vocabulary :)
VAT- Value Added Tax. A consumption tax which is levied at each stage of production based on the value added to the product at that stage.
chancellor- The British cabinet minister responsible for finance
public sector-The part of the economy concerned with providing basic government services.
http://www.investorwords.com/5230/VAT.html
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
http://www.investorwords.com/3947/public_sector.html
In February, the UK government borrowed £12.4bn which was less than economists had expected, they expected the UK's borrowing in the current financial year to amount up to £178bn. As of now it only reached £131.9bn which is significantly fewer than the earlier forecast. The Office for National Statistics said that the overall effect of the latest changes to historical data for the year had cut overall borrowing for 2009 and 2010 by £2.9bn. Despite the changes and the better-than-expected figure for the month of February, government borrowing is at a record's high for the current year. The reason for this is because of the reduced tax receipts since their economy is growing slowly. Economists had worried that the borrowing figure would be much worse and damaging to the economy since the VAT has risen in the beginning months of this year. The unemployment rate has started to decrease and as a result the government is paying less in beneifts. Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics has said that the figures has giving Chancellor Darling to stay ahead of the game and be prepared for Wednesdays budget. Economist,Howard Archer at IHS Global Insight suggests that, "Mr.Darling could significantly undershoot the £178bn public sector borrowing requirement that he forecast for 2009/2010 in last December's pre-Budget report." The UK's debt is similar to others however, they increased their borrowing during the downturn of the economy at a much faster rate than its competitors. The Chancellor promises to ultimately divide in half the budget deficit within the next four years he thinks it is to risky to do it all now and it will harm any hopes they have to get themselves from a recession. The Conservatives feel that this is should be done more quickly. The European Union thinks that halving the deficit is not enough. EU rules say government deficits must be below 3% of GDP, but the UK's deficit is expected to hit 12.6% of GDP this year. the UK debt levels have also led to concerns in recent months that the UK could lose its AAA credit rating that is reserved for the very safest borrowers. But earlier this week, Moody's agency said the UK's top rating was secure. I predict that after futher considerations of the budget and timing will be closely paid attention too and decisions will be made quickly to act now instead of pacing it over four years. I think they will gain confidence since they already over estimated that the first time and it is indeed better than they expected.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8574018.stm
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
"Social Enterprise Helps Malawi's Poor"
Vocabulary !!
"sima"-a maize flour mixed with water
social enterprise-socially-oriented venture (nonprofit/for-profit or hybrid) created to solve a social problem or market failure through entrepreneurial private sector approaches that increase effectiveness and sustainability while ultimately creating social benefit or change.
www.4lenses.org/Definitions
anti-retroviral drugs- medication that prevents the virus from reproducing
www.ekd.de/english/1714-ekdtext91_7.html
Patners in Health (PIH) are a social enterprise, they currently help countries to sustain an economy with little suffering such as: Malawi, Haiti, Peru, Russia, USA, Rwanda, and Lesotho to provide a social benifit or change. They began working with Malawi in early 2007, being that it is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in Africa. They targeted Malawi as a country desperately needing a rural health project to address the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region. With statistics of about 14 percent of Malawi's adult population affected with HIV and hundreds of thousands of children being orphaned by the disease. They often do not have an education, a job, or two few rooms for the amout of children they have. This major crisis is not one that their government was even able to cope with. PIH not only help with healthcare because they believe that in order for a person to be healthy they need education, food, work, and homes. Because the employment rates are low, they give grants to people who want to start small buisnesses similar to KIVA (microfinancing) but it is a grant and they will not have to pay the money back. They gave an example of fifteen women, HIV positive but on anti-retroviral, and they started a restaurant (PEACE) not only to gain a profit but also to gain a sense of hope and pride. These women have been successful, making the food to keep others healthy and having a profit for almost $200.00 per day which is good for Malawi. Right now, the cheap and most convient food to go to is sima, but PIH has declared this to have no nutritional value. They encourage people to grow and eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. This is difficult because water is a scarce commodity(they do not have a proper well) and it is also needed to grow veggies!! The money invested into Malawri comes from a partnership between the Malawi government and PIH. Within the next five years, the two new built hospitals will become the responsilibility of the Malawian government. I think that with the proper programs initially set up for them, Malawi will improve. I am a little worried, however, for the years to come as resources become more and more scarce. Also, if the government will be able to handle the finances of the hospitals since the HIV/Aids rate is high. I wonder can they stand alone especially since this is obviously new for them. I do appreciate the effort that PIH do to help not only from a temporary aspect but from the permante aspect.
"sima"-a maize flour mixed with water
social enterprise-socially-oriented venture (nonprofit/for-profit or hybrid) created to solve a social problem or market failure through entrepreneurial private sector approaches that increase effectiveness and sustainability while ultimately creating social benefit or change.
