La macroeconomía de EEUU está cerca de una condición normal, según funcionario de la FED (Mercado de Dinero USA)

Lunes, Junio 9 2014 14:34 | Escrito por Enrique Aguado

Para este funcionario de la FED, las acciones globales estaban muy cerca de alcanzar máximos históricos.

“El Comité Federal de Mercado Abierto (FOMC) está mucho más cerca de sus objetivos macroeconómicos de lo que ha estado en los últimos cinco años” para James Bullard, presidente del Banco de la Reserva Federal de St. Luis, según declaró durante un acto en Florida. Por ese motivo, la macroeconomía de Estados Unidos está mucho más cerca de una condición normal de lo que ha estado en cinco años, y los débiles mercados laborales y la baja inflación mantendrían vigente la política monetaria expansiva.

“El comité ahora enfrenta un clásico desafío en relación al ritmo adecuado de normalización de la política monetaria“, sostuvo, por lo que los mercados laborales no parecen estar plenamente recuperados, según Bullard. La inflación, además, es baja aunque está volviendo al objetivo.

El pasado lunes las acciones globales estaban muy cerca de alcanzar máximos históricos debido a combinación entre tasas de interés globales a mínimos récord y la mejora de la salud en importantes economías. Con unos mercados bursátiles al alza y tasas de interés de la Reserva Federal cercanas a cero, la situación es teóricamente ventajosa para la economía.

El funcionario aseveró igualmente que aunque se estén dando alentadoras señales de crecimiento de la economía estadounidense, la tasa de fondos de la Fed se mantiene cerca de cero y la hoja de balance del banco central es amplia y está creciendo.

“¿Qué tan rápido debería actuar el comité para que la política monetaria vuelva a la normalidad dada la mejora en las condiciones macroeconómicas?”, se preguntó Bullard, al agregar que el tema recibirá mayor atención a medida que la economía mejore en el 2014.

En declaraciones a la agencia Reuters en marzo, Bullard dijo que su criterio es elevar las tasas de interés en el primer trimestre del 2015, antes de lo que esperan los mercados financieros. Las tasas de interés deberían volver a la normalidad para fines del 2016, dijo en ese momento.

Pocas semanas atrás, este mismo funcionario manifestó que aunque los mercados inmobiliario y laborales permanecen débiles, espera una recuperación en el resto del año, y sostuvo que la inflación seguramente avanzaría hacia la tasa esperada de la Fed del 2 por ciento.

Al 1% se contrajo el PIB de EE.UU.(Mercado de Dinero USA)

Aunque muchos titulares aseguran que la economía de los Estados Unidos ha dejado  su tenebrosa crisis, la realidad es que se contrajo en el primer trimestre de 2014, situación  que no permite que la recesión de hace cinco años finalice.

Es la primera vez que la economía se contrae de tal manera desde el primer trimestre de 2011, cuando cayó un 1,3%.

El Producto Interno Bruto, se contrajo a un 1% en los primeros tres meses del año, según anunció el jueves el Departamento de Comercio. Es la primera vez que la economía se contrae de tal manera desde el primer trimestre de 2011, cuando cayó un 1,3%.

Los economistas del Gobierno habían  estimado que el PIB se desaceleraría un 0,1% en el primer trimestre debido a los daños y destiempos ocasionados por el invierno. Sin embargo, la baja fue mucho más alta de lo esperado. Unas importaciones mayores de lo anticipado y un crecimiento de los inversionistas más lento de lo previsto ha lastrado laeconomía al territorio negativo.

2014 estaba a la sombra de la economía de 2013, la cual se expandió un 3,4% en el segundo semestre.

La situación no significa que el país esté a puertas de una crisis prolongada o una nueva recesión. De hecho, analistas esperan que la economía de Estados unidos se recupere en el segundo trimestre, aunque no se sabe la subida del repunte.

Por su parte, indicadores de producción industrial, ventas minoristas y pedidos de bienes perdurables aumentaron en febrero y marzo antes de debilitarse en abril.

En tema puntual del empleo, éste ha sido lento. El débil incremento de los salarios ha limitado el gasto de los consumidores. El mercado de la vivienda creció en 2012 y 2013, pero se ha ralentizado en el último año, especialmente en el estado de la Florida.

El Departamento de Comercio publicará una nueva revisión de la estimación del PIB del primer trimestre el próximo 25 de junio.

