Stephen Goldsmith a high-profile deputy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

Stephen Goldsmith a high-profile deputy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg...

Stephen Goldsmith, a high-profile deputy to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg who came under fire for the city’s poor response to a crippling blizzard in December, announced on Thursday that he would leave his position after just 14 months in office.

Mr. Goldsmith, a former mayor of Indianapolis, was brought in by Mr. Bloomberg last year with much fanfare: a Harvard professor and expert in innovation poached from the ivory tower to reinvent city government.




But Mr. Goldsmith never seemed to master the day-to-day mechanics of New York’s sprawling government or relish the political intricacies of the job, and dissatisfaction with his performance became widespread in City Hall, according to two aides to Mr. Bloomberg who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of angering the mayor.

Mr. Goldsmith informed Mr. Bloomberg of his resignation this week. He is being replaced by Caswell F. Holloway, the commissioner of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

The departure is another setback for the mayor’s effort to bring fresh-faced outsiders — like Mr. Goldsmith and the publishing executive Cathleen P. Black, who briefly served as schools chancellor — into his administration to energize his third term.

In a statement, Mr. Goldsmith said he was leaving the administration to return to academic work and to pursue opportunities in the financial sector, though he has not yet lined up a job. Friends described his resignation as abrupt; he had been scheduling meetings and discussing policy proposals as recently as last week.

Mr. Goldsmith did not respond to interview requests on Thursday. “The change will provide me, at age 64, with more flexibility for me and my family and a secure foundation for our future,” he said in the statement.

Mr. Goldsmith, like Ms. Black, was seen by Mr. Bloomberg as a bold choice who could help shape what has seemed at times to be an unfocused third term. Instead, both of them clashed with those they supervised, struggled to master their jobs and became the subject of open sniping in City Hall.

Mr. Goldsmith’s position, as deputy mayor of operations, made him responsible for the city agencies by which New Yorkers measure the efficiency of their government: police, fire, transportation, sanitation and buildings.

His most visible moment on the job was also perhaps his lowest: he became the face of the city’s lackluster response to the Dec. 26 snowstorm. Many of the top city officials, including Mr. Bloomberg, were out of town during the storm. Mr. Goldsmith had been at his home in the Georgetown section of Washington, and on the evening of the snowstorm, he posted a message on his Twitter feed praising city workers, which many snowbound New Yorkers saw as out of touch. “Good snow work,” he wrote.

At a raucous City Council hearing after the blizzard, Mr. Goldsmith apologized several times and acknowledged wide-ranging mistakes.

From the day he took office in June 2010, Mr. Goldsmith, who regarded himself as a management guru but knew little about New York’s vast bureaucracy, repeatedly frustrated his colleagues, according to interviews with City Hall aides and advisers.

In his first major labor move, Mr. Goldsmith overruled the advice of some longtime city officials by announcing plans to demote 100 supervisors from the Sanitation Department and return them to the front lines.

The decision had two immediate consequences. It infuriated the head of the sanitation workers union, Harry Nespoli, who, as the leader of the powerful Municipal Labor Council, plays a crucial role in the city’s labor relations. And it angered the work force responsible for clearing snow just weeks before the blizzard.

Mr. Nespoli said Mr. Goldsmith had failed to listen to his warnings about low staffing levels and morale in the Sanitation Department. “You don’t come in and say, ‘I was in Indianapolis, and this is what we did there,’ ” he said. “That doesn’t work in New York.”

City Hall aides complained that, in meetings, Mr. Goldsmith emphasized management theory over political pragmatism. As a result, they said, conversations devolved at times into convoluted academic discussions that resolved little.

When City Hall staff members met to discuss the growing public outcry over the reconstruction of a major roadway in the Bronx, which was hurting beloved local trees, Mr. Goldsmith engaged in a discourse about eliminating risk in government. Those in the room were befuddled, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.

In some cases, Mr. Goldsmith’s decisions proved problematic enough that they were overturned, as when he removed financing from the city’s latest budget for new waste management stations. The stations were the linchpin of a citywide trash removal program that the Bloomberg administration had spent years fighting for. After environmentalists and local advocacy groups learned of the budget cut and complained, it was reversed by Mr. Bloomberg.

Some City Hall aides also said they were surprised that Mr. Goldsmith continued to divide his time between New York and Washington, and bought a home in the city just several months ago.

