English 20 ALANBAA Tuesday, 14 October, 2014 “Discover America Week” Oct. 13–21 Events Business Speaker Series Time: October 14 - 16, Every Day, 11:30 am - 1:00pm Place: Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 11th floor Tuesday, October 14 "Living in a Cloud First, Mobile First World by Microsoft" Cyril Voisin Cyril is the Regional Technology Officer for Microsoft Gulf. He will speak about Microsoft’s vision of the new Cloud First, Mobile First world we live in. This busi- Richard Litman ness session will offer examples of how people and enterprises are embracing these new ways of living, playing and working and where technologies are heading in the future . Business development managers and IT managers should attend. Wednesday, Oct. 15 "What is the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance (FATCA)" Hannah Shipley Hannah Shipley is the Director for Business Tax Advisory of Ernst and Young in Dubai. She leads the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) initiative for the Middle East North Africa region for Ernst and Young. Cyril Voisin She will speak about what is FATCA; give an update an intergovernmental approach to FATCA compliance for Kuwait; and discuss implications for regulators, financial institutions, and individuals (dual-nationals). Thursday, Oct. 16 "Intellectual Property and Brand Management Strategies" Richard Litman Richard Litman is Legal Counsel for the International Intellectual Property Institute (lIPI). He will discuss the types of intellectual property rights (IPR) and brand management strategies available to companies to increase their bottom line, the role IPR plays in the development and commercialization of innovations, and collaboration opportunities available to Kuwaiti companies seeking to expand their IPR portfolio. All companies will benefit from this talk, particularly those in emerging technologies, ICT, health care, and eCommerce. PARTICIPATING UNIVERSITIES Creighton University DePaul University Emerson College Fairleigh Dickinson University Loyola Marymount University Loyola University Chicago Middle Tennessee State University Northwestern University in Qatar Parsons The New School for Design San Jose State University State University of New York - University at Buffalo University of San Francisco University of Washington Health Texas worker tests positive for Ebola (Reuters) - A health worker in Texas at the hospital where the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States died last week has tested positive for the deadly virus in a preliminary test, the state’s health department said on Sunday. U.S. authorities are stepping up efforts to stop the spread of the virus, with medical teams at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Saturday beginning the screening of travelers from the three West African countries hardest hit by the worst Ebola outbreak on record. The worker at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital reported a lowgrade fever Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement. “We knew a second case could be a reality, and we’ve been preparing for this possibility,” said Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the health service. The worker tested positive in a preliminary test at the state public health laboratory in Austin. “Confirmatory testing will be conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta,” the department said. The worker is believed to be the first person in the United States to test positive for Ebola who has not been to West Africa. Thomas Eric Duncan, who had recently arrived from his native Liberia, died in an isolation ward of the same Dallas hospital on Oct. 8, 11 days after being admitted. Liberia is the country worst affected by the virus with 2,316 victims, followed by 930 in Sierra Leone, 778 in Guinea, eight in Nigeria and one in the United States, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Some 4033 people are known to have died in seven countries from the outbreak, it said. The U.S. government has ordered five airports to start screening U.S.bound travelers for fever from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. John F. Kennedy Airport began the screening on Saturday and will be followed on Thursday by four others: Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta. Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of an affected person or contamination from objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms such as fever develop. The United Nations said on Friday that its appeal for $1 billion to respond to the West Africa outbreak was only 25 percent funded and a surge in trained healthcare personnel was also needed to help tackle the crisis. Economy World economies warn of global risks Reuters - The International Monetary Fund’s member countries on Saturday said bold action was needed to bolster the global economic recovery and they urged governments not to squelch growth by tightening budgets too drastically, although Germany poured cold water on the idea of a new global “crisis.” With Japan’s economy floundering, the euro zone at risk of recession and even China’s expansion slowing, the IMF’s steering committee said focusing on growth was the priority. “A number of countries face the prospect of low or slowing growth, with unemployment remaining unacceptably high,” the International Monetary and Financial Committee said on behalf of the Fund’s 188 member countries. The Fund this week cut its 2014 global growth forecast to 3.3 percent from 3.4 percent, the third reduction this year as the prospects for a sustainable recovery from the 2007-2009 global financial crisis have ebbed, despite hefty injections of cash by the world’s central banks. The IMF has flagged Europe as the top concern, a sentiment echoed by many policymakers, economists and investors gathered in Washington for the Fund’s fall meetings. European officials sought to dispel the gloom. European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the drag from fiscal tightening in the euro zone was set to fade, while German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble downplayed the idea that the region’s largest economy was at risk of recession. “There is no reason to talk about a crisis in the global economy,” Schaeuble said. The IMF committee called for fiscal policy flexibility, but efforts to provide more