Sunday, June 30, 2013

Britain turns to Canada for its new banking chief

(AP) ? It's not often that central bank governors get compared to rock stars.

But for all the buzz being created about the new man taking over as governor of the venerable Bank of England, you would think his name is McCartney, rather than Mark Carney.

"He's got that charisma," said Paul Kavanagh, senior market strategist for Killik & Co. "People will warm to him."

Carney, the former head of the Bank of Canada and the first non-Brit to run the 319-year-old bank, moves into the bank's headquarters in the City of London on July 1. He faces a tough challenge: Helping rescue Britain's economy, which has been foundering since the onset of the 2008 economic crisis. While he won't do it alone, Britain's leaders are hoping he can inject confidence and try new ideas to revive the country's fortunes.

Carney, 48, will certainly be hoping for a calmer time of it than his predecessor, Mervyn King. In his 10 years on the job, King, 65, has had to steer the bank through the financial crisis of 2008, help rescue several major retail banks and try to revive the UK's economy by bringing interest rates down to an all-time low of 0.5 percent and introducing a 375 billion pound ($572 billion) bond-buying program.

The new governor brings an impressive track record. Carney is credited with keeping money flowing through the Canadian economy by acting quickly in cutting interest rates to their lowest level ever of 1 percent, working with Canadian bankers to sustain lending through the crisis and, critically, letting the public know rates would remain low so they would keep borrowing. And it wasn't just that he had good policies ? he sold them to the public in a way everyone could understand.

However, he didn't face the same challenges as Britain. Canadian banks were stronger and didn't dabble in subprime mortgages. None of them needed a bailout. Demand for Canada's energy and mineral exports also helped the country rebound faster than most industrial nations in Western Europe and the United States.

Canada recovered faster than many other countries from the 2008 financial crisis. During 2009, unemployment hit 8.7 percent and gross domestic product shrank 4.2 percent. But it came back.

The Canadian economy expanded 2.5 percent in the first three months of this year, the fastest pace since 2011. Unemployment is now around 7.1 percent.

In contrast, the UK economy grew at 0.3 percent in the same period and its unemployment is stuck at around 7.8 percent.

The new guy from Ottawa is getting hyped as a departure from the quiet, reserved King, who comes from the gray, serious world of central banking.

"If it is your view that central bankers are boring old people, he (Carney) was not." said Benjamin Tal, the deputy chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Canada. "He looks differently. He has all his hair. He speaks in a way that it not typical."

Whereas most central bankers keep analysts busy parsing what they say ? much in the style of former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan ? Carney is known for his wit and informed clarity.

That's considered a golden attribute at the moment, especially for the UK. Public confidence in the country's financial sector has been undermined by scandals related to interest rate-rigging, rogue trading and a lack of accountability.

"We need honest appraisals of what is going on if the public is going to change their opinion," said Cary Cooper, a professor at Lancaster University Management School. "(The public) need someone who is open and honest."

Among those anxious for Carney to succeed is Treasury chief, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, a man so unpopular in Britain that he was booed by the crowds at the 2012 London Olympics. Osborne reportedly wooed the Canadian for more than a year, happy to bear the brunt of the acerbic British media, which would criticize Carney's 874,000 pound ($1.3 million) pay and benefit package at a time when the average public sector employee received a 1 percent pay increase.

Carney's newness to Britain is an advantage: He can play the outsider ? replicating a common trait in business where a new face comes in to offer a fresh approach.

And for the UK, Carney is about as outside as you can get. He was born in Fort Smith, in Canada's remote Northwest Territories. When he was 6, his family moved to Edmonton, where his mother taught school and his father became a professor of education history at the University of Alberta

He got a partial scholarship to Harvard, where he was the backup goalie on the hockey team. Influenced by John Kenneth Galbraith, who pioneered the popular notion that economics should be accessible to the masses, Carney took up economics

But Harvard left him in debt and he opted for a job at Goldman Sachs after graduation in 1988.

"I felt it would be better to work for a few years and pay that off," he told Reader's Digest Canada in 2011 of the "exorbitant amount of money" he owed. But when asked how much, he cheerily replied: "That's a bit personal. But I paid it off ?I'm very trustworthy."

He went back to Goldman after studying at Oxford, where he met his British-born wife, Diana, who specializes in development. They have four young daughters.

Carney's years at Goldman Sachs in London, Tokyo and New York left him comfortable with the Wall Street world ? something that was particularly useful at the Bank of Canada. He understood how markets would respond, and wasn't intimidated when financial titans tried to throw their weight around. His backers like to recall a run-in with JPMorgan Chase Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, who had a heated exchange with Carney after accusing him of pushing "anti-American" bank regulations.

