World Business

Watch original video:

I wrote earlier today about Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer conference at Harvard and going to a double feature of “Singin’ in the Rain,” staring Gene Kelly, and “Clockwork Orange.” But has anyone heard the story of the natural altercation that occurred afterwards?

Ballmer recounted the event today at a send-off for Gates. They were living at Radcliffe, in Currier House, which Ballmer described as a “weird place.”

“Bill and I were to the degree that weird for the reason that you got in this weird place in frequent ways,” he said.

“We arrive back from the movie and we’re the couple kind of dancing and playing Gene Kelly, and some guy just wrestles me to the ground … and Bill’s trying to like beat him off,” Ballmer said to roaring laughter (because wouldn’t you expect it to be the other way round?). “It was really very a skilled in witchcraft place.”

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/06/gates_sendoff_gates_has_had_ballmers_back_from_the.html

Watch original video:

I wrote a brief posting a month ago almost Moscow-based Luxoft’s notice that it was opening a service delivery center in Vietnam. I didn’t have much info then, but recently spoke to Peter Vaihansky, vice-president of marketing and business development, and got the skinny on for what cause Luxoft chose Vietnam. It comes down, basically, to require to be paid, stability, and culture.

Luxoft has over 3,000 employees, mostly in Russia and Eastern Europe, but also in the US, Canada, and the UK. The declension of the dollar was hurting so it began looking for a lower-cost location, considering India and China before settling on Vietnam.

Attrition rates and salary inflation made India and China uninteresting. “There were things specifical to our company civilization that the Indian reality doesn’t aid,” Vaihansky told me. “We have very stable teams. People aren’t mobile in Russia. Most stay in one city their whole lives. And people aren’t during the time that keen to jump ship when they see a slightly higher salary, as they are in Pune and Bangalore.” Attrition is typically betwixt 15 and 20% in India, compared to smaller than 10% in Russia. Luxoft found that salary costs were about 15% cheaper in Vietnam than in India and China. And they were about 40% cheaper than Moscow’s rates.

There was also an relationship with Vietnam because of the support the Soviet Union showed for Vietnam during the country’s civil fighting. Luxoft found that computer philosophical knowledge professors in Vietnam tend to speak Russian, as a eventuate. In general, “Russians are very well received in Vietnam,” Vaihansky said.

In business for example in diplomacy, it pays to execute long-term friends.

Watch original video:

Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates reminisced in today’s goodbye about their friendship, careers and the growth of the software industry starting 34 years ago with their first battle.

A mutual friend said the two energetic Harvard undergraduates, traveling in very different circles, had to meet. They hooked up for a man date of sorts –taking in a returning upon one’s track feature: “Singing in the Rain,” still Ballmer’s pet movie, and “A Clockwork Orange.” They talked about their dreams and aspirations — the beginning of a friendship that would evolve into one of the greatest partnerships in the history of employment.

The brace men seemed astounded by their success. (Gates said today was an exception to Microsoft’s cultural bent against celebrating successes.)

In terms of employees, Gates recalled discussing with Ballmer the need to double the prop from 100 to 200, or 200 to 400. “But we always thought that would be it,” he said.

In pursuing the society’s dream of a computer on every desk, they were else preoccupied with “whether the company could handle the craziness of our course size. We not ever said, ‘Well, someday we’ll be 10,000, so let’s not worry ready the problems of being 2,000,’ ” Gates said.

As of Wednesday, the company counted 91,192 employees worldwide. Nearly 39,500 of them work in the Puget Sound region.

Ballmer said at some point, around the release of Windows 95, it became clear that the concourse was going to get a lot bigger. “But if anybody’s wondering at what time we’re going to gain 180,000 people, stop wondering,” he reported.

Gates added, “No, I don’t contemplate we’ll hollow again. But I’ve been wrong before.”

