Macroeconomic Theory and Its Failings

This innovative book focuses on the current global financial crisis and the inadequacies of the economic theories being used to guide policy. In so doing, it tackles the economic theories that have been used firstly to understand its causes and thereafter to contain the damage it has brought.

The contributors bring together different perspectives from across the entire spectrum of economic opinion to examine what is likely to be the single most important economic problem of our time. The unifying feature is that all of the authors disagree with the standard mainstream neo-classical models being applied in attempting to comprehend what has gone on and then, more importantly, to devise policies to bring this recession to an end. The problems that modern macroeconomics may have caused in being the basis for economic policy are addressed, and it is concluded that the deepening problems found in economies across the developed world are not due to governments having refused to take the advice of their economic adviser but are in many respects due to their actually having taken this advice.

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Harrods

London department store Harrods has been sold by its owner Mohammed Al Fayed to the Qatari royal family for £1.5bn. Recognized for its celebrity-endorsed sales, food hall and signature green bags, Harrods is one of the world's largest and most famous department stores. With more than a million square feet (90,000 sq m) of space, Harrods sells luxury and everyday items across seven floors and 330 departments.

Its motto is Omnia Omnibus Ubique - All Things for All People, Everywhere

The Knightsbridge store was established in 1849 by Charles Henry Harrod. Beginning in a single room and employing two assistants and a messenger boy, it mainly sold tea and groceries. Harrods steadily expanded, and by 1880 was a thriving department store, offering everything from medicines and perfumes to clothing and food. Its expansion suffered a knock in 1883 when a fire destroyed the store. This did not halt the owners, however, who duly rebuilt the store, with the help of architect Charles William Stephens, into what it is today. Harrods became a public company in 1889 and by the 1890s it had established a bank and estate agency and a department selling exotic pets that lasted until the 1970s. It featured one of the world's first escalators in 1898.

During World War II, the store transformed itself from selling luxury goods to making uniforms, parachutes and parts for Lancaster bombers. In 1959, High Street department store group House of Fraser bought Harrods.

In 1985 the store returned to private ownership when Egypt-born Mr Al Fayed and his brother Ali bought House of Fraser for £615m, snatching it from mining conglomerate Lonrho. The takeover bid was bitterly fought as Mr Al Fayed had previously served on Lonrho's board but left nine months later after a disagreement. Lonrho's director, the late Tiny Rowland, took his campaign against the takeover to the Department of Trade who duly held an inquiry.

Dress code

The store controversially introduced a dress code in 1989 which included a ban on wearing high-cut, Bermuda or beach shorts; swimwear; cycling shorts and flip flops or thong sandals.

The Economist's maiden TV campaign for India

A reality show for Virginity auction

A Sydney waitress plans to sell her virginity to the highest bidder in a live auction in the US state of Nevada. The show is the brainchild of Justin Sisely, a Melbourne filmmaker, who is planning to turn the event into a documentary. A for a face-to-face auction in Nevada with bidders will be placed in the same room as those auctioning off their virginity.

Sisely will pay each virgin $20,000. The contestants will receive 90% of the sale price, with the remaining 10% going to the Nevada brothel where the auction will be held. Bids are to be placed online before the final auction. The auditions were held with posters calling for "Virgins Wanted" over an image of the Virgin Mary. The auction will take place in a brothel in Nevada, 'sin-city' Las Vegas.

McDonald's celebrating Shrek Festival

McDonald’s has chalked out a two-month ‘Shrek Festival’ for kids in India to promote DreamWorks Animation's upcoming movie, Shrek The Third.

The food retailer is investing approximately Rs 20 million to promote the festival in Indian sub continent. It has also launched some new variants that include a 'Shrek Meal' and 'Shrek desserts'. Meanwhile, McDonald’s 'Golden Arches' are going green worldwide to promote Shrek The Third. It has launched high-tech Shrek Happy Meal toys, created in eight languages, and an innovative Shrek-based online community, dedicated to kids.

Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury's 4th Idiot

Produced and directed by Guinness world record holder for strong memory Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury, movie is made at a budget of Rs.20 million.

Film will be screened in World Unity Convention Center in Lucknow for students of the local City Montessori Schools.

4th Idiot is the story of a boy, Pappu, who, by using the techniques taught by Ranchordas Chanchar in 3 Idiots, achieved his otherwise seemingly unachievable goals like topping in school, winning his dream girl and even going to the moon.

However, the makers seem to be in a soup now as Vidhu Vinod Chopra Productions have taken legal action against them

History of Architect and Architecture (western)

The first Biblical reference to an architect is Bezalel, described in Exodus 36-38 as the architect of Tabernacle as well as teacher of arts.

Bezalel (Exodus 31:1-11) was a leader who constructed and decorated the tabernacle in the wilderness detailed by Divine plan communicated to Moses on Mount Sinai.

He was highly talented as a worker, showing great skill and originality in precious metals and stones.

Today, Bezalel Academy is based at Jerusalem in 1906 by sculptor Boris Schatz. Their mission was said to develop non charitable useful arts and crafts among Jews within the country, which in turn designs where developed within the scope of all the indigenous inhabitants; which are historically Jewish in origin.

Ancient architects created a variety of structures to serve various needs and most important were the temples. Other public building were stadia for athletic, dramatic and musical events.

Indian Census

It has its beginning from 1872 and the present Census 2011 will be the 15th National Census of the country. This time the Census forms are printed in 16 languages and the Instruction Manuals in 18 languages and first-ever National Population Register (NPR) will also be prepared in which all persons aged over 15 years will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database. With this India will probably become the first democratic nation in the world which would have got its population fingerprinted in a year from now.

The Census has come from Latin: during the Roman Republic the census was a list that kept track of all adult males fit for military service.

The first such effort of Census in 1861 was postponed due to the dislocations caused by the First War of Independence (the great rebellion of 1857-59), the second one, in 1871, was spread out over two years due to political reasons and financial constraints. Later, the 1921 and 1931 censuses were affected by the non-cooperation movement and sporadic political unrest during the period that curtailed data collection to some extent. Similarly, the 1941 census operations were affected by World War II. In Independent India, too, political disturbances led to the exclusion of Assam from the 1981 census and Jammu and Kashmir from the 1991 census.

The censuses have also played an even greater role in influencing politics. For instance, census numbers played an important role in two great partitions; first, in Bengal partition, the 1872 census identified the large Muslim population in the state, and then that of India in 1947. Similarly, census data played a prominent role in the linguistic reorganization of Indian states in 1956 and also in the more recent ones like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

Bytes:-

The 2001 census shows how asset ownership has been transformed over 130-odd years. While the bicycle was the most popular asset owned by 43% of Indian households in 2001, the second important durable asset was the radio—available in 35.1% of the houses. Next was TV, which had a penetration of 31.6%, followed by scooters, motorcycles and mopeds (11.5%), telephones (9.1%) and cars, jeeps and vans (2.5%).

Louis Vuitton's journey

The luxury brand Louis Vuitton has reached an agreement with FIFA in order to create a unique bag carrying the football World Cup. The 18-carat gold World Cup trophy is to be carried in a custom-made Louis Vuitton bag before it is presented to the winning team in South Africa

Pele, Maradona and Zidane for Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton will be using three biggest footballers: Pele, Maradona and Zidane for their ad campaign. The campaign was led by famed portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz, who has worked with celebrities all over the world. The spot features Pele and Zidane playing foosball, and Maradona is asking the viewers to decide who of the wins the game. People can vote at www.louisvuittonjourneys.com/legends and monitor the current results.

Also they have launched a new microsite for this campaign

New Frooti Campaign

The ads capture people’s reaction to giant sized props in the form of mangoes which suddenly appear on the streets, rolling down from above a slope. The campaign titled ‘Juicy Mango, Surprise Project’.