Tag Archives: economy

Zynga, Inc. stocks fall 12% after contract revision with Facebook, Inc.

December 05, 2012   Chelsie Gastright   No comments

Photo credit: Kotaku.com

Zynga Inc. suffered a devastating loss when their shares fell 12 percent in after-hours trading on Nov. 29. This drop in shares occurred soon after Zynga and Facebook Inc., revised their agreements, changing their relationship status to “It’s complicated.”

With games that ranged from “FarmVille” to “Words with Friends,” Zynga has created large variety of popular games that have exploded on the Facebook network.  Now, through the newly revised contract, Zynga and Facebook will be almost completely independent of one another, according to The Washington Post.

This will mean that Zynga is no longer required to have Facebook advertisements in their game play and will no longer make Facebook their exclusive social networking site.

Michael Patcher, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Wall Street Journal Market Beat blogger, Steven Russolillo, that, “Zynga now has an incentive to expand the reach of its most popular social games beyond Facebook and Zynga.com and be able to offer additional payment options, likely resulting in additional payers who are not Facebook users.”

The original agreement, which was filed in 2010, also prohibited Facebook from making it’s own games. With the current revisions, by March 2013 Facebook will be able to create and develop their own games. However, according to the Market Beat blog, Facebook has no current intentions of developing their own games.

While the numbers may not be showing the glass half-full for Zynga, both Zynga and the analysts feel that this move will, in the end, be extremely beneficial for the company to grow and expand to other media platforms.

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First Powerball winner steps forward, mystery man could be second

December 05, 2012   Chelsie Gastright   No comments

Mark and Cindy Hill stand the three of their four children in Dearborn, Mo., after being awarded the Powerball check. Photo credit: Orlin Wagner/AP

On Nov. 28, the Powerball jackpot was a record $588 million, making it the largest Powerball jackpot in U.S. history. Lottery officials told multiple sources that only two tickets had the matching jackpot numbers. The winning numbers are: 5, 16, 22, 23, 29 and Powerball of 6.

Lottery officials also told the public that the two winners came from Phoenix and Missouri. The stores in question were Trex Mart convenience store in Dearborn, Mo., and 4 Sons Food Store in Fountain Hills, Az.

Until yesterday, the two winners had remained anonymous. This changed on Nov. 30, when the Dearborn, Mo., winner stepped forward to claim their half of the Powerball jackpot.

At the Trex Mart convenience store in Dearborn, the first lucky winners, Mark and Cindy Hill, could not be more thrilled to claim their half of the lottery.

“I keep thinking this is a dream. Wake up you know, because it’s just hard to imagine,” said Shirley Hill, mother of Mark, to Fox 6 reporters in Springfield, Mo.

The second suspected winner was found roughly 2,000 miles from Arizona in Upper Marlboro, MD. While there has been no official confirmation the ticket is real, NBC News reported that multiple sources confirmed it was in fact a legitimate ticket from Arizona.

Arizona lottery officials also stated that in order for the ticket to be redeemed for the cash prize, it must be done in Arizona.

Even though Mark and Cindy are reaping the benefits of their newly acquired fortune, approximately 9 million other players cashed in prizes that ranged from a couple dollars to one million dollars.

This should not come as a surprise, because with the largest Powerball jackpot the lottery has ever seen, the amount of tickets sold were sure to shatter records. According to ABC News, lottery tickets were sold at an astonishing rate of 130,000 per minute the week of the multi-million jackpot. This is almost six times the amount sold during any of the previous weeks.

Both stores that won the winning tickets will also be receiving a reward of their own. The Trex Mart in Dearborn, and the 4 Sons Food store in Fountain Hills will be receiving $50,000 for the two winning tickets.

The jackpot had rolled over 16 consecutive times before finding the two jackpot winners. Now that the winning tickets have been bought, the jackpot will reset itself at the minimum amount for the next drawing.

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China’s Increasing Wealth Gap May Create Issues for New Leaders

November 12, 2012   Ebonne Young   No comments

Photo Credit: beforeitsnews.com

Huang Nubo is a 56-year-old real estate developer who happens to be a billionaire. He grew up in poverty as a child but he now tops the Forbes’ list of the world’s wealthiest people containing both power and riches. Ten years ago he started with only one piece of property and now his company owns apartments, malls and resorts worldwide.

On the contrast, Jin Dengshan is a rural farmer living in the Henan Province of China and describes his life in one word “hard”. Dengshan, with his wife and three young children, live on less than $800 a year that they earn by selling mushrooms.

There are 128 million other Chinese citizens that have these same circumstances making less than $1.25 a day. As China begins to change its leadership this month, a growing divide between the rich and the poor is a challenge that will become the main focus.

On Nov. 8, China’s Communist Party began meeting, which is held once every 10 years, and by the end the people of China will be told who their new leaders are. The current President Hu Jintao gave China its greatest success yet in economic development, unfortunately the come up had a ripple effect.

Jin Xinzhen, a neighbor of Jin Dengshan who is also living in poverty, states that he is too poor to get married. He also stated that he and others in similar living conditions are “like 1,000 miles away from the rich and we couldn’t catch up if we had a rocket”.

