Business Channel 2007-03-17&19(在线收听

The reality is that the level of distress here definitely knocked down a couple of notches today. Stocks ended slightly higher, investors paid little attention to a worse-than-expected inflation report, and comments from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said problems in the subprime mortgage market could spread to other sectors of the economy. So details now, the Dow Industrials as you can see at the Big Board adding 26 points and firmly back above that 12,000 level, the NASDAQ composite are up more than a quarter of a percent, the S&P 500 adding more than a third of a percent. Richard, so, / green arrows, good news for the stock market.

That' right, all right, lot of green arrows smiling then I guess. Hey, let's get to one thing I thought this is really interesting, getting all of your phone numbers onto one phone. Is that right? Do I get that right?

Yes. Same phones of the numbers, the same number that is. If you're like most people, Richard, you have more than one phone number. You know, there is your home phone number (Yeah, right, that's it, yeah) your cell, your office, maybe even more. Now you can actually get one phone number that will make all three ring when someone calls. This new service came from a startup company. It's called, er, it's based in California, and the service links as many phones as you would like to one number. All you have to do is pick a new number from a list that the company gives you. Interested, Richard?

I am, that's, that's really good stuff. And, and does the new number have your local area code?

Well, according to its website, which is GrandCentral.com, you can pick an area code in any region of the country and then you will be assigned the number in that area code or region. The only downside in this is not all areas are represented yet, so depending on where you live, you may have to get a long distance area code.

Oh, I still like the idea as you said, let's stay on telecommunications. There is some news out that text massaging may be made illegal?

Well, we are talking about getting caught DWT, which is driving while text messaging. Not a good idea at all. Washington State's House has actually approved a bill banning texting while driving. And at least three other states are considering doing the same thing . In Washington, the law was introduced in part, because of a major pileup that was caused by a driver using a BlackBerry. And in Colorado, a teenager's driving and texting habits caused an accident that killed a 63-year-old man. Now opponents of the idea of banning texting while driving say there are lots of things that distract people when they drive. And they say texting should not be singled out. But proponents maintain that texting requires a higher level of concentration and therefore it's a higher level of distraction. The federal government estimates that 30% of all crashes involve some kind of distraction on the part of the driver. So, my vote is text when you're still but not when you're driving a car.

Notes:

1. Subprime
(also sub-prime, B-Paper, B-tier, non-prime, near-prime, special finance, second chance lending) describes a specific lending market sector. Typically, subprime customers are those who do not qualify for prime market rates because of blemished or limited credit. Consequently, subprime customers are charged a higher interest rate to compensate for the increased risk. The general lending philosophy can be described as "priced to risk"; the higher the risk on the deal, the higher the interest rate. (Each country has a legal maximum annual interest rate).


2. Standard & Poor's 500 Index - S&P 500

An index consisting of 500 stocks chosen for market size, liquidity and industry grouping, among other factors. The S&P 500 is designed to be a leading indicator of U.S. equities and is meant to reflect the risk/return characteristics of the large-cap universe.

Companies included in the index are selected by the S&P Index Committee, a team of analysts and economists at Standard & Poor's. The S&P 500 is a market-value weighted index - each stock's weight in the index is proportionate to its market value.


3. green arrows

A green arrow means that the stock is trading higher today than in the previous market session


4. BlackBerry

The all-in-one wireless data and voice device from Research in Motion, Ltd. (RIM), Waterloo, Ontario (www.blackberry.net). Available in cellphone and PDA sizes, these popular devices extend the office to the road, providing e-mail, phone, text messaging, Web browsing, organizer (calendar, addresses, tasks, etc.), as well as paging, Yahoo instant messaging and corporate data access. A raft of third-party applications is also available.

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/shangyebaodao/2007/41742.html