Exxon Leaving Retail Gas Business

(HOUSTON) — Exxon Mobil is getting out of the retail gasoline business, a market where profits have gotten tougher because of high crude oil prices.

The world's largest publicly traded oil company said Thursday it will sell its 820-company owned stations and another 1,400 outlets operated by dealers to gasoline distributors across the U.S.

The Irving-based company didn't disclose financial details but said the transition will take place over a "multiyear period."

However, motorists will continue to see Exxon and Mobil stations throughout the country. About 75% of its roughly 12,000 stations in the U.S. are owned by branded distributors. Exxon Mobil will still sell gasoline to those stations and get paid for the use of its name.

China's Consumer Inflation Down 7.7%

(SHANGHAI, China) — China's inflation rate dipped to a still high 7.7% in May, thanks to easing food prices, though pressures for further price increases remain a threat and few saw reason to celebrate.

The rise in the consumer price index for May was lower than the 8.5% rise in April. Slower growth was widely anticipated thanks to state media reports suggesting the figure would be below 8% for the first time in four months.

But restaurant owner Ding Yuyi was unimpressed.

"Yes, I know the May CPI fell below 8%, but sorry, I just don't feel it," Ding said, noting he is paying 50% more for rice than a year ago, and double last year's prices for many vegetables and other cooking staples.

"I've had to give up cooking some dishes because my customers are very sensitive about prices and I can't make a profit," he said.

Investors dumped stocks on persistent worries over further credit tightening. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index sank for a seventh straight session, falling 2.2% to 2,957.53, a 15-month low.

Food prices, a key component in the consumer price index, climbed 19.9% in May from a year earlier, down slightly from a 22.1% increase in April. Fresh vegetable prices, which have soared recently, fell 15.7% from a year ago, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

Nonfood prices rose 1.7%, compared with 1.8% in April, it said.

Economists warn that surging prices for crude oil and other commodities pose a continued threat, even as food price increases have abated with the arrival of summer.

Inflation is a politically sensitive issue in a country where many families spend about half their incomes on food. Spells of high inflation in the 1980s and 1990s helped trigger protests, a scenario that Chinese leaders are keen to avoid as the country comes under intense foreign scrutiny ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics.

"While agriculture seems now to be responding ... there are other price pressures out there that are being severely repressed," Stephen Green, China economist for Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai, said in a report Thursday.

"There is a lot more bottled up inflation in this economy than meets the eye," Green said.

Chinese retail gasoline and diesel fuel prices were hiked about 11% in November but have remained frozen since, despite surging crude oil prices. In January, food processors were ordered to get approval for any price hikes, and fertilizer prices have been frozen to protect farmers.

On Wednesday, authorities said China's producer price index for May—an indicator of wholesale and raw material prices—rose to 8.2% from April's 8.1%, boosted by double-digit increases in prices of oil, coal, steel and other industrial materials.

Signaling continued concern over inflation, the central bank recently raised the amount of deposits banks are required to keep in reserve by 1%, to a record high 17.5%. The move is aimed at curbing excess bank lending that is seen as contributing to price increases.

May's inflation rate was the lowest since a 7.1% increase reported in January and the first significant decline since prices began climbing more than a year ago.

"Increased supply has continued to contribute to stabilizing farm product prices," Jing Ulrich, chairwoman of China equities for JP Morgan Chase & Co., said in a written commentary Thursday.

The decline might have been faster, she noted, if not for the disastrous earthquake that struck central China on May 12, devastating cities and towns across much of heavily populated Sichuan province and killing about 70,000 people.

China has raised interest rates and ordered other credit tightening measures to try to ease inflationary pressures without unduly compromising the strong economic growth needed to create jobs.

But unusually severe winter storms in January and February derailed those efforts, wrecking crops, killing livestock and paralyzing transport. Food prices soared amid meat and vegetable shortages in some areas.

The government has raised subsidies to encourage farmers to raise more pigs. It also has imposed curbs on grain exports to increase supplies available on domestic markets.

