Financial lessons an education for Kidderminster school pupils
7:40am Friday 25th May 2012 in Local
WYRE FOREST’S MP found himself back at school as he joined students from King Charles I School in Kidderminster for a financial education lesson.
Conservative Mark Garnier, who has spoken to Prime Minister David Cameron about the benefits of making financial education compulsory in the school curriculum, saw how interactive white boards turned into working ATMs and giant cheques appeared as the school’s year 8 pupils learnt about the basics of banking, thanks to NatWest’s MoneySense for Schools programme.
Watched by the MP, teacher Chris Gibson, together with NatWest’s Kim Whitehouse, took the pupils through interactive exercises to help them understand more about what banks do, including how cheques and paying-in slips work and the practical tasks of balancing statements and using ATMs.
Ms Whitehouse, said: “Financial education for young people is more important today than it has ever been. It is essential that they start to understand about money management and bank accounts as soon as possible.”
Mr Garnier said: “Financial education is something that must be put on to the curriculum but until it is, it is incredibly important that financial organisations engage with schools to help ensure the next generation is financially literate.”
Chris Gibson, leader of King Charles I Lower School, said: “It was a pleasure having Mark with us and to show him how we are helping our students understand money.
“The students have really enjoyed and benefited from the activities. It’s very important that they gain basic money management skills and the NatWest MoneySense tools are an extremely practical and fun way of doing this.”
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FlipC - The Mad Ranter says...
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Global stocks, euro slip as Spain dims sentiment - msnbc.com
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stocks and the euro eased on Friday after the Spanish economic dynamo of Catalonia said it needed help to refinance its debt, adding to financial troubles in Spain, which is already weighed down by a capital-constrained banking sector.
The euro plumbed a fresh 22-month low against the U.S. dollar after the president of Catalonia, Spain's wealthiest autonomous region, said it is running out of options for refinancing more than 13 billion euro in debt that comes due this year.
The euro fell below $1.25 on trading platform EBS, and equity markets on Wall Street opened lower, following retreating European stock markets.
News of Catalonia's troubles came as Spain's Bankia SA
Markets already were skittish over a possible Greek exit from the euro zone, halting a brief equity rally following sharp losses earlier in the week. Bonds prices rose in a bid for safety as investors prepare for what is likely to be volatile trading over the coming month.
Traders said the outlook is negative.
"Europe is in a recession, China is slowing down and the United States is slowing down as well," said Michel Juvet, chief investment officer at Swiss bank Bordier & Cie.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 26.33 points, or 0.21 percent, at 12,503.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 0.03 point, or 0.00 percent, at 1,320.71. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 0.87 point, or 0.03 percent, at 2,840.25.
In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.2 percent at around 980, not far from its May 21 trough of 952.55 points, its lowest point since December 20.
MSCI's all-country world equity index fell 0.4 percent to 300.46.
The U.S. Dollar Index off 0.04 percent at 82.313. The euro was down 0.11 percent at $1.2521. Against the Japanese yen, the dollar was unchanged at 79.56 yen.
The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was up 10/32 in price to yield 1.75 percent.
Brent crude oil prices gained, supported by a lack of progress in talks with Iran over its nuclear program, returning investor focus to fears over supply if tension over the issue intensifies.
Brent crude rose 32 cents to $106.87 a barrel.
U.S. light sweet crude oil rose 7 cents to $90.85.
(Additional reporting by John Stonestreet in London; Writing By Herbert Lash; Editing by James Dalgleish)
(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Check for restrictions at: http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
Stocks Showing A Lack Of Direction In Early Trading - U.S. Commentary - RTT News
5/25/2012 10:00 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Stocks are turning in another lackluster performance in early trading on Friday after showing a lack of direction throughout the previous sessions. After ending Thursday's trading mixed, the major averages continue to linger near the unchanged line.
The major averages are currently turning in a mixed performance, with the Dow posting a modest loss. The Dow is down 22.13 points or 0.2 percent at 12,507.62, while the Nasdaq is up 0.42 points or less than a tenth of a percent at 2,839.80 and the S&P 500 is up 0.93 points or 0.1 percent at 1,321.61.
The choppy trading on Wall Street comes amid a relatively light day in terms of U.S. economic data and corporate news, with many traders looking to get a head start on the long Memorial Day weekend.
Most of the major sectors are showing only modest moves, although early strength has emerged among semiconductor stocks. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index is up by 1 percent amid strong gains by MEMC Electronic Materials (WFR) and SanDisk (SNDK).
While health insurance, gold, and software stocks have also moved moderately higher, modest weakness is visible among steel and electronic storage stocks.
