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GE Crops are an Economic Disaster
|September 24, 2002||Posted by Staff under Progress Report, The Progress Report|
Major Investigation Concludes Strongly Against GM Products
GM CROPS ARE ECONOMIC DISASTER, SHOWS NEW REPORT
We are thrilled that someone has compiled an analysis of the actual economic effects of genetically modified crops. The verdict is clear and sharp — GM crops are terrible and unjustified and have cost taxpayers heavily.
Our thanks to the Soil Association for making this important new report. Here is their announcement, along with a selection of details.
New Report “Seeds of Doubt” Shows Economic Failure of GM Crops
Genetically modified crops have been an economic disaster in the USA and Canada according to a new report published by the Soil Association.
The Soil Association estimates that GM soya, maize and oilseed rape could have cost the US economy $12 billion (£8 billion) since 1999 in farm subsidies, lower crop prices, loss of major export orders and product recalls. Farmers are not achieving the higher profits promised by the biotechnology companies as markets for GM food collapse. Widespread GM contamination at all levels of the food and farming industry is the major cause of these difficulties.
Severe problems with GM crops has led to over 200 groups representing farmers and the organic sector in the USA and Canada to call for a ban or moratorium on the introduction of the next major proposed GM food crop, GM wheat. Some politicians in the USA are so concerned that in May this year, legislation was introduced to Congress to address the economic, market and legal issues.
The Soil Association’s report is the first to reveal the serious widespread impacts of GM crops in North America on the food and farming industry, where three-quarters of the world’s GM food is grown. It is the most comprehensive review of the situation to be produced from a non-biotechnology industry perspective.
Peter Melchett, the Soil Association’s Policy Director said: “A decision will be made next year whether to allow GM crops to be grown commercially in the UK. With agriculture still suffering a deep economic crisis, the temptation to seize a new technology is great.
“GM was introduced to the USA when farmers were financially vulnerable. The biotechnology industry’s claims that their products would bring benefits were widely accepted, but GM crops have now proved to be a financial liability. Growing GM crops in the UK will undermine the competitiveness of British agriculture.
“We hope farmers in the UK will take our findings seriously. Most of the world is GM-free and there is no market for GM crops in the EU.
“The Soil Association hopes that this report will result in a better informed public debate, and a more independent, less pressurised decision about the possible commercial growing of GM crops in the UK. We can still avoid the mistakes made in the USA and Canada, but only if we don’t open the can of GM worms that commercial growing of GM crops represents. “The Government is publicly committed to ensuring that the expansion of organic farming is not undermined by GM crops – our report shows that the two cannot coexist.”
- Over the three years 1999, 2000 and 2001, the USA paid out an estimated total extra $10 billion (£6.5 billion) in farm subsidies for maize and soya (as ‘Loan Deficiency Payments’ and ‘Market Loss Assistance’) as a result of the low prices caused by the loss of trade due to GM crops. The loss of foreign trade due to GM crops totalled an estimated $1-2 billion (£0.6 billion – £1 billion) . The StarLink corn incident has cost an estimated $1 billion (£0.6 billion) including the product recall.
- GM oilseed rape, maize, soya and cotton have been grown commercially in North America since 1996. They are all used in vegetable oils and animal feed, and soya is widely used in processed food.
- The report is based on interviews with organic and conventional farmers in the Mid-West states of America in January and February 2002, as well as evidence from independent academics, advisers and industry analysts in the USA and Canada.
- Nestle, Unilever and Heinz, plus the major UK supermarkets have a ban on GM food ingredients in own brand products. Many are now also using GM-free animal feed.
- GMOs are prohibited in organic farming and food processing in view of their incompatibility with the principles of organic agriculture, their unrecallable nature and the potential risks they pose to the environment and human health.
Seeds of doubt: experiences of North American farmers of genetically modified crops
- Lower profits for farmers growing GM crops: The profitability of growing GM herbicide tolerant soya and insect-resistant Bt maize is less than non-GM crops. This is due to the extra cost of GM seed (which can be up to 40% higher), the lower market prices paid for GM crops, and reduced soya yields.
- Collapse of export markets: within a few years of the introduction of GM crops, almost the entire $300 million (£200 million) annual US maize exports to the EU and the $300 million annual Canadian rape exports to the EU had disappeared due to market rejection. The US share of the world soya market has decreased while non-GM producing countries have seen an increase.
- Increase in government subsidies: US farm subsidies were meant to have fallen over the last few years. Instead they rose dramatically, paralleling the growth in GM crops. The lost export trade as a result of GM crops is thought to have caused a fall in crop prices and a need for increased government subsidies, estimated at an extra $3-$5 billion (£2 – £3 billion) annually.
- Lower yields: the claims of increased yields have not been realised overall except for a small increase in Bt maize yields. The main GM variety (Roundup Ready soya) yields 6-11% less than non-GM varieties. A farmer in Mississippi was awarded over $165,000 (£100,000) in damages from Monsanto for low GM soya yields.
- Widespread contamination of non-GM crops: contamination has caused major problems throughout the food and farming industry in just a couple of years, including the loss of nearly the whole organic oilseed rape sector in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Non-GM seeds varieties are difficult to buy, and even these may turn out to be contaminated. Those who are successful in sourcing non-GM seeds risk having their crops contaminated by neighbouring GM fields. Many organic and other GM-free maize farmers have lost sales or received lower prices because of contamination at a potential cost of over $90 million (£60 million) annually.
- Premiums for non-GM crops: farmers who are successfully growing non-GM crops are reaping benefits, with one farmer reporting that organic soya is selling at a 200 per cent premium.
- A proliferation of lawsuits and the emergence of complex legal issues: biotechnology companies are suing many farmers for infringing company patent rights, saying that they have unlicensed GM plants on their land. A non-GM farmer whose crop was contaminated by GMOs was sued by Monsanto for $400,000 (£260,000). Farmers are turning to the courts for compensation from the companies for lost income and markets as a result of contamination. In Canada, legal action has been launched by the organic sector in Saskatchewan because they cannot supply the organic rape market with GM-free rape, which could cost biotechnology companies millions of dollars.
- Increased use of herbicides: Contrary to claims from the biotechnology industry, farmers are now more reliant on herbicides (weedkillers). Certain crops have been engineered to be resistant to specific herbicides to enable farmers to spray weeds without damaging crops. Although it was claimed that only one application would be needed per crop, several are being made. In addition, weeds are developing resistance to these herbicides, and rogue GM plants that grow after a harvest (volunteers) have appeared and spread widely. In particular, GM oilseed rape volunteers the GM crop most likely to be introduced in the UK have spread quickly, and some plants have become resistant to several herbicides through cross pollination. As a result, farmers are making more frequent applications and reverting to older and more toxic chemicals.
- GM food recalls: the most expensive recall concerned GM Starlink which was approved for animal feed, but not human consumption. However, it was found in food products such as taco shells and the recall cost to Aventis is estimated to be up to $1 billion (£0.5 billion). In 1998, cross-pollination from GM maize was suspected of contaminating organic maize in Texas. This was only discovered once the maize was shipped to Europe as organic tortilla chips, costing the small company more than $150,000 (£100,000).
“Seeds of doubt: experiences of North American farmers of genetically modified crops” is available from the Soil Association Mail Order Department. Telephone 0117 929 0661, or email firstname.lastname@example.org or go to http://www.soilassociation.org/gm
For a nice summary of the report, click here
Be sure to see Fred Foldvary’s editorial on Genetically Manipulated Food
So now the facts are in. GM crops are an economic failure and taxpayers are being forced to make huge corporate welfare handouts to agribusiness corporations just to compensate them for their GM-caused losses. This situation is one of the greatest and most dangerous scandals of our generation. What’s your opinion? Tell your views to The Progress Report!


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Multinational technology company Apple has revealed its plan to open its first retail locations in India next year.
The announcement was made by the company’s chief executive Tim Cook during the annual shareholders’ meeting.
Foreign brands previously required approval from the Indian Government to own more than 49% of an Indian retail operation.
According to amendments made in 2018, the government allowed up to 100% FDI in single-brand retail via automatic route. In order for Apple to open a store in the country without a local partnership, the government had to grant special approval to the company, reported BBC.
Speaking to investors, Cook was quoted by BBC as saying that “he didn’t think Apple would be a ‘good partner’.”
Cook said: “We like to do things our way.”
In addition to physical stores, the company has online operation plans in place. It is expected to be launched later this year.
Apple products are currently sold in India via third-party retailers and more than 30% through Amazon India, Flipkart and Paytm Mall platforms. However, its sales are low compared to its competitors such as Samsung and Huawei.
In China, Apple has reopened more than half of its stores in China although the coronavirus (Covid-19) continues to spread.
It also cautioned its investors early that it is expecting to miss its quarterly earnings estimate following the Covid-19 outbreak, which has killed 2,800 and infected 82,000, as of the end of 26 February.

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There were no big surprises when Team Canada unveiled their uniforms ahead of the Olympic and Paralympic games in Rio this summer. But one thing’s for sure: they’re pretty damn slick.
Last night the latest Olympic ensemble was revealed in a live stream on the Team Canada Facebook page, which showed classic designs with subtle tweaks from their last outfits back in 2012.
Oh, and some pretty badass blazers.
The uniforms for 2016 showed the traditional red and white colours of Canada with strong black accents – in the sleeves of the hoodies, and on t-shirts, sweatpants and trucker hats. Many of them feature iconic Canadian animals like beavers, bears and squirrels (but, sadly, no trash pandas).
The classic 3D printed “Canada” is still emblazoned across the chest of most of the clothing, with the maple leaf also featuring prominently.
Plus, for the first time viewers were able to see what uniforms the Canadian athletes will be wearing at the opening ceremony on Friday, August 5th at the Maracanã stadium in Rio de Janeiro – and it’s quite dapper.
The red blazer, in wind breaker material, has a single-breasted button front, collar, long sleeves with ribbed cuffs, and the back of the jacket tapers into a V. It comes with drawstring toggles at the back, and a single zip pocket on the front. For $150, you can even wear it along with Canada’s athletes come summer time.
Canadian twin brothers Dean and Dan Caten, who run homegrown label Dsquared2, were commissioned to design the athletes’ uniforms. The official replica apparel and accessories line will be available at all Hudson’s Bay stores from May 4.
If you can’t wait that long to get all patriotic, selected items will be available to buy online this week.


