A new electric vehicle, dramatic design cues from staid Asian automakers and space-age innovations sharpened the industry’s cutting edge at the 100th annual Detroit motor show. The historic show took bolder strides into the 21st century while keeping an eye on the need to woo hard-to-please car buyers with less futuristic changes.
From husky dogs on ice to hip-hop violinists, via pouting models and celebrity chefs, the car industry has been true to its attention-grabbing form at the Detroit auto show. The 2007 event marks the 100th year that the fabled "Motor City" is playing host to a celebration of all that is hot, avant-garde and downright weird in the world of automobiles.
Ford, which invented the modern auto industry, used the 100th annual Detroit motor show to promise on Sunday a new page in its long but troubled history. Ford, which is eliminating 16 plants and 45 000 jobs, lost -billion in the first nine months of last year.
Top United States officials on Friday mourned the death of Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, whose ideas helped power a conservative policy revolution in the 1980s. Friedman died of heart failure on Thursday at the age of 94 in San Francisco, California, near Stanford University where he taught most recently, friends and associates said.
The United States Federal Reserve has finally suspended a run of interest-rate hikes stretching back more than two years, explaining that slowing economic growth will vanquish the menace of inflation. But the reprieve for investors, consumers and businesses around the world could be short-lived, economists warn.
New Federal Reserve chairperson Ben Bernanke got down to work on Wednesday with a parting gift from his illustrious predecessor to cope with a new mood of uncertainty in the United States economy. Bernanke was to be sworn in at a private ceremony in the Fed building at 2pm GMT to succeed Alan Greenspan, who bowed out Tuesday with more one rate hike.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s economy is in a state of virtual collapse with growth contracting, inflation rampant and poverty soaring. In an annual report issued after Zimbabwe won a six-month reprieve from the threat of expulsion from the IMF, directors expressed ”deep concern” at the economic situation under President Robert Mugabe.
The Federal Reserve on Tuesday lifted United States borrowing costs for the 10th time running to guard against inflationary pressure and signalled it would stay on a tightening course. As expected, the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee said it was taking the headline Fed funds rate to 3,5%.
Recriminations flew on Monday over the biggest data breach in United States history as the theft of private information on more than 40-million credit card holders spread to Japan and Hong Kong. About 22-million affected customers are Visa holders and nearly 14-million are with MasterCard.
The European Union promised action on Tuesday to curb unsolicited bulk e-mails in a new sign of international determination to stop ”spam” messages. EU telecommunications ministers meeting in Brussels promised to speed up slow implementation of an EU-wide law agreed two years ago banning commercial spam.