HOME/ARCHIVES http://www.kazooweb.com/textes/
Merci de choisir un ou plusieurs textes plutôt que d'imprimer la totalité... Les arbres vous sont reconnaissants...

********************************
Week 21, 2006
THE BEST SELLERS (recent popular articles):
1) Boston Globe: As waistlines grow, women's clothing sizes shrink incredibly [Pendant que les Américaines grossissent, les tailles de leurs vêtements diminuent.]
2) The Economist: Health care for everyone [Aux USA, le Massachussetts innove en imposant l'assurance santé pour tous.]
3) CNN: Geography Greek to young Americans [Les jeunes Américains sont nuls en géo.]
4) USA Today: Tech advances make car-sharing programs simple [La technologie rend les dispositifs de partage de voitures plus performants.]

********************************
THE REGULARS: Summary
5) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: A Woman in the White House? [Une femme à la Maison Blanche ?]
6) Puzzle: Post-funeral murder[Un casse-tête... merci à VL]
7) Exams Tutor: Sources of business finance [Topo sur le financement d'entreprise. Voir le site indiqué ci-dessous pour retrouver les liens proposés.]
8) AUDIO/Voice of America: Maryland Law Could Force Wal-Mart to Spend More on Health Cares [Emission radio de la chaîne internationale officielle des Etats Unis, avec transcription et téléchargement streaming et MP3, cette fois-ci une émission sur l'économie sur une récente loi du Maryland obligeant certains employeurs de proposer l'assurance santé à leurs salariés.]

*******************************
1) Boston Globe: As waistlines grow, women's clothing sizes shrink incredibly [Pendant que les Américaines grossissent, les tailles de leurs vêtements diminuent.]
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/05/05/0_is_the_new_8/

0 is the new 8: As waistlines grow, women's clothing sizes shrink incredibly

By Kate M. Jackson, Globe Correspondent | May 5, 2006

Inside the dressing room at Ann Taylor, Wendy Chao found herself at a loss.

''I tried on a size 0 skirt and it was too big," said Chao, a 30-year-old graduate student of molecular biology at Harvard University. ''To me, a size 0 is antimatter; it's something devoid of any physical reality."

Chao was already mystified by how she'd shrunk from a size 8 in high school to a size 2 today, despite gaining 15 pounds in the interim. But now at size 0, she realized something curious was afoot.

''As far as I can see, size means nothing," she said. ''I am different sizes at different stores, but they're all remarkably smaller than what I wore as a scrawny teenager. In my closet, I have everything from a size 0 to a size 12." She added that a size 8 skirt she bought from Ann Taylor in 2000 is ''identical in cut" to the size 0 she bought at the store late last year.

The incongruity in Chao's closet is far from a fluke: While Americans have statistically gotten larger, women's clothing has gotten smaller -- that is, if the numbers on the size labels are to be believed. It's no secret that retailers have been playing to women's vanity for years by downsizing the sizes on garment labels, but the practice has reached an extreme in recent months with the introduction of the sizes ''double zero" and ''extra, extra small." If vanity sizing continues on this path, analysts say, it is only a matter of time before clothing sizes are available in negative integers.

In many ways we're already there, said Bridgette Raes, an image and style consultant in New York who notes that the sizes double zero and extra, extra small available at stores like Banana Republic and Old Navy are essentially negative sizes. Instead of putting a -2 size on the label, manufacturers use 00, which is the same thing.

J. Jill introduced its ''extra, extra small" size last year in response to its petite customers' demands for smaller sizes, said Lauren Cooke, a public relations manager for the company.

''We've always had size 'extra small,' but our clothing tends to be cut more generously because we cater to women over 35," she said, noting that an extra small at J. Jill is the equivalent of a size 2 or 4 at other stores. Their extra, extra small is equivalent to a size 0.

The downward evolution of sizes illustrates the extent to which retailers, apparel anufacturers, and designers are conforming to American women's obsession with wanting to be thin -- even if it's only in their minds, said Natalie Weathers, an assistant professor of fashion industry management at Philadelphia University.

In addition, the small sizes help retailers attract the junior-sized buyers -- typically girls in their teens -- to adult stores.

Vanity sizing has been a common practice in expensive women's clothing for decades, but Weathers said the practice has crept into the mass market because a wider spectrum of women -- teenagers through baby boomers -- are more preoccupied with size than ever before.

