Roubini warns of asset bubbles

Roubini warns of asset bubbles
By Ben Rooney, staff reporterJanuary 27, 2010: 4:35 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Economist Nouriel Roubini said Wednesday that asset bubbles are beginning to form in markets around the world, and he called for more regulation of the global financial system.

"I fear that we're back to business as usual," Roubini told CNNMoney.com at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "We need to try to curb the excesses in the financial system."


Roubini, a professor of economics at New York University, said the global economy could be in for another shock as investors around the world take advantage of low interest rates to fund risky bets in certain markets.

He said asset bubbles are already beginning to form that could put the U.S. economy into a "double-dip" recession if regulators fail to impose even more strict regulations.

"There's a wall of liquidity chasing assets and some of those assets are oil, energy, food and gold," he said. While those prices have been supported by a gradual improvement in the global economy, he said that some of the increases have been "excessive."

"Oil has gone from $30 a barrel to $80 a barrel at a time when demand is down to 2005 levels, and there's a huge inventory of oil," he said. "Part of the increase in oil and commodity prices is a bubble."
Beware the 4 new asset bubbles

The reforms recently proposed by President Barack Obama are "going in the right direction," Roubini said. But he argued that more needs to be done to prevent banks from growing too large.

"With too-big-to-fail banks, you need to really break them up, not just limit their size," he said, adding that banks' proprietary trading should be separated from their commercial activities.

"I would go back to the former Glass-Steagall," he said in reference to banking reforms instituted after the Great Depression, which were later repealed.

Roubini, who is known by many as "Dr. Doom" for his consistently pessimistic outlook, also warned that U.S. fiscal policy is "unsustainable" and that the nation's creditors could shun U.S. debt.

"Eventually the bond market vigilantes are going to wake up even in the United States and Japan, given that the current path of fiscal policy is obviously unsustainable in the U.S. and in most advanced economies," he said.
0:00 /5:13Roubini: More bubbles forming

Still, he said that the U.S. economy may require more stimulus "at the margins" as unemployment remains high and many U.S. states struggle with massive budget deficits.

"In the short-term, we may need more stimulus, but that has to be accompanied by credible commitment to reduce deficits over the medium term," he said.

Roubini said the $787 billion stimulus package the government launched in 2009 was necessary and helped prevent the U.S. economy from sinking into a depression.

But he said policymakers need to come up with a plan to raise revenue and bring down the national debt so that "short-term stimulus is not going to lead to a loss of fiscal sustainability over time."

Roubini, who specializes in emerging economies, said that China's robust growth could lead to financial turmoil if the country doesn't do more to fight asset bubbles and become less dependent on exports.

"Eventually even China could get into trouble," he said.

Running for the hills on immigration - CNN

Running for the hills on immigration - CNN
By Ruben Navarrette Jr., Special to

Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a member of the San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board, a nationally syndicated columnist and a regular contributor to CNN.com.

San Diego, California (CNN) -- Thirty-seven words. In this week's State of the Union address -- which was more than 7,000 words long and lasted longer than an hour -- all President Obama devoted to the issue of immigration reform was 37 measly words.

Here they are: "And we should continue the work of fixing our broken immigration system -- to secure our borders, enforce our laws and ensure that everyone who plays by the rules can contribute to our economy and enrich our nation."

It's disappointing that Obama didn't spend more time on this pressing issue -- but not surprising. Even though, elsewhere in the speech, Obama reminded Democrats in Congress that "the people expect us to solve problems, not run for the hills," this White House spent the first year in office running for the hills on immigration reform.

In fact, Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, once referred to the issue as the real "third rail" of American politics. You touch it, you die.

Every immigration reform advocate in the country -- including many Latinos -- should be disappointed in Obama. Many of them bought the fairy tale that a Democratic president would magically be more committed to immigration reform than a Republican one. And they expected Obama to make good on the promise he made, while addressing the annual meeting of the National Council of La Raza in July 2008 as a candidate, to treat comprehensive immigration reform as "a top priority in my first year as president."

That obviously didn't happen. And, regardless of what Obama's defenders say, it wasn't just because the president found other things to do. The truth is that immigration reform was always going to be an especially tough issue for Democrats since it splits the liberal coalition with Latinos on one side and organized labor on the other.

While many unions support giving illegal immigrants a shot at legal status, they balk at another element in the mix: guest workers, which organized labor claims would undermine U.S. workers who would -- even as we speak -- be happily doing the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs if foreign workers hadn't beaten them to it.

As for what Obama said in his speech, you'll notice that he was careful not to use hot-button phrases: "comprehensive immigration reform," "guest workers," "earned legalization." He was just as careful to emphasize positive phrases: "enforce our laws," "contribute to our economy," "enrich our nation."

