シリコンバレーの中心は、スタンフォード大学のあるPalo Altoです。 シリコンバレーにある有名企業のCEOは、Los Altos Hills, Atherton, Old Palo Alto の3億、5億、10億の邸宅にお住いです。 Palo Alto, Los Altos の庶民(平均と言う意味)は、少なくとも1億以上の家に住んでいます。家賃も平均20万以上はするし、シリコンバレーには、まだまだ超リッチな人達は沢山いますよ。
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New jobless claims fell in the United States last week, the government said Thursday, coming in lower than Wall Street analysts had expected.
The Labor Department said 336,000 people filed new claims for state unemployment benefits in the week ended March 13 compared with a revised 342,000 the prior week.
Economists, on average, expected 345,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.
A major association of technical professionals believes that the outsourcing of high-wage jobs to low-wage countries poses a serious, long-term challenge to the United States' technological leadership, economic vitality and military security.
1. Wal-Mart 2. Exxon Mobil 3. General Motors(GM) 4. Ford Motor 5. General Electric 6. ChevronTexaco 7. ConocoPhillips 8. Citigroup 9. IBM 10. American Int. Group(AIG)
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - New jobless claims were little changed last week, the government said Thursday, coming in near Wall Street forecasts and raising some hopes for a strong monthly jobs report next week.
The Labor Department said 339,000 people filed new claims for state unemployment benefits in the week ended March 20, compared with a revised 338,000 the prior week.
But both those figures came in lower than the readings from the past few weeks. The March 13th week's report was the lowest number of new claims since Jan. 13, 2001, when the number of new claims was only 316,000.
Economists, on average, expected 338,000 new claims last week, according to Briefing.com.
The closely watched four-week moving average of initial jobless claims, which irons out weekly fluctuations, declined for a fourth straight week, to 341,500 from 344,500.
That was the lowest reading for average claims since 336,500 in January 2001.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Despite the controversy over outsourcing American jobs to overseas locations, U.S. corporate executives expect the trend will grow over the next year, according to a survey of business leaders.
About 86 percent of the executives surveyed said they believe outsourcing information technology services to overseas countries will continue to increase, according to consulting firm DiamondCluster International.
"Executives have become more realistic in their expectations and are now more likely to implement outsourcing initiatives incrementally," said Tom Weakland, head of the firm's outsourcing advisory practice.
"While reducing costs is still the number one reason fueling the outsourcing trend, another key factor is that companies are looking to free up internal resources to focus on more critical initiatives," he added.
Outsourcing has become an increasingly hot topic in the 2004 presidential election as the job market has remained sluggish despite a rebound in the broader economy.
Conservatives applaud cut in corporate taxes, but even liberals doubt it would stop outsourcing.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Even some economists friendly to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry say his proposal to end tax breaks on multinational corporations' overseas' profits won't necessarily stop the flow of jobs overseas.
At the same time, a number of more politically conservative economists applauded the proposal to cut corporate income taxes that is part of the plan Kerry unveiled Friday.
Kerry, in a speech being given in Michigan, vowed his corporate tax reform plan would help create 10 million jobs over four years, and would lower the unemployment rate to 4.1 percent from 5.6 percent now.
The plan calls for a cut in the corporate tax rate -- from 35 percent to 33.25 percent -- and would offer a tax credit for many employers, especially small businesses, that create new jobs.
He would cover the cost of those tax cuts by overhauling how overseas operations of U.S. businesses are taxed -- mainly by largely eliminating a tax credit on foreign profits that the Kerry campaign estimates costs $12 billion a year.
The proposal is meant to address the growing anxiety among workers about the threat of their jobs being shifted overseas. (continue to the next.)
"Today, we have a tax code that does more to reward companies for moving overseas than it does to reward them for creating jobs here in America," the text of Kerry's speech said.
"So if I am elected president, I will fight for the most sweeping international tax law reform in forty years -- a plan to replace tax incentives to take jobs offshore with new incentives for job creation on our own shores."
