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As hundreds of celebrities poured into St. George’s Chapel for the lavish wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last weekend, Sky News’s webcast performed an incredible feat. As guests moved across the screen, they were automatically identified, their names appearing next to their faces as subtitles. The seamless display wasn’t the result of some nimble-fingered typist sitting in a control room, however, but the product of Amazon’s Rekognition technology, which uses artificial intelligence to detect human faces and compare their unique signatures to private or public databases. The same facial recognition software used at Harry and Meghan’s nuptials, of course, can also be deployed for more sinister purposes—including, as the American Civil Liberties Union highlighted on Tuesday, the mass surveillance of U.S. citizens by law enforcement.
Like other controversial Silicon Valley technologies, Rekognition wasn’t invented with its most Orwellian use-case in mind. According to Amazon’s marketing materials, Rekognition promises to “perform real-time recognition of persons of interest from camera livestreams against your private database of face metadata.” When synched with a database of videos or pictures, its uses image-recognition algorithms to identify people and objects. The software itself is not new—Amazon introduced it in November 2016 as part of its Amazon Web Services cloud, and corporate clients—companies like Pinterest, organizations like C-SPAN—rely on it for analytics and object-recognition services.
What is new is how law-enforcement agencies are deploying Rekognition: as a tool to track, identify, and analyze people in real time. It’s a remarkably efficient system, able to recognize as many as 100 people in a single image, and to compare that information to databases containing tens of millions of faces. According to documents obtained by the A.C.L.U., Amazon has sold Rekognition to police departments in two states, as well as to Motorola Solutions and BodyWorn, which supply police body cameras, and Data Fusion Systems, a data-analytics company “[providing] actionable intelligence to authorities.” At Amazon’s A.W.S. Summit in Seoul last month, Ranju Das, the director of Rekognition, said the Orlando, Florida, police department is a “launch partner” for the software. “It’s a smart city, they have cameras all over the city,” Das said. “The authorized cameras are then streaming the data to [Amazon]. We analyze the video in real time, search against the collection of faces that they have.”
To Amazon’s credit, the tech is both cheap and effective. Oregon’s Washington County, for instance, reportedly pays just $6 to $12 a month for access to the software, allowing police officers to compare mug-shot pictures with real-time footage. According to The New York Times, the partnership has been largely successful:
Of course, technology this efficient comes with a heightened potential for misuse. “Amazon Rekognition is primed for abuse in the hands of governments,” the A.C.L.U., along with a consortium of other civil-rights groups, wrote in a letter to Amazon C.E.O. Jeff Bezos asking Amazon to stop selling its system to law enforcement. “This product poses a grave threat to communities, including people of color and immigrants, and to the trust and respect Amazon has worked to build.” In China, similar technology has already been widely deployed by local governments and schools, where it’s been employed to do everything from fine residents for jaywalking to pinpoint an alleged thief in a crowd of 20,000. And while the United States has privacy protections and civil rights that don’t necessarily exist in China, it’s not hard to see how such technology could be deployed stateside in the wake of another deadly school shooting, or under a federal government that’s openly hostile to immigrants.
Amazon is far from the only company experimenting with facial-recognition technology—Facebook and Google have both developed their own versions, though neither is currently offered to law enforcement. Comparable data collection services are also the lifeblood of Palantir, the Peter Thiel-founded company that analyzes myriad sources—social-media feeds, banks, airlines, phone companies—to synthesize a web of every traceable connection a subject has ever developed. That system, too, is vulnerable to abuse—Wall Street executives reportedly ended their partnership with the company when they discovered that the head of its special ops had gone rogue and was spying on them, too.
Amazon says it suspends accounts that use its services irresponsibly or otherwise violate the law. “As a technology, Amazon Rekognition has many useful applications in the real world,” an Amazon representative said in a statement. “Our quality of life would be much worse today if we outlawed new technology because some people could choose to abuse the technology.” But for the A.C.L.U., the fact that Amazon, one of the most powerful corporations in the world, has entered the police surveillance market raises significant concerns about civil liberties. “By automating mass surveillance, facial-recognition systems like Rekognition threaten this freedom, posing a particular threat to communities already unjustly targeted in the current political climate,” the group said in a statement. “People should be free to walk down the street without being watched by the government.”


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A crisis is looming for the World Trade Organization’s dispute resolution system as the Trump administration presses the international body to reform its ways and the U.S. ag sector could be a casualty in the coming showdown.
Brazil, known and often reviled in the U.S. ag sector for its successful World Trade Organization challenge to U.S. cotton support programs, is now suspected breaking WTO rules by subsidizing its rice exports.
In the latest salvo of trade actions between the U.S. and Chinese governments, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced plans today to impose a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion of U.S. goods, including soybeans, aircraft and automobiles, according to the Chinese News Agency, Xinhua.
U.S. complaints that Europe wasn’t living up to a promise to import American beef were ignored for years, but that’s changed in the months since the Trump administration began considering retaliatory duties on European imports. Now the two sides are talking and it looks like a deal could be in the works.
The sometimes chilly relationship between the U.S. and Canada just dropped a few degrees with a new Canadian complaint to the World Trade Organization that parts of the U.S. system for international trade remedies are unfair.
The U.S. continues to demand Canada dismantle its supply management dairy system as part of the so-far fruitless NAFTA renegotiations, but if that fails, the U.S. is “actively considering” filing a complaint against Canada in the World Trade Organization.
The World Trade Organization is heading down a new and more trade-friendly path and that will benefit the U.S. ag sector, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer declared at the end of the group’s 11th ministerial meeting this week in Buenos Aires.

domain: news


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The Company sees explosive demand in 2018 for its cyber intelligence technology
New York City, NY – January 30, 2018: EverCompliant, the pioneer of Electronic Money Laundering Detection and Prevention (known as Transaction Laundering), announced their continued, industry-leading growth in 2017. The firm’s client roster now includes some of the largest institutions across North America, Europe, and Asia, who collectively monitor millions of merchants within their platforms. Their proprietary and highly-effective method for uncovering Transaction Laundering has fueled a surging demand that yielded more than 300% in company growth in 2017.
EverCompliant’s 2017 key milestones include:
- More than 300% in both customer base and revenue growth
- Over 200% employee growth, added to support expected 2018 expansion
- Over 300% increase in merchants monitored by customers
- Highlighted by CB Insights as one of the “Tech Startups Redefining the Financial Services Industry”
- Key executive hires including Chief Revenue Officer, VP of Marketing, and GM-Israel
The company enables banks, payment service providers and payment facilitators to identify and eliminate fraudulent transactions processed for illicit purposes through legitimate merchants. EverCompliant protects its customers from hefty fines, chargebacks and reputational damage caused by unknowingly facilitating money laundering and other criminal activity.
“We are very proud of the progress we’ve made over the course of 2017,” said Ron Teicher, CEO of EverCompliant. “As we move into 2018, we will continue to lead innovation in the payments industry and reduce the risk associated with accepting payments online, while educating the public on the significance of Transaction Laundering. Our growth signals that we are answering an unmet need in the market.”
Last year, EverCompliant announced its new headquarters in New York City, as it continues to expand in the North American region. CEO Ron Teicher joined COO Daniel Klein in NYC, while Chief Revenue Officer Alasdair Rambaud was brought on to head the new San Francisco office. Joining them is Sean Goldstein, VP Marketing, who will lead the company’s marketing efforts, and Sophie Chetboun, GM Israel, to head their Tel Aviv facilities.
“By adding top-notch executives to the existing team – Alasdair Rambaud, Chief Revenue Officer, Sean Goldstein, VP Marketing and Sophie Chetboun GM, Israel – we are poised to further accelerate our growth,” added Ron. “As leaders in the FinTech and payments industry, we will continue to provide the most advanced tools on the market to enable our customers to mitigate the enormous risk associated with elusive criminals committing online money laundering.”
EverCompliant launched several industry-first technologies in 2017, including deep machine-learning technology within their MerchantView platform, enabling the most accurate and scalable merchant risk detection and Electronic Money Laundering Prevention solution available.
EverCompliant is the pioneer and industry leader in Electronic Money Laundering Detection and Prevention (known as Transaction Laundering). The company’s flagship product, MerchantView™, is the first and only dedicated solution on the market designed from its core to detect and prevent Transaction Laundering. MerchantView applies proprietary cyber intelligence technology to identify unknown and hidden merchants funneling transactions through seemingly legitimate storefront websites. EverCompliant’s technology has been adopted by large-scale financial institutions and payment service providers in Asia, Europe, U.S. and the Middle East. EverCompliant is headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, Shanghai and Tel Aviv.


