• German study sees job boom from Sahara solar project
• Orders to US factories rise more than expected in May
• US: Future for plug-in cars linked to electric utilities

• Fortune-creating architecture: An investment in human capital, connecting individual and cosmic life
• Leading US green builder speaks about 'Fortune-creating' architecture at Aspen Institute
• Tower Companies corporate office, a 'Fortune-creating building', receives LEED Platinum certification

• US unemployment rate rises again, highest in 26 years
• FDA releases list of potential drug risks
• Forest carbon market already shows cracks

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Positive Trends
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

German study sees job boom from Sahara solar project
3 July 2009 - A project linking solar power from the Sahara to energy users in Europe and North Africa could create 240,000 German jobs and generate 2 trillion euros ($2,822 billion) worth of power by 2050, a study published on Thursday found. Germany has become a world leader in renewable energy technology in the last decade and some 214,000 people are employed in the sector. (more)

Orders to US factories rise more than expected in May
3 July 2009 - Orders to US factories jumped in May by the largest amount in nearly a year, another sign that the nosedive in manufacturing is nearing an end. The Commerce Department said Thursday that total orders rose 1.2 per cent in May, better than the 0.8 per cent increase that economists had expected. The May increase was the best showing since a 2.1 per cent rise last June. The back-to-back increases in April and May were the first consecutive gains in nearly a year. (more)

US: Future for plug-in cars linked to electric utilities
3 July 2009 - Under pressure to deliver sharply higher fuel economy in coming years, US automakers are deepening ties with electric utilities as rechargeable cars move from the drawing board and head toward the dealership. Both the embattled auto industry and the utilities are retooling and both industries have a stake in the success of the growing effort to deliver electric-powered vehicles to US consumers. Such plug-in and pure electric vehicles are projected to play a key role in allowing automakers to meet an aggressive US fuel-economy target for 35 miles to the gallon for passenger cars by 2016. (more)

US: Wall Street dealmakers launches green tech boutique
3 July 2009 - Former top UBS AG investment banker Jeffrey McDermott and several other Wall Street veterans have launched a boutique advisory firm focused on alternative energy and 'cleantech' companies. The formation of Greentech Capital Advisors LLC represents two of the biggest trends in financial services these days. (more)

India says growth could revive to 7.5 per cent
2 July 2009 - The Indian government proposed sweeping economic reforms Thursday and said growth could revive to as much as 7.5 per cent this year if the US economy bottoms out by September and the monsoon rains return to normal. Despite citing concerns about falling private consumption, the Finance Ministry was generally positive on India's economic prospects. India's sound banks, adequate foreign exchange reserves, falling inflation, robust rural demand, and strong agricultural production serve as 'shock absorbers' that could help spur growth, the report said. (more)

Irregular produce once again acceptable in European Union
2 July 2009 - All those strange-looking fruit and curiously sized vegetables will be back on EU supermarket shelves from 1 July after the European Union scrapped longstanding rules that control minimum size and shape standards for household fruit and vegetables. The Commission has sliced through the red tape to get rid of what it calls 'unnecessary marketing standards'. EU rules defining minimum shapes and sizes will be repealed for 26 fruits and vegetables. (more)

Russia bans all gambling and shuts casinos
2 July 2009 - Russia closed down its casinos overnight as gambling was banned nationwide. Vladimir Putin, now Prime Minister, came up with the idea in 2006 when he was President after the Interior Ministry linked several gaming operations in Moscow to Georgian organized crime. Though gaming establishments knew the shutdown date for at least a year, few thought the government would go through with it, but officials moved in overnight to close them down. Some addicted gamblers thought the ban might help them. 'Maybe this is all a good thing. I'm a family man and I come here every day and lose all my money. I'll be happy to see them go,' said a 40-year-old Muscovite. (more)

US stocks: Market leaps into third quarter on recovery bets
2 July 2009 - US stocks rose on Wednesday, the first day of the third quarter, as investors took reassuring manufacturing data from China, Europe, and the United States as signalling the world's economy is on the road to recovery. A day after the S and P 500 wrapped up its best quarter in a decade, investors plowed new money into stocks, boosting growth-sensitive sectors like energy, industrials, technology, materials, and consumer discretionaries. (more)

US: It is 'reasonable to be optimistic for 2010' says Google CEO
2 July 2009 - A US recovery is likely to begin this autumn, the worst of the crisis has passed and it is 'reasonable to be optimistic for 2010', internet search giant Google's chief executive Eric Schmidt said on Friday. Speaking at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in southern France, Schmidt said US jobless claims indicated 'the beginning of the bottom'. (more)

India: June manufacturing activity expands
1 July 2009 - India's manufacturing activity expanded for a third straight month in June, albeit at a slightly slower pace, reflecting strong local demand, data showed on Wednesday. 'China and India will be supporting the global recovery and the turnaround appears to be gaining momentum,' said Shubhada Rao, an economist at Yes Bank. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