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/06/gates_sendoff_two_guys_and_90000_employees.html

Best-selling author Keith McFarland argues against getting overly concerned about the bad economy

by means of Keith McFarland

Watch original video:

"Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?"

—Chico Marx, Duck Soup

Gregg Easterbrook of the Brookings Institution recently wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Life is Good, So Why Do We Feel So Bad?" In it, he argues:

"The fact is that basically things are pretty good. Unemployment is at 5.5%, low by historical standards; gains is boil slightly ahead of inflation; housing prices are down, but the typical house is still worth a third more than in 2000; 94% of Americans do not have threatened mortgages, and of those who terminate, most will keep their homes. Inflation was up in 2007, however this stands out because the 16 previous years were close to inflation-free; living standards are the highest they have ever been, including living standards for the middle class and for the poor."

Despite data like those cited above, the public disposition is bleak. A recent CBS News/New York Times poll showed 81% of respondents saying the nation is in continuance the wrong track, and 78% saying the U.S. is worse off today than five years past. Consumer reliance has been charting like a lead balloon. One can almost see the Joad family from The Grapes of Wrath in their overloaded, decayed truck, wending their way in an endless caravan stretching from the Dust Bowl to the promised ground of California.

It would seem that in that place really are brace Americas, at least two American economies—the real economy and the perceived one. At first glitter, the discrepancy can be explained by decreasing home prices and increasing potency costs. Home prices inform the radical wealth identity of most Americans, and fuel prices prepare a hebdomadal reminder that a fundamental change has taken place.

But in that place is an even greater discrepancy than the one between the real plan and the perceived, and it cannot be explained solely through the volatility in housing and power. What really accounts with regard to it is the way most Americans view their own situation and their impression of the economy as a entire.

In November 2007, only 19% of respondents to an Investor’s Business Daily/TechnoMetrica Institute of Policy & Politics cut closely answering the question: "Do you consider yourself to be a part of America’s haves or part of America’s have-nots?" described themselves as "have-nots." An astounding 75% of the overall sample described themselves as "haves." In a 1988 Gallup scan with similar demographics, alone 59% considered themselves "haves."

Even more striking is a Harris Poll that asked: "If you estimate relatively your present situation with five years ago, would you say it has improved, stayed about the same, or gotten worse?" A replete 82% reported that their situation had improved or held steady. In response to the point: "In the pursue of the next five years, do you expect your corporal situation to improve, stay the same, or go worse?" most people anticipated a bright coming. Sixty-two percent expected improvement, with only 7% expecting their situation to become worse.

The truth is our impressions of our own economic well-being are based on actual experience, while our impressions of the national economy are shaped by means of the agency of the Chicken-Little loop of the media. The bad news is: The prognosis is not encouraging. With the increasingly competitive demands of the 24/7 news cycles, the doomsday drumbeat will but intensify. It seems that through today’s media standards the traditive violent wind in a teacup is unsatisfactory and is yielding to the sempiternal desire for the Category 5 hurricane in a thimble.

I’m not arguing that our economy is free of problems. Obviously, the credit problems are actually being and the new stock emporium drops can�t be ignored. The Case-Shiller home-price index of 20 cities fell by the agency of 15.3% in April vs. a year earlier, the largest drop since its beginning (BusinessWeek.com, 6/26/08) in 2000. But a bubble can burst without the canopy of heaven falling.

The vast majority of Americans bought their homes to live in, and the prospect of having to ritually just their garages and attics is plenty to prevent most from moving just because their homes have lost some of their value. This may in fact mark a pause in the second-mortgage-fueled spending spree—perhaps not such a bad thing in the long term. The similar goes for our comparatively low aeriform fluid prices that have for years been the envy of my friends in Europe.

In times like these, it’s wise to remember to take the headlines with a grain of salt. The media are, following all, in the provocative-headline business. With his ability to turn even competent news into bad, we can hear the media-man saying: "Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?"