''We live in a world now where 14-year-olds shop at Victoria's Secret," said Weathers. ''On the other side, we're always hearing how 50 is the new 30." And the gap between what's reality for most women and fantasy also seems to be bigger. While more than 60 percent of American women are overweight, women on television and on the big screen are getting skinnier and skinnier. In fact, after producers of ''Desperate Housewives" learned their star Eva Longoria is a size 00, they wrote a reference to her clothing size into an episode.

While images of Hollywood certainly feed the frenzy, there are other factors at work, said April Ainsworth, owner of VintageVixen.com, an online vintage clothing retailer. With some exceptions, manufacturers are simply making women's clothing larger and labeling them with smaller sizes. As a result, what was a size 8 in the 1950s had become a 4 by the 1970s and 00 today. The size labels just keep getting smaller, so it's no surprise they're diving below zero now, Ainsworth said.

If this trend continues, some petite women may find their own shopping options limited as the smaller sizes available at some of their favorite stores actually become too large for them. Just ask Kelly O'Rourke, 27, of Roslindale. She loved shopping at such stores as Ann Taylor, the Gap, and J. Crew because their petite lines were cut to her silhouette. However, she said she recently found that sizes 0 and 2 are too big for her at some of these retailers. ''It's frustrating to me as a petite woman when I try on a size 2 suit and it's swimming on me because it really has the measurements of a size 6," she said.

The picture is further complicated by the fact that sizing varies among brands and stores, making it difficult for many women to know exactly what size they are. The problem has only become more acute since January 1983 when the US Department of Commerce dropped a uniform sizing system for women on the grounds that it no longer reflected the size and shape of the average consumer.

''Sizing has always shifted to match consumers' changing behaviors," said Kathleen Fassanella, a pattern maker and author who writes an apparel manufacturing blog called Fashion Incubator. ''For instance, when women stopped wearing corsets, manufacturers had to completely redesign their patterns due to the great dissatisfaction of women who were no longer wearing the undergarments." But because women have gotten larger, Fassanella said, their clothing is cut larger today -- though many of the labels won't tell you that.

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
2) The Economist: Health care for everyone [Aux USA, le Massachussetts innove en imposant l'assurance santé pour tous.]
http://www.economist.com

Massachusetts: Health care for everyone

Apr 6th 2006 | WASHINGTON, DC

Hillary Clinton couldn't do it. Can Mitt Romney?

AS WAS discovered by Hillary Clinton a decade ago, it is politically impossible to fix America's health-care system all at once. Congress is too angrily divided, and the federal government lacks the muscle to impose a grand vision on unwilling states. The riddle of how to provide health insurance for the 46m Americans who lack it will have to be solved by trial and error in the states. This week, Massachusetts offered an intriguing proposal.

The state legislature passed a bill that would make health insurance compulsory. Just as everyone who drives a car must insure it, so everyone with a body must insure that, too. The only exceptions are those who can prove they are so rich that they can pay for major surgery themselves. The bill had near-universal support. Governor Mitt Romney, on whose proposal it is based, says he will sign it.

To make the plan work, Massachusetts will offer a mix of penalties and subsidies. Individuals will be allowed to buy health insurance with pre-tax dollars, just as firms currently can. Those who don't will be penalised through the tax code, and then fined. At the same time, private insurers will receive subsidies to offer bare-bones insurance to those who cannot afford fancier packages.

Of the 6.2m people in Massachusetts, about 500,000 lack insurance. They fall into three overlapping groups. Some are poor enough to qualify for Medicaid, but have not enrolled. Some are not quite poor enough for Medicaid, but get no insurance from their employers and cannot afford to buy it themselves. Others could afford it, but just don't buy it, perhaps because they are young and healthy.

Massachusetts has already done a good job of reducing the size of the first group. A new computer system uses the Social Security numbers of those who show up at hospital to see if they qualify for Medicaid, and automatically enrolls them if they do. The other two groups will be shrunk by imposing a levy on firms with more than ten employees that do not offer health insurance, and by forcing everyone who still lacks insurance after that to get some.

With more healthy people in the pool, average premiums should fall, or at least rise less quickly. The burden on emergency rooms should be reduced, because insured people are more likely to go to a doctor before a problem becomes critical. Overall, the plan will cost no more than the state currently spends on the uninsured—about $1 billion a year, says an optimistic Mr Romney.

A novel aspect of the plan is the creation of a health insurance “exchange”, to relieve small firms of the need to conduct complex negotiations with insurers. Employees will be able to choose any plan approved by the state-backed exchange, and their premiums will be deducted from their pay cheques.

