Recently, traces of lead found in children's toys have brought about a series of toy recalls in America from important manufacturers like Mattel and RC2. Thousands of Thomas & Friends sets and Easy Bake ovens had to be returned for the sake of children's health and the problem is only getting worse. Following detailed inspections from government authorities, toy makers and store chains, another recall Wednesday aimed at some other Thomas components along with several kinds of jewelry and gardening equipment for children. Recalled toys include Spinning Wheel Necklace necklaces, Happy Giddy Gardening Tools and Children's Sunny Patch Chairs, some of the Knights of The Sword series toys, baby bibs, a Spiderman pencil case and a Neon Writing Slate from Wal-Mart. A total of half a million toys have taken part in this action and tests are still underway, giving rise to Congressional debate and attempts to make rules of toy control harsher. Currently, a level of 600 parts per million is considered the maximum allowed amount of lead in a product, since the substance, banned in the 1970's, may cause severe brain damage in case of prolonged exposure. Environmental and consumer groups have been trying to warn the government for years about this issue but it seems inspections failed to notice the problem until this year. Levels of trust in Chinese products have plummeted over the last few years but authorities in the Asian country are doing their best to make sure this situation doesn't repeat by making inspections of their own in toy companies.
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Despite the fact that Fed had finally made the half point rate cut that everyone expected, economy is still unbalanced and there are worries concerning the consumers spending power. When you add to that housing slump, the holiday season might be severely affected and the entire economy. When the National Association of Realtors announced that sales of existing homes declined again in August, the worries about job and economy become worst. S&P/Case-Shiller reported a home price fell of 3.9 percent in July based on a study of 20 cities. The consumer confidence study of the New York-based Conference Board showed that the index fell to 99.8, while the analysts expected 104.5. Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center, stated that the reasons are a weak business market to which unfavorable jobs market it is added. The National Association of Realtors and The S&P/Case-Shiller showed on Tuesday that there is a nationwide decline in U.S. home prices. Moreover, on Tuesday, that will eventually become the black Tuesday because of all the bad reports, The International Council of Shopping Centers estimated a growth between 2.0 to 2.5 from the previous 2.5 on same-store sales that usually indicates retailer's health. Discounter Target Corp. and home improvement merchant Lowe's Cos. gave unfavorable forecast on Monday, while The Washington-based National Retail Federation said this holiday will be the slowest growth in sales since 1.3 percent rise in 2002. There are still expected new rate cuts from the Fed and the experts are having their eye on the job market, hoping that in October 10000 jobs will be available on the Labor department's chart. However the unemployment index is expected to rise. Say a pray and hope for the best.
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Greenspan: US economy has 'less than 50-50' odds of recession by Delia Cruceru
Promoting his new book, "The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World.", the former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said Sunday in an interview on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press" program that United States is heading towards and economic slowdown but it's too soon to say whether a recession is on the horizon. "We're heading towards a slowdown," Greenspan said. "Whether that actually leads to a recession is dependent on things we can't forecast at this moment." He said that the odds of a recession are at less than 50/50, adding "it's too soon to call this one way or the other, frankly." In his memoirs Greenspan charged President George Bush writing "the Iraq war is largely about oil." He also accused Bush of abandoning the traditional fiscal restrain of Republican's party in favor of veto "out-of-control" spending by Congress. ââThe Republicans in Congress lost their way. They swapped principle for power. They ended up with neither," Greenspan wrote in his book. Greenspan denied the blame for the U.S. housing bubble that is now deflating: "With the whole housing boom, we're dealing with a world problem. In fact our housing boom is less than the average. This clearly calls for a global explanation, not just an individual explanation," he said.
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Forbes billionaires are richer than ever by Nina Gotzmannova
Every year the wealthiest Americans are eagerly waiting for September issue of Forbes magazine. Since 1982 the magazine publishes Forbes 400, list of 400 wealthiest Americans. Who has made it into the list, is really really rich. And this year even more than ever. Together the people in the list are worth $ 1.54 trillion, a significant change from last year. In 2006 was the net worth of possessions the richest $ 1.25. The reason is that the border for making it into the list is higher than ever. For the first time in 25 years $ 1 billion was not enough. Every Ritchie Rich in the list has to make at least $ 1.3 billion. More than eighty American billionaires didn't reach it. The first four places remained unchanged, with Bill Gates ($59B) at No. 1, Warren Buffett ($52B) at No. 2, Sheldon Adelson ($28B) behind him and Larry Ellison ($26B) at place No. 4. The fifth place got new occupants. For the first time co-founders of Google made it into Top 10. Sergey Brin and Larry Page are sharing the place with their net worth of $ 18.5 billion. The youngest on the list is 33-year-old hedge fund manager John Arnold at No. 317, the eldest one is 98-year-old John Simplot at No. 89. There are 35 women in the list; the first one is Alice Walton at No. 15. The last one in the Forbes 400 is Roger Wang with $1 billion. United States are the country with the highest concentration of billionaires. According to Forbes magazine, in U. S. lives 371 people with their bank accounts saying $ 1 billion or higher. They are centered in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas or San Francisco. But the city with highest concentration of wealthy people is Atherton, CA. Between not more than 7.000 people live six billionaires.