Oh brother. Those 37 words must have been focus-grouped 100 times.

Next, Obama also played it safe by basically selling the rhetorical equivalent of mom, puppies and apple pie. By limiting his immigration remarks to feel-good generalities, the president decreased the likelihood of being attacked by opponents.

How does someone oppose "fixing our broken immigration system" or a call to "secure our borders"?

And finally, in going to bat for "everyone who plays by the rules," Obama can't very well be talking about illegal immigrants since they didn't play the rules to get here, stay here or work here. In fact, they are, by their very nature, rule breakers.

So either Obama is telegraphing that he won't be aggressively pursuing a path to earned legalization for illegal immigrants and will instead focus on the low-hanging fruit of enforcement only, or he is redefining what it means to "play by the rules," and what he means is that he aims to help those illegal immigrants who -- having broken the rules to get here -- might now be willing to adhere to a set of conditions to stay here.

There's a big difference between those two approaches, and only time will tell what the president is prepared to do to -- as he said -- fix a broken system.

Obama had it right the first time when he was campaigning for president. The answer is comprehensive immigration reform. "Enforcement only" won't work because it never does. It's just another way for lawmakers to take the easy way out, and -- as Obama said -- run for the hills.

Our elected officials need to grab the immigration issue whole with a comprehensive approach that includes:

• Guest workers to do jobs Americans won't do at any wage;

• A tamper-proof identification card for all U.S. workers to help employers know who is legally eligible to work;

• New employer sanctions that include stiffer fines and jail time for repeat offenders;

• A condition-laden pathway to earned legalization for illegal immigrants who have been in the United States since 2005;

• More workplace raids and speedier deportations to deal with those who can't or won't meet those conditions;

• A revamping of the immigration system for legal immigrants so that we put more emphasis on the demands of the labor market and less on family reunification;

• A ban on welfare and other social aid programs for those legalized with the exception of emergency health care;

• And efforts to secure the border, not with walls to nowhere but with better and smarter technology that helps Border Patrol agents stay one step ahead in their ongoing battle of wits with immigrant smugglers.

Mr. President, there is no way to say all that in 37 words.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Economy grows at 5.7 pct pace, fastest since 2003

Economy grows at 5.7 pct pace, fastest since 2003
Economy grows for 2nd straight quarter at better-than-expected 5.7 pct rate, best since 2003


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The economy grew faster than expected at the end of last year, though the engine of that growth -- companies replenishing stockpiles -- is likely to weaken as consumers keep a lid on spending.

The 5.7 percent annual growth rate in the fourth quarter was the fastest pace since 2003. The Commerce Department report Friday is the strongest evidence to date that the worst recession since the 1930s ended last year, though an academic panel that dates recessions has yet to declare an end to it.

The two straight quarters of growth followed a record four quarters of decline. Still, the expansion in the fourth quarter was fueled by companies refilling depleted stockpiles, a trend that will eventually fade. Some economists worry that when that happens, the recovery could

Growth exceeded expectations mainly because business spending on equipment and software jumped 13.3 percent -- much more than forecast. It's the second quarter in a row that business spending has increased, after six quarters of decline.

The report provided an upbeat end to an otherwise dismal year: The nation's economy declined 2.4 percent in 2009, the largest drop since 1946. That's the first annual decline since 1991.

Still, economists expect growth to slow this year as companies finish restocking inventories and as government stimulus efforts fade. Many estimate the nation's gross domestic product will grow about 2.5 percent to 3 percent in the current quarter and about 2.5 percent or below this year.

That won't be fast enough to reduce the unemployment rate, now 10 percent. Most analysts expect it to keep rising for several months and remain close to 10 percent through the end of the year.

High unemployment is likely to keep consumers cautious about spending. Without strong consumer spending, economists worry the recovery could falter.

"That's why there's so much hand-wringing right now," said Brian Bethune, chief U.S. financial economist for IHS Global Insight. "Can the economy really sustain this? That's the big question mark sitting out there."

Still, it's a "surprisingly good report," Bethune said, with several factors contributing to growth, including a rapid rise in exports and business investment.

About 60 percent of the fourth quarter's growth resulted from a sharp slowdown in the reduction of inventories as firms began to rebuild stockpiles depleted by the recession.

A shift in the so-called inventory cycle can make a big difference to economic growth, even if overall spending by consumers and businesses grows only modestly. That's because an increase in inventories, or even just a much slower rate of decline, means that companies are producing more goods to fill orders, rather than drawing on their existing stockpiles.

