Sarina Lewis, Sunday Life
October 18, 2010 - 10:37AM
Helen Mirren, 65, regularly appears in lists of the world's most beautiful women. Photo: Getty/AFP
With role models such as Helen Mirren, the older generation are casting off their nanna cardigans and proving that you can age with style, grace and, yes, sex appeal.
Hollywood hottie Cameron Diaz calls her "drop-dead sexy". She beat Megan Fox to win the title of Sexiest Woman Alive in a US Esquire online reader poll. Not to mention the nude photo shoot published in a recent edition of New York magazine. And remember the photo of that red bikini? At 65, Dame Helen Mirren is more sexually charged goddess than cardigan-clad nanna, and she's at the vanguard of a new breed of 60-somethings for whom age is little more than
a number. This group of women, previously consigned to the garbage bin of cultural irrelevance, are redefining long-held stereotypes and successfully battling society's youth focus to become a powerful new authority.
Mirren, particularly, is making her presence felt in cinemas across the globe, with her latest film, Red. The action-thriller sees the gun-toting Dame starring alongside a cast of 55-plus stars of the calibre of Bruce Willis (55), Morgan Freeman (73) and John Malkovich (56) in what is something of a change of pace for an actor more familiar with the Bard than bullets. "I play a retired CIA agent and I have action scenes and stunts," Mirren says of her fur-draped character.
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Powerhouse performance ... Diane Keaton. Photo: Getty
"It was harrowing, of course, but that's what made it fun to do. I went from Shakespeare to running around with guns. How fabulous!"
Clearly not content to retire into playing the "ageing woman" (she will also star as an Israeli spy hunter in The Debt), Mirren is just one in a list of older women who, as proof that there's life after 60, are becoming increasingly visible in areas in which nubile youth has long trumped all else: fashion, cosmetics, magazines and movies. A quick scan of upcoming movie releases shows a list dominated by powerhouse performers such as Diane Keaton (64), Dame Maggie Smith (75) and Dame Judi Dench (75).
Outside movies, other high-profile ageless achievers include Vivienne Westwood, designing and modelling her own fashion line at 69, and the queen of the wrap dress, 63-year-old Diane von Fürstenberg. Then there is the return to TV screens of the unstoppable Betty White (88) and the fact that cosmetics giants are recruiting 50-plus talent as brand ambassadors. The roll-call at L'Oréal includes Keaton and Andie MacDowell, 52, while CoverGirl has Ellen DeGeneres, 52.
Nothing like a dame ... Judi Dench. Photo: Getty
Older women are more beautiful, more driven, more powerful and more prominent than ever before, and KPMG demographer Bernard Salt believes the trend of high-visibility older female role models is no accident. "The reason why we are talking about this is because of the ageing of the baby boomers," Salt says. In fact, "ageing gracefully" is becoming the mantra of our times just as the first boomers (born in 1946) prepare to celebrate their 65th birthdays. "If you think about it, those people have redefined every stage of the life cycle through which they have passed," says Salt. "As kids in the '50s, they were the first teenagers. In the '60s, they were hippies. Then they invented concepts like yuppies and dinks [double income, no kids] in the 1980s ... [before] morphing into sea-changers and tree-changers over the last decade. It is illogical to assume that they are now just going to fade into the sunset and turn into old people like preceding generations."
Gone, predicts Salt, will be "daggy" stereotypes of 60-somethings "sitting at home with a cardigan and slippers and watching daytime telly". Rather than succumb to obsolescence or retreat from the workplace and society, the new generation of age-defiant oldies, says Salt, are fighting back against being relegated to a 55-plus "wasteland".
"Baby boomers do not see themselves as old," he explains. And nor should they. With the average Australian woman now living to 84 - and the average man to 79 - Salt says the tendency of past generations to let themselves go as early as their 50s has been replaced with the understanding that an increased life expectancy requires a renovation of that arena known previously as "55-plus": an "offensive" term, says Salt, that consigns Australia's 4.5 million boomers to "this grab bag of old age".
"By the time you were 55 in 1930, you were eight years from death on average. Eight years out from the end of it, you're in the chute, aren't you?" he muses. "You put up with a relationship that's not terrific and you don't invest in your looks, your wardrobe. You act, feel and think like an old person. Today ... if you're 63, you can't act old because you've got another 20, perhaps 25, years left of life. So they're actually going to reinvent that space. It's due for a makeover. They'll give it a good shake and role models will emerge showing how you age with dignity, grace and style. And Helen Mirren, Olivia Newton-John - they're good examples of that."
And so is Melburnian Ingrid Pich.
Tossing in a six-figure salary to follow her love to South Korea at the age of 59, Pich upped and returned to Australia two years later - just a week before her scheduled wedding - when the relationship broke down. Now a vibrant 66, the divorced mother of two adult sons has continued her reinvention, starting her own personal-training business and travelling the world solo.
"I refuse to age," laughs Pich, who left her first husband, the father of her children, when it became apparent he couldn't keep up with her. "And I'll be fighting [an ageing mentality] until they bury me."
She's fighting it, but not rejecting it: like all those brandishing the ageing-gracefully banner, Pich is adamant that some of her best years are ahead of her. With age, she believes, has come a potent kind of self-knowledge and personal empowerment that eluded her in younger years.
"I've become much, much stronger," she says, insisting that her 20-something self, lacking the confidence to rebuild on her own, would have never had the courage to leave a partner at the first sign of trouble. "As a young person, I think you cut more to this side and that side, we live a little bit airy-fairy. And I think once you reach a certain age ... the real you emerges. You are who you are and what you want to be."
National Ageing Research Institute preventative and public health division director Dr Briony Dow says it is women like Pich who are helping to break down the ageist attitudes that contributed to the sense of invisibility often felt by the 60-something set before now. "We've got lots of really good role models," says Dow. "People like [Governor-General] Quentin Bryce, taking on those roles of power and authority which I think reflect back generally and positively into our community and into our attitudes."