Google Co-founder Buys Seat to Outer Space

The company that sends wealthy tourists to the International Space Station says that Google co-founder Sergey Brin has paid $5 million to reserve a seat on a future flight.

Space Adventures made the announcement Wednesday in Manhattan.

Company officials also say they have struck a deal with the Russian space agency to launch the first entirely private Soyuz flight to the space station in 2011. Two seats will be available.

The Virginia-based company has sent five tourists into space so far. The sixth customer is due to go up in October. He paid $35 million for the seat

Amazon.com Faces Technical Trouble

(NEW YORK) — Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site suffered sporadic outages Monday, just days after unspecified system issues knocked the online retailer offline for more than two hours

Keynote Systems Inc., a California-based company that monitors Web site performance, said the latest troubles started shortly after 1 p.m. EDT and lasted at least an hour.

Keynote's automated probes were able to reach the main Amazon.com site as little as 30% of the time. Even when the monitors did reach the site, they faced delays, said Shawn White, Keynote's director of external operations.

The probes also found problems with the British Amazon.co.uk site, but other country-specific sites appeared to be functioning, White said.

Amazon officials did not return phone calls Monday.

On Friday, Amazon's site shut down for more than two hours during the business day, giving an error code to anyone visiting it.

"Amazon's systems are very complex and on rare occasions, despite our best efforts, they may experience problems," the company said in a statement explaining Friday's outage.

A similar "service unavailable" message greeted some visitors Monday, though at times the generic message was replaced by an apology and a promise to restore service quickly.

Outages at Amazon are rare, though the retailer had brief disruptions in 2006 because of a Thanksgiving Day sale on Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 video game machines.

Earlier this year, Amazon had trouble with a separate service, Amazon Web Services, which offers other companies pay-as-you-go data storage. Several companies temporarily lost access to their own files when that system went down.

How the latest outages will affect sales was not immediately known. Some customers might return to shop later; others may visit a competing site or buy offline instead.

In April, Amazon had more than 58 million U.S. visitors, according to comScore Inc. Last quarter, the company recorded $2.13 billion in sales in North America.

Shares of Amazon lost $1.20 or 1.5% to close Monday at $79.43.

Yahoo Faces Possible Takeover Trial

The legal drama will unfold next month if a Delaware judge grants a request made by attorneys for Yahoo shareholders.

The disgruntled shareholders are seeking to cancel an employee severance plan that Yahoo's board adopted shortly after Microsoft made its initial bid of $44.6 billion, or $31 per share.

In court papers filed late Monday night, the shareholder attorneys argue that the legality of the severance plan should be determined in a trial before an Aug. 1 election pitting Yahoo's current board against Icahn and eight other candidates nominated by the billionaire.

Yahoo had no immediate comment Tuesday, but legal and corporate-governance experts expect the Sunnyvale-based company to vigorously oppose the motion for a July trial date.

A trial "would force Yahoo's board and senior executives to answer a lot of questions that they probably don't want to answer right now," said James Post, a Boston University professor specializing in corporate governance and business ethics. "The last thing they want to do is to expose any more information about this severance program or anything else that Icahn could use."

The severance plan has become a flash point in Yahoo's battle with Icahn because it could trigger payments and benefits totaling more than $2 billion to the company's 13,800 employees if they are fired or quit after being reassigned within two years of a takeover.

Icahn hopes to engineer a sale if he gains control of Yahoo's board, but the severance plan would remain a potential obstacle because Yahoo's current board included a provision that will prevent him from rescinding the program before August 2010.

Icahn has been urging Yahoo's board to eliminate the severance plan, citing his desire to persuade Microsoft to renew its takeover bid. The software maker withdrew its last offer of $47.5 billion, or $33 per share, last month after Yahoo's board sought $37 per share.

But Yahoo's board also barred itself from scrapping the severance plan while the company is facing the threat of a takeover or a boardroom coup.

The broad restrictions protecting Yahoo's severance plan could make it vulnerable to a legal challenge. Delaware courts previously have invalidated antitakeover devices that can't be easily dismantled when it's in the best interest of shareholders. These inflexible defenses are known as "dead hand poison pills."