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A member of the Federal Communications Commission is calling on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores over concerns that user data from the wildly popular social media platform is being accessed in China.
In a tweet Tuesday, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr shared a letter addressed to Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai, the chief executives of Apple and Google parent Alphabet, respectively. He raised concerns over TikTok’s Chinese ownership, saying that “it harvests swaths of sensitive data that new reports show are being accessed in Beijing.”
To continue reading this Washington Post report, go to:
FCC commissioner calls on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores
A member of the Federal Communications Commission is renewing calls for Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing national security concerns surrounding TikTok’s Chinese-based parent company, ByteDance.
A U.S. FCC commissioner urges Apple, Google to boot TikTok from app stores
A Republican member of the Federal Communications Commission has urged the chief executives of Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google to kick Chinese-owned TikTok out of its app stores.
An F.C.C. commissioner pushes Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their app stores.
A member of the Federal Communications Commission has asked Google and Apple to remove TikTok from their app stores, citing concerns that the popular Chinese-owned video app could send American data back to Beijing.


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The LG G3 will be one of the best Android handsets around when LG finally launches it on Tuesday. It will offer buyers several interesting features including an already confirmed high-resolution 2K display, metal or metal-like design, optical image stabilization in the camera, removable battery and support for microSD cards (both features unavailable to G2 owners) and a brand new protective case with smart functions. However, the wildest feature yet on the G3 appears to be support for up to 2TB of storage via microSD cards, which appears to be a first for smartphones, at least according to LG’s U.K. site, which mentioned the specs of the unreleased handset.
Comparatively, the HTC One (M8) and Galaxy S5 offer support for microSD cards of up to 128GB of storage, although that’s only because the most storage current microSD cards can offer. In theory, microSD cards could offer up to a maximum of 2TB of storage, which means many Android devices including these two G3 rivals could support 2TB cards.
However, nobody is mass-producing such cards yet. In fact, at this time you won’t be able to buy microSD cards with more than 128GB of storage, which is why manufacturers list “up to 128GB” microSD support on their specs pages.
LG U.K. is likely not wrong saying that the G3 would support 2TB cards, but it may be a while until such storage solutions will be available to consumers. Instead, G3 buyers will have to make do with 128GB microSD cards that are already available for purchase, unless LG actually plans to release its own 2TB microSD cards.
Meanwhile, the G3 will be unveiled during a special media event taking place on Tuesday in various cities around the world, and it’s likely to launch in many markets in the following weeks.


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Decoding Downtime for Amazon’s Cloud Services
As Amazon Web Services faced a major downtime, many popular websites running on Amazon’s cloud services suffered interruption in their services. The issue has been explained by Amazon in a recently released report.
As per initial reports, the issue was caused by a typo by one of the server administrators. While entering a routine command to remote servers from a S3 subsystem, the employee entered a larger number than intended. Two other S3 subsystems were supported by these servers and these subsystems were keeping metadata and other storage information for a massive region. This led to a major outage for Amazon AWS.
Amazon has detailed the steps it will take to prevent such issues for happening in future. In the recent years, the systems under Amazons AWS segment have increased at a fast speed as many online businesses shifted to cloud. Due to this growth, the restart of systems took much longer than expected. This led to a downtime for many services and embarrassment for Amazon.
Amazon informed, “S3 subsystems are designed to support the removal or failure of significant capacity with little or no customer impact. We build our systems with the assumption that things will occasionally fail, and we rely on the ability to remove and replace capacity as one of our core operational processes. While this is an operation that we have relied on to maintain our systems since the launch of S3, we have not completely restarted the index subsystem or the placement subsystem in our larger regions for many years.”
Regarding preventing similar issues in future, Amazon informed, “We are making several changes as a result of this operational event. While removal of capacity is a key operational practice, in this instance, the tool used allowed too much capacity to be removed too quickly. We have modified this tool to remove capacity more slowly and added safeguards to prevent capacity from being removed when it will take any subsystem below its minimum required capacity level.”
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August 24, 2016
CNP Expo: Fraud on the Move
May 20, 2015
Justin McDonald, senior risk management consultant with The Fraud Practice, started a Wednesday afternoon discussion on mobile fraud by pointing out, “Mobile is convenient and immediate for customers, but fraudsters are taking advantage of that as well.”
Panelists discussed current trends in mobile fraud, noting that mobile fraud rates are growing slightly faster, on average, than e-commerce in general.
“Mobile fraud rates are growing faster, because the newer, smaller-to-midsize merchants are racing to mobile but often are not prepared for fraud,” said Kount COO Rich Stuppy.
Chance Bowlin, corporate loss prevention manager for Petco, agreed: “We have seen fraudsters making desktop fraud look like mobile, even though they’re not actually on a mobile device. They know most merchants are more lax on mobile purchases, and they are trying to exploit that.”
Mobile is no more risky than other forms of e-commerce fraud, Carl Tucker, head of CyberSource Managed Risk Services said, but only if you approach it in the right manner.
“If you do it right, you actually have more data about the customer, and you could even have a lower fraud rate if you apply that.”
So what does “doing it right” look like?
The panelists remarked that having a dedicated mobile app (as opposed to a mobile website) makes collecting data easier during the transaction, and that data allows the merchant to make better decisions about the risk level of a transaction.
Western Union’s Bernard McManus said, “Knowing the channel a transaction is coming in on can allow you to use different tools to see the data and verify that this is a good transaction. There are distinctly different patterns from different kinds of devices and carriers. The fraudsters know the weakest link in terms of mobile carrier and type of device, so when you see that, you can approach that decision differently.”
Stuppy also encouraged the audience to “monitor ALL activities in app, not just payments—changes in a password or account information, for instance, can be indicators of fraud.”


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The coronavirus pandemic has put an end to many in-person events over the past year, including auto shows, which were already struggling to attract automakers and attendees. However, with vaccinations rolled out across the country, a semblance of normalcy is imminent and is helping usher in the Chicago Auto Show. It is set to return in July with a new format after the show was canceled earlier this year.
The show usually takes place in February, although the pandemic has forced organizers to postpone it. Instead, it will run from July 15 to July 19, which is a lot shorter than what the show typically runs. In 2020, just before the coronavirus turned into a global pandemic, the public spectacle ran from February 8 to February 17. The show will also have a new format, with indoor and outdoor exhibits for the first time at McCormick Place, where the show has always been held. There will be test tracks and technology demonstrations.
Organizers plan to use electronic ticketing and timed entry windows to help regulate attendance and crowd capacity at the event. It’s unclear which automakers will be in attendance, but it won’t be the only one that auto event companies will need to plan for this year. The Detroit Auto Show is canceled again, but in its place will be the Motor Bella taking place in Pontiac, Michigan, which will take place entirely outdoors. The public performance days for this run from September 23 to September 26.
Later this year, the Los Angeles Auto Show is set to take place, an ongoing pandemic, of course. It will also have a shorter format, running only two days – November 17 and 18. However, not all auto shows happen. Last month, organizers of the Tokyo Auto Show announced that this year’s show would be canceled, which could return in 2022. The only auto show to take place recently was Auto Shanghai 2021, where automakers were eager to reveal new models and concepts.


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This article has not yet been translated, so only the title has been automatically translated.
The mega expansion “Monster Hunter Rise”, the latest entry in Capcom’s hunting action “Monster Hunter” series, “Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak” is very popular on Nintendo Switch and SteamrnSince the product lineup has been released and pre-orders are already open, so many People are just making pre-orders and waiting for the global launch on Thursday, June 30, 2022. rnBecause it is “super large additional content”, various elements such as new monsters and new systems will be added, but the content is being released one by one. rnThe “Monster Hunter Rise: Dawn Special 2022.5.10″ broadcast on May 10, 2022 released a lot of new information, but it also released some product information that should be hurry up. paddy! rn”Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak” specification “Nintendo Switch Pro Controller” will be released!
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FDA wants to update the look and content of the Nutrition Facts Label to better help consumers make informed food choices and follow healthy dietary practices.
The proposed Nutrition Facts label will emphasize the number of calories and servings per container; update % Daily Values for nutrients such as fiber and calcium; update serving sizes; list the amount of added sugars; require listing of potassium and vitamin D if present, and no longer require the labeling of Vitamins A and C.
FDA is dividing the proposed Nutrition Facts label changes into two proposed rules, one that would update the nutrition information based on nutrition science and the label design to help highlight important information. The second covers the changes to serving size requirements and labeling for certain package sizes.
Both are published in the Federal Register for a 90-day comment period; to read them and comment, visit FDA's official docket at www.regulations.gov. FDA proposes that the food industry be given two years to comply after publication of any final rules governing the Nutrition Facts label.
Thursday February 27, 2014/ FDA/ United States.


