Unit labour costs rise strongly – OECD
Unit labour costs rise strongly across OECD economies in second quarter 2009
Unit Labour Costs (ULC) for the total economy grew 0.8% in OECD countries in the second quarter of 2009 and rose 3.6% year-on-year. The strong growth was largely driven by falls in real output (gross domestic product at constant prices) due to the crisis.
The rise in unit labour costs for the total economy in the major seven economies was 0.7% in the second quarter of 2009 which was lower than the 1.3% recorded for the Euro area. Unit labour cost growth for the total economy in the United States remained at 0.6% for the second quarter of 2009, due mainly to a 1.6% fall in labour costs in market services.
Unit labour costs in industry grew 1.5% in the second quarter of 2009 in OECD countries and were up 7.2% year-on-year.

Islamic banking grows fast – FT.com
I’ve got this email from FT.com and I think it’s very interesting and want to share it here.
LONDON: 5 November 2009: Islamic banking continues to see strong growth while conventional banking has stagnated, according to the 2009 Top 500 Islamic Financial Institutions in The Banker magazine’s November issue.
The assets held by fully sharia-compliant banks or Islamic banking windows of conventional banks rose by 28.6% to $822bn in 2009, from $639bn in 2008. This is a striking contrast to The Banker’s 2009 Top 1000 World Banks survey in July, which showed annual asset growth of just 6.8% at conventional banks. Islamic finance as an industry is building a solid track record: the compound annual growth rate for 2006-2009 is 27.86%, with assets forecast to hit $1033bn in 2010.
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lucmbeki@aol.com ***If you ever get an email from this address DELETE IT***
I just got this email from this address lucmbeki@aol.com
Below you can read the entire message, actually the whole correspondence. I suggest to delete it as it is a SCAM or SPAM or whatever of the like.
This is the Google result confirming what I supposed.
Berlusconi on TV with no contradiction
Watching the latest appearance of Berlusconi on TV makes me thinking that Italy, my country, is really in deep trouble. Not because is Berlusconi now serving as prime minister. But because whatever one, and I mean anyone, think something that goes in the opposite direction or just slightly different from the will of the “prime minister-media tycoon”, is soon or later made looking ridicule, mad, etc.
This seems to me to a new 21st century form of regime, of dictatorship for the conscience, for the mind.
I have one image in my mind: Berlusconi reading something, Vespa (the journalist) that has to stop him to start the adverts and when Vespa tried to stop Berlusconi with more decision, the prime minister placed a hand on Vespa’s right arm and continued reading. Vespa later said: “mister prime minister you’re not allowed to do this again”. Of course Berlusconi finished what he wanted to finish.

Ahead of the G20 Summit: the Employment Outlook
Briefing by OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría
Wednesday 16 September 2009 – 11.00 a.m.
Despite early signs that an economic recovery may be in sight, unemployment is likely to continue rising into 2010. Ahead of his attendance at the G20 Pittsburgh Summit, OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría will brief journalists on OECD recommendations on employment policy and other issues.
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OECD Conference on the Economics of Climate Change
Friday 18 September, OECD headquarters
As world leaders head into serious discussions in the coming weeks about how to address climate change, new OECD work will inform some of the most contentious isssues of the debate – those related to the costs involved.
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One of my favourite songs: ‘Heart of Africa’ by Martin Solveig
So the whole reason the French people can’t really dance
Is because they haven’t got the beat in their blood.
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