Bank Discrimination and Its ‘Debilitating’ Effect on Minority Entrepreneurs

By Patrick Clark  May 30, 2014

For a recent mystery shopper experiment, three business school professors recruited black, white, and Hispanic entrepreneurs across the U.S., dressed them in matching polo shirts and khakis, and sent them into banks to ask about small business loans. The results are disheartening, if not a big surprise.

White business owners got better and more encouraging service, according to a new paper describing the study in the Journal of Consumer Research. Bank employees were more likely to tell them about loan terms and fees and more likely to offer help filling out an application. Bankers were more likely to ask minority entrepreneurs about their personal finances and less likely to offer the black and Hispanic mystery shoppers a business card.

It’s not news that black and Hispanic small business owners have a harder time finding financing than white businessmen, but the JCR paper offers insights into how entrepreneurs experience the process of seeking new capital.

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In one part of their research, authors Glenn Christensen, Sterling Bone, and Jerome Williams asked business owners to collect photos that best describe the experience of applying for a loan. Minority entrepreneurs chose images including a dry faucet, a beggar, and a set of handcuffs. White business owners focused less on the hard road and more on the satisfying result, selecting photos of a water slide and a beachfront idyll.

In interviews with researchers, both groups described the loan application process as a journey, but “minority consumers framed the journey as uphill, while white consumers consistently framed their journeys as on level ground.” White entrepreneurs sought lenders who would serve as a partner or friend, according to the paper, while minority business owners reported hiring white employees for the purpose of attending meetings with bankers. The result, the authors write, is “a cumulative debilitating effect on [their] psychological and physical well-being.”

These are anecdotal findings, but they’re supported by quantitative research. In 2012, Federal Reserve data revealed that minority business owners were paying interest rates that were 32 percent higher than what whites paid for loans. Last year, research from the Kauffman Foundation showed that minority entrepreneurs were more likely to be turned down for loans and less likely to apply, for fear of rejection.

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Clark is a reporter for Bloomberg Businessweek covering small business and entrepreneurship.

Google Acknowledges Diversity Problem (PCMagazine)

Google's workforce consists of 70 percent men and 30 percent women, but only 5 percent black and Hispanic.

• BY STEPHANIE MLOT
• MAY 29, 2014

Silicon Valley continues taking baby steps toward a more diverse tech industry—see Marissa Mayerand Satya Nadella, both recent additions to the CEO club. But many high-profile organizations still fall short of a true melting pot of employees.

Chief among them is Google, which this week formally addressed its shortcomings by publishing employee gender and ethnicity stats.

"Put simply, Google is not where we want to be when it comes to diversity," Laszlo Bock, senior vice president of People Operations, said in a blog post. "And it's hard to address these kinds of challenges if you're not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts."

And the facts are these: The search giant's workforce consists of 70 percent men and 30 percent women. About 61 percent of those workers are white, while Asians make up another 30 percent. But the African-American and Hispanic communities are poorly represented, making up only 2 and 3 percent of the company's population, respectively.

But it's not easy filling out the ranks with women and minorities, Bock said. He blamed the low rate of women earning computer science degrees (18 percent) and the modest number of blacks and Hispanics graduating college (10 percent)—let alone with a CS degree (fewer than 5 percent).

"So, we've invested a lot of time and energy in education," as well as money, Bock said. Since 2010, Google has contributed more than $40 million to organizations focused on women and computer science.

The tech giant also works with historically black universities to boost attendance and coursework in the computer science department.

"But we're the first to admit that Google is miles from where we want to be," Bock said. "And that being totally clear about the extent of the problem is a really important part of its solution."

Though not a real selling point for future employees, Google does offer employee resource groups, built to educate and support. Among them are the Asian, Black, and Filipino Google Networks, the Gayglers, the Greyglers (for workers "of a certain age"), Google Women in Engineering, and the Special Needs Network.

Along the way to a more diverse field of computer science, we often forget that one of the earliest CS pioneers was, in fact, a woman. Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and Navy Rear Admiral, was honored by Google in December, on what would have been her 107th birthday. Ada Lovelace, the world's first programmer, also got a homepage doodle in Dec. 2012.

Stephanie began as a PCMag reporter in May 2012. She moved to New York City from Frederick, Md., where she worked for four years as a multimedia reporter at the second-largest daily newspaper in Maryland. She interned at Baltimore magazine and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Cybercriminals extorting money from Android users (TechRepublic)

Michael Kassner May 28, 2014  

Android users are now at risk from Koler ransomware, which is a type of malware that threatens victims with action from legal authorities unless they pay a steep fine. 