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Now you too can be the most unpopular man in Italy... with the Costa Concordia's captain Schettino uniform
In the city famed for its avant-garde fashion, it makes for an unusual must have item of clothing.
But in the run up to the Milan Festival, the Costa Concordia captain Francesco Schettino costume is the in-demand garment.
During the annual event, which takes place in the days after Shrove Tuesday, Milanese dress up as a host of famous public figures.
And this year, the usual Silvio Berlusconi parodies have been dropped in favour of the man branded 'Captain Coward' for fleeing the sinking ship after it struck rocks off the island of Giglio in the Mediterranean last month.
Must have: The Captain's uniform has now been recreated by famous boutique Bottega del Carnevale in Brera in time for the Milan Festival
Unlikely trendsetter: Costumes imitating the uniform of captain Francesco Schettino, right, are in high demand among shoppers in Milan ahead of the city's festival
The white linen shirt and captain's hat has been reproduced by famous boutique Bottega del Carnevale in Brera for the festival and is retailing for more than £40.
Captain Schettino is not the first person connected with the stricken Costa Concordia to become an unintended fashion icon following the disaster.
Harbour master Gregorio De Falco, the man who told the cowardly Costa Concordia captain to 'Get Back on Board for xxxx's sake', became a national hero.
T-shirts with his phrase in Italian 'Vada a Bordo, Cazzo' (Get on board, damn it) were being snapped up for £12 after an enterprising online clothing store advertised them on the web.
Fashion icon: Gregorio De Falco, left, became an unlikely trend setter with his demand 'Get on board, damn it', which he repeatedly told captain Schettino, being reproduced on T-shirts
Stricken: Navy divers rescue operation soon became a search for bodies in the aftermath of the Costa Condordia's capsizing
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Inspired by Uber's business model, on-demand barber startup Shortcut is challenging the traditional retail model of getting a haircut.
Shortcut's app connects consumers with local hair pros who will come to them for a convenient trim (or total hair makeover). The company's co-founder and COO Will Newton says it's not just about convenience, though. The company aims to bring a personal touch to the gig economy by showcasing barbers' profiles and allowing users to pick the stylist of their choice. Unlike some other on-demand services, Shortcut wants to facilitate relationships and drive repeat bookings.
"What's baffling about other gig economy companies is there's no relationship built into the product," Newton told Cheddar.
The rise of the gig economy has led to the emergence of on-demand service platforms including Handy, TaskRabbit, and a long list of ride-hailing companies. There are 57 million people in the U.S. participating in the gig economy, amounting to 36 percent of workers, according to a 2018 Gallup poll.
In addition to the growing gig economy, Newton pointed to the direction of the job market and the growth of workers seeking to be barbers as an indicator for the sustainability of Shortcut's business model.
"Barbers are growing at 30 percent a year, as fast as any job in the country." Newton said. "These jobs can't be automated."
Shortcut monetizes by taking 20 percent of what a barber on the app charges for a haircut. The average price for a haircut on the platform is $55, but barbers are given the flexibility to set their own prices and market themselves. If hair pros bring on a client of their own, they get to keep 100 percent of that fare, and Shortcut charges a service fee to the consumer.
To supplement the business-to-consumer strategy, Newton sees a big opportunity in B2B as well. Shortcut partners with companies including Facebook, DraftKings, and T-Mobile to organize onsite office events that lets employees to get haircuts on the job.


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No surprise with the success of the Barbie movie, Mattel, maker of the Barbie doll, plans to go all out this holiday season.
On June 1st, Mattel released several new Barbie and Ken dolls and toys based on the Barbie movie. There was even a new three-story Dream House for the plastic couple to call home.
Unfortunately, that initial round of movie-related products has sold out, but fear not, Mattel plans to release even more products just in time for the holiday season. Reportedly, Mattel has secured over 165 partnerships with brands and retailers related to the movie that will be released this fall!
Something tells me that it won't just be kids that want these toys. There are a lot of “kidults” out there still playing with dolls and collecting them. Also, look for Barbie to be a top Halloween costume this year as well.


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Fiat Chrysler pops after a Chinese car company says its interested in the brand (FCA)
Fiat Chrysler is up more than 4% on Monday morning after Great Wall Motors confirmed that it is interested in acquiring at least part of the company.
The interest focuses on Fiat's Jeep and Ram brands of off-road vehicles and trucks. Reports surfaced recently that a Chinese automaker was interested in placing a bid for the brands, and a Great Wall Motors company spokesperson confirmed the reports to Reuters Monday morning.
Fiat Chrysler said in a statement it has not yet been approached by the Chinese automaker.
Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne has been trying to find a merger partner for Fiat Chrysler for years, so the news wasn't surprising to investors.
Shares of Fiat Chrysler are up 32.1% this year.
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Even after the corona pandemic, toy maker LEGO has again managed to sell billions of euros in blocks. The success of Harry Potter and Star Wars building sets in particular has benefited the company in 2022.
The manufacturer sold blocks for 65 billion Danish kroner (8.7 billion euros) last year. That is 17 percent more than in 2021, which was already a record year because consumers bought LEGO en masse during the corona pandemic.
Although the company also had to deal with higher energy and transport costs, operating profit increased by 5 percent to 2.4 billion euros. “We are returning to normal growth,” said CEO Niels Christiansen.
In addition to Harry Potter and Star Wars building sets, a lot of technical LEGO was also sold in 2022.
At the beginning of this century, the group seemed to be heading for bankruptcy. But by also making LEGO kits for adults, the toy manufacturer has since grown into a billion-dollar company. LEGO also entered into partnerships with Disney and car manufacturers. And on television there are programs like LEGO Masters.
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Privacy Law Update: January 23, 2023
- State Rep. Gregg Haddad, D-Conn., introduced House Bill 6253, the Connecticut Age-Appropriate Design Code. The bill was referred to the Connecticut General Assembly’s Joint Committee on General Law.
- Indiana House Bill 1554, an act concerning consumer data protection, was introduced and referred to the House Committee on Commerce, Small Business and Economic Development. HB 1554 is a competing bill to Indiana Senate Bill 5 and includes rulemaking authority.
- State Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem, D-Mass., introduced Senate Bill 745, the Massachusetts Data Privacy Protection Act. The proposal takes themes from U.S. Congress’ proposed American Data Privacy and Protection Act, including a private right of action.
- Mississippi House Bill 467, the Biometric Identifiers Privacy Act, was introduced and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A.
- New York Senate Bill 2277, the Digital Fairness Act, was introduced and referred to the Senate Committee on Internet And Technology. SB 2277 will run against New York Assembly Bill 1362. Also, New York Assembly Bill 1362, the Biometric Privacy Act, was introduced and referred to the Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection.
- State Rep. Andrew Stoddard, D-Utah, introduced an amendment to the Utah Consumer Privacy Act. House Bill 158 amends Utah’s law to include a carveout for law enforcement’s access to personal data with a warrant.
- The Virginia Senate took up bills to amend the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act. Senate Bill 1087 proposes provisions to protect genetic data privacy, while SB 1432 concerns protection of personal health records.
- State Del. Wayne Clark, R-W.Va., introduced House Bill 2460, an act concerning children’s privacy, to the West Virginia House. The bill, which would bring privacy protections for children under age 18, was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
The Information Commissioner’s Office is encouraging developers to consider privacy at an early stage when implementing new technologies to maintain public trust and confidence.
Our Tech Horizons Report looks at technologies emerging over the next two to five years and warns that the significant benefits they offer could be lost if people feel companies are misusing their data.
The report, which follows analysis of key technologies expected to impact society in the future, found businesses must consider transparency, what control people have over their data, and how much data is gathered to ensure their services are data compliant and developed with consumer privacy at the forefront.
Chinese social media company TikTok could face a ban in the European Union if it does not step up efforts to comply with EU legislation before September, the top official overseeing the EU’s internal market told the company’s CEO on Thursday.
ProPublica reports some online pharmacies selling abortion pills are using tracking technology that shares sensitive data with third parties, which could potentially lead to prosecution from law enforcement. ProPublica said it found web trackers, including a Google Analytics tool, on at least nine of 11 sites selling the pills. Data shared through the trackers include web addresses visited, items clicked on, search terms, and location and device information, as well as a unique identifier linked to a user’s browser.
Opt-ed: US schools banning TikTok is not an overreaction: U.S. schools are not overreacting by following federal, state and local entities in banning TikTok, University of North Carolina Greensboro professor of management and cybersecurity researcher Nir Kshetri writes in Fortune. “TikTok captures user data in a way that is more aggressive than other” applications, he said, as “its default privacy settings allow the app to collect much more information than the app needs to … function.” One example, he said, was TikTok accessing users contact lists and calendars every hour. There are also significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities that allow hackers to distribute “malicious software” using viral trends.
Irish DPC fines WhatsApp 5.5M euros, fissure with EDPB continues: Ireland’s Data Protection Commission completed its inquiry into Meta platform’s WhatsApp Ireland and fined the company 5.5 million euros related to transparency and forcing users to consent to the processing of their data in the Terms of Service. The DPC found WhatsApp was in breach of “its obligations in relation to transparency” because “information in relation to the legal basis relied on by WhatsApp Ireland was not clearly outlined to users, with the result that users had insufficient clarity as to what processing operations were being carried out on their personal data, for what purpose, and by reference to which of the six legal bases identified in Article 6 of the” EU General Data Protection Regulation, according to the DPC press release. The DPC found the lack of transparency did not meet Articles 12 and 13(1)(c) of the GDPR.