If the scheme works, other states will copy it. But that will depend on how much it ends up costing. No one wants to use the word “rationing”, but this is what happens in every country with universal health coverage. That said, Mr Romney's plan has more chance of success than Hillarycare ever did—which could help Mr Romney in 2008, when he will be seeking the Republican presidential nomination and then, perhaps, facing Senator Clinton.

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
3) CNN: Geography Greek to young Americans [Les jeunes Américains sont nuls en géo.]
http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/05/02/geog.test/index.html

Study: Geography Greek to young Americans
Tuesday, May 2, 2006; Posted: 4:18 p.m. EDT (20:18 GMT)

GEOGRAPHY SURVEY
# Thirty-three percent of respondents couldn't pinpoint Louisiana on a map.
# Fewer than three in 10 think it important to know the locations of countries in the news and just 14 percent believe speaking another language is a necessary skill.
# Two-thirds didn't know that the earthquake that killed 70,000 people in October 2005 occurred in Pakistan.
# Six in 10 could not find Iraq on a map of the Middle East.
# Forty-seven percent could not find the Indian subcontinent on a map of Asia.
# Seventy-five percent were unable to locate Israel on a map of the Middle East.
# Nearly three-quarters incorrectly named English as the most widely spoken native language.
# Six in 10 did not know the border between North and South Korea is the most heavily fortified in the world.
# Thirty percent thought the most heavily fortified border was between the United States and Mexico.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After more than three years of combat and nearly 2,400 U.S. military deaths in Iraq, nearly two-thirds of Americans aged 18 to 24 still cannot find Iraq on a map, a study released Tuesday showed. The study found that less than six months after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, 33 percent could not point out Louisiana on a U.S. map.

The National Geographic-Roper Public Affairs 2006 Geographic Literacy Study paints a dismal picture of the geographic knowledge of the most recent graduates of the U.S. education system. "Taken together, these results suggest that young people in the United States ... are unprepared for an increasingly global future," said the study's final report. "Far too many lack even the most basic skills for navigating the international economy or understanding the relationships among people and places that provide critical context for world events."

The study, which surveyed 510 young Americans from December 17 to January 20, showed that 88 percent of those questioned could not find Afghanistan on a map of Asia despite widespread coverage of the U.S.-led overthrow of the Taliban in 2001 and the political rebirth of the country. In the Middle East, 63 percent could not find Iraq or Saudi Arabia on a map, and 75 percent could not point out Iran or Israel. Forty-four percent couldn't find any one of those four countries.

Inside the United States, "half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map [50 percent and 43 percent, respectively]," the study said.

On the positive side, the study noted, seven in 10 young Americans correctly located China on a map, even though they had a number of misconceptions about that country. Forty-five percent said China's population is only twice that of the United States. It's actually four times larger than the U.S. population.

When the poll was conducted in 2002, "Americans scored second to last on overall geographic knowledge, trailing Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Sweden," the report said. The release of the 2006 study coincides with the launch of the National Geographic-led campaign called "My Wonderful World." A statement on the program said it was designed to "inspire parents and educators to give their kids the power of global knowledge."

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
4) USA Today: Tech advances make car-sharing programs simple [La technologie rend les dispositifs de partage de voitures plus performants.]
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2004-12-30-carshares_x.htm

Tech advances make car-sharing programs simple
By Mark Jewell, Associated Press

BOSTON — When I moved to this pedestrian-friendly city with plentiful public transit and pricey parking, I said goodbye to auto repair bills, insurance premiums and gas pumps. Recently divorced, without kids to ferry around, I realized my dream of living car-free.

But I still need wheels for the occasional errand or day trip. Enter Zipcar, a car-sharing service based in Cambridge. My options today are far greater than they would've been just five years ago, thanks to the marriage of Internet and voice-line technology with wireless communications. Customers make reservations via computer or telephone, and the company uses remote-access systems to control who can use the car when.

The two biggest car-sharing companies, Zipcar and Seattle-based Flexcar, are still pretty small. Zipcar offers more than 400 cars to its 30,000 typically well-educated and young customers in congested Boston, Washington and New York. It plans to hit at least three more U.S. metropolitan areas in 2005 with hopes of reaching a total of 25 North American markets within five years. Flexcar has 350 vehicles serving 25,000 members in more than 20 cities from Seattle to Washington, D.C.

Both services rent cars around the clock in increments of a half-hour or longer. Prices in Boston range from $8.50 an hour to $12.50, depending on the vehicle model. Gas is included. That's not bad when you also factor in the insurance, maintenance and repair costs that come with ownership. Car-sharing services also offer daily rates as low as $60, though conventional rentals are more economical to rent for more than a day at a time.