www.4lenses.org/Definitions
anti-retroviral drugs- medication that prevents the virus from reproducing
www.ekd.de/english/1714-ekdtext91_7.html
Patners in Health (PIH) are a social enterprise, they currently help countries to sustain an economy with little suffering such as: Malawi, Haiti, Peru, Russia, USA, Rwanda, and Lesotho to provide a social benifit or change. They began working with Malawi in early 2007, being that it is one of the poorest and most densely populated countries in Africa. They targeted Malawi as a country desperately needing a rural health project to address the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region. With statistics of about 14 percent of Malawi's adult population affected with HIV and hundreds of thousands of children being orphaned by the disease. They often do not have an education, a job, or two few rooms for the amout of children they have. This major crisis is not one that their government was even able to cope with. PIH not only help with healthcare because they believe that in order for a person to be healthy they need education, food, work, and homes. Because the employment rates are low, they give grants to people who want to start small buisnesses similar to KIVA (microfinancing) but it is a grant and they will not have to pay the money back. They gave an example of fifteen women, HIV positive but on anti-retroviral, and they started a restaurant (PEACE) not only to gain a profit but also to gain a sense of hope and pride. These women have been successful, making the food to keep others healthy and having a profit for almost $200.00 per day which is good for Malawi. Right now, the cheap and most convient food to go to is sima, but PIH has declared this to have no nutritional value. They encourage people to grow and eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. This is difficult because water is a scarce commodity(they do not have a proper well) and it is also needed to grow veggies!! The money invested into Malawri comes from a partnership between the Malawi government and PIH. Within the next five years, the two new built hospitals will become the responsilibility of the Malawian government. I think that with the proper programs initially set up for them, Malawi will improve. I am a little worried, however, for the years to come as resources become more and more scarce. Also, if the government will be able to handle the finances of the hospitals since the HIV/Aids rate is high. I wonder can they stand alone especially since this is obviously new for them. I do appreciate the effort that PIH do to help not only from a temporary aspect but from the permante aspect.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
"Iceland rejects plan to repay Icesave debts"
Vocabulary !!
referendum- a legislative act is referred for final approval to a popular vote by the electorate
reimburse - pay back for some expense incurred
compensation- something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as for a service or loss or injury)
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Icesave is owned by Landsbanki, Iceland's second largest bank, which has been swept up in the financial chaos that has engulfed the tiny Arctic country. It collapsed on October 7, 2008 and had to be run by the Icelandic Financial Services Authority. The British (UK) and Dutch (Netherlands) governments then promised to insure savers' deposits by loaning money and a deal was established for Iceland to pay the money back. This collapse affected more than 320,000 people. They loaned the Icelandic bank 3.8bn euros which is equivalent to 5.1908 billion U.S. dollars. Before this action the Iceland Parliament had approved this plan. Chancellor Alistair Darling has said that the UK would indeed get its money back, but it may be a while before they do. He says that it may be many, many years for Iceland to reimburse them. There was recently a poll give to the Icelanders on whether or not they should repay the money and 93% of them voted no! Less than just 2% supported the plan, while the others votes were invalid. Many citizens were upset because they feel that although this plan helped them and their finances, that it was not their fault in the beginning that the Icesave Bank collapsed. They feel that the bank should be responsible for repaying the aid all because a few greedy people. Some simply want to repay their debts but do not want to go bankrupt doing so. It was suggested that they focus on finishing up the deal/ negotiations with the British and Dutch governments. Before the vote, the Iceland government felt they could avoid the rowdy vote (protest) by creating a new agreement. But it did not work, citizens were still upset. Another reason why Icelanders are hesitant to repay the UK is because they have some built up anger and an ongoing grudge from previous times. During the cod wars, Britain had used their battleships against them, even after the Icelandic people had sacrificed the lives of their seamen during World War II. The Reykjavik (Iceland) government approved the repayment plan last December but it was blocked by President Grimsson in January, which led to the referendum being called. I think that despite what the people want they will be responsible for paying them back. I do not think they will be forced too, but Icesave may increase prices and to help the overall economy the government may increase taxes. What do you think should happen? How would you feel if you banked with Icesave and would have to reimburse the UK for your bank's decisions?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8553979.stm
referendum- a legislative act is referred for final approval to a popular vote by the electorate
reimburse - pay back for some expense incurred
compensation- something (such as money) given or received as payment or reparation (as for a service or loss or injury)
wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn
Icesave is owned by Landsbanki, Iceland's second largest bank, which has been swept up in the financial chaos that has engulfed the tiny Arctic country. It collapsed on October 7, 2008 and had to be run by the Icelandic Financial Services Authority. The British (UK) and Dutch (Netherlands) governments then promised to insure savers' deposits by loaning money and a deal was established for Iceland to pay the money back. This collapse affected more than 320,000 people. They loaned the Icelandic bank 3.8bn euros which is equivalent to 5.1908 billion U.S. dollars. Before this action the Iceland Parliament had approved this plan. Chancellor Alistair Darling has said that the UK would indeed get its money back, but it may be a while before they do. He says that it may be many, many years for Iceland to reimburse them. There was recently a poll give to the Icelanders on whether or not they should repay the money and 93% of them voted no! Less than just 2% supported the plan, while the others votes were invalid. Many citizens were upset because they feel that although this plan helped them and their finances, that it was not their fault in the beginning that the Icesave Bank collapsed. They feel that the bank should be responsible for repaying the aid all because a few greedy people. Some simply want to repay their debts but do not want to go bankrupt doing so. It was suggested that they focus on finishing up the deal/ negotiations with the British and Dutch governments. Before the vote, the Iceland government felt they could avoid the rowdy vote (protest) by creating a new agreement. But it did not work, citizens were still upset. Another reason why Icelanders are hesitant to repay the UK is because they have some built up anger and an ongoing grudge from previous times. During the cod wars, Britain had used their battleships against them, even after the Icelandic people had sacrificed the lives of their seamen during World War II. The Reykjavik (Iceland) government approved the repayment plan last December but it was blocked by President Grimsson in January, which led to the referendum being called. I think that despite what the people want they will be responsible for paying them back. I do not think they will be forced too, but Icesave may increase prices and to help the overall economy the government may increase taxes. What do you think should happen? How would you feel if you banked with Icesave and would have to reimburse the UK for your bank's decisions?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8553979.stm
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