Mr. Goldsmith’s victories included a major consolidation of information technology and real estate operations and the creation of a Web site to allow city residents to submit ideas on cutting costs.

Some city officials found his style refreshing. Councilman Peter F. Vallone Jr. of Queens, who grilled Mr. Goldsmith at the blizzard hearing, praised his directness. “Forgetting about the merits of what happened, he was a very stand-up guy,” Mr. Vallone said. “He took the brunt of our questioning, and he answered honestly.”

With the appointment of Mr. Holloway, 37, Mr. Bloomberg seems to be signaling a return to traditional, hands-on management by the city’s operations chief.

Mr. Holloway worked for four years as chief of staff to Mr. Goldsmith’s predecessor, Edward Skyler, who was credited with deft crisis management during his tenure and widely missed in City Hall.

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Goldsmith bonded during a meeting in Mr. Goldsmith’s office at Harvard in spring 2010. It was there that Mr. Bloomberg, encouraged by his aides, began to court Mr. Goldsmith, a former adviser to George W. Bush, for a job in the city.

Mr. Goldsmith was immediately intrigued by the challenge, and by all indications, he seemed prepared to stay until the end of Mr. Bloomberg’s third term.

“One has only a small opportunity in life to do things like this,” Mr. Goldsmith said in an interview earlier this year. “Every second you can be doing things, changing things, fixing things. Making life better for New Yorkers is why I’m here.

“I wasn’t invited by the mayor here to have a good time. I’ve been given this opportunity to make a difference, and so I’ve got to slug that out every day.”

www.nytimes.com

Stock market plunge U.S. economy far from robust recovery

Stock market plunge U.S. economy far from robust recovery ...

Thursday's stock market plunge was a reminder that the U.S. economy remains far from the sort of robust recovery that would swell tax coffers and sink unemployment rates. While we feel the need to caution readers that a one-day drop in the Dow of 512.76 points, even on top of several days of losses, can lead to overreactions, there are a few troubling aspects to this development.


One is that markets clearly were unimpressed with how Congress solved its debt-ceiling standoff earlier this week. The nation may have avoided defaulting on its debts, but the crisis clearly was one the politicians themselves manufactured, and the solution did nothing to address the nation's long-term budget problems. As the Wall Street Journal reported this week, even the projected initial cut of less than $1 trillion was based on optimistic, and perhaps completely unrealistic, growth projections. Politicians relied on earlier Congressional Budget Office figures predicting gross domestic product would increase 3.1 percent in 2011 and 2.8 percent in 2012. Given the anemic 0.8 percent growth during the first half of 2011, those figures now look unattainable, meaning the nation's long-term deficit will be higher than expected, and the cuts will trim much less than expected.

Another is that consumer spending is down, as is hiring by private businesses. People are becoming worried about a new recession, and those worries can become self-fulfilling as people and businesses hold onto money. A measure of investment fear over the next 30 days, known as the VIX index, is up 92.6 percent for the quarter that began July 1. This attitude also is evident among investors who sent the price of oil down to $87 a barrel as of Thursday on fears that demand will slow as the economy grinds to a halt.

Europe isn't helping matters. Italy and Spain both may need the European Union to help them out of a crisis soon, further weakening the EU as Germany, England and other relatively strong nations struggle to help the weaker links.

Unlike in 2008, Washington has few ideas for confronting a new slow-down, and virtually no political will to attempt anything even if it had an idea. Those who favor an increase in government spending and an influx of newly printed money to prime economic pumps must confront the fact that those tactics have failed to yield any results. On the other end of the spectrum, those who favor policies that hold tax rates and interest rates low to spur investment must also confront the fact that this, too, has failed to yield results. A USA Today analysis found Americans pay less in taxes as a percentage of income today than at any time since 1950. Meanwhile, despite an increase in corporate profits, much of that money remains on the sidelines.

Both sides would argue for simply increasing their respective strategies, and an argument certainly could be made in favor of less official uncertainty spurred by new financial regulatory laws and health care reform. But political gridlock virtually guarantees that Washington will remain passive.

A further slowdown would ripple through the economy in many ways. State and local governments, many of which already are struggling to balance budgets, would face further challenges with few options other than drastic cuts. Even austere Utah, which has been among the best-managed states, would struggle against demands for education, highways, corrections and other needs.

