Tag Archives: business

Jan 2 2013

UK Retail Bankruptcies: Job losses from Business closures rise in 2012


Retail sector, bankruptcies

Figures have just been released in the United Kingdom for the retail industry and the closures that happened in 2012.

In 2012 the number of retail businesses that closed were up 6% from the previous year.

Many economists believe that 2013 will be another tough year.

The numbers that went into administration

194 retailers  last year.

This compares to 183 in 2011

It is an 18% rise on the 165 in 2010.

 Names such as Comet, Clinton Cards, Game and JJB Sports were some of the big names.

The closure would have affected thousands of jobs. The retail sector employs 1,000,000 plus people but job creation will continue and employment opportunities are always being created. Work is available but it the cost of living that keeps increasing, so the outcome is a continuation of tough times for people and businesses. Companies from many industries have money to invest but the worry of Europe and the debt crisis in the USA, stops investments and job creation. Businesses are looking at ways to reduce costs and increase online exposure to generate new growth and profits.

 Retail winners

John Lewis in the UK said like-for-like sales rose by 13% in the five weeks to December 29 compared to 2011.

They had record sales of £158m in the week leading up to Christmas,

This is the  first time that sales have broken the £150m mark  and record sales of £31.7m in the sales on December 27.

Online sales rose 44.3pc and now account for a quarter of group sales, thus showing the way forward for all businesses.

Online sales for businesses

The problem a business will face in making money online is they need to be found. The battle to be indexed in Google page results is a costly and time consuming effort.New businesses are being created to help with this as having your company on a list does not guarantee you will be chosen. Advertising and marketing costs are huge and small businesses need alternative methods to capture customers and drive traffic to the service they offer. If businesses can win customers from online trading, the result can be jobs being created. Moving away from the costs of operating on the ground and employing people in an online section of a retailers business, can be a solution.

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Dec 29 2012

What happens to Americas global image if it defaults on the debt?


The US debt and how defaulting will change the world

The obvious answer is…Everything will change and the USA will never have the same image again

A default would have some “pretty serious ramifications” for the US economy and, because the US is still 20 per cent of world GDP, it would be terrible for a  lot of other countries as well. With Europe in the middle of a huge crisis the knock on effect could be disastrous. The UK is struggling along with many other nations but the biggest economy in the world hitting the wall again….Disaster or just longer pain?

We will see higher interest rates and potential destabilization in financial markets, higher taxes, lower incomes, less money in the economy, market crashes, job losses, families suffering and much much more.

The question is what will happen to the relationships with the creditors that the US government owes so much to. China, Saudi Arabia and others are owed trillions of dollars by the American government.

What will happen if the debts and interest are not paid?

What happens if a country like the USA defaults on the bills and payments they owe to others?

We all know the consequences for  the individual. For more information on this view the previous article I wrote.

How much is the debt?

$16,000,000,000,000 and growing!

Who does the USA owe money to?

A default will change the way the world looks at the once safe US economy. It will make Treasury bills more expensive over time and interest rates higher.

Many US  businesses would  face downgrades and that would lead to higher costs of capital. This would lead to less job creation and less investments in American companies and the economy as a whole.

The Federal reserve will serve notice on the government that the account they have is in overdraft and this is a violation of the Federal Reserve Act.

With  Congress not allowing the government  to borrow more,  usual payments like social security could not be made. Social meltdown is on the way.

Even if the  issue is resolved, most government services, programs and benefits will take a devastating  hit.

Potentially the first assets to be affected after a default would be money-market funds that hold government securities.

Banks that buy bonds directly from the Reserve and resell them to consumers, including pension and mutual funds.

Foreign investors, which holds nearly half of all Treasury securities(China hold 50%of all US Treasury securities) could start dumping them.

The US dollar would be hit and the currency regarded by most as the reserve currency of the world, would  no longer be the safe investment it once was. If other central banks start selling off the green backs , the value keeps dropping but what is the alternative some ask…The Euro? Will gold go higher?

If the dollar is worth less it will mean the cost of buying American goods becomes cheaper. The reverse side is it will cost an awful lot more for Americans to buy goods. Commodity prices are sure to take a hit.

China could become the real world leader and other currencies will become the new reserve currency of the world.

China and other countries will have an even stronger hold on the US government and even today they could cause a crash by dumping treasuries. Russia is also a player in this game and the Us government needs to be very careful as certain scenarios are too horrific to think about.

