Brecon Mountain Railway in Merthyr Tydfil

The local mine is a mere three miles away and is clearly visible from the offices of the Brecon Mountain Railway in Merthyr Tydfil.
But regulations about how it can be transported mean that coal for the railway's newly converted steam train comes not from the south Wales valleys but from Siberia, 3,000 miles away.
Coal from the Ffos-y-Fran opencast mine in Merthyr has to be moved by rail rather than road. As there is no rail link from the mine to the railway, coal for the converted engine comes from the wilds of Siberia via rail to the ports, then container ship to Hull, then by road to Merthyr.
The railway owner, Jayne Hills, said: "It seems ludicrous that we could get coal from three miles away but instead are being forced to import it from 3,000 miles away. I dread to think what the carbon footprint must be like of moving that coal but we have no choice."
Hills said it was even more galling because the local coal was perfect for use in a steam locomotive. It generates steam quickly and maintains its heat.
The railway would like to convert another of its locomotives to steam from oil but is reluctant to do so in case it becomes impossible to get the coal.
"Being from Merthyr, where everyone has a relative who was a coal miner, or knew somebody who was a miner, this seems just crazy," she said.
The mine operator, Miller Argent, said it was not just the railway that had to source coal from faraway locations despite there being a mine close by. Local coal merchants who supply homes, pubs, schools and hospitals were also having to look elsewhere for their supply because the mine's planning permission stipulated it could only move coal by rail.
The joint managing director, James Poyner, said: "Welsh dry steam coal used to power the world's railways and ships. It seems odd that local people and businesses are not allowed access to it."
Up to 20,000 tonnes of coal a week is dug at the site and the bulk of it goes to the Aberthaw power station, near Cardiff. The company has its own sidings, connected to a branch line and then to the main line so that coal can be moved farther afield. But the Brecon railway and others have found that it makes more sense to go to the Siberians rather than try to get the Merthyr coal back to their area.
Miller Argent is now applying for permission to move a relatively small amount of coal by road rather than rail, though some residents have objected because they don't want more lorries on the road.

Worcester, Massachusetts, 25 miles away from the launch site

The duo claim to be the first people to send a do-it-yourself space camera to the edge of the Earth's atmosphere. In the past, capturing these kind of images has been reserved for big-budget agencies like NASA.
The idea was 20-year-old Oliver Yeh's, a student studying computer science and electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in America.

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To create the budget space camera, the students bought a normal camera on eBay and fastened it inside a styrofoam cooler. They then poked a hole in the side of the cooler for the camera lens. To keep track of the space camera's whereabouts they attached a mobile phone and a wireless router to send GPS coordinates back down to Earth.
They set the camera to take a photo every five seconds.
The handwarmer - the type skiers put in their gloves - was taped to the phone's battery to prevent it freezing. The whole package was strapped to a spherical weather balloon filled with helium and sent to the edge of space to take the extraordinary images.
The students calculated that after 17 miles upward, the air pressure would force the weather balloon to pop so they attached a parachute to lower it down to Earth safely. The GPS in the phone would then help them track where the camera had landed.
To avoid the balloon landing in the ocean or Boston City Centre, Yeh and Lee, looked online for the wind speed and direction. Using this information they calculated the best date, time and location to launch the balloon. In case their calculations were wrong, they attached their contact details and offered a £25 reward to anyone finding the box.
The students launched the balloon on the morning of September 2 after travelling 60 miles inland to a warehouse in Sturbridge, Massachusetts. The balloon was in the air for five hours before the air pressure forced it down.
The duo were amazed when they found the camera unharmed at a construction zone outside Worcester, Massachusetts, 25 miles away from the launch site.
Yey's partner in the project, 23-year-old mechanical engineering grad student Justin Lee, said: "We were like placing bets on whether we thought it would work or not. Early on, we were optimistic that it would work. About 4 hours after, [when] we hadn't heard any news about the device, we had sort of given up hope. We'd thought we'd lost it."
After finding the signal, Lee added: "We were so excited, we jumped right back into the car, and we drove out to Worcester, and we found it. That was a great moment.
"There's something that's fascinating about seeing the Earth from high - I can't quite put my finger on it. There's something just beautiful about seeing that."

The biggest loser was industrialist Oleg Deripaska

The most powerful monuments to failure are sometimes the most unremarkable. About two and a half miles from the Kremlin, a dusty windswept parcel of land lays untended.
It was here that the Russia Tower skyscraper was supposed to rise, soaring over the brash capital of the world’s largest energy exporter. Had it been built, it would have been the tallest building in Europe. But then the crisis bit. Moscow’s city fathers have since opted for a project more in keeping with the country’s austere times: a car park. It’s a painful comedown for the world’s largest country.

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Shortly before Lehman Brothers went under last year, Russia was riding high. The price of oil, its biggest export earner, had hit a high of almost $150 a barrel, it was sitting on the world’s third largest foreign currency reserves, its stock indices were roaring, and it was enjoying the most spectacular consumer boom of the post-Soviet era.
Backed by eight straight years of growth, its increasingly healthy economic and financial indicators had emboldened its ruling tandem of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev. The country’s finance minister spoke of Russia as “an island of stability,” Mr Putin cast caution to the wind and lambasted a leading businessman on state TV, and Russia fought and won a short war with its smaller neighbour Georgia. All that, it would later emerge, was the high watermark of what some Russian analysts were without irony calling the “golden age.”
It’s been a bumpy ride since. As the price of oil plunged like a stone and approached the $30 mark, talk of a repeat of Russia’s traumatic 1998 debt default crisis grew louder, billions of dollars of foreign capital fled the country, and its two leading stock indices plunged more sharply and more swiftly than anywhere else.
There were weeks when it seemed that the Russian stock market was closed more than it was open – a desperate and ultimately futile measure to stem its downward spiral. The cost of borrowing money - always steep here – doubled. The ruble slid, forcing the government to fritter away a third of its foreign currency reserves to slow the devaluation in order to avoid panic.
Moscow’s red hot property market ground to a halt, several oligarchs who had binged on cheap credit in the good years couldn’t afford to service their debts, and the consumer boom unwound like a broken yoyo. Car sales collapsed, unpaid back wages grew, joblessness hit a 9-year high, and property developers began to go bankrupt. When the smoke cleared, Russia’s oligarchs found themselves poorer if not humbler.
According to Forbes magazine, the number of dollar billionaires shrunk to 32 from 110 within a year while the value of their assets plunged by a dizzying 70pc. The biggest loser was industrialist Oleg Deripaska. In 2008 and with an estimated fortune of $28.6bn, Forbes said he was Russia’s richest man. A year later, it said he was now worth “only” $3.5bn. Government figures recently showed that the gap between rich and poor – yawning even before the crisis – was now even greater. But with oil trading around the $70 a barrel mark and with stock indices having staged a solid recovery, Kremlin officials say a cautious recovery is now underway.
It will, they concede, probably not be before 2012 when things return to how they were pre-Lehman.