Excluding inventory changes, the economy would have grown at a 2.2 percent clip, the government said. That's an improvement from 1.5 percent in the third quarter.

Besides business spending on equipment and software, also powering growth in the October-December period was consumer spending, which rose 2 percent.

A steep increase in exports also helped boost growth. The shipment of goods overseas rose 18.1 percent, far outpacing a 10.5 percent rise in imports.

Government spending was actually a slight drag on growth in the fourth quarter: A small increase in federal spending was outweighed by a drop in state and local spending.

Wal-Mart streamlines units WSJ

Wal-Mart streamlines units WSJ


Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) is consolidating its U.S. realty, store operations and logistics divisions, which will operate under three geographic business units, as the world's biggest retailer aims to improve efficiency and lower operational costs.

Wal-Mart said Thursday it plans to break up its U.S. business into North, South and Western regions, each of which would have its own real estate teams to scout and build new stores, and merchandising teams to fine-tune the mix of products sold to suit local tastes. The new model more closely resembles the company's international operations, which are headed by country presidents with similar teams working underneath them.

"This is consistent with what they have been doing on the merchandising side as they have sharpened their focus on the specific needs of the local consumer," said Sarah Henry, retail analyst with MFC Global Investment Management.

Taking broad strokes makes sense, since "when you have a mature retailer, your focus is on bringing out productivity per square foot," Henry said. "This a good use of their analytic power."

Wal-Mart "is always looking for ways to be more efficient and this seems like a logical step," said Peter Wood, a senior vice president who follows retail companies at Chase Investment Counsel, a money management firm.

Wal-Mart's U.S. stores chief, Eduardo Castro Wright, who will oversee all three new regions, wrote in another memo the new structure would "facilitate our growth as we seek to enter new markets."

He suggested that the regionalized approach would lead to different new store formats around the country. The company is aligning its store planning team with a customer experience team, a move that "will also support our efforts to accelerate our speed to market with new formats," Castro Wright said.

Rosalind Brewer has been named an executive vice president and president of the Southern region. Previously, she was president of the Southeast division for Walmart US.

Hank Mullany has been promoted executive vice president and president of Walmart North. He was previously president of the Northeast division of Walmart US.

Eric Zorn, president of Walmart Realty, and Johnnie Dobbs, executive vice president of logistics, will remain in their positions, with their roles expanded as the operating groups are aligned, the company said.

As of Feb. 1, Wal-Mart is transferring the responsibility for store merchandising from its market team to zone merchandise supervisors, a move that will cause the elimination of market team jobs. Wal-Mart did not disclose the number of jobs being lost.

Wal-Mart is also aligning its Puerto Rico business with that in the U.S. as a way of leveraging its U.S. buying power.

The moves follows Wal-Mart's announcement on Sunday that its Sam's Club division would lay off 11,200 workers as it restructures its in-store demonstrations unit.

Wal-Mart shares closed down 1.5% to $52.61, and were unchanged in late trading.

Monsanto to join biotech campus

Monsanto to join biotech campus

STAFF WRITER ALAN M. WOLF

Agriculture giant Monsanto plans to study ways to improve the taste and nutrition of fruits and vegetables at a burgeoning biotech campus in Kannapolis.

Company officials and the billionaire behind the N.C. Research Campus, Dole Food Chairman David Murdock, announced the news Thursday morning in Kannapolis.

Starting in June, the company will have 10 to 12 employees working in about 9,000 square feet of lab and office space on the campus and two or three visiting Monsanto scientists each year.


Monsanto joins other tenants at the campus, which opened in 2008, including N.C. State University, UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, Red Hat and more. The 350-acre campus, built at the site of a former textile mill, is north of Charlotte and about 150 miles west of Raleigh.

But the campus has struggled to attract big-name corporate tenants. Soda and food giant PepsiCo had considered occupying a lab to study ways to make its products more healthful, but the company backed out last year due to the recession.

Senate Dem: Health Care Bill 'On Life Support' AP

Senate Dem: Health Care Bill 'On Life Support'- AP
Democratic senator says health care bill 'on life support' after Obama fails to break logjam


President Barack Obama's health care appeal failed to break the congressional gridlock Thursday, dimming hopes for millions of uninsured Americans. Democrats stared down a political nightmare — getting clobbered for voting last year for ambitious, politically risky bills, yet having nothing to show for it in November.

The grim reality opened a divide between the rank and file and congressional leaders, who insisted health care would get done, even though last week's special election in Massachusetts denied Democrats the 60-vote majority they need to deliver in the Senate. Many Democrats saw a problem with no clear solution.

"It's very possible that health care is just a stalemate and you can't solve it this year," said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark.