The answer to the question is difficult to know. What is known the image of America will change forever more. The greatest economy in the world is run on debt and the people will be the ones that suffer the most.

Creditors will negotiate new deals and will take haircuts in order to gain anything. If you owe a bank money and cannot pay, they will take what they can get and then kick you to the curb…will the United States of America be thrown away…No, but it will take the hit and in time ( along time) through a lot of pain rise again. The reason I believe this is simple…The citizens of the US have fought all of time and were formed through revolution. This is a new chapter, a new revolution is about to start but this we hope will end up with a positive outcome.

Apocalyptic ideas are not even worth talking about as these will affect every person on the planet. Many economists will always tell you that wars are  a great diversion and a means to solve many economic problems. From war comes rebuilding and the chance to eradicate certain issues…this is a doomsday scenario but history shows huge growth after terrible events. Now I am not an expert on any of these fiscal issues and no single person can really answer what will happen if debts are not paid but we all know it will not be good for anyone. The world is global and every country is interlinked in some way. A hiccup in a small country these days can affect many other countries. Therefore the thought of this hiccup being in the USA paints a terrible picture in most people’s minds. Raising the debt ceiling does not fix the problem but it blocks that terrible outcomes that might happen worldwide.

As we near the New Year we can only hope for a positive outcome even though this affects every American. Business will continue and life will go on. We will keep building our business and hope to launch a company that can create jobs and help other businesses worldwide.

 

Did you know China owes America?

 

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Dec 13 2012

European Union, Euro news,Banking reform…Zynkin headlines


European banking and currency headlines

The European Union reached a landmark deal on Thursday to make the European Central Bank the bloc’s top banking supervisor, giving EU leaders greater confidence that they are gaining the upper hand over the euro zone‘s debt crisis.

EU finance ministers forged a deal on the single supervisor in the early hours of Thursday after marathon talks. Leaders will give their stamp of approval at a summit starting later in the day, their last of 2012, and also discuss closer fiscal ties for their troubled currency area.

Britain secures coveted bank union safeguards as EU economic union becomes stronger…will it all work out or are these just new headlines?

 

European shares edged lower and the dollar slipped against most major currencies on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced new measures to support the world’s biggest economy.

The Fed said it would buy $45 billion of Treasuries a month on top of the $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed bonds it started buying in September. It also took the unprecedented step of indicating that interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent so long as inflation was contained

 

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Nov 29 2012

Banks “misleading” people….NO WAY, IT’S NOT POSSIBLE!!!


Are you ready for a shock…..

Banks giving ‘misleading’ details about bad debts and may have to set aside £35billion more, BoE warns

Britain’s banks could be ‘misleading’ investors by failing to account properly for bad loans, including where they have given borrowers leeway on their debts, the Bank of England has warned.

The Bank of England urged lenders to take action to bolster their balance sheets and reveal the full extent of losses on bad debts, as well as expected compensation bills, in particular for mis-sold payment protection insurance (PPI).

The UK’s four biggest banks – HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland – could need to increase their capital reserves by as much as £35billion between them, according to the Bank.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/news/article-2240389/Banks-giving-misleading-details-bad-debts-set-aside-35billion-BoE-warns.html#ixzz2DeKgJy6A
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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Nov 26 2012

VAT- 25%-lets close all businesses now …UK in turmoil


Can you imagine a jump to 25% Vat.

Life is difficult enough for consumers and businesses.

Just stop and think about your savings …..Are you laughing.. As every penny you have is losing value due to inflation being higher than what you earn.

Mortgage rates….will they rise…YES! Right now you can get deals as there is a war going on to attract borrowers with attractive mortgage rates.

HOUSE PRICES ARE FALLING WITH NEGATIVE EQUITY INCREASING. HAVE PEOPLE BEEN PUTTING MORE CAPITAL INTO PAYING OFF MORTGAGES?…No as the money is needed to LIVE  in many cases.What will happen if the mortgage rates jump?

Energy prices are rising at a ridiculous rate.

Pensions are not performing and face a potential crisis as the situation worsens.

Food costs have soared and add more VAT on other products with incomes stagnating at best, savings depreciating,finance costs rising  and welcome to your world.

Sky news reports.…

Chancellor George Osborne may have to hike VAT to 25% as he continues his battle to restore Britain’s economic health, analysts have suggested.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) warned struggling Britons could face yet more spending cuts and tax rises because of weaker economic growth and lower tax revenues.