On the other hand, there is some good news that seems to have been ignored by markets. For example, as a share of GDP, corporate profits are at record highs and second-quarter earning reports continue to be stronger than expected. The past few days may represent only a temporary market correction. That should be everybody's hope.

www.deseretnews.com

US markets fear recession

US markets fear recession ...

Concerns over the weak U.S. recovery and Europe's inability to tame its spreading debt crisis have turned an intense spotlight on the monthly non-farm payrolls report.

"The report is going to be very critical. One of the things that has been the largest headwind to economic growth has been the high unemployment rate," said Jason Ware, a senior research analyst at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah.


"If there isn't job growth, it crystallizes in a lot of people's minds that we are in fact in an environment where growth may be really difficult to come by."

U.S. stocks on Thursday suffered their worst sell-off in two years. European stocks slumped to a level not seen since after the financial crisis in mid-2009.

U.S. payrolls probably rose by 85,000, according to a Reuters survey, after a measly 18,000 gain in June. The unemployment rate is expected to hold steady at 9.2 percent.

Top policymakers at the Federal Reserve will sift through the report when they meet on Tuesday but are not expected to announce any new measures to support the sputtering recovery.

The U.S. central bank has cut interest rates to zero and spent $2.3 trillion on bonds. Policymakers have said they want to see how the economy fares before taking any further action.

July's anticipated jobs growth might not be sufficient to soothe jittery investors. June's rise was the smallest since September 2010 and followed a gain of just 25,000 in May.

The Labor Department will release the July employment report at 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT)

GROWTH HAS STALLED

U.S. growth stalled in the first half of 2011, fanning fears of a new downturn. Gross domestic product grew at a 1.3 percent annual pace in the second quarter after a scant 0.4 percent rise in the first three months of the year.

Economists said the weakness did not explain the abrupt slowdown in hiring in May and June. Average private payroll growth in the two months skidded to 65,000. It had averaged 230,000 in March and April.

"There is an extremely elevated degree of anxiety that has dominated recently, both the corporate and the consumer sectors. This tends to aggravate what started initially as a moderate slowdown in economic activity in the spring," said Anthony Karydakis, chief economist at Commerzbank in New York.

A stand-off between Democrats and Republicans over raising the country's debt ceiling poisoned the atmosphere for employers and consumers. The economy's poor health has eroded President Barack Obama's popularity among Americans and could hurt his chances of reelection.

The borrowing limit was raised this week in a deal that relied on spending cuts. Economists estimate the budget cuts and expiring stimulus -- including a payroll tax cut and emergency unemployment benefits -- could subtract more than a percentage point from GDP growth next year.

PRIVATE HIRING TO STEP UP

All the gains in non-farm employment in July are expected to come from the private sector, where employment is seen rising 115,000 -- an acceleration from June's 57,000 increase.

Only a fraction of the more than 8 million jobs lost during the downturn have been recovered.

Government payrolls are expected to have dropped by about 30,000 in July, a ninth straight month of job losses. But there is a risk of a steeper decline after a government shutdown in Minnesota left thousands of state workers without paychecks during the survey period for July payrolls.

"Since the jobs recovery began in March last year government agencies have cut 410,000 jobs," said Patrick O'Keefe, head of economic research at J.H. Cohn in Roseland, New Jersey.

With looming budget cuts at the federal government level and state and local governments still tightening their belts, the burden of job creation falls on the private sector.

At an average of 145,000 private jobs a month, O'Keefe said it would take four years to return to the pre-recession employment level.

Within the private sector, most of the job gains are likely to be concentrated in the services sector. Temporary help -- a harbinger of permanent hiring -- will be closely watched after declining for three straight months.

Manufacturing payrolls are expected to add to June's 6,000 gain because of fewer auto plant shutdowns in July for annual retooling. Most auto manufacturers brought forward their plant shutdowns to deal with a shortage of parts from Japan after the March earthquake and tsunami.

The employment report is also expected to show the average work week unchanged at 34.4 hours and with average hourly earnings rising 0.2 percent after being flat in June.

www.reuters.com

Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) is splitting up in two Companies

Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) is splitting up in two Companies ...

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) is splitting up in two, putting its global snacks and North American grocery businesses in separate baskets.

The surprise move, announced Thursday, comes after Kraft last year became the second largest global food company with its acquisition of Cadbury PLC.