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Durst announces 100th Tau RSC platform press installation
Durst will be celebrating a 100th installation milestone at a customer site for its market-proven and successful Tau RSC technology platform only two years after its launch. In the coming weeks, a major label converter in Europe will become the 100th customer of a Durst Tau 330 RSC UV inkjet single-pass label press. The machine will soon be providing high quality label production with unmatched productivity and uptime levels.
05 Oct 2020 | By Rahul Kumar
Huge interest was created when Durst unveiled the Tau 330 RSC at Labelexpo 2017 in Brussels. Visitors and competitors were surprised by what Durst’s RSC technology promised in terms of print quality and productivity performance, with 1200x1200-dpi resolution and 80 linear metres printing speed at full colour.
Nine months later and after a successful beta-test of this new and groundbreaking printing technology, Durst started delivery of the first Tau 330 RSC presses. Since then, increasing numbers of small, medium and large-sized label converter have opted for the new benchmark platform in UV inkjet, a Durst Tau 330 RSC, the more economical Tau 330 RSC E or the new Tau RSCi.
Since the middle of this year, Durst has continued installations with the first Tau RSCi 330/ 420/ 510 label presses, which form the latest press portfolio expansion of Durst’s Tau RSC platform.
Helmuth Munter, segment manager, label and flexible packaging, Durst, said, “Introduced two years ago, the Tau 330 RSC and Tau 330 RSC E set a new benchmark in label printing. Now with 100 installations around the world we feel honoured by the trust and confidence in Durst of our satisfied Tau RSC users. We are confident — and continuous positive customer feedback backs this - that our updated Tau RSC platform will continue to set the benchmark for the future of industrial digital inkjet printing in the label and packaging industry.”


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Democrats are all up in arms over Kellyanne Conway’s comments endorsing the clothing products of Ivanka Trump during a recent interview. Conway, President Donald Trump’s Chief Legal Counselor, is being accused of ethics violations and some are even suggesting that she lose her job.
During an interview for Fox News, the subject came up about Nordstrom Department stores dropping the clothing and accessory line of products belonging to Ivanka Trump and President Trump’s harsh criticism claiming Ivanka was being treated unfairly. Conway, responded but looking at the television camera and saying:
“Go buy Ivanka’s stuff, is what I would tell you. It’s a wonderful line. I own some of it. I fully — I’m going to just, I’m going to give a free commercial here: Go buy it today, everybody. You can find it online.”
The problem lies with a federal law that forbids federal employees from saying or doing anything that could be taken as an:


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SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (June 12)—Delphi Automotive Systems and Federal-Mogul Corp. said they will join Covisint, the automotive exchange under co-development by General Motors Corp., DaimlerChrysler A.G., Ford Motor Co., Renault S.A. and Nissan S.A. The two suppliers follow Meritor Automotive and Johnson Controls Automotive who already have joined Covisint. Delphi, the world´s largest automotive supplier, said it will use Covisint as its primary exchange for conducting e-business with customers and suppliers. Although Federal-Mogul is still deciding which services to avail itself of, it will have a branded homepage tied to a revenue stream proposition on the exchange, a spokeswoman said.
Federal-Mogul, Delphi join automotive exchange
Rubber News wants to hear from its readers. If you want to express your opinion on a story or issue, email your letter to Editor Bruce Meyer at [email protected].


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Applied Materials, a computer chip industry supplier, will reduce its workforce in Austin, Texas by 20.
The Santa Clara, Calif. company, which has had a presence in the Albany, NY region for more than a decade, informed the Texas Workforce Commission, about the layoffs, according to the Austin Business Journal.
Applied Material is one of the world's largest manufacturer of equipment used in the computer chip making process. The company has researchers at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany. The company also is a supplier to the GlobalFoundries computer chip factory in Malta, NY.
The layoffs come after the company said last month that third-quarter net income decreased by $50 million to $168 million.


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Hyundai may have just given the Sonata sedan some updates for 2017, but it’s getting a facelift for 2018. Hyundai is previewing that new design with a series of sketches the company is trickling out via its own social media channels. The sketches confirm a fairly substantial facelift that brings the car in line with Hyundai latest.
At first glance it is clear Hyundai designers are bringing many cues from the new i30, such as the cascading grille, and LED light design. The front clip design also seems to look similar to that of the Veloster, mostly due to the large grille design.
Details of the 2018 Hyundai Sonata are still fairly scarce at this point. Rumors suggest the car will come with two different trim levels, a base car and a turbo model. The turbocharged variant will likely be powered by Hyundai’s 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, but the power output is expected to jump from today’s 245 horsepower figure.
We’re expecting the 2018 Sonata to be revealed in April at the New York Auto Show, but its global debut could take place before that in South Korea.
#쏘나타_페이스리프트_모델 #렌더링 공개새로운 모습으로 찾아온 #쏘나타생동감 넘치는 실루엣과 절도 있는 디테일이 당신의 감성을 끝에서 끝까지 채울 것#세상_어디에도_없는_새로움 #드라마틱_디자인_체인지 #HMG


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During the last year Netflix managed to outgrow BitTorrent in terms of the amount of US Internet traffic it generates. A promising finding for Hollywood as it shows that there’s an overwhelming interest for the legal movie streaming service. At TorrentFreak we wondered what might happen if all US BitTorrent users made the switch to Netflix, and the results of this exploration are quite intriguing.
The movie industry claims that piracy is costing them billions of dollars a year.
Luckily for Hollywood, many Americans choose to consume their online media through legal services such as Netflix. In fact, there are now so many that the total Internet traffic generated by Netflix has outgrown that of BitTorrent.
This made us wonder — what would happen if all movie-downloading BitTorrent users made the switch to Netflix? What if movie piracy via BitTorrent disappeared?
Before we crunch some numbers we have to say that the model we use relies on a lot of assumptions. However, we try to keep these in favour of the movie industry to maximize their potential
profits. We obviously chose Netflix as a BitTorrent replacement because it comes closest to what
pirates want — via redwolf.newsvine.com


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On Wednesday 2nd March, AANA hosted a webinar to discuss the findings of their latest report into transparency in the Australian digital supply chain.
The report, by the Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA) and Method Media Intelligence (MMi) is a follow up from PWC/ISBA’s 2020 programmatic study which outlined the challenges of tracking spend across the supply path.
In Wednesday’s webinar, Dhailin Dhar, founder and CEO of MMI, presented the findings while AANA CEO John Broome [pictured] led a panel discussion.
The panel featured Gai Le Roy CEO of IAB, Chris Graham Head of Global Media Accountability & Sourcing at McDonald’s, Phil Pollock COO Programmatic, Social & Search at Omnicom Media Group and Amanda Nazar Group Manager, Digital Marketing at Telstra.
Introducing the findings, Broome made it clear that this was not a fully comprehensive study, but rather an indicative test skewed to a limited number of large brands.
In his opening, he asserted that the industry “has come along way since the issue of transparency was first raised.” He also firmly stated the case for an industry solution to the issues of transparency, with market-driven change rather than government intervention.
When presenting the findings, Shailin Dhar emphasised the fact that there was currently a high level of attention on the Australian market.
One of the core themes of the report was greater responsibility with regard to proxy choices. Broome described this issue as “systemic”, where the outsourcing of certain tasks due to resource constraints, skillset issues, or lack of knowledge was a barrier against supply chain transparency.
The report was, coincidentally, released at the same time as the ACCC’s six proposals in the aftermath of their ad tech inquiry. These proposals include:
- Improving data portability
- Increasing data separation mechanisms
- Managing conflicts of interest
- Independently verifying DSP services
- Implementing a common transaction ID and,
- Implementing a common user ID
The greatest challenges for brands are how they can effect change in how they, and their partners, handle data, and how they respond to the specific parts of the ACCC where they effect change the most.
The AANA/MMI report relied on three global brands, three agencies, five DSPs, and multiple direct publishers and audience buys. Its core focus was on data interoperability and supply chain transparency.
Ultimately, it found ten key barriers to unpacking supply path insights.
1) Supply transparency measurement was often not apparent on the buy side other than by proxy, which Dhar described as the “persistent delegation of supply path analysis to somebody upstream in the actual supply chain”
2) access to DSP logs not as smooth as they could have been, with a frequent disparity between contractual access companies have to access and the timeliness of this access
3) some DSP partners unwilling to support measurements or failed to make impression-level data available
4) comparisons between DSP logs and Ad-Saver logs remained a viable, but data-challenged approach to transparency
5) there was mixed familiarity with emergent data share measures like Google’s ADH, which is now a prerequisite for transparency
6) match rates between logs were in line with the ISBA/PWC 2020 Supply Chain Report, but this time included IVT scores
7) Wrapper technology made transparency for buyers difficult. A number of traffic verification approaches were not filtering all bad traffic or payments or were sometimes only done at the pre-bid level
8) There was evidence of four to five per cent incremental IVT, suggesting that a proportion of ISBA/PwC’s Unknown Delta could also be inclusive
9) Using programmatic buying bundles is inherently non-transparent. Dhar said, “choosing convenience will almost always hinder your data transparency”
10) There was a systematic disconnect between verification data and supply path workstreams
The recommendations as presented by Dhar were for brands to try and avoid extra layers of proxy and ensure that agencies owned data contracts themselves, or that their partners had direct access to the data.
Agencies were recommended to increase their familiarity with using verification data and merge it with deliverability data. They should also regularly collect DSP data to ensure tech partners are kept accountable.
Ultimately, he said, it was essential that supply path insights were placed in the mainstream of marketing work.
In the panel following the presentation, Broome identified McDonald’s as one of the participating brands.
Chris Graham, the brand’s Head of Global Media Accountability & Sourcing said that McDonald’s participated in the report as they were motivated by a “desire for continual improvement” which required accountability and independent reassurance for internal stakeholders.
The participants were clear on the importance of the report and the complexity of the issues surrounding transparency.
Phillip Potts, COO Programmatic, Social and Search for OMG said that “what the report has highlighted is the need to have this ongoing conversation,” particularly highlighting a desire for more discussion about transaction IDs.
Broome also raised the controversial question of whether brands should put clauses around data access into agreements with supply chain partners.
Graham was somewhat hesitant. While “access to that information will help us make better decisions,” he acknowledged that there were sometimes occasions where it was not commercially feasible.
Amanda Nazar of Telstra took a similar line. She said that brands needed to weigh up what brands can do with the data and whether it made sense to have it in the contract.
One fear was that “sometimes having something in a contract can force a hand,” rather than encouraging genuine collaboration.”
The full report is available to access now.
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Today, Integral Ad Science (IAS), a global leader in digital ad verification, released its Media Quality Report (MQR) for H2 2020, providing transparency into the performance and quality of Australian digital media, alongside global comparisons. Integral Ad Science’s H2 2020 MQR highlights brand safety, ad fraud, and viewability trends across display, video, mobile web, and […]
Quintis Sandalwood has appointed Illuminate as its global PR partner following a competitive pitch process. Proudly Australian, Quintis produces and markets Indian Sandalwood oil, logs, chips and powder products across the world to major companies in industries such as fragrance, aromatherapy, cosmetics, handicrafts and Traditional Chinese Medicine industries. Illuminate will be responsible for a global communications […]
Hopefully the weekend has given everyone enough time to recover from B&T’s 30 Under 30 awards and prepare themselves for our official photo dump! We shared some of the highlights last week, and now you can peruse all of the pictures taken on the night. Thank you to everyone for attending this year’s awards, and […]
Kinderling Kids Radio (Kinderling) has announced the completion of its move from DAB+, where it launched six years ago, to a direct-to-consumer streaming model, accessible online or through the Kinderling Kids iOS and Android app. The Parent Brand, the parent company of Kinderling Kids and Babyology, made the decision to shift as streaming and on-demand […]
Most people over 60 stay on top of their health with regular check-ups. Whether it’s eyes, prostate or breasts, they realise at their age it’s important. But one that gets ignored is hearing. They’d rather live with gradual hearing loss, and continually ask what, huh, pardon or sorry until it seriously impacts their life and […]
Creative communications agency Connecting Plots has been appointed by Casella Family Brands to handle the social media accounts for [yellow tail] wine in Australia. The win follows an audit of the Casella Family Brands social activities, which led to [yellow tail] rethinking its approach to social media and how it aligns with its overall marketing […]
v2food, has appointed HERO’s B.B.E as the lead strategic and creative agency for the brand following a competitive pitch process. v2food is an Australian pioneering food technology business with a global vision to feed the planet sustainably. After launching nationally in 2019, v2food has been on a mission to offer Australians an easy alternative to meat […]
Magnite (Nasdaq: MGNI), the largest independent sell-side advertising platform, today announced it has been working with Adform, the only independent global ad management platform covering all aspects of the digital campaign lifecycle, to scale first party identifiers in privacy-safe ways. With the pending elimination of third-party cookies, the industry must establish future-proof identity solutions for publishers and buyers.
The Commercial Producers Council is delighted to announce the appointment of Martin Box (pictured) as its new Co-Chair, effective immediately. Box, Head of Production at Airbag, joins Co-Chair Pip Smart, and fills the vacancy left by Lucas Jenner who steps aside from the Co-Chair role after four years of service, in accordance with the CPC’s […]


