April
13, 2004 Written
by Bob Meyer, Editor of BarterNews
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WTO
Predicts 7.5% Growth In International Trade
The World Trade
Organization's Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi says that
world trade has made a major turnaround from the 9/11 incident,
which caused a 1% decline in 2001. Growth in 2002 was only 2.5%,
and 2003 saw 4.5%. For 2004 the prediction is 7.5%, which would
exceed the 1990s average growth of 6.7%.
World trade
is now closing in on $8 trillion per year. In 1950 the aggregate
trade figure was but $120 billion, showing the enormous expansion
of trade which provides support for sustained economic growth and
job creation.
Supachai says
the best way to ensure sustained trade growth would be for the WTO's
146 members to work together, to conclude the current round of trade-liberalization
negotiations aimed at reducing import duties and other barriers
to free international trade.
Editor's
Note: Approximately 10% to 15% of the $8 trillion in international
trade is done on a countertrade basis, according to the WTO and
the Economist magazine.
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Cabela's
Barter Message To Business Community
Cabela
is a hunting, fishing, and outdoor retailer that uses its ability
to attract tourists to negotiate favorable incentives from state
and local governments. (Automobile dealerships have used the same
"I'll move into your area and provide additional taxes if you'll
do such and such for us!")
Most of Cabela's
nine stores are located in the midwest, each one attracting about
4.4 million visitors on average last year. The stores in Kansas
City (KS) and Owatonna (MN) are among the top tourist destinations
in their respective states.
The "barter
offers" are contingent on various economic-development incentives
Cabela is able to get from cities and states where they locate,
which include road improvements, tax incentives and other subsidies.
Trade
Exchange Owners...
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Chinese
Company Joins Olympic Games' Barter Program
Sponsorship
Payment Made In Products & Services
China's biggest
personal-computer manufacturer, Legend Group Ltd., has become the
first Chinese company to join the Olympic Games' world-wide sponsorship
program.
Legend will
provide desktop computers, laptops, printers and other equipment
as well as technological support (and some funds) to the 2006 Turin
Olympic Winter Games and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, as payment
for the sponsorship. Sponsors use the 5-ringed Olympic Logo (Olympics
intellectual property) in their world-wide marketing programs.
Editor's
Note: McDonald's recently renewed their 4-year Olympic sponsorship
for $50 million. Like other Olympic sponsors, McDonald's payment
will be in-kind, wherein they will feed the hundred thousand volunteers
as well as the Olympic athletes from around the world at the two-week
events. (The Olympic Games are like no other sporting event in the
world, they're comparable to staging a "Super Bowl" for
14 consecutive days!)
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Networking
Is Important, But You Better Keep The Relatives Happy, Too
According to
the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), a research program that
assesses the national level of entrepreneurship, the aggregate amount
of informal investment is enormous. Nearly 1 in 20 adults report
investing money in entrepreneurial businesses, with 50% of those
proceeds going to companies owned by relatives.
Informal investment
weights in at a hefty 1% of GDP, or approximately $100 billion,
in the United States. Not all is earmarked for junior or the spouse...25%
goes to a neighbor, friend, colleague, or someone the investor knows.
And 15% to 20% goes to a stranger with a good idea—which is
why networking is so important.
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Here
& There...
- March 30th
follow-up: International Monetary Systems (OTCBB:INLM) has completed
its acquisition of California Barter Exchange in Modesto. IMS
now has 3,000 members within a 100-mile radius of the San Francisco
Bay area, and 7,000 members aggregately.
- Intagio Trading
Network has unveiled an upgraded and re-designed website, www.intagio.com.
Among the many enhancements are new "Buy" and "Sell"
sections, and a "My Storefront" section where clients
can promote offerings.
- China is
now the world's third largest merchandise importer, after the
U.S. and Germany. The World Trade Organization says China's imports
expanded by a remarkable 40% last year. At the same time, China's
exports expanded by 36% to make them the world's fourth largest
merchandise exporter.
-
A poll conducted
by the American Research Group in mid-march found that 44% of
Americans believed that the U.S. was still in a recession, despite
the last two quarters of 2003 posting economic growth at a sizzling
rate of 6.1%...the fastest in 20 years. And household wealth
recently hit an all-time high of $44.4 trillion, due to a 35%
recover in the stock market and rising property prices.
-
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-
More than
71 million individuals pay someone to prepare their taxes according
to the government's General Accounting Office.
-
In Mexico
tax authorities allow painters and sculptors to pay their annual
tax obligations with their works, i.e. "payment-in-kind."
However, a group of highly respected artists decides whether
or not each piece is accepted.
The artists
like the idea for two reasons: it's hard on struggling artists
to come up with the cash, and the artists benefit because their
work is put on display. (Total tax collection in Mexico equals
11.9% of gross domestic product-about half the U.S. rate.)
-
David Wethey,
an international advertising consultant in London, is advocating
a major shift in the way ad agencies are compensated. His suggestion
is to switch to a model that emphasizes the results an agency
achieves rather than the number of staff or hours devoted to
an account.
Wethey says
agencies should get either a percentage of the client's sales
or a percentage of the client's marketing budget. One major
advertiser-Procter & Gamble-subscribes to this thinking.
Four years ago they moved to a sales based compensation plan.
-
The Godfather
of Soul, James Brown, sang "This is a man's world"
and in the venture capital world that's true-as fewer than 10%
of high-level venture capitalists are women. Does having so
few women in decision-making roles in VC mean women entrepreneurs
are less likely to get funding? According to the Kauffman Foundation,
a resource center for entrepreneurs, that is indeed the case.
Although
women led 28% of all U.S. businesses in 2002, for example, female
entrepreneurs historically receive as little as 4% to 9% of
available venture funds.
-
India's
economy grew 10.4% last year, surpassing China (which grew 9.9%)
to become Asia's fastest-growing country.
-
Chief economist
Stephen Roach at Morgan Stanley contends that property markets
are frothy, as are government bonds, credit instruments, high-yield
debt, and tech stocks. In the WSJ he was quoted, "Here
we are, only four years after the bursting of the first bubble,
and new bubbles abound."
Roach suggested
that the Fed immediately raise the federal-funds rate charged
on overnight loans between banks to 3%, to restore some semblance
of normalcy to financial conditions.
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