Sunday, February 4, 2007

Strategy + Business writes on One Billion New Automobiles
by Bill Jackson and Vikas Sehgal


Imagine how the world would be transformed if the number of people who owned cars doubled in a decade. In fact, as the rate of personal vehicle ownership soars in Asia, a new kind of global automotive manufacturing industry is emerging to capitalize on this new customer base. Automakers (and the financial markets and supply chains that support them) already know their world is going to change; the media are beginning to pay attention to fledgling motor vehicle companies such as Chery (in China) and Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M, in India). But few people realize the full implications. If the auto markets of developing nations evolve on a par with established markets by, say, 2020, that development could upend today’s prevailing notions of what a car costs, how it is produced, and how it is used.

The trends that will shape this future — from automobile production to environmental impact to changes in working patterns — are proceeding at different speeds. But they are all interrelated, and their impact will be cumulative. These trends include:

• Social Mobility

• Environmental Impact

• An Expanding Lower-End Auto Market.

• New Pressures on the Auto Industry.

Credit card practices

Boing Boing writes on Ripoff: Visa/Mastercard's "Foreign transaction fee

I just got off the phone with Citibank after noticing a bunch of "Foreign Transaction Fees" on my bank statement -- turns out that when you use your credit or debit card outside of the US, Visa and Mastercard charge three percent in transaction fees on the spend. It doesn't matter if you use an ATM, buy over the Internet/phone, or walk into a store -- the credit-card companies always dip their beaks. When you pay your hotel bill, when you buy a plane ticket, every time you use Amazon.uk to order a British release (Citibank told me that they even charge the fee when I withdraw from my Citibank US account while at a Citibank UK ATM, using Citibank's own network!).

and from their comments

"Nationwide and Citibank are the unusual banks in that they don't make up a bogus fee and stick it on your cards when you go abroad.

"This shows that:
1. its a bank thing, not a Visa fee
2. its entirely optional
3. they do it, because they can get away with it.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

Country data

Going Global writes on Comprehensive Comparative Country Data Just a Click Away
In doing some research on an issue the other day I came across NationMaster.com (http://www.nationmaster.com/statistics). With two simple pull down menus -- one to select among 30 categories, ranging from "education" or "media" to "disasters" or "lifestyles"; and one to select the individual Nationmaster_site statistic that you are interested in, for example "personal computers per capita by country" -- you can search hundreds of statistical descriptors and quickly produce data driven bar charts that compare all the countries in the world relative to your selected inquiry. Fort many inquiries, you can also have the data plotted in pie charts or displayed on a map. And at least the way the site works at the moment, you can perform as many independent searches as you'd like for FREE.