Contending the severance plan doesn't qualify as a poison pill, Yahoo says the program is designed to retain and attract talented employees during times of uncertainty — an objective designed to enrich shareholders by protecting the company's value.

"We believe retaining valued (employees) would be consistent with any acquirer's goals," Yahoo wrote in a question-and-answer format posted Tuesday on a Web site for employees.

Icahn didn't return a call Tuesday seeking comment.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Yahoo Inc. may have to defend its response to Microsoft Corp.'s takeover attempt in a trial that could sway the outcome of the Internet pioneer's August showdown with investor activist Carl Icahn

A trial could provide Yahoo's board members with another stage to expand on the reasons why they approved the severance plan and spurned Microsoft's earlier offers. But the directors probably would prefer to make their case in written materials sent to shareholders, said Jane Greyf, a corporate attorney in New York.

"A trial would probably do more to help Carl Icahn's cause than hurt his cause," she said.

Internal records gathered so far in the shareholder lawsuit already have revealed Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang pushed for a more expensive severance plan despite the misgivings of the company's outside consultants and personnel managers.

Hoping to gather more evidence for a possible trial, the shareholder attorneys have scheduled a Friday deposition of Arthur Kern, who chairs the compensation committee on Yahoo's board

Apple Promotion new 3G of iPhone

The apple company says new money iPhone owns brand-new curve type design , moulds the outer covering , metal button and new model headset jack completely.

Global positioning system function and their his

The whole world new model iPhone maximum has been reformed being installation fixes position tracking system , a lot of iPhone user all demands to deploy this function. Qiaobusi says this money iPhone another great characteristic is first generation iPhone overlength battery service time make rings round. New model iPhone owns quicker net play speed , provide how old 300 hour of stand-by time , that time composes in reply 5 hours as well as 2 G of 10 hours communicates by phone 3 G communicate by phone time. Communicate by phone to 3 so long G time we feel being proud very much. And this mobile telephone can run 5 till 6 hour of high speed Web browse the video frequency with 7 hours watch, own independent iPod VF broadcast an implement.

Function of the software is improved

Can see much the function of the software improvement in iPhone two generation on one's body. For instance, mobile telephone can hold out about safe enterprise core function (include VPN and the wireless encryption) of WPA, besides, also, can come to demonstrate the iWork document and the Microsoft Office document by searching for, and can general preserve receive the email photograph preserve to photograph warehouse middle. It has provided batches deleting and moving the email function , has supported many language species and.

New model iPhone marketing prospect

According to what Qiaobusi said iPhone, the first years already sell out 6 million. Be up to 98%'s iPhone consumer use the person to browse Web page, 94% consumer uses e-mail function, 90% the above short message function, 80%'s consumer uses 10 items or more functions.

And list the person in a wireless sum global positioning system , enterprise safety, extensive international holds out and more , own third generation flow service it seems that apple's market share, rises on having the advantageous basis, to 27%, IDC does out analysis right away on the end of 2007 , 3 G communication , GPS , enterprise safety and broadband net play hold out , these functions will make 3 GiPhone occupy very big advantage in apple's market share proportion.

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Beating $4 Gas with a $1 Bus

Alonzo Parks is the last person to hop on the shiny black and orange bus parked across the street from Madison Square Garden in New York City. A recent graduate of Howard University, he's still looking for a full-time job, so saving money is important to him. But a comfortable ride matters too. That's why Parks, 27, says he recently switched from taking the Washington-bound Chinatown bus to the new BoltBus, a joint venture between industry leaders Greyhound and Peter Pan that began operations in March. "It's brand-new, there's a lot more room between the seats and they have wireless Internet access," he says.

Spurred partly by the soaring cost of taking the car on that weekend road trip, bus ridership is up across the country for the first time in 50 years — a 13% increase this year compared with 2006, according to a DePaul University study. Now major operators are vying for a slice of the growing market for non-stop service between major cities — previously the purview of niche operators catering primarily to immigrants and low-income populations. Both BoltBus and Megabus, which is owned by the Scotland-based Stagecoach Group, are winning over new customers with sleek coaches touting $1 fares from New York to D.C., Chicago to Cleveland and Kansas City to St. Louis. More than a cheap ride, the vehicles feature amenities unheard of on traditional bus lines — including real flush toilets, wider seats and power outlets for all.