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Woolworths Set To Phase Out Plastic Bags Across Western Australia
Change kicks in next month
Australian supermarket giant Woolworths is planning to phase out its 15 cent plastic bags in Western Australia, in preparation for the state's incoming ban this July.
By April, bags will be limited to certain options because of the ban. Shoppers will be offered 2-cent paper bags as standard, otherwise the Green fabric reusable bags will still be available.
Woolworths WA general manager, Karl Weber said the transition will removed more than 30 million plastic bags from within the state.
"The vast majority of our customers already bring their own reusable bags to shop, which is the very best outcome for the environment, and we encourage customers to keep up the great work," he said.
"Over the next month, we’ll be gradually phasing out plastic shopping bags from our stores and online orders across WA, as we move to support the WA Government’s upcoming plastic bag ban.
"This change will see more than 30 million plastic bags removed from circulation in WA every year — which is a big win for the health of our oceans and waterways. While our paper bags will continue to be available, the most sustainable bag you can use is the reusable one you bring from home."
A mega partnership with local manufacturer Detpak will boost the production of paper bags, which can hold up to 6 kgs in weight
Get the latest breaking news from SCA newsrooms around Australia. Short, simple and everything you need to know.


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EA Sports have been busy unveiling a host of new features to their leading game, including who will adorn the front cover, a journey mode and improved game play.
The game isn’t due to be released until September, but the build-up to gamers around the world getting their hands on it started with the E3 Electronic Gaming Expo last week.
At that event, some were given a taster of what’s to come with FIFA 17 – and fans of United have been given an insight into how their team could line up.
Footage of the new game being played has been leaked here:
[youtube id=”5fjDe57DMOI” align=”center” maxwidth=”680″]
If you were paying attention, you would have seen the United starting XI and some of the substitutes in the game and what they’re rated at this year.
That line-up shows United star man Martial rated at just 78, while young striking sensation Marcus Rashford comes in at 73:
It’s surprising that Martial is rated so low considering he’s among the FIFA 17 cover stars after a seriously impressive first season at Old Trafford.
He scored 17 goals and made five assists under Louis van Gaal’s FA Cup-winning team and made the France Euro 2016 squad off the back of his quality performances.
But it looks like Martial isn’t rated as highly as Ashley Young or Memphis Depay?!


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Electric car concept Uniti is promoting their “Brexit proof” approach and green cred as the company’s most recent crowdfunding campaign continues on Crowdcube.
Uniti recently touted its “bold strategic next step in sustainable electric vehicle production. The company is also expected to pursue “Mobility-As-A-Service” in mega-cities. Uniti believes that more than a million cars could be removed from usage as the gig economy shifts over to sharing and new ownership options.
Uniti says their cars will have a sustainable method throughout the entire product lifecycle.
“Many car companies are paying lip service to the consumer drive for Electric Vehicles, using the same old methods and carbon-heavy sourcing, factories and logistic solutions to deliver their vehicle ranges. Uniti is creating a simple platform architecture, allowing the principle of digital twinning, maintaining cloud-based data through Siemens platforms in order to produce and replicate the vehicles anywhere in the world,” states Sally Povolotsky, Uniti’s Vehicle Development Director.
This is the third securities crowdfunding round for the company. The company is seeking £1 million for a 1.02% equity stake in the company at a pre-money valuation of £97 million. Management expects to pursue a larger funding round in the amount of £30 million in the next few months. It is not clear if smaller investors will receive the same terms of any new larger investors.
As it stands today, Uniti has raised £866,860 from 1001 investors. There are 16 days left in the round, according to the campaign page.
All numbers contain a story. This is our journey so far. Thanks to all our crowdinvestors backing us since 2016! ✨💛✨
Join our future here: https://t.co/RKPTQsSHUP
— Uniti – Electric Car (@teamuniti) December 12, 2018
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!


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Royal Caribbean just extended the ability to cancel a cruise reservation at the last minute for a future cruise credit, but that may be the last time the cruise line extends this generous offer.
The Cruise with Confidence program is the name of the offer for guests who can cancel their cruise even after final payment date, up to 48 hours before a ship is scheduled to sail in exchange for a future cruise credit.
The program was introduced at the start of the global pandemic so passengers could feel assured they could change their mind closer to sail date.
Speaking to travel agents during a webinar, Royal Caribbean's Senior Vice President, Sales, Trade Support and Service, Vicki Freed said she does not think the Cruise with Confidence program will get extended again.
"This is a program that's been going on for some time. I do believe this is probably going to be the last extension of it," Ms. Freed told travel agents.
The reason for Cruise with Confidence likely not getting extended again? Ms. Freed said bookings are stronger now, "We are seeing such active bookings right now that I'm not sure we need to continue it much longer."
Royal Caribbean did extend Cruise with Confidence to include allow passengers to cancel up to 48 hours before you sail and get a future cruise credit valid to book by April 30, 2022 and sail by December 31, 2022, or one year from the original sailing date, whichever is later.
Cruises must be booked on or before December 17, 2021 to qualify for Cruise with Confidence.
Without Cruise with Confidence, guests would incur a penalty for canceling a sailing after the final payment date, which is typically 90 days before a sailing begins. Cruise with Confidence provides a great deal more flexibility to change minds with no penalty.
Also part of the Cruise with Confidence program is the Best Price Guarantee, which allows guests to reprice their sailing up to 48-hours prior to the sail date if the price drops.
Anyone who has booked a cruise already, or will do so before December 17, will have the Cruise with Confidence program included with their reservation.
If having this flexibility is important to you, be sure to book a new sailing, or change a ship or sail date before December 17th to qualify for Cruise with Confidence.
Ms. Freed also talked about onboard protocols as Royal Caribbean begins to get back to full capacity again.
Last week, Royal Caribbean Group executives told Wall Street by the end of the year, the company plans to get its ships back to normal capacity again.
"I just want to give you a little bit of the updates on protocols," Ms. Freed said during Wednesday's webinar. "We're going to start phasing all of this out because as we are getting back to service with our entire fleet. We're always looking at what the CDC is saying and the public health standards."
Ms. Freed's comments echo what Royal Caribbean International President and CEO Michael Bayley told investors last week.
"Some of the protocols that we have in place will naturally fall away as the pandemic moves further and further in the rearview mirror."
"I think as we move into '22, hopefully what we'll see is is the protocols become easier and less cumbersome for our customers."