"He more than held his ground," former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said of the exchange. "Mark won the day clearly."

Carney also solidified his reputation by using "forward guidance," or locking in the interest rate outlook for months in at a time ? the idea being that if people knew rates would remain low they would be more likely to borrow. That helped stimulate spending and economic growth. The U.S. also uses this method, and analysts think Carney might try it in Britain.

But Canadians say it's risky to make too much of Carney's role, saying he's more like Ringo Starr ? someone who was in the right place at the right time. Talented, yes, but anyone would succeed with the Beatles ? and Canada's economy has proved resilient to the global economic downturn.

Canada's conservative banks didn't suffer from the same capital and subprime crises that U.S. and UK banks have ? Carney has not had to rescue a bank during his five years at the Bank of Canada.

Tal, the CIBC economist, said that while Carney was a great central banker, a bit less hype might be in order.

"If there are any expectations of a knight on a white horse who coming to save the British economy, I suggest that they will be disappointed," he said.

But Canadian observers also suggest Britain will note his style ? the events, speeches and press conferences tinged with humor.

"I'm a member of a team, the governing council of the Bank of Canada," Carney said at the University of Alberta in May. "If my legacy turns out to be bad, I'm taking them down with me."

Analysts expect he'll take it slow at first. Britain has a much larger financial sector and remains one of the world's great money centers despite its woes. All that candor may not go over well in London.

"He had no fear about wading into any (economic) subject," said Douglas Porter of BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. "(I) suspect he will be more cautious, at least initially, in England."

__

Associated Press Writer Rob Gillies in Toronto contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-30-Britain-Carney%20Profile/id-a8e9d30f91974cb38811ec2818def07d

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W.H.O. Issues Guidelines for Earlier H.I.V. Treatment

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The new guidelines mean that millions more people will be eligible for treatment in poor and middle-income nations that perform triage because of limited drug supplies.
    


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/30/health/who-issues-guidelines-for-earlier-hiv-treatment.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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SQL Saturday 226 - South Florida - NOVA University

Title:SQL Saturday 226 - South Florida - NOVA University Start:6/29/2013 6:30:00 PM End:6/29/2013 8:30:00 PM Description: 06/29/2013 - NOVA University - 3301 College Ave, Davie, FL 33314 - REGISTER HERE
SQLSaturday is a training event for SQL Server professionals and those wanting to learn about SQL Server. Admittance to this event is free, all costs are covered by donations and sponsorships. Please register soon as seating is limited, and let friends and colleages know about the event.
Website: http://www.fladotnet.com/Reg.aspx?EventID=657 Address: 3301 College Avenue Davie, FL, 33314 Map: iCalendar: Add to Calendar

Source: http://www.communitymegaphone.com/ShowEvent.aspx?EventID=6426

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AOC Q2963PM


If you have more than one monitor on your desktop and want to free up some valuable workplace real estate, consider replacing it with an ultra-wide monitor like the AOC Q2963PM . This 29-inch display has a resolution of 2,560-by-1,080, a 21:9 aspect ratio, and an IPS panel that offers rich color reproduction. It offers every video port you'll ever need and is reasonably priced, but it's not without a few minor flaws; it loses luminance when viewed from a top and bottom angle and it lacks ergonomic adjustability.

Design and Features
The Q2963PM's massive screen is housed in a matte black cabinet with uber-thin top and side bezels. The side bezels are curve around to the back of the cabinet and the 0.75-inch bottom bezel holds a small shiny AOC logo. There are four function buttons, a power switch, and a blue LED power light on the right side of the cabinet. None of the buttons are labeled but that's not a problem; pressing any key brings up an on-screen label that uses large icons to describe what each button does.

All of the I/O ports are mounted on the wedge-shaped stand, which has a removable base so you can hang the monitor on a wall using the VESA mounting holes. On the right side of the mounting arm are DVI, VGA, and DisplayPort inputs, while halfway down the arm, just above where it is connected to the base, there is an HDMI input, a DisplayPort output, an audio input, and a headphone jack. The DisplayPort output makes it possible to daisy chain multiple monitors using special DisplayPort Multi-stream cables (not included). The stand has a hinge that lets you tilt the panel forward and backward but there are no height, swivel, or pivot adjustments.

Picture settings include contrast, brightness, gamma, and Eco mode, which is AOC's name for picture mode and includes Standard, Text, Internet, Game, Movie, and Sports presets. Color settings include red, green, and blue level adjustments, Color Temperature, and Dynamic Color Boost (DCB), which offers green, blue, and skin tone enhancement settings.