Watch oddity video:

Microsoft was fairly tight about pictures from today’s huge goodbye for Bill Gates. They did not allow us or other media outlets covering the event to have our have a title to photographer on site. So here’s a photo taken by means of the shooter that Microsoft hired.

Robert Sorbo / MICROSOFT

Both Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Chairman Bill Gates were emotional as Gates said farewell to full-time work at the company he co-founded 33 years agone.

Original text: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/06/gates_sendoff_photos.html

Watch original video:

An emotional Bill Gates said good-bye to Microsoft in a celebration this morning filled from one side gauzy memories and a candid assessment of his legacy.

“My life’s work really is about software and working with incredible people,” Gates said with tears in his eyes. “And I love working by smart people. I love working through Steve. I love working through aggregate the incredible people here.”

Today is Gates’ last sunlight as a full-time Microsoft employee. He will focus most of his heed at once on philanthropy at the helm of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

More than 800 employees, figures from the company’s past, family members filled a room in the company’s large corporate conference center to watch the event. Other employees watched in cafeterias around the Redmond campus or at their desks on computers in offices around the world.

He was joined on stage by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Gates’ close friend, right-hand man and successor. Ballmer related he struggled with some fit way to mark Gates’ departure after 33 years and the creation of an industry — and the dominant company in it. First, he gave Gates a scrapbook. Then he said an emotional express gratitude you.

He said every individual at Microsoft, “whether you started after all the rest week or whether you started 28 years agone,” has the chance; fit to contribute to society, develop and swell as professionals, to work with the best and the brightest in the origination and to prosper by bodily presence.

“We’ve been given a enormous opportunity, and Bill gave us that opportunity,” Ballmer said, choking out the altercation through tears. “I want to return thanks to Bill for that and I want you to, too.”

Original theme: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/06/teary_bill_gates_says_goodbye_to_microsoft_employe.html

CHARLESTON, S.C. —

Watch original video:

An economist who admitted swindling hundreds of investors was sentenced Thursday to more than 24 years in prison and ordered to requite millions of dollars he stole from his credulous clients.

Al Parish, a former Charleston Southern University professor, stood silently by his hands in the rear his back during the hearing.

Parish pleaded guilty last year to two counts of fraud and one count of lying to investigators. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he faced from 24 years and four months to just over 30 years in gaol.

“I am tremendously disappointed in myself and horrified at these results,” Parish told U.S. District Judge David Norton.

“If I could turn back the clock I would never wish gotten involved in investments in the highest place,” he said. “I would have stayed by teaching which I take pleasure.”

Twenty of Parish’s victims appeared before the judge describing how their lives were shattered by the swindle.

Marion Robertson of Johns Island before-mentioned he invested his elderly mother’s currency by Parish and then tried to keep the news of his indictment from her. When she discovered her savings were gone, he said, her medical condition worsened.

“She died a year past today. The stress got to her,” he told the decide. Walking past the defense table, Robertson turned to Parish and said, “I hope you rot in hell.”

Parish, a flashy dresser once known for a Web site depicting him as a superhero with a large “E” for “Economan” on his chest, sat impassively during the hearing in a conservative charcoal suit.

Norton ordered Parish, who started running his investing. stable in the early 1990s, to repay $66 the great body of the people investors lost.

“I kind of believe you when you take for granted you didn’t intend for this to happen. I can buy that in the early days,” the judge said.

But he remarkable that extreme year, about the leisure the investigation broke, Parish took $175,000 from a woman and her husband.

Watch original video:

At Friday's closing bell, it looked like there was little relief in sight from deserter oil prices and the lack of reassurances from bank on the eve their already gloomy outlooks.

Investors have a mind face a blitz of household premises in the holiday-shortened week, with the marquee number coming in Thursday's payrolls report for June.

Recession fears are swelling with uncooked oil's dizzying spiral to a series of vestige highs and the relentless tide of forecasts toward more bank write-downs. When the second cut to pieces ends on Monday, the U.S. emporium may finish June through its worst monthly percentage decline since September 2002.