But Christian Weller, senior economist for the liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said he doesn't know if the Kerry proposal will have much impact on a company's decision about where to hire.
"Tax cuts typically are a very small component in company's hiring decisions," said Weller, whose colleague Gene Sperling is a former economic adviser to President Clinton and now advises the Kerry campaign. (continue to the next.)
"It won't necessary slow the move of companies and jobs overseas," said Weller, who said he was not involved in drafting the Kerry proposal. "People think the tax policy is a more powerful tool than it really is."
But Weller said the tax credit for domestic job creation could have an impact on spurring hiring. And he said he agrees with the Kerry proposal on overseas taxes as a way to pay for the other corporate tax cuts being proposed.
"There's no good argument for government to be subsidizing moving jobs overseas," he said.
Former Clinton administration economist Leonard Burman, now a senior fellow with the non-partisan Urban Institute, doubts that even the tax credit will do much to spur hiring.
"The experience with past employer (tax) credits is they're not particularly effective," said Burman, who was referred to reporters by the Kerry campaign, but is not advising the Massachusetts Democrat.
But Burman said that the overall cut in the corporate tax rate should help hiring. "It's a better idea from my perspective than a lot of the targeted things," he said.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush and Sen. John Kerry, his Democratic rival for the White House, offered competing visions of the U.S. economy on Friday, with Bush asserting that the country is on the right track and Kerry calling for a "new direction."
Speaking in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Bush noted that a record 68 percent of Americans own their own homes.
He also cited relatively low inflation and a rise in manufacturing.
"Our economy is growing," said Bush, who later traveled to Phoenix, Arizona to deliver a similar speech. "It's strong and getting stronger."
As he often does in speeches, Bush tied what he described as a growing economy to his series of tax cuts -- including a boost in the child tax credit and breaks for small businesses -- and he called on Congress to make them permanent.
Minutes after Bush finished his speech, Kerry began his in Detroit, Michigan, where he highlighted less encouraging numbers about the economy.
He pointed to a loss of jobs under the current administration and said the Bush tax policies had benefited the wealthy.
"The truth is this president doesn't have a record to run on, but a record to run from, and that's what he's doing," Kerry said. (snip.)
In his speech Friday, Kerry pledged to create 10 million new jobs in four years. His talk was the first of three that his campaign said will detail his economic plan for the country.
In the latest salvo in a debate over sending tech work overseas, a report sponsored by an industry group concludes that the practice is good for the U.S. economy and its workers.
Offshore outsourcing of software and information technology services tasks not only is boosting the U.S. gross domestic product but also helping to generate U.S. jobs, including positions in the IT sector, according to the report. Released Tuesday, it was prepared by research firm Global Insight and sponsored by the Information Technology Association of America trade group.
ITAA's members include tech giants IBM, Electronic Data Systems and Accenture. These companies are among those that are locating operations in lower-wage countries such as India.
"While offshore IT software and services outsourcing has displaced and will continue to displace workers in IT software and services occupations, increased economic activity creates a wide range of new jobs--both IT and non-IT," the report states. "As the benefits compound over time, the U.S. economy operates more efficiently, achieves a higher level of output, creates more than twice the number of jobs than are displaced, and increases the average real wage."
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The nation's economy is stronger and interest rates must rise eventually to keep inflation in check, Alan Greenspan said Wednesday, but the Fed chairman also seemed to suggest the central bank was in no hurry to raise them.
The threat of "disinflation," or a lack of corporate pricing power, seems to have faded, Greenspan said in remarks delivered to the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, though he also said inflation was still dormant because labor costs are flat.
"But the Federal Reserve recognizes that sustained prosperity requires the maintenance of price stability and will act, as necessary, to ensure that outcome," he added.
His remarks were, on the whole, more balanced about the risks of inflation than were comments he made on Tuesday, which raised fears in stock and bond markets that a Fed rate hike was imminent. (snip)
Economy improving, but some slack remains In listing signs of an economic acceleration this year, Greenspan cited a faster rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP), strong consumer and business spending, a recovery in factory output, a bounce in exports, and a labor market that's "gradually improving."
