BUSINESS NEWS

mported corn-based ethanol from the US could help ease ethanol prices in Brazil that have been rising because of increasing demand and heavy rains that have delayed the sugarcane harvest, Julio Maria Borges, a director at sugar and ethanol industry consultancy Job Economia e Planejamento, told BNamericas.

"Importing ethanol from the US makes sense from the commercial point of view as the American corn-based ethanol, at the moment, is US$300/m3 cheaper than ethanol produced from Brazilian sugarcane," Borges said.

Ethanol prices in Brazil have risen 20% in the last five months, according to state news agency Agência Brasil, and some consumers in Brazil are already starting to turn to cheaper gasoline.

The Brazilian government, meanwhile, is currently considering importing ethanol from the US to supply the domestic market, a source at Brazil's mines and energy ministry told BNamericas.

"The government is trying to find an internal solution for this situation, but importing ethanol from the US is on the table," the source said.

Brazilian sugarcane and ethanol industry association Unica has already asked the government to scrap the 20% tariff imposed on imported ethanol.

Brazil should set an example for the world by removing tariffs in order to stimulate other countries to do the same, the association said in a statement.

Importers, however, could still face some risk as the upcoming harvest and increased use of gasoline will put some pressure on local ethanol prices.

"It is a risk for the importer to ship ethanol from the US now, in a moment when prices will probably begin to fall because of lower demand and the start of a promising harvest year in March," Borges added.

Brazil's government has already been trying to address the situation and last week announced that gasoline will contain 20% ethanol from February 1 as opposed to the current 25% admixture rate.

The reduction will be valid for 90 days, after which the rate will be increased back to 25%.

La Metula News Agency, souvent identifiée par l'acronyme Ména, ou Mena^[1], est une petite agence de presse israélienne francophone^[2],[3],[4], quoique cette qualification soit contestée par d'autres sources^{[5],[6],[7],[8]}. Elle a été créée par Stéphane Juffa en mai 2001^[6]. La rédaction est située dans le village israélien de Metula — qui lui donne son nom — à la frontière libanaise.

Sommaire [masquer] 1 Fonctionnement 2 Controverses 3 Annexes 3.1 Notes et références 3.2 Articles connexes

Fonctionnement

La Ména publie des articles en français^[9]. La société Metula News Agency S.A. est enregistrée aux îles Vierges britanniques^[6]. Les assemblées générales sont tenues à Metula en Israël^[10], où est également située la rédaction^[11].

La Ména affirme employer des journalistes français, un journaliste égyptien et un analyste américain ainsi que des correspondants dans divers pays et territoires arabes (Liban, Jordanie et Palestine). Son rédacteur en chef est le journaliste et commentateur Stéphane Juffa. Elle compte parmi ses collaborateurs l'essayiste et universitaire Guy Millière. Luc Rosenzweig (ancien journaliste de Libération et ancien rédacteur en chef du Monde) en fut un collaborateur^[12].

Cette agence, qui couvre essentiellement les événements du Proche-Orient et du Moyen-Orient, s'est fait connaître à propos de l'affaire Mohammed al-Durah, dont elle a fourni une part des matériaux et points de vue utilisés contre le reportage de France 2. Elle a également abordé, entre autres, la guerre du Liban de l'été 2006.

Controverses

La Metula News Agency, à la suite de la publication des conclusions de son enquête sur l’affaire Mohammed al-Durah, faisant l'objet de plus d'une centaine d'articles et éditoriaux de sa part, est au centre d'une controverse qui l'oppose au journaliste franco-israélien Charles Enderlin et à la chaîne de télévision du service public France 2. Selon la Ména, cette affaire procède d'une mise en scène et les thèses de l'agence sont reproduites dans un livre de Gérard Huber, à l'époque son correspondant à Paris, intitulé « Contre expertise d'une mise en scène ».

Selon H. Deguine de la revue Médias^[6], la Ména s'est fait connaître à propos de l'affaire Mohammed al-Durah, affaire qui aurait "assuré le véritable lancement de l'agence". Les articles de la Ména sont considérés comme une « campagne de diffamation » par Bénédicte Amblard, avocate de Charles Enderlin^[13].

