Securities Market Line

     Tip:Amazon.com Inc. and other e-commerce companies are winning some skirmishes against cash-strapped states that want to force them to collect sales taxes, but their victories may be short-lived.

     Q:Can you tell us more about the news?

     A:Several states are contemplating new laws or revisions to existing law that could eventually force online retailers to pony up. North Carolina, for instance, has a two-pronged approach to going after online retailers. If its current efforts to tax online sales fall through, the state’s revenue secretary plans to interpret existing laws to require companies that have marketing affiliates collect sales taxes.

     State Sen. David Hoyle on Thursday called the effort “a fairness issue.” Collecting sales taxes from out-of-state sellers could bring between $150 million and $200 million annually in additional tax revenue, he said. Mr. Hoyle said current law allows the state to force online retailers retroactive sales taxes.

     Q:what are the opinions of  E-commerce companies ?

     A:E-commerce companies said they continue to believe they are not required to collect such taxes. “We don’t want to shoulder the unconstitutional burden of collection in states where we lack a physical presence,” said Patty Smith, a spokeswoman for Seattle-based Amazon. She said the company is “in compliance with all Texas laws governing sales tax collections. Overstock.com Inc. President Jonathan Johnson said the new efforts will be unsuccessful. “The state legislatures don’t have the ability to change what the Supreme Court has said,” he said. “We will sue any state that tries to unconstitutionally attack our business,” Mr. Johnson added.

     Q:Does these companies have any measures to express their oppsition? Read the rest of this entry »

     1.Blog Marketing.You can open the blog of Jeremy Wright.He has written a book about blog marketing(his blog is blogmarketingbook.com).Blog marketing is the term used to describe internet marketing via web blogs. These blogs differ from corporate websites because they feature daily or weekly posts, often around a single topic. Typically, corporations use blogs to create a dialog with customers and explain features of their products and services.

     Many organizations use blogs with their user community. This allows them to share and preview product features, functions, and benefits before the products are released. Blogs are an excellent way to gather feedback and to make sure products meet the needs of users. Blogs have become the next generation marketing tool to corporate websites which merely post collateral and do not provide any interactive feedback. Blogs are also supplementary to a User Group. User Groups happen annually for example while blogs provide users constant daily and weekly feedback.

     2.SchipulCon’09 will be hosted at the Houston Zoo, which has aggressively incorporated social media strategies into its marketing efforts. The conference will feature a keynote address from Deirdre Breakenridge, co-author of “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” and “The New PR Tookit,” and author of “PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences.” Breakenridge, president of PFS Marketwyse (www.pfsmarketwyse-blog.com), will discuss the convergence of marketing/PR and the Internet and examine how to facilitate direct-to-consumer conversations through the use of social media applications such as Facebook, Twitter and blogging.

     Location:HONG KONG.

     HONG KONG — Massive share sales for cash-strapped Japanese companies and pending U.S. jobs data to be released Thursday kept investors on the sidelines in the Tokyo on Thursday.

     Following mild growth overnight on Wall Street, which was buoyed by a slowdown in the pace of U.S. production in June and an improvement in China’s purchasing managers index (PMI), the Japan bourse opened slightly higher on Thursday. But those gains evaporated as the Nikkei 225 closed day down 0.6%, at 9876.15, as investors mulled new shares placements from finance leasing firm Orix Corp., carrier All Nippon Airways, and other cash-strapped listed companies eager to raise new capital. Uncertainty about the U.S. job market also weighed on the market.

     Some examples: Read the rest of this entry »

     Tip:Manufacturing in the U.S. shrank at the slowest pace since August 2008 and pending sales of existing homes advanced for a fourth month, underscoring signs the economy began to stabilize in the second quarter.

     Q:What is the situation now?

     A:The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index rose in June for a sixth straight month, to 44.8; readings less than 50 signal contraction. The National Association of Realtors said the number of Americans signing contracts for existing homes increased 0.1 percent in May after a 7.1 percent gain.

     “We’re going to see a temporary substantial improvement” in the economy, said Martin Feldstein, the Harvard University economist and former Reagan administration adviser who is a member of the U.S. recession-dating panel. “It’s a bounce that is coming from the beginning of the fiscal stimulus,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg Radio.

     Q:Will the situation be worse?

     A: Feldstein warned that the economy will be “going down again” into 2010. Underscoring that danger was a survey issued today by ADP Employer Services that showed U.S. companies eliminated 473,000 jobs in June after a 485,000 drop the previous month. The report also foreshadowed a jump in the unemployment rate in tomorrow’s Labor Department report that will temper any rebound in consumer spending. Read the rest of this entry »