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marți, 6 septembrie 2011

President Obama: "We Celebrate our Nation's Workers"

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, September 6, 2011

President Obama: "We Celebrate our Nation's Workers"

President Obama traveled to Detroit, Michigan where he spoke at a Labor Day picnic with workers at a GM plant. During his remarks, the President spoke of the important role the labor unions have played in establishing the “cornerstones of middle-class security:”

That’s the bedrock this country is built on. Hard work. Responsibility. Sacrifice. Looking out for one another. Giving everybody a shot, everybody a chance to share in America’s prosperity, from the factory floor to the boardroom. That’s what unions are all about.

Watch the President's speech and see photos from the event.

A man grasps President Barack Obama's hand as he greets people in the crowd after addressing the Labor Day celebration in Detroit, Mich., Sept. 5, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

SEOptimise

International SEO Strategy – Domains, Subdomains or Subfolders?

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 09:49 AM PDT

A bit of an old one, but a common question I get asked by clients is about their international SEO strategy. Which option is best? A new domain, subdomains or subfolders?

I wrote a post on international domain strategy back in 2008, but a lot has changed since then – so it’s probably time for an update.

International SEO is still one of those topics where there is no clear right or wrong answer – but there are different strategies which may be more or less successful depending on given factors and scenarios. So here’s my thought process behind selecting the best international SEO strategy to suit your website or brand.

1) When to use local TLDs (top-level domains)?
In my opinion, having a local TLD is still the number one way of showing Google that a website is intended for a specific geographical target. And I can’t see that changing either, despite huge improvements in Google Webmaster Tools over geo-targeting settings.

So if you want to setup a French website, for example, you’re likely to find it quicker/easier to get this indexed and ranking in Google if it’s located on a .fr domain. Also, when thinking of the website as a brand, a local domain is likely to be more recognisable to that countries audience. So you may see an increase in clickthrough rate from searchers and possibly an impact to conversion rate too! So those are additional considerations beyond achieving rankings.

A good example of a brand who use a country-specific domain is Amazon, who split UK and US content between Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. This is of course meant primarily for users, making it easier for them to differientiate between the two sites – but it has also worked very successfully from an SEO perspective.

2) When to use subfolders?

In my opinion this depends on a couple of major factors. Firstly, how big is your brand? For example, if you’re Amazon.com and want to launch in the UK – then Amazon.co.uk is a sensible option. In terms of attention and online visibility expected, you can quickly build the new local domain into a strong website, without as many concerns of this being a new, unestablished domain in Google. Link reputation can be built more quickly, so the long-term gain in having a unique, country-specific identity is likely to outweigh the risk of any short-term ranking in issues in Google UK (or any other local search engine).

However, if you’re not a strong brand and you have a modest link profile – then in my opinion it can be a much longer process of trying to get a brand new, local domain ranking in Google. Obviously not everyone is an Amazon – and that’s clearly an extreme example – but if you’re in a niche where links are difficult to come by, then instead of spreading your international content across several domains, I would seriously consider consolidating this into a single domain strategy. This means all link reputation would be merged into a single website and domain – ensuring that any authority built is collected and shared across all country websites within the same domain.

An example of a website which does this well is Apple. With their UK site located at www.apple.com/uk/ – in order to implement this successfully you would need to individually geo-target the subfolders in Google Webmaster Tools towards the relevant geographical locations. My preference here would be to organise these into concise two character country codes, e.g. /uk, /fr, /es, /de etc…

Here’s what it would look like if we were to setup a US country-specific site on seoptimise.com/us/:

If you choose this option it’s also important to ensure that you have a globally recognisable domain, so .com, .net or .org ideally – if you have local content on a country-specific domain you will only be able to geo-target that single country. For example, you won’t be able to geo-target www.domain.co.uk/fr/ towards France. Perhaps that sounds obvious, but I’ve seen it done before!

3) When to use subdomains?
I’m not sure there is a great argument here. Although Google have changed how subdomains are treated (with them no longer being viewed as a separate site), traditionally subfolders have been the preferred option over subdomains – and I would continue to stick with that practice.

The only real argument I can think of here (other than perhaps making content management easier) is geo-targeting. If you use subdomains, you have the ability to host these on different servers to the main www site. Then Google will pick up on the fact that this subdomain is hosted in a specific country.

In summary…

Overall, I think it depends on the website in question.