Among individual stocks, futures exchange operator CME Group (CME) is moving higher in early trading after announcing a 5-for-1 split of its common stock in the form of a 400 percent stock dividend.
Shares of Semtech (SMTC) have also moved to the upside after the chip maker reported first quarter earnings that fell short of expectations but forecast second quarter results in line with analyst estimates.
Meanwhile, Verifone (PAY) is seeing early weakness after the electronic payments company reported better than expected second quarter earnings but forecast full year results toward the low end of estimates. Shares of Verifone are down by 11.3 percent.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in another mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index crept up by 0.2 percent, while Australia's All Ordinaries Index fell by 0.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have turned lower over the course of the trading day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is down by 0.4 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.2 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries are seeing modest strength but have pulled back off their best levels of the day. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by less than a basis point at 1.75 percent.
by RTT Staff Writer
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com
Stocks gain on Wall Street; Facebook falls - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK (AP) -- After a weekend that brought both fresh concerns about Europe and hopeful signs about China, investors decided to focus on the latter.
All the major U.S. stock indexes climbed, as investors latched on to weekend statements from China's Premier Wen Jiabao, who promised to boost the country's consumption rather than just try to curb inflation. That helped ease the disappointment of what many investors saw as an ambiguous conclusion to the weekend's G-8 meeting of world leaders, which produced statements promising to pursue growth in Europe but not much in the way of concrete plans for how to do so.
Caterpillar, which is heavily reliant on demand from China, rose 3 percent, just its fourth gain for the month of May. Several big-name financial firms, including Bank of America and Morgan Stanley, declined; bank stocks tend to fall when investors are concerned about Europe because of the banks' investments there.
The Dow rose 109 points, or 0.9 percent, to 12,478 shortly after noon Monday. That was a marked change from its recent performance, which has been crippled by Greece. This month Greece failed to elect a new government and is teetering close to leaving the euro.
Monday was the Dow's first gain after six straight days of losses, and only its third up day for May. Last week marked its worst weekly performance since November. The month has wiped out nearly three-quarters of the Dow's gains from January through March.
The other major stock indexes, the Standard & Poor's 500 and the Nasdaq composite, also climbed after days-long droughts.
Despite the broad gains, several well-known companies fell. Facebook plunged 10 percent on its second day as a public company, dropping below Friday's initial public offering price. JPMorgan Chase, under fire for a surprise trading loss, fell 3 percent after announcing it will stop buying back its own stock.
It wasn't clear if the gains represented a corner turned or a temporary moment of relief. Concerns about Europe flowed freely even after the weekend's G-8 summit at Camp David.
Germany's deputy finance minister on Monday derided a plan pushed by the new French president that would require Germany and other stronger European countries to fund "Eurobonds" to prop up weaker countries like Greece and Portugal. Bankia, a bank nationalized by the Spanish government, was ordered to come up with more money for possible bad loans.
Clark Yingst, chief market analyst for investment banking firm Joseph Gunnar in New York, said the G-8 meeting had done little to calm investors' fears. In fact, investors appear to be growing more worried that the European debt problems "might not be as manageable as they previously believed," Yingst said. "Today's rally has nothing to do with what is evolving around Greece."
Yingst was paying close attention to China, after Premier Wen promised to give more priority to boost any slowdown in the country's economic growth. China, the world's second-largest economy, has been instrumental in maintaining global growth as other parts of the world have stumbled through the past couple of years. Its economic growth fell to 8.1 percent in the first quarter — a point of envy for most other countries, but a three-year low for China.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed slightly, a sign that investors were pulling out of bonds to invest in stocks. That's something they tend to do when they're more optimistic about the market.
It could also mean they're tired of the paltry returns on government bonds. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note is around 1.7 percent; the dividend yield on S&P 500 stocks is around 2.1 percent, said Jim Russell, chief equity strategist of U.S. Bank's wealth management unit in Cincinnati.
"Bonds are expensive and stocks are cheap," Russell said. "People are sniffing around for deals."
Russell said the market's performance will depend heavily on news that comes out of Europe. Leaders of the 27 European Union countries will hold an informal meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
"That will be the key," Russell said. But, he added, "I think the central banks and governments still have gun powder that is dry."
Elsewhere, oil prices rose after Iraq's central government told its Kurdish leaders that they must get approval for their oil deals with Turkey.
Lowe's Cos., the world's second largest home improvement chain, slumped 10 percent after lowering its full-year earnings forecast. Campbell Soup fell 3 percent after reporting that its profit fell even after it spent more on marketing to try to attract busy, younger consumers.