Fortune-creating architecture: An investment in human capital, connecting individual and cosmic life
14 June 2009 - Global Good News continues reporting on the address of Dr Jeffrey Abramson, a leading US real estate developer and green building expert, at the March forum of the Aspen Institute, an international organization working on environmental and economic concerns. The forum was entitled, 'Powering the Planet: Energy for the Long Haul'. (more)

Leading US green builder speaks about 'Fortune-creating' architecture at Aspen Institute
12 June 2009 - Dr Jeffrey Abramson, senior partner at The Tower Companies, an award-winning 'green' real estate developer in the Washington, DC area, was invited to speak at the prestigious Aspen Institute in March. He presented Vedic architecture as the science of the built environment to connect individual life with cosmic life, expanding the concept of a 'smart city'. (more)

Tower Companies corporate office, a 'Fortune-creating building', receives LEED Platinum certification
10 June 2009 - The Tower Companies corporate office building in the Washington, DC area has recently been awarded LEED Platinum certification. Recognized as an international authority in the green building industry, The Tower Companies specialize in sustainable and 'Fortune-creating' buildings utilizing principles from Vedic Architecture. (more)

Revolutionary new Call Centre and Educational Operation being launched downtown Johannesburg, South Africa
27 May 2009 - Invincible Outsourcing, being inaugurated 28 May, is a new Call Centre, manned by students at the Maharishi Invincibility Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa -- a 'ground-breaking innovation to educate South Africa's youth out of poverty now and forever', said Institute co-founder Taddy Blecher. The initiative will provide students with work experience, and help bring financial self-sufficiency to them and to the Institute. Consciousness-Based Education and Transcendental Meditation are key components of the programme, along with state-of-the-art technology. (more)

Renowned international creativity coach, business speaker, best-selling author discusses benefits of Transcendental Meditation
22 May 2009 - Nigel Barlow, a long-time Teacher of Transcendental Meditation, company director, best-selling author, creativity coach, and popular international business speaker, presented benefits of Transcendental Meditation in the field of business during the recent tour of leading brain researcher Dr Fred Travis in Great Britain. (more)

England: 100 enjoy presentation on Transcendental Meditation, creativity, brain coherence at prestigious Institute of Directors, London
20 May 2009 - The tour of leading brain researcher Dr Fred Travis in Great Britain included a presentation with creativity coach and popular international business speaker Nigel Barlow, at the prestigious Institute of Directors in London. One hundred directors attended--about ten times the number expected--and 50 requested follow-up presentations for their companies. (more)

Improving the economy of Iceland through integration of national consciousness
9 May 2009 - The recent visit to Iceland of Dr David Lynch and Raja Tom Stanley, Raja of Iceland for the Global Country of World Peace, along with a Hollywood film producer from Iceland, stirred great interest among government leaders and the public in solving the nation's problems at a fundamental level - by creating integration in national consciousness through introducing Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's programmes. (more)

Meditation group in Iowa, USA: Our minds move markets
25 April 2009 - A group in the Midwestern United States using Transcendental Meditation claims that within one year, they can create world peace and bring relief from the nation's pressing problems. (more)

Statistics indicate Holland's economic situation better than expected
29 March 2009 - Recent reports indicate that Holland's economy is stronger than expected, with statistics showing such positive trends as reduced poverty and increased employment. For almost three years, the nation has enjoyed the support of a large group of Yogic Flyers who have been creating a powerful influence of national invincibility. (more)

Netherlands: Economy brighter than depicted, newspaper reports
26 March 2009 - For nearly three years Holland has had the required number of Yogic Flyers practising together to create invincibility for the nation. This group has a positive influence on every area of national life, and it appears to be cushioning Holland from the global economic crisis; the economic picture is actually brighter than is often depicted, a major newspaper reports. (more)

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Flops
10 Short Summaries of Top Stories

US unemployment rate rises again, highest in 26 years
2 July 2009 - Employers cut a larger-than-expected 467,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate climbed to a 26-year high of 9.5 per cent. Workers also saw weekly wages fall, suggesting Americans will have little appetite to spend and the economy's road to recovery will be bumpy. The Labour Department report, released Thursday, showed that even as the recession flashes signs of easing, companies likely will want to keep a lid on costs and be wary of hiring until they feel certain the economy is on solid ground. Many economists predict the jobless rate will hit 10 per cent this year, and keep rising into next year, before falling back. All told, 14.7 million people were unemployed in June. If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work are included, the unemployment rate would have been 16.5 per cent in June, the highest on records dating to 1994. (more)

FDA releases list of potential drug risks
5 June 2009 - US regulators on Thursday listed two dozen drugs, including weight-loss medicines and sleep disorder pills, that it is at an early stage of reviewing for potential safety problems. The FDA said it was checking Pfizer Inc's smoking cessation drug Chantix for possible risk of accidental injury, vision impairment, and other issues, and Cephalon Inc's sleep disorder drugs Nuvigil and Provigil for a potential of serious skin reactions. Other drugs listed included orlistat, a weight-loss drug sold by Roche as the prescription product Xenical and by GlaxoSmithKline as the over-the-counter drug Alli. The FDA said it was continuing to evaluate liver toxicity reports for orlistat. Bristol-Myers Squibb's HIV drug, Sustiva, was listed due to one report of an eye-related birth defect. The FDA also is probing pancreatitis with Bayer AG's contraceptive Yasmin. (more)