What works best for your target keywords? For example, if you search for “shoes” in Google.com.au – you’ll find that all of the top 10 listings are .com.au domains – so it’s likely that a country-specific domain strategy will be more successful here:

Also, if you have already setup international sites on geo-specific domains, perhaps it’s a good idea to stick with it and build them up – as opposed to switching to a single domain strategy. But if you’re starting afresh, personally I think the main decision lies in how effectively you think your link building efforts can be spread across multiple websites and countries in order to build up those domains individual reputations in the search engines. Link building across a wider number of domains is likely to require more significant investment. Of course, this also depends on the competitiveness of your market – if you only need a handful of links on each to outrank your competitors, it’s clearly going to be much easier than if you’re looking at tens of thousands of links.

Obviously if you are considering launching international sites there are other SEO considerations to make too. Such as ensuring your content is unique. If you have multi-lingual content, then obviously you need to make sure that firstly this is well-translated. But also well-optimised for your target audience, so make sure you don’t ignore keyword research, as people from different countries will search for different search terms.

Plus if you are launching international content across multiple countries, but using the same language (e.g. English in the UK, US, Australia and Ireland) – then I would recommend putting effort into ensuring that this content is unique and targeted towards that specific region. You want to ensure that when searchers are visiting via Google UK they are directed towards your UK site, not the duplicate global or US version of the same page.

So which methods have you found to be most successful? I’d be interested in hearing the types of challenges and considerations you bear in mind when making international SEO strategy decisions.

Seth's Blog : Talent and vendors

Talent and vendors

You may be purchasing services from people with magical talents (artists) and it's a mistake to confuse them with vendors.

As we get more and more service oriented, it's an easy mistake to make. You're busy buying cleaning services or consulting or design, and sometimes the person you're working with is a vendor, and sometimes they're not--they're an artist, "the talent."

A vendor is someone who exists to sell you something. It doesn't always matter to the vendor what's being sold, as long as it's being sold and paid for.

The quality of what's being delivered is rarely impacted by the method of transaction. The turnips will still show up, the house will still get painted. You can send an RFP to a vendor, bid it out, get the lowest price, sign the contract and if you write the contract properly, will get what you ordered.

The quality of the work you get from the talent changes based on how you work with her.

That's the key economic argument for the distinction: if you treat an artist like a vendor, you'll often get mediocre results in return. On the other hand, if you treat a vendor like an artist, you'll waste time and money.

Vendors happily sit in the anonymous cubes at Walmart's headquarters, waiting for the buyer to show up and dicker with them. They willingly fill out the paperwork and spend hours discussing terms and conditions. The vendor is agnostic about what's being sold, and is focused on volume, or at least consistency.

While the talent is also getting paid (to be in your movie, to do consulting, to coach you), she is not a vendor. She's not playing by the same rules and is not motivated in the same way.

A key element of the distinction is that in addition to the varying output potential, vendors are easier to replace than talent is.

Target understood this when they reached out to Michael Graves to design a line of goods that sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of items. When I interviewed Michael a few years ago, he had nothing but great things to say about the way Target invited him in and gave him the ability to do his work. Threadless embraces this when they treat the designers of their t-shirts in a non-corporate way. Etsy is built on this single truth.

Most industry is built on vendor relationships, and vendors expect (and sometimes value) the impersonal nature of their relationships. This scales... until you lump in the talent.

Should you treat vendors with respect? No doubt about it. Human beings do their best work when they're treated fairly and with enthusiasm. But when the provider is also digging deep to put something on the table that you can't possibly write a spec for, you're going to have to respond in kind.

• Email to a friend •

luni, 5 septembrie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Gold Hits New High of $1920; Miners Should Follow
Trichet Warns Heads of States; Italian President Warns "Markets Lost Confidence in Italy"; IMF Warns again on Bank Capitalization; Mish Warns Trichet
CAM Bank, Taken-Over by Bank of Spain, Reports €1.1 Billion Loss, 19% Non-Performing Loans
Deutsche Bank CEO says "It's Obvious Many Banks Will Not Survive if Forced to Value Sovereign Debt at Market Prices"
European Equities Hammered; German DAX Down 5%; US Futures Down 2%; Italy 10-Year Yield Sharply Higher at 5.56%; Gold Hits 1900 Again

Gold Hits New High of $1920; Miners Should Follow

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 11:25 PM PDT

It only took 7 sessions to take back a sharp $200 plunge about a week ago.

click on chart for sharper image

In 2008, gold sold off with everything else but treasuries. Miners were crushed. This time I expect gold and miners to do much better in a big market decline, perhaps even rise.