The Q2963PM comes with a couple of neat utilities, including Screen+, a screen splitter that lets you split your desktop into different panels, with each panel displaying a different window. All you have to do is drag a window to the selected panel and drop it. Also included is the AOC e-Saver power management software, and i-Menu, which lets you change picture settings using a keyboard and mouse rather than the function buttons. Included in the box are VGA, DVI, and HDMI cables as well as a resource CD. The Q2963PM is covered by a three-year parts, labor, and backlight warranty.

Performance
The Q2963PM uses an IPS panel that delivers rich color quality and good grayscale performance. It was able to accurately reproduce all steps of the DisplayMate 64-Step Grayscale test and there was no evidence of tinting in the middle of the scale. Colors were mostly accurate; as shown in the color chart below, reds and blues were nearly perfect (the closer the dot is to its corresponding box the more accurate the color) but greens were a bit oversaturated, which is fairly common among affordable monitors given green's huge color space. Fortunately, the saturated greens did not result in greenish highlights or skewed colors.

Viewing angles performance was generally good, although there was a slight loss of luminance when viewed from the top and bottom angles. I noticed this with the Dell UltraSharp U2913WM also. The Q2963PM's 5-millisecond (black-to-white) pixel response handled fast motion video without any noticeable smearing or blur. In fact, this monitor is ideal for watching movies, whether in a separate window or in full screen mode. It offers crisp image detail and the embedded 3-watt speakers are nice and loud, although they could use a bass boost.

The Q2963PM used 33 watts of power during testing while operating in Standard mode. That's a few watts less than the 29-inch Dell U2913WM (36 watts) and significantly lower than the 30-inch Dell UltraSharp U3014 (60 watts).

If you require a dual monitor setup but don't have the room on your desktop, the AOC Q2963PM is a good bet. It offers good color and grayscale performance, loads of video inputs, and multiple monitor support. And, it's reasonably priced. That said, a USB hub would be a welcome addition, as would a height adjustable stand. Both the NEC MultiSync PA271W and Dell UltraSharp 3014 offer multiple USB ports and highly adjustable stand, but you'll pay significantly more for these features and don't get the full Ultra-wide, 21:9 screen.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/vDW_8m__88M/0,2817,2421203,00.asp

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Al Jazeera America network ramps up ahead of debut

By Poornima Gupta and Liana B. Baker

ASPEN/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Al Jazeera America has hired hundreds of journalists and finalized parts of its programming schedule, as it moves ahead with its plan to create a mainstream U.S. cable news channel that aims to compete with dominant networks like CNN and Fox.

The network, with headquarters in New York City, has already hired about 650 employees in the United States as it gears up for a late-August launch, said Ehab Al Shihabi, the executive director of international operations.

The network will focus on regional and local U.S.-based investigative journalism for its U.S. programming. It will feature a flagship two-hour long news program between 7 and 9 p.m., Al Shihabi told an audience at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Al Jazeera may face an uphill battle in attracting a loyal U.S. audience, given that it is under the patronage of the government of Qatar. It will at first be available in only 49 million U.S. households - about half of the reach of CNN.

Al Jazeera, which has a separate English service called Al-Jazeera English, already available in the United States, has been trying to break into the U.S. cable market for a number of years, but it has so far failed to get significant traction.

Many U.S. consumers remember that Al Jazeera gained world notoriety when it aired videos of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's speeches during the early 2000s, and had been viewed by many as being anti-American - particularly at the height of the Iraq War.

Al Shihabi acknowledged that there may be a perception problem among consumers of Al Jazeera being a controversial news channel but dismissed the challenge as one of the issues faced by any startup channel. He said the network's programming will dispel any doubts about the quality of content or any perceived political bias and that a head of U.S. operations will be announced soon.

He called Al Jazeera America a "serious investment," without specifying an exact amount. He added the network will focus on investigative journalism, which they expect will give it a competitive edge.

As part of its investment in the U.S,. Al Jazeera bought Al Gore's Current TV earlier this year to allow it to compete with U.S. news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. Terms were undisclosed, but analysts estimated the deal could be worth as much as $500 million.

Al Jazeera plans to have 8 minutes of commercials in an hour, which is lower than the industry standard of 14-16 minutes, Al Shihabi said, adding that the network will launch with 12 bureaus in the United States. Al Jazeera is planning bureaus in major cities such as Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.

The network's model is based on the one followed by the BBC, which is U.K. state funded but independently operated, Al Shihabi added.

(Additional reporting By Liana B. Baker in New York; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-jazeera-america-network-ramps-ahead-debut-215735321.html

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