Now 18 months into the Cadbury integration, Kraft says it finds itself with two classes of brands that can be best managed separately, and also attract investors who either want to bet on the global growth aspirations of snacks or on the slower growing but steady grocery business in North America.

"We have built two strong, but distinct, portfolios," Chief Executive Irene Rosenfeld said.

Its proposed global snacks business will include Kraft's European business and developing markets units, as well as snacks and confectionary businesses in North America. With about $32 billion in estimated revenue, it will house the likes of Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolates and Trident gum, all which have greater prospects for growth in emerging markets and to sell more to consumers on the go.

The North America grocery business, with the likes of Kraft cheeses, Maxwell House coffee and Jell-O snacks, lacks the growth potential but comes with stronger margins and more reliable sales. It will have an estimated $16 billion in revenue.

The company expects to conduct the split before year-end 2012 through a tax-free spin-off of the North American grocery business to shareholders. Kraft shares rose 7.3% to $36.80 in recent premarket trading.

Among other companies in recent months that have announced plans to split are Fortune Brands Inc. (FO), Sara Lee Corp. (SLE), Motorola Inc. and a number of energy companies.

Higher commodity costs have dented food makers' results recently, as their ability to pass along the cost to consumers is limited amid weak consumer confidence and high unemployment.

For the second quarter, Kraft reported a profit of $976 million, or 55 cents a share, up from $937 million, or 53 cents a share, a year earlier. Operating earnings rose to 62 cents, driven by currency and operating gains, while net revenue climbed 13% to $13.9 billion, helped by price increases. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for 58 cents and $13.2 billion, respectively.

Gross margin slipped to 35.1% from 38.3% on higher commodity costs.

Kraft also raised its guidance for the year, projecting operating earnings of at least $2.20 to $2.25 and organic net revenue growth of at least 4% to 5%. The prior view had been for at least $2.20 in earnings and organic net revenue growth of at least 4%, excluding the impact of accounting calendar changes.

"Despite rising input costs and a volatile economic environment, aggressive cost management coupled with strong revenue growth gives us confidence that we will deliver top-tier performance for the year," Chief Financial Officer David Brearton said.

-By Paul Ziobro, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2194; paul.ziobro@dowjones.com

--Lauren Pollock contributed to this article.

www.online.wsj.com

Google preps Android for its corporate interview

With over 300,000 devices activated per day, Android's clearly firing on all cylinders from a consumer standpoint, but much like the famed Cheez-It wheel, some would argue that the OS isn't quite mature enough for unabashed enterprise use. 

Being a corporation itself, El Goog's obviously been toiling around the clock to change that, and it's taking three major strides today. An updated version of its Google Apps Device Policy enables employees to secure a lost or stolen Android 2.2+ device by locating it on a map, ringing the device, and resetting the device PIN or password remotely via the new My Devices website. Furthermore, Apps admins now have an option in the control panel to "Encrypt Data on Device," which will now include requiring encrypted storage on Android 3.0 tablets. Finally, Google Apps Lookup is acting as a type of internal blackbook, allowing users to easily sift through colleagues and contact them through one form or another. So... hired?

The Inquirer, Google Apps (1), (2) Official Google Enterprise Blog

Software AG: Only a quarter of the digital workflow

Software AG: Only a quarter of the digital workflow...

The digital change is still far from complete: so far are only 20 to 25 percent of the digitized work processes in the company, said the head of Software AG, Karl-Heinz Streibich, on Monday at the CeBIT IT fair in Hanover.


The transformation to a fully digitized company had the challenge of the coming decades. The key to a better use of the possibilities is to integrate previously segregated applications for all divisions, suppliers and business partners.

With a new platform in the "Cloud", the software bring more efficiency in the AG business cooperation. The Darmstadt-based company announced at CeBIT in a condition known as "Cloud Ready" solution, the employees of a company via the Internet, together with external partners brings so that they can work with any type of digital device on joint projects. The new product is in the third quarter of this year will be available.

Founded in 1969, Software AG acquired the 2009 IT Services IDS Scheer. At CeBIT, the company presented the first integrated offering of both houses under the name Enterprise BPM. Following the acquisition of IDS Scheer AG had the software for the past year sales of 1.15 billion euros.