If Obama and Democrats fail to pass any legislation this election year, Washington would still face the problem of millions of uninsured, rising medical costs and a dwindling Medicare trust fund forecast to run out of money in 2017.

Obama's health care overhaul is "on life support," said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., "but it still has a pulse."

Obama urged lawmakers in Wednesday night's State of the Union address not to abandon the effort on what was once his top domestic priority. But his enthusiastic words provided no specific prescription for moving forward, leaving lawmakers little better off than before.

Senate Democratic leaders huddled Thursday afternoon to try to determine how to proceed, emerging to report progress, and the White House remained engaged in the negotiations. A Senate aide said lawmakers were hoping to decide on a legislative strategy by the end of next week.

Republican senators said senior White House officials had reached out to several in their ranks, including some conservatives, despite the unanimous GOP opposition to the far-reaching bill.

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., who last year said stopping Obama on health care could be his Waterloo, said Thursday, "What I was saying was if he continued to push this massive takeover that it could be his Waterloo, and now it very well could be."

In a sign of how far health care had fallen since Obama campaigned on it, Senate Democrats devoted a weekly policy lunch Thursday to discussing jobs, not health care. In a letter to supporters outlining Democrats' 2010 agenda, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer didn't even mention health care, although a spokeswoman said the e-mail was sent by Hoyer's campaign team and was not meant to be an exhaustive list of priorities. House and Senate leaders insisted success on health care was still in reach.

"We're going to move forward on health reform. We're going to do health care reform this year," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi acknowledged in her weekly news conference that plenty of work remained if the House was to agree to changes to the Senate bill.

"We will go through the gate. If the gate is closed, we will go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we will pole vault in. If that doesn't work, we will parachute in," Pelosi said. "But we are going to get health care reform passed for the American people."

Just two weeks ago House and Senate leaders were working round the clock at the White House, with Obama personally involved, to merge legislation passed separately by each chamber and finalize a bill for Obama to sign in time for his State of the Union speech. That effort was upended when Republican Scott Brown claimed the Senate seat long held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.

Since then Democrats have struggled to find a way forward. The leading strategy is for the House to pass the Senate bill along with a package of changes approved by both chambers, but that idea is fraught with difficulties both political and substantive. Some Democrats favor retreating from a comprehensive overhaul and taking a less ambitious approach with a series of individual initiatives or a smaller bill.

"Is there a gate someplace to get through and try to save some common areas of health care reform in both the House and the Senate bill? We'll see," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

The powerful seniors' lobby AARP weighed in Thursday, urging lawmakers in a letter to "continue to work together to enact comprehensive health care reform legislation this year."

As Democratic leaders sought a way through the health care logjam, they reminded the rank and file that there are no easy solutions, politically or otherwise.

Two unpleasant choices face Democratic lawmakers who voted for the health care changes last year and who now worry about their re-election prospects this fall.

If a bill becomes law, they will have to convince a doubting public of its benefits, and conservatives are bound to keep up the attacks. If no bill passes, it's possible that public anger over the health care issue will subside a bit. But many Democratic strategists say GOP challengers will constantly remind people of the incumbents' votes, and Democrats will seek re-election with nothing to show on health care despite controlling the House, Senate and White House — and with hefty majorities.

Compounding the problems was growing distrust between the House and the Senate.

While lawmakers struggle, Wall Street is celebrating the sinking prospects for a sweeping overhaul that would put new taxes and requirements on insurance companies. Insurers have opposed the overhaul even though it aims to insure more than 30 million people over the next decade with a new requirement for nearly everyone to be covered.

An analysis distributed by UBS Investment Bank after the State of the Union speech stated: "Investors should proceed as if the health care effort is dead."

First Lady unveils blueprint for war on obesity - Feedstuffs

First Lady unveils blueprint for war on obesity - Feedstuffs

(1/28/2010)
Sally Schuff

First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled a new report on childhood obesity on Jan. 28 and said her new campaign to promote fitness for the nation's children “will not be easy, and it won't happen overnight."

She made the remark during a ceremony held at a Virginia YMCA to highlight the release of “The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation.” The report, the first for Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., reports on the “alarming trend of overweight and obese Americans,” and includes several fitness recommendations families, schools, child care, and health care professionals. While not mentioning the stalled health care debate, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sibelius noted during the event "the unhealthier we are as a nation, the more our health care costs will continue to rise." Quoting statistics from the Centers for Disease Control, Sebelius said the U.S. spends one dollar out of every ten health care dollars on obesity and its complications, which is almost twice that spent in 1988. The $150 billion spent on obesity related conditions is more than that spent on treating all the cancer patients in America, she said.