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BJ's Restaurants, Inc. BJRI has been benefitting from digital efforts, loyalty program and other sales-building initiatives. Also, focus on off-premise business model and product introduction have been important factors for sales improvement over the last few quarters.
In the past year, shares of BJ’s Restaurants have gained 121.4% compared with the Retail - Restaurants industry’s 35.8% rise. The price performance was backed by a solid earnings surprise history. BJ’s Restaurants’ earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in five of the trailing six quarters. Earnings estimates for full-year 2021 and 2022 have moved up 3.6% and 0.4%, respectively, in the past 30 days. This positive trend signifies bullish analyst sentiments and justifies the company’s Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). This indicates robust fundamentals and expectation of outperformance in the near term. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Factors Driving Growth
Digitization Efforts: BJ’s Restaurants continues to drive awareness in its key markets through greater and more targeted marketing. In order to attract more customers, the company has rolled out several initiatives like digital check-ins, digital menus and digital payment options. Also, its transition from the current PDF form factor to a dynamic HTML version is encouraging. Additionally, the company’s loyalty guest database continues to grow well with the steady increase in transactions. The company is so far witnessing double-digit increases in loyalty sign up as well as similar increases in reward redemptions.
Emphasis on Off-Premise Sales: Although BJ’s Restaurants has reopened majority of its dining rooms with limited capacity, its off-premise operations continue to be a driving factor for overall sales. Notably, offerings such as individually portioned group meals, expanded family feast and bundle offerings have been major contributors to its off-premise sales. Moreover, upgrades in kitchen systems along with front-end order and pickup technology have been boosting consumers’ optimism and order accuracy. Going forward, the company expects the momentum to continue as more customers are resonating well with the expanded off-premise offerings along with its connected curbside service.
Focus on Menu Innovation: Meanwhile, the company continues to focus on refining and streamlining its menu for improved traffic. During fourth-quarter 2020, the company began testing its virtual brand — slow roast — across its 13 restaurants. The delivery-only concept features slow roast items and other protein-centric products. Backed by impressive sales and solid customer feedback, the company expanded the testing to approximately 30 restaurants across California and Texas in first-quarter 2021. Nonetheless, the company continues to focus on menu adjustments and pricing structure as it intends to establish a broader rollout plan in the upcoming periods.
Other Sales-Building Initiatives: To boost sales from its dine-in services, the restaurant operator has implemented glass partitions in its dining rooms to expand capacity. It has also initiated construction of outside dining spaces in nearly half of its restaurants. During the first quarter, the company installed temporary patio spaces in more than one-third of its restaurants. Meanwhile, the company has been receiving positive reviews with respect to its beer subscription service — Beer Club. Notably, high customer engagement is being witnessed on the back of new beer releases along with program benefits. Going forward, the company plans to expand this program at majority of its California restaurants and other states as well.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Other Key Picks
A few other stocks which warrant a look in the same industry are Starbucks Corporation SBUX, The Wendy's Company WEN and Chuy's Holdings, Inc. CHUY, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2.
Starbucks has a three-five-year earnings per share growth rate of 12%.
The Wendy's Company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 17.3 %, on average.
Chuy's Holdings 2021 earnings are expected to rise 85.7% year over year, respectively.
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Lookout targets ‘bring your own’ smartphone hacking risks
Lookout, a cyber security start-up, is offering large companies a software platform to tackle the threat from hackers to smartphones.
The San Francisco-based company — which raised $150m last year and counts Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos among its backers — has trialled its system with 20 organisations, as concerns grow about the possibility of confidential data being stolen from employees’ mobile devices.
Aaron Cockerill, vice-president of products at Lookout, said clients had previously focused on PCs and laptops. With hackers stealing $1 off a phone’s SMS bill, companies had dismissed the mobile threat as small, he said.
However, cyber criminals had started to target phones because employees sometimes “carry around next year’s financial plan in their pocket”, Mr Cockerill added. “Large companies are facing targeted, novel, unique attacks that either exfiltrate data or penetrate corporate networks.”
Lookout’s expansion comes after a widely followed report from Verizon found that just 100 mobile devices faced serious security breaches each day, contesting warnings about the vulnerability of smartphones.


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- Articles tagged "lga2011"
Better late than never, Gigabyte held its X79 motherboard seminar to showcase its range of boards that support the Sandy Bridge-E processors as well as their exciting new features.
The MSI X79A-GD65 (8D) is a high-end X79 motherboard featuring eight DDR3 DIMM slots and claims to be the first motherboard with support for PCIe 3.0. We show you the board in detail.
- Your solid state drive may get more expensive in the coming months
- LG unleashes new CordZero Handstick and Hom-Bot Square vacuums
- Lonely Planet has a travel app and exclusive watch faces for the Gear S3
- Singtel home broadband customers faced 24 hours of internet outage
- Google is working on a fix for the Pixel's camera freezing issue
- Apple explains why some iPhone 6s shut down unexpectedly
- 99% of fake Apple chargers will not protect you against electric shocks
- Google unveils "Best of 2016" apps and games on the Play Store


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HAMDEN — Whitney Donut and Sandwich Shop is closed temporarily after some of its employees were exposed to COVID-19, the business announced in a Facebook post late Tuesday.
“We feel it’s best to put our staff and family first,” the post says. “We will reopen up safely once our staff all test negative.”
The closure is expected to last for a few days, according to the post, which indicates the business is conducting a “thorough sanitization and cleaning” of its facility.
When contacted via a private message to the business’s Facebook page, a shop representative said they could not discuss details about the exposure due to concerns about employee privacy.
“We are making sure to have everyone tested prior to coming back,” the message says. “Once that is done we will figure out when and how to reopen.”
The writer of the message declined to provide their name.
Karen Wolujewicz, director of the Quinnipiack Valley Health District, said in an email Wednesday that her department was aware of the situation and working with Whitney Donut to make sure the business can safely reopen.
Officials will work with Whitney Donut to conduct contact tracing, Wolujewicz said, adding that they have discussed mitigation strategies with the business, such as making sure employees with COVID-19 symptoms stay home, wearing masks and practicing good hand hygiene.


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Five Tech Buzz Words of 2021
Ah, December. It’s the festive season, the period when everyone is winding down and the new year beckons.
It’s also typically a month of reflection about what’s transpired over the year. And of course, in the fast-moving world of tech, a year can seem like a lifetime, serving up leaps and bounds of progress and changes.
We’ve selected five of the biggest buzzwords that shook the world of tech in Singapore. Put on your nostalgia goggles and join us!
The promise of super fast mobile internet in the form of 5G has been around for some time, but this year was when it got closer to reality here in Singapore.
Consumers may be getting as many as three standalone 5G networks to choose from, thanks to an awarding of network spectrum rights to Singtel, an M1-Starhub consortium, and TPG.
They are aiming to deploy 5G with 50 per cent coverage within 2 years and nationwide coverage within five years.
Meanwhile, Sentosa has been serving as a testbed for trials of 5G’s application in public sector projects. The Building and Construction Authority and National Environment Agency were among the first government agencies to leverage low latency 5G for trials involving fully autonomous robots, tele-operated vehicles, and augmented reality.
Wait a minute, haven’t electric vehicles, or EVs, been around for quite a few years already? True that. But 2021 was the year that Tesla, perhaps the most well known EV maker, opened a sales portal in Singapore.
Singapore has been pushing to upgrade its infrastructure to support the adoption of EVs. This year, government agencies awarded the pilot tender for EV charging points in public car parks across the island.
Starting September 2021, more than 600 EV chargers will be deployed at over 200 car parks in locations such as public housing and industrial estates, public parks, community centres and the Central Business District over the next 12 months. Singapore aims to outfit 40,000 charging points in public car parks by 2030.
It’s up, it’s down, it’s going all around. That sums up the story of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has made multimillionaires out of some early adopters and captured the world’s attention.
It hit a new milestone this year as El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, an alternative to its other currency, the US dollar. The country’s president argued that the move would spur investment in the country and help 70 per cent of the El Salvadorans who don’t have access to traditional financial services. Whether the bold experiment will succeed is still up in the air, and the world is watching for clues about cryptocurrencies’ future.
Back home, Singapore is aiming to be a leading player in the global crypto economy. The Monetary Authority said that it s putting in place “strong regulation”, so firms that meet its requirements and address the multitude of risks in one of the fastest-growing areas of finance.
And Singapore is not the only country in Southeast Asia with its eye on the potential of crypto. Thailand is paving the way for the acceptance of digital currency for travel so that tourist with crypto will find it convenient to spend and provide much needed support to its pandemic-hit tourism industry.
The metaverse entered everyday lexicon thanks to Facebook’s renaming itself Meta and announcing its ambition to chart the next era of online behaviour by establishing a metaverse where humans can live, work, and play as an extension of the physical world. Other tech giants like Microsoft also outlined their plans to make the metaverse a reality.
What might the metaverse look like? Right now, it’s anyone’s guess as it’s more a notion than a definition. Possibilities abound at this point, which is what makes it exciting and what makes it look like a potential pot of gold to different companies competing to establish the number one metaverse playground.
It also seems fitting that the fourth Matrix movie dropped this year, given that the first Matrix was a groundbreaking film featuring a sinister version of total immersion in a digital reality.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, announced its arrival in the mainstream when a jpeg NFTsold for US$69 million.
These uniquely tokenised objects reside in the digital world and are recorded in the blockchain, ensuring that they are one of a kind, giving them value derived from scarcity. By the first half of the year, US$2.5 billion of NFTs have been sold, ranging from digital artwork, to GIFs, to basketball highlights.
New trend or flash in the pan?
With all things digital new, there is huge potential to be a game changer and there is also the chance that it’s just the equivalent of a shooting star, burning bright but also burning out quickly.
Which of these buzzwords will have staying power? Only time will tell and we’ll be sure to keep our eyes on them to see what the next chapter holds.
*Enjoyed this article? Check out this article to out about how tech is making travel in the time of covid less painful or this article to find out how reserviors are being used to harness the power of solar!.https://www.tech.gov.sg/media/technews/five-tech-buzz-words-of-2021


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Our spy shooter caught the updated Land Rover LR2, known elsewhere and badged in these photos as the Freelander, cruising around in the wild.
The old boy will get a facelift (new grille and front bumper) and some updated lighting, perhaps in the form of LED running lights. Unfortunately, most of that is covered up in these photos by some well-placed camouflage. The interior may be getting some changes as well.
Don’t expect the LR2 to get any major overhaul; Land Rover should be hard at work on some new projects, such as the LRX, which will absorb most of the automaker’s focus.
Have a closer look in the photo gallery.
After Mercedes-Benz dropped the legendary M279 V12, another date we were told would come: the Mercedes-Benz Station Wagon will cease to exist (in 2030).
The auction firm has announced another banger: Mario Andretti’s 1978 John Player Special Lotus-Cosworth Type 79
Tesla has announced a further $3.6 Billion investment into the automakers Gigafactory plant in Nevada, adding 3,000 new jobs & two new factories.
Chevrolet unveiled the 2024 Corvette Z06 GT3.R race car Friday at Daytona International Speedway, a year prior to its official competition debut.
Mercedes-Benz has announced its DRIVE PILOT conditional autonomous driving system has been authorized for use on public roads, beginning in Nevada.