"Looking forward, the prospects for sustaining solid economic growth in the period ahead are good," he said.
But he also warned that businesses still seemed cautious about spending on factory improvements, inventory building and hiring. He also noted that the recent boom in productivity, or output per worker hour, wasn't quite over yet, as companies continue to use technology to run more efficiently.
If demand is still strong when that process finally runs its course, Greenspan said, then hiring will need to accelerate, putting upward pressure on wages and, eventually, consumer prices. Nevertheless, he indicated that such inflation wasn't exactly right around the corner. (snip)
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fall to 353,000 in latest week, 13,000 above estimates.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance fell last week, the government reported Thursday, but came in above economists' expectations for the second consecutive week.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped to 353,000 in the week ended April 17, down from a revised 362,000 the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Economists expected 340,000 people to file for unemployment insurance, according to Briefing.com.
The four-week average of initial claims, which irons out weekly fluctuations, rose to 347,000 last week from a revised 344,750 the prior week.
The Labor Department said the overall number of people on the benefit rolls who had already received an initial week of aid climbed to 3,019,000 from a revised 2,967,000 the previous week.
Broadest measure of economy grew at a 4.2% clip, below forecasts, but inflation gauges rise.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The economy grew at roughly the same pace in the first quarter as it did in the fourth quarter, the government reported Thursday, coming in below forecasts on Wall Street.
Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economy, grew at a 4.2 percent rate in the quarter after growth of 4.1 percent at the end of last year. Economists had forecast growth of 5.0 percent for the first quarter, according to a survey by Briefing.com.
The report is closely watched in Washington and on Wall Street, as well as by Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve, whose policy-makers meet next week and are widely expected to start raising interest rates, probably later this year.
Though Thursday's report was weaker than analysts had expected, it included increases in two key measures of inflation that could prompt the Fed to change its outlook on inflation when the central bankers meet next Tuesday.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance come in below estimates.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance fell by 18,000 last week, the government reported Thursday, coming in below economists' estimates.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance fell to 338,000 in the week ended April 24, down from a revised 356,000 the previous week, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Economists expected jobless claims to come in at 343,000, according to Briefing.com.
The four-week average of initial claims, which irons out weekly fluctuations, slipped to 346,500 last week from a revised 347,750 the prior week.
The Labor Department said the overall number of people on the benefit rolls who had already received an initial week of aid climbed to 3,013,000 from a revised 3,010,000 the previous week.
Americans filing for unemployment insurance fall by 25,000 to 315,000, lowest since Oct., 2000.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of Americans seeking unemployment assistance tumbled last week to the lowest level in three-and-a-half years, the government reported, coming in well below economists' expectations.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance dropped by 25,000 to 315,000 in the week ended May 1, the U.S. Labor Department reported. That's down from the previous week's revised figure of 340,000, and below estimates for 335,000, according to Briefing.com.
The figure is the lowest since October, 28, 2000.
The four-week average of initial claims, which irons out weekly fluctuations, slipped to 343,250 last week from a revised 347,000 the prior week.
The Labor Department said the overall number of people on the benefit rolls who had already received an initial week of aid fell to 2,935,000 from a revised 3,004,000 the previous week.
Following the report, stocks turned lower in early trading and bond prices fell, sending the yield on the 10-year note up to 4.60 percent.
The initial jobless report leads up to Friday's highly anticipated unemployment and payroll report for April. Economists expect that non-farm payrolls will rise by 165,000, a strong figure, but below the initial reading of 308,000 in March. (Continue to the next)
A payroll report similar to March's will emphasize the broad recovery for the economy and the notion that inflation is returning. Underscoring the return of inflation was Thursday's productivity report, showing an unexpected rise in the cost of employing workers.
The Federal Reserve kept its key overnight borrowing rate at 1 percent Tuesday, but altered its accompanying statement, saying it could take a measured approach to lifting its accommodative monetary policy.