Dow explains that such shifts in perception help to extinguish negative associations and discrimination often internalised by the ageing population. "If you're looking at women now who are 60 and 70, they are some of the highest new [groups of] participants in the workforce. So they are often women who feel, you know, 'This is the time for me.' They have brought up their families and they're looking at a fresh start."
In fact, says journalist and economics editor Tim Colebatch, the impact of a continued presence in the workforce is as powerful a motivator to age gracefully as gym sessions and the lure of adventure travel. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics tell the story: sitting at just 13 per cent in 1978, rates of workforce participation for women aged 60 to 64 had jumped to 41.9 per cent by June 2010. Similar leaps can be seen in the 65-plus group, the participation figure more than doubling, from 2.8 per cent in 1978 to 6.4 per cent today. "That's dramatic," says Colebatch, citing a female university professor friend who, after retiring at 65, has continued with consultancy work. Like many others, he says, she doesn't "want to be put out to pasture".
Older women are also looking after themselves. Knowledge is power, says Briony Dow, and just as younger generations have absorbed messages regarding the benefits of a healthy lifestyle, so, too, have society's older members. Longitudinal studies consistently show that regular physical activity, a healthy diet, a positive attitude and maintenance of relationships and social engagements lead to decreased risk of disease and - so it follows - a better old age, says Dow.
"Women are keeping physically active, so they haven't internalised the idea that once you're over 60, you're decrepit and should just give up on life," she explains, citing increased participation in programs such as the Council on the Ageing's Living Longer Living Stronger gym groups. "It requires quite a lot of work, but people are picking up alternatives to the Botox thing of trying to stay young, and instead trying to stay healthy into older age."
Helen Mirren herself is a strong proponent of this kind of thinking. "Number one, I have never smoked," she recently replied in answer to questions regarding how she has maintained her youthful attitude and sex appeal. "When you are young, you seem indestructible. As you get older, you realise how much it's helping you. I've never done anything to excess, really." She also thanked her "fundamentally sunny nature", saying that "unhappiness etches itself on one's face very quickly".
Sydney's Rose Sedran couldn't agree more. At 61, Sedran runs an online sensuality boutique with her adult daughter, Angela. "Women of 60 today don't look like women of [the same age] 25 or 30 years ago," she insists. She says pictures of her mother at a similar age demonstrated that she had, in Sedran's words, "given up" on life. "I've kept my figure. I like lovely, high-heeled shoes. I've always believed in the motto 'Use it or lose it.'"
Like Ingrid Pich, Sedran continues to indulge her passions for work, exercise, travel and family (she has been known to take her 15-year-old grandson rollerblading), and similarly believes that her life
has become richer and happier as the years have added up. Not for her is a longing for the fountain of youth. "People really only grow old mentally because they keep telling themselves, 'I'm old, I'm old,' " she muses, "and that's just something I've put out of my mind."
As Sedran bluntly states, "You just have to take care of yourself. There's no reason for you to get grey and wrinkled and shrivel up."
BOTOX-FREE BEAUTY
That Lauren Hutton posed nude at 61 for the cover of US magazine Big comes as no real surprise to Martin Walsh, director of Chadwick Models. With some 15 years' experience working as an agent in the youth-dominated world of modelling, Walsh says that now, more than ever, the beauty and fashion industries are opening up to the idea that the reliance on coltish teens to sell to older, professional women is far from ideal.
"You've got a really savvy consumer - especially in Australia - in that demographic of professional women," he says of the 40-plus age group. "They really want to identify with someone. They want to see someone of substance, someone who looks real. They don't want to be dictated to by 16-year-old stick-thin models."
Nor are they impressed by an older model sporting that easily identifiable, plasticised, over-Botoxed look. "Advertisers and certain clients, they want to see character in a woman's face. They're not really interested in anyone who's been altered too much, shall we say," Walsh says.
And it seems some of the entertainment industry's brightest stars are picking up the message: Kylie Minogue (42), Teri Hatcher (45), and Cindy Crawford (44) have all recently confessed to giving up the cosmetic injection, while others, such as Julia Roberts (42) and Sarah Jessica Parker (45), shunned it from the outset.
Of course, it's all baby steps for an industry that is skewed towards perfection and youth. Walsh believes consumer demands will make an impact. "I think the populace is certainly dictating what they want to see out there, and if an advertising campaign doesn't hit its mark, they realise it [and] ... respond to that pretty quickly," he explains. "We've just resurrected the Pantene commercial with Rachel Hunter [41] ... she's confident, she's not stick-thin and has achieved different things, and I think that's what women respond to."
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Stars set stage alight in Ibsen's dark tale
By EMER O'KELLY
Sunday October 17 2010
GREAT drama is frequently destroyed by star-studded performances, usually because self-absorption in the acting becomes the end rather than the means.
By that standard, Frank McGuinness's new version of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman for the Abbey should be an unmitigated disaster, with three of the English-speaking world's most shining theatrical lights battling it out on stage. Instead, director James McDonald has produced a piece of theatre so delicately magnificent it deserves to (and hopefully will) be remembered for generations.
The story of a ruined bank manager who embezzled funds only to have his crime reported by his closest confidante in revenge, as the confidante sees it, for having prevented the manager's beautiful sister-in-law accepting a proposal of marriage from him, has obvious resonance for our time.
But this is no cheap or trite allegory. McGuinness has given us Ibsen's monumental work as it was originally written: an examination of the nature of sexual passion played out against the driving obsession of the miner turned banker flying, Icarus-like, too close to the sun of ambitious greed.
Except that John Gabriel Borkman doesn't fall to earth and a merciful death; the melted wax of his wings drags him into a pit alive with the serpents of hopelessness and memory.
