Online retail

Amazon, which was originally a big online bookstore, now gradually steps in the retailer business, online. Many parents will face the same little battle with their children when they go purchasing the household products in the retail store. Purchasing household products online can save a lot of efforts and time for them. Especially for career women with newborn infant, this is going to save a lot of time. Amazon can track the clicking habit of the consumers so that they can offer more information about related products for consumers. It gives them more opportunity and will get consumers buy more merchandise.

The fall of the American Consumer

The U.S. consumption used to cover about 20 percent in world economy. But now it drops to about a half. The consuming ability of Americans is not as usual since the financial crisis. Now the U.S. government wants less import but more export to other countries in order to help the growth of economy. The tipping point of global economy is that every country wants to grow more by importing goods to other countries, but no one wants to do the purchasing. Since the U.S. is sure not to be the biggest consumer next decade, will other countries like China or Germany replace the position?

Bank saved by private equity firm

One and a half years ago, bank United was sold to private equity firms by the FDIC for 900 million dollars. in the first half of this year they made 100 million dollars which is a remarkable ROI. Today the new owners said that they are ready to make bank United public again. This will be the first failed bank bought by private investors, to go public.

What else is needed for the economy to grow

Economy is growing for the last 15 months. The president top economy advisor, Austin Goolsbee, said we need faster growth to bring unemployment down quickly. If two present growth is not enough, what is?

To figure this out we need to evaluate how productive are the people that do have jobs. productivity is the rate of growth in which companies are evolving to get more product from fewer people. Right now productivity is at four percent rate; We need to get to four and a half percent. One way to do that is to export more. This is a problem because other countries want to do the same. It's not possible for everyone to export more. Some think it's not enough and that we need more domestic spending.

Power Consumption of TVs

In May 2011, the government is mandating that TVs have stickers on them displaying the cost to power it for a year. It is estimated that currently, TVs and related electronics such as cable boxes and sound systems account for 10-25% of the power consumption in a household. Yet, while laundry machines and refrigerators are being marketed for the energy efficiency, TVs are not. Households have an average of three TVs and they are turned on approximately eight hours per day.

(If those number are true, a more energy efficient TV could have a drastic effect on the power consumption in a household. This would draw a lot of customers, I believe. I also wonder how much research has been done on making TVs more energy efficient. It seems that all the innovation so far has been towards better picture quality.)

The Changing Face of Foreclosures

Interest rates for a 30 year mortgage are the lowest they have been in decades. Yet, stress among homeowners continues.  Obama has tried to help out these homeowners by creating a program to change the payment plans on some their loans. However, banks are unwilling to alter loans because they fear this will cause more people to come forward claiming to be unable to pay their loan and asking for changes as well. Still, for the few loans that were changed as a result of Obama's program, homeowners are still having trouble making the payments.

Plus, foreclosures are effecting people in large metropolitan areas such as Seattle, Chicago, and Houston. These are not areas typically associated with foreclosures.

The Year of Recalls

Toyota has just announced it is recalling another 1.5 million of their vehicles for fuel pump and brake issues. This is on top of the 8.5 million they recalled earlier this year for unintended acceleration. Honda has the same brake issues and Ford has engine fire problems which will also lead to recalls for those companies. All the recalls are making drivers tune some of it out, especially if the problems are viewed as non-threatening.

(Why are the leading car companies having such a hard time making cars that function properly? How are recalls determined?)