Pour Dominique Vidal, journaliste au Monde diplomatique, la Ména « excelle dans la dénonciation de journalistes^[14] ». Il mentionne, en plus des attaques contre Charles Enderlin, des attaques de la Ména contre Alexandra Schwartzbrod du journal Libération. ^[15]. Dans le même ordre d'idées, Daniel Psenny, journaliste du quotidien Le Monde, estime, dans un article paru en novembre 2004, que la Ména est un site militant et précise que celle-ci, plusieurs années auparavant, aurait qualifié l'AFP d’« Agence France Palestine^[16] ».

Da Nang narrowly tops Binh Duong in 2008 Vietnam
Provincial Competitiveness Index

The Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) is a survey of the business climate in the nation’s 64 provinces and cities in Vietnam. The PCI is widely viewed as a critical tool for measuring and assessing the standards of economic governance from the perspective of private sector businesses. Year 2008 marks the fourth iteration of the PCI analysis.

The Provincial Competitiveness Index 2008 is the result of a major, ongoing collaborative effort between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the U.S.Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative (VNCI), managed by DAI, with a substantial contribution by VNCI partner The Asia Foundation (TAF). The report was based on a survey of 7,820 private domestic enterprises on a number of indices relating to business or investment climate. The rated factors are those that can be directly influenced by the actions and attitudes of provincial authorities and include entry costs, proactivity of local leadership, labour training, transparency and access to information, state-sector bias, private sector development services, land access, security of business premises, legal institutions, informal charges and time spent on regulatory compliance. In 2008, the Vietnam News reported on the 12 of December that on a 100-point scale, Da Nang earned 72.18 points, followed by Binh Duong with 71.76 points, allowing the central region city to surpass the southern province of Binh Duong which topped the survey in its first three years but dropped to second place in 2008.

In Business-in-Asia close analysis of this years report, we found the following:

1.) Both provinces, Da Nang and Binh Duong, top the Excellent tier and their final scores (72.18 and 71.76) differ by less than half a point. Binh Duong, the PCI champion for the past three years, lost its crown to Da Nang, which had ranked second in all previous iterations. Da Nang is to be applauded for this but Binh Duong and Da Nang both remain top places to invest in Vietnam in 2008.

2.) Da Nang actually showed a decline from last year in some indices, including private development services, informal charges and time spent on regulatory compliance, land access and security of business premises. However, its advantage in Port and Airports helped in its overall Standard Infrastructure score.




Indicators Used In Infrastructure Index are:



3.) Binh Duong is still the strongest in the Infrastructure Index; however, when comparing ports and airports and seaports access, it lost to Da Nang because it is an interior province with no provincial seaport and with no airport since it relies on Ho Chi Minh City international airport which is about a 45 minute drive away. A further fact to note here in comparing airports is that Danang airport is largely an internal airport with few international flights while Ho Chi Minh City International Airport is the country's largest and has the most flights to neighboring regions. Binh Duong remains top of the Index on Proactivity (which covers issue such as are the provincial officials knowledgeable enough about present national law to find opportunities within existing law to solve firm problems, and so on). Binh Duong was judged weaker than DaNang on its website, which made its score lower in the Transparency Index than DaNang, and on the ICT Readiness Index, Binh Duong lost out to Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi but still exceeded DaNang.


3.) The two major economic hubs, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, were also in a lower positions in Year 2008 PCI, with Ho Chi Minh City, at 60.15 points, falling from 10th in 2007 to 13th place; and the capital city of Hanoi, at 53.74 points, dropping from 27th to 31st.

Over the past years, more than 40 provinces and state agencies in Vietnam have used the PCI to engage in public-private dialogue and analysis with local communities to better understand the competitive factors that drive economic growth. The report helps direct provinces and cities towards their areas of greatest weakness, encouraging them to make necessary reforms to facilitate businesses rather than ranking provinces and cities in high or low positions. Furthermore, investors use the index as a basis for their decisions about the location of new business ventures.