His lost love Ella returns in the hope of re-claiming his son, Erhart, who she has fostered in boyhood and wants to make her heir before her imminent death; his implacable wife, Ella's twin sister, rages on her own on the floor of the family estate where they live in separate and hate-fuelled isolation, determined that the young man will re-claim the honour of the family name, and wipe out the memory of his father forever.
And Borkman, eight years after being released from prison, lives in a world of delusion: isolated from everyone except his old clerk's young daughter who comes to play the piano, and the clerk himself, who longs to be a writer and feeds Borkman's mania for a return to power in return for nuts of encouragement, he awaits rehabilitation in the world's eyes.
In Ibsen's stern world there is only one solution: young Erhart chooses freedom and a future, unconsciously freeing them all from their self-imposed chains. And John Gabriel Borkman can finally sleep.
Alan Rickman is breathtaking as Borkman, a man lost to human contact in pursuit of ugly fantasy. Fiona Shaw is Gunhild, the wife whose core he has encased in shrivelled steel in a performance that lays bare the layers of blood and bone inside the steel. And Lindsay Duncan is Ella, the unlucky emotional gambler who has staked everything, and through constant loss has learned to accept almost with equanimity.
There are faults: John Kavanagh as the pathetic clerk gives the impression of having decided to interpret the text differently from his fellow cast members, and Lindsay Duncan has quite a lot of projection problems.
But apart from that, with Marty Rea as the desperate Erhart, Cathy Belton as his amused and knowing paramour, Amy Molloy as young Frida and Joan Sheehy as the maid, this is a truly memorable production, with the technical credits as triumphant as the concept and acting: Tom Pye's icily Nordic set, Joan Bergin's costumes, Jean Kalman's almost ethereal lighting and Ian Dickinson's sound.
**********
ENRON, one of the world's largest energy companies, filed for bankruptcy in December 2001. Before that, its founder and chairman Kenneth Lay and its CEO Jeff Skilling, who believed that "all money is debt", had almost singlehandedly taken over the energy market in the United States, with considerable help from George W Bush when he was Governor of Texas.
They did it with the assistance of bankers Lehmann Brothers (a name that was to become even more infamous in later years) and accountants Arthur Andersen, by creating hundreds of companies into which they moved their massive debts, disguising them as profits . . . their own personal Nama, as it were. This was the brainchild of the financial controller of the company, Andy Fastow.
When the company crashed, largely thanks to investigative journalism on the part of Fortune magazine, 21,000 employees in Enron's Houston headquarters were thrown out of their jobs at hours' notice with severance packages of a couple of thousand dollars. Their pension fund of more than a billion dollars was wiped out, as were their personal life savings, which Lay and Skilling had conned them into investing in the company stock. All of the non-company shareholders were also wiped out. Corporate America said, "never again". And the international corporate world looked on and said, "never again". Henceforward, strict regulation would be the order of the day, nationally and internationally. Hmm? That was nine years ago.
Lay and Skilling remained defiantly unapologetic. The US courts saw things differently. Skilling is currently serving a 24-year jail sentence handed down in 2006 for fraud and conspiracy. Lay had been facing more than 40 years when he died of a heart attack. Their patsy, Andy Fastow, received a 10-year sentence. Accountants Arthur Andersen were permanently barred from auditing, and the company collapsed. (Thirty thousand people lost their jobs as a result.) Lesson: in America, justice is truly as blind as it is meant to be: the people who are really responsible take the fall, not their minions.
An English writer, Lucy Prebble, has written a musical play, Enron, about these events, and it has been given a co-production by Headline, Chichester, and the Royal Court, a marker of the British theatrical establishment's enthusiasm for the piece. It was extremely successful in the UK, less so in its US run. And that must be laid at the door of the piece's superficiality. American audiences would have been familiar with the labyrinthine history of Enron and its gargantuan fraud, and would justifiably have found the play slight in the extreme.
The production came to the Gaiety for the Theatre Festival, and received a polite reaction. Its slick presentation could not be faulted, but it's doubtful if it added to the knowledge of corporate fraud in either the general or the particular, and it certainly did not fall into the category of earth-shattering drama.
Which is a pity, since it depicts events that were spectacularly earth-shattering in financial terms, and should have led to a world financial revolution. That they did not is one of the reasons why Ireland may shortly fall into the hands of the International Monetary Fund.
**********
WITH text by Jan Klata and Sebastian Majewski and direction by the former, The Danton Case was part of the Polish programme in the festival, and was entirely unsuitable for any audience not fluent in Polish. The surtitles were so placed that if you read them, you couldn't look at the stage, and they were obviously out of synch with the dialogue for much of the time, making a nonsense of the interminable debates that are the main component of the piece.
Purporting to be an account of the downfall of Danton, the President of the French Revolution's Committee of Public Safety and the man reputed to have led the popular march on the Tuileries Palace which effectively dethroned the King, only to fall foul of Robespierre, the man who later established what became known as the Terror after Danton's execution, The Danton Case is effectively a string of lectures and debates on the nature of revolution, terror, betrayal, the cupidity of the mob, and the unpredictability of democracy. You can picture them, unedited, sitting very easily in gloomy long-winded conversations between Lenin and Trotsky in a later century.
Perhaps in recognition of this lack of oomph, the piece is interspersed with seemingly endless sequences of people leaping in and out of packing cases, mostly to copulate enthusiastically across the genders.
Marianne, the symbol of the revolution, wanders around, hiccuping, and the piece ends with a fella stripping down to his knickers and doing yoga. Finally, I'm afraid, most of the acting is unbelievably hammy.
- EMER O'KELLY
Sunday Independent
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
Sunday October 17 2010
GREAT drama is frequently destroyed by star-studded performances, usually because self-absorption in the acting becomes the end rather than the means.
By that standard, Frank McGuinness's new version of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman for the Abbey should be an unmitigated disaster, with three of the English-speaking world's most shining theatrical lights battling it out on stage. Instead, director James McDonald has produced a piece of theatre so delicately magnificent it deserves to (and hopefully will) be remembered for generations.
