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Showing posts from July, 2003
Federal Reserve Board may lower Funds Rate to 0% One Governor of the Fed indicated that if inflation continues to hover under 1%, the Fed might have to reduce interest rates. The current 1% rate could be lowered to 0%. See the full Article: Fed Rate Artilce
BigBrother comes to Walmart Wal-Mart will put Radio Frequency I.D. sensors on shelves stocked with RFID-tagged Gillette products, but they'd rather you didn't know about it, because, you might not like it, and then you might make noise and then they'd have a big PR mess on their hands. You might even stop buying Gillette products or, say, refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. These chips, researched at M.I.T.'s Auto-ID Center are about the size of a grain of sand. Chipsters say the technology will only be used to help retailers keep track of inventory - like bar codes. But privacy-loving consumers question the very concept of a device that sends out radio waves to "readers" that not only identify the article, but where and with whom it's going. Wal-Mart is starting this at its Brockton, MA store which is in a low-income, minority area.
BigBrother comes to Walmart Wal-Mart will put Radio Frequency I.D. sensors on shelves stocked with RFID-tagged Gillette products, but they'd rather you didn't know about it, because, you might not like it, and then you might make noise and then they'd have a big PR mess on their hands. You might even stop buying Gillette products or, say, refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. These chips, researched at M.I.T.'s Auto-ID Center are about the size of a grain of sand. Chipsters say the technology will only be used to help retailers keep track of inventory - like bar codes. But privacy-loving consumers question the very concept of a device that sends out radio waves to "readers" that not only identify the article, but where and with whom it's going. Wal-Mart is starting this at its Brockton, MA store which is in a low-income, minority area.
Jobless Rate 6.4% The jobless rate hit 6.4 per cent - a much worse reading than the 6.2 per cent projected by private economists. It was up 0.3 of a percentage point from May's 6.1 per cent, to a level not reached since April 1994, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Even though the service sector is employing more people, total payrolls have lost 400,000 jobs since January.
States Add Nuisance Taxes The cash strapped states are refusing to lower expenditures. Instead, the states are raising "user fees" such as filing deeds, matters in court, transferring property and obtaining building permits. So-called "sin taxes" such as cigarettes and alcohol are also facing huge increases.
EU Robs Consumers by adding VAT TAX to Internet Sales Starting July 1, 2003, the European Union will require non-E.U. firms selling digital products into the E.U. via the Internet to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) on behalf of E.U. member countries. The purpose of this legislation is to attack US internet companies and make them comply with the vast array of different tax schemes in Europe. Most likely, smaller US internet sites will ignore the regulations. Larger companies will probably be forced to charge European customers the very high VAT taxes.