After more than two years of setbacks, Boeing Co.'s high-tech 787 Dreamliner took to cloudy skies Tuesday for its maiden flight, providing a much-needed lift to investor confidence and to the company's reputation.
"Rather than saving money, Boeing's become the re-insurer of its supply chain and has in fact had to buy outright or loan money to different suppliers to keep its outsourcing model from failing," Goforth said in a news release.
The above mentioned appaling news is the truth. The took-off flight of Boeing-787 truly is magnificent and it marks the success after years of failure and delays.
However, behind every success lies the ugly truth. Due to the 2 years delay, Boeing has in fact suffered billions of dollars of losses along the way.
To the chagrin of many purchasers, they were about to drop the deal with Boeing if it was to fail one more time but thankfully it succeeded at the last minute *much to AirBus's dissapointment.
The irreparable damage is the compensation to the suppliers for the delay along with the loaning of money to them. Yes, you heard me, Boeing had to loan out money to the suppliers because of a shortage of supplies due to the very much unexpected delay. This includes fasteners, seat belts, metal plates, software systems and etc.
But no worries to all the investors out there, now that Boeing has finally took flight, many investors' concerns are now rested and buried deep underground. They will still continue to pursue their deal with Boeing now that the Dreamliner 787 is ready.
It is synonymous to the release of Avatar really, superlative and an incandescent masterpiece has arrived after much waiting.
China imposed more trade restrictions in 2009, increasing concern that the country is failing to comply with its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said in an annual report Tuesday.
Intellectual property rights, industrial policies, trading rights and distribution services, agriculture and services were the main areas of concern, it said.
Recently, i read an article regarding the issue of setting up high barriers for the entry of new competitors. As far as I am concerned, China has already been opening up to the world by a mile since the past decade and that is definitely flagrant throughout the past 5 years.
Nonetheless, China is still concerned about its own domestic supplies not being utilised by the citizens. Afterall, as the aphorism mentions, "Utilization is the sincerest form of flattery." If the China citizens were to start capitulating to the temptations from aboard, the domestic market will definitely suffer. This will inevitably damaged the level of recognition of China goods along with the reputation of the country per se. And given China's scale of economy, it will be a devastating damage to their local economy and many will start returning to their poverty cycle.
Government interventions by China is definitely imperative considering that there needs to be a control on the imports of goods at the end of the day. While it may be true that there should not be any limits placed given that it is now an open market, we have to give them some "space to breathe" before they get choked to death by the massive amount of imports.
All in all, to be fair to China, it really has been incredible for the past 5 years, pushing the world economy to a new high and accentuating itself as the world's next top economy in the years to come.
It opened on 4 January 2010, isn't that a great start to the year for Dubai? Remember how it owes a total of $81 billion dollars in debt last year? However, we shall put the past behind us and look at the new Dubai.
On top of the Dubai World, now we have the Burj Khalifa which stands at an incredulous height of 828 metres tall. It costs a total of $1.5 billion dollars to build, definitely an incredible feat. Not only do you need the superlative technology and engineering to build it, you too need the talent and tremendous amount of resources.
Ever wondered why so many skyscrapers out there in the cities looked so boring when they can do something out of the box?
The two most flagrant reason has to do with the stability of the building and its profitability.
1. A grandiose building might appear to be unstable and extremely vulnerable to natural disasters.
2. A well carved out building might have too little space for business which in turn limit itself to the myriad of opportunities out there. Burj Khalifa has committed this mistake. However, since it has won the highest accolade as the tallest building, I don't think it is going to have much of a problem.
Being heralded as the new tallest building in the world. Let's take a look at what is actually inside the building now.
The skyscraper contains five hotels, a huge shopping mall and at least 150 restaurants and 1200 shops.
In addition to that, it houses 1,044 apartments and 49 floors of offices and a 160 room 7-star Armani branded, designed and furnished by the renowned Giorgio Armani
Just by reading the above mentioned details, I'm pretty sure all of you must be in awe right now.
The incandescent masterpiece is de facto a gold mine by itself, housing the most renowned and notable brands in the entire world. In other words, if you own a space in Burj Khalifa, you are instantly acknowledged as one of the powerhouse in the world. The amount of recognition you received is insurmountable, almost synonymous to that of received by Leona Lewis as the star who sang "I see you" for Avatar.
However, there's always an ugly side to every masterpiece in the world. Let's take a look at them now.
"If you look at it, it's a really bad idea. It uses as much electricity as an entire city. And every time the toilet is flushed they've got to pump water half a mile into the sky," he said.
This might sound stupid and ridiculous but on hindsight, it is definitely an ugly truth. Really, how much money do you think is spent once you flush a toilet at the highest floorth?
If such a simple case is going to cost an exorbitant price, think about the electricity bills, the maintainence fee and the daily cost on the utility bills alone. How much rent is it going to cost the tenants to purchase a small space in this building?