I signed up five months ago, choosing among several plans tailored toward either occasional or frequent drivers. I paid a $25 application fee and a $100 refundable membership deposit. Zipcar then checked my driving record. In less than a week, I received a membership card that serves as my key and can be used in any Zipcar city.

To make a reservation, I simply visit Zipcar's Web site and am immediately directed to my personal Zipcar page — my computer retains my logon information. If a computer's not handy, I can phone in the reservation. Online, I get a list of five cars in assigned parking spaces within a few blocks of my apartment. I can also sort the list by rates or the cars I rent most frequently. I also see a round-the-clock schedule indicating which cars are available when.

I always found a car within walking distance when I needed one, and my steady road partner — a Ford Focus that Zipcar has named "Focus Fabiana" — lives in a parking space a couple blocks away. During the most popular driving times, she could be sharing her affections with another Zipcar customer, leaving me to resort to a Honda a couple blocks farther afield, with the handle "Element Ephraim."

When my time comes, I walk to the parking spot — an online map tells me how to get there — and pull out my membership card. I place the card over a radio-frequency reader beneath the windshield, and the doors unlock immediately and keylessly. Zipcar's computer had already sent a message to a hidden dashboard computer telling the car to unlock itself only when my personal card went across the reader during my reservation period. Had I arrived too early, entry would have been denied. Inside my Zipcar, the key is hanging from a cord near the ignition — which would appear to be an unwise place to leave a key in the city. But the ignition unlocks only after I presented my card, so nobody else can break in and start the car.

Flexcar's system works a little differently. Its card unlocks the doors, but the customer enters a personal ID into a dashboard display to enable ignition — a step that Zipcar handles during the reservation process, rather than after entry. As a result, Flexcar customers can enter a car using their card anytime, without needing reservations, provided nobody else has reserved the car.

After I start my Zipcar, I can drive as far as I want and refuel using a Zipcar card at the company's expense — gas is factored into the hourly rates, along with insurance. These days, I reserve cars for an extra half-hour to be on the safe side, even though I have to pay for the time if I return the car early. I learned the hard way about the $25 minimum late fee when I got stuck in traffic and couldn't get back in time.

Zipcar and Flexcar can both wirelessly track when the car's engine has been turned off to determine whether to assess a late fee. Pretty clever. Both companies are continually refining their technologies. In partnership with wireless carrier Cingular, Zipcar is boosting the data capacity of its wireless platform so it can offer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity inside its cars. When that day comes, I hope I will resist the temptation to surf the Web while simultaneously dodging traffic. However many extras come along, for me the big appeal of car sharing is simple: mobility without being tied down to car ownership.

If car-sharing comes to your town, consider trying it. You might find greater freedom in not owning a car.

^RETURN TO TOP^

********************************
5) Le texte plus abordable de la semaine/Scholastic: A Woman in the White House? [Une femme à la Maison Blanche ?]
http://www.scholastic.com

A Woman in the White House?
By Genet Berhane

Is America ready for a female President? The people behind the White House Project think so. The organization recently partnered with Parade magazine to announce "8 for '08," a campaign created to promote the idea of a woman as President. As part of the campaign, they conducted a nationwide poll featuring eight leading female contenders for the Presidency—and the results are now in. With 43 percent of the vote, Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is the leading candidate for the country's top job.

"Recent polls show that Americans are hungry for a new kind of leadership and are now, more than ever, ready for a female President," said Marie Wilson, founder and president of the White House Project.

The White House Project is a national organization dedicated to increasing the presence of women in leadership positions, reaching as high as the presidency. With the 2008 presidential campaign just around the corner, Wilson hopes she can help people to seriously consider qualified female candidates.

Behind Senator Clinton was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, with 29 percent of the vote. Mayor Shirley Franklin (D-GA) tied Governor Kathleen Sebelius (D-KS) for third place with 6 percent of the vote. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) followed with 5 percent. Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) each had 4 percent of the vote, while Senator Olympia Snowe (R-ME) followed with 3 percent.

According to a recent CBS News/NY Times poll, nearly 92 percent of people polled would vote for a woman for President, if she was qualified for the job. "With women serving at the helm of Fortune 500 companies, on the Supreme Court, and in the halls of Congress," said Senator Snowe, "it is no longer a question of if, but a question of when a woman will become President."