Other Currencies Look Sick

The Euro, the US dollar, the Yen, and the Yuan all look sick for differing reasons. The Eurozone may break apart, Bernanke is likely to double up on QE and the US deficit is out of control, Japan has a horrendous debt problem, and inflation is out of control in china as is China's infrastructure spending and housing bubble.

The one thing the Euro, the US dollar, the Yen, and the Yuan all have in common is competitive currency debasement by central bankers hoping to increase export to everyone else. Mathematically that is impossible.

Once currency stands out (and it's not the Swiss Franc). It's gold.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Trichet Warns Heads of States; Italian President Warns "Markets Lost Confidence in Italy"; IMF Warns again on Bank Capitalization; Mish Warns Trichet

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 05:12 PM PDT

The warnings are flying today so let's take a look at a few of them, including a couple of my own.

Trichet Warns Heads of States

The New York Times reports Euro Zone Leaders Get Warning From Central Bankers

With stock and bond markets on a roller-coaster ride reminiscent of the 2008 financial crisis, Jean-Claude Trichet and Mario Draghi, the current and incoming chiefs of the European Central Bank, had a pointed message for European leaders Monday: Get your act together.

Europe's top central bankers couched their admonishment in diplomatic terms during speeches in Paris focusing on the world three years after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. But the warning was clear: politicians are still not moving quickly enough to ensure that the euro zone's debt crisis does not become seriously worse.

Europe needs to "make a quantum step up in economic and political integration," Mr. Draghi said as the bond yields of Greece, Italy and other countries with weak finances jumped Monday amid investor fears that such efforts might be unraveling.

Mr. Draghi's call goes to the heart of what politicians now acknowledge is a root cause of Europe's crisis, but that few seem ready to change: the lack of a federal fiscal union that would make the euro zone look more like the United States. The idea is something that Germany and others are wary of because it could undermine their national authority.

"All this reminds one of the fall of 2008," Josef Ackermann, the chief executive of Deutsche Bank, said in Frankfurt, Bloomberg News reported.

Mr. Trichet, who turns over the E.C.B. presidency to Mr. Draghi at the end of October, renewed calls for a federal European government, with a federal finance ministry. Those institutions would have the power to "impose decisions on countries" whose own policies threaten the rest of the euro union, Mr. Trichet said at the Paris conference, sponsored by the Institute Montaigne, a research group.

In Brussels, meanwhile, an unusual gathering of former European leaders, academics and industrialists urged politicians to recognize that part of the answer to Europe's ills was to relinquish some sovereignty to keep the euro alive.

"It has become clear that a monetary union without some form of fiscal federalism and coordinated economic policy will not work," the group said in a statement. Its members include a former German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder; a former Finnish prime minister, Matti Vanhanen; and Nouriel Roubini, a New York University economist.

Italian President Warns "Markets Lost Confidence in Italy"

Italy's president is nothing more than a figurehead with little power. Nonetheless, his message comes through loud and clear.

Reuters reports Italian President warns on "alarming" debt signals

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano urged swift action to strengthen planned austerity measures on Monday, saying a severe market selloff was a clear warning that markets had lost confidence in Italy.

"No one can underestimate the alarming signal from today's surge in the differential between the prices of Italian public debt instruments and those of Germany," Napolitano said in a statement.

"It is a sign of the persistent difficulty in regaining trust as is urgently and indispensably required," he said, adding that he urged all parties not to block measures needed to restore credibility.

ECB Warns its Willingness to Buy Bonds "should not be taken for granted"

Here is a pair of bonus warning from the Reuters article.

The ECB has also stepped up its warnings, with Mario Draghi, who takes over as head of the central bank in November, delivering a pointed warning on Monday that its willingness to continue buying bonds "should not be taken for granted."

The CGIL, Italy's largest union, has called a general strike on Tuesday to protest the austerity measures, which have also been condemned as "weak and ineffective" by the country's main employers federation, Confindustria.

A poll published by the left-leaning daily La Repubblica on Monday showed support for Berlusconi's government has crumbled, falling to 22 percent in September, from 27 percent in June and 29 percent in February this year.

The Prime Minister's approval rating falling to 22% is a huge warning sign as is the strike by CGIL. Voters have had enough austerity programs.

In Germany, voters warn Merkel thay have had enough of her.

IMF Renews Warning on Bank Capitalization

France 24 reports IMF head warns again about Europe bank capitalisation

The head of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde insisted that European banks needed extra capital, in a magazine interview on Monday.

"We believe that overall it is necessary to recapitalise European banks so that they are strong enough to withstand the risks linked to the debt crisis and weak growth," Lagarde told the weekly magazine Der Spiegel.

