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Economics
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SABMiller Shares Climb On Takeover Report
07 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
After having recently bought Fosters, fresh rumours surfaced yesterday that SABMiller might itself face a takeover from Anheuser-Busch InBev, the biggest brewer in the world. SAB shares soared 7% to their highest gain in almost three years as a result.
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Disney Realises People Will Probably Pay To See Other Old Movies Too
05 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Disney’s 3D The Lion King reissue has been topping the box offices for the past two weeks, and netted them a cool $22,1 million over a weekend. So it’s not surprising that somebody in the studio realised that, hey, they have a bunch of other well-loved movies that they could probably re-release and make money with too.
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Putin Wants To Put Together An Eurasian Union
05 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Russian Prime Minister and, let’s face it, soon-to-be-President-again, Vladimir Putin has made calls for a “Eurasian Union” as part of his presidential campaign platform. A Eurasian Union made of entirely of former Soviet Union states. Because it worked so well the last time that happened.
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NYSE Threatened By Hacker Group Anonymous
04 Oct 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
While it might not be doing too well at the moment, the New York Stock Exchange is fairly important. One of the world’s biggest markets, the daily business of the NYSE has been threatened for a while now by the Occupy Wall Street protests. Internet hacker group, Anonymous, has now also jumped on the bandwagon, […]
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NYPD Increasingly Violent Towards “Occupy Wall Street” Protesters [VIDEO]
26 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
As the “Occupy Wall Street” protests enter their ninth day, an increasing number of videos and photos have begun surfacing, showing near-indiscriminate use of tasers, mace and kenneling by the NYPD on demonstrators, who are protesting a financial system that apparently favours the wealthy and powerful over ordinary citizens.
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SABMiller Buys Foster’s
21 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
South Africans have one-upped the Aussies again. Brewing giant, SABMiller, has flexed its muscles and laid claim to the iconic Australian brand, Foster’s. The takeover of the Australian beer maker should be complete by the end of the year, and the price tag has been confirmed at $10,2 billion, with a bit of change for some dividends.
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South African Fortified Wines Will No Longer Be Called “Port”
19 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
A European Union trade pact that dictates that the name “port” may only apply to fortified wines from Portugal will mean that the word will disappear entirely from bottle labels in this country by the beginning of January next year. The move has been on the cards since 2000, when the South African government agreed to stop using it.
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China Is Amped To Buy Debt
15 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
China’s time is now. We’ve all been saying it for ages, but their time really is now. A report from Bloomberg doesn’t beat around the bush: “China is willing to buy bonds from nations involved in the sovereign debt crisis.” They already own millions of hectares of land right here in Africa, but now they want to invest.
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Here Are The Real Numbers And Consequences If Greece Goes Bang
13 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
European stocks have bounced back slightly (well, leveled, more than anything) on news that China and Italy are in discussions about “significant” purchases of Italian bonds and investments in strategic companies. Greece will probably get that next round of funding, but Europe still needs to approve it. Here are some interesting numbers if Greece does go bang.
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Vodacom To Cap Internet Speeds For High-End Blackberry Users
12 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 3 Comments
Vodacom has popped a cap in the bandwidth of Blackberry Internet Service (BIS) subscribers who exceed a monthly data limit of 100mb – cutting the speeds from 3G to 2G. Vodacom claims that this should only affect around 5% of the user base, as the rest are all using the service “fairly”.
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Is Germany Giving Up On Greece?
12 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Reports coming out of the East and Europe this morning paint a dismal picture for Greece. The Euro had already slipped to a 10 year low against the Yen and a six month low against the dollar in overnight trading. Bloomberg thinks Germany might give up on Greece because a Greek default is probably inevitable.
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Watch The Wildfire Spread In Texas [VIDEO]
07 Sep 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
To demonstrate the lethal speed at which the Texan wildfires are spreading, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department have released footage of the wildfire consuming the 6 000 acre Bastrop State Park – 84% of which has been burnt down as of today, in spite of firefighters’ efforts to save a number of historic Civilian Conservation Corps cabins.
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Chinese Tycoon Offers To Buy 0.3% Of Iceland
30 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Huang Nubo, the sixteenth richest person in China, has offered $100 million to buy 300 square kilometres of Icelandic wilderness. He calls himself a “poet and adventurer,” so it would make sense that he’d want to buy the property to develop a golf course and tourist destination.
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Government Has Spent At Least R46 Million On Cape Mansions This Year
29 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
At the end of last week, parliament confirmed that the embattled public works department had spent approximately R183 million since May 2009, and that R46 million had been dropped on exclusive residences in this year alone. It’s therefore no surprise that the Hawks are struggling to finance their investigations.
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Our Dear Leader Kim Jong Il Visits Russia, Probably Wants Help
22 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Our Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, has caught a train to Russia and will meet and attend an energy summit with President Dmitry Medvedev later this week. The summit is expected to focus on energy cooperation and nuclear disarmament, no spice. But, Our Dear Leader is probably also after a business opportunity that will make money out of South Korea.
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Here We Go Again, Could Gold Hit $1 900 By The End Of The Day?