The First Lady’s campaign comes as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is set to give a major speech on Feb. 8 at the National Press Club in Washington outlining the Administration’s goals for this year’s Congressional reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, the legislation that underpins the nation’s school feeding programs.

The Surgeon General's report is online at: www.surgeongeneral.gov.

Dairy Atrocities Shock Nation - Food Consumer

Dairy Atrocities Shock Nation - Food Consumer

"When searching for new employees at Willet Dairy, we look for skilled people who know how to handle animals and their illnesses, chief operating officer Lyn Odel told Farm Credit of Maine in 2006. But one look at undercover video shot at New York state's largest dairy in Locke, released this week, makes his remark sound like a sick joke.

One worker repeatedly forces his finger deeply into the eye sockets of calves to hold them in place while he burns off their horn buds. One calf collapses from the pain and hangs by a rope around her neck while the worker lifts her by her tail and continues with the second horn. As smoke from the burning flesh envelopes the bellowing calves, they then have their tails docked--an amputation procedure so painful and unnecessary, it is banned in five European countries and opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association
.

Downed cows were left to suffer for as much as 12 days writes Mike, the humane investigator who shot the video for Mercy For Animals (MFA) after being hired as a maintenance worker last year. One worker, he writes in a diary, was shocked when a "dead" cow he was moving with a forklift "[expletive] move a little bit."

The downer cows, denied veterinary care or euthanasia, also experienced terror says veterinarian Holly Cheever after viewing the video. "Any cow, as a prey and not a predator species, experiences terror due to her immobility, since she knows she is helpless to protect herself with her instinctive fight or flight response."

Cows with hemorrhagic uterine prolapses at the more than 7,000-animal Willet dairy were ignored for weeks as they progressed to necrotic states and death--and cows who left pools of blood when they walked (also denied veterinary care) provided milk for the public says Mike.

FDA records show harmful drugs were detected at least twice in Willet cows sold as meat--the antibiotic sulfadimethoxine at excessive levels and the antibiotic gentamicin, not allowed in edible tissues at all--after inspection. "Our investigation found that you hold animals under conditions which are so inadequate that diseased and/or medicated animals bearing potentially harmful drug residues in edible tissues are likely to enter the food supply," wrote FDA officials, Jerome G. Woyshner and Brenda J. Holman to the dairy farm. Virtually all dairy cows are sold for their flesh at four or five years, a fraction of their natural lifespan, when profitability decreases.

At Willet dairy, the animals' drinking water was "opaque brown, with chunks of feed, manure, and other debris floating on top," writes Mike and troughs and drains were never cleaned, according to a dairy mechanic. One employee even deliberately contaminated the cows' drinking water by dipping his feces-covered tools in the water troughs for spite.

The employee, believed to have worked at Willet Dairy for nineteen years, boasts of and enacts such violence against animals, he is named in the Mercy For Animals complaint to Jon E. Budelmann, the District Attorney Cayuga County in Auburn, New York submitted last August.

"What do you think that wrench did to her?" the worker asks Mike, recounting a violence incident using one of his tools. "Cracked her right over the [expletive] skull."

"With her head in a headlock?" asks Mike.

"Yep. Dropped her right down. [yells] Stupid bitch!"

The employee also describes braining a bull with a two by four and then kicking its genitals, "stomping" an animal by jumping off of a gate and onto her head repeatedly and brutalizing a tied up calf so badly the manager asks why it's so bruised.

While newborns at Willet are allowed to die from the cold--many freezing to death in unheated, coffin-like tin sheds spaced every few feet in the snow--their mothers also suffer. Video shows the cows following their days-old calves as they are pulled away by one or two legs to become veal, vocalizing plaintively. They "run around the box stalls" searching for their offspring "for days" a worker confirms.

After finding a severely ill calf at 8:30 in the morning, the worker responsible for newborns tells Mike she was "cold" and would soon be dead. But "at 4:30 p.m. the dying calf was still in the same place, her throat barely expanding and contracting in slow breaths" writes Mike. "Her eyes were completely gray. I sat down beside her and stroked her hair. She did not respond, but when I got up to walk away, she let out a weak bleat, so I returned and continued to pet her."

Tipped off about the MFA video, Holstein World Online tells dairy producers to alert the "national issues management team" if reporters contact them "before making any statements beyond our general messaging on animal care and milk safety."

And what is the "general messaging"? In the past it has been shock at the video and a claim of ignorance along with a vow to investigate and apprehend the "bad apples" including ones they haven't known about for nineteen years.