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What's going on with cigarette packets as menthol cigarettes are banned from 2020
After years of discussions, a new law on "plain" cigarette packages is coming in on Friday.
It will mean an end to white packs with company logos in the UK.
Four of the world's biggest tobacco firms wanted the plans overruled at the last minute.
They took legal action at the High Court in London but have lost their case, which means they'll have to stop making their old cigarette packaging from Friday.
But they'll still have a year to sell any they've already produced.
What the packs would look like
You've seen the picture at the top. So, they'll be a darker olive green colour. It's thought that implies more harm.
There'll be no more company logos either. Instead the brand name and make will be in a standard font.
Menthol fags are being banned
In a separate EU law coming in on Friday, new packs will also have to have extra health warnings on the top.
Promotional statements like "free of additives" or "less harmful than other brands" will also be banned.
And picture warnings will have to cover 65% of the front and back of every new packet.
You'll also say goodbye to packs of 10.
The smallest you'll be able to buy will have 20 cigarettes, or 30g of rolling tobacco, so there's enough room for warnings.
Plus there'll be new rules on the amount and strength of liquid allowed in e-cigarettes and herbal products.
It all becomes law on Friday, but again, companies will have a year before having to comply.
Under the same law, menthol cigarettes and skinny "lipstick-style" cigarettes will become a thing of the past in the UK by 2020.
They're seen as appealing to young people and wrongfully being viewed as less harmful.
Manufacturers had already lost their legal challenges over those changes in the EU's highest court.
Haven't we been hearing about plain packaging for ages?
Yes, there's been a long battle to get to this point. The government announced it was thinking about standardised packaging in 2011.
It did a consultation on it the next year but then ministers seemed to go cool on the idea.
That led to accusations they'd been influenced by the tobacco industry. But then another review of the public health benefits was ordered.
Last year it claimed the plan was "very likely" to lead to a "modest but important reduction" in smoking.
Ten million adults are smokers in the UK, despite smoking being the biggest cause of early deaths.
And more than 600 children aged 11 to 15 start to smoke every day. That's more than 200,000 a year.
Last year's review says if that number could be cut even by 2%, 4,000 a year fewer would take up the habit.
Some estimates suggest cigarettes kill 100,000 people in Britain each year.
Research claims standardised packaging makes them less appealing and helps reinforce health messages - so cancer charities are backing the plans.
Ireland passed a similar law last year and Australia's had plain packaging since 2012.
Obviously the tobacco industry isn't happy
The Tobacco Manufacturers' Association argues there's a "complete lack of evidence" plain packaging will put smokers off.
They say the move will destroy their highly valuable property rights (to use their logos) and mean brands will be practically unrecognisable from each other.
They think it breaches several UK and EU laws and is "disproportionate" to the risk of smoking. Some claim it could also make selling counterfeit cigarettes easier.
Another hit for tobacco firms
Cigarette firms have faced tough rules on advertising for many years and have had to carry health warnings since the 1970s.
But in the last decade, smoking's been banned in public places, picture warnings have been brought in on packs and shops have had to stop displaying cigarettes.
Last year, a ban on smoking in cars with children came in too.
The smokers' lobby group Forest says: "Consumers are fed up being patronised by politicians of all parties.
"Smokers know there are health risks associated with tobacco. Plain packaging won't make any difference.
"What next? Standardised packaging for alcohol and sugary drinks?"
Find us on Instagram at BBCNewsbeat and follow us on Snapchat, search for bbc_newsbeat


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'It's a part of us in a bottle': Vintners excited for 38th Maryland Wine Festival
The 38th annual Maryland Wine Festival in Westminster will be a one-stop shop for wine lovers this weekend.
The two-day event at the Carroll County Farm Museum will feature music, food, craft vendors and every kind of wine you can imagine from more than two-dozen wineries.
"My family has been producing well mead, honey wine, really since the mid-1800s," winemaker Rachel Lipman said.
On 37 acres in Mount Airy, Loew Vineyards was a retirement plan for William and Lois Loew.
"My husband used to like to make wine in the basement," Lois Loew said.
The family patriarch died in April and was a Holocaust survivor from Poland. Rachel Lipman, one of the Loews' eight grandchildren, grew up on the vineyard and went to school to learn the family business. She and her grandmother are carrying on William Loew's legacy. They are renovating the winery and naming their wines, some of which have won recent awards, after family members in tribute.
"When we had Klara, we realized that the best way to put a name to what we can would be considered a number and to share the stories in a way that he obviously can't share. (It) was to put a name to them and honor them in a way, that is the reason why we're here," Lipman said.
This weekend, Lois Loew will be at the festival, which will have 28 wineries from across Maryland, including an expanded premier wine tent.
"We have a lot of new wineries coming that have never been to festival, and wineries that haven't been in 15 years," said Kevin Atticks, executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association.
"Wine festivals, I actually thought were holidays. They were like family reunions," Lipman said.
Lipman is excited about the vineyard's future and can't wait to share her wines this weekend.
"For us just being there with any sort of representation, it feels homely." Lipman said. "It's a part of us in a bottle."
For more information or tickets for the Maryland Wine Festival, visit the festival's website.


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The Andrews Labor Government is backing local manufacturing, supporting a Bendigo benchtop and hardware business to invest in cutting-edge equipment and create new local jobs.
Minister for Industry and Employment Wade Noonan announced today that CV Benchtops & Hardware in East Bendigo has received support from the Labor Government’s Future Industries Manufacturing Program (FIMP).
CV Benchtops & Hardware – a manufacturer of kitchen benches and doors – will use the government grant to purchase and install a new edge bander machine and two vacuum lifts as part of a $330,000 investment.
The company will create two new jobs in manufacturing and transition two more.
The expansion will help the company boost manufacturing capabilities, improve workplace safety, develop new products and increase sales in the local market.
CV Benchtops & Hardware has specialised in the manufacture of post-formed, domestic and wholesale benchtops for nearly 30 years.
Bendigo is home to more than 350 manufacturers employing more than 4,000 workers. The local industry is made up of businesses specialising in defence, construction, transport technologies, as well as food and fibre.
FIMP has so far supported 30 projects which are expected to create 250 jobs.
Quotes attributable to Minister for Industry and Employment Wade Noonan
“CV Benchtops & Hardware is a great story in local manufacturing, and we’re proud to support their expansion.”
“This new technology will improve their capabilities and allow them to bring on new workers – that’s a terrific result for local jobs.”
Quotes attributable to Minister for Public Transport and Member for Bendigo East Jacinta Allan
“Bendigo is a proud manufacturing town, with hundreds of businesses employing thousands of local workers.”
“We want to grow this important industry – and that means investing in local manufacturers to help them expand and create new jobs.”
Quotes attributable to Member for Bendigo West Maree Edwards
“We will continue to support local businesses like CV Benchtops and Hardware so they can recruit new staff, train others and manufacture more of their world-class products.”
Reviewed 19 August 2020


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CJ - Cryptocurrency Specialist
Today, Klaytn and Parity Technologies announced a significant partnership. According to Klaytn, this partnership will enable it to achieve its objective of being the blockchain of choice for global gaming and metaverse enterprises. The blockchain network Polkadot has made Parity a leading provider of blockchain infrastructure. Parity is a blockchain infrastructure provider best known for the blockchain network Polkadot, and Klaytn is a modular, open-source public blockchain.
Klaytn-Substrate, a Substrate-based Klaytn chain, will purportedly be built in collaboration with Parity and Klaytn. This chain will first function as an alternate implementation of the Klaytn specification as well as a sidechain to Klaytn's main chain, according to the pair.
Klaytn-Substrate will be connected to Polkadot and the Klaytn mainnet in order to serve as an intermediate environment where collaborative technology, corporate, and community efforts may come together in new and exciting ways.
The partnership with Parity, according to David Shin, head of global adoption at Klaytn Foundation, was in accordance with their objective of creating an interoperable blockchain platform for the metaverse.
Klaytn-Substrate will allow developers to create dApps in a multi-chain environment and investigate collaborative use cases across the Klaytn and Polkadot chains. Parity Technologies' VP of Ecosystem Development, Omar Elassar, is equally ecstatic about the relationship. "We're looking forward to working with Klaytn to assist in its further growth as a significant player in the metaverse and gaming." "The Klatyn team recognizes that Substrate is the best SDK for exploring technical and business use cases," Elassar stated.
The Klaytn-Substrate will also serve as a major "canary network," according to the researchers. Notably, once the Klaytn-Substrate chain is live, the partnership will continue with the creation of new dApps for the chain, and the multichain launch of current Klaytn and Polkadot apps. The Parity and Klaytn teams announced that they will collaborate to extend the network of businesses built on the Klaytn-Substrate platform, fostering a varied range of service providers and a robust and highly functioning business environment.
To get yourself involved with the Polkadot Ecosystem and crypto market investment visit a cheap cryptocurrency exchange platform – BC Bitcoin. Here dedicated team members can assist you with crypto asset management and provide useful tips and information when it comes to Polkadot.


