World Markets Simplified: December 2011 //Daily News Stories, Interesting World News, Pharmaceutical News Headlines, Technology News, Innovation News, Breaking News, Sensational News Stories, Entertainment News, Yellow Journalism, Tabloid Journalism

$6.3 trillion wiped out from global stock markets.

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Almost $6.3 trillion was erased from global stock markets...

The real estate market in India is an ideal example of the subversion of demand-supply economics.

Everyone knows the real demand for both residential and commercial real estate is currently low. Inventories are piling up with builders and not even half of new launches are being sold in major cities. But prices still remain stubbornly high.

According to the makaan.com property index, prices have nationally dropped by around 1 percent last month, with cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Hyderabad seeing bigger falls.

But one needs to follow the trend for a longer period to figure out if there is going to be any meaningful price correction where demand materialises. In all probability, it won’t happen.

On the one hand, consumers are not ready to buy at the given price and if prices fall, investors will likely default on their payments.

Samantak Das, research head at property firm Knight Frank, tells us why. “The basic reason is this: the real estate market is driven mainly by investors and not end-users or consumers.”

Investors comprise of 50-52 percent of total absorption. So when a builder is building 100 flats, he could sell 50 flats at one go to an investor at, say, Rs 5,000 per sq ft. Now even if his other flats are not getting a good response he cannot afford to bring prices below Rs 5,000, for it would mean negative returns for the investor, on whom his maximum sales depend.

And these investors are not generally you and me buying a second flat for investment, but non-resident Indians or even politicians channelising their black money into the sector. “Their lobby is so strong that negative returns on their investments by pulling down prices simply cannot be done,” says Pankaj Kapoor, managing director of property research firm Liases Foras.

Says Kapoor: “Indian realty is in a Catch-22 situation where, on the one hand, consumers are not ready to buy at the given price. And if prices fall, investors will likely default on their payments.”

So why have the prices risen so much in the first place? The answer mostly lies in foreign capital entering Indian markets. Foreigners are not directly allowed to buy land, but the foreign money entering the housing sector is used for nothing else but buying land.

Construction costs constitute just 10-20 percent of a property’s price, with land accounting for the major balance — depending on where the property is located. Now, in residential buildings, customers themselves pay in phases, funding their own construction, which means the initial investment by the builder or private equity fund goes into buying the land. Between the financial year 2008 and till September this around, more than Rs 43,000 crore of foreign investment has flown into the housing sector.

Such capital flows have pushed prices up, with the weighted average price of a flat in Mumbai now being more than Rs 1 crore. Liases Foras estimates that even if interest rates come down to 9 percent from the 14-15 percent at present, the realty market needs to undergo a 33 percent price correction to go back to 2009 levels.

When a developer calculates returns on a flat, he has a certain velocity of sales in mind, which means he estimates the flats will be sold in a given timeframe. When the private equity investor is roped in, their margins increase the prices. When prices are held high, the sales velocity is bound to go down. The return on equity for the private equity investor falls and the consumer is hurt because of high prices.

In fact, private equity funds worth $3 bn-$5 bn are expected to exit real estate investments in 2012, Jones Lang LaSalle says. But the returns could be really low, hovering around even 2-3 percent, says Kapoor. So if both consumers and funds are losing, who is pocketing the gains is a question that needs to be answered.

The second question: if so much money has been transferred to the sector, what is the asset creation? Liases Foras estimates suggest that incremental construction floor space has gone down over the last two years in all major cities except Pune. Kapoor explains: “This tells us that land has almost been treated as a derivative that is traded with. It changes hand from owner to builder to PE funds and rises in value through the process. But nothing is created. With all capital being lost, realty has become the mother of all scams.”

Third, there have been controversial deals for floor space index (FSI) where a higher number of floors has been allowed for a single apartments. In such cases, the cost per flat must come down as the cost of the land remains the same. But this benefit has not been passed on to the customer, thus inflating the total value of the land.

In all this, common people have lost out. In the last 10 years, the percentage of Mumbai population living in slums has gone up from 55 percent to 70 percent. If one looks at it closely, almost the whole of the incremental population has gone to slums because of unaffordable housing. Are not foreign funds and direct investments supposed to do exactly the opposite?

What we have today is a system only for investors, who can get full tax exemptions on interest if they rent the property out. But a first time buyer has exemption only up to Rs 1,50,000 on interest payments. A new regulator for the realty sector is welcome — which is now being promised by the Real Estate Regulation and Development Bill, which must bring under its purview all the stake holders in the realty story.

If the regulator turns out to be a toothless tiger who is hand-in-glove with politician and builder lobbies, no good will come of it. India needs structural changes in its opaque realty sector to give its people what should be a basic right: a roof over one’s head.

A typical day for 45-year-old Star includes walking the dog, straightening her 8-year-old son's room and running a load of laundry.