But the grisly footage that every farm randomly chosen for investigation--MFA has investigated 11--seems to yield, indicates the violence is not isolated, not coincidental, but agribusiness-as-usual.

Even Lyn Odel admits Willet Dairy is not unusual. "We don't farm any different than anybody else does up and down this road," the Syracuse New Times quotes him saying in 2008 when neighbors complained about the dairy. "This is about the nature of our business, about how we farm. It's not about Willet. It’s about the dairy industry."

For a link to the video www.mercyforanimals.org/dairy

For stills http://mercyforanimals.org/willetmedia>

Greenwise shoppers confounding Publix executives

Greenwise shoppers confounding Publix executives

BY RICHARD MULLINS

MEDIA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE

Published: January 29, 2010

TAMPA - When the Publix grocery chain opened the upscale Greenwise store in South Tampa, managers expected affluent foodies, environmentalists and health-focused organic food devotees.

After opening day, those very shoppers came ready to spend - regularly gobbling up high-tier tuna filets at $30 per pound, organic vitamins at $36 per bottle, exotic Romano cheese at $42 per pound and wine at $100 to $300 per bottle.

But something else happened along the way.

Greenwise managers found that affluent shoppers also craved items of a decidedly downscale type: Hot and crispy fried chicken, Dora the Explorer birthday cakes and bubbly Coke from a soda fountain at lunch.

The only problem, the store didn't stock that kind of thing. No one expected foodies to want fried chicken.

"This is still very much a pilot project," said store manager Michael Tapia. "We're learning as we listen to what our customers want."

Customers may drive a Land Rover or Maserati to the store, but they also require Clorox and cat litter, and have a fistful of coupons for Tide.

About a year after opening the upscale grocery boutique, Publix officials opened up about lessons learned along the way, and how they are discovering a lot about the human nature of those who inhabit the wealthiest ZIP codes.

1. Upscale sells

Publix parked the Greenwise store smack in the middle of Tampa's most affluent neighborhoods, with a median household income of more than $140,000 a year.

Store managers have yet to find the upper limit of what sells.

Last December, Greenwise offered hand-picked Lucques olives from the South of France at $9.99 per pound. They sold out each day over a week.

Several hundred people regularly show up for special wine-tasting events at the store, with the line snaking out the entrance. The store's regular "Wine 101" classes regularly fill 30 allotted slots.
Gourmet prepared meals are the centerpiece of the store, and the best-seller in the case is the Quinoa salad, based on the exotic grain. Price: $6.99 per pound. A close second is the Tuna Tataki, delicately cooked fish slices. Price: $29.99 per pound.

The nutrition aisle stocks organic and exotic treatments, including joint-lubricating vitamins at more than $30 per bottle, and the store keeps a nutritionist on staff to wander the aisle answering customer's questions.

2. Downscale sells

Despite all the high-tier items, Greenwise managers learned quickly that even the affluent occasionally like to go downscale.

Almost every regular Publix store has hot fried chicken on-site for take-away meals. But Greenwise planners thought foodie customers wouldn't want something normally found in a drive-thru lane.

After a few months, Greenwise added fried chicken. "Right there up front," Tapia said, noting a cooler full of chicken smack in the middle of the store entrance next to the gourmet lasagna.

While the bakery does hand-make delicate pastries, mousses and tortes, now bakers also stock the basic Publix birthday cakes - complete with options like a purple princess castle or Spider-Man motif.

The cafe that sells high-end gelato and organic juices also added something most often seen in McDonald's or Chipotle: a self-serve soft-drink fountain.

At first, the store stocked only hard-to-find eco-friendly laundry detergent, and the medicine aisle stocked mainly holistic treatments.

"Then we heard from customers 'Where's the Tide?' 'Where's the Tylenol?'" Tapia said.

So managers went throughout the store, slipping in mainstream detergent, bleach, soaps, kitty litter, cereals and anything else customers wanted.

"I love it, love it, and I'm here probably more than I should be," said Holly Roseberry, a marketing executive in Tampa. She now shops almost exclusively at Greenwise and had a cart full of both gourmet salad and Clorox bleach wipes.

On any given week, she'll stop by the store several times for gourmet meals to take home.

"I could probably get most of the common stuff at Target, but if you just want to make one stop, this is where I go," she said.

3. Parking matters

The Greenwise store is three stories tall, with a ground-floor grocery and two floors of parking above. Though common in big Northern cities, the setup is rare in Florida.

Some customers mention the challenge of getting used to a parking deck, Tapia said. But having one floor of covered parking has a huge benefit, too.

"The minute it starts raining hard, our store fills up," Tapia said. When summer rains pour on the open parking lots at other grocery stores, customers flock to the covered parking at Greenwise. "Even when it's just hot, and people don't want to park in the sun, we get busy."