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By Bonnie Adams, Managing Editor
Westborough – The Westborough location of the Boston-based e-commerce company Wayfair was recently in the news as CNBC’s series, “Where the jobs are” filmed several live segments there Dec. 4.
CNBC business reporter Mary Thompson and her crew met with the company’s CEO Niral Shah at its facility in the Otis Street Business Park to highlight the growing need for qualified employees for the digital retail field. The clips were shown live on cable network’s popular morning show, “Squawk Alley.”
The series takes a look at different industries each time the national jobs report is released, Thompson said, to highlight the unique challenges facing business owners as they strive to fill the positions needed to help their companies grow. CNBC Producer Karina Frayter was instrumental in connecting with Wayfair and securing the Westborough location for the broadcast, Thompson said.
Wayfair, which sells furniture and home decor though its website, is the largest online-only retailer for home furniture in the United States, and the 33rd largest online retailer in the United States, according to interntretailer.com. Forty employees are based at the 100,000 Westborough location, where the company shoots many of the photos for its website.
According to Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst with Forrester, who also commented on the “Squawk Alley” piece, it is anticipated that nearly 100,000 digital retailing jobs will be created from 2013 through 2017. Those jobs will pay, on average, nearly double the salaries of those who work in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting.
Wayfair, which currently has 3,250 employees in its U.S. locations, as well as several in Australia, Germany, Ireland and the United Kingdom, is seeking to fill 500 positions throughout the company, including data scientists, merchandisers, marketers, designers, warehouse staff and customer service representatives, according to Shah.
Although the positions are diverse, the main thing retailers like Wayfair will be looking for, Thompson said, is an aptitude for technology, specifically analytics.
“These are really the transitional jobs of the future,” she noted.
“We always say we care about four main traits,” Shah said in his interview with Thompson. “We care about folks that are hardworking, bright, team-oriented or collaborative, and have the ability to use analytical insights or quantitative data. Those traits are the key things that help someone succeed here.”
Thompson is an award- winning reporter who has also extensively covered stories in the banking and insurance industries. In 2010, she received a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for breaking news coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal. In 2005, she received a National Headliner Award for her reporting on price fixing in the insurance industry.
Thompson’s clip from the Westborough location and her full report can be viewed at http://www.cnbc.com/2015/12/03/talk-about-upwardly-mobile-jobs-digital-retail.html. A clip will also be shown on the PBS Nightly Business Report Monday, Dec. 7.


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Ericsson (ERICY) ericy expects first deliveries of its T28 cellular phones by mid-1999, with large-volume shipments occurring in the fourth quarter. Speaking at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference in San Francisco, Ericsson Americas President Bo Dimert said the company's fourth-quarter mass-shipment target is "cautious," however, and that large-volume deliveries could happen earlier. The phones feature voice activation that lets consumers dial, answer, reject or end calls via voice command, and they allow for two numbers on one phone. The new T28 phones will be priced at the "high end," Dimert said. The executive also commented on Ericsson's 11,000-employee layoffs, 10 percent of which will occur in its home country of Sweden. He contended the unions are "basically supportive" of the restructuring, which posed a "major dilemma" for the country, as Ericsson is a dominant company there. "We have to do it," Dimert said. "If we don't take these actions, we jeopardize the whole."
National Semiconductor (NSM) nsm gave a mixed view of its business at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference in San Francisco, saying analog and wireless revenue in the third quarter will be flat with or higher than in the second. Executives said the divisions are running a little bit ahead of what they expected, but the company's Cyrix division is not performing as well as they'd hoped. National Semi's director of financial relations, James Foltz, said the company would like to ship more products in the February quarter than in the November quarter, but that has only happened once in 30 years. Total revenue in the third quarter is expected to be slightly higher than in the second quarter but below that of a year earlier, said the executive vice president of company's analog business, Patrick Brockett.
Qualcomm's (QCOM) QCOM, +0.97% chief financial officer, Tony Thornley, said the code-division multiple access wireless market has a "very bright future" that will benefit his company. Qualcomm develops CDMA technology, including phones and chips, for the cellular wireless industry. Growth in Japan, Thornley said, should jump from 300,000 subscribers in 1998 to 3 million in 1999. The market for CDMA technology is expected to be hot, but analysts have questioned whether Qualcomm's handset business can compete with giants like Motorola (MOT) MSI, +0.63% and Nokia (NOK.A) nok . With a current shortage of handsets, "we don't see the competition as a problem," Thornley told CBS.MarketWatch.com. "But certainly in the future we see that as a major factor."
Motorola's (MOT) MSI, +0.63% personal-communications sector president, Fred Kuznik, said the company's key growth areas in 1999 will be in Europe and in digital cellular. He predicted European growth of 50 percent over the year. In an animated NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference speech peppered with witty remarks, Kuznik predicted the cellular industry in 1999 will grow to 215 million units from 155 million units in 1998. Analog's portion of the market will fall to 6 percent in 1999 from 16 percent in 1998, according to Motorola's projections. In addition, the company has set up four research centers worldwide to get input from product users. The company is also working on jumping into the retail arena. As an example, Kuznik said, Motorola is looking into developing retail kiosks. The company, he said, will have further announcements regarding its retail plans throughout the year.
Still on the telecom front, a quartet of cell-phone companies said at a conference luncheon that wireless phones will become a lot more than phone. One hundred and sixty million cell phones were sold last year, and they are getting increasingly sophisticated. Look for "personalized phones for everyone, but in a mass market," said Fred Kuznik, the head of Motorola's personal-communications division. Cell phoners in Europe put a premium on the display of numbers, while Asian users value a certain length and weight, he added. Bo Dimert, who heads Ericsson USA (ERICY) ericy , said he expects cell phoners to be able to set up "user profiles" that customize phone operations. In the future, there will be "different devices for different needs," said Kari-Pekka Wilska, the president of the mobile phones unit at Nokia. An executive, for instance, might have a "business phone" in addition to a cell phone for playtime.
The head of Pegasus Systems (PEGS) pegs said Thursday at the Montgomery Securities tech conference in San Francisco that he's "very comfortable" with analysts' expectation of 1999 earnings of 63 cents per share, an increase of about 54 percent from 1998. John Davis, chief executive officer of the Dallas-based company, said part of his confidence comes from the "rapid growth" of Pegasus' Internet business. Pegasus' Web-based hotel bookings increased 239 percent in 1998 from 1997 and represented $150 million in sales, he added. According to market research group Forrester, online hotel reservations hit $1.1 billion in 1998. That level is expected to jump to $6.8 billion. Pegasus was formed in 1988 by 15 major hotel companies as a way to book rooms electronically. Its system handles about 70 percent of electronic booking by travel agents. Davis said the company is planning to push into the consumer and corporate market, as well as the meeting and convention business. Additionally, Pegasus is planning to introduce technology to allow users to book hotel rooms using voice commands.
The down-and-out companies that sell business software may well rebound in the second half of next year, as spending flows again after being frozen due to the turn of millennium, analyst Bob Austrian said Thursday at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference in San Francisco. Additionally, the companies will have "easy compares," meaning that the big-ticket software makers will show big growth in year-over-year comparisons, he added. He pointed out that many of the largest providers of so-called enterprise resource planning software have come in short of analysts' expectations for licensing growth in the third and fourth quarters. That list includes PeopleSoft (PSFT) PSFT, -8.70% , Baan (BAANF) baanf , Manugistics (MANU) MANU, -0.30% and SAP (SAP) SAP, +0.28% . Austrian singled out Oracle (ORCL) ORCL, -0.35% , Siebel (SEBL) sebl and Remedy (RMDY) rmdy as good buys.
Computer Literacy seems to be finding its name a little too literal. The company, which sells geek books online, plans to change its name, Chief Executive Chris MacAskill said Thursday at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities conference. But he refused to reveal the new moniker. What gives? Why wouldn't he tip his hand to the assembled money folks? Partly because he doesn't want to increase the number of URLs the company (CMPL) cmpl has to buy. You see, cybersquatters jump on Web addresses that are close to -- but just a letter or two off -- the URL of a heavily trafficked site. Consider that www.amazone.com is also an e-commerce site, as it www.amazom.com. MacAskill, who co-founded the company in his garage (honest), didn't say when Computer Literacy's name switch would take place.
Sales at EMC Corp. will more than double from 1998 as companies increasingly store the data that runs their businesses, according to Mike Ruettgers, EMC's chief executive. He told money managers at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference that "we are on the road to becoming a $10 billion company." The company (EMC) EMC, +4.46% booked about $4 billion in sales last year. At the San Francisco conference, Ruettgers said the data storage market will more than double to $35 billion by 2001. He said he sees compound annual growth for his company will be at least 36 percent through 2001.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD) rfmd Chief Financial Officer Dean Priddy said he's "comfortable" with NationsBanc Montgomery Securities' fourth-quarter and fiscal 2000 gross-margin estimates. Montgomery Securities expects the wireless equipment chip maker to post gross margins of 37 percent in its fourth quarter vs. 35.1 percent in its third quarter. For fiscal 2000, the estimate is for profit as a percentage of sales to grow to 40.2 percent. In addition, Priddy said he's "very optimistic about future margin expansion," partly because silicon is growing as a proportion of RF Micro's business. The company, according to its CFO, expects gross margins to rise to 48 percent to 50 percent and operating income to rise to 18 percent to 20 percent long term. Speaking at the NationsBanc Montgomery Securities tech conference Priddy wouldn't name a target date for those goals, but he said it wouldn't happen in the next 12 months.