It also includes stepping into her home office to work as a phone sex operator.

"I look at what I do as a business," Star, a single mom, told "Good Morning America." "It happens to deal with sex."

Star, who asked that we not give her last name or hometown, is one of thousands of moms in the U.S. who work as phone sex operators, and the numbers are growing at dramatic rates.

In the last 18 months alone, the number of mothers of young children pursuing sex work has jumped 400 percent, according to ratracerebellion.com, an organization that helps mothers find work-at-home jobs of all kinds, ranging from writing assignments to telemarketing.

Chris Durst runs Ratracerebellion.com. Durst has tracked the working habits of moms for more than a decade, and, while she says there's always a spike in the number of moms pursuing phone sex work after Labor Day, the last two years have shown unprecedented levels of interest.

The reason, she says, is the dismal state of the economy.

"Most sound a little embarrassed," she told "Good Morning America" of the moms who reach out to her, in search of phone sex work." "They say, 'I've tried everything. It's come to the point my family is on food stamps. We can't make the rent and are facing foreclosure. This is the fastest way for me to get my family back on my feet again.'"

Phone sex lines used to be run out of call centers. But today, the calls are typically taken from women, working out of their homes. Phone sex lines take pains to ensure that callers have no idea where the women answering the phones are based, or what their real names are.

Many of the mothers working as phone sex operators told "GMA" that, while they would like to work outside of the sex industry, those jobs are not currently available.

"I've applied to probably 20 to 30 jobs at like Walmart or Subway or a fast-food place," one mother, Aubrey, who asked that her last name not be used, said. "I just haven't gotten picked up in my area."

Aubrey, 22, and the mother of a 3-year-old son, says working as a phone sex operator is difficult, and often disturbing.

"There was a lot of having to get used to just, you know, the weirdoes out there," she said. "There is basically anything you could think of. There's married men with children. There's divorced men. Sometimes, every once in a while, there's a couple that'll call," she said. "More recently, there's actually been a few women calling."

Aubrey said she at times feels disgusted speaking intimately with strangers while her son sleeps down the hall.

"This is nothing I'd ever thought I'd be doing, ever," she said.

Working as a phone actress is as far as the 22-year-old says she is willing to go in adult entertainment.

"I'd never want to take off my clothes for anyone, or actually, you know, fulfill these fantasies for anyone," she said.

Aubrey's goal is to save enough money to finish her schooling and get a job as a medical transcriptionist.

"I'm definitely doing it for my child," she said. "We need the extra money to make sure he has everything he needs."

Financial Incentives Lure Stay-at-Home Moms

The women are typically paid $10 to $50 per hour, but many can make much more.

Lynn, a mother of three who also asked that her last name not be used, told "GMA" that she often considers getting out of the phone sex business, but says the finances of leaving don't make sense.

"I make more money per hour that way than I would at another job," she said. "I've made over $1,000 in the course of a day."

Lynn says that the work can often prove draining. She, like many phone sex operators, plays five different characters on various phone lines, to satisfy the interests of callers with very different interests. But she notes the flexibility of her hours, which she can set, and the ability to work from her living room are big incentives to stay with the phone sex job.

The financial benefits of her work have not been lost on her husband, Mike, who has come to accept what she does for a living.

"That she has the ability to bring in a little extra each month, and sometimes a lot extra each month, and be able to not have to worry about how and where we're going to get food or if the electric bills are going to be shut off, that's a big deal," he said. "That overrides any sort of other worries I might have."

Society Remains Divided

Durst's organization, Ratracerebellion.com, reports that some of the phone sex companies that employ women like Lynn, Aubrey and Star, take better care of their employees than do traditional, brick-and-mortar companies.

According to the site, some of the companies offer the women benefits. Many pay their employees by direct deposit every week or every other week. For women who do not have bank accounts, some of the phone sex companies pay directly to a gift card. Many additionally offer free training.

But while a growing number of moms may be pursuing phone sex work, society, as a whole, seems to still have reservations when it comes to mothers of minors working in the business.

"I don't know that I would want to promote that to my children," said one New York City mom.

"It's probably not the most appropriate," said another, when asked by "GMA" whether she thought it was acceptable for the mother of a young child to get paid to speak intimately with strangers.

Star says she knows many people want to judge her for what she does. To them, she insists, her line of work does not make her a bad mom.

"I get to spend time with my son," she said. "I have to go into the office when I work, but the office is just one room away from my living room. I take calls for half-an-hour and I'm back to my son again."

Star says her 8-year-old son has only a vague idea of what her occupation entails. So far, she's only told him that she gets paid to talk on the phone. But she says that she is prepared to come clean when he eventually asks more detailed questions.

For now, she, Lynn and Aubrey say they'll continue to attend to their children and work as phone sex operators, all in an effort to keep their children clothed, fed and with a roof over their heads.