Who Answers the PCI Survey? (Composition of the 7820 Total Respondents)


Despite the stability in PCI rankings over time, 2008 scores were generally lower across every level, with the score of the median province in the survey falling from 55.6 in 2007 to 53.2 in 2008, indicated in the PCI report summary. While most PCI sub-indices experienced moderate increases, two sub-indices, Labor and Private Sector Development showed dramatic declines. Because of the high weights of these indices, the declines affected the overall PCI scores significantly. The PCI report indicated that the causes of the lower scores are predominantly due to either: 1) evidence of actual deterioration in public service delivery, or 2) increasing expectations by firms that have not been met by proportionate improvements in the quality of government services. Vietnam's macroeconomic instability in 2008, also had a measurable influence on firms' perceptions.

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(Updates share price in 10th paragraph.)

By Ari Levy, Brian Womack and Rochelle Garner

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc. approached other companies to seek their help drawing attention to a cyber attack from China last month and was frustrated by their reluctance to come forward, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Google announced this week that it was one of at least 20 companies targeted in a “highly sophisticated” computer attack and wanted others to talk about the incident, the person said. The companies refused, and Google made the announcement by itself, the person said.

Since then, three other companies, Adobe Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc. and Rackspace Hosting Inc., have said they were targeted by cyber attacks. The reluctance of companies to join Google in its initial announcement illustrates the pressure on them to protect their business in China, the world’s third- largest economy, said Barry James, who helps manage $2 billion at James Investment Research in Xenia, Ohio.

“Companies are not going to be cutting off their nose to spite their face,” James said. “It’s an underlying problem that exists in terms of dealing with a country where they don’t necessarily follow all the same rules that we do. More experienced firms have a better grip on how to navigate that.”

In disclosing the attacks, Google said it plans to stop censoring Web-search results in China, a move that may lead to the closing of its Chinese site and offices in the country. Mountain View, California-based Google said the attacks were directed at e-mail accounts of human-rights activists.

Jill Hazelbaker, a spokeswoman for Google, declined to comment on how the company handled the matter.

China Revenue

Google probably can afford to leave China, said Marshall Meyer, a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

“If they were making a lot of money, I don’t think they’d do this,” said Meyer, who teaches an MBA course on how companies operate in China. “You have to cultivate good relationships with the government -- no way around it.”

Less than 2 percent of Google’s $21.8 billion in revenue came from China last year, according to Jefferies & Co. By comparison, China accounted for 13 percent of Intel Corp.’s sales in 2008, the last time the company disclosed results from the country. Cisco Systems Inc. made 11 percent of its revenue from the Asia Pacific region, excluding Japan, in the most recent quarter.

Google rose $1.87 to $591.72 at 9:32 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock has almost doubled in the past year.

‘All About Profit’

Dan Slane, chairman of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a federal agency, said he was surprised more companies aren’t standing up with Google.

“It’s all about profit, and I understand where the silence is coming from, but they are missing the long-term picture,” Slane said in an interview. Chinese leaders’ “end game is to extract as much technology out of American companies as they can, transfer that to their own companies and, when they feel those companies have reached a level of technical maturity, show the American companies the door.”

Google co-founder Sergey Brin pushed the company’s executives to take a stand against the attacks and end its censorship of Web-search results in China, according to another person familiar with the matter. As part of the discussion, Google executives analyzed the financial effect of the company leaving China, the person said.

Yahoo! Inc., the second most used U.S. search engine, was also among the companies targeted by the attack in China, a person familiar with the matter said this week. Yahoo, which said it “stands aligned” with Google in condemning Chinese cyber attacks on users, said that it doesn’t generally disclose attacks on its computer systems.

Microsoft’s Stance

Technology companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Intel have spent years building businesses in China, the world’s largest Internet and mobile-phone market.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television that his company intends to stay in China and wants to be “part of the solution” in the country.

Intel, the world’s biggest chipmaker, said there is no change in its view of the Chinese market and it hadn’t seen evidence of a “broad-based attack” on its systems.

“We have nothing to say concerning other companies’ views” of the Chinese market, said Chuck Mulloy, a spokesman for the Santa Clara, California-based company.

Cisco, the world’s largest maker of networking equipment, said it’s closely following discussions of censorship in China.