How much will a night in the 7-star hotel cost you? Definitely no where below a 5 figure sum I assure you.
Hence, this building is taking a precarious move, because the tenants will need constant influx of rich Hollywood stars, powerhouse businessmen and tycoons to sustain them through. If the financial crisis strikes back, do you think the tenants will still be able to recoup their losses?
I don't think so. In fact, their problem will further be exacerbated and the demise of their corporation will be imminent for sure.
"The upper 30 or 40 floors are so tiny that they're useless, so they can't use them for anything else apart from storage. They've built a small, not so useful storage warehouse half a mile in the sky," he said.
This is a good point as I have already mentioned earlier on. Constructions are done in such a way to boost profitability. However, if you want to go for the ostentacious look, you will have to pay the exorbitant price.
All in all, even after taking into the regards that one flush in the toilet at the highest floorth might cost you $100, along with the million of dollars worth of utilities bill every month, I still have sanguine expectations of the potential of Burj Khalifa.
I am going to bet that it will be extremely successful and that the tycoons around the world will frequent Dubai from now on, not only for its Burj Khalifa, but also for its Dubai World and of course its gorgeous scenery. No doubt it is going to have a rough start because everyone is still sobbing away as they chase away the financial crisis and start to fill up their pockets again, there are people out there who are impervious to the financial crisis.
This is not a building promoted on a national scale, nor a regional scale but an international scale. A masterpiece known to the entire world. In fact, after the Dubai World's mistake, Dubai has gained a whole new level of recognition and now it is probably the greatest iconic place on the planet without a shadow of a doubt. It is comparable to the superlative recognitions which Apple has in the technological industry, P&G's quality in the consumer market, Boeing in the aircraft manufacturing industry, Delta airlines in the airline industry, and Merck in the healthcare industry.
Many businessmen out there are even riding on top of the financial crisis instead of under it, they have continued to stay on top of their game even though the crisis hit them hard. Just look at Google, Apple, Exxon, Delta Airlines and the Trump organisation. So let's not worry and continue to enjoy our life while we can!
Exxon Mobil said Monday it will buy natural gas producer XTO Energy Inc. for $41 billion in a stock and debt transaction.
The world's largest publicly traded oil company agreed to issue 0.7098 common stock share for each common share of XTO (XTO, Fortune 500), representing a 25% premium to XTO stockholders.
But some of the shale is near major population centers, and residents near the drilling are worried about air and, especially, water pollution from the chemicals used to extract shale gas.
It is imperative that Exxon will continue to drill these areas even though they are hazardous to the public living near the drilling spots. Nonetheless, I postulate that Exxon will never make any precarious moves when it comes to the lives of the public.
Besides, the rocks are located way, way deep down below so there is a very low chance that the water the public consumes will actually be contaminated by the drilling process.
Perhaps, on the part of air pollution, it is inevitable. You too experience air pollution as you walk by a car that drove past you. People have been living with it for so long already.
You might argue that this excess discharge of toxic gases is actually rather significant as compared to the air pollution in the city. That is true to a certain extent but once again, I trust that Exxon will deal with that by installing air purifier to reduce the damage it will bring to the environment in the future.
Exxon is so concerned about a change in the law it has a clause with XTO that allows it to walk away from the deal if Congress bans hydraulic fracturing or makes it prohibitively expensive, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commision. Exxon declined to comment for this story.
To make a pact with XTO on this issue is definitely an impressive contingency plan from my point of view. I bet Exxon has long predicted that this acquisition will definitely draw a lot of unnecessary attention that is once obscure in the past.
In the past, people are quite oblivious to natural gases extraction and hydraulic fracturing. But not anymore as far as I'm concerned. Now that the leading oil company has made such a brobdingnagian move, not only will the industries be watching, the public will also be scrutinizing their every actions.
The key here is to manage the pollutions well and Exxon will be fine. Not forgetting that Copenhagen is just over, Exxon had better watch where they set their foot on.
Markups at supermarkets are in the mid-20% range and markups at Wal-Mart are in the high teens to low-20% range, while Costco's average markup is about 11%.
"In terms of pricing, I don't want to be arrogant about it, but I can't predict what the future will hold," the CFO said. "We've held our own pretty well in tough times."
Some of you might be wondering, since Costco's markup is 10% lower than that of Wal-Mart's as stated above, why does people still continue to shop at Wal-Mart instead?
Well there are a few fundamental reasons to that.
Firstly, it offers a greater variety with greater innovation which showcase products in an orderly manner and provides the consumers with the most up-to-date products along with impeccable services.
Secondly, it provides more value than Costco. Costco is playing a commodity-low price strategy whereby the focused on cost leadership. Conversely, Wal-Mart is playing more of a differentiation strategy whereby they try to make their organisation and display standout with their services.
These 2 factors allowed Wal-Mart to stand out from Costco and combat their low-priced products.