sending out cheques of $900 to millions of Australians

Australia may have escaped the worst of the global financial crisis, recording a less than 2pc increase in unemployment and enjoying a 1pc growth in GDP in the last 6 months, but life in the lucky country has been altered by the shockwaves of the downturn that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
The ostentatious acquisition of flashy cars, designer shoes and expensive waterfront homes with large mortgages that characterised the boom years have been replaced in many suburbs with sustainable, or even frugal, living, a focus on steadily repaying debt and a new "moral consumer".

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Bernard Salt, a cultural commentator and demographer from KPMG, said the fallout from the crisis had resulted in a fast and brutal change in outlook and lifestyle among Australians.
"During the boom years everyone could live in the moment and not worry about the future, but all of a sudden we started to be very concerned about a longer range view," Mr Salt said. "It is now time to repent, to pay back debt, to live within our means, you now need a moral authority to spend money."
The financial crisis has also transformed the way in which Australians interact with each other. A fervent focus on the individual has given way to a growing sense that there is strength in numbers.
"Celebrity chef culture and Australian Idol came out of the boom, it was a celebration of the individual and everything was about being different and quirky and setting yourself apart from the crowd," Mr Salt said.
"But during the downturn you see a return to the idea of the family, the herd, the tribe, the community." Mr Salt said Australians felt "greatly chastened" by the last 12 months, but probably not as much as people in other countries, such as America and Britain.
While society is still grappling with the consequences of the crash, the economy is on the steady road to recovery.
Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital, said that, in an economic sense, the crisis had been positive for Australia. "We went into the crisis with a housing shortage and now we're seeing signs of recovery in housing and China's demand for our exports held up, it's a fairly rosy outlook," he said.
"For many Australians this recession has been good because if you go back a year the standard variable mortgage rate was 9.6pc, petrol was $1.70 a litre and inflation was quite high. Now, as a result of the crisis, ordinary Australians have seen big falls in their interest rates, petrol prices have fallen back dramatically and many Australians got a cheque in the post from the Prime Minister."
Mr Oliver said the while some had struggled with unemployment and having their working hours cut back, many Australians who had kept their jobs were "doing pretty well".
"In some ways most Australians may think if this is what a recession is, then bring it on, which is probably a radically different situation to the UK. Most Australians are feeling pretty relaxed about things."
As well as aiding the ordinary Australian citizen, the global financial crisis has also helped strengthen Kevin Rudd's dominance of Australian politics. While condemned by the opposition, his government's stimulus plan or "fiscal Viagra", which included sending out cheques of $900 to millions of Australians, has been widely credited with pulling the economy back from the brink.
The generous government handouts and building projects kept consumer spending up and prevented unemployment from climbing. The electorate now has renewed confidence that Mr Rudd and the Labour party can negotiate difficult economic times.
But Mr Oliver warned that while a return to 4pc growth was on the cards in the next 12 months, Australia's outlook was not without its dark spots.
"Many foreigners will look at Australia with disbelief, but the Achilles heel is that Australians still have a lot of debt and we have still got expensive houses, but until something really breaks the economy and sends unemployment spiralling it's unlikely these things will become a problem."

management fee of $40m from the bank to look after the loans

Two top bankers are leaving Barclays to manage a fund in the Cayman Islands that is buying $12.3bn (£7.47bn) of the bank's most troublesome assets.
The deal was criticised by analysts who questioned its complexity, but it will enable the British bank to report a more stable performance in future. Throughout the financial crisis, Barclays has been forced to defend the way it was pricing and accounting for these troublesome assets and is now hoping to smooth out the effect of the investments on its profits.
The assets will not actually be removed from the bank's balance sheet for regulatory purposes but the accounting treatment will be changed, allowing Barclays to avoid taking further big hits by no longer needing to price its assets at current market values through the convention known as "mark to market".
Under the deal terms , Stephen King and Michael Keeley will set up C12 Capital Management which, while based in New York, will manage the new Cayman Islands-registered fund Protium and buy the assets from Barclays.
The pair are leading a team of 45 traders who are leaving Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the bank, to join C12. It will receive an annual management fee of $40m from the bank to look after the loans, which have turned toxic since the credit crunch.
The complexity of the transaction surprised analysts at a time when the regulators had been calling for more clarity in the structure on banks. Others expressed astonishment that the Financial Services Authority had sanctioned such a deal.
Protium will be funded by $450m of working capital provided by two major investors in the US and other unnamed partners, as well as by a $12.6bn 10-year loan from Barclays itself. Analysts believe that the undisclosed backers of Protium should generate a lucrative return on their investment in the fund.
There was a sceptical response from analysts to a conference call with Barclays's finance director, Chris Lucas, who admitted that the bank might need to hold more capital as a result of the deal which in itself would not create a profit or a loss for the bank.
Credit Suisse analysts described the transaction as "a little strange" as Barclays appears to be giving up any benefit from the value of the assets. Ian Gordon, analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, said: "It's being presented as providing a more stable, certain outturn, but you could argue they are giving away the upside but not really being sheltered from much of the downside."
The $12.3bn of assets being sold to Protium forced Barclays to record a £1bn loss in 2008 and include residential mortgage assets, collateralised debt obligations and other complex financial instruments at the heart of the credit crunch.
Analysts had predicted the bank would incur further writedowns on the loans, two-thirds of which are insured by monoline insurers, which became well known during the credit crisis for having provided insurance to some of the complex instruments that are now under water.
The bank will remain exposed to the cash flow on the assets through the $12.3bn 10-year loan from which Barclays expects to make $3.9bn of profit on interest payments. The loan could become impaired if the cash flow of the assets is affected by any falls in value.
Lucas said: "We are not seeking through the transaction to effect a change to our underlying credit-risk profile. But we are restructuring a significant tranche of credit market exposures in a way that we expect will secure more stable risk-adjusted returns for shareholders over time. We also bring in investors with an appetite for the cash flows arising from the assets."
"For Barclays, this represents a good opportunity to create greater predictability of income and economic capital utilisation," Lucas said

