Logo Evolution – Pepsi vs. Coca cola

 The competition between Pepsi and Coca cola has been ages… I once wrote a post about the the ads war between them. Today, we will see how they compete each other in the logo design. Logo, as the key element in the Corporate Identity, Coca cola seems to stick to its first logo design since 1885 while Pepsi kept changing it for more than 10 times.

9:52 AM | 0 comments | Read More

SBY outlines economic strategy to IDX

 

If the stock market was “Kid-Zania”, then President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s speech at the first day of trading on Monday was like a father laying out his financial plans so that the kids could continue playing grown-ups.

In so many words, Yudhoyono said the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) owed much of its positive performance in 2011 to prudent fiscal and monetary policies formed under his stewardship.

The stock market ended a bumpy year on Dec. 30, 2011, with the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) at 3,821.99, growing by a modest 3.2 percent compared to the previous year, making it nonetheless the third best performer globally in an era of great economic uncertainty.

In his keynote speech, Yudho-yono told stock traders that the country had to be prepared for another round of uncertainty as decision makers in the US and Europe were still struggling to avoid another recession.

A government-appointed think tank, the National Economic Committee (KEN), warned recently that crises in the developed world would weaken Indonesian exports, create foreign liquidity problems and hurt investment growth. The committee said Indonesia’s financial markets were poised to bear the brunt of high volatility.

Gloomy outlook aside, there was room for hope, Yudhoyono said, especially after Fitch Ratings had reinstated the status of Indonesian sovereign debt to investment-grade level. Yudhoyono said he would maximize efforts to cash in on the positive momentum.

Yudhoyono’s strategy for weathering the external turbulence is to maintain his style of economic leadership, which has been characterized by a conservative fiscal policy — meaning a low state budget deficit, high domestic consumption and double-digit export growth.

In the finalized 2012 state budget, the government predicted revenue of Rp 1,292.9 trillion with expected state spending of Rp 1,418.5 trillion; and a budget deficit of 1.5 percent of GDP. Yudhoyono said the 2011 budget deficit stood at 1.3 percent, well below the 2 percent target.

The Finance Ministry said that it hoped to maintain inflation at a maximum of 5.3 percent this year. The inflation rate stood at 3.79 percent in 2011.

“We have to maintain the fiscal policy, the debt to GDP ratio, inflation rate and the interest rate. When the government achieves such conditions, it is the economic actors’ time to step up,” the President said.

Yudhoyono may argue that the performance of the stock market should reflect the country’s economic fundamentals, which he has vowed to maintain.

However, analysts have long argued that the IDX suffers from a structural problem of having too much foreign funds in its investment pool, which makes it extremely vulnerable to external shocks.

Foreign funds traditionally control more than 60 percent of daily transactions in the stock market, which reached Rp 24.2 trillion by the end of last year.

Considering the large amount of so-called “hot” money, volatility in the Indonesian financial market directly translates into more pressure on the rupiah.

IDX president director Ito Warsito brushed off fears over the inability to increase the proportion of Indonesian investors, saying that it was an accepted characteristic of the Indonesian stock market.

He denied that more foreign investors would cause instability in the secondary market.

“An increase in the number of foreign investors is a logical consequence of Indonesia being of interest to global investors,” he said.

In his speech, Yudhoyono failed to address these concerns, which have the potential to destabilize the economy. KEN, the economic think tank that the President personally appointed, warned that Indonesia should reactivate the currency-swap agreement with China and Japan under the Chiang Mai Initiative in order quell this single-most detrimental force in the economy.

The JCI closed at 3,809.14 on Monday, falling slightly by 0.34 percent from 3,821.99 on Dec. 30.

11:30 PM | 0 comments | Read More

Oil jumps to $103 as allied Coalition Bombs Libya

Oil prices jumped to above $103 a barrel on Monday after Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vowed a “long war” amid a second night of allied military strikes on the OPEC nation.

A coalition of the U.S., France, U.K. and other nations bombed tanks and anti-aircraft sites Sunday and deterred Libyan fighter jets from flying. Gadhafi said he would not resign and pledged to continue to attack the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Fierce fighting during the last month has already shut down most of Libya’s 1.6 million barrels per day of crude output. Investors are now concerned international intervention could extend the conflict and keep Libya’s oil production out of the market longer than perviously estimated.

“The regime in Tripoli shows no sign of giving up,” Capital Economics said in a report. “The prolonged loss of Libyan oil could push prices all the way up to the highs above $140 seen in 2008.”

Gadhafi also warned that Western powers would not get Libya’s oil, suggesting his forces may sabotage crude installations. Some traders worry a cornered Gadhafi could lash out in a last stand that disrupts regional tanker shipments.

“A ‘scorched earth’ response from Gadhafi could cause disruptions to ships traveling the Mediterranean,” energy consultant The Schork Report said.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up $2.12 to $103.19 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 35 cents to settle at $101.07 per barrel on Friday.

In London, the May contract for Brent crude was up $2.14 at $116.07 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange.

While equity markets were boosted Monday by hopes that Japan was making progress in bringing under control radiation leaks at its Fukushima nuclear power plant, analysts said concerns about lower energy demand from the world’s third-largest economy would keep a ceiling over oil prices.

“The Japanese nuclear disaster seems to be coming to a close at an excruciatingly slow pace, meaning that the Japanese economic recovery will likely be slow and torturous,” said Edward Meir at MF Global in New York, adding that the situation “will continue to exert a drag on energy prices.”

In other Nymex trading for April contracts, heating oil was up 4.45 cents at $3.0688 a gallon and gasoline added 5.41 cents to $3.0035 a gallon. Natural gas gained 4.1 cents at $4.209 per 1,000 cubic feet.

11:36 PM | 0 comments | Read More