A series of strong reports from the job market may force the central bank's hand to raise rates sooner than previously anticipated.
-- NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - As gasoline prices snake higher, the nation's discount retailers are starting to feel the heat.
At the other end of the retail spectrum, however, high-end retailers may feel little impact since their typical customers are less affected.
Wal-Mart Stores (WMT: Research, Estimates), the world's biggest retailer, raised a red flag Thursday when CEO Lee Scott said he estimated that the recent jump in gasoline prices was taking an average of $7 out of the typical Wal-Mart customer's disposable income each week.
Indeed, Wal-Mart's same-store sales -- or sales at stores open at least a year -- were sluggish in April, rising 4.4 percent for the month and narrowly missing Wall Street's forecasts for a 4.5 percent increase.
According to industry watchers, historically it is discounters such as Wal-Mart, Target and Kmart that have suffered the most when gasoline prices jump.
"The risk to retailers is moderate right now because the [gas] price increases are hurting consumers more at the low-income spectrum. But these are also consumers who shop more frequently at discount stores like Wal-Mart," said Michael Niemira, chief economist with the International Council of Shopping Centers.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing initial claims for jobless aid grew by more than expected last week, government data showed on Thursday, but the rolling average again fell and stands at a 3-1/2 year low.
First-time claims for state unemployment benefits rose 12,000 to 345,000 in the week ended May 15, the Labor Department said.
Wall Street analysts had forecast a slight decline in claims to 326,000 from a revised 333,000 the previous week. This was initially reported at 331,000.
While initial claims rose, the four-week moving average of filings, which smoothes weekly fluctuations to provide a better picture of underlying trends, fell 2,750 to 333,500.
The previous low was 321,750 in the week ended Nov. 18, 2000, before the technology stock market bubble burst and the country slipped into recession.
The number of unemployed on the benefit rolls after claiming an initial week of aid also fell, declining 23,000 to 2.943 million in the week ended May 8, the latest for which figures are available
The numbers compliment the country's increasingly encouraging jobs picture after the U.S. economy added 625,000 new jobs in April and March.
Financial markets see these stronger-than-expected gains as evidence the economy has shifted into a higher gear and bet the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates in June from their current 1958-low of 1.00 percent.
Markets also await the Philadelphia Federal Reserve's May business activity survey, due out at 12:00 p.m. EDT. Forecasts are for a 32.0 reading compared with 32.5 in April in evidence that the economy is moderating from its red-hot pace.
-- SAN FRANCISCO, May 19 - A majority of shareholders at the Intel Corporation challenged management on a contentious issue by backing a resolution calling for employee stock options to be treated as a normal business expense, Intel announced Wednesday at its annual meeting.
But as long as accounting regulators permit it, the company's executives said, Intel would continue to report stock options - fiercely defended in Silicon Valley and widely used in technology companies as a popular form of compensation - in a way that does not show up as a direct cost on its profit-and-loss statements.
Although Intel strongly opposed the shareholder proposal, 54 percent of the 5.7 billion votes cast backed the advisory referendum calling on the board to establish a policy expensing all future stock options, the company said. The vote represented a symbolic victory for those advocating the expensing of options (snip)
Blue Chip survey raises economic and inflation forecasts, sees several rate hikes by early 2005.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. forecasters have bumped up economic growth and inflation forecasts for this year and predicted the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates several times by early 2005, a survey released Thursday showed.
In its latest poll of more than 50 professional economic forecasters, the closely watched Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter said expectations for faster growth and rising price pressures made a June rate hike by the Fed a near certainty.
"News of a third consecutive blowout month for employment gains in May -- released after completion of our survey -- will only further serve to solidify economists' belief that the expansion is now both strong and self-sustaining," the newsletter said, referring to a gain of 248,000 jobs last month.
"But faster job growth also seals the case for a tightening of policy by the Federal Reserve. Monetary policy is now far too accommodative and the Fed needs to act against emerging inflationary pressures," it added.