If these problems are permanent, the Chancellor will need to plug a £23bn black hole if he is to meet his financial targets by 2018, according to the respected think tank.

Achieving this from tax hikes alone would be “roughly equivalent to increasing the main rate of VAT from 20% to 25%”, the IFS said.

Mr Osborne is due to reveal his latest economic plans next week when he unveils his Autumn Statement on December 5.

But the lack of scope for tax increases has been laid bare by a new spending power report by Lloyds TSB.

Its research found the squeeze on family budgets – as a result of stubborn inflation and weak wage growth – was just as strong in October as it was a year earlier.

It warned that rising energy bills this winter would only exacerbate the situation.

The IFS suggested Mr Osborne may also have to tear up one of his key austerity goals because Government borrowing is likely to rise this year.

Related articles….look at these reports from years ago and now you have the proof…IT IS GETTING WORSE

HOUSING PRICE RISES….GREAT IF YOU CAN AFFORD IT…CAN YOU?

 

Nov 26 2012

Years of Austerity,recession,depressing news on the UK economy


Grave robbers required!…apply here

 

Welcome to our new world…If you did not realize already!

I have been negative for many months now but it is a fact and their is not enough being done to change our path.

We will keep reporting stories on the negative future we are creating until people start to react and do something about it.

We have the power and must use it in every way we can because if you think this is the most negative it will be…you are wrong.

How will it turn around?

How will unemployment turn into employment

How will Greece pay the debt and start growing?

How will the USA pay off trillions without hurting millions of people?

How will the thousands of questions we have be answered and at what cost?

BBC report……

The chancellor may have to extend the squeeze on public spending until 2018 if the recent deterioration in growth prospects and tax receipts turns out to be permanent, a think tank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said George Osborne may have to find another £11bn from tax rises or spending cuts if the economy does not pick up.

This is on top of £8bn of cuts already mooted in the Budget.

Mr Osborne will deliver his Autumn Statement on 5 December.

The IFS warned that the statement could bring “more fiscal pain”.

A spokesperson for the Treasury said that the independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) would make its economic forecast next week alongside the Autumn Statement.

read more at BBC news

This like many other reports show a simple scenario…we are sep in the **** and this journey is going to be very long.

Talks in Europe, fiscal cliffs in America, in fighting in Europe and in the Uk, Republicans fighting democrats….the list goes on and in the meantime we suffer.

Spain‘s unemployment is rising, France is being downgraded and new stories of a worsening situation keep hitting the news….

Growth can only be achieved through us the people and it is time to force our countries and politicians to help us …the masses. We want promises of finance to be easily available and regulations to open up opportunities to actually happen.

We at Zynkin will do our part in creating an alternative for businesses but this is 0.0000001% of what needs to be done…it is YOU that makes change happen.

Bloggers take the power you have and help force change…help build a better future and do it today

 

 

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Nov 22 2012

Uk figures show deficit is getting worse – Zynkin news


Budget defecit is widening…is there any good news on the horizon?

The government borrowed much more than expected in October, thwarting Chancellor George Osborne in his efforts to reduce the deficit and shunt the economy away from stagnation.

The figures published on Wednesday show weaker businesses – mostly in the oil and gas sector – paying less tax than expected and may undermine government efforts to shore up public support for its policies of spending cuts and tax rises.

 

Nov 22 2012

Germany..is it struggling? – Zynkin news updates


(Reuters) – German business activity shrank for the seventh straight month in November, with the services sector contracting at its fastest rate in 3-1/2 years as the euro zone crisis pounds Europe‘s largest economy, a survey showed.

Markit’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index, measuring activity in both manufacturing and services, edged up to 47.9 in November from 47.7 the previous month but remained below the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, a flash estimate showed on Thursday.

“The picture emerging from November’s survey is that the German economy will end the year with a whimper rather than a bang as troubles in the euro zone continue to weigh on domestic business and consumer confidence,” said Tim Moore, senior economist at Markit.

Until this year, Germany largely managed to keep the euro zone’s problems at bay, growing by a record 4.2 percent in 2010 and by 3 percent last year even as other euro zone states were in recession and some sought bailouts.

German economic growth slowed to 0.2 percent growth in the third quarter from 0.3 percent in the second, flash data showed last week, and Markit chief economist Chris Williamson said PMI readings from October and November pointed to a fourth-quarter contraction of around 0.3 percent.