The Student Vote

The Youth Leadership Initiative (YLI), an organization that encourages students to get involved in the political process, recently partnered with the White House Project to conduct an "8 for '08" poll among middle school students. More than 13,000 students in 45 states and the District of Columbia were given the same eight leaders as candidates. The students selected Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (with 38 percent of the votes) over Senator Hillary Clinton (who received 30 percent).

"It's fantastic to see so many students voting in our mock elections," said Holly Hatcher, the assistant director of programs at the University of Virginia Center for Politics (where YLI is based). "The YLI voters are the next generation of the American electorate. They will elect our future leaders."

^RETURN TO TOP^

There is no escaping the fact that businesses need finance (funds), both in the short term, and long term, to expand, operate or just plain survive. A business represents, in many respects, a continuous flow of money in and out of the company in the form of income and expenditure. Expenditure can be classified as either Capital Expenditure, which includes the purchase of fixed assets and spending on items which are to held by the business in the long-term, and will be accounted for in the Balance Sheet, and Revenue Expenditure, which essentially relates to the purchase of goods and service which will or have already been consumed, in the day to day operations of the business.

Its important that a business is aware and willing to tap every possible source of finance available, particularly at critical stages of the firms development. We can initially segment sources of finance into those internally available to the business, and those that are available externally.
Internal Sources of Funds
Profit The business can retain profit (after tax, interest and dividend payments have been deducted), to finance the businesses intended future expenditure. To find out more about profit and the calculation of retained profit, visit our article on the Trading and Profit & Loss Account.
Depreciation By deducting depreciation from profit, the business makes provision for the eventual replacement of worn-out machinery / plant. This can be seen as a further form of profit retention, and thus an internal source of finance.
Sale of Assets Companies may choose or be forced to sell-off assets of the business in order to raise finance.

It is normally the case, that internal sources of finance are not sufficient to fund the total current and future planned expenditure of a business, and therefore the business must look externally for potential sources of finance.

We can further segment Sources of Finance into those that address Short-Term Finance needs arising out of working capital requirements, Medium-Term Finance normally involving borrowing over a period greater than one year and less than five years, and Long-Term Finance capital required for a period of borrowing exceeding five years. In the following section we will consider external sources of short, medium and long-term finance.

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
8) AUDIO/Voice of America: Maryland Law Could Force Wal-Mart to Spend More on Health Cares [Emission radio de la chaîne internationale officielle des Etats Unis, avec transcription et téléchargement streaming et MP3, cette fois-ci une émission sur l'économie sur une récente loi du Maryland obligeant certains employeurs de proposer l'assurance santé à leurs salariés.]
http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2006-01/2006-01-26-voa1.cfm

Maryland Law Could Force Wal-Mart to Spend More on Health Care

I'm Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Economics Report.

A new state law in Maryland says large companies must spend at least eight percent of their total wages on health care. If not, then they will have to pay the difference to the state to help provide health care to the poor. The amount for non-profit employers is six percent.

The new law is called the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act. It will affect only companies with ten thousand or more employees in Maryland. At least four companies are that big. But only one is known not to meet the new requirement: Wal-Mart Stores. The legislation became known as "the Wal-Mart Bill [projet de loi]."

Wal-Mart employs about seventeen thousand workers in Maryland, and more than a million nationwide. It has faced a lot of criticism about its employment policies.

The Maryland law is the first of its kind in the fifty states. Labor activists say they will try to get more than thirty other states to pass similar legislation.

America's biggest labor group, the AF.L.-C.I.O., says fewer employers offer health coverage than five years ago. It notes that many workers in low-paying jobs, including some at Wal-Mart, have to be covered by Medicaid. Medicaid is a state and federal program that provides health care for the poor.

Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich vetoed the legislation last May. He called it bad policy. He said it sends an anti-business message and does little to deal with the national problem of limited health care for the poor. But earlier this month Maryland's Democratic-controlled legislature voted to cancel the veto by the Republican governor.

Wal-Mart strongly opposed the law. The company told Maryland lawmakers that it spends between 7 and 8 percent on health care. It says less than one-half of one percent of Maryland workers without health insurance work at Wal-Mart.

It says more than three-fourths of its employees have health insurance. And it says every Wal-Mart employee in Maryland can gain health coverage for as little as twenty-three dollars a month.

Wal-Mart and business groups like the United States Chamber of Commerce say the law will hurt companies that create jobs.

Wal-Mart could try to stop the new law in court. It says Maryland lawmakers, in its words, "placed the special interests of Washington, D.C., union leaders ahead of the well-being of the people they serve."