unemployment benefit, rose by 24,400 in August to 1.6 million

Unemployment has jumped to its highest level since mid-1995, pushing the jobless rate in Britain up to nearly 8%, official data showed today.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobless total on the broad International Labour Office measure rose by 210,000 in the three months to July, taking the total to 2.47 million. That rise was broadly in line with those of recent months and economists said there was little to suggest that the increases in unemployment were slowing.
The narrower claimant count measure, which only includes those claiming unemployment benefit, rose by 24,400 in August to 1.6 million, the highest since May 1997, and a rate of 5%, the worst since September of that year. That increase was also in line with those of the previous two months.
The ONS reported that average earnings growth slowed sharply to just 1.7% in the three months to July versus the same period last year, down from 2.5% in the three months to June.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "There are now over a million people out of work for more than six months, one in three of them under 25. There are no signs of recovery here.
"This is not the time to take risks with policies that could make unemployment worse. It might look rosier in city dealing rooms but out in the real world unemployment is the number one issue."
Catherine Matthews, a partner at licensed insolvency practitioners Tomlinsons, said: "With so many firms folding, the prospects of re-employment are proving increasingly slim for those that have been unfortunate enough to lose their jobs.
"The big problem for Britain's businesses, the reason why so many of them are going bust and laying off staff, is the banks aren't lending. The funding and financial support needed to survive just isn't there. It's what small and medium-sized business owners, and the accountants we work closely with, are saying to us day in, day out."
Economists were concerned about the slowdown in pay growth, which could prevent the economy recovering quickly from recession. Vicky Redwood at Capital Economics said: "As [Bank of England governor] Mervyn King highlighted yesterday, even if the recession is technically over, it will continue to feel like one for many people for a long time yet."
OECD sees 25 million unemployed
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also warned today that the recession could push unemployment across the developed world to a record high.
In its latest employment outlook report, the OECD predicted that the jobless rate across the world's 30 richest countries could come close to hitting 10% by the end of 2010. That would equate to 25 million people having lost their job in the downturn.
The OECD said that 15 million jobs had already been lost since the end of 2007, and called for more government action. "A major risk is that much of this large hike in unemployment becomes structural in nature," the Paris-based group warned.
"This unwelcome phenomenon occurred in a number of OECD countries in past recessions when unemployment remained at a new higher plateau compared with the pre-crisis level even after output returned to potential, and it took many years, if ever, to bring it down again to the pre-crisis level," it added.

astounding 231 million percent

Naison and his friends are spending the afternoon fishing on the banks of southeastern Zimbabwe's Save River, hoping to catch a trout or an eel to bring home to their families. They are using the mosquito netting from Naison's home as a makeshift fishing net.
This netting is supposed to protect him and his siblings from malaria infection. Naison knows the danger: Earlier this year, he contracted a case of the debilitating disease. But when there's no food and no money to speak of, the nets are needed more for fishing than disease prevention.
Hard choices
Zimbabwean families are facing hard, even unimaginable choices these days.
Unemployment rates are soaring. Even wage earners face crippling inflation rates, which have reached an astounding 231 million percent, according to the government's own figures. Under these conditions, it is extremely difficult to purchase food, let alone save money.
You can help protect Naison and others like him from the worst effects of Zimbabwe's ongoing economic meltdown.
Strengthening food security
Mercy Corps is helping vulnerable families in three impoverished districts in Zimbabwe to set up communal gardens that will benefit the entire community. We're teaming with local government officials to offer training on how best to prepare the soil and keep out pests, and supplying families with vegetable and herb seeds.
The goal is to let the people who tend to the gardens use the spinach, squash, mint and rosemary for their own cooking — and then sell the surplus to pay for other household needs.
Naison is excited. The garden his sister is tending will be growing his favorite vegetable: cabbage. And it means less time worrying over makeshift fishing nets or where his next meal is coming from. Instead, many meals to come will be harvested from gardens tilled and tended to by the hands of his family and his community.The Economic Report of the President is issued by the Executive Office of the President and the Council of Economic Advisers. It includes:
Current and foreseeable trends and annual numerical goals concerning topics such as employment, production, real income and Federal budget outlays.
Employment objectives for significant groups of the labor force.
Annual numeric goals.
A program for carrying out program objectives.
The Economic Report of the President is transmitted to Congress no later than ten days after the submission of the Budget of the United States Government. Supplementary reports can be issued to the Congress which contain additional and/or revised recommendations.
Included in the Economic Report of the President is the Annual Report of the Council of Economic Advisers. Each year, the Council of Economic Advisers submits this report on its activities during the previous calendar year in accordance with the requirements of the Congress as set forth in section 10(d) of the Employment Act of 1946 as amended by the Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act of 1978.
The Economic Report of the President has been published since 1950 and is available on GPO Access from 1995 forward. A searchable database of the Economic Report of the President is available from 1996 forward. Documents are available in ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), with many of the tables also available for separate viewing and downloading as spreadsheets in xls and comma delimited formats.