"Your priority as a mother is to financially and emotionally be there for your children," mom-of-three, Lynn, told "GMA." "Phone sex helps me provide financial support for them."

Daily Markets, Economy and Tech. Sector - 23 Dec 2011

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Global - Economy and Market WASHINGTON - The...

The countdown to the apocalypse is on.

We're one year away from Dec. 21, 2012, the date that the ancient Mayan Long Count calendar allegedly marked as the end of an era that would reset the date to zero and signal the end of humanity.

But will it?

There have been many end of times predictions over the years. Christian radio host Harold Camping faced widespread ridicule when his predictions that the world would end twice this year - on May 21, and then on Oct. 21 - failed to materialize.

But in the flurry of doomsday predictions - there have been similar dire warnings about the world coming to an end from various cultures, including Native Americans, the Chinese, Egyptians and even the Irish - the supposed Mayan prophecy seems to have held the most sway with believers.

The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy. Advanced mathematics and primitive astronomy flourished, creating what many have called the most accurate calendar in the world.

The Mayans predicted a final event that included a solar shift, a Venus transit and violent earthquakes.

Their Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."

Gronemeyer, of La Trobe University in Australia, compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 24 a second reference to Dec. 21, 2012, on a brick found at other ruins.

"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas and always assume the worst," Gronemeyer said.

Believers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internet with hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs. Yet others are capitalizing on the heightened interest. Films depicting the end of the world - including the 2009 movie, "2012? - are contributing to the mounting hype as well as to misinformation, experts say.

In southern Mexico, the heart of Maya territory, a yearlong celebration is planned.

Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors by next year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Campeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year.

It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year, as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."

For those who are thinking about how to spend what could be their last year on earth, here's another message of hope: According to recent research, the mythological date of the "end of days" may be off by 50 to 100 years.

To convert the ancient Mayan calendar to the Gregorian (or modern) calendar, scholars use a numerical value (called the GMT). But Gerardo Aldana, a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has said the data supporting the widely-adopted conversion factor may be invalid.

Aldana isn't the only detractor.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration - yes, that's NASA - has also weighed in on the issue.

The agency's scientists posted answers to the most popular questions about the end-of-times theory associated with the prophecy.

"Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know," the 2009 web page post says.

The answers addressed questions about whether there were any known threats to the Earth and the truth about the calendar.

One of answers posted was to the question of the possible approach of Nibiru (or Planet X or Eris), a supposed wayward planet that is said could pose a threat to Earth. The answer was a definitive rejection of the idea.

"Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax," scientists wrote. "There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles."

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DataWind, the Canadian company that is manufacturing Aakash, has started the online booking and pre booking of the much anticipated low cost Android tablet. Online booking is for students' version of the tablet and pre booking is for UbiSlate 7, the upgraded version of Aakash.

Students' version of Aakash will be available for Rs 2,500 and will be delivered in seven days. The commercial version, UbiSlate 7 is priced at Rs 2,999. The payment mode for both the tablets is cash on delivery.

The commercial version of Aakash tablet will be powered by Android 2.3 and will have a resistive touchscreen, Cortex A8-700 MHz processor and graphics accelerator HD video processor, 256 MB of RAM and 2 GB of internal memory.

Other specifications are a one standard USB port, 3.5 mm audio jack, a 7 inch display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution, resistive touchscreen, GPRS and WiFi support.

"The improved version of Aakash tablet will be available in retail outlets by January end," aspokesperson of DataWind told The Mobile Indian.

The tablet was to be made available in retail stores by the end of November. "The delay in the availability of the tablet has been due to upgradation in the tablet and some unforeseen delay in manufacturing," the spokesperson said.

To book and prebook student and commercial versions respectively of Aakash tablet, users have to visit DataWind's website and fill up the required form. In case of booking they will get a booking ID and a message which will state, "You will shortly receive an email confirmation from our support team with further details."

In case of pre booking users will get a confirmation message which will state, "The commercial version of the Akash UbiSlate 7 would be launched in early weeks of December. After the commercial launch we would get in touch with you to deliver your device as soon possible."

As a matter of fact, the confirmation message a reader will see is factually incorrect as The mobile Indian had reported earlier the Aakash tablet will be available only by January end.

Datawind has however not cleared how it is going to establish the identity of students who will book the cheapest version of Aakash tablet. When The Mobile Indian contacted spokesperson of Datwind he said, "Anyone can book the student version of Aakash tablet."

This defeats the purpose of providing students an affordable tablet as now anyone can place an order to get the tablet. Interestingly, now it has been revealed that the government has procured only 10,000 Aakash tablets for distribution in schools and colleges of the initial 1 lakh proposed.

It looks like the company was in a hurry to start the online booking process and has not done not proper homework before staring it.