The story of a ruined bank manager who embezzled funds only to have his crime reported by his closest confidante in revenge, as the confidante sees it, for having prevented the manager's beautiful sister-in-law accepting a proposal of marriage from him, has obvious resonance for our time.
But this is no cheap or trite allegory. McGuinness has given us Ibsen's monumental work as it was originally written: an examination of the nature of sexual passion played out against the driving obsession of the miner turned banker flying, Icarus-like, too close to the sun of ambitious greed.
Except that John Gabriel Borkman doesn't fall to earth and a merciful death; the melted wax of his wings drags him into a pit alive with the serpents of hopelessness and memory.
His lost love Ella returns in the hope of re-claiming his son, Erhart, who she has fostered in boyhood and wants to make her heir before her imminent death; his implacable wife, Ella's twin sister, rages on her own on the floor of the family estate where they live in separate and hate-fuelled isolation, determined that the young man will re-claim the honour of the family name, and wipe out the memory of his father forever.
And Borkman, eight years after being released from prison, lives in a world of delusion: isolated from everyone except his old clerk's young daughter who comes to play the piano, and the clerk himself, who longs to be a writer and feeds Borkman's mania for a return to power in return for nuts of encouragement, he awaits rehabilitation in the world's eyes.
In Ibsen's stern world there is only one solution: young Erhart chooses freedom and a future, unconsciously freeing them all from their self-imposed chains. And John Gabriel Borkman can finally sleep.
Alan Rickman is breathtaking as Borkman, a man lost to human contact in pursuit of ugly fantasy. Fiona Shaw is Gunhild, the wife whose core he has encased in shrivelled steel in a performance that lays bare the layers of blood and bone inside the steel. And Lindsay Duncan is Ella, the unlucky emotional gambler who has staked everything, and through constant loss has learned to accept almost with equanimity.
There are faults: John Kavanagh as the pathetic clerk gives the impression of having decided to interpret the text differently from his fellow cast members, and Lindsay Duncan has quite a lot of projection problems.
But apart from that, with Marty Rea as the desperate Erhart, Cathy Belton as his amused and knowing paramour, Amy Molloy as young Frida and Joan Sheehy as the maid, this is a truly memorable production, with the technical credits as triumphant as the concept and acting: Tom Pye's icily Nordic set, Joan Bergin's costumes, Jean Kalman's almost ethereal lighting and Ian Dickinson's sound.
**********
ENRON, one of the world's largest energy companies, filed for bankruptcy in December 2001. Before that, its founder and chairman Kenneth Lay and its CEO Jeff Skilling, who believed that "all money is debt", had almost singlehandedly taken over the energy market in the United States, with considerable help from George W Bush when he was Governor of Texas.
They did it with the assistance of bankers Lehmann Brothers (a name that was to become even more infamous in later years) and accountants Arthur Andersen, by creating hundreds of companies into which they moved their massive debts, disguising them as profits . . . their own personal Nama, as it were. This was the brainchild of the financial controller of the company, Andy Fastow.
When the company crashed, largely thanks to investigative journalism on the part of Fortune magazine, 21,000 employees in Enron's Houston headquarters were thrown out of their jobs at hours' notice with severance packages of a couple of thousand dollars. Their pension fund of more than a billion dollars was wiped out, as were their personal life savings, which Lay and Skilling had conned them into investing in the company stock. All of the non-company shareholders were also wiped out. Corporate America said, "never again". And the international corporate world looked on and said, "never again". Henceforward, strict regulation would be the order of the day, nationally and internationally. Hmm? That was nine years ago.
Lay and Skilling remained defiantly unapologetic. The US courts saw things differently. Skilling is currently serving a 24-year jail sentence handed down in 2006 for fraud and conspiracy. Lay had been facing more than 40 years when he died of a heart attack. Their patsy, Andy Fastow, received a 10-year sentence. Accountants Arthur Andersen were permanently barred from auditing, and the company collapsed. (Thirty thousand people lost their jobs as a result.) Lesson: in America, justice is truly as blind as it is meant to be: the people who are really responsible take the fall, not their minions.
An English writer, Lucy Prebble, has written a musical play, Enron, about these events, and it has been given a co-production by Headline, Chichester, and the Royal Court, a marker of the British theatrical establishment's enthusiasm for the piece. It was extremely successful in the UK, less so in its US run. And that must be laid at the door of the piece's superficiality. American audiences would have been familiar with the labyrinthine history of Enron and its gargantuan fraud, and would justifiably have found the play slight in the extreme.
The production came to the Gaiety for the Theatre Festival, and received a polite reaction. Its slick presentation could not be faulted, but it's doubtful if it added to the knowledge of corporate fraud in either the general or the particular, and it certainly did not fall into the category of earth-shattering drama.
Which is a pity, since it depicts events that were spectacularly earth-shattering in financial terms, and should have led to a world financial revolution. That they did not is one of the reasons why Ireland may shortly fall into the hands of the International Monetary Fund.
**********
WITH text by Jan Klata and Sebastian Majewski and direction by the former, The Danton Case was part of the Polish programme in the festival, and was entirely unsuitable for any audience not fluent in Polish. The surtitles were so placed that if you read them, you couldn't look at the stage, and they were obviously out of synch with the dialogue for much of the time, making a nonsense of the interminable debates that are the main component of the piece.
Purporting to be an account of the downfall of Danton, the President of the French Revolution's Committee of Public Safety and the man reputed to have led the popular march on the Tuileries Palace which effectively dethroned the King, only to fall foul of Robespierre, the man who later established what became known as the Terror after Danton's execution, The Danton Case is effectively a string of lectures and debates on the nature of revolution, terror, betrayal, the cupidity of the mob, and the unpredictability of democracy. You can picture them, unedited, sitting very easily in gloomy long-winded conversations between Lenin and Trotsky in a later century.