37-year-old rice farmer with a black baseball cap perched atop

The wider world seems a long way from the rice paddies of Naga Umbang, a quiet village of 395 people backed by thrusting green mountains in Aceh province, at the tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island. These days, farmers draped in hats and t-shirts against the beating sun are bent over working seedlings into their rice paddies.
But all you have to do is mention food and fuel prices and the winds of a global crisis come rushing in. It's top of mind for nearly everyone working these paddies, and even those who used to have a semblance of financial security aren't spared.
Zainbon is a 37-year-old rice farmer with a black baseball cap perched atop her pink headscarf. Her husband mans a desk as a temporary, low-level bureaucrat in the district transportation office nearby, but still they struggle to find the rupiahs each month to get by. She pulls at her scarf explaining how they stretch six or seven dollars a day across the needs of cooking staples, school fees, fuel and now, in the fall planting season, fertilizer and rice seed. A Mercy Corps survey in the area recently found staple food prices climbing between 10 and 25 percent, on top of fuel prices that jumped 40 percent earlier this year.
"This is hugely important for us - the staples are rising and the salary isn't keeping pace," Zainbon says. "What about others whose husbands are just farming? They're struggling even worse."
This worldwide crisis is striking an area just starting to find its feet again after a vicious cycle of calamity. For decades, a rural separatist conflict kept many farmers out of their rice fields and fruit plantations for fear that they would be caught in the crossfire. Then in 2004, the Asian tsunami sent a wall of water up to 30 feet deep and flattened everything in the area, including the entire village of Naga Umbang.
With the houses now rebuilt, the rice paddies cleared of debris and new water buffalo roaming the yards, villagers are now teaming with Mercy Corps to strengthen their rice farming techniques and improve crop yields. And with food prices bearing down on locals, it couldn't come at a better time.
"We're working to bring the spirit and enthusiasm back to the farming sector because we really think there's great potential there," says Isnaini Djalil, Mercy Corps' rice project officer in Banda Aceh.
On a recent morning under the blazing equatorial sun, Mercy Corps partner and agricultural consultant Khainullah led a dozen Naga Umbang farmers to a test plot. Khainullah is staffing Mercy Corps' farmer field schools, which offer updated technique clinics to villagers in Aceh up to a dozen times throughout the three- to four-month rice season.
Khainullah waded into the plot in bare feet and, sinking into mud to his shins, planted green rice seedlings out in a gridded pattern 20 centimeters from each other. The technique, called legowo in Indonesian, spreads out the plants from the villagers' typically tight rows and is supposed to yield stronger harvests from increased exposure to the sun. It also cuts down on cover for pests such as mice and eases weeding.
Zainbon and two others stepped into the paddy to try out the new method. "Have you said a prayer?" an onlooker asked, as the crowd of farmers and NGO workers broke up laughing. In the deeply spiritual and Islamic Aceh, even this simple act might demand some offering. Zainbon shoved the plants into the mud without one.
Khainullah later explained how to use the fruits from certain palm trees to ward off snails in the paddy, how to bury weeded grass back underground to improve soil and save effort and how straight rows maximized space and yields. He also gave Zainbon some personal coaching on transplanting seedlings from a bed, telling her to move them at a younger age and without banging soil off the root ball, which can stress the plant.
Zainbon seemed rapt through most of the two-hour clinic.
"We need to modernize," she said through a translator. "We're already thinking about when Mercy Corps leaves here and this transfer of knowledge is one way we can build independence. Money from an NGO would go quickly, but knowledge and technology sticks in your mind."
The improved techniques are aimed at boosting incomes. Typically most of the rice harvest in villages like this goes to feed families. But if farmers in Naga Umbang can grow more efficiently, they will begin to see surplus rice from the same backbreaking labor they currently put into the season. And they will hopefully have the resolve to plant a second crop each year, which they can take to market in nearby cities.
That's the sort of security that the poor in Naga Umbang and around the world are seeking in these turbulent times.
"We need to pay attention to agriculture and go back to it," Zainbon said. "It's difficult if we just depend on income from government or other office jobs. But our prospects are better if we pay attention to the land and plant better crops."

