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Faced with low eurozone inflation of annualized 0.7% in October 2013, and low growth, the ECB lowers interest rates in the eurozone by 0.25%. The risk from deflationary pressures is high in Oct 2013. Weakening the euro from $1.38 in Oct. 2013 to $1.34 following the rate cut helps increase inflation through higher price for imports and helps boost exports. This brings rates close to zero and the ECB having to resort to quantitative easing in future efforts.

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Gottfried points out that after the IPO, in which it made a 73% gain to $45.10 in the first day above listing price of $26, the market value is $31.7 billion in early Nov 2013. This puts more pressure on Twitter to increase revenues to justify such a high market valuation. Estimates from Pivotal Research show Twitter not reaching $1 billion in operating income till 2018-2019. By basic market capitalization Twitter opened at about 26 times 2014 sales estimates, and 33 times using diluted market value.

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The U.S. Fed publishes a 38 page policy statement in Nov. 2013 on procedures and guidelines for stress tests of U.S. banks. Efforts to increase clarity for stress tests. Outlines for three scenarios- baseline, adverse and severely adverse.

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Bill Gates describes the successful work of 2 million volunteers and millions of children and parents in India's poorest rural areas to get all the children in India vaccinated for polio. This includes the work of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He decribes his visits to India and realizing over time how bringing vaccinations, healthcare, improvement in agricultural development would enable hundreds of millions of India's children to participate and contribute to bringing out India's full potential. Harnessing their full potential is the next big challenge in India's development and modernization.

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Instant information, too much information, can bring its own set of problems including making people unable to figure out what information to trust. Here Evan Williams, a co-founder of Twitter, describes the problems and his second thoughts about progress and the internet. His new startup Medium hopes to encourage long form writing, but even this is shorter than the longer form articles that were common in prior decades.

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IDC forecasts a decline in sale of high-end interchangeable lens cameras by 9.1% in 2013 from 19.1 million units to 17.4 million units. Part of the decline is from the frequent use of smartphones with photo-editing apps, and from customers shifting their purchases to smartphones and apps instead of high-end cameras.

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CEO Jeffrey Boyd of Priceline.com hands the CEO role to Darren Huston, a former Microsoft executive. Boyd will continue as chairman. During a remarkable leadership for the company following the dotcom bust Boyd made important acquisitions, including Booking.com. The smaller online travel companies with a focus on hotels in Europe and Asia helped Priceline.com grow rapidly by taking smaller commissions. Priceline shares increased by 65% in 2013 to reach $1000. Revenue for the third quarter of 2013 increased 33% to $2.27 billion with increase in Asian bookings, and overall profit increased to $866 million from $596 million in the year ago quarter. Boyd's strategy in 14 years at Priceline.com was to keep the different websites acquired under separate management to keep brand loyalty and customer perceptions. Websites such as Agoda.com, Booking.com, Kayak, and Rentalcars thrived under independent leadership at each website. Huston headed the international brands and Booking.com from Amsterdam, where he will continue to be located....

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Major decisions about changing the economic structure- as advocated by the DRC and the PBOC- are expected from the Third Plenum party conference in China. This may compare to the Plenums in 1978 and 1993 which led to the setup of a market economy.

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Twitter has grown since its founding in 2006, to emerge as a social media platform by 2012. Its growth is during the same period that the smartphone made its entry- the iphone in 2006 and the android phone in 2008. The short form of 140 characters works well on a mobile smartphone. It was much easier to type in the 140 characters into a smartphone than into earlier phones. Its adaptability to the smartphone and the spread of smartphones everywhere gave it tens of millions of users.  Jack Dorsey who founded Twitter tries to develop a longer form through a startup Medium and does not himself believe that the short form provides a medium for thoughtful expression. By 2016 it forms the basis of president Trump's campaign against both the establishment in the Republican and Democratic parties.  By the time of the Joe Scarborough fact check of president Trump's comments on Twitter in May 2020 so much has become muddled up that the WSJ editorial while calling the comments nasty, says the fact check itself has bias. Mr. Trump says conservative voices in the Republican party are silenced.  By institutionalizing the short form the tech platforms and tech companies have built their own structures on the decline in cultural and other literacy in America, Europe and in other countries.   ...

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U.S. Fed chairman Bernanke tells a IMF conference on financial crises in Nov 2013 that the unemployment rate of 7.3% does not reflect the problems in the labor market, which require strong action to improve job creation. He says the level of student debt is a serious issue that also needs to be taken into account.

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S&P downgrades France's credit rating from AA+ to AA. Government spending at 56% of GDP remains at the second highest level in the EU, second to Denmark. President Hollande has reduced the deficit mainly by raising taxes which is seen as having reached its limit. The French economic growth was at 0.5% for the second quarter of 2013 compared to the first quarter, unemployment is high at 11.1%.