Perhaps in recognition of this lack of oomph, the piece is interspersed with seemingly endless sequences of people leaping in and out of packing cases, mostly to copulate enthusiastically across the genders.
Marianne, the symbol of the revolution, wanders around, hiccuping, and the piece ends with a fella stripping down to his knickers and doing yoga. Finally, I'm afraid, most of the acting is unbelievably hammy.
- EMER O'KELLY
Sunday Independent
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
Friday, October 15, 2010
U.S. Delays Currency Report, Cites Chinese Progress on Yuan
By Ian Katz and Rebecca Christie - Oct 15, 2010 2:03 PM CT
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, seen here, suggested yesterday that China’s policy of buying dollars to hold down the yuan is distorting the global currency system by forcing other emerging-market nations to intervene. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
Play Video
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the Asia Society, talks with Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton and Julie Hyman about China's currency policy. (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.S. Treasury Department said it will delay a report on international currencies, including China’s, while citing progress in the acceleration of the yuan’s rise.
The report will be delayed until after meetings of the Group of 20 nations in the coming weeks, according to a statement from the Treasury today.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner “recognized China’s actions since early September to accelerate the pace of currency appreciation, while noting it is important to sustain this course,” according to the statement.
Geithner has increased pressure on China to allow the yuan to strengthen, saying last week the nation is contributing to a “damaging dynamic” of countries keeping their currencies weak to spur exports. Record imports from China are fueling calls by U.S. lawmakers for action to protect American jobs as next month’s elections approach.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi, has risen about 2.8 percent since June 19, when China announced it would drop its peg to the dollar.
China’s strengthening of domestic demand and allowing the yuan rate to move higher “will make a significant, positive contribution to the global rebalancing effort,” according to the Treasury statement.
It said the G-20 meetings will “provide an opportunity to make additional progress on the important challenge of securing stronger and more balanced growth.”
Geithner will travel to Gyeongju, South Korea, next week to meet with G-20 finance ministers to discuss currencies, government stimulus efforts and other economic policies ahead of a leaders’ summit on Nov. 11-12 in Seoul.
Congress Report
The Treasury’s currency report was due to be sent to Congress today.
The yuan rose to the strongest level since 1993 on speculation American lawmakers will step up calls for faster appreciation after the U.S. yesterday said its trade deficit with China widened to a record $28 billion in August.
The People’s Bank of China set today’s reference rate for yuan trading at 6.6497 per dollar, as the currency completed a sixth weekly advance.
Geithner last week called for international cooperation to rebalance currency markets and warned that lopsided trade flows threaten to limit global growth.
‘Stronger Pressure’
“More and more countries face stronger pressure to lean against the market forces pushing up the value of their currencies,” Geithner said in an Oct. 6 speech in Washington. Currencies are “inherently a multilateral issue” that is “much easier to solve if countries come together.”
President Barack Obama’s administration also faces pressure from U.S. companies and lawmakers who say the yuan’s weakness makes Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S., putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. With unemployment near a 26-year high, disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy is likely to contribute to Republican gains in the Nov. 2 elections, polls show.
“In the U.S. election campaign, China is a useful scapegoat,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
In a report yesterday, U.S. steelmakers including Nucor Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. said companies in China get unfair government subsidies that violate World Trade Organization rules. The House of Representatives on Sept. 29 passed a bill to let U.S. companies seek duties on Chinese products to compensate for a weak yuan.
U.S. Imports
U.S. imports from China climbed to a record $35.3 billion in August, pushing the trade shortfall with the Asian nation to $28 billion, the highest since comparable data began in 1992, according to a report yesterday from the Commerce Department.
“While the Chinese government is announcing record exports, Ohio workers are facing layoffs and our manufacturing facilities are shuttering,” Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said yesterday in a statement. “China’s unfair manipulation of its currency allows its underpriced imports to undermine American-made products.”
The Treasury released its previous currency report in July after a three-month delay, which Geithner said was to allow discussion within the G-20, which includes the largest developed and emerging economies.
The July report said the yuan “remains undervalued” and pledged to monitor it closely over the next three months for signs that Asia’s fastest-growing market is living up to its commitments to help rebalance the global economy.
“There is a consensus that the renminbi is significantly undervalued,” Kirkegaard said. “Where there’s not consensus is whether or not that valuation and the associated trade imbalance between the U.S. and China is the root cause of all the problems in the global economy.”
Ian Katz in Washington at ikatz2@bloomberg.net Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net.
http://www.startforextrading.net/
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, seen here, suggested yesterday that China’s policy of buying dollars to hold down the yuan is distorting the global currency system by forcing other emerging-market nations to intervene. Photographer: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg
Play Video
Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the Asia Society, talks with Bloomberg's Mark Crumpton and Julie Hyman about China's currency policy. (Source: Bloomberg)
The U.S. Treasury Department said it will delay a report on international currencies, including China’s, while citing progress in the acceleration of the yuan’s rise.
The report will be delayed until after meetings of the Group of 20 nations in the coming weeks, according to a statement from the Treasury today.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner “recognized China’s actions since early September to accelerate the pace of currency appreciation, while noting it is important to sustain this course,” according to the statement.
Geithner has increased pressure on China to allow the yuan to strengthen, saying last week the nation is contributing to a “damaging dynamic” of countries keeping their currencies weak to spur exports. Record imports from China are fueling calls by U.S. lawmakers for action to protect American jobs as next month’s elections approach.
The yuan, also known as the renminbi, has risen about 2.8 percent since June 19, when China announced it would drop its peg to the dollar.
China’s strengthening of domestic demand and allowing the yuan rate to move higher “will make a significant, positive contribution to the global rebalancing effort,” according to the Treasury statement.
It said the G-20 meetings will “provide an opportunity to make additional progress on the important challenge of securing stronger and more balanced growth.”
Geithner will travel to Gyeongju, South Korea, next week to meet with G-20 finance ministers to discuss currencies, government stimulus efforts and other economic policies ahead of a leaders’ summit on Nov. 11-12 in Seoul.