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As the woeful economy eats into the sales figures and incomes of retailers, forcing many household brands into the hands of receivers, one profession remains aloof from the credit crunch.
Harvey & Thompson, the UK's largest listed pawnbrokers, yesterday announced good trading and a record number of store openings as its clients – a high proportion of whom it says are regulars and belong to families that have used its services for generations – continue to hand in their valuable possessions for cash loans.
The firm, which is based in Sutton, Surrey, but operates throughout the country, said its second-half results will be ahead of expectations. The company, which opened its first store on London's Vauxhall Bridge Road in 1897, grew by 16 stores last year and now operates in 105 premises. H&T provides services organised around traditional pawning – taking customers' possessions such as jewellery as collateral for providing a loan.
For example if a customer brings in a gold necklace, H&T will first check the quality of the metal – aiming for 9 carats or more – it then runs a security check to try to screen out stolen items before agreeing on a period for the loan, which is available for up to six months. The company never lends more than 50 to 80 per cent of the value of the item. And while pawn shops resell many items after customers choose not to return the cash, H&T says 89 per cent of people using the service do redeem their items. The company's average loan size is £120.
The company also provides other forms of cash advance including payday advance loans, cheque cashing, unsecured lending of as much as £750 for up to a year, prepaid credit cards and gold purchasing.
The firm's on-site jewellery stores – whose inventory is made up of items not reclaimed by those who have left them as a deposit for loans – also showed a rise in sales in the past year.
And while banks are increasingly reluctant to lend, pawnbrokers continue to offer their loan services.
"It's the same model that has been going around for 3,000 years," H&T's chief executive, John Nichols, said.
Sales in all the company's business areas grew in double-digits last year except for jewellery sales that rose 3 per cent and cheque cashing that remained flat as banks issue fewer cheques. Mr Nichols added that he doesn't feel much competition from potential rivals such as eBay, although the firm does plan to start rolling out more of its offerings over the internet.
Other pawnshop firms such as H&T's rival Albemarle & Bond and the more upmarket TM Sutton are also likely to be flourishing during the banking difficulties, said Mr Nichols.
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Ermias Abera was visibly impressed by the International Textile and Apparel Expo 2012
held from March 8-11 at the Addis Ababa Exhibition Center.
Ermias, who is helping potential Indian investors scout a place to erect a textile plant, was especially impressed by the traditional clothes of the local Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) as well as shirts produced by Hawassa Textile Factory located 275 kms south of Addis Ababa.
The attractive textile products of AL Mehdi Industries Private Limited Company displayed at the expo were particularly attractive, he said.
AL Mehdi Industries’ that came from Pakistan to invest in Ethiopia in 2006 at Dukem Industrial Zone, offered a range of products from laundry bags to sleeveless t-shirts, jerseys as well as trousers and pants. The company also has fleeces used as raw materials for hooded jackets. The products were however mainly for exports. AL Mehdi’s products are either 100 percent Polyester or cotton.
The textile products on display also seemed to draw visitors to the MAA Garment Private Limited Company stall which had 16 different kinds of adult and children textile products. Sara Fisseha an exhibitor for MAA Garment owned by the Ethiopian born Saudi business tycoon Sheik Mohammed Al-Amoudi, said although she was pleased with the interest of the public for their products her company is encountering problems with finding outlets in Addis Ababa. MAA Garment’s factory is located in Mekelle city 783 kms north of Addis Ababa.
For the time being, “most of our products are destined for export thus not leaving enough products for local markets,” Sara told Capital.
Ermias felt this situation of products being predominantly reserved or destined for exports should be corrected.
Although the expo showed a high number of SMEs involved in traditional textile products, numerous empty stalls, presumably installed for companies who promised but failed to participate in the expo, were noticeable.
One such company featuring clothes mainly from the Southern region is Zufan Modern Traditional weaving and Bamboo Manufacturing and Distributor Company
Zufan Ibrahim, owner and designer said the textile products on display featured clothes from some of the 56 ethnic groups found in the Southern Region. Her company is also engaged in clay and jewelry works.
Some of the products on display featured clothes of ethnic groups such as the Sidama from the regional state’s capital Hawassa, the Wolayta known for their bright rainbow clothes, the Gofa people located around Arba Minch and the Hamer people popularized recently in literary works.
The handiwork textile products ranged from ties, curtains, shirts and bags as well as exquisite wedding gowns. As for the price acrylic products tend to be more expensive than yarn products.
The cheapest item, scarves, ranged in price from 40 to 70 birr each, children’s dresses stood at between 160 and 350 birr while jackets ranged from 600 to 1000 birr each.
Zufan admitted that her products tend to be more expensive than other textile products because of the high cost of the raw material needed for knitting, in addition to costs in training professionals in the tiresome hand weaving techniques of the work and their subsequent salaries.
The company’s sales markets are Hawassa, Addis Ababa and other cities on the Ethio-Kenya highway.
A similarly impressive traditional textile products stall was the Abeba Knit and Cultural Dresses Production and Distribution Company which has received numerous medals and trophies signifying its success at the national level. Its general manager Abeba Zenebe said in addition to knitting and selling traditional dress items from the Southern region’s numerous ethnic groups, her company also makes jackets styled from the northern Ethiopia region of Raya located in Amhara and Tigray regional states. Her products are sold in Hawssa and Hossaena, 211 kms south of Addis Ababa with plans to open a sales branch in Addis Ababa.
The hand woven textile products on display, ranges from scarves with a price range of 15 to 40 birr each to traditional contemporary southern bride dresses that costs about 5000 birr.
Another local company participating in the expo was Ambassador Garment and Trade Private Limited Company, which interestingly has put in display the sewing machine, scissor and ironing machine used by its present owner Seid Mohammed Birhan when he started his business in the 1980’s.
Ambassador Garment, which has 64 branches around Ethiopia selling its renowned suits as well as shirts and ties surprisingly, had few products on display compared to the relatively large space it had taken. The company has plans to open several more branches in different parts of Addis Ababa.
Ermias Urgessa Promotion and Market research head at Ambassador said they had participated in order to exchange experience with other textile companies as well make contacts with companies that produce textile accessories needed for their products.
Ermias also said Ambassador has plans to set up a plant for producing women formal dresses.
Fekadu Ethiopia Corporate Communications Expert at Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI) told Capital that about 90 exhibitors were expected for this exhibition. The Ethiopian International Textile and Apparel Expo 2012 also featured fashion shows as well as visits to SMEs located in Shiro Meda area of Addis Ababa.
The expo was jointly organized by the Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI) and Ethiopian Village Adventure Playground Private Limited Company.


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Late Friday night, Lala confirmed what everyone has known for days: It now belongs to Apple.
"Over the last four years Lala strived to innovate with amazing products for music. Our mission continues with the full support of Apple. While we do not have answers about the future, we know that our choices will be driven by exceeding your expectations for a great service," the company wrote in a blog post.
News of the purchase broke last week, though Apple was coy about what it planned to do with the service. Days later, it was suggested that the Lala purchase would help Apple move iTunes into the cloud.
Prior to the Apple deal, Lala announced plans to join Google's Music Search feature with Pandora, Rhapsody, MySpace/iLike, and imeem. That group appears ripe for acquisitions, as MySpace last week said it would buy imeem.


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Nigeria and South Africa rely heavily on imported raw materials for automotive lubricants. However, the volatility of oil prices, depreciating currencies, and rising import tariffs in Nigeria, is expected to initiate investment in the local lubricants manufacturing sector in the long term, according to Frost & Sulllivan's research titled 'Analysis of the Automotive Lubricants Market - Nigeria and South Africa.'
©Dmitry Kalinovsky via 123RF
A combined market of $2.14 billion is driven mainly by the demand for engine oils, but there has been a perceptible rise in end-user demand for other lubricants like transmission oil, gear oil and coolants.
The hike in demand for lubricants in the long term stems from a rising prominence of the middle class in both countries, which has boosted vehicle sales. Nigeria’s motorisation rate is 8.5% per annum and is tied to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which has increased by 7% in the past decade. Meanwhile, South Africa is a well- established vehicle manufacturing hub in Africa and this sector is expected to flourish over the next three to seven years, translating to a more expansive market for automotive lubricants.
The research study is part of the Future of Chemicals & Materials in Infrastructure & Mobility Growth Partnership Service programme, which also covers construction chemicals and materials including paints and coatings, industrial adhesives, cement and cement additives , thermal insulation, and lubricants.
Myriad of opportunities
The vehicle parc, including old and new vehicle models, presents a myriad of opportunities for automotive lubricant manufacturers. On the one hand, used cars require more frequent lubricant changes, and on the other, newer models require higher-quality lubricants. In Nigeria, about 80% of the vehicles on the road are second-hand vehicles that will require more frequent lubricant drains in the long term, contributing to the volume demand of automotive lubricants in Nigeria.
“Improved vehicle technology in newer model vehicles will require fewer lubricant drains,” said industry analyst Lynessa Moodley. “The market is ultimately gravitating towards higher-quality, specialised and synthetic lubricants with an increase in end user awareness on the importance of lubricant drains. This can primarily be attributed to pending government legislation regarding emissions, improved engine technology and original equipment manufacturers’ requirements for fuel efficiency.”
Lubricant manufacturers can stay afloat and even strengthen their position by enhancing awareness and educating users on the importance of frequent lubricant drains, as well as using the appropriate lubricants. This will also stave off the competition from the informal automotive lubricants market as South African and Nigerian end users have a lot of apprehension regarding synthetics and lack understanding of their benefits.
“This should prompt lubricant manufacturers to conduct extensive marketing and awareness campaigns,” said Moodley. “In addition, fostering interregional ties between Nigerian and South African players could go a long way in creating a collaborative environment that benefits all the stakeholders and, ultimately, drives the market forward.”