Not all seats cost $1, of course. Megabus, which launched in the U.S. in 2006 and has carried more than one million passengers since then, guarantees just two seats on each bus for a dollar. Then prices inch up to $7, $10, $15 and $20, before topping out at $25 on the longest routes. (BoltBus guarantees just one $1 seat per bus. "It's our marketing gimmick," admits Peter Picknelly, president of Peter Pan, which co-owns Bolt. Still, even the top prices are a bargain compared to Greyhound's standard $43 fare between Minneapolis and Chicago or $40 fare from Washington to New York City. The rides are also quicker than Greyhound because there are no stops along the way. And though cheap bus lines that run from New York City's Chinatown can compete in price, they don't have the same amenities or offer a guaranteed, reserved seat.

The new lines can pair skimpy fares with plush seating because they keep their overhead to a minimum. BoltBus does curbside pickup (instead of paying to park at a mass transit station) and books most of its tickets online (which eliminates accounting costs). Since it's a joint partnership between existing bus companies, it needed only to invest in new buses and drivers to start up. There are no print or billboard ads; marketing is largely word-of-mouth — Parks learned about it from his girlfriend in New York, whom he takes the bus to visit from D.C. twice a month.

Bus travel has not been an easy sell everywhere. Megabus recently announced that it was ceasing its Los Angeles–based West Coast operations due to lack of riders. "It was more of a challenge to get people out of their automobile than it was in other regions of the country," says Dale Moser, Megabus's president and chief operating officer, who notes that his Midwest routes are solidly profitable and have doubled its customers over the past 12 months. This spring, Megabus began serving Boston, Buffalo, Philadelphia, New York, Washington and Toronto. BoltBus had 70,000 riders in its first two months of operation in the Northeast and is 30% ahead of its internal projections for its business. "We view our competitor as the passenger automobile," says Picknelly. "For a lot of people, the last time they took a bus was in grammar school."

The jump in gas prices has increased the cost of doing business for these bus companies. But that has been largely offset by the boost in ridership — so even though fuel is the second highest cost after salaries, the high cost of gas has not hit the bus companies as severely as it has the airlines.

To get the best deals, riders should book as far in advance as possible. Parks wound up spending $25 for his BoltBus trip, because he paid the driver in cash as he boarded — more than the $20 he normally pays for the Lucky Star bus from Chinatown. But as the 6-foot-tall political science grad stretched out in his seat and caught up on election news on his laptop, he didn't seem to mind . "I would definitely take it again," he said.

Asian economic miracle is at risk all over again

Some worry Asia’s second-biggest economy faces both risks.

China’s situation suggests Asia is on the cusp of its worst couple of years since 1997.
From Seoul to Jakarta and from Beijing to New Delhi, officials are grappling with a rapidly worsening inflation picture.

It would be nice if there was less concern about the phenomenon and more action to address it.
Asia may be nearing the point of no return – one where the region’s so-called economic miracle goes off the rails anew.

Asia isn’t about to revisit the darkest days of 1997 and 1998.
It was then that speculators tested central banks’ resolve to defend currencies.

Thailand’s devaluation in July 1997 set in motion a crisis that suspended the Asian miracle.
It prompted investors to leave Asia and sent contagion around the globe.

A decade later, Asia faces the flipside of that experience.

The turmoil of the 1990s was about deflation and recession; the situation today involves overheating.
Central banks may already be remiss in a different way than they were during the last crisis: They are falling behind the inflation curve.
“Inflation really has become the issue,’’ says Richard Grainger, a director at Barclays Capital in Hong Kong.

Surging inflation is adding pressure on officials to raise interest rates as record oil and food prices undermine growth.
That has created what central-bank heads such as Amando Tetangco of the Philippines call a “monetary-policy dilemma.’’