Congress Report
The Treasury’s currency report was due to be sent to Congress today.
The yuan rose to the strongest level since 1993 on speculation American lawmakers will step up calls for faster appreciation after the U.S. yesterday said its trade deficit with China widened to a record $28 billion in August.
The People’s Bank of China set today’s reference rate for yuan trading at 6.6497 per dollar, as the currency completed a sixth weekly advance.
Geithner last week called for international cooperation to rebalance currency markets and warned that lopsided trade flows threaten to limit global growth.
‘Stronger Pressure’
“More and more countries face stronger pressure to lean against the market forces pushing up the value of their currencies,” Geithner said in an Oct. 6 speech in Washington. Currencies are “inherently a multilateral issue” that is “much easier to solve if countries come together.”
President Barack Obama’s administration also faces pressure from U.S. companies and lawmakers who say the yuan’s weakness makes Chinese goods cheaper in the U.S., putting American manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage. With unemployment near a 26-year high, disapproval of Obama’s handling of the economy is likely to contribute to Republican gains in the Nov. 2 elections, polls show.
“In the U.S. election campaign, China is a useful scapegoat,” said Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
In a report yesterday, U.S. steelmakers including Nucor Corp. and U.S. Steel Corp. said companies in China get unfair government subsidies that violate World Trade Organization rules. The House of Representatives on Sept. 29 passed a bill to let U.S. companies seek duties on Chinese products to compensate for a weak yuan.
U.S. Imports
U.S. imports from China climbed to a record $35.3 billion in August, pushing the trade shortfall with the Asian nation to $28 billion, the highest since comparable data began in 1992, according to a report yesterday from the Commerce Department.
“While the Chinese government is announcing record exports, Ohio workers are facing layoffs and our manufacturing facilities are shuttering,” Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said yesterday in a statement. “China’s unfair manipulation of its currency allows its underpriced imports to undermine American-made products.”
The Treasury released its previous currency report in July after a three-month delay, which Geithner said was to allow discussion within the G-20, which includes the largest developed and emerging economies.
The July report said the yuan “remains undervalued” and pledged to monitor it closely over the next three months for signs that Asia’s fastest-growing market is living up to its commitments to help rebalance the global economy.
“There is a consensus that the renminbi is significantly undervalued,” Kirkegaard said. “Where there’s not consensus is whether or not that valuation and the associated trade imbalance between the U.S. and China is the root cause of all the problems in the global economy.”
Ian Katz in Washington at ikatz2@bloomberg.net Rebecca Christie in Washington at rchristie4@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net.
http://www.startforextrading.net/
Oil hovers below $83 ahead of Fed chief speech
By BARRY HATTON
Oil prices hovered below $83 a barrel Friday as markets awaited pointers from the Federal Reserve chairman about how the central bank intends to add momentum to the U.S. economic recovery.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 4 cents to $82.73 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 32 cents to settle at $82.69 on Thursday.
Disappointing economic news drove crude prices lower, and investors anticipated that a speech later Friday by U.S. central bank chief Ben Bernanke would provide guidance on economic prospects and policy.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of the world's crude, said Thursday it would leave crude production targets unchanged amid a patchy economic upturn that has prolonged uncertainty about future demand.
Some analysts expect the sluggish economic recovery in developed countries will undermine consumer demand and keep oil under the mid-$80s.
"Although the price has been traded above the mark of $80 for two weeks without cease, the upwards momentum has come to a stop, which is comprehensible in view of the fundamental situation on the oil market. There is still no sign of a shortage in supply," Commerzbank said in a report.
A weaker U.S. dollar, pushed lower by speculation the Fed might take steps to lower interest rates, has supported crude prices recently as investors jumped into commodities such as oil.
Most OPEC members are paid for their oil in dollars, and the group's Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said Friday the dollar's slide has alarmed them.
OPEC members "are very concerned about the matter," he said.
Goldman Sachs sees prices rising to $92 in three months and $101 in 12 months.
"We expect the supply-demand balance to continue to tighten in the fourth quarter as continued global economic growth -- albeit likely at a slower pace than in the first half -- continues to strengthen demand," it said in a report.
In other Nymex trading in November contracts, heating oil was steady at $2.283 a gallon and gasoline rose 0.62 cent to $2.143 a gallon. Natural gas gained 0.4 cent to $3.661 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude dropped 15 cents to $84.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
--------
Associated Press writers Alex Kennedy in Singapore and George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
Oil prices hovered below $83 a barrel Friday as markets awaited pointers from the Federal Reserve chairman about how the central bank intends to add momentum to the U.S. economic recovery.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for November delivery was up 4 cents to $82.73 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 32 cents to settle at $82.69 on Thursday.
Disappointing economic news drove crude prices lower, and investors anticipated that a speech later Friday by U.S. central bank chief Ben Bernanke would provide guidance on economic prospects and policy.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, which produces about 40 percent of the world's crude, said Thursday it would leave crude production targets unchanged amid a patchy economic upturn that has prolonged uncertainty about future demand.
Some analysts expect the sluggish economic recovery in developed countries will undermine consumer demand and keep oil under the mid-$80s.
"Although the price has been traded above the mark of $80 for two weeks without cease, the upwards momentum has come to a stop, which is comprehensible in view of the fundamental situation on the oil market. There is still no sign of a shortage in supply," Commerzbank said in a report.
A weaker U.S. dollar, pushed lower by speculation the Fed might take steps to lower interest rates, has supported crude prices recently as investors jumped into commodities such as oil.
Most OPEC members are paid for their oil in dollars, and the group's Secretary General Abdalla El-Badri said Friday the dollar's slide has alarmed them.
OPEC members "are very concerned about the matter," he said.
Goldman Sachs sees prices rising to $92 in three months and $101 in 12 months.