Saraswati's husband makes about $4 a day hawking snacks and drinks

It's never been harder to make a living in the crowded, open-sewered slums of North Jakarta.
Most of the neighborhood's two million residents are poor migrants from other parts of Indonesia who aren't legally employable. So they're forced to scrape by in a vast informal economy — encompassing everything from pushcart restaurants to cheap t-shirt vendors — and pay ever-higher prices for staple foods and other necessities.
Saraswati's husband makes about $4 a day hawking snacks and drinks. The couple and their four children squeeze into a 150-square-foot house with unreliable electricity and no running water. They buy jerry cans full of water for cooking and drinking — water that could be contaminated.
Drinking dirty water is life-threatening. In 2002, more than 3.5 million people died as a result of poor water, sanitation and hygiene, according to the UN.
And the cost of that water alone eats up nearly 10 percent of Saraswati's family income — a heavy burden on a family budget already under siege from skyrocketing food and fuel costs.
"Life is getting harder these days," explains Saraswati, 45. "Everything is expensive now. I spend the money only for our daily meals and monthly regular expenses like electricity, water and gasoline for cooking. The only way to survive is sacrificing the children's education. We can't afford it, so they only went until high school."
You can help families increase their resiliency in a time of uncertainty.
In her neighborhood of Penjaringan, Mercy Corps field teams are building a communal water-supply system. We're working with a private-water company, Palyja, to construct a 900-meter pipeline from a tank that will store filtered water. By mid-December, 60 families will get clean drinking water piped directly into their homes for a monthly fee — cutting water bills by an estimated 40 to 80 percent.
Yet huge challenges remain: including securing better job opportunities, getting garbage service and upgrading rickety and overcrowded housing conditions.Bureau of Economics Reports: Major, published reports, usually containing original research and entailing a substantial commitment of resources, concerning an issue of current policy interest or of long term impact on Federal Trade Commission antitrust or consumer protection missions.
The more recent Economic Reports are offered in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
If you have trouble accessing one of these reports, please email ReportRequests@ftc.gov.
Consumer Fraud in the United States: The Second FTC Survey, Keith B. Anderson (October 2007)
This study reports the results of the Federal Trade Commission’s second statistical survey of fraud in the United States. The survey found that 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of one or more of the frauds included in the survey during the year studied. More people – an estimated 4.8 million U.S. consumers – were victims of fraudulent weight-loss products than any of the other frauds covered by the survey. Fraudulent foreign lottery offers and buyers club memberships tied for second place in the survey, with an estimated 3.2 million people were victims of each of these frauds during the period studied. Fraudulent prize promotions and work-at-home programs ranked fourth and fifth.
Text of the Commission Staff ReportRequest Mailed Copy of ReportNews Release
Credit-Based Insurance Scores: Impacts on Consumers of Automobile Insurance: A Report to Congress By the Federal Trade Commission (July 2007)
This study examines the effect of credit-based insurance scores on the price and availability of automobile insurance and the impact of such scores on racial and ethnic minority groups and on low-income groups. Using a large database of insurance policies, the study shows that scores are effective predictors of risk under automobile policies. At the same time, scores are observed to be distributed differently among racial and ethnic groups, and this difference is likely to have an effect on the insurance premiums that these groups pay, on average. Nonetheless, scores appear to derive a relatively small amount of their predictive power from their correlation with race and ethnicity. Finally, the Commission could not develop an alternative scoring model that would continue to predict risk effectively, yet decrease the differences in scores among racial and ethnic groups.
Text of the Commission Report Statement of Chairman Majoras, Commissioner Kovacic, and Commissioner RoschDissenting Statement of Commissioner HarbourConcurring Statement of Commissioner LeibowitzRequest Mailed Copy of ReportNews Release
Improving Consumer Mortgage Disclosures: An Empirical Assessment of Current and Prototype Disclosure Forms, James M. Lacko and Janis K. Pappalardo (June 2007)
This study presents the results of 36 in-depth interviews with recent mortgage customers, and quantitative consumer testing with over 800 mortgage customers, that examined how consumers search for mortgages, how well consumers understand current mortgage cost disclosures and the terms of their own recently obtained loans, and whether better disclosures could improve consumer understanding of mortgage costs, consumer shopping for mortgage loans, and consumers’ ability to avoid deceptive lending practices. The results of the study show that current mortgage cost disclosures fail to convey key mortgage costs to many consumers, and that prototype disclosures developed for the study significantly improved consumer recognition of mortgage costs, demonstrating that better disclosures are feasible.
Executive Summary of the ReportText of the ReportSample Prototype Disclosure FormSample Current Disclosure FormsRequest Mailed Copy of ReportNews Release
Children's Exposure to Television Advertising in 1977 and 2004: Information for the Obesity Debate, Debra J. Holt, Pauline M. Ippolito, Debra M. Desrochers, and Christopher R. Kelley (June 2007)
This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the amount and type of television advertising seen by children in 2004 and compares these results to similar studies conducted for the Federal Trade Commission's 1978 Children's Advertising Rulemaking. This study finds that children in 2004 are exposed to more television ads, fewer paid ads, and fewer food ads compared to 30 years ago. Over half of children's exposure to food advertising comes from children's shows in 2004 compared to about 25 percent in 1977. Sixty-one percent of children's ad exposure and 72 percent of their food ad exposure is from cable programming, but nearly 30 percent comes from primetime broadcast programming. This report also provides a baseline against which to measure future changes in children's exposure to television advertising as parents, firms and children react to obesity concerns.
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Supplementary MaterialsAn Analysis of Exposure to Non-Network Television Advertising, Prepared for the Children's Advertising Proceeding by J. Howard Beales, III, Economist, Federal Trade Commission (November 21, 1978)
Network and Non-Network Sources of Programming and Advertising for Children, Prepared for the Children's Advertising Rulemaking Proceeding by John D. Abel, Associate Professor, Department of Telecommunication, Michigan State University (November 24, 1978), As Supplemented By Letter Dated April 16, 1979
Consumer Fraud in the United States: An FTC Survey, Keith B. Anderson, (August 2004)
This survey will help the FTC better serve fraud victims through law enforcement and education. The survey was designed, in part, to assist that agency in determining whether information in the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel database of fraud complaints is representative of consumers’ actual experiences with fraud in the marketplace. The survey provides the agency with a broader snapshot of fraud in America which, in addition to helping target law enforcement actions, will allow the FTC to target education campaigns more precisely towards particular consumer groups who are at risk of falling victim to fraud but who may not complain to the FTC about their experiences.
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The Petroleum Industry: Mergers, Structural Change, And Antitrust Enforcement: A Report of the Staff of the Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economics (August 2004)
This report updates two earlier FTC studies on mergers and structural change in the U.S. petroleum industry. Reviewing industry developments since the 1980s, this report finds, among other things, that concentration in crude oil at the country or company level has remained relatively low and that mergers among private oil companies have not significantly affected crude oil concentration.. There have been some increases in industry concentration at other vertical levels in the domestic industry such as refining and gasoline marketing, but industry concentration for most levels of the industry has remained low to moderate. Economies of scale have become increasingly important in shaping the industry, although the incentives for firms to be vertically integrated throughout all or most levels of production and distribution have diminished. The report also describes in detail the FTC’s antitrust merger enforcement policy in the petroleum industry since the1980s.
Text of the Bureau of Economics ReportStatement of the Commission Appendix: Commission Testimony Concerning Market Forces, Anticompetitive Activity, and Gasoline Prices (July 15, 2004) Statement of Commissioner ThompsonStatement of Commissioner Harbour
Earlier ReportsMergers In the U.S. Petroleum Industry 1971-1984: An Updated Comparative Analysis (May 1989)Mergers In the Petroleum Industry (September 1982)
News Release
To receive a paper copy of this report, please email ReportRequests@ftc.gov.
The Effect of Mortgage Broker Compensation Disclosures on Consumers and Competition: A Controlled Experiment, James M. Lacko and Janis K. Pappalardo (February 2004).
This report presents the results of a study that uses a controlled experiment with over 500 recent mortgage customers to examine the mortgage broker compensation disclosure proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as part of its July 2002 RESPA reform proposal. The focus of the disclosure is on any “yield spread premium” paid by the lender to the broker for loans originated with “above par” interest rates. The study finds that the disclosure is likely to confuse consumers, cause a significant proportion to choose loans that are more expensive than the available alternatives, and create a substantial consumer bias against broker loans, even when the broker loans cost the same or less than direct lender loans. The report concludes that a better way to help consumers obtain less expensive mortgages would be to encourage and facilitate consumer comparison shopping on loan costs.
Full Report [PDF 2.9MB]Executive Summary [PDF 261KB]Text of the Report [PDF 1.1MB]Appendices [PDF 1.14MB] Request Mailed Copy of ReportNews Release
Advertising Nutrition & Health, Evidence from Food Advertising 1977-1997, Pauline M. Ippolito and Janis K. Pappalardo (September 2002)