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
9) This is Travel: The sea's full of fish! [Réclamations farfelues traitées par les voyagistes.]
http://www.thisistravel.co.uk/travel/sun/article.html?in_article_id=34511

The sea's full of fish!
By Graham Grant, Daily Mail

Travel firms are used to dealing with holidaymakers' complaints about poor accommodation or dodgy meals.

But Britain's leading tour operators revealed yesterday that travellers also try to get compensation for a variety of less obvious reasons.

In fact, some of the criticisms levelled by aggrieved customers verge on the surreal - and many are unintentionally hilarious.

One firm received a complaint from a holidaymaker angry that his rep had failed to mention that there were fish in the sea, claiming he and his children had been startled by their presence while paddling.

Another customer complained there were too many Spaniards in Spain, and one had even found fault with the colour of the beach - pointing out exasperatedly that 'the sand in the brochure is yellow, but when we got there it was white'.

The catalogue of bizarre complaints was revealed yesterday as travel operators warned holidaymakers not to waste reps' time with trivial or silly concerns.

Airtours - which deals with 17,000 complaints every year - is now using a catalogue of 'left-field' moans to help trainee reps and travel agents prepare for some of the stranger complaints or queries they are likely to encounter this summer.

An Airtours spokesman said genuine complaints are always taken seriously but some were 'slightly strange'.

He said: 'We provide holidaymakers with as much information as possible about their trip, yet it seems that sometimes these details are taken far too literally by customers.'

A company insider said: 'People are much more aware of their rights nowadays and much more tempted to blame someone if something goes wrong. We have noticed a surge in weird complaints over the last few years.

'Their instinct is to lash out and blame someone, and because it's such a litigious culture, people always think the travel company must be to blame.'

The Association of British Travel Agents said recently that a couple cancelled a two-week break in Majorca and demanded a refund because of the risk of contracting the SARS virus.

It was pointed out to them that Majorca was not affected by SARS, but they insisted on cancelling anyway.

They were charged a cancellation fee and now they are trying to sue for compensation.

An ABTA spokesman said: 'People are travelling so much more nowadays - but they're not prepared to put up with shoddy standards, whereas in the past going abroad was a real treat.'

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
10) The Economist: Luxury car clubs [Après les Twingos partagées, les Rolls partagées... acheter une voiture de luxe à partager.]
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5389275

Luxury-car clubs: Ferraris to go

Jan 12th 2006 | NEW YORK AND LAS VEGAS

Time-shares for high-end cars are catching on

AN HOUR after Wall Street closed one recent Friday, a youngish man in jeans and a sports jacket strode into the showroom of the Classic Car Club of Manhattan, a few blocks north of Tribeca. He paced between an Aston Martin V8, a Rolls-Royce Corniche, two vintage Ferraris and a dozen others, eager to find something for a night out. Ten minutes later he zipped through the hangar doors in a 2005 Lotus Elise, a bright-red, curvy little number. There was no bill to pay and no insurance form to sign.

Luxury-car clubs are well established in Europe. Now they are catching on in the United States. The idea is that for an annual membership fee, plus (sometimes) a weekly charge, members can have their choice of smart cars. Ron Van Horssen, who recently opened a club near Phoenix, says the model is based on executive-jet sharing. Rich people, he thinks, are realising that “owning an asset is not necessarily the best way of getting the benefits of using it”. A spin in a Van Horssen Ferrari Maranello costs $4,500 per week, plus the $7,000 annual fee. No one needs to worry about maintenance or inspections—and, as price tags on new Lamborghinis and Bentleys have climbed, the rich can even save a bit of money.

Only a handful of clubs exist now in America, and none has national scope. Club Sportiva, a pioneer when it opened three years ago, is in San Francisco and San Jose; Exotic Car Share is in Chicago and New York. The Classic Car Club, a British firm, opened its Manhattan branch last July. But most are looking to expand. Torbin Fuller of Club Sportiva predicts that: “We'll be national here in the next two to three years.”

A variant on the formula is offered by exotic rental-car companies, which have no annual membership fee, and rent out cars for a day or a week. They are growing too. Dream Car Rentals, a Las Vegas firm with a fleet of 140, is opening a new branch at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Many of the company's Las Vegas customers are Europeans, and female clients come in only “once in a blue moon,” says Gavin Mate, a manager.