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In an Associated Press article about West Virginia’s budget, state delegate John Doyle noted that if online retailers collected existing sales tax, instead of shifting that burden to their customers, the revenue generated could allow for tax cuts elsewhere:
Doyle, a past president of the agreement’s governing board, said increased revenue is one of several reasons to pursue Internet sales tax revenues — but not the most important.
“Even if we didn’t need the revenue, we should still do this and then reduce the tax burden elsewhere,” Doyle said Friday.
He gave the example of the state tax on groceries, which generates about as much revenue as online sales tax would if retailers collected it:
States can expect to lose $11.4 billion in 2012 from Internet sales that will go untaxed, state Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow said Friday, citing a recent Tennessee study. West Virginia will miss $50.6 million in such potential revenues, the study estimated. . . .
Muchow estimated that the 2 percent tax [on groceries] will yield between $52 million and $55 million annually.
“It’s almost a fair trade,” Doyle said.
It’s an argument for online sales tax that hasn’t gotten much attention, but we have heard that legislators in other states are considering cutting taxes elsewhere if they are able to require online retailers to collect sales tax. The West Virginia tax on groceries is a good example: Most states do not tax groceries at all, but even though many West Virginia lawmakers advocate eliminating the tax entirely, the $52-56 million it brings in is necessary for vital state services. If an existing tax that mostly goes uncollected were to be collected and provide enough revenue, the groceries tax could be eliminated.
The entire article is well worth reading for both background on the issue and Doyle’s take on it.
Update: There seems to be some confusion over a quote from Doyle at the end:
“I believe that the Internet should be a tax-free zone,” Doyle said. “We’re better off not taxing it, but it’s still wrong for the federal government to tell us that particularly because they’re allowing states like Texas and New Hampshire to tax it.”
This seems to be a contradiction at first—up to this point in the article, Doyle has supported online sales tax. However, the paragraph preceding the quote supplies the necessary context to understand Doyle’s true meaning:
He added that while states should also be allowed to decide whether to tax Internet access, he favors an across-the-board federal ban. The problem there is an existing federal moratorium allows a handful of states to maintain their access taxes, he said.
In other words, Doyle believes that internet access should not be taxed—and that existing sales taxes on online sales should be collected by retailers. Far from being contradictory, these positions seem quite sensible to us.


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The fresh Biden-Harris Government college student debt settlement initiative you will work for as many as forty million People in america. Now, the fresh Light House launched constant and extended perform over the Administration to combat scams and misinformation, together with training consumers about how to manage themselves facing frauds and you may quickening work to talk about scam complaints having says.
One of the most crucial a means online title loans with no credit check Tennessee to avoid cons and you can protect consumers regarding becoming cheated is development a clear, easy, and you can safe website having borrowers to try to get debt settlement and you may have the most up to date pointers off leading present, such as the Department out-of Education, Federal Pupil Assistance, or other Government companies. Even better functions, the Government Trade Payment (FTC) and you will User Economic Safety Agency (CFPB) keeps dedicated to collaborating to hold scammers accountable once they make use of individuals. This partnership produces upon the present work to do it against education loan fraudsters. The 2009 season, the fresh new FTC acquired an effective $eight.5 million judgment against Arete Economic Classification and you can permanently blocked the newest company on student loan providers to possess unlawful at the start and you can monthly charge. The fresh CFPB has actually furthermore drawn action up against several organizations and folks time immemorial from 2021, as well as of the requiring refunds off almost $8.seven mil to consumers and you will forbidding multiple folks from your debt-recovery percentage operating globe to have helping no less than 29 student loan debt settlement systems you to definitely inspired up to 270,one hundred thousand consumers.
Together with developing an obvious, effortless, and safer website for individuals to try to get credit card debt relief, new Biden-Harris Administration’s constant and you may longer con reduction and enforcement strategies were:
Over the course of the past eighteen months, new FTC has reached almost $29 mil inside agreements one included refunds getting countless amounts regarding college student consumers who had been dishonestly charged at the start charges and you will wrongly assured quicker otherwise got rid of student loan costs
- Establishing Student Debt settlement “Do’s and Don’ts” to assist consumers stop scams. ED is actually introducing a list of basic steps one to borrowers is to and should not just take just like the Government makes to release the newest pupil debt settlement application which week. Brand new Government tend to display these types of Do’s and you will Don’ts owing to multiple correspondence channels when you look at the several languages, and can work on stakeholders to guarantee the range of steps reach borrowers nationwide. Recently, ED tend to display yourself having huge numbers of people exactly who signed up for considerably more details in regards to the scholar debt settlement system particularly for you to look out for and prevent scams.
Throughout the very last eighteen months, the newest FTC is located at nearly $29 million from inside the agreements one to incorporated refunds to possess countless amounts regarding pupil individuals have been dishonestly energized up front charges and wrongly promised quicker or got rid of education loan repayments
- Getting The brand new Action to go After Scammers inside Claims. Creating which week, ED will daily provide ailment profile so you’re able to claims one identify cons performing within jurisdictions. Discussing will enhance the feature to own State attorney general to behave easily by the delivering cease and desist emails to fraudsters concentrating on individuals within states.
- Performing Over the Government along with the Says to battle Frauds. New White Family commonly lead a most-of-government swindle avoidance efforts, matching across ED, FTC, CFPB, ED’s Work environment of Inspector Standard (OIG), Condition banking bodies, certification bodies, student loan ombudsmen, Secretaries of State, and you can County attorneys general. ED, CFPB, and FTC are working collaboratively to analyze style into the scam problems for the genuine-go out, sharing this article which have says to combat scams, keep in touch with servicers you to says license or control for you to room and avoid scams, and you may occupation borrower questions, questions, and you may issues. Education loan issues was common across the federal and state providers playing with brand new FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Circle, and that links almost step three,100 federal, condition, regional, and all over the world the police users. The consumer Sentinel Circle lets enforcement businesses becoming up-to-date when you look at the alive when the issues into a specific material or good particular organization is recorded and you can permits enforcement agencies so you can complement and operate after they select surges in complaints.
Over the course of the final 1 . 5 years, the new FTC are at almost $29 billion in agreements one incorporated refunds getting thousands off beginner consumers have been dishonestly charged in advance charges and falsely assured smaller or eliminated student loan money
- Starting Outreach and you can Degree Tips in order to Enable Consumers with Right and you can Actionable Information. The fresh Management tend to launch matched outreach and you can knowledge campaigns to provide appropriate suggestions so you’re able to consumers to assist them end taking fooled. This week, included in so it effort, the fresh FTC released a website and you may circulated a social networking venture to incorporate consumers having necessary data on exactly how to avoid scams between the credit card debt relief application, and that’s released afterwards it month. Included in the Administration’s scam-avoidance work, CFPB will amplify their con-reduction tips, plus exactly what users does if they suspect they’ve got currently fallen sufferer to help you a beneficial scammer. ED will in public areas discharge home elevators just what formal application function will eg and what exactly is questioned from individuals, cutting scammers’ power to allege they assist borrowers supply rescue and making it possible for borrowers to identify not the case apps.
Throughout the final 18 months, new FTC is at almost $30 billion when you look at the agreements you to integrated refunds to possess thousands of pupil consumers have been dishonestly billed in advance costs and you can wrongly guaranteed faster otherwise got rid of education loan money
- Leverage Social media to arrive Borrowers. The brand new Biden-Harris Administration commonly express about the chances fraudsters angle by using avenues one arrive at consumers where he or she is. As application having pupil debt settlement will get offered, the fresh new White Family usually engage myself with electronic founders and you may influencers with the social networking systems to help spread particular information about the fresh program and you may alerts regarding the potential cons.