Ransomware is a particularly frustrating type of malware. Those caught by it seldom escape without losing valuable data or money -- or worse, both. Ransomware attempts to extort money from victims and punishes in one of two ways:

• The victim is locked out of the device, but the data is intact (not encrypted).
• The victim has access to everything on the device, but the data is unusable (encrypted by the ransomware).

It was only a matter of time before bad guys determined it was worth their effort to adapt ransomware for devices running Android firmware. That might be because Gartner predicts the number of Android phones sold will approach 1 billion this year.

How Android ransomware works

As with PC (later OS versions) ransomware, Android ransomware requires social engineering the victim to get the malware loaded on the computing device. Android ransomware has the additional complication of requiring the user to grant certain permissions to the malicious app with embedded ransomware.

Digital extortionists use an effective and time-honored scheme to trick victims into installing Koler, the first active and successful Android ransomware. The scheme currently preys on people who use their Android phone or tablet to visit illicit websites for the sake of viewing illegal pornography, but as with all malware, it could easily spread to other sites.

The first step in the scheme is to build a malicious duplicate of the real video download website. Next step is rerouting visitors from the real website to the malicious duplicate. If that works, the visitor has reached the point of no return. The soon-to-be victim will be asked to download a special viewer required by the video. Once the viewer is installed and ready to go, the victim opens the video expecting to see something else. But all that shows up is the following warning:

 Image: Ars Technica

As malware goes, Koler is interesting in that the ransomware checks the mobile device's country and language settings, altering the above message to match. In the UK, for instance, an image of the Queen of England is shown to potential victims. But as with other ransomware, there are some telltale signs that this is not the real deal. For example, the FBI is not part of the Department of Defense, and having President Obama pointing a finger seems a bit far-fetched.

Whether the victim understands the warning is fake or not is immaterial. The warning window blocks all attempts by the owner to use the mobile device for anything, including deleting the ransomware app via the Settings screen. Rebooting does not help, as Koler activates early in the start-up sequence.

The next screen the victim sees is the one below, instructing how the victim can pay $300 to remove the offending pornography from the device and return control to the user:

 Image: Sophos Ltd.

There is no banned content, and paying the ransom is not recommended. Trusting those who are trying to extort money seems like a bad idea. There are other options. One option is fast and simple, return the Android device back to factory condition using the reset option (steps may differ depending on phone manufacturer). The drawback to resetting the device is that all personal information and installed applications will be lost.

Since Koler locks the mobile device, and does not encrypt the stored data, another option presents itself. Like Windows, Android has a version of safe mode.

Using Android safe mode

Using safe mode is not a 100% guarantee. Paul Ducklin of Sophos provided an excellent "How to" post showing three different options for accessing safe mode. However, Ducklin also mentioned that manufacturers have fractured Google's version of Android into their own versions of firmware, making it all but impossible to guarantee that using safe mode will work. That said, Ducklin offered the following assurances:

• Employing safe mode does not require any special technical skills.
• Safe mode doesn't require special software to be installed prior to the problem.
• If safe mode doesn't work, you can go back to where you were and be no worse off than you were before.

"In theory, if your phone isn't rooted," Ducklin said, "then no third-party apps you have installed should be able to trick the system into loading them in safe mode. So booting into safe mode means you should always be able to get into the list of downloaded apps, malware or not, and remove unwanted ones."

Some proactive advice

Koler has been around for a while, meaning all of the mobile antimalware app developers have it on their radar, their apps are detecting it, and preventing Koler from installing (including the free versions). It might be worth the few minutes to install an antimalware app, forget about it, and let it work in the background.

Google along with other reputable Android market places are aware of Koler and preventing developers from uploading Koler-embedded apps embedded, which is why it is important to avoid apps that are advertised in ads or pop-up commercials.

Finally, Android does not make it easy to back up personal data on mobile devices, so consider using one of the online file-sharing services similar to OneDrive or DropBox for their convenience and ability to help recover or restore valuable files.

Spreading malware

Regardless of what we think about Koler using a pornography connection, the scam is working. Otherwise, the bad guys would not be using it. That said, the bad guys, not ones to miss an opportunity, will adapt Koler and similar Android ransomware to other subject matter that will entice enough users to make it worth their while.

