Is it too late to upgrade that RAM?

Read the original article here: http://www.computerworld.com/hardwaretopics/hardware/story/0,10801,92490,00.html?from=story_picks

Earlier estimates that memory prices would drop below break-even points by mid 2005 have failed to come true as prices have risen for three straight months. Many PC manufacturers are threatening to take drastic action by either reducing the amount of memory offered in bargain systems or hiking prices to make up the difference. Both options could spell trouble for the computer market. A price hike threatens to reduce demand for new computers and reduced memory size could make it more difficult to run today's resource-hogging operating systems and applications.

In recent years, memory manufacturers have been supplying memory near or below the cost of manufacture. While having a very profitable 2004 fiscal year, they've sunk much of their earnings into expanded production lines for the new DDR2 memory format and are trying to regain their profit margins. While some experts expect prices to cool enough in the near future to prevent a reduction in included RAM, past price hikes have often resulted in drastic action by the mainstream PC builders, such as Dell, HP, and Gateway.

Rising OEM prices also translate into higher costs for standalone memory, which could hit consumers when trying to upgrade their PC's with upgrades from superstores such as Best Buy, Office Depot, or Circuit City, or from major online sources like Crucial.com. The best advice right now is to buy enough memory to get the job done, and try to wait out high prices before performing a major upgrade.

What will happen in the Airline industry in the US.

US Airways, the nation’s seventh largest airline by traffic, is struggling at the moment after filing for bankruptcy last September for the second time in as many years. Because of expensive fuel, low fares and excess capacity other airlines are watching closely to see if US Airways will emerge a healthier company from the bankruptcy, if they will merge with someone else or if they eventually go out of business. The competitors would undoubtedly cheer if US Airways would go under since many other carriers are having difficulties operating in this tough business climate.
After the boom in the 1990’s due to low fuel prices and planes being full of high paying customers the business slumped after the 2001 terrorist attacks and many of the airlines have never been able to regain their profitable momentum since. The company is trying everything it can to stay alive and talks with America West Holding Co., the nation’s eight largest carrier, to unite their operations are under way.
Views differ about the potential impact a liquidation of the company would have on the airline industry. The company going under would undoubtedly ease up some pricing pressure across the board and the industry would probable see more pricing stability and fewer price cuts. On the other hand if the two above mentioned companies would merge they could potentially create a stronger, bigger airline that would have a presence nationwide.
How will the outcome of this affect the industry? The fewer the company’s the higher the risk of higher pricing which would affect the customers.
You can reed the whole article here.
http://www.boston.com/business/personalfinance/articles/2005/04/26/airline_industry_focuses_on_us_airways/

A Discussion to Reform Chinas Monetary Policy

The world’s seven largest industrialized countries, known as the Group of seven, finance ministers met to discuss Chinas current exchange rate. This group of countries is composed of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United States. The main concern of these seven countries exists in Chinas exchange rate to the industrialized countries. The Group of seven wants to post record that because China has been directly linking the Yuan to the U.S. dollar it has undervalued the Yuan by as much as forty percent. This practice has given Chinese manufacturers a cutthroat advantage against U.S. producers. Since the Chinese have been keeping exchange at this rate, the United States has experienced a billion dollar trade deficit with china. Last year the United States also reported a loss of three million manufacturing jobs since 2000. These domestic economic losses will continue to prevail if China dose not move its monetary policy to a floating currency. One solution the group of seven has proposed is to use tariff policies directed to shrink the deficit gap among countries that trade with china. The policy projected would be a stiff consequence devised for Chinese reforms. International trade will continue to bear the burden of Chinas exchange rate policy until a reactive course of action is agreed upon and implemented. See http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D89FTGE80.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down for reference.

Will China become the World's Next Leading Auto Exporters?

Will China become the World’s Next Leading Auto Exporter?

This article http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/22/business/worldbusiness/22export.html by Keith Bradsher is telling the auto industry from the Great Lakes regions to Germany to make room for the Chinese auto industry. On Thursday, April 21, 2005 at the Shanghai Auto Show, Ruediger Grube a senior executive of DaimlerChrysler announced that the company intends to export small cars from China to the United States.
China already exports auto parts from parking-brake components to seat covers. Chinese owned auto makers have already started exporting fully assembled cars like Hafei and Chery to developing nations in South America, Africa and Middle East. The negotiations going on now with Daimler Chrysler are making it increasingly likely that by 2008, that the plants in China will be shipping a significant numbers of cars to the United States and Europe.
General Motors vice chairman Robert A. Lutz, said that “he expected at least one of China’s homegrown automakers to be successfully exporting around the world in the next five years.” Until recently, China has had problems which have prevented the country from using inexpensive labor to gain any significant share of the world automotive market. The China auto-makers are gradually fixing the problems. Chinese industrial workers work for $2 an hour or less including benefits, which remain among the lowest paid in the world.
Bradsher points out that the president of Beijing Hyundai in South Korea said, “In terms of quality, the cars from China and the cars from Korea are the same.” The anticipation of fully built cars from appearing on showrooms in the United States and Europe risks renewing international conflicts over China’s trade and currency policy. The United Automobile Workers in Detroit responded to DaimlerChrysler announcement with the following statement.
“The $1.50 to $1.95 per hour labor cost in the Chinese auto industry is not arrived at by any ‘natural’ operations of a free market,” Ron Gettelfinger, the union president, said in a statement, “but through artificial repression of wages by a brutal regime which outlaws independent trade unions and jails more labor activists than any country in the world.” “China’s repression of its own workers and its manipulation of its own currency,” Mr. Gettelfinger added, “are unfair trade practices which must no longer be tolerated by the United States government.”
According to auto executives China’s real challenge for the next several years lies in the auto parts industry. The Commerce Ministry predicts that the Chinese automotive exports, mainly auto parts will increase its range of $70 billion to $100 billion by 2010 on that of last year’s $11.8 billion. While the need in China for imported auto parts levels off as the domestic market and automakers car sales drops, because they are finding it more easier to purchases locally. Over the first two months of 2005, China’s automotives exports at $2.01 billion, as almost double that of its imports for the same period, at $1.17 billion. The auto parts makers along with the auto assembly plants are being encouraged to export by the Chinese government. China’s regulations bar multinationals from owning more than 50 percent of the auto assembly joint ventures in the country.

GAS MAY COME DOWN

Since we rely on it everyday, it is not surprise that interest in gasoline is so high and the public debate is so lively. It is a vital product and consumers are understandably sensitive to gasoline prices. With price signs in many parts of the world on every main street, every small change is instantly visible. During the third week of April, consumers started noticing a change in the price of gasoline, it was beginning to drop. An articl in the New York Times states that according to the United States Energy Information Administration the price for gasoline declined 4.3 cents, but is still 42 cents higher than it was a year ago. In the city of Cleveland, Ohio consumers saw a price of $2.07 a gallon. According to the Energy Department this decline will not last long. They predict that consumers will see a rise in the up coming month of May to $2.35 a gallon. Senator Charles Schumer of New York suggested that oil from the country's backup petroleum stockpile be put into the market to in hoped that it will help the decline of gasoline prices. Pump prices are highest on the West Coast averaging about $2.53 a gallon, and the lowest in the Midwest States averaging about $2.15 a gallon. To read this article go to http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-energy-gasoline-price.html