The mainstream rental-car companies have also spotted the trend, and are determined not to be left behind. In 2001 Hertz launched its “Prestige Collection”, with Jaguars and Lincoln Navigators and special services such as free pick-up. That business, claims Hertz, has been an “unmitigated success” and continues to expand. Enterprise, the largest rental company in North America, reports a nearly 45% jump in luxury-car rentals in the year to October 2005. And with Wall Street bonuses soaring, 2006 is looking pretty good as well.

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
11) ABC News: Educator in Connecticut, Hooked on Metrics [Un prof de chimie US est fana du système métrique.]
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=1959407

Educator in Connecticut, Hooked on Metrics, Lives a Life of Liters, Kilograms and Kilometers
By SHELLEY K. WONG Associated Press Writer

NORWICH, Conn. - Brent Maynard says he weighs 74 kilograms and is 169 centimeters tall. And if you ask him for directions, he'll give them in kilometers. Maynard, a chemistry professor at Three Rivers Community College, is a champion for the metric system, a man who helped erect distance and speed signs in kilometers and whose goal in life is to see America ditch the standard system.

But in a country that's hooked on pounds, gallons and miles, it is a lonely cause. Last October during National Metric Week he sat alone in front of Norwich City Hall wearing a pro-metric placard and asking for signatures on a petition to get the U.S. Postal Service to weigh and measure packages in metric. Six people signed it.

Maynard, 52, a metrics fanatic since the age of 14, is used to the tepid response. He founded two metric associations in 1993 in Plainfield and in York, Maine. Each has about six members. "They're not as passionate about it as I am," he said. "They kind of just go along with it."

Like most American youth, Maynard learned metrics in high school but unlike others, he has embraced it. He's even special ordered his truck with an odometer that reads distance in kilometers and writes congratulatory letters to companies that convert to dual labeling on products.

Maynard argues metrics is simpler because it's based on powers of 10 and more effective because the rest of the world uses it in business and in the military. But despite several laws recognizing metric as the preferred system of measurement in the U.S., it's been slow to gain footing. The U.S. remains the only industrialized nation in the world to predominantly use the standard system, also known as the English system.

That doesn't mean metric measurements haven't crept into daily life in America. Soda comes in liters, film is in millimeters and electricity power is based on watts. Most food products use grams on their labels.

The hodgepodge of units has led to problems. In 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere because NASA navigators mistakenly thought a contractor used metric measurements when standard units were actually used. "It's confusing to use two systems even for rocket scientists," said Lorelle Young, president of the U.S. Metric Association.

In Plainfield, where Maynard's association put up distance signs in kilometers, residents aren't even aware of the signs, even when they're right down the street. Marlene Chenail, 70, lives up the street from one of Maynard's signs. She says she doesn't know the meaning behind "RI state border 8 km." "We've never really looked at it but we know that it's there," Chenail said.

Maynard attributes the unfamiliarity to America's resistance to change and the perception that it's a foreign system. "We seem, in our culture, awfully afraid to challenge people to think," he said.

While Maynard is one of the few adamantly promoting the system, there are others who speak out against metrication. Seaver Leslie, president of Americans for Customary Weight and Measure in Wiscasset, Maine, said Americans shouldn't be forced to use either and argues that standard units are superior because the units are human-based and has history. The furlong an eighth of a mile is the distance a farmer could plow in a field and still be in earshot of his house if there was danger, Leslie said. Etymologists believe the word represents the distance a team of oxen could plow without needing a rest. "They're very practical and very poetic," Leslie said. "They have worked for the farmer in the field, the carpenter in the shop and large contractors in industry and for our aerospace industry."

^RETURN TO TOP^

*******************************
12) Reuters: Old computers make for unhappy workers [Le matériel informatique périmé rend les salariés mécontents.]
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/10052006/325/old-computers-unhappy-workers-survey.html

Old computers make for unhappy workers - survey
Reuters Wednesday May 10, 06:38 AM

LONDON (Reuters) - Dealing with the frustrations of ageing and unreliable office computers contributes to workers' unhappiness and more sick-leave, a survey showed on Wednesday.

A poll conducted by Tickbox.net of over 2,700 European office workers from the UK, France and Germany found that workplace dissatisfaction increased significantly with the age of computer equipment. British and French respondents said working on outdated computers was the most irritating aspect of office life.

"Overall we do know that job satisfaction is in decline in Britain and in most advanced nations," said Stephen Overell, a spokesman for The Work Foundation, a think tank and consultancy specialising in the working life. "The actual reasons for this are the subject of very intense debate. It's certainly one interesting theory that technology may be the cause of this in some way," Overell said, noting that computers have become a part of most jobs.

