Fenton Research Weblog

China's economy still looks strong... but there are warning signs

From FT magazine 20th October 2008.

Sources: Thomson Datastream; CLSA; Standard Chartered; Xinhua

Notes:  Exports, Retail sales, Industrial profits 2008 = first half; Real urban income 2008 = Jan-Jun; Housing sales 2008 = Jan-Aug; Car sales 2008 = Aug

Graph has been recreated as no access to exact underlying data.

Economic reports

I suspect we will be swamped with stats and reports on economic forecasts over the next few weeks/months.  Here are 2 for starters:

• CBI's quarterly industrial trends survey - FT article from 22nd October 2008

• The Ernst & Young Item Club - FT article from 20th October 2008

McRecession

Well at least some things never change, despite an economic slowdown.

McDonald's reported that consumer demand for burgers and fries was proving resilient to US and international economic turmoil.  Sales continued to grow in the US and European markets that were beginning to see slower consumer spending.

Self-service fast food restaurants in the US have outperformed more expensive waiter-service restaurants.  Recent food price rises have also meant that eating fast food is comparable to eating at home.

I wonder if Starbucks now wish they'd diversified their brand more...?

Libraries of the future

Food for thought from ILI 2008...

Will the 'physical' library of the future primarily be there for those who do not have iphones, pda's etc to access library tools i.e. will the 'virtual' library of the future only exist for the wealthy?

Sorry seems to be the hardest word

Interesting article in 15th October 2008 edition of the FT (Sorry not a word in banker's vocabulary) giving an idea of verbal (non) action taken to avoid being called the 'financial crisis scape goat'.

Even fatter cats

According to Incomes Data Services, executive pay and bonuses are not likely to suffer major drops despite deteriorating company performances and 'enforced' remuneration policies.  Will remuneration committees have the nerve to oversee big falls in executive pay?

And despite the changes announced at the top of many UK banks recently, 2007 remuneration should maybe keep these guys going for a while?:

- Sir Fred Goodwin RBS    Salary £1.29m    Bonus £2.86m    Total £4.15m

- Eric Daniels LTSB          Salary £0.96m    Bonus £1.81m    Total £2.77m

- John Varley Barclays      Salary £0.98m    Bonus £1.42m    Total £2.40m

- Andy Hornby HBOS        Salary £0.94m    Bonus £0.45m    Total £1.39m

source: FT, Monday 13th October 2008   

Source leads

A few source leads picked up from ILI 2008:

- Google custom search http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

- MSE360 (search engine) http://mse360.com/

- Google Knol (similar to Wikipedia) http://knol.google.com/k

(above thanks to Karen Blakeman, http://www.rba.co.uk/sources/)

- Moodle (open source software) http://moodle.org/

- Ning (create your own social network) http://www.ning.com/

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms

Last Thursday and Friday I, once again, had the pleasure of attending the Internet Librarian International conference in London.

I will be writing up on the event for a future article in Freepint, but here are some quotes I picked up that I thought may be good to share (apologies that I do not have all the 'quoters' names):

"life is about experience - share it with others" - Guy Cloutier

"build visions for tomorrow by building dreams and objectives today" - Guy Cloutier

"what do you want to be remembered for?" - Guy Cloutier

"(librarians) are the memory of the future" - Guy Cloutier

""if you don't think about information correctly you will have problems" - Stephen Arnold

"the library is a growing organism"

"society will determine what the library of the future is"

"bring your heart with you to work" - Michael Stephens

"library education does not stop when you leave library school" - Michael Casey

"professionals make it up as they go - they just hide it better" - Thomas Brevik

"the universe is made of stories, not of atoms" - Muriel Rukeyser (Shanachie Story)

"books and technologies are merely containers of information" - Shanachie Story

"(the library) is a place where people come to practice democracy" - Shanachie Story

"librarians are not afraid to do new things"

A spoonful of sugar

Just one snippet from a key business research resource:

Private Eye, 17th-30th October 2008

"A British bank is run with precision

A British home requires nothing less! 

Tradition, discipline and rules must be the tools

Without them - disorder! Chaos!

Moral disintegration!

In short, we have a ghastly mess!"

(Mr Banks, Mary Poppins)

Network, network, network

Now may be the time, more than any other, to network among your information peers and colleagues.

On Friday 3rd I had the pleasure (as I did last year) of taking part in the CILIP Open Day speed networking session.  I met graduates and new entrants to the information world as well as fellow 'experienced' information pros from a wide variety of professions.  Good fun was had by all.