Vaya!!! Que aguacero… Por: Ricardo Tribin Acosta

EN MI OPINION:

Aguaceros los hay por doquier, incluso con bautizo propio. En mi época de niño y adolescente, era muy común hablar del  aguacero de las dos de la tarde , viviendo en la “querendona, trasnochadora, y morena”, como definía a mi bella ciudad natal, Pereira, el gran maestro musical Luis Carlos González Mejía, autor de muchas y magnificas composiciones en las que se destaca universalmente “La ruana”, la cual es el precisamente el “abrigo del macho, macho”;. Todo el mundo estaba entonces “preparado y  listo”, de manera similar a como, cuando en los partidos de futbol, así lo anunciaba el “colorado”, Carlos Arturo Rueda Convers.

En esta ocasión quisiera hablar de los aguaceros emocionales que a veces se nos presentan, programados, o no, los cuales nos bambolean, cual chubasco común y corriente. Estos son sorpresivos y otras veces anunciados, los que fueren como fuesen nos afectan en mayor o menor grado de intensidad.

Un verdadero logro consiste en terminar el día en paz, a pesar de las tormentas, y para este propósito se hace más que conveniente el mantener en todos los momentos y situaciones la cordura, la serenidad, y la calma, evitando de esta manera cualquier estrago indeseable que en nuestros sentimientos pueda llegar a ocurrir.

http://ricardotribin.blogspot.com

Miami, Mayo 24 de 2014

The Right Way to Bring a Partner Into Your Business (BusinessWeek)

By Karen E. Klein May 15, 2014 

Question: I’m a home improvement contractor. I want to bring on a partner into my business. This partner is neither licensed nor insured yet but has the skills needed to grow my company. Should I do a general partnership or a limited partnership?

Answer: Let’s start with some definitions—and a caveat: Partnerships and other business entities are governed at the state level. That means the rules and regulations will vary depending on where your company operates and where it was formed for legal purposes.

Typically, however, a general partnership is a twist on the sole proprietorship—the simplest business entity—with ownership shared by two or more individuals. It does not provide any shield on personal liability. That means if someone successfully sues the company, the partners’ personal assets could be taken to satisfy a court judgment.

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A limited partnership typically consists of one general partner and any number of limited partners, says David Black, an attorney with Florida business law firmBerger Singerman. The only personal assets the limited partners are on the hook for are what they invested in the company. But, as in the general partnership, no limit exists on the general partner’s personal liability if a court hands down a judgment against the partnership.

Limited partners are also generally restricted in how they can participate in the company’s operations and decision-making, says Brian Burt, a partner who chairs the emerging business group at Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix. “They can be tricky, but [limited partnerships] are often used in real estate, where a number of passive investors become limited partners. In those cases, you can structure it so that the general partner is not an individual but an LLC,” he explains, referring to limited liability companies. That guarantees protection for the general partner as well. Professional service companies and venture capital firms are entities that sometimes use the limited partnership structure as well.

So what’s your best bet, as a small home-improvement contractor? None of the above, says Melanie G. Rubocki, who co-chairs emerging companies and venture capital firmwide at Perkins Coie in Boise, Idaho.

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“Any time you’re doing business, you’re susceptible to being sued, and that’s especially true in construction,” she says. “You need to protect yourself whether you bring on this new partner or not.”

She, and all the other experts we talked with, recommended that you form an LLC for your business—and do it sooner rather than later. Without that legal protection from personal liability, you’re putting your home, your bank accounts, and all your other assets on the line every time you take a job, because no matter how good you are, there’s always the potential for something to go wrong and for a dispute to wind up in court.

Forming an LLC has become relatively cheap and painless these days because there are many online options. Still, it pays to hire an attorney to help you and talk it through with your accountant, as well. The LLC offers a lot of flexibility, so you’ll have a number of choices to make that you could probably use some advice on. For instance, “you may not want to bring this new guy on and give him a huge piece of the company up front,” Rubocki says. “With an LLC, you can structure it so that perhaps he earns his way into the company.”

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Depending on how you set up the LLC, there are options to help you manage your profit and losses and to minimize your tax liability. And since the LLC is a “pass-through” entity, your income from the business will continue to be declared on a Schedule C on your personal income tax return, so the company won’t pay corporate taxes. It seems like a no-brainer, whether you take on another owner or not.

Klein is a Los Angeles-based writer who covers entrepreneurship and small-business issues.