The survey found panelists expected U.S. gross domestic product to surge 4.7 percent this year -- its best performance since 1984 -- up from a 4.6 percent forecast a month ago, as job growth bolsters confidence and props up consumer spending while even the cooling housing market holds up well.
The forecast for 2005 growth dipped to 3.7 percent, down 0.1 percentage points from the month-ago projection.
The panel ramped up expectations for inflation, as measured by the Labor Department's Consumer Price Index, to 2.3 percent from 2.1 percent in May, the fourth straight monthly upgrade. (snip)
Treasury secretary says rising disposable income evidence of better quality jobs available.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent hiring in the United States is swelling the ranks in industries that pay more than the average income, U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow said on Wednesday.
When asked about the quality of the jobs now appearing after a long hiring dearth, Snow told the C-SPAN television network: "The analysis that we have indicates that the jobs that are being created are being created in the industries that pay above average."
Pressed by a viewer on whether the jobs being created are comparable in terms of income to those lost under the Bush administration, Snow said: "We think they are."
"The best indication of the quality of the jobs that are being created is of course the fact that real disposable income is rising. In fact, Americans' real disposable income is at the highest it's ever been," he said.
Snow also said U.S. budget deficits were unwelcome and would be fixed, but short-term shortfalls were a small price to pay for economic growth.
"With a growing, expanding economy, the government gets more tax receipts and we're seeing that borne out in the numbers right now."
A tiny fraction of workers hit by mass layoffs earlier this year lost their jobs because of "offshoring," according to research released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.
The department said that in the first quarter, 4,633 nonfarm workers in the private sector lost their jobs for at least 31 days due to the shift of work outside the country. That was less than 2 percent of the 239,361 workers affected by extended mass layoffs, according to the department.
-- International outsourcing, politicians from both parties often say, has turned into a scourge of American workers, who are losing jobs on a large scale to competition from cheaper workers abroad.
But according to the first government effort to actually measure the phenomenon, such fears may be overblown. A new report released yesterday by the Labor Department on mass layoffs found that in the first quarter of this year, 4,633 workers were laid off because their jobs were moved overseas, a mere 2.5 percent of the total of 182,456 longer-term job losses reported by companies in the period.
Officials acknowledged that the numbers clearly undercount the total number of jobs lost offshore. For one thing, the new data covers layoffs only at companies employing at least 50 workers where at least 50 filed for unemployment insurance and the layoffs lasted more than 30 days. Even more important, the report does not account for jobs created by American companies overseas that did not involve a direct layoff in the United States.
The new data, however, does seem to fortify those experts who have long argued that outsourcing plays a relatively small role compared with other more important factors affecting American job gains and losses. (snip)
Linux leader and founder Linus Torvalds is moving with his family to Portland, Ore., farther from hectic Silicon Valley and closer to his employer, the Open Source Development Labs in Beaverton. Until changing jobs nearly a year ago, Torvalds worked at Transmeta, a processor designer in Santa Clara, Calif.
"For the last year, since I've been working entirely remotely, we've been in the position that we could live anywhere," Torvalds said in an e-mail interview. "The weather scares us a bit, but on the other hand we know a lot of people up there, and they all seem happy. And it's bound to be less crazy than Silicon Valley."
-- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of U.S. hiring slumped sharply in June after several months of robust gains, the government reported on Friday, as employers added fewer than half the number of payroll jobs forecast and hours of work shrank.
The Labor Department said only 112,000 jobs were created last month, far fewer than the 250,000 that Wall Street analysts had anticipated. April and May new-job totals were revised down, to 324,000 and 235,000 respectively, from 346,000 and 248.000.
The unemployment rate was unchanged, as expected, at 5.6 percent.
June still represented a 10th straight month of job growth that has added about 1.5 million workers to payrolls, but the unexpectedly steep slowdown last month may make it harder for President Bush to campaign for re-election in November on a claim of accelerating economic momentum. (snip)
Nasdaq posts the heaviest losses amid a lackluster Yahoo! report and more software warnings.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. tech stocks led the markets to a lower close Thursday after an uninspiring earnings report from an Internet heavyweight and more profit warnings from the software sector.