Touchy time

This is, admittedly, a touchy time for central banks.
They are being asked to tame forces they can’t fully control as “bond vigilantes” take matters into their own hands and boost bond yields.

Central banks also feel they must tread carefully to protect hard-won gains in independence.
Politicians are already warning officials not to go overboard raising interest rates.
Yet negative real rates are more the norm than the exception in Asia.
Annual inflation rates are above benchmark borrowing costs in China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Bottom line: Interest rates need to go higher in many economies.

With household expenses rising, Asia may very well overheat unless central bankers do their jobs.
The longer they delay, the bigger the costs to long-term prosperity and the bigger the risks of disappointing investors.

Inflation scare

Asia has thus far withstood the US credit-market debacle remarkably well.
If that was the only threat in the global financial system, 2008 might have been a much better year for the region.
Oil at more than $135 a barrel and record food prices have conspired to restrain growth and worsen inflation.

That balancing act is clear to anyone walking the streets of Indonesia these days.
Prices are hurting families already close to the edge.

Indonesia is but one government in Asia – where about 600 million people exist on less than $1 a day – that is divided between reining in prices and supporting growth.

What good is growth when inflation eats up the gains?

“While there are many investment opportunities, this won’t be an easy year for Asian governments,’’ says Dessi Natalegawa, a managing director at Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in Jakarta.

Headlines across the region explain why.

There are food-related protests in the Philippines; top-level power struggles in Malaysia; the fastest inflation in Singapore since 1982; public battles between politicians and the Bank of Korea; a whiff of financial fluctuation in Vietnam; and talk of a coup in Thailand.

Avoiding bust

Asia has come a long way since its last crisis.
Government debt is down, living standards are up, corporate governance has improved, currency reserves have been amassed and central banks are more autonomous.
Policy makers still must keep Asia’s boom from becoming a bust.

For central banks, that means openly and clearly declaring the intention to attack inflation.
Big, destabilizing rate increases might do more harm than good.

A gradual, yet steady campaign to tap on the brakes could both soothe investors and avoid restraining consumption.
One reason central bankers need to act carefully is the risk of another flare-up in US markets.
Standard & Poor’s reminded investors of that on June 2 when it lowered credit ratings for Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers, saying they may have to book more write-downs on devalued assets.

It’s impossible to generalize Asia’s experience.

China’s post-earthquake rebuilding efforts, for example, may boost growth and inflation.

Wealthy Japan isn’t as vulnerable to surging food costs as, say, Indonesia or the Philippines, where many families live on poverty’s edge.
The key commonality is a sense of caution.
With credit markets still in disarray, aggressive moves are a non-starter.
Yet acting now means central banks can make headway on an inflation problem that isn’t about to go away.
Hanging in the balance is nothing less than the economic miracle that investors are betting on in Asia.

£75 BILL JUST TO QUIT BRITISH GAS

Energy firms have introduced penalty charges to punish customers who switch suppliers.

British Gas is demanding the highest "exit fees" - of up to £75 - from those people who want to end their fixed-rate gas and electricity deals.

The deals - in which fuel rates are capped for a fixed period whether prices go up or down - allow hard-pressed families to budget properly. But if they want to switch to a cheaper deal elsewhere they are now being stung for cancellation charges.

Industry watchdogs have condemned the fees as another rip-off. They say customers are often completely unaware of the penalties which are hidden in the small print.

Mark Todd, of energy helpline.com, said: "We're urging consumers to check there's no catch before they switch."

The introduction of exit fees has coincided with a 16 per cent rise in energy prices, which have seen average annual bills top £1,000. At the same time, the UK's six big power suppliers have seen a 30 per cent jump in profits, from £3.7billion to £4.9bn.

British Gas customers face a £55 fine if they quit their 17-month gas tariff before it ends while those on a similar rate for electricity will be charged £20. Those on combined deals will be hit with a double whammy and will have to fork out £75.

British Gas imposed a 15 per cent price rise on their 16 million customers this year, making it the country's most expensive. Meanwhile their profits leaped 500 per cent to £600million in 2007.