Stocks lower on Greece, China bank loans - Sydney Morning Herald
AAP
The Australian share market relinquished early gains to close around 0.6 per cent lower as relentless uncertainty over Greece's future and Chinese bank loan targets plagued investors.
At the close on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 26.6 points, or 0.66 per cent, at 4,029.2.
The broader All Ordinaries index was down 25.0 points, or 0.61 per cent, at 4,081.2.
On the ASX 24, the June share price index futures contract was 21 points lower at 4,031 with 30,374 contracts traded.
Comments by Italy's Prime Minister, Mario Monti, that Greece was likely to stay in the euro zone were enough to tip Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Index and S&P 500 into positive territory.
The local market opened higher, only to shed its gains by midday on concerns over Greece's future and after reports emerged that China's biggest banks may miss their loan targets for the first time in seven years.
"The fear of fallout from Greece - (investors) are connecting that with (local) banks and everything else," Stuart Smith, senior client adviser at Bell Potter Securities, said.
"The market is now pitching to the retail investor to keep their money in the bank by virtue of the yield."
The local market's seven biggest stocks, and most sectors, lost ground.
Market heavyweight BHP Billiton fell 38 cents, or 1.19 per cent, to $31.61, while Rio Tinto declined 43 cents to $55.93, and Woodside Petroleum slipped 11 cents to $31.00.
Major banks closed down, with Westpac Banking Corporation the worst performer after it shed 27 cents, or 1.32 per cent, to $20.12.
AMP was the best performing financial stock, finishing up six cents, or 1.57 per cent, to $3.89.
Other stocks to buck the downward trend included department store owner David Jones which gained seven cents, or 3.18 per cent, to $2.27, and News Corporation which jumped 27 cents, or 1.37 per cent, to $20.00.
Earthmoving equipment supplier Emeco firmed two cents to 86.5 cents after forecasting full year profit growth of up to 41 per cent due to strong demand in Australia, Canada and Indonesia.
Utilities also strengthened, with APA Group gaining eight cents, or 1.61 per cent, to $5.04, and ERM Power Ltd up 2.5 cents, or 1.33 per cent, to $1.905.
The spot price of gold in Sydney closed at $US1,562.06 per fine ounce, up $US2.31 from Thursday's local close of US$1,559.75.
National turnover was 1.5 billion securities worth $5.2 billion, with 444 securities trading up, 490 down and 377 steady.
Financial Engines to Present at the Cowen and Company 40th Annual Technology Media & Telecom Conference - Yahoo Finance
PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
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About Financial Engines
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Financial Engines® and Retirement Help for Life® are registered trademarks or service marks of Financial Engines, Inc. Advisory services provided by Financial Engines Advisors L.L.C., a federally registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Financial Engines, Inc. Financial Engines does not guarantee future results.
Accusations that climate science is controlled by money are mistaken - Wired.co.uk
One of the unfortunate memes that has made repeated appearances in the climate debate is that money isn't just influencing the public debate about science, but it's also influencing the science itself. The government, the argument goes, is paying scientists specifically to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is the major culprit in recent climate change, and the money available to do so is exploding.
Although the argument displays a profound misunderstanding of how science and science funding work, it's just not going away. Just this week, one of the sites where people congregate to criticise mainstream climate science once again repeated it, with the graph accompanying this story. That graph originated in a 2009 report from a think tank called the Science & Public Policy Institute (notable for using the serially confused Christopher Monckton as a policy advisor).
The report, called " Climate Money: The climate industry: $79 billion (£50.4 billion) so far -- trillions to come" (PDF) and prepared by Australian journalist Joanne Nova for the Science & Public Policy Institute, claims to show how money has distorted climate science. There are several aspects to this argument, but we'll start with the money itself.
Who's got the money?
Many discussions have focused on the fact that businesses with a
large carbon output (like fossil fuels extractors) have funded PR
and lobbying efforts that, in part, have attempted to undercut the
scientific case for human-driven climate change. It notes that
there is now significant money being made by companies that build
carbon-neutral energy sources and energy efficient technology, some
coming from tax incentives and subsidies. In addition,
carbon-trading markets are predicted to grow rapidly over the
coming decades. Combined, the report asserts, this money provides
an incentive to keep the spotlight focused on carbon.
In short, some of the green industries are now in the same position as their fossil fuel counterparts, in that they have an incentive to shape policy and the public support for it. There's a definite element of truth to this, although there are clearly reasons other than climate change -- ocean acidification, energy security, extending the lifetime of finite resources -- for promoting efficiency and green energy.
But the key thing here is that, at best, these companies can influence things like public perception and policy responses. They don't influence the underlying science because almost none of them are paying any scientists to gather data. So, although a focus on the income of various companies might tell us something about public opinion, it doesn't really say much about the science.