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The allegations brought by the Microsoft's U.S.-based rivals, that have determined the European Commission to start a process against it, have finally come to an end. The European Court of First Instance ruled Monday in favor of EU, Microsoft being found guilty for using its desktop computer dominance to impose software and media players and having to pay the 2004 year fine of 613 million dollars. M.J. Moltenbray, a partner at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, stated that for the antitrust a restrictive policy is the best. EU regulators have become more aggressive and charged Intel Corp. and Rambus Inc. with antitrust abuse, Apple Inc is next under the charge of restriction customer choice regarding separate national iTunes stores. Google is another prey and the acquirement of DoubleClick led to the allegations of too much power over personal data and online ads. Microsoft lawyer Brad Smith says that the ruling gave the Commission a broad power, affecting in the same time all the other industries. Assistant Attorney General Thomas O. Barnett votes against the decision saying that competition is the one protecting the consumer and therefore it should be encouraged. However, Neelie Kroes, EU Competition Commissioner, believes that the decision will affect only those that want to protect their innovations. In fact she proves disappointed because the customers still don't have from where to choose after three years since the giant company was fined. Ted Henneberry, a former Irish regulator and lawyer with Heller Ehrman LLP reveals that the victory will make them more aggressive and determined. Also EU regulators must watch out to not be transformed into a forum for disgruntled competitors. The decision to create a trustee to oversee Microsoft's compliance and force Microsoft to pay his costs fails was rejected by the court. The world's most powerful companies agree that there are a lot of things to do in order to comply with EU demands. When and how it will happen it is not known. Until further notice, don't go awayâ¦
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A new record was settled yesterday as the price of oil soared above US$81 a barrel, as the Federal Reserve is expected to cut its interest rate. The world's largest consumer of energy, U.S. is going to worst times because oil prices have set new records over US$80 a barrel in recent days for a number of reasons like the subprime mortgage industry problems in U.S. Last week hurricane Humberto cut the power in Texas temporally shutting down some refineries but the facilities will restart soon. "The U.S. refining system is still laboring to get back fully on its feet following the mayhem of the 2005 hurricane season," Vienna's PVM Oil Associates said Tuesday in an energy market report. Light sweet crude has set a record of $80.88 a barrel in electronic trade after being at $80.57 during the regular session. Officials from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said that the oil prices are going to stay at $80 a barrel. "OPEC has done what it can. I see no need for additional oil supply that the market won't absorb," Qatar's oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah said. OPEC announced last Tuesday that it would pump an extra 500,000 barrels of oil per day by November 1.
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After launching Google Mars and Google Earth, Web browser-based mapping tools that give users an up-close, interactive view, Google wants to broadcast images from the moon, therefore they offer a prize of 20 million dollars to the first private company that can land a robotic rover on the moon, smart enough to record at least 1,312 feet on the moon and send self-portraits, panoramic views and near-real-time videos back to Earth that will be streamed on Google's Web site. Google co-founder Larry Page stated at WIRED magazine's technology show in Los Angeles they are having great expectations. Their partnership with X Prize Foundation (best known for hosting the Ansari X Prize contest, which led to the first manned private spaceflight in 2004) comes as no surprise, Page collaborating to other projects as well- the charity auction for the foundation at the company's Mountain View headquarters. If no one will prove to be worthy of such an auction, the prize will drop to $15 million until the end of 2014. Also the teams that fulfill the minimum requirements will win 5 million dollars and also the second place will win $5 million. William "Red" Whittaker of Carnegie Mellon University who is already famous the last year robot race across the Mojave Desert said he will make a team in order to build a lunar rover. This contest comes in a time when governments are in competition to revive interest in lunar exploration: Japan's space agency, JAXA, will launch SELENE from a remote Pacific Island on Friday, while NASA will rocket a lunar orbiter and impactor. They are spending hundreds of millions of dollars, but Google expects the private sector to do it for less. Will it happen? More to comeâ¦
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Google founders have rented a federal airstrip by Corina Ciubotaru
How would you like to be 34, own one of the most successful companies in the world, have your personal airplane and land it 10 minutes away from your office? The guys at Google do just that. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, co-founders of Google, own a Boeing 767 and recently, they have been granted permission from NASA to use the Moffett Field air strip for their planes. In addition to the 767, the two also own two Gulfstream jets that they occasionally use and all of these planes will now be housed in a hangar at the air base. It looks like a good deal for everyone: NASA gets $2.3 million dollars from the two-year agreement and the possibility to use the planes for research, while the Google presidents have a space to house their planes just 10 minutes away from the Googleplex. The only ones finding the deal offensive are the inhabitants of Sunnyvale, a town neighboring Moffett Field, who have been struggling for years to keep the air strip unavailable to non-federal flights. The move, though legal by all accounts, could create a precedent and this is what the people of Sunnyvale are most worried about. Google expressed their interest in the Moffett Field facility two years ago, when they also announced the plans to build an office building at the Ames Research Center and aid NASA in research projects. On August 31st, the Google plane was first used by NASA scientists to study the Aurigid meteor shower.