This report reviews data collected by Commission staff on the types of claims made in 11,647 advertisements taken from a sample of eight leading magazines between 1977 and 1997. The primary focus of the study is on advertising claims related to health and nutrition, but it also examines other types of advertising claims. The report further reviews how nutrition-related claims in advertising changed under the various regulatory policies in place during these years. It is revealed that nutrition-related claims were a major focus of food advertising and an important focus of competition during the two-decade period covered by the report. Moreover, data indicate a sustained movement toward specific nutrient claims, such as "low fat," in place of, or in addition, to more general nutrition claims, such as "nutritious." The study finds that changes in advertising content appear to be associated with changes in regulatory rules and enforcement policies.
Executive Summary [PDF 599KB]Text of Report [PDF 3.25MB] Request Mailed Copy of Report
Competition and Consumer Protection Perspectives on Electric Power Regulatory Reform, joint report of the Bureau of Economics with the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Bureau of Competition, and Policy Planning, (July 2000).
This policy analysis examines various competition and consumer protection issues that arise in restructuring the electric power industry. The topics were addressed by FTC staff in comments to state regulatory commissions and to FERC, and include existing market power in generation services; vertical discrimination in transmission access; affiliate transactions; horizontal mergers; vertical and convergence mergers; retail competition entry conditions; and advertising claims, information disclosures, and deceptive business practices. The report also incorporates information on these topics gathered at the FTC's public workshop on market power and consumer protection issues in this industry.
Survey of Rent-to-Own Customers, James M. Lacko, Signe-Mary McKernan, and Manoj Hastak (April 2000)
This report presents the results of a nationwide survey of rent-to-own customers. The survey found that most rent-to-own merchandise is ultimately purchased by the customer, most customers are satisfied with their rent-to-own transactions, and most customers are treated well if they are late making a payment, although some customers are subject to possibly abusive collection practices. The report recommends that the total cost of purchasing merchandise through a rent-to-own transaction be disclosed on product labels that the consumer can see while shopping, in addition to disclosures in rental agreements and advertisements.
Executive SummaryCopy of Report [PDF 11 MB]Request Mailed Copy of Report
Transformation and Continuity: The U.S. Carbonated Soft Drink Bottling Industry and Antitrust Policy Since 1980, Harold Saltzman, Roy Levy, and John C. Hilke (November 1999)
This report analyzes the U.S. carbonated soft drink ("CSD") industry, with its primary focus on the 1980s and early 1990s, a period of rapid structural change that transformed the industry. In addition to documenting these changes, an empirical model is developed to evaluate the antitrust merger policies that were pursued by the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") during this period -- the FTC challenged large horizontal acquisitions of Dr Pepper and 7UP franchises by Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola bottlers, but did not challenge vertical acquisitions of CSD bottlers by their franchisors or other horizontal bottler acquisitions. The findings tend to support or are consistent with these policies, but also identify areas that seem to warrant further study.
Executive SummaryText of Report [PDF 500KB]
The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Discussion of Competitive and Antitrust Issues in an Environment of Change, Roy Levy (March 1999)
The report reviews significant informational, institutional, and structural changes that have influenced price and non-price competition strategies of brand-name pharmaceutical companies, particularly during the last 15 years. The study considers the possible antitrust implications of these changes by examining alternative anticompetitive and procompetitive explanations for the pricing, vertical contracting, and vertical and horizontal consolidation strategies that have emerged in this environment of change in the pharmaceutical industry.
Executive SummaryCopy of Report [PDF 19.4MB]
A Generic Copy Test of Food Health Claims in Advertising, Dennis Murphy (principal author), Theodore H. Hoppock and Michelle K. Rusk (contributing authors) (November 1998) [a joint report of the Bureau of Economics and the Bureau of Consumer Protection].
Executive SummaryCopy of Report [PDF 199Kb]
Appendix A [PDF 2MB]
Appendix B [PDF 220KB]
Competition and the Financial Impact of the Proposed Tobacco Industry Settlement, joint report of the Bureau of Economics with the Bureau of Competition and the Bureau of Consumer Protection (September 1997)
The report analyzes the potential impact of the proposed tobacco industry settlement on cigarette prices, industry profits, and government revenues. The main conclusions of the report are that (1) the antitrust exemption may reduce competition in the industry and allow the industry to profit from the settlement by raising prices more than enough to cover the annual payments requires; (2) since the annual payments are essentially equivalent to an excise tax, even if the settlement does not have anti-competitive effects, we can expect that cigarette prices will rise by enough to generate revenues to make the annual payments; and (3) the government revenues will increase due to the settlement.
Executive Summary Copy of Report [PDF 207KB]
Information and Advertising Policy: A Study of Fat and Cholesterol Consumption in the United States, 1977-1990, Pauline M. Ippolito and Alan D. Mathios (September 1996)
The study examines changes in the consumption of fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol from 1977 to 1990, a period when federal policy governing diet-disease claims changed. The study finds that dietary improvements occurred more rapidly in the post-1985 years, when the rules were relaxed. The study also includes a variety of detailed data on differences in consumer knowledge and sources of dietary fats over the period.
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The Effectiveness of Collusion Under Antitrust Immunity: The Case of Liner Shipping Conferences, Paul S. Clyde and James D. Reitzes (January 1996) [PDF 162KB]
This study analyzes whether ocean shipping rates are affected by the presence and practices of ocean liner conferences. The study provides some support for the conclusion that some aspects of the conference system may contribute to higher shipping rates, particularly when the conference has a sizable market share.
Disentangling Regulatory Policy: The Effects of State Regulations on Trucking Rates, Timothy P. Daniel and Andrew N. Kleit (November 1995) [PDF 165KB]
This study estimates the relationship between intrastate trucking rates and three different types of state-level regulations: 1) the strictness with which rates are regulated; 2) the requirements placed on motor carriers seeking to enter the market; and 3) whether the state provides antitrust immunity for decisions made by motor carrier rate bureaus.
The Salt Producers Discount Practices Before and After the Robinson- Patman Act and the FTC's Challenge to Them: The Morton and International Salt Cases, John L. Peterman (October 1995)
This study describes the pricing and distribution of salt during the National Industrial Recovery Act period and beyond (1930-1945). Two FTC cases brought to enforce the Robinson-Patman anti- discrimination law during this period are examined in some detail. Also included is a statistical description of industries in which the FTC brought Robinson-Patman Act cases between 1936 and 1980.
Request Mailed Copy of Report
Measurements of Market Power in Long Distance Telecommunications, Michael R. Ward (April 1995) [PDF 504KB]
This study assesses empirically the competitiveness of the long distance telephone market. To do so, it estimates firm-specific long- run demand elasticities for AT&T and its rivals for long distance service marketed to households and small businesses during 1988-91.
Older Economic Reports
To receive a copy of one of these reports, please email (include mailing address) to:ReportRequests@ftc.gov.
1994
1. Resale Price Maintenance: An Economic Study of the FTC's Case Against Corning Glass Works, Pauline M. Ippolito and Thomas R. Overstreet, Jr., January 1994.
The study is intended to help increase understanding of the economic motivation for RPM when the products at issue are relatively simple goods that do not fit the most well-known efficiency rationales for the practice. The study found no evidence of collusion among Corning's dealers or competitors, and stock market movements (as well as the value of sales) for Corning and some of its competitors do not support anticompetitive theories. The authors find the results "consistent with the theory that RPM may at times be used as a method of increasing distribution of 'simple' products sold through multiproduct dealers."
2. Effects of Unfair Imports on Domestic Industries: U.S. Antidumping and Countervailing Duty Cases, 1980-1988, Morris E. Morkre and Kenneth H. Kelly, February 1994.
The study analyzes the effects of dumped and/or subsidized imports on the domestic industries with which they competed. The authors found that, in nearly 90 percent of the 179 cases analyzed, unfair imports caused reductions in domestic industry revenue of less than 10 percent.
1993
No reports available from 1993.
1992
1. Case Studies of the Price Effects of Horizontal Mergers, Laurence Schumann, Robert P. Rogers, and James D. Reitzes, April 1992.
The study examines the aftermath of mergers in three industries: titanium dioxide, cement, and corrugated paperboard. The study finds a mixture of results with likely pro-competitive outcomes in cement and paperboard, and a potentially large anti-competitive outcome in titanium dioxide (depending on the model specification).
2. An Analysis of Department Store Reference Pricing in Metropolitan Washington, Ronald S. Bond and R. Dennis Murphy, September 1992.
This report presents empirical evidence on the likely consumer injury associated with department store reference pricing, the common pricing strategy in which sale prices are contrasted prominently with regular prices in newspaper advertising. The study concludes that although regular prices claimed by department stores are higher than consumers would likely find elsewhere, the so-called sale prices are generally quite competitive.
1991
1. Petroleum Tariffs as a Source of Government Revenue, Keith B. Anderson and Michael R. Metzger, February 1991.
The study evaluates the desirability of import tariffs on crude oil and refined petroleum products. Such tariffs would cost consumers between $2 and $5 per dollar of revenue raised. Excise taxes, on the other hand, would cost consumers $1.05 to $1.13 per dollar of revenue raised.