Recapitalisation was needed "to avert contagion" of the problems, she said.

German banking shares fell heavily in initial trading on Monday.

Shares in Deutsche Bank were showing a fall of 5.34 percent to 24.63 euros and Commerzbank shares fell by 4.37 percent to 1.84 euros on renewed concern about the eurozone debt crisis owing to new strains over the Greek programme to reform public finances.

Hello Trichet, Draghi How about a Little Realism?

This is my warning to Trichet:

Hello Mr. Trichet.

The odds 17 sovereign states "get their act together" quickly regarding a fiscal union is zero.

There is no agreement on Eurobonds even from Germany and France, so how are 17 countries supposed to quickly agree on that?

Finland and Austria want collateral, and pray tell why shouldn't they? Is every country supposed to do exactly what you want?

Greece is going to default and you and your big ego made matters worse by refusing to accept that fact, so much so that you and the ECB failed to plan for it.

You want 17 countries to get their act together. How about one central bank, the ECB, led by you, get its act together and admit your policies have failed? How about the ECB coming up with a legitimate plan for dealing with it this crisis instead of illegally making demands on sovereign nations?

The market gave you fair warning on Greece and you refused to see it. Now the market has said "time's up".

Face the facts Mr. Trichet "The Euro has failed."

Mr. Trichet, you better come up with a plan to deal with the aftermath, because odds of a Eurozone breakup are large and growing.

Given Trichet was one of the key architects of the now-failed Euro experiment, much of what is happening now is his fault.

General Market Warning

I repeat my general market warning made on August 4: Crashes Happen When "Oversold"

Last evening in an interview with Chris Martenson I said "This is not a prediction Chris, but markets does not crash on overbought conditions, they crash on oversold conditions."

This is not a crash yet, but it could very well be the start of one.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

CAM Bank, Taken-Over by Bank of Spain, Reports €1.1 Billion Loss, 19% Non-Performing Loans

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 04:01 PM PDT

On July 25, the Wall Street Journal reported Bank of Spain to Take Over CAM

Spain's central bank said Friday it decided to take over Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo as the country's plans to clean up its ailing savings banks enter their final phase.

Spain's Fund for Orderly Bank Restructuring, or FROB—which is controlled by the central bank—will take over the management of CAM, inject €2.8 billion ($4 billion) of new capital and prepare to sell it on to another institution. It will also give CAM a €3 billion credit line to ensure it has sufficient liquidity to meet all its obligations.

"As a result, creditors and depositors can be completely at ease," the Bank of Spain said in a statement.

CAM had already requested €2.8 billion in new capital to meet new minimum solvency requirements the Spanish government set earlier this year, which meant that the FROB would have a large stake in the bank. But the Bank of Spain's decision to take over the institution and prepare it for sale signals it believes CAM is no longer a viable stand-alone entity.

CAM Lost €1.1 billion in Recent Announcement

Please consider CAM lost 1.136 billion, delinquencies reached 19%

It do not take long for CAM to blow much of that €2.8 billion injection.

CAM informed the National Securities Market of a loss of 1,136 million euros in the first six months of the year.
The non-performing-loan ratio was 19% as of June 30, 2011 compared to of 9.1% in December 2010.

CAM is tiny relative to all the other European bank issues. However, the important point is to expect to see more Spanish bank implosions because they are coming.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Deutsche Bank CEO says "It's Obvious Many Banks Will Not Survive if Forced to Value Sovereign Debt at Market Prices"

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 09:39 AM PDT

Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank admitted the obvious today with statements recognizing that many organizations will fail at mark-to-market pricing. To show you the Fantasyland world these bankers live in, Ackermann also believes European banks are now much better capitalized and less dependent on short-term financing.

Courtesy of Google Translate please consider Many banks will not survive if forced to value sovereign debt at market prices

The chairman of Deutsche Bank, Josef Ackermann, today highlighted another obstacle to resolving the debt crisis that crosses the euro zone.

"It is obvious that many organizations will not survive in the event of having to reassess their portfolios of sovereign debt at market prices," Ackerman said in his speech at a banking conference held in Frankfurt.

These comments came after the controversy arose Christine Lagarde, managing director of IMF, which has called for an urgent recapitalization of European banking. According to the institution, the shortage could reach 200,000 million euros, resulting from exposure to sovereign debt.

Ackerman believes that the turmoil facing the financial sector is reminiscent of the crisis suffered in 2008 after the collapse of Lehman Brothers, but also believes that European banks are now much better capitalized and less dependent on short-term financing term.