Read more at CBSnews.com

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World’s Richest Woman Spews Controversial Comments

September 05, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.theaustralian.com.au

Australia’s Gina Rinehart, the world’s wealthiest woman, has caused quite a stir with her recent comments.

Rinehart, who is a mining tycoon, recently stated that those who are “jealous” of the rich should “Spend less time drinking or smoking and socializing, and more time working.”  She also said that people should stop complaining.

Rinehart, who is currently sitting on a $30.1. billion family fortune, also discussed that she thinks Australia’s struggling mining industry should look to Africa for inspiration.  In a video she recorded for the Sydney Mining Club, she explained that African miners “are willing to work for less than $2 per day.”

She also thinks that if people just work hard, they can become millionaires, despite the fact that she wants to lower the minimum wage.

Rinehart is believed to make about $611 a second.

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Home Sale Numbers Continue to Grow

March 26, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.patriotregroup.wordpress.com

Sale numbers for homes have continued to improve.

Information from the N.H Association of Realtors revealed that sales went up in February by nearly 46 percent.  This comes just after a 36 percent increase in January over the previous year.

The median prices for homes also have increased.  In February 2012, the average was $165,000 versus $146,500 in February 2011.

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Brazil Now Has the Sixth-Largest Economy

March 08, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.latestcnnnews.com

Brazil has surpassed the UK in terms of economy.

The Latin American country has now become the sixth-biggest economy in the world.  Their economy grew by 2.7% last year, which is a lot more than the UK’s 0.8% growth.

The Brazilian economy is worth $2.52tn, versus the UK’s $2.48tn, according to Finance Minister Guido Mantega.  Mantega, however, is trying to play down the symbolic transition, which comes just a year after China overtook Japan to become the second-biggest economy in the world.

“It is not important to be the world’s sixth-biggest economy, but to be among the most dynamic economies, and with sustainable growth,” he said.

Brazil is currently experiencing an economic growth due to high food and oil prices, which has led to rapid growth.  What may also attribute to the growth is the fact that Brazil has a population of 190 million to the UK’s 60 million.

Brazil is also expected to receive a boost in the coming years, as the country will be hosting the 2014 World Cup, and Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics.

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U.S. Postal Service Plans to Cut 35,000 Jobs

February 26, 2012   Rebecca Welk   2 Comments

This past week, the United States Postal Service made the announcement that they plan to cut nearly 35,000 jobs, including 30,000 full-time jobs, and close 223 processing centers around the country.

Patrick Donahoe, the Postmaster General, said that over $20 billion needs to be cut from the budget by the year 2015. By making these recently announced cuts, the Postal Service is still only cutting $2.6 billion, which is not enough. If these cuts are not approved, the USPS could be losing $182.5 billion per year within the next three years.

Over the course of the past five years, the USPS has cut 140,000 workers, but still has nearly 650,000 jobs as of the end of 2011.

Photo Credit: www.newslincolncounty.com

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Obama Proposes Cuts in Budget

February 24, 2012   Rebecca Welk   2 Comments

In President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for 2013, he wants to cut $24 billion worth of federal programs and departments, including cuts to programs such as the Harry S. Truman Scholarship and Children’s Hospital Graduate Medical Education.

Many of these programs have been on the chopping block numerous times, yet have been saved by Congress year after year. Some of them, such as the Department of Agriculture’s Public Broadcasting Grants, Obama has been trying to cut since he was elected to office, but has been unsuccessful.

Photo Credit: www.clevelandleader.com

Obama is not the first President to try and cut programs in the budget plan. President George H.W. Bush planned to cut nearly 246 programs, according to his State of the Union address in 1992. President Nixon tried to cut the Board of Tea Experts, which was formed in 1897 to monitor the quality of tea in the United States. The board was not fully extinct until 1995.

Every program that the government has in place helps a different group of people, and losing any of these programs would hurt Americans in some way, but the cuts are necessary, according to Leslie Paige. Paige is a federal spending watchdog from the Citizens Against Government Waste.

Other people argue that many of these programs, such as Rural Community Assistance Partnership for the Great Lakes region and the Christopher Columbus Foundation, will not receive the necessary funding without the government’s help. Both of these programs have helped numerous people in need, from providing clean drinking water to helping students improve their education.

Congress will be reviewing the budget for 2013 and the cuts Obama has proposed.

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President Obama Discusses Economic Strategy

January 27, 2012   admin   No comments

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Obama Hopeful for New Year

January 01, 2012   Joanelle Navarro   No comments

Photo Credit: www.mideastposts.com

President Barack Obama is hopeful that the U.S. will strengthen its economy and create more jobs in 2012.  He is encouraged by the recent Congress vote that will extend unemployment benefits and prevent high payroll taxes.

Obama said in his final weekly address of 2011 that the year was one with great change and progress.  He cited the end of one war, the death of Osama Bin Laden, and economic recovery as why 2011 was a great year.

He also applauded the Democrats and Republicans in Congress for working together to pass the extension of payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits.  The president thanked Americans who contacted Congress to support the bill for helping get it passed.

Obama said his main goal for 2012 is to make the economic system fairer for the middle class.

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