Concern over the quality of debt investments worries investors. Could liquidity in debt markets be drying up?This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Liquidity is the ease with which an investment can be sold and turned into money. For example, when a stock is traded easily, the market for i...
Sale will bring new owner to the Wall Street Journal in the increasingly competitive world of financial news.Rupert MerdochThis is the VOA Special English Economics Report.One of the top stories in business news this week was -- business news. Dow Jones agreed to be bought by News Corporation. This ...
Agriculture remains one of the most important trade issues. Developing nations want the big industrial powers to cut aid to farmers.This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Today we have the second half of a report on the history of the World Trade Organization.The W.T.O. was created in nine...
A listener in Vietnam, the newest member, asks about the WTO.This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.A question from Vietnam. Listener Nguyen Minh Tan wants to know more about the World Trade Organization and its history.Pascal Lamy is WTO director-generalThe World Trade Organization came i...
US employers are most interested in students with business, engineering and computer-related training.This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Employers in the United States expect to hire almost twenty percent more college graduates this year than last year. So says the National Association...
First woman to receive the Clark Medal is honored for work across several areas of study, including government auctions.This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Susan AtheySusan Athey, an economics professor at Harvard University, has won the John Bates Clark Medal. The American Economics As...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Euronext plans to combine with NYSE to create the first Trans-Atlantic stock marketThe NYSE Group and Euronext hope to create the world's largest financial exchange group by the end of March. Their shareholders voted last month to approve a plan to co...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Steve Jobs with the iPhone at MacWorld in San FranciscoApple Computer had a big week. Steve Jobs, the chief executive officer, announced the company would now just be called Apple. And, at its MacWorld conference, he also presented the iPhone. It comb...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report. Companies combined or bought other businesses at record levels last year. Almost four trillion dollars in deals worldwide represented an increase of nearly forty percent from the year before. So far in January, merger and acquisition activity has rem...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.One of the top issues this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was climate change. But the business and political leaders gathered for the yearly event in the Swiss Alps were not the only ones talking about the subject.President Bu...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Events for the launch of Vista included dancers on the wall of a New York buildingThis week, with dancers and other events, Microsoft launched the general release of its new operating system for personal computers. Windows Vista became available in mo...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.This week, President Bush sent Congress his spending plan for two thousand eight. His budget proposes almost three trillion dollars in government spending, a four percent increase over this year. The new budget year begins October first.President Bush...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.The United States has put new pressure on Japan to import more farm goods from American companies. The American ambassador to Japan said if Japan does not open its markets, then "we will just put our resources in other places." Thomas SchiefferAmbassa...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.This week, the drug company Merck announced that it would end a lobbying campaign for Gardasil, its new vaccine for girls and women. Bottles of GardasilThe vaccine is designed to protect against four kinds of human papillomavirus, or HPV. These cause ...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.TXU logoBig business deals do not often come with a promise to cut greenhouse gases. But that was part of a deal this week for TXU, the biggest electric company in Texas. Its board of directors agreed to a buyout offer led by two private equity groups...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.A US fuel pump for 85 percent ethanol, 15 percent gasolineWhat happens when a food crop becomes a fuel crop? This is a question many people are trying to answer as demand for ethanol increases. The issue is important not just to farmers and the energy...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Financial markets had a rough week again as investors grew more concerned about the United States housing market. Much of the concern is about home loans to people with poor credit or little history of borrowing money. Most homebuyers are considered "...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.More and more people are considering the social and environmental results of their investments. Socially responsible investing has become a fast-growing part of the investment industry. Over two trillion dollars are invested using socially responsible...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.Credit cardsBuy now, pay later. Credit cards give people that choice. Those billions of small pieces of plastic in use all over the world make it easy to buy things. But people who use credit cards irresponsibly can soon find themselves heavily in deb...
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.World EconomicsEconomics and weather have a lot in common. Knowing what conditions will be like weeks or months in the future is not easy. One thing that helps economists predict the future is the index of leading economic indicators. An index is a wa...