"The combination of a banking system that is on its knees and high commodity prices is just making investors nervous," uttered Ray Rund, managing manager and chieftain of research at Shaker Investments in Cleveland, Ohio. "Even though we are not technically in a recession, it certainly feels that custom."

U.S. oil futures shot up to a record high rightful a penny shy of $143 a barrel on Friday — wrapping up a week when the president of OPEC predicted that oil prices could rise as high as $170 in the coming months. Gold hit a one-month high.

The Dow Jones industrial medial sum (.DJI) finished the week etc. 4.2 percent, during the time that the Standard & Poor's 500 Index (.SPX) slid 3 percent, and the Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC) dropped 3.8 percent. It was the worst week for the Dow and the Nasdaq since February 10.

SHRINKING PAYROLLS, SLOWER FACTORIES

The outlook for the U.S. job place of traffic is grim, based on forecasts for Thursday's payrolls report. Economists polled by Reuters expect a loss of 60,000 jobs in June, compared with a decline of 49,000 in May. The U.S. unemployment rate, however, is predicted at 5.4 percent, a slight improvement from May's 5.5 percent, what one. was the highest subsequently to October 2004.

Thursday's data will comprehend the Institute for Supply Management's June public recital on the vast services sector — a day before the market closes for the Independence Day holiday on Friday. The ISM service-sector index is pegged at 51.0 in June, compared with 51.7 in May, the Reuters poll showed.

On Tuesday, two reports will get scrutiny: the ISM's June integral part on the U.S. manufacturing sector and U.S. car sales.

The ISM manufacturing index is forecast at 48.6 in June, down from May's 49.6, with a reading beneath 50.0 signaling contraction, the Reuters poll showed.

Gasoline prices at $4 a gallon are slashing the demand since gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles. This week, the domestic animals of Dow component General Motors Corp (GM.N) plummeted to a 53-year soft after Goldman Sachs cut its rating on GM to "sell" and warned it would have to raise capital.

Domestic car sales apparently declined in June to an annualized pace of 5.29 million units from May's rate of 5.36 a thousand thousand, while domestic truck sales are predicted to be favored with slowed to an annualized rate of 4.92 million in June from May's 5.12 million, the Reuters crop showed.

The ADP National Employment Report, a private employment survey, is due out on Wednesday, along with a report adhering May factory orders.

In contrast, proceeds reports behest be thin.

Any data that shows some life in the economy will help relieve some concerns for investors, analysts said.

But the market is eager to see that the pack close of the credit decisive turn on banks is abating before in that place can be any meaningful rebound in stocks.

MORE MAALOX MOMENTS?

Adding to investors' queasiness is the Federal Reserve's decision this week to take a break from cutting interest rates in the same proportion that the threat of inflation becomes more inauspicious.

To analysts, the Fed's growing discomfort with inflation suggests that it may choose to put its worries about growth on the back burner and focus instead on price stability.

The Fed on Wednesday left its benchmark fed funds rate at 2 percent, fracture a cycle of cutting its target rate for overnight bank loans by dint of. 3.25 percentage points since mid-September 2007.

"My exterior conception is that we could test 11,100 on the Dow in the next couple of days," said Victor Pugliese, director of listed equity mercantile at Broadpoint Securities in San Francisco. "I ween the market still trends down and on the supposition that we can hold at the 11,000 or 11,100 mark, somewhere in there, in that place's a chance we be able to get a bear market mock for a few days."

During Friday's session, the Dow briefly tipped below the entrance that market technicians define as a bear market, falling more than 20 percent from its record closing high set final October.

A bear market is marked by a prolonged circuit of falling stock prices. It is not considered functionary unless there is a market close of 20 percent below the most recent closing high. The Dow Jones industrial average (.DJI) venture its lowest daily close in 21 months on Friday — inferior than 15 points away from ending 20 percent below its record finish on October 9, 2007.