“As Cisco is not a service or content provider and doesn’t participate in the censorship of information by any government, we cannot comment regarding the specifics of any of our industry peers,” the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement.

--With assistance from Ian King in San Francisco. Editors: Jonathan Thaw, Jeffrey Taylor, Stephen West

(Adds BOJ’s Momma quote in the ninth paragraph.)

By Toru Fujioka and Mayumi Otsuma

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Japan’s central bank may see escalating political pressure to act against deflation as the government seeks to remove the threat of a recession relapse before a parliamentary election in July.

Finance Minister Naoto Kan, in his second week in office after replacing Hirohisa Fujii, said yesterday that “there are still various policy measures that could be taken” by the Bank of Japan. He also praised the BOJ’s Dec. 1 introduction of a 10 trillion yen ($109 billion) loan program that came days after he expected more “monetary support” from the bank. He was economy minister at the time.

“BOJ policy makers will feel more pressure to take action with Kan in the position,” said Hiromichi Shirakawa, a former central bank official who’s now chief economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Tokyo. “Kan probably wants the central bank to give more stimulus to the economy as he’s much more political than Fujii and nervous about the government’s falling approval rating ahead of the upcoming election.”

Among the bank’s options: Expand the credit program, increase its monthly purchases of government bonds, or specify a timeframe for keeping the benchmark interest rate near zero, economists said. The spark for action may be another surge in the yen that could undermine the export-led recovery.

Sliding Popularity

The Democratic Party of Japan’s popularity has slid since it came to power for the first time four months ago promising to end 20 years of economic stagnation. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s approval rating was at 56 percent this month, compared with 75 percent when he took office, the Yomiuri newspaper said on Jan. 11, without giving a margin of error.

Kan said in his inaugural speech on Jan. 7 that he will work with the BOJ to keep the yen at an “appropriate” level, adding that he wants it to weaken “a bit more.” He said on Dec. 8 that the loan program “had considerable impact” in cheapening the currency and bolstering the stock market.

The yen traded at 90.95 per dollar at 4:05 p.m. in Tokyo, about 7 percent weaker than the 14-year high of 84.83 reached on Nov. 27. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average has rallied 21 percent since then, and rose 0.7 percent today.

“I want to make sure we communicate with each other thoroughly,” Kan said yesterday, referring to the central bank. “The government and Bank of Japan are cooperating very well.”

‘Makes Sense’

Kazuo Momma, the bank’s chief economist, said today that while it “makes sense” for the two to work together, the BOJ decides policy independently. “Governments and central banks cooperate closely in any country, not just Japan.” The country is unlikely to fall back into a recession even as the pace of growth slows, he said at a business forum in Tokyo.

Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his colleagues may consider further action should the yen resume its advance and approach 85, said Hideo Kumano, chief economist of Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, who used to work at the central bank. He said the policy board’s most likely option is to increase the size of the credit program and extend the period of the loans beyond three months.

Alternatively, Kumano added, the bank might increase its monthly purchases of government bonds from the current 1.8 trillion yen if Hatoyama decides to sell more of the securities to fund any further stimulus spending.

Japan’s fiscal condition is deteriorating: The Finance Ministry forecasts bond sales will exceed taxes as the main source of funding in the year ending March. Still, government borrowing costs remain contained as deflation attracts bond investors. The yield on the 10-year note fell 1.5 basis points to 1.32 percent, the lowest this week.

Quantitative Easing

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Pacific Investment Management Co. analysts also said this month the BOJ may step up its liquidity injections through purchases of government bonds to combat consumer-price declines.

Another choice may be specifying a period for keeping the key rate at 0.1 percent, said Credit Suisse’s Shirakawa, who isn’t related to the governor. “Influencing expectations of market participants is probably the least costly step for the central bank,” he said.

The bank edged toward such a pledge last month by saying it “does not tolerate a year-on-year rate of change in the consumer-price index equal to or below zero percent.” Its understanding of price stability is inflation of up to 2 percent.

Akin to Target

The range “can almost be taken as inflation target,” Keisuke Tsumura, one of Kan’s top two economic advisers, said in an interview yesterday. “We’re now at a stage where we can evaluate the impact of the bank’s policy.”

