Sticky Pedals for Toyota Means Big Recalls

I read an article on the New York Times website about how Toyota has made it's second major recall over accelerator pedals. In several new models there have been reports of accelerator pedals getting stuck and/or unintentional acceleration. The recall covers 2.3 million cars, both cars and trucks. This recall was separate from a previous recall of 4.2 million vehicles which was Toyota's largest recall ever.

The first recall was for floor mats that could get stuck under the gas pedal causing it to stick, but then a car sped off of the road and into a pond killing 4 people. When investigated it was found that the floor mats were actually in the trunk of the car, triggering the second recall.

I think that this article goes to show how important jobs can be, and how precise designs have to be with all angles considered, or else lives can be put at stake.

It seems that cell phones have obtained a more important roll than simply a means of communicating with others, according to an article that i found in the Wall Street Journal. The fashion brand Versace plans on marketing its new chic cell phone. Though the idea of fashionable cell phones is several years old, it seems that the trend is picking up. Cell phones are now competing with watches to demonstrate the wealth of their owners, cell phones costing several thousands of dollars are for sale around the world. These phones are treated as jewlery, often gold plated and/or covered in precious stones.

The new Versace cell phone is set at $5000 dollars and will be sold in high end beauty and boutique stores. Because designer cell phones have been selling most strongly through Asia and Russia, that is undoubtedly where they plan on targeting.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703626604575011142248650182.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Starbucks sees its profits triple

According to this article that I found in BBC, the US coffee chain giant made a net profit of $241.5 million in the three months to the end of December, compared with $64.3 million a year earlier. They won back customers by extensive cosy-cutting work over the past year.

They cut thousands of jobs and shut down hundreds of stores over the past two years to lower the costs. They also introduced new and lower price coffee.

I think this is interesting because I am a coffee person and I like to read about new about coffee. Also, I am impressed because Starbuck tripled their profit in only a year. I remember there were a time that I saw 2 or 3 starbucks in a city and it is unnecessary. I think they made a good decision and it turns out good.

Billionaires of Basketball

In this article from Forbes.com basketballs financial status is discussed. There are 10 billionaire basketball team owners; of these ten teams they lost a collective $110 million as the recession and job losses greatly affected ticket sales.

NBA players made a combined $2.3 billion during the 2008-09 season, up $100 million from the year before. The team that suffered the most was the Memphis Grizzlies; there value has dropped 13% since last season.

Not every billionaire-owned NBA team lost value; The Los Angeles Lakers got a 4% increase. The Lakers are now the leagues most valuable team, worth %607 million. The Lakers success is due to high ticket prices that get sold due to recent NBA championships and star players such as Kobe Bryant.

Google's Big 4Q

In this article from Forbes.com Google’s fourth quarter revenue is said to have made a 17 percent increase. While sales are boosting investors were still unhappy as shares are down 5 percent.

A 6.7 billion dollar fourth quarter came from smart online advertising sales. It will be interesting to see if they maintain these rising sales or if it is just a short boosts following a recession as some companies are now seeing. They have been working on finding a new way to make new sales as many articles they have released in the past few months have stated. I don’t know if the new sales are due to finding new ways of making money or if it’s just other companies starting to increase and buy more ad space on Google.

Gold Buying Companies not a Good Deal

In an article from Times Online reports that the companies that offer to buy gold through the mail are generally not a good deal. The annoying TV commercials that seem like a good deal to get cash quickly may not be a good thing at all. Several companies are being investigated by a British agency, The Office of Fair Trading, because they are accused of not giving the gold back if the customer is not satisfied with the cash offer.

I found it interesting because to most, companies like cash4gold seem too good to be true, and they probably are. A magazine sent three of these companies identical pieces of jewlery bought for $1180 each. In one case, a company only offered $62 for the gold. It might be worthwhile to look into how many people actually sell their gold to these companies. Are these types of companies actually prospering in this economy?

Japanese Airline Company Caught in a Buyout Battle

In this article by MSNBC, Japan Airlines (JAL) is not the true "prize" that Both Delta and American Airlines is fighting over. Whoever buys out JAL will get an increased money flow, and more influence over Asian air. Passenger increases would be expected to go up by 3.8 percent for whoever gains control over JAL.

Japan Airlines has filed for bankruptcy and has a tarnished image because of of safety flaws found on some planes earlier this year, but this is not deterring either of the American companies. Customers have been switching to other Asian airline companies. But a coalition with an American company, JAL is expected to get back on track.