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New findings published by Public Health England (PHE) show that the average British child consumes more than three times the recommended amount of sugar every day – much of which is eaten at breakfast.
The study, based on the annual National Diet and Nutrition Survey, found that children generally consume the equivalent of three cubes (roughly 11g) of sugar before they go to school in the mornings – despite the recommended daily maximum being no more than five cubes for those aged 4-6, and six cubes for those aged 7-10. Popular sources of sugar in the morning included cereals, drinks and spreads.
A problem for parents?
It was also found that, out of the parents whose children were consuming such a high amount of sugar in the mornings, 84% of them considered their child's breakfast to be healthy. This suggests that, when it comes to healthy eating, parents may benefit from more guidance.
"Children have far too much sugar, and a lot of it is before their first lesson of the day," said Alison Tedstone, PHE's chief nutritionist. "It's crucial for children to have a healthy breakfast, but we know the mornings in a busy household can be fraught. That's why we've developed our Be Food Smart app, taking some of the pressure off parents and helping them to choose healthier food and drink options for their children."
The Be Food Smart app has been developed by PHE's Change4Life campaign to help parents take more control of their children's diets. It highlights just how much sugar, saturated fat and salt can be found in everyday food and drink by scanning the barcode of everyday products and allowing parents to compare brands.
A wider concern
These figures are published at a time when obesity levels among children have reached an all-time high, with warnings suggesting that the trend has reached epidemic proportions. Official data shows more than one in five children to start primary school overweight or obese - a figure that rises to more than a third by the time they start secondary education.
Nutrition experts have voiced their concerns over these latest findings, and encourage people to start making healthier choices. Cara Stanner, Science Director at the British Nutrition Foundation, said:
"When analysing a number of breakfasts from families across England, we were concerned to see the high amount of free sugars and low amount of fibre in many of these. We know a healthy breakfast can make an important contribution to children's vitamin and mineral intakes and its consumption has been linked to many positive health outcomes. There are plenty of healthier options available so we need campaigns like Change4Life to help parents make the right choices for their families."
Last week, Simon Stevens – head of the NHS – urged parents to make changes to their daily routines in order to improve the long-term health of their children, with specific focus on sugary drinks. He insisted that there was "absolutely no reason" to give sugary drinks to children, suggesting water and milk to be preferable. This comes after tooth decay was found to be the most common reason for those aged 5-9 to be admitted to hospital in 2016.
He also announced plans to send 50,000 overweight Britons on an NHS diet, following research that shows 91% of mothers and 80% of fathers of obese children to be oblivious to the fact their offspring have a weight problem.


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- New York City, New York
- Friday, October 27
- 11:30 AM - 5:00 PM
- Hudson Yards Public Square and Gardens, New York, NY 10001
- Washington, D.C.
- Saturday, November 4
- 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
- The Wharf (Market Square)
- 760 Maine Ave SW, Washington, DC 20024
- Miami, Florida
- Saturday, November 11
- 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
- Miami's Design District - Sweet Bird North
- 95 NE 40th Street, Miami, FL 33137
Following this initial series, the company is heading to London’s Selfridges department store ahead of the holiday season, providing shopping opportunities from November 20 to December 22 and beyond.
Spanx isn’t the only online-only brand to expand into physical retail. Recently, toy company Melissa & Doug opened its first brick-and-mortar location in its 35-year history.
Pop-ups, however, have long been an established way to increase hype around a brand and expand direct-to-consumer (DTC) efforts via an exclusive, short-term appearance. Last year, Nike, for example, merged in-person shopping with digital experiences in an immersive, QR-powered retail concept in Seoul.
Additionally, Rao’s launched a New York City-based pop-up happening across three days. The “Saucery” marketplace allowed consumers to sample a variety of Rao’s offerings in a limited-time experience that also includes wine pairings and freshly grown produce and Italian herbs. This was also accompanied by a virtual component.
According to a Capital One survey, 63% of retailers open a pop-up with the goal to improve customer connection and 46% open a pop-up to introduce a new product. The company also reports that 32% of pop-ups are from e-commerce businesses and 28% of pop-up shops are from a mix of brick-and-mortar locations and e-commerce revenue.


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Vanuatu has completed its accession process to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which began in 1995, and will become the WTO's 154th member upon ratification of the agreements.
Samoa's accession package is expected to be formally approved at the upcoming Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference.
28 October 2011: The World Trade Organization (WTO) General Council approved Vanuatu’s accession package to the WTO, which now needs to be ratified. It also concluded accession negotiations with Samoa. Both countries remarked on the economic gains that accession would bring.
Vanuatu’s negotiations were concluded on 2 May 2011, following a 16-year negotiation process. It applied for WTO membership in 1995. The country must ratify the package by 31 December 2011, to become the WTO’s 154th member.
Vanuatu’s accession package contains the report of the Working Party on the accession, outlining its reformed trade regime and its commitments as a WTO member, the market access schedules on goods and services, the General Council Decision and the Protocol of Accession. The materials state that Vanuatu will implement the Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS) from 1 December 2012, and will keep its agricultural subsidies.
Samoa recently concluded its accession negotiations to the WTO, and the accession package is expected to be approved formally at the Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference, to take place on 15-17 December 2011. [WTO Press Release on Vanuatu] [WTO Press Release on Samoa]


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Service sector, factory production, home sales improve
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER and TALI ARBEL
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Employers holding out for more evidence that the U.S. economic recovery is finally taking hold got some April 5: America's service sector is growing quickly, and contracts for home sales are up.
The big question is whether the latest encouraging signs will help embolden companies to hire at a faster pace and bring down the unemployment rate.
Some economists and corporate executives say it could. And they say they no longer fear a double-dip recession -- in which the end of government stimulus money would tip the economy back into contraction.
Factories are producing more. Americans are willing to spend more. And the economy added 162,000 jobs last month, the most in nearly three years.
"It's much better news than we would have thought a few months ago," said Jennifer Lee, an economist at BMO Capital Markets.
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group, said its service index rose to 55.4 in March from 53 in February. Any reading above 50 signals expansion. It was the strongest growth since ISM revised how it measured the service sector in January 2008.
The service sector is critically important because it accounts for about 80 percent of U.S. jobs, excluding farm workers. It includes jobs in areas like health care, retail and financial services.
Offering more optimism, the National Association of Realtors said the number of people who agreed to buy previously occupied homes rose 8.2 percent in February. The index is considered a signal of future sales activity.
Home sales had been sluggish during the winter, partly because shoppers felt less rushed after lawmakers extended the deadline to qualify for a tax credit. The new deadline is April 30.
Both reports suggest the broader economy is recovering, and employers are taking notice.
Recruiters report more interest among their clients in hiring permanent, full-time workers. Companies are starting to search for permanent hires in accounting, finance and engineering positions for which they had been relying on temporary help, said Jodi Chavez, senior vice president at Ajilon Professional Staffing.
In some cases, businesses are starting hiring plans at least a month earlier than they had expected, she said.
Ketchum, a public relations company, has also been encouraged by the improving economy and is looking to hire. It has 50 open positions in North America -- jobs that would raise the company payroll by 5 percent.
"We're definitely hiring right now," said Nick Ragone, a partner. "We've seen a pickup in our business."
More companies are requesting proposals for marketing and PR plans as the economy improves, he said.
The reports on the service sector and home sales contracts helped spark optimism on Wall Street. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 46 points for the day, and a rally since mid-February has the index closing in on 11,000.
Some analysts are less optimistic, though. They worry the economy will slow sharply over the next few months as government stimulus ends and other factors fade, such as a rebound in company inventories.
Gad Levanon, senior economist at the Conference Board, a business research group, noted that the economy has grown at about a 4 percent pace in the past nine months. Normally, that would translate into more hiring.
But Levanon said some companies remain concerned whether the recovery is sustainable. The Conference Board forecasts that growth will slow to 1 percent to 1.5 percent in the second half of this year.
And personal income isn't rising fast enough for people to keep spending more money, Levanon said. Consumer spending moved up 0.3 percent in February, but incomes stagnated. Most of the spending increase came only because people were saving less.
Small businesses also remain wary. The National Federation of Independent Business said last week that while small companies have stopped laying off workers, they remain hesitant to hire.
"The consumer's not really back," said Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist at the NFIB. "If you have customers, many other problems get solved."
AP Real Estate Writer Alan Zibel contributed to this report.


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New Delhi: It seems that the wait on the regulatory framework around cryptocurrency will get longer as the much-awaited Cryptocurrency Bill is not likely to be presented in the ongoing winter session of Parliament. The Centre may not table the bill in this session as it has not yet finalised the details of its legislation, according to a Bloomberg report on Monday.
Why is the bill likely to be deferred?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration is looking to have wider consultations on the matter before finalising the rules to govern digital currencies and there isn’t enough time as the current session ends December 23, according to Bloomberg sources.
Also, the Cabinet hasn’t approved the proposed legislation.
In fact, going by the schedule for the last week of the Parliament session the cryptocurrency bill has been dropped from the list of businesses shared on its website. However, the government can still bring in the law through an ordinance at times when Parliament is not in session.
The bill aims to help the central bank create an official digital currency, a description on the parliament’s website mentioned in October.
The legislation sought to “prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India, however, it allows for certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and its uses,” the text read.
Meanwhile, prices of mainstream and meme coins declined on Monday at 5:00 pm, according to the data of Coinmarketcap.com.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) was down 2.01 percent in the last 24 hours and was trading at $46,107.44 at 5:00 pm IST. Bitcoin’s dominance in the crypto market is currently at 40.58 percent, up 0.19 percent in the last 24 hours.