Still, it took more than a year for the store to gain city approval for more prominent parking signs showing customers how to enter the parking ramp.

4. Coupons matter

When Greenwise opened, Publix executives considered the Greenwise brand a separate project, a wholly different store. So the store didn't accept Publix-brand coupons, or honor the signature Publix sale of buy one, get one free.

That didn't go well with customers. As the economy turned south, frugality became en vogue for even affluent shoppers.

So managers revamped computer systems and cash registers. It took time, but eight months into the pilot project, the store started honoring all Publix discounts.

And because Publix policy is to honor coupons at rival stores, there was another side effect. Greenwise was a direct competitor to upscale grocers like Whole Foods or Fresh Market. That meant customers could walk in with a Whole Foods advertisement for gourmet cheese or wine and rightfully expect the same discount at Greenwise.

5. Hybrid approach

There are no formal plans for another stand-alone Greenwise store any time soon. For now, there are stores in Palm Beach Gardens, Boca Raton and Tampa.

Publix is taking much of what it learned in Tampa and is developing a new approach. For now, rather than build new stand-alone Greenwise stores, the next Greenwise will be part of a traditional, 60,000-square-foot Publix store, set to open in Naples in the first quarter of this year. The Greenwise section will have a restaurant-style seating area, plus a selection of artisan cheeses, large sushi bar, gelato and expanded section of bulk foods, coffees, teas, grains and nuts.

But a few aisles over, there will be standard Publix inventory, like Tide, fried chicken and Tylenol.

For Publix, the price of success is constant vigilance in following customer tastes.

Organic farming boosts farmers markets - Australia

Organic farming boosts farmers markets - Australia

Big retailers are facing competition from farmers markets, as buyers seek fresher food grown without agricultural chemicals.

In the rich soils of Byron Bay, farmer Alisdair Smithsom grows seasonal fruit and vegetables for local markets, and is helping to grow the local economy at the same time.

Farmhand Beck was unemployed when she moved to the area, and found the best way to eat organic food was to volunteer on an organic farm for one day a week in exchange for a box of vegies.

"A year and a half later, I'm living on the farm, working on the farm, and it's fantastic," she said.

The 130 acre ReGensis farm, at Myocum to the north of Byron Bay, was established in 2001, and focuses on organic whole systems agriculture, best-practice farm forestry, and environmental regeneration and repair.

The farm has now branched out into home delivery of fresh produce, including taking orders over the internet.

"We have three standard boxes in small, medium and large sizes, which are basically packed full of fresh local organic produce, and what's in season at that particular time of the year," Mr Smithsom said.

"We've also just started extending our range, so we've got local organic eggs now as well, and we'll be branching out into meat and dairy items in the future."

Mr Smithsom's goal is to farm produce that never has to travel more than 160 kilometres from soil to plate.

"From an energy point of view it's great because we're not transporting food vast amounts of distance around the country," he said.

"From a nutritional point of view it's better because we can pick something one day, or get it delivered from other farmers on one day, and put it in a box and send it out one or two days later, so the nutritional content of the food is still very high.

"Traditionally, if you buy something off one of the main retailers, often the food is a week old before it even gets onto the shelf of the retailers."

In Byron Bay itself, the weekly farmers markets are booming, despite the economic downturn.

"We've had feedback from a number of people who said they would love to be buying our produce, but have had difficulty financially so have had to go to cheaper conventional lines instead," said farmer Dave Hancox.

However, poultry farmer Matthew Jamieson struggles to cater for demand.

"We sell turkeys for $16.50 a kilo, if you're buying them elsewhere you'd probably pay more like $20 for our same product," he said.

"You do tend to pay premium here."

He says organic turkey prices are probably double non-organic prices, but customers are not complaining.

One woman from Victoria says she never goes into supermarkets now, and only ever shops at farmers markets.

This trend is even stronger in cities, where farmers markets are thriving as more people look for an alternative to supermarkets and shopping centres.

Japan Consumer Prices Fall 1.3%, 10th Monthly Decline

Japan Consumer Prices Fall 1.3%, 10th Monthly Decline

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s consumer prices fell for a 10th month in December, underscoring concern that deflation remains a threat to the economic recovery.

Prices excluding fresh food slid 1.3 percent from a year earlier after dropping 1.7 percent in November, the statistics bureau said today in Tokyo. The median estimate of 29 economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 1.3 percent drop.

The Bank of Japan this week affirmed its forecast for prices to keep falling until March 2012, albeit at a slower pace because of higher oil costs. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said beating deflation is a “critical challenge” and the bank will keep interest rates low to aid the economy.