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Despite OPEC's decision on Tuesday to boost crude production by 500,000 barrels per day this fall, oil price rose sharply Wednesday ending at a price of 80 dollars a barrel. There are some reasons that caused the growth and mainly they are referring to the government announcement about a large drop in crude inventories and declines in gasoline supplies and refinery activity. Another reason is, according to the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, the strong demand created by speculative buying by big investment funds. Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena reveals the fact that it is a strategy because oil contracts for delivery in future months are cheaper than the current front-month contract, therefore who buy now will end up with more oil contracts later. The tropical depression that formed in the western Atlantic on Wednesday is another concern due to the possibility of transforming into a hurricane and hit critical Gulf of Mexico oil and gas infrastructure. All the oil providers (October delivery, Nymex heating oil futures, October Brent, Natural gas) raised their price with an average of 3.50 cents. Also the EIA said crude oil supplies fell by 7.1 million barrels in the week ended September 7, more than twice that it was expected. However the Paris-based International Energy Agency on Wednesday slightly lowered oil demand forecasts for this year and next and there is expected to end the price growth according to Chip Hodge, energy portfolio manager at John Hancock Financial Securities in Boston. The more expensive gas comes as no surprise because of the well below inflation-adjusted highs hit in early 1980 when a oil barrel worth 38 dollars, so today that would mean around $96 to $101 or more. Oil forecast for this fall and next year are still unstable, therefore until further notice stay connected.
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Adventurer Steve Fossett's plane missing by Delia Cruceru
The great adventurer Steve Fosset is still missing. The millionaire took off Monday from a Nevada airstrip at hotel magnate Barron Hilton's Flying M Ranch, in single-engine plane looking for dry lake beds and sagebrush to be suitable for his next record as he wanted to set the land-speed record in a turbojet racer. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said that teams are searching areas from west Nevada but it's kind of difficult because he didn't file a flight plan. "They are working on some leads, but they don't know where he is right now," he said. Sir Richard Branson a good friend of his stated that Fosset was flying alone carrying four full tanks of gas on board searching for dry lake beds that might be suitable for an attempt to break the land speed record in a car. "Steve is a tough old boot. I suspect he is waiting by his plane right now for someone to pick him up," he said. "The ranch he took off from covers a huge area, and Steve has had far tougher challenges to overcome in the past. Based on his track record, I feel confident we'll get some good news soon." Fosset was known as a very active person, he became in 2002 the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon, and in 2005 he set the record as the first person to fly an airplane solo around the world without refueling.
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Mattel is going to recall some more toys soon by Corina Ciubotaru
The toy industry in the U.S. is now facing a crisis. Mattel has announced a recall of toys for the third time this year and that it continues to test its products for high lead content. The company has previously recalled hundreds of thousands of toys due to the lead levels in the paint and because they contained small magnets that kids can swallow. Lead poisoning causes severe nausea or even brain disease and death in small children. The stores that removed the toys from the market are Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart, which have started their own investigations in this scandal. Toy maker Hasbro has also recalled some toys, including the legendary Easy Bake ovens, but says it has very strict rules about quality standards in its products. They have also taken less damage from this action than Mattel, who now has to deal with tainted Barbie accessories. Also, Mattel's Fisher Price division has had to recall part of the Thomas & Friends sets due to lead in the paint so things could not be worse. In the middle of this scandal are the Chinese companies that manufacture the toys. The manager of one of them committed suicide a few weeks ago because he new that his company's involvement in the lead poisoning is going to ruin business. And it seems he was right, as the world is watching Chinese companies much closer now and the confidence level in them is falling. But as long as kids are involved, no security measure is too great.
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