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SAKI MASUDA, Nikkei staff writer
TOKYO — Tokyo Electron, Japan’s top maker of chipmaking equipment, is spearheading an effort to reduce carbon dioxide emissions throughout its supply chain as Apple’s push to have its suppliers go carbon-neutral this decade reverberates through the industry.
Under its E-Compass sustainability initiative announced in June, the company is taking steps to lower CO2 emitted from transportation, including switching to rail and reducing packaging. It is considering ways to cut assembly-related emissions as well.
Cutting carbon emissions has increasingly become a priority for the semiconductor industry as demand skyrockets even as more countries and companies set climate goals.
“The environmental performance of equipment has become an important criterion for customers,” President Toshiki Kawai said in an environmental, social and governance briefing in October.
Tokyo Electron aims to reduce per-wafer CO2 emissions by 30% from 2018 levels by 2030 — and to slash overall CO2 emissions from its plants and offices by 70% over the same period through such moves as switching to renewable energy.
Other Japanese suppliers of chipmaking equipment, a market for which the country holds a substantial share, are moving in a similar direction. Screen Holdings is developing and selling more offerings with smaller carbon footprints, cutting energy consumption for some cleaning products by more than 80% compared with 2001.
This trend among upstream companies in the chip supply chain has been spurred by developments downstream — namely, Apple’s ambitious goal of a carbon-neutral supply chain by 2030.
Apple environmental reports show that the bulk of its carbon footprint comes from product manufacturing and transport. Chipmakers, equipment manufacturers and materials suppliers have little choice but to join its emissions-cutting push.
Making progress industrywide will not be easy. Demand is climbing sharply for chips for Internet of Things devices and 5G wireless, driving up CO2 emissions in turn.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s CO2 emissions have increased about 40% over the past five years, according to Refinitiv. Nomura Securities estimates that installing state-of-the-art lithography equipment would save TSMC the equivalent of the annual power consumption by a city of 50,000.
TSMC and Intel are two of Tokyo Electron’s top customers, accounting for nearly 30% of sales. If the Japanese company does not step up to keep pace with European and American rivals, it risks letting major business opportunities slip by.


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Have you tried the other (other) white meat? ... Swordfish
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Hawaii’s commercial fishing industry is asking Hawaii families to consider (or reconsider) a fish that’s fallen out of favor over the years.
While Hawaii is known for its ahi and other tuna, swordfish is actually a big part of the commercial fishing industry in the islands. So much so that the Hawaii Longline Association says its fleet provides about half the country’s demand for swordfish — caught more than 1,000 miles north of Hawaii.
But while more than 80% of the fresh fish sold in Hawaii stays here, that’s not the case for swordfish.
“It’s kind of reverse, most goes to the mainland instead of retain here locally,” said Eric Kingma, executive director of the Hawaii Longline Association.
“Wo we’re trying to change that (and) just bring awareness that their product is here.”
But is it any good? Kingma says it’s “tasty.”
Swordfish season runs through May and because demand locally is lower, you’re likely to get a better deal. Swordfish goes for about $5-8 a pound at wholesale, while quality tuna can sell for double that.
Floyd Otani of United Fishing Agency which runs the Honolulu fish auction explained how swordfish are categorized and shipped to the mainland, mainly to the East Coast.
“Local people just love the raw fish and poke and ahi but swordfish is as good a quality fish as you can find in the ocean,” Kingma said.
With renewed focus on supporting local food producers, Hawaii’s commercial fisherman urge consumers to choose locally sourced seafood over fish flown in frozen from countries like the Philippines or Indonesia.
And don’t confuse it with its billfish cousin, the marlin.
Swordfish has more oil content because it lives in colder waters and is easier to cook.
“Blue marlin or Kojiki was frequently sold as swordfish in the past, because we hear people say old timers say, I don’t like swordfish because it’s dry, but you overcooking marlin,” said John Kaneko, of the Hawaii Seafood Council. “If you try the local swordfish, you’ll realize that it’s an excellent fish for grilling.”
Nico’s Pier 38 is among the local restaurants known for their delicious swordfish dishes, including a pan-seared panko crusted swordfish with a coconut cream sauce and a green peppercorn and five herb marinated grilled swordfish topped with sauce vierge.
Copyright 2023 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.


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Westinghouse Homeware was proud to participate along with the other Star Glory brands at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, NV, January 5 – 8, 2023.
CES shattered expected attendance drawing over 115,000 industry professionals – marking the largest audited global tech event since early 2020. With over 3200 exhibitors, including 1000 startups, CES 2023 showcased the next era of innovation from transportation and mobility to digital health, sustainability, Web3, metaverse and beyond.
CES is the most influential tech event in the world – the proving ground for breakthrough technologies and global innovators. This is where the world’s biggest brands do business and meet new partners, and the sharpest innovators hit the stage. Owned and produced by the Consumer Technology Association, CES features every aspect of the tech sector.


text: Dubai-based fintech company Invoice Bazaar raises $5m Bhawna Gupta October 25, 2017 PremiumInvoice Bazaar, a Dubai-based fintech supply chain finance platform, has raised $5 million funding from UK’s financial services bank Advance Global Capital (AGC), according to a statement. Continue reading this story with a subscription to DealStreetAsia. Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in Should your colleagues be reading this article too? Contact us for corporate subscriptions at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Ads featuring puppies and babies typically guarantee buzz on Super Bowl Sunday. But offering cash works just as well, as online insurance company Esurance showed this weekend.
The unit of Allstate Corp. was the most-tweeted brand of Super Bowl night, with a total of 1.9 million posts on Twitter, TWTR 0.17 % according to Nielsen Co., despite the fact that Esurance didn't buy an ad during the game broadcast.
Instead, Esurance bought the ad slot appearing immediately after the game and used its time to offer $1.5 million to anyone who tweeted hashtag #EsuranceSave30. Its logic, as outlined by actor John Krasinski during the commercial, was that Esurance saved $1.5 million, or about 30%, by buying after the game, and its customers could look forward to similar savings.
Advertisers that bought time during the game forked over roughly $4 million for 30-second spots.
As of early Monday, Esurance says, 2.391 million tweets with the hashtag had appeared. The marketing arm of cloud-software company Salesforce, which had been tracking all the social-media conversations happening around the game, said that Esurance had the most-used brand hashtag of the Super Bowl.
The game was watched by an average of 111.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That set a record for viewership of a U.S. television show, beating out the 2012 Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. Viewership grew through the first half, and didn't fall off significantly even as it turned into a blowout. The segment of the game from 9:30 p.m. EST onward earned a rating only 5% lower than the total game, according to broadcaster Fox.
Esurance wasn't the only brand looking for love on Twitter Sunday night. Many marketers spent the evening blanketing Twitter and other social-media sites with ad messages, hoping to get the same kind of attention Oreo cookies had last year after a tweet it sent during the game's temporary blackout went viral.
During the game, brands such as Unilever's UL -0.44 % Axe and Anheuser-Busch InBev's Budweiser staffed "war rooms" with advertising executives, company personnel and social-media experts who monitored real-time reaction on the Web and were busy crafting clever and timely posts for social media.
A history of advertising spending by company, provided by Kantar Media, shows some trends.
A long list of advertisers that weren't in the game also took to social media in search of buzz. J.C. Penney Co. JCP 0.48 % got noticed for a string of tweets full of misspelled words and grammatical errors. At first, it appeared the person tweeting on Penney's behalf was drunk. But it was a gimmick to draw attention to Team USA mittens. Penney eventually tweeted: "Oops…Sorry for the typos. We were #TweetingWithMittens. Wasn't it supposed to be colder?"
Real-time marketing isn't without its issues. While many people enthusiastically tweeted Esurance's hashtag others attached it to random comments, like "This food sucks #EsuranceSave30." Some others were less polite.
"Social media is unfiltered," said Nancy Abraham, Esurance's vice president of advertising. The company expected some "bad apples" but the "overwhelming response has been positive," she added.
While breaking through the clutter is likely to get harder as more brands jump into real-time social-media marketing, many ad experts say brands will refine their efforts and not just blanket the space with willy-nilly messages.
Indeed, some advertisers bowed out of Super Bowl online chatter war. Auto insurer Progressive Corp. PGR 0.35 % said Sunday night that its popular ad character Flo wouldn't be using social media "to wiggle herself into conversations about the big game."
"We're not trying to make the noise even noisier," said Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer at Progressive, in a statement. "Our message to Flo's fans is simple—enjoy the game. There comes a point of social exhaustion with real-time marketing. We don't prescribe to the idea that every brand should have an opinion on everything," the statement said.
Some brands on social media are "drunk on the power" of being able to engage with audiences, they are "like teenagers with car keys and some of them are going to crash," said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer of MRY, a digital ad firm owned by Publicis Groupe SA PUBGY 0.75 % . The bigger issue, Mr. Berkowitz, says is that social media today could just be "an echo chamber and it's just something that marketers and those in the business are paying attention too."
The Esurance stunt was created with Publicis Groupe's Leo Burnett.
For Esurance, which has been in business for 14 years, the move was about generating brand awareness without spending too much money. Unlike its rivals in the industry, Esurance doesn't have a massive ad budget. For the first nine months of 2013, it spent $113 million on U.S. ads, according to Kantar Media compared with Geico, which shelled out $710.6 million during the same period.
Esurance also paid for some social-media ads to promote its contest and ran a print ad in USA Today on Monday.
The winner of the money will be revealed on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on Wednesday, Esurance said.
Write to Suzanne Vranica at email@example.com