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Singapore – The island nation of Singapore has long been well-known as a haven for food lovers, with dining out being a large culture among Singaporeans who can choose from a wide variety of food courts. Tapping this large local ‘foodie’ culture is the latest endeavor tackled by the project of cooked food operator Kopitiam and the Association of Advertising and Marketing Singapore (AAMS), alongside its technology partner Moving Walls.
Said project, known as an ‘Industry Standard Measurement Project’, aims to bring accountability to Food Court advertising by deploying Moving Walls’ patented audience measurement to accelerate the adoption of technology on these media assets.
AAMS is currently championing an industry-wide regional Outernet media measurement initiative with Moving Walls. The project, through measuring physical location and people’s movement, powers planning, selling, verification, and re-targeting audiences using location-based Outernet media, has hit the ground running with the launch of its Outernet Marketing Innovation Group (OMIG) initiative.
For Bernard Chan, CEO of AAMS, said initiative is targeted to help open up untapped media segments in this space in response to increased demand for measurable media outside the internet world.
“Kopitiam has one of the largest footprints in various food services formats, and its participation in this project will be a big boost to our efforts. Outernet digitalization is going to be a game changer for the industry,” Chan stated.
Meanwhile, the project will also entail the implementation of a research layer using a synchronous mobile layer to understand the impact of this media, according to Srikanth Ramachandran, founder and group CEO at Moving Walls.
“Our patented solutions analyze these food courts to build a predictive forecasting of total potential views, unique reach, and frequency based on historical data points,” he added.
In terms of commitment, Vivek Kumar, director of strategic marketing and omnichannel monetization at FairPrice Group, their company commitment leans towards data-backed targeting and extended outreach to their partners.
“As part of FairPrice Group Media, the food media network of Kopitiam is an effective medium that not only reaches people like me who are ‘food lovers’, but can also help advertisers reach hyper-local communities to offer relevant products and services,” Kumar stated.
This is also seconded by Pauline Png, head of customer experience and marketing for FairPrice Group Food Services Business, who said that as part of the company’s business transformation journey in the food and beverage industry, it is important that they can understand their customers’ needs and experiences better in various food spaces, be it in mall food courts, coffee shops or hawker centers.
“This project with AAMS’ technology partner Moving Walls is a step in the right direction. I am excited to be able to develop superior experiences, food offerings, and communication that will delight our customers, tenants and partner brands,” Png concluded.


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By David Murphy
Has it really only been 12 months since this time last year? As ever in the world of mobile, things move so fast that real-time seems to be on fast forward.
Looking back on 2014, it was a year when mobile advertising once again claimed a lot of the headlines. When programmatic was tipped to take over the world, and not just the mobile world, but digital, TV, print and everything else in between too. A year when the big guns, Facebook, Google, Apple and Amazon, continued to muscle their way to the top, digging deep when necessary to buy up the companies threatening their dominance. And a year when smartwatches and other wearable tech moved from early adopter luxury to everyday accessory.
Looking ahead, for us here at Mobile Marketing, 2015 promises to be a big year. On 1 November next year, we celebrate our 10th birthday. When we launched in 2005, the iPhone was just a sketch on Jony Ive’s whiteboard (probably) the App Store was an even more distant dream, and the most desirable handset you could buy was made by Nokia and did a very bad, very basic and very slow version of the internet.
Compare that with where …read more
Source:: Mobile App News


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- Adjusted EPS was $0.75 vs. the $0.74 analysts expected.
- Revenue also exceeded consensus estimates.
- The number of post-paid wireless phone net additions was about 64% higher than estimates.
- Domestic HBO Max and HBO subscribers reached more than 41 million two years ahead of company forecasts.
AT&T saw a surge in post-paid wireless phone net additions in Q4 that far exceeded analyst expectations. The company reported approximately 800,000 adds for the quarter, about 64% ahead of analyst expectations of over 487,000. Revenue and adjusted EPS also both exceeded analyst predictions, although by much smaller margins. Still, despite outperforming expectations, revenue and adjusted EPS were both down YOY. Additionally, the company reported that it had reached 41 million subscribers to its HBO and HBO Max services about two years ahead of the timeline it had initially forecast.
(Below is Investopedia's original earnings preview, published January 26, 2021.)
What to Look For
AT&T Inc. (T) has completely missed the broader stock market's advance in the past year as the company has been buffeted by an array of negative forces. The company's theatrical distribution business has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers stay at home. And the broad trend away from pay-TV services, including AT&T's DirecTV business, has offset stable revenue in the company's wireless and broadband businesses, hurting earnings and revenue.
For these reasons, investors will look closely for any signs of improvement when AT&T reports earnings for Q4 FY 2020 before market open on January 27th. Analysts predict that the company will report a significant year-over-year (YOY) decline in adjusted earnings per share (EPS) and a decline in revenue.
Another key metric for investors to watch is AT&T's number of post-paid wireless phone net additions. This metric refers to the number of people who signed up for continual subscription wireless plans, a core component of AT&T's wireless business. Analysts estimate that the number of post-paid wireless phone net additions in Q4 FY 2020 will more than double compared to the same period a year earlier.
AT&T shares have struggled despite multiple strong quarters of post-paid wireless phone net additions. Since plummeting along with the broader market in early 2020, AT&T stock has traded sideways for most of the past year, badly lagging the broader stock market. AT&T shares have provided a total return of -18.3% over the past 12 months, far below the S&P 500's total return of 18.9% over the same period. All numbers are as of January 25, 2020.
The lackluster performance of AT&T shares is illustrated by its earnings and revenue growth. AT&T has posted anemic growth or falling adjusted EPS in recent quarters. Four out of the past seven quarters have seen YOY declines in adjusted EPS, with the other three quarters showing only modest improvement of about 4% or less. Notably, AT&T posted YOY declines in adjusted EPS in the first three quarters of FY 2020. The YOY drop of 19.2% in the most recent Q3 period was the sharpest decline in at least four years. Analysts expect A&T to post another major decline of 16.9% in Q4 FY 2020.
AT&T's quarterly revenue growth also has been weak. In the past four years, revenue has increased YOY in only four quarters, from Q3 FY 2018 through Q2 FY 2019. The five most recent quarters have all seen YOY declines of as much as 8.9%. Analysts estimate revenue will drop 4.9% YOY in Q4 FY 2020, double the pace of the same quarter a year earlier. The silver lining may be that this decline will be less than than Q2 and Q3 of FY 2020.
|AT&T Key Metrics|
|Q4 FY 2020 (Estimate)||Q4 FY 2019||Q4 FY 2018|
|Adjusted Earnings Per Share ($)||0.74||0.89||0.86|
|Post-Paid Wireless Phone Net Additions (thousands)||487.6||229.0||131.0|
As mentioned above, a key measure of AT&T's success is the number of post-paid wireless phone net additions. As a reflection of the number of added continual subscriptions, rather than prepaid phones, this provides a predictable, continuous revenue stream for the company and an important part of its core wireless business. Post-paid wireless phone net additions are especially crucial at a time when several of its other businesses are under stress. Perhaps most important, AT&T has faced declining revenues in its DirecTV service as customers are moving to streaming subscriptions and other alternatives.
Post-paid wireless phone net additions have been a bright spot for AT&T. The company's post-paid wireless phone net additions have generated dramatic growth in the past four years, accelerating from a 23.4% increase in FY 2016 to 149.0% in FY 2019. Net additions rose by 538.6% in Q3 FY 2020, growing at more than seven times the pace of the same quarter a year earlier. Analyst expect growth of 112.9% in Q4 FY 2020 and 125.7% for all of FY 2020. Given the challenges facing its other businesses, AT&T will need more than ever to maintain continued, rapid growth in post-paid wireless subscribers.
AT&T Inc. "AT&T Reports Fourth-Quarter and Full-Year Results."
Wall Street Journal. "AT&T Pinched by Cord-Cutting and Closed Theaters."
AT&T Inc. "AT&T to Release Fourth-Quarter 2020 Results on January 27, 2021."
Visible Alpha. "Financial Data."


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Affluent U.S. households, buoyed by a surging stock market, feel better about the economy this fall than at any time since before the recession began.
A gauge of sentiment about current economic conditions among the wealthiest 10% of Americans jumped 22 points from the spring to a fall reading of 93, a survey by the American Affluence Research Center showed.
It’s the first “neutral” reading after five years mired in “negative” territory. The last time the index found positive sentiment — above 100 — was the fall of 2007, just before the recession began.
The poll of 327 households with a net worth exceeding $800,000 found the rich feeling better because the stock market has climbed to new highs this year. Those households expect their stock portfolios and total net worth will increase over the next six months. They also have a positive outlook for economic growth.
The American Affluence survey was conducted before the 16-day government shutdown began Oct. 1. The shutdown, along with a battle over raising the federal debt limit, knocked down broader measures of consumer confidence. But wealthier households appear likely to pull through more easily, given their stronger income gains during the economic recovery.
The survey reflects a “relatively positive outlook,” said Ron Kurtz, president of the American Affluence Research Center in Alpharetta, Ga. “The stock market has made a big recovery…and these people control over 80% of all stocks and securities owned by the general public.”
Despite the optimism, many wealthier Americans said they’re reluctant to open their wallets further.
Of 17 categories tracked by the biannual survey, respondents only expect spending on domestic vacations to increase during the next 12 months.
The affluent said they plan to decrease spending on designer apparel, fine jewelry and camera equipment. They expect to hold steady in most other categories, including entertainment, dining out and home furnishings.
The rich even said they’ll cut back on holiday shopping.
The survey found affluent households plan to spend an average of $2,175 on holiday gifts, a 2.8% decline from 2012. Still, the figure is nearly four times the amount the National Retail Federation forecasts the average holiday shopper will pay for presents and trimmings.
Constrained holiday budgets likely reflect some lingering caution. “This is a group that tends to be careful spenders and very aggressive savers,” Mr. Kurtz said. The average age of the survey respondent was 58, making them less likely to have children at home demanding toys and clothes, he added.
In fact, the most-requested present among affluent households is a gift card.
But there’s a glimmer of hope for the grandchildren: Last year, the rich spent 7% more than they said they would in the fall 2012 survey, Mr. Kurtz said.


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Ministers should have the power to intervene in the Asda-Sainsbury’s merger if the deal disproportionately hits the north, Rebecca Long-Bailey has said.
Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary said MPs should have a statutory right to intervene in a business deal when deprived communities heavily lose out.
As it stands, a merger cannot be halted unless it puts at risk national security, media plurality or the UK’s financial security – but Long Bailey says the public interest test for interventions should be broadened to include when the economy is hit.
It came as Sainsbury’s confirmed on Monday that it has agreed terms for an eye-popping £12bn merger with Walmart-owned Asda as one of the biggest retail deals in UK history began to take shape.
The competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is expected to scrutinise the deal…