"We expect the supply-demand balance to continue to tighten in the fourth quarter as continued global economic growth -- albeit likely at a slower pace than in the first half -- continues to strengthen demand," it said in a report.
In other Nymex trading in November contracts, heating oil was steady at $2.283 a gallon and gasoline rose 0.62 cent to $2.143 a gallon. Natural gas gained 0.4 cent to $3.661 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, Brent crude dropped 15 cents to $84.05 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
--------
Associated Press writers Alex Kennedy in Singapore and George Jahn in Vienna contributed to this report.
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Stop Debt Problems
This possibly will seem like indispensable ordinary awareness but the number one thing you should be sure of is that your credit report is correct. Looking at your credit report for incorrect data is crucial. Your credit score will depend on it and this will help in getting started on bringing a halt to your debt problems.
If you are in economic hot water, consider all your options: Practical budgeting, credit counseling from a dependable institute, debt consolidation, or maybe even bankruptcy. You may ask how do you know which will work best for you? Well it depends on your level of debt, your level of restraint, and your prospects for the future.
Consumer reporting companies can convey most accurate harmful data for up to seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Also data about unsettled verdict not in favor of you can be reported for up to seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. There is no schedule limit on reporting information so you should consider this before you make a choice.
Your standing file may not point toward all your credit accounts. Most national department stores and all-purpose bank credit card accounts are built-in in your file, but not all. Selected travel, entertainment, gas card companies, local retailers, and credit unions are amongst those that usually aren't built-in in your report. I would like to say that Debt Settlement is a viable option to help you negotiate your unsecured debtaches.
Regrettably some companies take advantage of people who need debt relief assistance. If you choose an unethical company, you may discover yourself in worse shape than you were beforehand. I believe that a debt settlement company should charge fees based on their performance and results.
Beware of any company charging a flat fee based on the percentage of your debt. These companies have a collection of their fees which ordinarily are up front before your debt is settled. This is despite of how successful they are at settling your debtaches. Highly regarded credit counseling organizations can give great advice on managing your money and debts. They will help you develop a financial plan, and offer free learning materials and a laid out plan.
Their counselors are certified and trained in the areas of consumer credit, money and debt management, and step by step budget. A useful counselor will discuss your complete financial situation with you, and help you develop a tailored plan to solve your money problems. A primary analysis session typically lasts an hour, with an offer of follow-up sessions so do our home work.
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
If you are in economic hot water, consider all your options: Practical budgeting, credit counseling from a dependable institute, debt consolidation, or maybe even bankruptcy. You may ask how do you know which will work best for you? Well it depends on your level of debt, your level of restraint, and your prospects for the future.
Consumer reporting companies can convey most accurate harmful data for up to seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Also data about unsettled verdict not in favor of you can be reported for up to seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. There is no schedule limit on reporting information so you should consider this before you make a choice.
Your standing file may not point toward all your credit accounts. Most national department stores and all-purpose bank credit card accounts are built-in in your file, but not all. Selected travel, entertainment, gas card companies, local retailers, and credit unions are amongst those that usually aren't built-in in your report. I would like to say that Debt Settlement is a viable option to help you negotiate your unsecured debtaches.
Regrettably some companies take advantage of people who need debt relief assistance. If you choose an unethical company, you may discover yourself in worse shape than you were beforehand. I believe that a debt settlement company should charge fees based on their performance and results.
Beware of any company charging a flat fee based on the percentage of your debt. These companies have a collection of their fees which ordinarily are up front before your debt is settled. This is despite of how successful they are at settling your debtaches. Highly regarded credit counseling organizations can give great advice on managing your money and debts. They will help you develop a financial plan, and offer free learning materials and a laid out plan.
Their counselors are certified and trained in the areas of consumer credit, money and debt management, and step by step budget. A useful counselor will discuss your complete financial situation with you, and help you develop a tailored plan to solve your money problems. A primary analysis session typically lasts an hour, with an offer of follow-up sessions so do our home work.
http://www.nomoredebtaches.org/
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Another Day At The Office
Well I’m getting ready to leave work again and would you know that my patience was tested all day. One of the hardest things for me to do is to pretend that what someone was saying made sense when it was just plain idiotic.
We have certain customers who we have done business with for years but it never fails. They will call us to ship out some hazardous material and they ask the question will you need the consignee’s address in order to ship the freight.
I’m thinking in my mind no I will just ship your customer who is located in South Africa, shipment to Canada. What kind of question is that do I need the address of course I need the address.
But the good news is that I am off Friday man do I need that.
We have certain customers who we have done business with for years but it never fails. They will call us to ship out some hazardous material and they ask the question will you need the consignee’s address in order to ship the freight.
I’m thinking in my mind no I will just ship your customer who is located in South Africa, shipment to Canada. What kind of question is that do I need the address of course I need the address.
But the good news is that I am off Friday man do I need that.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Credit Card Debt
If you are looking for a great way to save money and accumulate buying power business credit is the way to go. Credit card companies in this day and age offer business credit cards with profitable advantages. A study of these credit card companies reveal that using these cards are beneficial for you in many ways. If you evaluate business credit cards you will soon realize how you can use them to save money.
Business credit cards come with a comparatively low APR starting at around 8%. A standard business credit card also comes with an introductory period of 0% APR. Most credit cards provide a quarterly and annual balance summary and, they provide a great tool to balance business expenditures proficiently. Some cards reward the users with offers like free frequent flier miles, that directly help a business. You can reduce your business specific expenses by choosing the right card.
Business Credit Cards Compared:
A lot of companies will offer a business credit card by notably advertising different proposals. These proposals can achieve some of the following rewards:
(1) There Is No Spending Limits- A Cardholder can often enjoy this capability because they are not bound by any purchase limits.
(2) Very Low Interest Rates- This allows business owners to pay only a small interest rate fee.
(3) Bendable Pay Backs – This saves the business owners the agonizing of paying the full balance on their business credit cards.
