To practise the language of comparison The Global Debt clock

Thanks James for the great link from the Economist.
Lots of fantastic data for Business English students to compare and to practise saying extremely large numbers and to use as a basis for a discussion in class.
http://www.economist.com/content/global_debt_clock

Bridgestone expands financial service centre in Costa Rica

From Tico Times
Bridgestone expands operations in Costa Rica / News Briefs / News / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times
Check the words in the article  related to investment and expansion

PUMA’s environmental profit and loss account

Last week students studying Advanced Market Leader unit 4 Energy were discussing their own company's innovative environmental audit and this recent news from Puma is an interesting example of social enterprise.
 Follow the link to the website which has  extremely comprehensive information on Economics for students.
 http://economicsonline.co.uk/blog/
Posted on May 16, 2011 by George Higson

Today PUMA, the German based sportswear producer, published a detailed environmental profit and loss account (E P&L) which makes it the first global business to put value on all the resources used in production and the likely environmental impact caused.  PUMA worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Trucost to develop a method to quantify the emissions it generates and the water consumed throughout its supply chain. An example is water used in the production of cotton, which in many cases is produced in areas where water is particularly scarce and the price paid for water fails to meet the true cost of water supply. PUMA are one of the first global companies to acknowledge the need to take environmental effects into account when making business decisions. The company estimates that, in 2010, the environmental cost of its supply chain was €94.4m. The UK government is shortly due to make a decision on whether large companies should be forced to publish an annual report detailing the environmental impact of their activities.
More on environmental economics

'Too Big to Fail ' HBO film

HBO have made a film portraying the banking crisis of 2008.
Follow the link for a review of the film and then check you tube's trailers.
Media Life Magazine - 'Too Big to Fail,' a big story, well told
For background vocabulary check back to the posting on Nov 8th 2010.

Business English Metaphors from Macmillan

Please follow the link to the Macmillan blog and then check their Business English links.
The bottom line on trickle-down Macmillan

Niche market Luxury Coffee

From tutor2u-
How much would you as a customer pay for coffee roasted from beans passed by a civet? 
In Venice an expresso in coffee bars close to Piazza San Marco may cost the customer €1.50, if you like to drink coffee standing up, should you want to sit down, you have added another €1.00 to the bill.
On the other hand, sitting in St Mark’s Square at Florian, or one of its rivals will mean the expresso is €10.50. You would be paying for the pressed linen table cloth, the seat, the attention of a waiter in a smart white jacketed uniform, and a wonderful view across a world heritiage site. Should the band, play more consumer surplus is extracted, there is a surcharge of €6.00.
However, how much would you pay for coffee made with beans excreted by a civet.
“It looks different, it smells different, and most importantly it tastes different. Coffee connoisseurs usually give two reasons for civet coffee’s unique taste - the fact that the civets self-select the juiciest coffee cherries, which in turn give the best beans, and the fact that - once inside the civet - these beans are fermented by enzymes in the stomach.After being thoroughly washed and roasted, the end product lacks the bitterness of some ordinary coffees and has a soft, chocolaty flavour.”
Somehow the firm’s owners had found out that coffee roasted from beans excreted from civets commanded high prices and switched to output of this high end coffee. “Bags of coffee beans can fetch up to $800 (£500) per kilogramme in Japan or the US, and coffee shops in New York sell just one cup for about $50.”
Needless to say the market has a number of niches, civet coffee made from beans excreted by wild civies may command a higher price than the beans passed by farmed civets - are they fed with all natural ingedients? is there a fairtrade civet coffee brand?
Ask yourself would you order Café Alamid, or at those prices would you have someone order it for you?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12959381

Costa Rica and Language proficiency

Business English students might be interested in this letter
Language Proficiency Key to Labor Development / Letters to the Editor / Opinion / Costa Rica Newspaper, The Tico Times