That tallies with the Bundesbank‘s view that Germany will probably lose further momentum at year-end as its economy is now feeling the brunt of the euro zone debt crisis and a global slowdown.

Business activity in the services sector dropped at its fastest rate since the height of the global financial crisis in June 2009, falling to 48.0 in November from 48.4 the previous month. It had been expected to hold steady, according to the consensus forecast in a Reuters poll.

read more at reuters

 

Nov 21 2012

Greece-When will this tragedy be resolved?


Once again talks go on about the economic crisis in Greece. AS politicians debate what to do, nothing ever gets resolved. The downturn continues, the hope of a “fix”  disappears and the people keep suffering. I do not understand why the Greeks do not cut themselves free from this situation.

What does Europe really do for them except grow the debt. The argument that Greece has to stay in the Euro does not wash with me. How can I say this..well I lived there for 12 years, pre Europe and until 2011.

I travelled all over Europe and as a “european”, I cannot think of any obvious benefit. Life years ago was better in Greece and I cannot remember the Greeks complaining that much about it then.

The last 5 years all I heard was complaints. Whilst borrowing money it was obviously a huge party in Greece as this pot of gold was never emptying. This is not the situation now and yes they should pay back what they owe but HOW????

Is Greece not better to cut free and suffer the consequences considering they are suffering anyway. Let them go through the pain and then come out of it. This to me is the shorter path .Both roads are difficult but this current path is not working and I cannot see it ever working.

 

NEWS FROM around the Globe on Greece…

(Reuters) - Greece‘s international lenders failed for the second week running to agree how to get the country’s debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go at resolving their most intractable problem in six days’ time.

After nearly 12 hours of talks through the night during which myriad options were discussed, euro zone finance ministers, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank failed to reach a consensus, without which emergency aid cannot be disbursed to Athens.

 

A document prepared for the meeting and seen by Reuters declared that Greece’s debt cannot be cut to 120 percent of GDP by 2020, the level deemed sustainable by the IMF, unless euro zone member states write off a portion of their loans to Greece.

The 15-page document, circulated among ministers, set out in black-and-white how far off-track Greece is in reducing its debt to the IMF-imposed target, from a level of around 170 percent of GDP now.

The document set out various ways Greece’s debt could be reduced between now and 2020, but concluded they would not be enough without euro zone creditors taking a hit on their own holdings — something Germany and others have said would be illegal.

The document did say Greek debt could fall to 120 percent of GDP two years later — in 2022 — without having to impose any losses on euro zone member states or forcing through a buy-back of Greek debt from private-sector bondholders.

But International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde rejected such an extension at similar talks last week.

Without any corrective measures the document said Greek debt would be 144 percent in 2020 and 133 percent in 2022, figures first reported exclusively by Reuters last week.

The document appeared designed in part to convince the IMF that Greek debt could be made sustainable just two years behind schedule if only it would soften its stance.

It remains possible that Lagarde could provide further wiggle room, but she is believed to favour the idea of euro zone member states taking a writedown on some of the loans extended to Greece in order to stick to the 120 percent in 2020 goal.

DEBT BUYBACK

Among the main measures under consideration to bring Greece’s debt burden down as rapidly as possible is a debt buy-back under which Greece would offer to purchase bonds from private investors at a discount to their nominal value.

Several options are under consideration, officials have said and the document makes clear, including using about 10 billion euros to buy back bonds at between 30 and 35 cents in the euro.

There are also proposals to reduce the interest rate on loans already extended by euro zone countries to Greece, to impose a moratorium on interest payments and lengthen the maturities on loans, all of which would cut the debt burden.

 

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Wednesday said the lack of a debt deal between the country’s lenders over technical reasons did not justify holding up aid to Athens.

“Greece did what it had committed it would do. Our partners, together with the IMF, also have to do what they have taken on to do,” Samaras said in a statement.

“Any technical difficulties in finding a technical solution do not justify any negligence or delays.”

 

A senior lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel‘s conservatives warned on Wednesday against any writedown of public holdings of Greek debt, saying it would send a fatal signal to other bailout countries and fail to address the roots of Greece‘s woes.

Greece’s international lenders, who met in Brussels late on Tuesday, failed for the second week running to agree how to get the country’s debt down to a sustainable level and will have a third go at resolving their most intractable problem in six days’ time.

Norbert Barthle, budget spokesman for Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU), told German radio it was not surprising that no agreement had been reached given opposing views over how to plug Greece’s funding gap.

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