Elizabeth Daniels is no exception

Small-business owners quickly realize the tremendous devotion that's required just to keep the lights on. Elizabeth Daniels is no exception.
Daniels opened a Portland home-décor store in May that mostly sells furniture "reinvented" by local artists, along with smaller items like gift cards and hand lotions. Between scouting new products, meeting vendors, placing ads, restocking inventory, networking and just minding the store, she has little time for anything else.
"I have forgone any hint of personal life," says Daniels, 35. "I have sacrificed everything — my finances, my time, my energy, my friendships and relationships — to try and make this work."
So far, customers rave about her store, called Ease. But like an acclaimed yet obscure arthouse film, she laments, "I've got great reviews, but nobody's buying."
Opening a retail store is a scary proposition anytime. Doing so in a downturned economy can be downright terrifying. Mercy Corps' U.S. economic-development arm is helping vulnerable businesses like Daniels' weather the storm.
In the last 10 years, Mercy Corps and our microfinance partners have disbursed more than $1 billion in loans to more than 1 million hardworking entrepreneurs around the world — including many here in the U.S. After Hurricane Katrina, we awarded loans and grants to dozens of New Orleans businesses to help them restock and reopen.
Each year, our Portland-area microlender, Mercy Corps Northwest, assists dozens of low-income borrowers— mostly women and new immigrants — realize their business dreams. Our matched-savings programs, financial literacy classes and business advice help hundreds more.
Daniels needed a loan to pursue her interests in design and décor after working for the federal government for 13 years. "Mercy Corps was my first and last stop," Daniels says. With no retail experience and no steady income, she says, "I wouldn't have been able to get into this any other way."
Mercy Corps loan officers helped her fine-tune her business plan, gather more detailed market research, and access other valuable resources, such as a retired accountant — all crucial to her success. They also extended a $15,000 loan to fund part of Daniels' start-up costs, including retail inventory, exterior signage and installation of an HVAC system. Daniels invested another $10,000 of her own money to cover remaining expenses before opening her doors.
The storefront she chose sits along an up-and-coming retail stretch a few blocks from her childhood home. Other new arrivals include a motorcycle-repair shop, a piercing studio, a wine bar-and-nursery and a wellness center. "It really seemed like the place to be," she says.
And it was — at first. Sales over the first three months exceeded her expectations. Then in August gas climbed to $4 a gallon, Daniels says, and things came to a "screeching halt." The economic outlook hasn't brightened since. "My sales have dropped by 75 percent from May."
She says Mercy Corps continues to offer its support, most recently by introducing her to a retail-marketing expert and a group of young people willing to build a low-cost website. She's also been encouraged to make use of other local resources, and is working with nearby retailers — most of whom are struggling, too — to put on events and promote the district's new identity, "West Tabor Village."
If things don't turn around, she'll consider trying to sell directly to design firms, representing some of her artist clients to East Coast galleries hungry for West Coast art, and opening her retail space only on Saturdays.
Daniels had hoped to bring fresh ideas in color, design and style to her neighborhood, sharing and promoting local talent. "I can only hope that I have succeeded, if only for a short while," says Daniels. "If now is not the time, I hope to be able to work with Mercy Corps in the future and rebuild my dream."
Your support gives us the resources to help entrepreneurs — including immigrants and low-income families — get the training and opportunities they need to keep their businesses open.

the poorest countries on the planet.