"Considering that the Dow is at its lowest since 2006, the question is whether the S&P, Nasdaq and the Russell 2000 demise come the Dow in breaking March and January lows," said Peter Boockvar, fair play skilful general at Miller Tabak & Co in New York.

"The path of least opposition is down and those indices force of will come the Dow down in breaking those levels. Whether this happens next week, or the following or even next month, I slip on't know. I slip on't know when it's going to happen. I just know it's going to happen."

Notable earnings reports next week among S&P 500 companies will come from tribute preparer H&R Block Inc (HRB.N) forward Monday, for-profit tuition company Apollo Group Inc (APOL.O) on Tuesday and super-discounter Family Dollar Stores Inc (FDO.N) on Wednesday.

Also set to command attention next week are speeches on the plan through two key Fed officials: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart is scheduled to give brief remarks at an event on Tuesday evening in Washington, D.C., while Federal Reserve Board Governor Frederic Mishkin speaks on Wednesday in Israel.

(Wall St Week Ahead runs weekly. Questions or comments on this one can be e-mailed to: ellis.mnyandu(at)thomsonreuters.com )

(Additional reporting by Walker Simon; Editing by Jan Paschal)

ATLANTA A Mississippi businessman born in India was convicted Thursday of plotting to be seized of his black daughter-in-law killed weeks after she wed his son because, prosecutors said, he believed she would bring down the family stock.

Watch original video:

Prosecutors testament ask the death penalty against Chiman Rai, 68, steady charges that he masterminded the murder of Sparkle Michelle Rai. The 22-year-old was found strangled through a vacuum cord and stabbed more than a dozen periods weeks after her March 2000 wedding to Rai’s son, Ricky Rai.

Jurors, who reached the verdict adhering the second day of deliberations, ground Chiman Rai guilty on seven charges, including felony murder and burglary.

“I’m feeling very much relieved,” said Bennet Reid, Sparkle’s father, as he blinked through tears. “I feel justice has been served for my granddaughter and for my family. My daughter’s not going to come in a backward direction. \, but she’s smiling now.”

Next is the sentencing phase, at what time the same jury give by will decide whether Rai should die since his crimes.

Attorneys presented starkly contrasting images of Rai during the eight-day trial.

Prosecutors sought to portray him as a racist who was so upset that Ricky married and fathered a child with Sparkle that he shelled uncovered $10,000 to have her killed. They called Rai’s ex-cellmate in the Fulton County Jail to testify that Rai called black people “scum.” They also pointed to statements from Ricky Rai, who told investigators behind the killing that his ancestor was “a minute racist.”

Defense attorneys depicted Rai as a hardworking businessman who wanted his son to marry an Indian woman, on the contrary was far from a racist. They paraded a steady rush of Rai’s black customers and peer inmates before the jury, and each described Rai as forbearing and be moved with sympathy for.

Rai’s attorneys also reminded the jury that their client tight math at Alcorn State University, a historically black college in Mississippi, and later ran a supermarket in a predominantly black area in Jackson. He also helped corrupt a hotel in Louisville, Ky., where he made Ricky the general manager in 1998.

Ricky hired Sparkle Reid, an Atlanta native, as a clerk. They started dating in October 1998 and two months later she was pregnant with their daughter Analla. The relationship ended whereas Sparkle was found dead in her apartment on April 26, 2000. Her 7-month-old daughter was nearby, unharmed.

Investigators found little evidence and the box remained unsolved until two witnesses came send forward in 2004, a breakthrough investigators said helped them connect the killing to Chiman Rai.

Prosecutors said Rai teamed up with Willie Fred Evans and Herbert Green to serve as middlemen on account of the hit set, and the one and the other testified in court they arranged the killing. Both have pleaded guilty to lesser charges and cooperated through prosecutors. They are expected to receive probation.