Tsumura said Kan “will respect the bank’s autonomy,” a stance analysts including Shirakawa and Masaaki Kanno question.

“Kan isn’t seeking a traditional relationship with the BOJ,” said Kanno, chief economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Tokyo, who also used to work at the central bank. “It looks like he wants to create something different to keep them under control as far as the law allows and the bank can keep face.”

The Bank of Japan is unlikely to bow to pressure if the government wants further monetary easing to help fund fiscal spending, said Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo.

The central bank will only act “when it sees that there is a responsible and sustainable policy at the Ministry of Finance concerning the public debt,” Schulz said. “Kan needs to be expansionary, he needs to look responsible and he needs to get along well with the BOJ. If he does so, there is a very good chance that deflation finally will be over next year. That will be a major, major political achievement.”

(Adds economist’s comment in fourth paragraph.)

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Foreign direct investment in China more than doubled in December from a year earlier as the effects of the financial crisis fade.

Investment rose 103 percent from a year earlier to $12.1 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said at a briefing in Beijing today. That compared with a 32 percent increase in November. Investment fell 2.6 percent in all of 2009 to $90.03 billion, the government said.

Friction between the Chinese government and overseas companies such as Google Inc. and Rio Tinto Group may not be enough to temper investor enthusiasm for the world’s fastest- growing major economy. Rupert Stadler, CEO of Volkswagen AG’s Audi division, said this month that China is the best answer when seeking growth, after the nation supplanted the U.S. as the world’s No.1 auto market in 2009.

“China’s recovery means that the nation’s growth rate will lead the major economies by an even bigger margin,” said Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC Holdings Plc in Hong Kong. “Thus China’s appeal -- strong economic fundamentals and the world’s most populous consumer market.”

China’s $586 billion stimulus package, record lending last year and tax breaks on consumer spending are bolstering sales and profits. The nation may overtake Japan as the world’s second-largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund projections.

Industry Secrets

Google, the owner of the most-used Internet search engine, said on Jan. 12 that it will end self-censorship in China after attacks on e-mail accounts of human-rights activists and may exit the nation. Separately, Chinese prosecutors are deciding whether employees of Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, will go to trial for allegedly stealing secrets related to the steel industry.

“Most foreign investors are still more than eager to secure a share of China’s market, especially amid the financial crisis because that’s where the potential market lies and where the profits are,” said HSBC’s Qu.

VW, which sold 6.29 million cars and sport-utility vehicles worldwide last year, reported a 37 percent surge in China to 1.4 million autos, helping offset declining European deliveries. The German automaker plans to invest more than 4 billion euros ($5.8 billion) in the country by 2011, while Ford Motor Co. is spending $490 million building its third plant in the nation.

Foreign direct investment adds to the flood of cash in the financial system from record lending and the trade surplus, increasing the risk of bubbles forming in asset markets and inflation surging back. Property prices rose at the fastest pace in 18 months in December, a report yesterday showed.

Fan Gang, an academic member of the central bank’s monetary policy committee, said on Dec. 28 that “hot money,” or short- term speculative capital, is making China’s stock and property markets more volatile. Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said on Jan. 5 that the nation may see “huge” inflows of hot money as foreign investors step up bets on gains of the Chinese currency.

or Info text size: TT

The yearly AP top ten list includes President Obama’s inauguration and health care reform. Transcript of radio broadcast: 01 January 2010

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

At the end of each year, editors and news directors of the Associated Press in the United States vote for the top ten news stories of the year.

They named the American economy as the top news story of two thousand nine. The government approved more than seven hundred eighty billion dollars to help the struggling economy. Yet the unemployment rate was over ten percent. Many banks failed. And the federal deficit reached a record one point four trillion dollars.

Chief Justice John Roberts swears in Barack Obama as the 44th United States president

Last year, the top news story was the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president of the United States. This year, Mister Obama's inauguration was voted the second top story.

The battle between Republicans and Democrats over health care reform was voted the third top story of the year. Reform of the country's health care system was one of President Obama's top goals.

