Today we heard a lot from Asia. The G-20 financial ministers and central bank governors gathered in Seoul, South Korea. Headlining their agenda is stopping the potential global currency war, which comes from countries like China manipulating their currencies to support exporters. Secretary of the Treasure Timothy Geithner spoke today at the G-20, focusing the discussion not on solving a currency war, but discussing trade deficits.
AIG was a hot topic today, too. This morning AIG sold the Asia branch of their company, AIA to help pay back the bailout they received two years ago . Although, this is just a drop in the bucket, since AIG received the biggest bailout of any private company, as much at $180 billion.
Just one day after announcing yet another vehicle recall, Toyota announced this morning that they would move their Prius production to Thailand. Toyota wants the Prius to be mass-produced, bringing down the cost and rising the availability, taking the Prius out of its current niche market.
Taylor Swift was also in the news this morning. She has a new album releasing next week, and she has mastered social media, Twitter to be specific, as a tool for marketing herself to a new audience of countries music listeners — teen-aged listeners.
Could your next sandwich be a union sandwich? Jimmy John’s employees in Minneapolis will vote today to decide whether or not to join the International Workers of the World. If the vote passes, they will be the first U.S. fast food workers to unionize.
It’s midterm election season, and political parties are appealing to specific voters using a new system called “micro-targeting.” Through the use of detailed data basing and informed assumptions, parties are reaching out to voters to encourage them to vote.
Finally, we heard from Bob Moon about state and local officials who are worried that they might not be able to pay the bill for sky-rocketing pension and health care costs.
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