“While external factors such as crude oil are helping to slow the pace of declines, weak demand continues to exert downward pressure” on prices, said Hiroshi Watanabe, an economist at the Daiwa Institute of Research in Tokyo. “Core prices won’t turn positive until 2011 or early 2012.”

In brighter signs for the economy, separate reports today showed the unemployment rate fell to 5.1 percent in December from 5.2 percent a month earlier, while household spending increased 2.1 percent.

The yen traded at 89.78 per dollar at 8:40 a.m. in Tokyo from 89.69 before the reports were published.

The government is urging the central bank to do more to stamp out deflation, which can squeeze corporate profits and prompt households to delay purchases.

Pressure on BOJ

Finance Minister Naoto Kan this week said in parliament he wants the central bank to take deflation into account when it sets monetary policy. He made the remark while the BOJ board held a meeting in which it kept the key rate at 0.1 percent.

“The government will likely step up pressure on the central bank this quarter, as they are swamped with the task of passing next year’s budget” by March 31, said Kyohei Morita, chief economist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

BOJ policy makers said core prices, their main gauge of inflation, will slip 0.5 percent in the year that starts in April and 0.2 percent in the following 12 months. In October they predicted declines of 0.8 percent and 0.4 percent.

Consumer prices excluding energy and food, which economists say are a better reflection of domestic price trends because Japan imports most of its oil and edibles, fell 1.2 percent in December from a year earlier.

In Tokyo, core prices slid 2 percent in January. The figures for the capital are released a month earlier than nationwide data, making them a harbinger of price trends.

Retail Discounts

Falling wages and job losses have been discouraging spending by households and prompting companies to make discounts to attract customers.

Seiyu Ltd., a supermarket operator owned by U.S.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., this week started a campaign of cutting vegetable prices as much as 15 percent.

Consumers’ preference for cheaper products is eroding sales at department stores, which have fallen for 22 months. Seven & I Holdings Co., Japan’s largest retailer, this week said it will shut a Seibu outlet in Tokyo’s Ginza district on Dec. 25, its third department-store closure in two years.

“With consumers increasingly pinching pennies, prices for daily necessities such as food items are falling noticeably,” Takehiro Sato, chief Japan economist at Morgan Stanley in Tokyo, wrote in a report. “Consumers’ deflation expectations seem to have recently intensified.”

Some 35 percent of people surveyed by the central bank this month felt prices declined over the past year. The ratio was up from 20.1 percent in October. Those who expect prices to fall further in the next 12 months increased to 18.4 percent from 10.7 percent.

The government declared for the first time in three years in November that Japan has slipped back into deflation. The assessment was a “big factor” in fueling people’s expectations for lower prices, said Izuru Kato, chief market economist at Totan Research Co. in Tokyo.

U.S. first lady leads charge against obesity - Reuters

U.S. first lady leads charge against obesity - Reuters

(Reuters) - U.S. health officials have leveraged the star power of first lady Michelle Obama to roll out a new campaign against obesity, a preventable condition that drains billions of dollars from the economy.

Health

Obama, who plans to take on childhood obesity as a cause, headlined the launch on Thursday of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin's blueprint for what can be done at home, school and work to reverse the epidemic.

In her first initiative since becoming "America's doctor," Benjamin issued a report on the consequences of obesity to start a national dialogue on the subject.

"The number of Americans, like me, who are struggling with their weight and health conditions related to their weight remains much too high," she said.

Benjamin's report lists recommendations for preventing obesity. They range from simply eating more fruit and vegetables to adding "high-quality physical education" in schools and bringing more supermarkets to low-income communities.

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the launch that the Obama administration was investing $650 million in economic stimulus money in wellness and prevention programs aimed at obesity and stopping smoking.

She introduced the first lady as "everyone's favorite vegetable gardener."

Obama, who created a White House garden with local school children, said the solution to the obesity epidemic cannot come from government alone. Everyone has to be willing to do their part to end the public health crisis.

"This will not be easy and it won't happen overnight. And it won't happen simply because the first lady has made it her priority," Obama told an audience of children's advocates at a recreation center in Alexandria, outside Washington.

"It's going to take all of us. Thank God it's not going to be solely up to me."

Two-thirds of U.S. adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese -- a condition that increases their risk for diabetes, heart disease and other chronic illnesses.

The United States spends nearly $150 billion a year on obesity and related complications -- twice what it cost in 1998 and more than every cancer cost put together, Sebelius said.

"The unhealthier we are as a nation, the more our health care costs will continue to rise and the less competitive we will be globally," she said.