartner Inc. and International Data Corp.Continue Reading… … Read More
Australia welcomes wealthy migrants
http://www.youtube.com/v/_xiNlSJqgIs?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Original link - Australia welcomes wealthy migrants
Who really benefits from a rise in the Dow?
I was listening to the radio this weekend and heard some equity market cheerleaders going on about how the melt-up in the stock market lifts almost everybody’s fortunes. While I agree that it’s important not just for the top 1%—a lot of pension funds and 401(k)’s get a boost from the bull—the vast majority of the value of the stock market is held by the wealthiest households. I’m sure that’s a big “duh” for a lot of readers but the idea that the market lifts all boats is probably more pervasive than you think.The figure below comes from wealth scholar Ed Wolff through EPI’s State of Working America (you should really just read their wealth chapter—one stop shopping for this info). It shows who owns stock market wealth over time. The little smudge at the bottom is the bottom 40% of households, and the middle fifth doesn’t do much better. The top 1% holds over a third of equity market wealth and the top 10% holds about 80%.What does that mean in dollar terms? In 2010, according to Wolff’s analysis, the stock holdings of the middle fifth were worth about $9,000. The holdings of the top 10% were worth $500,000, and those of the top 1%: $3.5 million.Continue Reading… … Read More
Blackberry unveils new mobile phones
http://www.youtube.com/v/lDd-Zoewwzc?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata Link: Blackberry unveils new mobile phones
Amazon Q4 results: revenue up 22% but profit slips 45%
Amazon had a predictably solid holiday season that saw revenue climb 22 percent over the same period last year to $21.27 billion. Those fortunes, however, were overshadowed by a 45 percent decline in profit, dropping to just $97 million to close out the year. In 2011, the Internet retail giant turned a profit of $177 million. … Read More
