 | | Game in Washington | | DESPITE all the bluster about an impending default on the government's debt, most observers in Washington and on Wall Street still believe the two parties will reach a crisis-averting agreement.
That's because the practice of American politics assumes that all players will negotiate according to predictable patterns _ that they will realise they can get more from compromise than by demanding everything and winning nothing.
Under that assumption, President Obama is right to keep pressing for a compromise, because eventually the Republicans will fall in line. But as two wildly different fields _ game theory and the study of elephant mating patterns _ show, there are limits to the usual assumptions: Sometimes players simply refuse to play the game, and when that happens, the best advice for their opponents is to do the same.
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|  |  | | CAN'T THE US DO THIS RIGHT? | | THERE is only one thing worse than Republicans and Democrats failing to agree to lift the debt ceiling, and that is lifting the debt ceiling without a well-thought-out plan and with hasty cuts totalling trillions of dollars over a decade. What business do you know _ that is still in business _ that would operate this way: making massive longterm cuts, negotiated by exhausted executives, without any strategic plan? It certainly wouldn't be a business you'd expect to thrive.
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| | Jobless claims, housing data offer new hope | | THE number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits hit a three-month low last week and contracts to buy existing homes rose in June, hopeful signs for an economy that has struggled to regain momentum. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 24,000 to 398,000, the Labour Department said on Thursday, below economists' expectations for a fall to 415,000. A separate report from the National Association of Realtors showed pending home sales rose 2.4 percent in June, the second straight monthly increase. Contracts usually lead sales by a month or two. The reports offered some relief after a recent string of weak data, which had shown the economy closing out the first half of the year on a soft note. A deadlock in Washington over raising the nation's debt limit has hurt sentiment. "Claims provide some hints that the economy is going to do better in the third quarter," said Michael Strauss, chief economist at Commonfund in Wilton, Connecticut. "Assuming we don't get massive government furloughs because we don't get the debt limit raised in the next couple of days or couple of weeks, we would probably see GDP growth in the 3 percent range in the second half of year as opposed to sub 2 percent in the first half.
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| | Shell's profits double in Q2 on high oil prices | | ROYAL Dutch Shell on Thursday said that net profits almost doubled to $8.6 billion (6.0 billion euros) in the second quarter as improved income from high oil prices offset a drop in production.
"Our second quarter 2011 earnings were higher than year-ago levels, driven by increased energy prices and Shell's operating performances," company chief executive Peter Voser said in a statement.
Profits in the second-quarter of 2010 had stood at $4.4 billion, according to the Anglo-Dutch Shell, which is Europe's biggest oil company.
Adjusted net profits, stripping out gains in the value of Shell's energy inventories, jumped to almost $8.0 billion between April and June from $4.5 billion last time around.
Oil prices soared during the reporting period amid violent unrest in the crude-producing Middle East and North Africa region.
Shell added that production dropped in the quarter by 2 percent to 3 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
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| | Epicor eyes Qatar for expansion | | EPICOR Software Corporation, a global leader in business software solutions for manufacturing, distribution, retail and services organisations, is looking to expand its business in Qatar by targeting companies with $2 billion or more in annual revenues, a top official of the company has said.
"Qatar's IT market has benefited greatly from the steady growth of the country's economy. Government and private sector expenditure on information and communication technology has witnessed a huge upsurge over the past few years and is expected to maintain its robust growth in the long-term. This has subsequently resulted in aggressive adoption of business software solutions as companies leverage the power of IT to drive workplace productivity and efficiency.
We see great possibilities and tremendous growth opportunities for Epicor in Qatar," Epicor Vice-President Sales Basil Daniells said on Thursday.
Daniells optimism about Qatar's software industry is backed by a recent statistics from the Qatar Information Technology which stated that aggressive IT expenditure in the country is expected to sustain a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent from 2011-2015.
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