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UK Suffering From Shortage of Skilled B2B Salespeople to Strike Deals and Pull Economy Out of Recession
An MP-led inquiry is warning that Britain is suffering from a shortage of salespeople and of sales skills. Much more needs to be done to recruit and train people with strong business-to-business selling skills, to drive the economy out of the recession caused by the Covid-19 crisis, and to find new global trading opportunities outside the EU.
The findings of the inquiry are published today by MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Sales.
“Much more must be done to recruit skilled salespeople to drive the economy out of recession and to find new global trading opportunities.”
Their report,reveals that job adverts for business-to-business salespeople increased in intensity by 25% during the last 12 months, with employers’ needs for advanced expertise in digital selling going unmet. Lack of capability to sell through digital channels is a barrier to British businesses selling abroad, and needs to be tackled with government support to promote recruitment and training.
- Trade between businesses is hugely valuable to the UK economy, worth an estimated £1.7 trillion annually.
- B2B companies pay nearly £22 billion in corporation tax, and employ more than 10 million people.
In January, B2B selling was recategorised by the Office for National Statistics as a professional occupation for the first time, putting it on a par with doctors and teachers, in recognition of the high level of skills and training required. Yet the B2B sector is routinely lumped in with retail sales in official statistics, although their needs are very different. As a result, opportunities are missed to put in place policies that could meet the growing demand of business for professional salespeople, and facilitate the UK’s B2B trade at home and abroad.
The recruitment squeeze is hardest on SMEs. Many larger corporate companies have coped with the huge adjustments required by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen for the first time the value of deals struck via digital selling outstrip the deals done face to face. By comparison, however, although SMEs have made enormous efforts to take on digital skills since the first UK lockdown began, with 62% adopting at least one new technology,  a majority continue to struggle because they lack the same resources and skills in B2B selling, sales management and digital technology.
SMEs are the backbone of the economy. With 75-80% of large corporates now saying they actively prefer transacting business via virtual meetings,  SMEs will have to learn how to use technology in order to remain competitive. Action now will make British businesses more digitally and commercially adept, equipping the UK to do business across the world as an independent trading nation. It will ensure that the skill of Britain’s B2B salespeople enhances the UK’s reputation abroad as a trading partner.
In its inquiry report, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Professional Sales is calling on the government to:
1. Recognise the importance to the economy of B2B selling by SMEs, and its value as a career
2. Encourage more entrants into the B2B sales profession at SMEs through work-based training
3. Inspire more advanced skills in existing B2B salespeople and their managers at SMEs, and promote the uptake of digital sales technology.
As the government’s priorities shift away from job retention and towards retraining people for the skilled jobs of the future, professional B2B selling must be one of the UK’s top priorities. In its recommendations, the APPG calls for Level 3 courses in B2B selling and sales management to be made available free under the Government’s Lifetime Skills Guarantee; and for young people made redundant from low-paid, customer-facing roles in hospitality and leisure to be encouraged to retrain for a secure and skilled career in B2B selling, where the median salary is more than £46,000 a year.
Read More : Sales Recovery: Road Map to Post-Pandemic World


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advertisement advertisement advertisement Last week, in a rare act of sales-figure specificity, Amazon announced that it has more than 30 million active Fire TV users. That's up from 25 million users in October, and more than the 27 million users that Roku had bragged about just a few days prior. advertisement advertisement But while Amazon streaming devices such as the Fire TV Stick are a hit, the company has been caught snoozing on turning Fire TV into a platform for more than just its own dongles and boxes. It only started embedding Fire TV software into TVs in 2017–three years later than Roku–and it offers no version of Fire TV for cable and satellite companies, more than 100 of which are using rival Google's Android TV software in their set-top boxes. Naturally, Amazon now wants to rectify the situation as the company tries to sink its hooks into more aspects of consumer's lives. Sandeep Gupta, Amazon's vice president of Fire TV product development, told me that Fire TV software will expand to more areas, including additional smart TVs, cable boxes, and possibly even car entertainment systems. "The great thing about the Fire TV service is that it's now very adaptable,"… Read full this story
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Next up for Amazon’s Fire TV: Smart TVs, cable boxes, maybe even cars have 249 words, post on www.fastcompany.com at January 16, 2019. This is cached page on X-Buy. If you want remove this page, please contact us.


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Adding more high-fashion, luxury outlets to its roster, The Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills said Monday that it has added first-in-market outlets from La Martina and The Webster. Zadig & Voltaire Outlet will open in early 2015, the Sunrise shopping center said.
La Martina is an Argentine sports and leisure clothing brand that has been expanding worldwide, including recently opening stores in Dubai, Singapore and Brazil.
The Webster, which has stores in Miami Beach and Bal Harbour Shops, focuses on selected luxury collections of men’s and women’s fashion apparel and accessories from top-name designers such as Alexander McQueen, Chloé, Givenchy, Stella McCartney and Tom Ford.
Zadig & Voltaire, the French ready-to-wear brand, will have a market-exclusive outlet at Sawgrass Mills, the shopping center said. Scheduled to open during the spring, the store will offer contemporary, fashionable clothing for men, women and children, leather goods, jewelry, eyewear, perfume and more.
The new stores join leading international brands currently at The Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills, including Diane von Furstenberg, Frette, Gucci, Prada, Roberto Cavalli and Versace. An expansion of The Colonnade Outlets at Sawgrass Mills is currently underway that will add 30 new luxury outlet stores and full-service restaurants in 2016, the shopping center said.


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Is there a new Apple display coming?
Is there a new Apple display coming?
New Apple Studio Display release date Apple announced the Studio Display alongside the Mac Studio, updated iPad Air and third-gen iPhone SE at its ‘Peek Performance’ event on 8 March. Pre-orders went live immediately, before the Studio Display began shipping on 18 March.
Will Apple release a new Thunderbolt Display?
Apple killed off its Thunderbolt Display in 2016, leaving a void in the market. Apple didn’t introduce a new option until 2020 with the Pro Display XDR. But this display carries a massive price tag and wasn’t a true replacement for the more affordable Thunderbolt Display. Enter — the Studio Display.
Is there a new iMac coming in 2021?
Apple unveiled the new 24-inch M1 iMac in April 2021, a radically redesigned desktop machine that comes in a range of fun colors. The iMac now features an Apple-designed “M1” Arm-based chip, replacing the prior Intel chips, to bring significant speed and efficiency improvements.
Is Apple making a new Pro Display XDR?
The new version of the Pro Display XDR is said to have a 7K resolution, which is an increase on the current 6K resolution offered by the 32-inch pro display that was launched in December 2019. The new screen is also expected to support Promotion and be equipped with an Apple chip.
Will Apple release a new Pro Display XDR?
The Pro Display XDR is Getting a Refresh Gurman reports that an update to the Pro Display XDR is already in development and he believes it could see a jump to 7K. That said, he expects it to be launched alongside the new Mac Pro, which means it might not make a public appearance until next year.
Is Apple Cinema Display same as Thunderbolt Display?
They both share the same 2560X1440 resolution, and a lot of the same hardware as well. Ultimately, the only way to find out the difference is to turn it around and look to see how many ports are on the backside. If it’s more than three USB ports, you’re looking at a Thunderbolt monitor.
Why did Apple discontinue the Thunderbolt Display?
Apple’s Thunderbolt Display has been criticized for being considerably overpriced and outdated, not having been updated since 2011. The display offers a 2560×1440 resolution, while the 5K iMac that includes an actual computer inside comes in at $800 more.
Did Apple discontinue Thunderbolt Display?
Apple Inc. The Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in June 2016, and replaced by LG UltraFine displays developed with LG on the consumer end, while the Pro Display XDR succeeded it in 2019 as Apple’s professional display.
Will there be a 27-inch iMac 2021?
On the other hand, 9to5Mac sources say that Apple won’t launch a 27-inch iMac replacement in the near future: Sources told 9to5Mac that Apple currently has no plans to release a larger-screen iMac in the near future.
How much will the new iMac cost 2022?
Pricing. The base iMac Pro is said to feature 16GB memory and a 512GB SSD, and pricing is expected to start at around $2,000.
Should I buy Pro Display XDR now?
You should get the Pro Display XDR if… The Studio Display will likely get the job done for most photo and video editors, but for creative professionals who pay attention to every pixel, the Pro Display XDR may be worth the extra investment.
Is Pro Display XDR 120hz?
Another tidbit about these displays is that the 27-inch and 32-inch monitors “seem to have miniLED displays and 120hz variable refresh rate,” which corroborates with a recent report from DSCC that the next iMac Pro will feature these technologies and this display size.
Is Apple Pro Display XDR worth it?
Should you buy Apple Studio Display?
The Studio Display is a great monitor, one that delivers a lot of the value of Apple’s $5,000 Pro Display XDR in a much more affordable package. With its excellent camera, fantastic speaker setup and gorgeous 27-inch 5K screen, this is easily one of the best monitors for MacBook Pro owners seeking an external display.
Can Apple Cinema Display work with USB-C?
Not everything works perfectly over USB-C with the Apple LED Cinema Display, but it’s a pretty close match. I tested on a 27-inch model. Plugging in just a Mini DisplayPort adapter gets you the following with the products tested: External 1440p (2560×1440 pixel resolution) display.
Why did Apple get rid of Thunderbolt?
Why are Apple displays so much better?
Apple doesn’t ship any first party screens that don’t support high dpi (Retina as they call it). Thus their OS supports that really well and third party apps are expected to support it. Text can get rendered at 2x resolution while images next to them get rendered at native res.
Is Apple discontinuing the 27 iMac?
Following the launch of the new Mac Studio and Studio Display, Apple has discontinued the 27-inch iMac. The 27-inch iMac had remained in the iMac line alongside the smaller 24-inch iMac with Apple silicon and was one of just a few Macs that still featured an Intel processor.