Almost 40 percent of workers surveyed in the three countries were using computers at least three years old, with clerical and administrative workers among those using the oldest equipment. About a third of Britons polled said they work on office equipment that was three years old or more. Just under a quarter of those using outdated computers in Britain - defined in most cases as five years or more - said they were "quite" or "very dissatisfied" with their everyday job compared to 16 percent of those benefiting from up-to-date technology. Overall, 75 percent of those working with old equipment agreed that an upgrade would lead to more productivity, the independent survey commissioned by computer screen maker ViewSonic found.

The survey also said that among workers dealing with outdated equipment, there was a 35 percent greater likelihood they would take six or more days of sick-leave per year compared with the average worker. In France, where more workers use older computers, the likelihood jumped to 55 percent. About two-thirds of those polled also complained of problems like eye fatigue, headaches, and repetitive strain injury (RSI). The number was highest in France. Results also showed that women in all three countries were consistently more likely to be using outdated equipment. In the UK, where more workers have up-to-date computers than in the other countries surveyed, the number of women using old equipment doubled that of men.

The Work Foundation's Overell pointed out there were two sides to the problem, noting that constantly having to deal with new technology and new equipment can also be a source of stress. "Old and faulty equipment is a major cause of organisational strife, there's no question about it, but you also have to say that constant change is also, or could be, a significant cause of dissatisfaction."

^RETURN TO TOP^

Risky Business: Should you ever buy rental car insurance?
By Tim Harford
Posted Saturday, May 13, 2006, at 2:39 AM ET

On a recent trip abroad, a reputable international car rental company tried to make me an offer I couldn't refuse. As is standard practice in Europe, basic insurance was included in the price, but for just $10 a day, I could protect myself from the frightening-sounding insurance deductible of $900—a sum I risked being charged if anything happened to the car. I bravely turned them down.

This was a strikingly overpriced offering. For each day's rental I was being asked to pay $10 to protect me from the risk of paying $900. The mathematics are hardly difficult: The insurance is fair only if I crash into something every 90 days. If I believed that, I wouldn't get behind the wheel at all.

There is plenty of overpriced insurance around, always bundled with some other product. A popular cell phone retailer will insure your $90 phone for $1.70 a week—nearly $90 a year. The fair price of the insurance is probably closer to $9 a year than $90. Economists are rarely tub-thumping consumer-rights activists. We tend to believe that people are smart enough to fend for themselves. But the commercial success of this kind of insurance is perplexing. The pricing is grotesquely inflated, but something more fundamental is also going on. A rational consumer should scarcely look at this kind of insurance, even at a fairer price.

Most people like insurance because they dislike risks. Economists used to think that this tendency was rational: Your first million dollars is worth more to you than your second million dollars, so you should be reluctant to wager your first million on a coin toss. What you might win (your second million) is worth less to you than what you might lose (your first million).

That explains why people would want insurance for million-dollar risks, but not $90 risks. It is not at all clear that the $90 that you might lose if your phone is stolen is so much more significant than the $90 you might "win" by not paying for a year's insurance.

You might protest that not all of us are millionaires. But a million dollars is just $25,000 a year for 40 years—less than most of us make in a lifetime. And since we can borrow or save to spread the cost of windfalls and disasters across the years, the million dollars is the relevant figure. Compared to a million dollars, a coin toss for $90 is trivial.

Few of us see risks that way. Matthew Rabin and Richard Thaler pointed out in 2001, in a paper that surprised even their fellow economists, that anyone who pays even slightly more than the fair premium to escape from a risk on a $90 phone or a $900 insurance deductible must be making a mistake. The stakes are too tiny: In the context of a $1 million lifetime income, even $900 is a small enough risk to swallow. We should turn down these offers of insurance and save the money in a contingency fund to pay for the occasional loss. The odds would be well in our favor and the petty uncertainty shouldn't cause us a single sleepless night.

But I know only two other people who actually behave like this, and both of them are wealthy economists. Why will the practice never catch on? Economic psychologists have determined that we find it impossible to put our losses into context. I should recognize that the value of my home fluctuates every hour by more than the value of the cell phone I put through the washing machine—but it will be the loss of the phone that upsets me, and it is the risk of that upset that the phone insurers will try to emphasize.

The correct response is to insure yourself only against the big risks, such as your house burning down. As for the dent in the rental car, you will simply have to tell yourself that in the scheme of things, it's not that important. That is the closest that economics will ever come to Taoism.

The Undercover Economist appears on Saturdays in the Financial Times Magazine.