However, the president of Germany's biggest bank predicted a long period of difficulties for entities to still "have not provided convincing answers to the crisis," while the prospects for revenue growth are "limited to some extent ".

Somehow we are supposed to believe banks do not need to raise capital, even though banks cannot survive mark-to-market pricing, and even though a very biased head of the IMF states that European banks need to raise capital.

Only in the fantasyland world where there are no sovereign debt defaults can banks remotely be considered adequately capitalized. The stress-free tests came to the same conclusion as Ackermann by the same ridiculous measure (assuming no losses on sovereign debt).

Europe rejects IMF call for more bank capital

Reuters reports Europe rejects IMF call for more bank capital

European politicians on Thursday rejected an International Monetary Fund call for banks to raise up to 200 billion euros ($290 billion) in new capital, adding to fears that policymakers may be underestimating the severity of the debt crisis.

IMF chief Christine Lagarde's call on Saturday for mandatory capitalization of European banks to prevent a world recession has reignited a debate over whether they have raised sufficient capital to withstand a severe downturn.

The IMF, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and bank analysts have voiced concerns about a capital shortfall, while European regulators, politicians and banking associations argue that banks have a sufficient cushion to cope with market turbulence and worries over sovereign debt after several rounds of capital raising across the continent.

A European source told Reuters on Wednesday that the IMF had estimated European banks could face a capital shortfall of 200 billion euros, a figure rejected by European bankers and policymakers.

The IMF figure is much higher than European Union estimates of banks' capital needs following stress tests in July which showed banks needed to raise 2.5 billion euros ($3.6 billion), less than had been expected before the tests.

DAX Down 30% from Year's High, Bank Stocks Hammered Again

Bloomberg reports German Stocks Drop to Two-Year Low as Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank Decline

German stocks retreated to their lowest level since August 2009 after German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party suffered its fifth election loss this year and European services and manufacturing growth weakened in August.

Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) fell to its lowest price since March 2009 as the lender is among 17 sued by the U.S. for $196 billion.

The benchmark DAX Index (DAX) slumped 5.3 percent to 5,246.18 at the 5:30 p.m. close in Frankfurt, its third straight decline. The gauge has retreated 30 percent from this year's high on May 2 as reports in Europe and the U.S. spurred concern that the economic recovery is stalling. The drop has left the DAX trading at 8 times the estimated earnings of its companies, the lowest valuation since Bloomberg began collecting the data in 2006. The broader HDAX Index declined 5.2 percent today.

Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest bank, plummeted 8.9 percent to 23.72 euros, its lowest price in more than two years, as it was among 17 banks to be sued by the U.S. to recoup money spent on mortgage-backed securities bought by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

The Frankfurt-based lender declined to comment on a Financial Times report that the U.K. Serious Fraud Office is examining Deutsche Bank's packaged securities deals for signs of wrongdoing. The SFO hasn't started an official investigation and is at the stage of gathering evidence, the FT said.

US and European Banks Had Ample Opportunity to Recapitalize

US and European banks had ample opportunity to recapitalize in late 2009 and all of 2010 in the wake of global reflation tactics by Fed chairman Ben Bernanke and central bankers in general. They failed to do so.

It's crystal clear to everyone but bankers and brain-dead analysts that banks need to recapitalize, except now it will happen after share prices have collapsed.

Bank of America is now trading at $7.25 (and barring a miracle it will be lower tomorrow). It could have and should have raised capital when shares were close to $20 in April 2010. Of course Bank of America should never have purchased Countrywide Financial or Merrill Lynch in the first place, so one has to wonder what the hell these CEOs do for the enormous salary and benefits compensation they receive.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

European Equities Hammered; German DAX Down 5%; US Futures Down 2%; Italy 10-Year Yield Sharply Higher at 5.56%; Gold Hits 1900 Again

Posted: 05 Sep 2011 08:41 AM PDT

European Indices

Click here to refresh Yahoo!Finance Major World Indices

Asia-Pacific Indices

Italy 10-Year Government Bond Yield

Last month the ECB stepped in to "support" Italian bonds. What is it going to do, buy all of them?

Metals

Much-to-do was made over the recent sharp plunge in gold. The pullback lasted precisely three days and now gold is flirting with all-time highs once again.

In bull markets, sharp pullbacks need to be bought, and in bear markets sharp rallies sold. The only trick is catching the turning point, and that is frequently not easy.

However, given the Eurozone crisis, and the likelihood that central banks and governments everywhere will attempt more fiscal and monetary stimulus, it is foolish to call a top in gold as many have done all year.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

marți, 6 septembrie 2011