Forest carbon market already shows cracks
4 June 2009 - A plan to pay tropical countries not to chop down trees risks being discredited by opportunists even before it starts. Development and environment groups have long warned that suddenly placing a big value on rainforests could spur friction and even conflict in some developing nations, because of uncertain tenure rights, corruption, and inadequate policing. At a conference on the Indonesian island of Bali last week, Interpol environmental crime official Peter Younger told Reuters he expected fraudulent trading of carbon credits, as organized crime infiltrates the system of companies and countries in the developed world buying rights to the stored carbon. (more)

Mexico remittances plunge in worst fall on record
1 June 2009 - Money sent home by Mexicans living abroad plunged in April by more than 18 per cent compared to the same period last year, the biggest monthly fall on record, the central bank said Monday. Remittances fell to $1.7 billion in April 2009 compared to $2.1 billion in April 2008, according to the bank. Remittances for the first four months of 2009 have dropped more than 8 per cent, totaling $7.2 billion compared to $7.9 billion for the same period last year. The global financial crisis has caused remittances to fall worldwide. Mexico is the world's third largest receptor of remittances, after India and China. Nearly 12 million Mexicans live in the United States. (more)

Indian textile workers slide back into poverty
30 May 2009 - For years, textile jobs helped tens of millions of Indians like clamber onto the bottom rungs of the nation's fast-expanding middle class. Textiles are India's second-largest source of employment, after agriculture, accounting for over 35 million jobs - far more than the 2.2 million in India's high-profile information technology sector. After the US financial crisis erupted thousands of kilometres away, Indian textile factory begun to close because orders dried up and credit tightened. The IMF estimates that the slowdown has already driven more than 50 million people globally into extreme poverty. In India, slowing growth means at least three million people won't be lifted out of poverty this year, and some of the 200 million who live just above the official poverty line could slip below it, according to the UN Development Program. No good data exists on job losses in India's largely unorganized textile sector, but the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry estimates that a million textile workers lost their jobs in the year ending 31 March. (more)

Environmental alarms raised over home electronics
14 May 2009 - The Paris-based International Energy Agency is alarmed about the threat to the environment from the soaring electricity needs of gadgets like MP3 players, mobile phones, and flat screen TVs. The Agency estimates new electronic gadgets will triple their energy consumption by 2030 to 1,700 terawatt hours, the equivalent of today's home electricity consumption of the United States and Japan combined. The world would have to build around 200 new nuclear power plants just to power all the TVs, iPods, PCs, and other home electronics expected to be plugged in by 2030. 'This will jeopardize efforts to increase energy security and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases' blamed for global warming, the agency said. (more)

Monsanto sues Germany over GMO maize ban
21 April 2009 - Monsanto Co, the world's biggest seed company, has filed suit against the German government's decision to ban genetically modified (GMO) maize, the company said on Tuesday. The German government banned the cultivation and sale of GMO maize despite European Union rulings that the biotech grain is safe. The ban affects Monsanto's MON 810 maize, which may no longer be sown for this summer's harvest. Monsanto claims that Germany's decision is in conflict with EU rules. (more)

Canada job losses worst since 1982 recession
12 April 2009 - Canada continued to post heftier than expected job losses in March as the economy spiralled downward, hardening expectations of more action from the Bank of Canada to stimulate lending. The unemployment rate jumped to a seven-year high of 8 per cent last month and the economy lost 61,300 more jobs, resulting in the sharpest five-month employment decline since the 1982 recession, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. (more)

Chinese drywall poses potential risks
11 April 2009 - At the height of the US housing boom, American construction companies used millions of pounds of Chinese-made drywall because it was abundant and cheap. Now that decision is haunting hundreds of homeowners and apartment dwellers who are concerned that the wallboard gives off fumes that can corrode copper pipes, blacken jewelry and silverware, and sicken people. The drywall furor is the latest in a series of scares over potentially toxic imports from China. In 2007, Chinese authorities ratcheted up inspections and tightened restrictions on exports after manufacturers were found to have exported tainted cough syrup, toxic pet food, and toys decorated with lead paint. (more)

Mortgage delinquencies soar in the US
7 April 2009 - More US consumers are falling behind on their mortgages, an indication that the housing market has yet to hit bottom, a top credit bureau executive told Reuters. Dann Adams, president of US Information Systems for Equifax Inc, reported that 7 per cent of homeowners with mortgages were at least 30 days late on their loans in February, an increase of more than 50 per cent from a year earlier. He also said 39.8 per cent of subprime borrowers were at least 30 days behind on their home mortgage loans, up 23.7 per cent from last year. The Equifax data also reveals the impact of the rise in unemployment, which is at its highest rate since 1983. Employers cut 663,000 jobs in March, sending the national unemployment rate to 8.5 per cent, the Labour Department said on Friday. (more)