I hate the word recession. It does not help anyone anywhere. We have been talking a lot about economic slowdown in the US and it seems that USA may be heading for a recession. Well, it seems that the condition in Japan is even worse. In the April-June quarter, Japanese economy shrank instead of expanding. So, Japan has entered into an economic recession. The price of oil in the international market has decreased some and it should give Japanese people some respite for the time being.
The price of oil is an important factor but there are other important things too. There is hardly any respite about the price of basic commodities like food. As a result, many people in Japan are now a bit reluctant to spend money freely on consumer goods. It is like a evil cycle.
So, what next for Japanese economy? I feel that Japan is still a very rich country and Japanese government can surely afford to spend some money to motivate the consumers to go back to on their habits.
Once again Olympic games has returned with all its excitement and glamour. This year, China is going to host the Olympic. By hosting the Olympic Games, China will show its economic growth to the world. Today, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games will start.
Here are some facts about Beijing Olympics 2008:
The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics 2008 will take place at the Beijing National Stadium in Beijing, China. The opening ceremony started at 7.30 p.m. EST.
The games will go on till August 24.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics will features 302 events in 28 sports.
205 nations around the world will be participating in The 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The games will be broadcast on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, CBUT, USA and Telemundo.
Lopez Lomong, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan will carry the torch for the USA.
Famous Canadian singer Celine Dion, Jay Chou of Taiwan, Sarah Brightman of Britain, and Liu Huan of China will perform in the opening ceremony.
More than 80 head of states will attend the opening ceremony.
Any kind of games is a major opportunity for business organizations for marketing and promoting their products.
If you want to know more about the opening ceremony of Olympic games, then check out this article published in SouthAsiaFair.
I don’t need to remind you that USA is the most important car market in the world. It is also the largest car market. So, the main focus of every auto company in the world is to get a good market share in this market. Now, figures are coming out and it seems that July 2008 was a disaster for most Auto companies. Car sales decreased by 13% in July 2008 compared to July 2007.
Americans bought 1.14 million vehicles last month, 13% fewer than a year earlier. Among the hardest hit companies were those that manufacture a lot of trucks: Chrysler was down 29%, while Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. also declined by double digits, according to Autodata Corp. But when it came to bad news, it was hard to beat General Motors Corp. GM not only saw sales slide 26% in July, but it also reported its third-worst earnings in history, losing $15.5 billion in the second quarter.
I am not that much shocked with this news because there is an economic slow-down in USA. So, there is no wonder that it has affected the car market too.
Few months ago Skyfire browser caused a lot of buzz in the media world. You know that many people are not so happy with browsing internet in their mobile phone sets. Skyfire was targeted for this market. When iPhone came to the market, many people expected that it would solve this problem, but it did not happen and in the end many people felt frustrated. Now, let us see if Skyfire can make a difference for mobile phone users.
Skyfire launched on Windows Mobile, but as of today it is also available in a private beta for Nokia phones running Symbian’s S60 operating system. The first 200 TechCrunch readers to sign up for the beta here will get invites (enter invite code: Tcrunch).
