Unrest in Egypt Unsettles Global Markets

The situation in Egypt has the potential to cause more widespread uncertainty, especially if oil and other commodities keep surging or the unrest spreads to more countries in the Middle East. Egypt closed its banks and stock market Monday because of the chaos there, and the uncertainty weighed on markets elsewhere. On Monday, shares were mixed across Europe. The FTSE 100 in Britain was down 0.25 points while in Frankfurt, the DAX lost 5.88 points, or 0.08 percent, while the CAC 40 in Paris was up 8.72 points, or 0.22 percent. The Nasdaq composite index fell, or 0.23 percent in the US.
Egypt is not an oil exporter, nor is its stock market a regional heavyweight. As the home of the Suez Canal and the nearby Sumed pipeline. In 2009, roughly 2.9 millions barrels of oil a day, 2.6 percent of global production, passed through the canal and the pipeline. However, a major player in the global grain market, importing more wheat than any other country. Still, a few investors are looking for opportunities in the Middle East and Egypt itself despite the declines there and the expected instability. Egyptian stocks are inexpensive compared with shares in other markets, according to David Marcus.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/business/01markets.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

Our Sputnik Movement

This cartoon shows NASA going to a planet; however there is a Chinese restaraunt on it. It represets, China being more technological advanced than we are as Americans.

Sputnik Movement

This cartoon shows how Obama wants this to be our Sputnik movement and on the spaceship it says Deficit. Also, he wants to get rid of the deficit in the process of revolutionizing America's economy. In a way, this movement is a way to shrink the deficit.

Hiring plans top layoffs by most in 12 years

Industry economists say the U.S. economic recovery is gaining strength, with more firms expressing positive hiring plans than in over a decade. Eighty-two percent of the economists expected the nation's economy to grow by two to four percent in 2011, up from 54 percent in October. The latest government data had the economy growing at a 2.6-percent annual rate in the July-September quarter. However, more layoffs were expected in the transportation, utility, information and communications sectors. Many results are expressed as Net Rising Index, or NRI (the percentage of panelists reporting better outlooks minus the percentage whose outlook is bleaker.) Economists who saw their companies' profits grow in the final quarter of 2010 outpaced those who saw margins shrink by an NRI of 21 percent.
The results of this survey show that our country is getting better. It would take time but we've made progress. Also, it's going to take a drastic event to completely turn our economy around.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Poll-Hiring-plans-top-layoffs-apf-2575460790.html?x=0

Next presidency thoughts

Today in class we touched on primaries for the presidency. That had me thinking a bit. Despite the fact that Obama has lived up to his expectations, who else can lead our country? I mean, there is no leader from the republican side and who else is going to run against Obama. I feel like he can be a great leader, but he needs time and cooperation. Because it's obvious no one else will step up to the plate. If our government doesn't play their cards right-after watching the news about the Arizona politicans- this country could be in for a rude awakening.

Kangaroo in Flood

This is a image of a kangaroo on a long representing the flood that occured in Austrailia this week. In the background i also shows the city drowning down too.

Tunisians drive leader from power in mass uprising

After 23 years of iron-fisted rule, the president of Tunisia was driven from power Friday by violent protests over soaring unemployment and corruption. Virtually unprecedented in modern Arab history, the populist uprising sent an ominous message to authoritarian governments that dominate the region. The country was under the caretaker leadership of the prime minister who took control, the role of the army in the transition was unknown, and it was uncertain whether Ben Ali's departure would be enough to restore peace. The government said at least 23 people have been killed in the riots, but opposition members put the death toll at more than three times that.
This u[rising might be one of many to come. In recent years we've seen problems in that area and I believe that they recognize that politically something isn't right.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110115/ap_on_bi_ge/af_tunisia_riots

Health Care System Fail

In the cartoon, the Congress is saying that the Healthcare reform failed, and that caused the violent acts in Arizona. Also, that the reform caused the man to be deranged. Then, they're going to use that as a way to try to repeal the bill.

New zodiac

In this photo, the message is about the new 13th zodiac sign. A couple is saying that a Gemini is acting like a Scorpio. So, mostly everyone's sign was pushed up one. Honestly, I'm not one that gets into astrology so this really doesn't concern someone as myself.

MLK Day

This cartoon shows a few elderly african-americans reminiscing about the importance of MLK day black history. Then, they show a white man who says he remembers when the Congress was all white. I believe this represents who actually believes in the importance of a black holiday.

Snow Reaction

            This is a cartoon of the U.S. map with tire tracks on it.  It represents the snowstorm that swept the entire country and the captions represent the reactions from people in those areas.  Also, it was the first time a lot of areas experienced snow.

     

Suspect in attack on congresswoman acted alone

       Federal prosecutors brought charges Sunday against the gunman accused of attempting to assassinate Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people at a political event in Arizona.  Investogators claimed to have a search warrent for Jared Loughner's home, and found messages in a safe such as: "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and the name "Giffords" next to what appears to be the man's signature.
      "Loughner fired at Giffords' district director and shot indiscriminately at staffers and others standing in line to talk to the congresswoman," said Mark Kimble, a staffer for Gilfords.
      Loughner is accused of killing six people.  I believe he acted alone because this was very unorganized.  Usually assassinations attempts are more well thought out to the point where the assassin is not trying to get caught. It's unforunate that this incident happened, but I think politicians should start to be more aware of their decisions and try to make some reform in our government.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110109/ap_on_re_us/us_congresswoman_shot

The Great Wall Of China

This is a cartoon of the Great Wall of China and North Korea.  On one side China's flag is on it and the other side has North Korea with Nuclear Weapons.  The statement is that North Korea is making all these weapons and China, their neighboring country isn't doing anything about it.  Also, the artist is saying that's bringing shame to China.

      

Health Reform cartoon

        This cartoon shows president Obama trying to pick up some Health Reform papers.  However, the elephant, represents the Republican party, and it is keeping Obama from picking up the papers.  In reality, the Republicans are trying to keep the President from passing the health reform bill.

Did Rio de Janiero steal its Olympic logo from a Colorado charity?

         Organizers of the 2016 Olympic committee found similarities with it's logo and the one of a Colorado-based charity foundation.  That is raising the question if it is plagiarism.  The director of the Brazilian agency that created the logo says no. Fred Gelli acknowledges that there are similarities between the two, but guaranteed that his design was original. 
         "For some reason, we missed that one," he said.

Take away the legs and the red dancer from the Telluride logo and you have Rio's. However, it's undeniably similar.


http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/blog/fourth_place_medal/post/Did-Rio-de-Janiero-steal-its-Olympic-logo-from-a?urn=oly-302825