The false assertion that money is distorting the science comes, in part, from a spectacular misreading of the graph that accompanies this article.
The graph ostensibly shows how the US has gone from essentially funding nothing in the way of climate research to spending over $7 billion (£4.47 billion) a year. But the vast majority of that money is in the form of "Climate Technology," and a careful reading of the report indicates that this goes to things like wind and solar power, biofuel production, and things of that nature. None of that money goes to the researchers who are actually generating the results that point to anthropogenic warming, so it can't possibly provide an incentive to them.
The money that is actually going to climate science is on the bottom of the graph, in purple. And, as that shows, funding has been essentially flat since the early 1990s. (Funding has gone up slightly in recent years, but is still in the neighbourhood of $2 billion (£1.2billion) annually.) A lot of that money doesn't actually go to scientists, either, as it pays to support everything from some of NASA's Earth-monitoring satellites to land and ocean temperature monitoring.
The other issue with this graph is that it gives the false impression that funding shot up from nowhere around 1990. The truth of the matter is that the US has been funding climate science for decades. It's why we have things like a record of CO2 levels that goes back to the 1950s, temperature records that span over a century, and a detailed history of periods like the ice ages. People didn't just suddenly start studying this stuff in 1990 -- and much of the work from before that date was funded by the government. What changed was the accounting. There are over a dozen different branches of the government that fund some sort of science, but it wasn't until 1990 that the government formed the Climate Change Science Program, which started aggregating the expenditures across agencies.
There has never been any sudden boom in government funding for climate research that is luring people onto the research track, much less inducing them to support the consensus view. If anything, many years of flat funding would provide an incentive for people to look to getting out of the field. The graph, held up as evidence that climate scientists are being led around by money, actually shows the exact opposite.
Where's that money going?
But maybe that money is somehow being directed in a biased manner,
distributed in a way that ensures the current consensus is
supported. "Where is the Department of Solar Influence or the
Institute of Natural Climate Change?" Nova asks, elsewhere
claiming, "Thousands of scientists have been funded to find a
connection between human carbon emissions and the climate. Hardly
any have been funded to find the opposite."
This displays an almost incomprehensible misunderstanding of how science research works. Thereare institutes that are dedicated to studying the Sun -- the Naval Research Laboratory has one, as does NASA. But those institutes are focused on learning about what the Sun actually does, not squeezing what we learn into some preconceived agenda. For decades, solar activity has been trending downwards, even as temperatures have continued to rise. It's not that the researchers are being induced or compelled to some sort of biased interpretation of the data. Reality just happens to have a bias.
The same thing works in other areas as well. A number of countries have spent large sums of research dollars to put Earth-monitoring satellites in orbit, not with the intent of finding anything in particular, but because monitoring the Earth can tell us important things. This hardware has imaged the Greenland ice sheet -- again, not because of some sort of bias, but because the sheet is very big and very significant. Most of these studies have suggested that ice loss is accelerating, but a recent one concluded, "sea level rise from Greenland may fall well below proposed upper bounds."
The researchers weren't from some sort of "Institute to discover a stable sea level." They were from departments focused on polar research and Earth sciences. What Nova doesn't seem to get is that the people who study the planet actually pay attention to what the planet tells them, not to what their institute may be titled.
(Incidentally, this paper is also a clear indication that research that indicates things aren't as bad as they could be not only gets published, but makes it into very prestigious journals.)
Like many other self-proclaimed skeptics, Nova also has the bizarre idea that research normally proceeds by "auditing" existing studies. "Auditing AGW research," she writes "is so underfunded that for the most part it is left to unpaid bloggers who collect donations from concerned citizens online." But nobody audits the JPL to see if it's handling the Cassini probe properly; geneticists aren't being asked to open their books so that other scientists can see if they're fudging the numbers.
Science simply doesn't proceed through audits. The Greenland paper linked above provides a much more typical picture of how things work. The researchers behind it didn't simply reanalyse what others had done; they got new (and, in many ways, better) data that addressed the same issue and provided a more comprehensive picture of what was going on at the ice sheet's glaciers.
In short, you generally don't make an impression on science by auditing past data; you do it by coming up with better data.
It's pretty strange that people find in the graph (which shows research stuck in neutral for decades) evidence of a flood of money into climate science that distorts its conclusions. But it's unfortunately typical that an argument focused on climate science leaves the facts behind from the start.
Source: Ars Technica
Foreign exposure unnerves Japanese stocks - Financial Times
Last updated: May 25, 2012 3:38 pm
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