19 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
European banks tumbled for the third day in a row, led by Lloyds Banking Group and Commerzbank AG, on concerns that firms will struggle to fund themselves and increase earnings as the region’s sovereign debt crisis strangles economic growth. Basically, it’s a case of just about everything taking on for the team.
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Abercrombie And Fitch Shares Drop Nine Percent Day After Jersey Shore Jab
18 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Yesterday, 2oceansVibe reported that clothing retailer, Abercrombie and Fitch, had decided it no longer wanted its clothing to be associated with members of The Jersey Shore cast, especially Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino. Coincidentally, the very next day of trading after the announcement, Abercrombie shares shed nearly 10 percent at one stage.
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Billionaire Funding Construction Of Artificial, Libertarian Islands
17 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 4 Comments
Don’t worry, the artificial libertarian islands will have better names than that. Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal and early Facebook investor, has given $1.25 million to an initiative to build libertarian island states in international waters. Because that’s what you do when you’rea 43-year-old gay libertarian with money to kill, I guess.
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Oh Hey, Google’s Buying Motorola
15 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
And for the first time in years I actually have a reason to want a Motorola. Google today agreed to acquire the handset division of Motorola, Motorola Mobility, for $12.5 billion (around 90 billion ZAR). It’s always nice to have money lying around for these little impulse buys.
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Warren Buffett And Donald Trump Are Loving The Turbulent World Markets
12 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
World financial markets might be in turmoil and investors might be discarding shares at any opportunity, but, there is always the exception to the rule. Warren Buffett and Donald Trump are just two of these exceptions to the rule. The two financial moguls are actually having a good old time of things at the moment.
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Europe’s Economy Goes To Hell
11 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 2 Comments
It’s becoming a case of “your guess is as good as the next guy’s” in world financial markets now. Share prices are fluctuating like unseasonal temperatures and nobody can really predict what might happen next. French markets rallied earlier, but as soon as they did, rumours that BNP Paribas may face another €500 million loss on Greek debt surfaced.
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Hong Kong Securities Exchange Hacked, Partly Suspends Trading
11 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Not even security exchanges are immune to hackers these days. Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited, the world’s biggest security exchange operator by market value, suspended trading yesterday for companies including HSBC. This came after its website was hacked in what’s been described as a hack with malicious intent at a critical time.
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Former CIA Counterterrorism Director Warns Of Impending ‘Code War’
04 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Speaking at the Black Hat hacker’s conference in Vegas yesterday, former director of the CIA’s counterterrorism center Cofer Black voiced concerns about a future “code war” where hackers tamper with the technology that runs our day-to-day interactions. Then a fire alarm accidentally tripped, which was nice and thematic.
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United States Debt, Visualised
01 Aug 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
See those tiny blocks? Each one of those is $100 million. Absolutely no spice. And that is what the United States’ debt will look like in $100 bills by Christmas this year. Click through to see the depressing, and amazing progression of how many $100 bills it takes to make a $15 trillion pile of […]
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IMF Gets Tough On US And Europe, Over Debt Crisis
27 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
Speaking in New York yesterday, the former French finance minister and now new IMF head, Christine Lagarde, warned that despite the positive response in the financial markets to bailouts, fresh turmoil could easily boil over if debt crises aren’t properly managed now. She also really wants the Republicans and Democrats in Washington to stop squabbling so much.
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Fake Apple Stores Are A Global Industry
26 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Chinese officials have ordered two of the five fake stores already located in the south-western city of Kunming to suspend business while they’re investigated, a local government website said on Monday. But, it’s since emerged that similar fakes exist in countries from Croatia to Venezuela.
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Malema Denies Building R16 Million House, But May Still Need To Answer On Funds
20 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Julius Malema has today denied that he is building a R16 million home in the upmarket Johannesburg suburb of Sandown. Rather, he chose to insist, “Instead of being rich, I remain poor but credit worthy.” He declined to give details of his financial interests, saying he was not a public figure, but this may yet backfire on him.
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Italy Too Big To Bail Out As Crisis Enters ‘New Phase’
14 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
“Italy Too Big to Bail Out as Crisis Enters ‘New Phase’.” That was the headline I read over at Bloomberg earlier. Don’t get me wrong, I know Italy is facing serious problems, but when will they actually get rid of the bungling “bunga bunga” Berlusconi? Today the country has been auctioning an estimated €3 – €5 billion in fixed-rate bonds.
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Cell C CEO, Lars Reichelt, Resigns
13 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / 1 Comment
The real Cell C CEO, Lars Reichelt, will be leaving the company with immediate effect according to the company’s board. Reichelt joined Cell C two-and-a-half years ago and has since commuted extensively between South Africa and Switzerland, where his family lives. According to a statement, his resignation is for personal reasons.
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Cape Town Motorists Fear Empty Tanks As Strike Action Continues
13 Jul 2011 by Jasmine Stone / No Comments
Cape Town motorists have begun filling-up their petrol tanks fearing a petrol shortage later this week. This comes on the back of news that about 5 000 Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union (Ceppwawu) members in Cape Town have joined the nationwide industrial action. The main march takes place in Cape Town next week.
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