The American auto industry was fourth on the list. Two of the big three American automakers filed for bankruptcy after suffering sharp drops in sales.

Next on the list was the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu. The virus affected tens of millions of people worldwide. Officials said swine flu sickened about fifty million Americans and killed ten thousand.

American troops in Afghanistan

The war in Afghanistan was also among the top news stories. Last month, President Obama decided to send thirty thousand more American troops to Afghanistan. Public opinion studies show that the war has grown increasingly unpopular with Americans.

The AP editors said the death of singer Michael Jackson in June was also among the top news stories. The fifty year old international star was just days from beginning a series of performances in London. Jackson's doctor became the subject of a police investigation after admitting he gave Jackson a powerful drug to help him sleep.

Another top story happened in November. Thirteen people were killed in a shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas. Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan is accused of the killings.

Ted Kennedy

Senator Edward Kennedy's death in August was also among the top news stories. Mister Kennedy was one of the nation's longest-serving and most respected senators.

And finally, the tenth news story of the year has been called the "Miracle on the Hudson." Pilot Chesley Sullenberger safely landed a US Airways passenger plane on New York's Hudson River after both its engines failed.

For the first time, the AP invited members of the public to name their top news stories. A separate vote was held on Facebook. More than one thousand four hundred people took part.

They chose President Obama's inauguration as the top story, followed by the economy. Eight stories appeared on both top ten lists.

And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by Brianna Blake. What do you think were the top news stories of two thousand nine? You can comment on our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

By Jon Fernquest

To remain competitive in international export markets Thailand must continually upgrade product standards.

Two recent examples:


Upgrading shrimp standards in the future may also be necessary to win new market share in the lucrative EU shrimp market, a market that Thailand has barely penetrated:

Good Agricultural Practice (GAP)

Today's article is about a set of local standards for Thailand's shrimp industry known as Good Agricultural Practice (GAP).

GAP standards address many different aspects of shrimp production and marketing including "food safety, food quality control, environmental management, social responsibility and animal welfare."

EU retailers have also initiated their own set of European GAP standards known as "GLOBALGAP" (Read article).

With its vast, free database, researcher BrightScope could alter the retirement landscape as much as Morningstar changed funds

By Amy Feldman

Americans increasingly rely on their 401(k) plans for retirement, yet typically understand little about how their plans work, or how they compare with offerings at other companies. Is your 401(k) cheap or expensive? Does it offer good investments or mediocre ones? A generous match or a stingy one? And most important: Will your 401(k), and the way you take advantage of it, get you through retirement without running out of money?

BrightScope, a San Diego startup, wants to help 401(k) participants and administrators answer those questions. It has created a massive database from corporate filings with the Labor Dept., Securities & Exchange Commission, and other sources, to rate 401(k) plans. To mine all that data, it developed a quantitative model that takes into account hundreds of factors—everything from the plan's investment choices and fees to its structure, including its generosity to employees. BrightScope then runs simulations to ascertain how well each plan serves the average participant. The final result is a score of 1 to 100 called the BrightScope rating. The company also assigns each plan six component ratings (on fees, average account balance, etc.) that range from "great" to "poor," so participants and plan administrators can see where the 401(k)'s strengths and weaknesses lie.

This exercise isn't without precedent. Retirement consultants at Callan Associates, Marsh & McLennan's (MMC) Mercer unit, and Watson Wyatt (WW) have long done proprietary analyses—"benchmarking," they call it—for big 401(k) plan sponsors. What makes BrightScope unique is that its ratings are publicly available on brightscope.com, and its analysis has been boiled down to a level anyone can understand. The company now rates about 30,000 plans, double the number it had completed in October.

Mike Alfred, BrightScope's chief executive, believes people should be able to see how their 401(k)s stack up as easily as they are able to access quality rankings on their mutual funds, their cell phones, or their cars. With nearly $3 trillion socked away in 401(k)s, "it's ridiculous that no one has done anything with the data," he says. "The person who gets it right will find the business opportunity. We're just naive enough to think we'll be the ones to do it."

