1.  Rupert Murdoch trashy tabloid crosses line; advertisers flee

North American readers will recall the furor over Donald Trump’s embarrassing allegations that Obama had not been born in the USA. After a twitterstorm, advertisers pulled out from his show Celebrity Apprentice. I imagine they’ve flocked back by now but the same thing is now occurring across the pond.

A Rupert Murdoch tabloid, News of the World, allegedly accessed, and possibly paid for, illegally hacked voicemails from the police. The voicemails included of folks whose relatives have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also of murdered school girl Milly Dowler, and others.

As this has come to light, big advertisers such as Ford, Mitsubishi, Sainsbury (the UK equivalent of Safeway), Lloyds of London are distancing themselves by withdrawing their advertising.

Rupert Murdoch’s terse response is:

Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable.

I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership.

We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again.

I have also appointed Joel Klein to provide important oversight and guidance and Joel and Viet Dinh, an Independent Director, are keeping News Corporation’s Board fully advised as well.

Rupert Murdoch

2. Portugal’s credit rating is downgraded to Junk status. Portugal had borrowed money from the EU and the IMF (International Monetary Fund) but it is looking unlikely that they will be able to meet the targets spelled out in the loan agreement.

3.Facebook launches VideoSkype. If that doesn’t redefine communications, I don’t know what does. Does anyone besides me remember rotary dialing?

The digital wars are ON!

Scotiabank loses CDs containing customers private information

Citibank was seriously hacked, affecting 200,000 accounts

Military contractor Lockheed Martin (fighter jets and tech) was hacked

Microsoft must pay $290M to Canadian firm

83% of Cdn CEOs say an [increasingly] limited supply of skilled workers is a key challenge

And of course the biggie:  Apple has just monetized piracy??

Huh. I’ve held onto one measly token share of Martha Stewart Living and after all these years, I just might see a return on my investment (or at least get my money back). Here’s an interesting fact: her magazines and TV shows all lose money, but is offset by all the licensing (ie. her brand name placed on products) they do. Just goes to show: personal brand IS everything!

A Toronto Condo sold for a record $28 Million. Guess Canada’s hit the world stage for reals now. (But I’m not sure I care for the lighting fixture, do you?)

The French Finance Minister, Christine Lagarde, announced she will be running for the top job in the IMF. (What is the IMF? More on that in the fall, but quick version: Essentially they keep an eye on economies around the world, lend money to countries who are floundering, and give advice).

And your daily cuppa will likely go up: Starbucks is paying a 17% increase for its bags of coffee.

CANADA:
Any Gen-X or Gen Y readers among you? I’m personally glad to see attention being paid to the implications of our demographics – ie., baby boomer cohort retiring, living longer, with high expectations (esp. re: healthcare) and a shrinking workforce. Here’s an eye-popping article from the Financial Post on the topic.

GRAMEEN BANK:
Ever heard of the Grameen Bank, the “bank for the poor”? Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus who really gave lift-off to microcredit? I heard him speak once at UBC. *Amazing* to say the least (speaking of big dreams). Well on Tuesday, at age 70, he got ousted from the Bank he founded. This is utterly baffling!

TECH and MONEY:
Google is going to overhaul YouTube to the tune of $100M+ in response to more TV available via the net, and Netflix shares tumbled after they poured money into the rights to stream Mad Men.

Photo Credit: Ex-In Transit

Well this is a juicy week!

Canada is about to get its first plastic money.

Lululemon’s founder, Chip Wilson (I’ve met him a coupla times. Good guy but I’m so not a Lululemon person. No yummy-mummy, me! But I digress.).. Chip Wilson is now a billionaire

Angry Birds (I’m stuck at level 4-2. Where are you?) developers have raised $42M in seed (ha ha) money.

Public Servants probably need to shell out more from their paycheques to fund their future pensions.

and the UK holds their bank rate to 0.5%

PhotoCredit: Brian.Ch