“Obama in China: Breaking the Exchange Rate”

I have chosen my article this week from the New York Times and it is entitled “Obama in China: Breaking the Exchange Rate”. It is actually a blog, written by Simon Johnson, a former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund. Johnson talks about how President Obama is going to Asia and, most notably, China to negotiate China’s unfair exchange rate policy.

“Coca-Cola’s profit declines as sales fall”

Sales outside of North America helped profits rise for Coco-Cola in the third quarter, but the overall sales fell as the stronger dollar hurt revenue. Coca-Cola experienced worldwide growth by 2% in the case volume of drinks like Sprite, Coke, and Powerade in the last 3 month period, with 37% growth in India, 15% growth in China, and 7% in Latin America. Coca-Cola is now focusing on expanding to emerging foreign markets due to the 4% case volume drop in North American sales in the last quarter.

The United States wants the Yuan to U.S. dollar exchange rate to rise

The article talks about how the United States wants the Yuan to U.S. dollar exchange rate to rise even further than it already has. China’s exports need to improve before the value of the Yuan can be raised. The Yuan has climbed over the last four years to nineteen percent against the United States dollar. The Chinese government thinks that it will take two or three more years for China’s exports to return to their normal level.

“Foreign Bonds Provide Buffer if Dollar Declines”

The article I read was on newyorktimes.com, published on October 28, 2009 and titled “Foreign Bonds Provide Buffer if Dollar Declines”. The main topic of this article was telling stockholders who buy mainly in USD to buy bonds with inflation protection. The fear that as the recession diminishes inflation will be on the rise again is going around the United States. Scholars are informing investors to be protected from this inflation now rather than wait until inflation actually starts happening.

American Companies in Europe

The article I read was on NYTimes.com, and was written on October 18, 2009. It’s titled, “In Dollars Fall, Upside for U.S. Exports”. The article is about the company Eastman Machine located in Buffalo, New York which makes cutting tools for the textile business and how the decline of the dollar is helping raise their sales in Europe. Due to the recession, Eastman Machine had to lay off almost twenty percent of its workers, but now that the dollar is so low they are expecting to sign a multi-million dollar deal in Europe. If this deal goes through owner, Mr. Stevenson may be able to hire his employees back. While the low value of the dollar is causing many American’s to not be able to travel or buy imported goods, it is good for American exports.

Business and Culture: USA, India, Japan

I thought it was really interesting to think about the subject of culture related to business. The power point stated that there is a relationship between culture and the cost of doing business in a country or region. I decided to look more into this, and found an article about the business/culture relationship in India. The article stated that most U.S. corporations feel one of two different typical miscalculations about the Indian market and culture. The first was that their culture is intangible and does not show itself in the bottom line. The second feeling was that their culture is like marketing or finance.

“China appeals WTO ruling against media restrictions”.

In a recent WTO ruling, China was accused of breaking international rules by restricting imports of movies, music, and books into the country. China has appealed this ruling and claims that the WTO panel, “committed errors of law and legal interpretation in concluding that none of the measures are necessary to protect public morals”. China appealed this WTO ruling to show that they are still upset over the tariffs on their tires, and a final decision on the ruling may not be made by the WTO until early next year.

“China appeals US win in WTO music, films dispute”

The WTO is an integral part of foreign affairs and trade. It is such due to its extensive authority; most of the industrialized world is a part of it, and the majority of the unindustrialized and developing world are members as well. The article that I chose talks about the World Trade Organization settling disputes between China and the United States.

“W.T.O. Says Aid to Airbus for A380 Was Illegal”

The article I have found is titled, “W.T.O. Says Aid to Airbus for A380 Was Illegal” on The New York Times website. This article, published September 4, 2009, talks about how the World Trade Organization had discovered that Airbus had been receiving illegal subsidies for several of their airbus planes, mainly the A380 jet. The complaint had actually been filed by the United States. This money was known as launch aid and the European governments had supplied it, but now Airbus should repay the money. They are slowly doing so as the customers receive their planes. So far, 18 of 200 orders had been delivered.

China-tire restrictions open door for other trade protections

President Obama has decided to put trade restrictions on tire imports from China. In doing so, this has also started the proposal for more trade restrictions on the textile industry. Apparently this has been in the works for a while but President Obama has arranged to put it into effect. United States textile firms have been complaining for years that the Chinese are “dumping” into the United States market because they sell their product for less than the actual costing price.