room for France to meet its European Union deficit target looked set to founder on Germany’s insistence that the agreement on fiscal rectitude was set in stone and that the bloc would not be writing any new checks. The United States has been a relative bright spot in the otherwise darkening global economic picture, and investors have rushed into dollars as a result. Still, while U.S. growth has picked up, soft inflation and wage growth suggest the slowest-ever postwar recovery is not delivering a sustained boost to demand, and concerns are growing that the global slowdown will undercut the U.S. economy as well. Top officials from the U.S. Federal Reserve highlighted growing risks, with the central bank’s No. 2 saying the global slowdown could delay plans for a U.S. interest rate hike. “In determining the pace at which our monetary accommodation is removed, we will, as always, be paying close attention to the path of the rest of the global economy and its significant consequences for U.S. economic prospects,” Fed Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said at a conference of the Institute for International Finance. The IMF panel urged nations to carry out politically tough reforms to labor markets and social security to free up money to invest in infrastructure to create jobs and lift growth. “Our key concern is to look ahead so that we avert .... the very real risk of a prolonged period of subpar growth,” said Singaporean Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the panel’s chairman. The committee also called on central banks to be careful when communicating changes in policy in order to avoid financial market shocks. While not naming any central banks, the warning appeared aimed at the Fed, which is set to end its current bond-buying program this month. Its next step, expected in mid-2015, would be to raise rates. The Fed has debated a change to its commitment to holding rates near zero for a “considerable time” at its recent policy meetings, but is stepping gingerly to avoid roiling financial markets. It does not want a repeat of the “taper tantrum” it touched off last year when it signaled its easing of monetary policy was drawing to a close. Education College is now a buyer’s market Reuters - Colleges are increasingly worried about getting enough enrollments, and students can use the situation to their advantage. A survey of college admissions directors by news website Inside Higher Ed found that 79 percent were either very or moderately concerned about not meeting their enrollment goals this year, up from 76 percent last year. Anxiety was particularly high among private nonprofit colleges, with 48 percent admitting to being very concerned, compared with 43 percent in the 2013 survey. The increasing competition for students has created a buyer’s market at most schools, said college consultant Lynn O’Shaughnessy, author of the book “The College Solution.” Families willing to look beyond the most selective colleges should have plenty of options for both admission and financial aid, she said. “If you believe the media reports, it looks like everyone’s getting turned away,” said O’Shaughnessy, who offers online classes on college admissions to financial advisors and parents. “This is not the reality ... most schools are feeling petrified that they’re not going to fill their classes.” The colleges struggling the most are what Scott Jaschik, editor of Inside Higher Ed, called “the nonfamous privates,” schools that do not have big en- dowments and that rely almost totally on tuition to pay the bills. Among private nonprofit colleges, 65 percent failed to meet their enrollment targets by May 1, compared with 56 percent a year earlier. Seven out of 10 private undergraduate colleges missed their targets this year, compared to six out of 10 last year. “People hear ‘private college’ and they think ‘Harvard,’ but that’s the one percent,” said Jaschik. “Most colleges are not competitive in admissions. Most colleges need students.” In recent years, some private colleges struggling with declining revenue have laid off faculty, eliminated programs or pursued mergers with other institutions. Several have had their credit ratings downgraded. A smaller pool of high school students is partly to blame, college admissions officials said, and more families are balk- ing at the price of higher education, particularly at more-expensive private colleges. Private colleges also are experiencing increasing competition from public universities, which are adding faculty and enrollment slots as states begin to restore some of the funding slashed during the recession, Jaschik said. Eighty-nine percent of private college admissions directors said they were losing potential applicants because of concerns about accumulating student loan debt, while 64 percent of public college admissions directors said the same. Heavy discounting has also backfired on some of these colleges, Jaschik said. Offering bigger bargains has left some colleges with more students to educate but lower overall revenue, Jaschik said. Gallup, which conducted the Inside Higher Ed poll, collected 406 surveys representing 187 public col- leges, 192 private institutions, and 16 for-profit schools. Most colleges, public and private, plan to increase their efforts to recruit beyond their states, respondents said. At public colleges, these students typically pay higher tuition than in-state residents, Jaschik said, while private schools want them simply to fill seats. Most private nonprofit colleges said they would also woo more applicants who do not need financial aid. At the same time, a majority of public and private schools said they would continue using merit aid as a recruitment tool. This somewhat controversial form of aid, not based on need, is often used to woo desirable candidates away from other schools. A recent report by the New America Foundation charged that many schools divert institutional funds that should be going to needier applicants and instead use it to attract students from wealthier families. Understanding these trends can help families negotiate better financial aid offers, O’Shaughnessy said. Colleges that need students, particularly private colleges, may be willing to offer bigger discounts or to match competing schools’ offers of financial aid, she said. “You shouldn’t assume the first offer you get is the last one,” she said.