German energy giant E.on and Spanish-owned Scottish Power have also imposed exit penalties since last month.

Experts believe the other big energy suppliers will soon follow suit.

They have already warned that suppliers are on the verge of announcing further double-digit price rises this summer.

A spokesman for Unison said: "Energy companies are making huge profits and consumers are getting caught out everywhere."

A British Gas spokesman said: "The small cancellation charge allows us to minimise the tariff premium, thus reducing the cost for customers. Customers tend not to cancel fixed-price tariffs as they provide peace of mind."

When Are Cigarette Taxes Too High?

Smokers are among the only groups for whom New York City rolls up its trademark welcome mat. In 2003, the city banned cigarettes in virtually all workplaces, restaurants and bars as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's crusade to bolster public health. The initiative inflamed smokers, but many ultimately accepted the logic of tempering the habit to preserve their neighbors' lungs. But now, New York City smokers are suffering a new assault — on their wallets. A hefty new state tobacco tax implemented this week has smokers fuming. The $1.25 per pack hike brings New York's state surcharge on cigarettes to $2.75, which, coupled with the city's own $1.50 tax, means Big Apple smokers are footing the highest tobacco taxes in the nation, with the the price of packs soaring past $9 in some city convenience stores"We are so demonized," says Audrey Silk, head of the advocacy group NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. "It's pushing buttons people didn't even know they had." Silk says smokers will look for ways to sidestep the surcharge. She rolls her own cigarettes, and her boyfriend gets cheaper smokes in Pennsylvania. Others are expected to circumvent New York's stratospheric prices by purchasing cartons in Indian casinos and on the Internet. The effect will be "the creation of a black market for a legal product," says Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.

That's just one of the reasons Levy, a nonsmoker, argues that tobacco taxes are ill-advised. He contends the tax is both regressive — since smokers tend to represent a lower-income demographic — and punitive. "The social costs of smoking are already covered by existing taxes," he says, a calculation that includes treatment of cancer, lung disease and the vast array of other health problems directly linked to cigarettes.

New York City's health commissioner disagrees. "Tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of death in the U.S., and tobacco taxes are the most effective way to reduce tobacco use," says Dr. Thomas Frieden. For health officials, setting an outlandish price for cigarettes was precisely the point. Frieden says the price elasticity of tobacco is "rigorously defined": as costs rise, people stop smoking. New York officials calculate the newly minted tax will spur 65,000 city smokers — including 7,000 youths — to kick the habit, preventing more than 20,000 premature deaths. The initiative, Frieden says, is the logical coda to a highly successful anti-smoking program that he says has already reduced adult smoking levels 21% since 2002 and halved youth smoking since 2001, preventing 100,000 premature deaths. New York's figures are extrapolated from existing reports, including one by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, which notes cigarette sales have plunged in every state that has adopted more onerous tobacco taxes.

Frieden denies taxes exceed social costs, noting the state spends roughly $8.2 billion annually on treating sickened smokers. Tobacco taxes are widely popular, he argues: "[They] may be the only tax that most members of the general public are in favor of." Count politicians among its champions as well. Even in state legislatures stifled by partisan gridlock, lawmakers agree tobacco taxes are a vital way to replenish their coffers. Since 2002, 43 states have hiked smoking surcharges, which last year hauled in $14.5 billion nationwide. New York state expects to accrue $265 million from the tax.

Silk and Levy suggest finding a fresh revenue stream is the main point. "This is a money grab on the part of the state of New York," Levy told TIME. "[It's] really about budgetary concerns. They camouflage it in health lingo because it sells better."

"Tobacco taxation is a way of promoting both public health and increasing government revenues," Frieden says, noting it's just one aspect of the city's multi-pronged effort to curb smoking — which also encompasses cessation planning, nicotine patch giveaways and advertising campaigns touting better ways to spend $3,000 (roughly, the annual cost of a pack-a-day habit). "Fundamentally, tobacco taxation is good because it saves lives," Frieden says. But that logic isn't persuading those who think government should refrain from legislating personal choice. The debate will keep on smoldering