BrightScope's efforts come at a perfect moment. Even before the market meltdown of 2008, Americans were headed for a retirement crisis, with the average 401(k) balance hovering around $60,000. Now, legislators and regulators are debating how to reform these plans and whether there should be new rules on fees, which can seriously damage a plan's performance, or on target-date funds, investment vehicles geared to a specific retirement date that are the default offering in many 401(k)s for participants who do not choose their own investments.

The first big hurdle is getting the rating formula right. If BrightScope's data aren't good enough, or its model proves defective, its analysis could be useless, or could even nudge both participants and corporations to make decisions based on faulty assumptions. "It's not as simple as a good plan vs. a bad one," says Lori Lucas, who heads Callan's practice in 401(k)s and other defined-contribution plans. "A mutual fund might have 100 moving pieces. But a 401(k) might have 1,000, making it difficult to come up with a single rating."

SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY

In 1937, Bill Jones III's grandfather, A.W. "Bill" Jones, inherited Sea Island, much of nearby St. Simons Island, and large tracts elsewhere in coastal Georgia from his cousin, Howard Coffin, who had been a top engineer for Oldsmobile and Hudson Motor Car.

Jones' resort grew slowly, subsisting mostly on cash flow from the Cloister Hotel and proceeds from occasional land sales. (Jones Sr. swore off debt, says Blaine Kelley Jr., an Atlanta developer who knew him.) Families from across the South would flock to Sea Island every summer, holing up in rental homes brokered by Sea Island Co. or in rooms at the Cloister, where the Joneses would roll in cots to accommodate the overflow. Through the mid-1980s, the Cloister's rooms didn't have TVs and the front desk didn't take credit cards. Parents dropped their kids off at the beach club, where they were watched over by some of the same people who had watched over the parents years earlier. Bill Jones Jr., an avid hunter and farmer, ran the company from 1966 to 1992; former employees say he fixed toilets himself.

The resort underwent a pricey makeover with easy money, and insider lending that bordered on crony capitalism

By Peter Waldman
BW Magazine

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* Taiwan's New Tech Dreams
* Innovation in a Downturn
* Executive Summary
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A.W. "Bill" Jones III had an eye for the finer things. After taking over his family's sprawling golf resort on Sea Island, Ga., in 1992, he toured America's top clubs for a sense of what the competition had to offer. Soon Sea Island Co.'s clubhouse locker rooms boasted antique wood beams, overstuffed couches, fireplaces, libraries, and mounted game from Jones' hunting trips to Africa.

Sony and other TV makers, along with Hollywood studios, want three-dimensional entertainment in your living room, but high price tags may slow adoption

By Cliff Edwards
Consumers are falling fast for 3D entertainment. For proof, consider the success of Avatar, an otherworldly adventure film full of three-dimensional imagery that in just two weeks has grossed more than $640 million at the box office.

In hopes of capitalizing on the public's burgeoning thirst, Hollywood studios are cramming 3D content into more films and TV manufacturers are equipping gear so that it showcases the technology in people's living rooms.

But as much as consumers demand 3D in theaters, they may not quickly usher it into their homes. Making a living room theater 3D-capable can cost upwards of $4,000, a hurdle that even the most ardent 3D backers say may slow adoption. "We don't expect to see an explosion of 3D in the home until the 2012 time frame," says Mike Fasulo, chief marketing officer for Sony Electronics, which nevertheless is betting its future on the technology. Sony is among the electronics makers that plan to introduce 3D-friendly TVs and DVD players at the Consumer Electronics Show, due to begin Jan. 7 in Las Vegas.

While Apple's iPhone grabs headlines, the cheaper iPod touch keeps gaining devoted fans

By Peter Burrows
Ever since Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPhone in the summer of 2007, it has been hailed as one of the most revolutionary products in tech history. By comparison, the iPod touch, which has all the iPhone's features without the cell phone, has been downright publicity-starved.

But this holiday season, it seems the thinner, cheaper device may be Apple's breakout hit. While actual sales data are not yet available, Broadpoint AmTech (BPSG) analyst Brian Marshall figures iPod touch sales soared more than 100%, to 7.2 million, in the final quarter of 2009, while iPhone sales rose 53%, to 11.3 million.