Every morning, Sophie Gbellet arrives at her open-air market stall to sell bottles of palm oil, homemade peanut butter, onions, mushrooms and caterpillars — a local delicacy in Bouar, one of the largest cities in one of the poorest countries on the planet.
No fewer than 13 children depend on Sophie's income from her food stall. Five of them are her late sister's; the others are her own. They've been her responsibility — and hers alone — since her husband died three years ago.
Families like Sophie's need your help to survive the lean times. Among her challenges are two most of us can relate to: the rising cost of food and fuel.
More difficult times in one of the world's poorest countries
Even in normal years, two-thirds of Central African Republic's population can afford only the most bare food essentials required for survival. But times are worse than normal. A liter of cooking oil that a year ago cost $1.66 now costs $3.57. The price hikes haven't boosted profit margins for resellers like Sophie; they've only increased the cost of living.
We're all impacted by rising food costs — today's food prices are 60 percent higher than in 2006 — but the impact is felt more in poorer countries. Residents of wealthier nations spend about 10 to 20 percent of their income on food; those in poorer countries already spend 60, 70, sometimes 80 percent of their budget to feed themselves. Any cost increases are extremely hard for them to absorb.
Mix in the more recent global credit crisis and you've got a recipe for real economic hardship.
"The financial crisis will only make it more difficult for developing countries to protect their most vulnerable people from the impact of rising food and fuel costs," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said recently.
Tough living, tougher choices
Living in Bouar isn't easy even on the best of days. There is no piped water and no electricity. Schools are staffed not by professional teachers but by parent volunteers. And hospitals are grossly under-funded. Workers at Bouar's main hospital, for example, haven't been paid in nearly two years.
Sophie's family must skimp on most everything — like medicine and clothes — just to afford the food they need. It's getting nearly impossible to cover school tuition costs for the children, including Sophie's eldest son, who is enrolled in a seminary.
But there is hope. Thanks to a grant from the Gates Foundation, Mercy Corps is helping 8,000 residents of Bouar — providing the help they need to survive the crisis and build a better future.
Immediate solutions
Mercy Corps is employing more than 400 people to repair roads, shore up dams and clear land for cultivation. We're helping farmers buy the seeds and tools they need to grow more corn and peanuts. We're bringing together both residents and displaced people to fix water points, providing everyone with reliable access to clean, fresh water. And we're making small loans to shopkeepers like Sophie.
Sophie wants to borrow money to expand her zinc-roofed stall, expand her product range and buy in larger quantities to improve her profit margin. She is more than capable. Very few of us could care for 13 children and run our own business, much less sell food from a zinc-covered stall all day

August plunged 45 percent, to $15.7 billion

SHANGHAI – China's industrial output, investment and retail sales strengthened in August as stimulus spending helped boost the world's third-largest economy amid a slump in exports.
The National Statistics Bureau reported that industrial production rose 12.3 percent from a year earlier, accelerating from July's 10.8 percent increase, while retail sales surged 15.4 percent. Consumer prices fell 1.2 percent from a year earlier, alleviating worries that massive stimulus spending might fuel a resurgence of inflation.
"Industrial activity should continue to grow in the coming months, underpinned by resilient domestic demand and a rebound in exports," Jing Ulrich, JP Morgan's chairwoman for China equities, said in a report.
Despite the steady flow of positive figures over the past few months, China's exports have remained sluggish, crimped by feeble demand.
Exports fell 23 percent to $103.7 billion in August, customs data showed, while imports totaled $88 billion, down 17 percent year-on-year. China's overall trade surplus in August plunged 45 percent, to $15.7 billion.
Given the weakness in China's once-thriving foreign trade, leaders have remained cautious about the recent uptick in China's growth. Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday repeated his pledges to continue the government's pro-active spending policies to ensure the economy continues to recover.
"The stabilization and recovery of the Chinese economy is not yet steady, solid and balanced," Wen, the country's top economic official, told an audience of 1,000 businesspeople, academics and government officials in the northern city of Dalian.
"Some of the stimulus measures will see their effect wane, and it will take time before those long-term policies show effect," the premier said. "We cannot and will not change our policy direction in the absence of proper conditions."
Beijing's 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) plan to insulate the economy from the global recession with heavy spending on building highways and other public works helped boost investment in factory equipment and construction so far this year. Such investment rose 33 percent in January-August from a year earlier, to 11.298 trillion yuan ($1.65 trillion), despite an expected waning of bank lending following a massive surge in the first half of the year.
New bank loans totaled 410.4 billion yuan ($60.1 billion), the central bank reported Friday, higher than estimated and well above the 355.9 billion yuan in new credit in July.
Bank credit traditionally tapers off late in the year. But lending this year still remains way above normal, having soared to a record 7.1 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) in the first half. It reached 8.15 trillion yuan ($1.2 trillion) by the end of August, the People's Bank of China reported.
Demand for China's exports appears to be recovering but still remains weak, government officials say.
"We still have much hard work to do to attain China's goal of 8 percent growth for this year. Many challenges lie ahead," Li Xiaochao, the statistics bureau's spokesman, told reporters in Beijing at a monthly briefing on the economy.
While it pushes ahead with its sweeping construction program, China is tinkering with its policy, aiming to keep growth strong while curbing excess investment in sectors burdened with overcapacity, such as steel, cement and some chemicals — a chronic problem.