The Dow Industrials (down 68.73 to 10,171.56, Charts) shed about 0.7 percent, the Nasdaq composite (down 30.76 to 1,935.32, Charts) dropped about 1.6 percent and the S&P 500 index (down 9.22 to 1,109.11, Charts) fell about 0.8 percent.
The markets were slightly lower for most of the trading day, but the declines accelerated towards the end of trading. Oil prices also contributed to the stock losses as crude rose more than a dollar to close above $40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Late Wednesday Yahoo! and Alcoa kicked off the earnings season with lackluster reports, as Yahoo! failed to exceed estimates and Alcoa fell short.
A tech wreck Internet bellwether Yahoo! (YHOO: Research, Estimates) tumbled nearly 8 percent after the portal reported a profit that doubled from a year earlier, on revenue that jumped 90 percent, helped by strength in online advertising. The results, which merely met Wall Street's expectations, failed to impress investors after the stock's strong run over the past year.
Yahoo! wasn't the only factor hitting tech stocks Thursday.
Siebel Systems (SEBL: Research, Estimates) and BMC Software (BMC: Research, Estimates) shares each fell more than 13 percent as the companies joined peers Veritas (VRTS: Research, Estimates) and PeopleSoft (PSFT: Research, Estimates) in warning about lower-than-expected profits.
-- Initial claims for unemployment insurance rise to 349,000, well above estimates.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The number of Americans filing for unemployment assistance soared by 40,000 last week, the government reported Thursday, coming in above economists' expectations.
Initial claims for unemployment insurance rose to 349,000 in the week ended July 9, up from a revised 309,000 the prior week. Economists expected 340,000 new claims, according to Briefing.com.
The four-week moving average, which smooths out weekly fluctuations in the jobless claims figures, came in at 339,000 last week, up from a reading of 335,750 the prior week.
-- Bangalore may be on the verge of overtaking Silicon Valley as the biggest IT employment region in the world on the back of the rise in offshore outsourcing, according to some estimates.
The high-tech Indian city, which is home to major Indian IT outsourcers, including Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro Technologies, as well as many Western IT companies, now employs 160,000 people in the technology sector. IT accounts for 100,000 of these jobs, with the rest in business process outsourcing and call centers.
MS Shankaralinge Gowda, secretary of IT and biotechnology for the state government of Karnataka, said that the number of tech workers in the region will exceed 200,000 between 2004 and 2005, as IT and business process outsourcing companies continue to rapidly hire workers.
Gowda claims that Bangalore has already overtaken Silicon Valley, but the latest figures from California's state government Employment Development Department (EDD) estimate the number of technology workers in Santa Clara County, which is the heart of Silicon Valley, at 175,100 as of June.
Silicon Valley is not in danger of losing its stature as a tech leader, and it can benefit from competition overseas, said Sam Haddad, chairman of the Silicon Valley Engineering Hall of Fame and a consulting professor at Stanford University. Haddad said the region is seeing new growth in areas such as nanotechnology. "Silicon Valley is already beginning to reinvent itself," Haddad said. "I am very optimistic." (snip)
-- Wall Street, which forced Google, the Internet search engine, to lower the price of its shares sharply in its initial public offering in August, has decided that the company is worth a lot more today than it was then.
Research analysts associated with five of the investment banks that managed Google's offering released their first reports on the company yesterday, at the end of a government-mandated quiet period.
The analysts were bullish on Google's shares, which closed at $118.26 on Monday. The shares jumped yesterday to $126.86, up 7.3 percent.
Mary Meeker, the Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter in the offering, published a model that valued Google shares at $132 each.
Heath Terry, the analyst for Credit Suisse First Boston, the No. 2 underwriter, had a target price of $145.
The numbers are more than 50 percent above the $85 a share for Google's public offering on Aug. 17. Google had initially proposed selling shares at $108 to $135. But after what appeared to be light demand in the unusual auction Google designed for itself, the price was lowered sharply. (snip)