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Elon Musk puts 10% Tesla stock sale to TWITTER POLL, promises to stick to result
Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk asked the public whether he should sell 10% of his stock in his electric car company, Tesla, promising to abide by the result in a move which shocked social media users.
In a tweet on Saturday, Musk asked his followers to vote either yes or no to the sale of the stocks, which are valued at around $21 billion.
“Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” he questioned, promising to “abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes.”
Musk – who is the world’s richest man with a net worth of over $318 billion – also claimed to “not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” and explained, “thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.”Also on rt.com Tesla could lose $300 billion after Musk’s itchy Twitter finger strikes again
Within just a few hours, over 1.3 million people voted in the poll, with the ‘yes’ faction holding a slight majority.
“We are witnessing the Twitter masses deciding the outcome of a $25B coin flip,” reacted venture capital investor and billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya.
Detractors have accused Musk of attempting to tank Tesla’s stock. “This would dilute the public float considerably, hurting your shareholders who love & support you,” film director, screenwriter and entrepreneur Jonathan Stokes tweeted.
You do realize that Tesla stock will now tank on Monday because of this, thus ending the awesome run the stock has made the last month. Posts like this is taking money out of the pockets of the people who have believed in you and your company the most. 😕— Cory Wijnhamer (@corywijnhamer) November 6, 2021
Kimball Musk sold $110 million worth of stock right before his brother @elonmusk announces in a poll he is going to sell 10% of this Tesla stock. A 10% sale of Elon's holding would tank the stock. pic.twitter.com/Qg0QkLXdwX— Nancy Pelosi Portfolio Tracker (@NancyTracker) November 6, 2021
Oregon's senior Democratic Senator, Ron Wyden seized the opportunity to call for the introduction of the “Billionaires Income Tax.”
“Whether or not the world’s wealthiest man pays any taxes at all shouldn’t depend on the results of a Twitter poll,” he protested.
Others, however, supported the move.
“Makes sense. If your unrealized gains are going to be taxed, you need to make sure to have the realized gains to cover the payment,” weighed in investor Scott Melker. “Mess with billionaires, you might get a market crash. Point made.”
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden also appeared to support Musk’s decision, tweeting, “Tesla stock price is too high imo,” in apparent reference to one of Musk’s own posts.
It’s not the first time that Tesla’s stock has been subject to one of Musk’s Twitter posts.
In May 2020, Musk famously tweeted that Tesla’s stock prices were “too high” – a post which caused Tesla stocks to fall by more than 11 percent.
Musk has also previously been faulted for tanking the cost of Bitcoin with these social media posts.Also on rt.com How do American billionaires get away with not paying taxes? RT’s Boom Bust finds out
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Inflation just printed at 9.1%, the highest level since 1981. But don't worry, say the ever-wise financial markets, it will fall back down very quickly to "normal" levels. Interest rate and commodity markets currently price in a scenario that inflation has peaked and will rapidly fall over the next 24 months. Is this realistic? Why are markets so confident in this view?
Oil and gas futures are well off their recent highs and remain in deep “backwardation.” That means prices for crude oil and natural gas are expected to be lower in the future than they are today. For example, WTI crude for Aug. 2023 delivery is 18% lower than for Aug. 2022. A similar situation exists for natural gas, where gas for Aug. 2023 delivery is 32% lower than Aug. 2022.
Other commodity markets reflect a slowdown in demand. For example, Industrial metals prices have plummeted. The Bloomberg Industrial Metals index, which includes metals such as copper, steel and aluminum, has fallen 42% from its high last March.
Inflation swaps predict a steep drop in consumer prices starting later this year. One year inflation in one year is priced at 2.79%. Fed funds and Eurodollar futures predict the Fed will reach a terminal rate of around 3.5% by the end of this year, and then start easing rates in the second half of 2023. Long-term bond yields have made a significant push lower in the last month. Markets appear convinced that inflationary forces have lost their power.
The situation is akin to former President George Bush's 2003 "Mission Accomplished" speech, where he prematurely declared victory in Iraq; the worst may be over, but the war is certainly not won. Real fed funds rates are still significantly below current inflation and the Fed, by its own measure, has a lot more work to do. With fed funds rates expected to peak at 3.5% and then quickly fall, the market is not giving the Fed much time to keep monetary policy in restrictive territory.
Core CPI could be “sticky”
China has not fully emerged from lockdown. Commodity demand may increase once the manufacturing sector is fully operational. In addition, China recently announced a $200 billion spending package to promote infrastructure growth at the local level, which should provide an incremental demand boost.
In the U.S., roughly 70% of U.S. GDP depends on consumer spending. Changes in household income play an important role in the economy's health. The most recent payroll numbers and the survey data from the Fed's Beige Book report indicate that labor markets still show signs of strength. Yes, a recession will eventually lead to weakness in the job market, but similar to Fed policy, it has to "go through neutral" to have an economic effect. Economic weakness may allow employers to get the labor they have desperately sought for the last couple of years. In other words, it may take some time for weakness in the labor market to emerge and cause a drag on spending.
Besides, consumer balance sheets are in great shape. Disposable income is still high and debt servicing costs are low. Inflation is eating into real income, sapping overall demand, but consumers have plenty of room to increase debt levels before they are forced to cut back on spending. Of course, a severe recession will accelerate the demand destruction, but in the event of a modest slowdown, a drop in consumer demand may take some time to materialize, preventing downward pressure on inflation.
While many economists focus on core CPI as a better inflation measure, the pass-through impact of high energy prices can’t be ignored. In Europe, high natural gas and oil prices have led to a spike in electricity costs that eventually spill over into most goods and services. Russia shows no signs of backing off in Ukraine, and further escalation is possible, specifically using energy prices as a geopolitical weapon. Energy prices tend to frame inflation expectations, so as long as spot prices are elevated, survey-based measures of inflation expectations will likely stay high.
Supply-side relief from soaring energy prices will not happen in the near term. OPEC is running output near capacity and there are few new energy projects set to come online in the U.S. soon. Additional LNG gas exporters won't help global supply until more LNG terminals come online, which is not set to happen for a couple more years. “With readily available spare capacity running low in both the upstream and downstream, it may be up to demand side measures to bring down consumption and fuel costs,” the IEA summarized the situation in its July oil report.
The situation in housing is also a factor that may keep inflation stubbornly high. Owners' Equivalent Rent (OER), which makes up roughly a third of the CPI basket, is still catching up to the rip higher in national average rents. The CPI measure of housing costs reflects changes in rents for the overall housing stock, not just newly-signed leases. Year-over-year rent growth currently stands at 14.1%, according to Apartment List. By comparison, the shelter component in the June CPI release increased 5.6% on an annualized basis. OER will keep rising even if headline rents stabilize.
Financial markets and the Fed do not have a great track record in predicting inflation
Ultimately, getting the inflation call right about inflation requires a correct prediction of supply and demand. As previously noted, there does not appear to be a lot of relief coming from the supply side of the equation in the foreseeable future. Therefore, investors must believe that the global economy will shrink enough to bring down aggregate demand to a level that would stabilize prices.
Such a scenario is not out of the question. Global central banks are tightening monetary policy and the fiscal impulse that provided the surge in demand during the pandemic is long gone. Central banks around the world are tightening policy at an extraordinary pace and leading manufacturing indicators point to declining economic activity. A slowdown in economic activity is a near certainty at this point.
Still, why should inflation immediately fall back into its historical range? Even if demand is adjusted downward, the world will not look the same as it did before Covid. Structural changes in the economy have taken place. For example, globalization, a major factor that kept inflation low for so long, appears to have reversed.
Covid-19 exposed the vulnerabilities of the global supply chain that constantly sought out the lowest-cost producer. The private and public sectors are looking to diversify their supply chains to prevent a repeat of the shortages of critical goods that caused so much stress during the pandemic. Whether it is nearshoring, reshoring, or just diversification, prioritizing the security of the supply chain over cost will lead to higher costs that will be passed on to consumers.
Has inflation peaked? Most likely. After all, inflation is the rate of change in prices caused by differences in supply and demand. With tightening monetary policy and financial conditions, lower real wages and plummeting consumer and business confidence, demand is destined set to fall. However, the pace at which it falls is anything but certain.
The spike in inflation was caused when excessive stimulus was paired with severe supply shortages during the pandemic. The market appears confident that disinflation to pre-Covid levels will come from a gradual weakening in demand alone, without a major adjustment to supply.
Markets were surprised by how quickly inflation accelerated and were late in abandoning the "transitory" narrative. They may be early in their prediction for disinflation.


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We were delighted to host a thought provoking webinar on how the supply chain is facing one of its greatest periods of evolution as:
• The world is global and yet more local than it has been in decades. Localism is a growing powerful force
• Digital technology is creating genuine change with more data
• The pandemic has created greater openness and stronger partnerships/collaboration as we all work to work through the challenges together
• The consumer today does want to know and cares far more about products
• Sustainability is of today almost an umbrella under which the supply chain comes.
The pandemic has highlighted many issues in the supply chain and the change which is needed. However, with so many on furlough, are companies really ready to embrace the change which has taken place? What might the supply chain look like post pandemic? Can we really talk about sustainability with strength when the supply chain has been reported to be so unsustainable (11.4x more carbon emissions than in a company operation)? Can data and technology be a catalyst for positive change?
Andrew Main, Founder, SerTech Exchange
David Read, Chairman, Prestige Purchasing
Marc Frankl, Director, Amadeus
Marc Zornes, Founder, Winnow
A fascinating time lies ahead and it is evident that much change is about to take place in the supply chain.