A new postal code online use of Apple appears: Mall Parquesur in Madrid

A new postal code online use of Apple appears: Mall Parquesur in Madrid...
Many of you what you have sent to us using our contact form: Apple job page has appeared a new location in which the company seeks staff: postcode 28916 Madrid, where the Parquesur shopping center in the area of Leganés. Therefore arouse suspicions of a new Apple Store in the Centre.

This hypothetical Apple Store would be the third of the Spanish capital after the inauguration of the Mall Xanadu and data about the from the Puerta del Sol. With a more global view, it would be the sixth Apple Store rumored in our country both from Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid's. There is no information about the specific location where you would find the shop.

On a date of opening, we can make a rule three: since the left the postcode of the first two stores until they opened went 7-8 months. We can therefore expect a new Apple Store in the Mall Parquesur in Madrid for September-October of this year? Many thanks to all who have advised us!

Federal Network Agency reduced termination charges final

The rates for calling to mobile phones could go on. The Federal Network Agency on Thursday set the new mobile termination charges are fixed for good. Accordingly, the four mobile network operators may retroactively from 1 December 2010 to just over half as much cash for calls from competitors' networks as before.

The regulatory authority had already determined the end of November 2010, new tariffs only provisional. They were only slightly changed, said the agency in Bonn. Accordingly, Deutsche Telekom may take 3.38 cents per minute, Vodafone 3.36 cents. Previously, the two big operators had received 6.59 cents.

The smaller carrier conceded to November 7.14 cents per minute and must now make do with 3.39 cents (O2), or 3.36 cents (E-Plus). The regulatory authority establishes the reduction with the sharp increase network capacity, especially thanks to the traffic of smartphones. As the costs in the mobile networks so far not proportional to the increased use, would drop the charges per minute, it said.

Apple products came in third highest-grossing films of 2010

In the past we talked about Apple's close relationship with Hollywood and the television industry but recent data underline and confirm what many already guessed: Apple is the true and undisputed king of product placement. Many remember the iPad slipping at the Grammy Awards, details of Wall-E or Toy Story 3 iMac but things are going much further.

Apple has given Brandcameo Award 2010 Award for Overall Product Placement after verifying that the products of the company (from Macs to iPhones and iPods) appeared in 30 some of the major films released in 2010, more than any other brand including Nike, Chevrolet or Ford, who share second place with 24% of blockbusters or Sony, Dell, Land Rover and Glock in third place with 15%.

Apple products have appeared in 112 of the 334 highest-grossing Hollywood films between 2001 and 2010, which put into perspective, involves more than the combined sum of occurrences of McDonald's and Nike (92 films). And that does not include those not swept the box office. Only between 2009 and 2010, Apple products were to be seen in films such as Morning Glory, Repo Men, Machete, The Book of Eli, Gulliver's Travels, Night and Day, Drag Me to Hell, The Orphan, or Percy Jackson and the thief Ray among others. In the latter, for example, the protagonist goes so far as to use the chrome on your iPod touch to defeat Medusa (Uma Thurman).

And this despite the second consecutive year that Apple has seen their dominant position in Hollywood. In 2009, its audience share among the top-grossing films was 40% while 2008 marked the highest peak of the company with a figure close to 50%. Apple is betting big on this effective advertising technique but the rest have also taken note and many of the movies that once would have shown the apple products are now covered with the logos of HP, Dell or Sony Vaio.

In fact, Sony Pictures has tried to completely remove the Apple products of their films by replacing some openly Vaio laptops. But even scenes like the chat between Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson in Something's Gotta Give with individual MacBooks is not possible today, Hollywood is showing a preference for Apple iPhone and MacBook sneaking some in the wake of Sex and the City despite have an agreement with HP.

Have you been to the movies lately? Tell us as movies and series that have seen the apple logo.

Swisscom earned less because of Fastweb's daughter

Provisions for the Italian broadband subsidiary Fastweb, Swisscom has the lower profit last year. Sales of the largest telecommunications company in Switzerland was very light.

Revenues decreased slightly by 0.1 percent to almost 12 billion Swiss francs (9.2 billion euros), such as Swisscom announced on Thursday. Profits declined by 7.1 percent to 1.7 billion francs. The Milan broadband provider Fastweb in Italy is involved in a tax scandal. For the procedure, Swisscom has returned EUR 70 million.

Swisscom has missed the expectations of analysts who had expected a slight sales increase. Adjusted for currency effects, sales would have risen by 2.1 percent, however.