(4) You Can Also Earn Points- These points can be used at different vendor locations for buying supplies.
Business Credit Card Advantages:
Here are several advantages of owning such cards:
* A Business card consumer can be offered flexible credit limits. The business owner has enough time to combine their cash and sustain the business. Extra credit provided to the users is required to be paid by the end of the fixed term giving them ample opportunity to stabilize their business.
* Business credit card holders get significant rewards like frequent flyer airline miles, cash back incentives or free hotel lodging. Other benefits include 0% APR in the initial period, nil annual fees; lower APR rates and discounts on purchases.
* Expense reports generated by business credit cards provide the business owners with the capability of keeping a record of personal and business expenditures. Employers can track the expenses of their employees and some corporations are even allowed to group rate discounts on their business credit card which are further passed on as employer benefits.
* Bad credit and credit card debt can be dealt with efficiently by paying the outstanding balances promptly in time, thus avoiding future credit card settlements. Business cards users should maintain a good credit record for this will gain a larger credit limits in the future
* Such cards have made business travel easier. The business man or woman doesn’t need to carry cash for paying their travel expenses.
Business owners enjoy the benefits of the incentives offered by the credit card companies. Hence, they need to choose the best business credit card among the whole lot of credit cards available online. If a credit card offers huge travel incentives, but the user does not need to travel at all then such a credit card fails in fulfilling the needs of the business owner. Choosing a card that efficiently fits all their business needs is an important decision.
Incentives offered by credit card companies are numerous. Users should compare various credit cards and their incentives and carefully select a card that best suits their needs. This plays a crucial role in to developing strong and long-lasting business associations and reputation.
Selecting a Credit Card Is Important:
Select and compare business credit cards that offer long-term and low interest rates. Choose those cards that offer such low rates for the whole life of the business card.because you don't need more credit card debt.
* Make sure to confirm the duration for which the lower interest rates are applicable.
* Also you should compare various cards and determine which one meets your needs. Cards with an introductory 0.00% APR can, however, be great for a business owner that anticipates being able to pay the balance in full every month after the introductory period is over. Search for cards that have a ‘no limit’ on their cash back program. Some cards allow business owners to pay back their debt over a period time or pay off their balance in full.
Lastly before you choose a business credit card satisfies your needs, you should study the different companies who have offer rates and benefits that suit your business needs. Look at a site that may have a knowledgeable for sites that provide competent comparisons of the various credit cards. Best business cards are those which satisfy your business specific needs at a lower APR for a longer duration. Business credit cards have made many business explicit activities easier due to the incentives given by the issuers.
Business credit cards come with a comparatively low APR starting at around 8%. A standard business credit card also comes with an introductory period of 0% APR. Most credit cards provide a quarterly and annual balance summary and, they provide a great tool to balance business expenditures proficiently. Some cards reward the users with offers like free frequent flier miles, that directly help a business. You can reduce your business specific expenses by choosing the right card.
Business Credit Cards Compared:
A lot of companies will offer a business credit card by notably advertising different proposals. These proposals can achieve some of the following rewards:
(1) There Is No Spending Limits- A Cardholder can often enjoy this capability because they are not bound by any purchase limits.
(2) Very Low Interest Rates- This allows business owners to pay only a small interest rate fee.
(3) Bendable Pay Backs – This saves the business owners the agonizing of paying the full balance on their business credit cards.
(4) You Can Also Earn Points- These points can be used at different vendor locations for buying supplies.
Business Credit Card Advantages:
Here are several advantages of owning such cards:
* A Business card consumer can be offered flexible credit limits. The business owner has enough time to combine their cash and sustain the business. Extra credit provided to the users is required to be paid by the end of the fixed term giving them ample opportunity to stabilize their business.
* Business credit card holders get significant rewards like frequent flyer airline miles, cash back incentives or free hotel lodging. Other benefits include 0% APR in the initial period, nil annual fees; lower APR rates and discounts on purchases.
* Expense reports generated by business credit cards provide the business owners with the capability of keeping a record of personal and business expenditures. Employers can track the expenses of their employees and some corporations are even allowed to group rate discounts on their business credit card which are further passed on as employer benefits.
* Bad credit and credit card debt can be dealt with efficiently by paying the outstanding balances promptly in time, thus avoiding future credit card settlements. Business cards users should maintain a good credit record for this will gain a larger credit limits in the future
* Such cards have made business travel easier. The business man or woman doesn’t need to carry cash for paying their travel expenses.
Business owners enjoy the benefits of the incentives offered by the credit card companies. Hence, they need to choose the best business credit card among the whole lot of credit cards available online. If a credit card offers huge travel incentives, but the user does not need to travel at all then such a credit card fails in fulfilling the needs of the business owner. Choosing a card that efficiently fits all their business needs is an important decision.
Incentives offered by credit card companies are numerous. Users should compare various credit cards and their incentives and carefully select a card that best suits their needs. This plays a crucial role in to developing strong and long-lasting business associations and reputation.
Selecting a Credit Card Is Important:
Select and compare business credit cards that offer long-term and low interest rates. Choose those cards that offer such low rates for the whole life of the business card.because you don't need more credit card debt.
* Make sure to confirm the duration for which the lower interest rates are applicable.
* Also you should compare various cards and determine which one meets your needs. Cards with an introductory 0.00% APR can, however, be great for a business owner that anticipates being able to pay the balance in full every month after the introductory period is over. Search for cards that have a ‘no limit’ on their cash back program. Some cards allow business owners to pay back their debt over a period time or pay off their balance in full.
Lastly before you choose a business credit card satisfies your needs, you should study the different companies who have offer rates and benefits that suit your business needs. Look at a site that may have a knowledgeable for sites that provide competent comparisons of the various credit cards. Best business cards are those which satisfy your business specific needs at a lower APR for a longer duration. Business credit cards have made many business explicit activities easier due to the incentives given by the issuers.
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