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By Antonella Ciancio

WASHINGTON |
Sun May 6, 2012 2:51pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Monica Soltes was excited 10 years ago to leave Merrill Lynch and start her own business as an independent financial planner in San Diego. After she fell off a porch at her cousin’s cottage and broke her elbow, her dreams unraveled.

Following multiple surgeries that confined her to bed, Soltes was diagnosed with a hormonal disease that is weakening her bones. She also ran out of money, signed up for disability benefits and has been unable to work again.

The 47-year-old from Michigan is among the 8.7 million American workers on the U.S. disability rolls, an important part of the social safety net. Since the recession began in 2007, she has been joined by a record number of people seeking disability benefits, raising questions about the program’s solvency and casting a pall over future prospects for U.S. economic growth.

Applicants soared to a record high of 2.94 million in 2010, and have held above 18 per 1,000 workers in the past three years – a far higher rate than in previous recessions.

“There are serious concerns that this increase in disability benefits is a type of ‘hidden unemployment,’” said Richard Burkhauser, a professor of economics at Cornell University.

Even though only 35 percent of applicants are awarded disability, those receiving disability benefits now account for 5.6 percent of the working age population, up from about 4.5 percent in 2007. At this rate of growth, Burkhauser estimates that total would reach over 7 percent by 2018.

The problem is those on disability rarely return to work, reducing the overall size of the labor force and weakening the U.S. economy’s growth prospects. Rising gross domestic product (GDP) depends upon a growing workforce and rising productivity.

Since the recession began, the share of Americans actively looking for work, known as the labor participation rate, has fallen to 63.6 percent from 66 percent in 2007.

Some people give up looking for work temporarily, but the size of the decline has perplexed economists and disability is clearly a factor.

JP Morgan estimates it accounts for half a percentage point of the drop. With jobs scarce, it causes little drag on growth.

But Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, said over time, disability will rob roughly $250 billion – or 1.6 percent – from total output each year once the economy returns to full employment, probably within the next five to seven years. This will also widen the budget deficit.

“There is no

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SAN DIEGO, 5 de mayo de 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Memjet ha anunciado hoy un acuerdo clave que allana el camino para la comercialización continuada de la revolucionaria tecnología de impresión de color de Memjet.

Según el acuerdo, Memjet asumirá la propiedad directa y control de la cartera de propiedad intelectual relacionada con la tecnología de Memjet, que incluye unas 4.000 patentes mundiales emitidas y pendientes. Además, Memjet asumirá el control directo de todas las actividades de alcance, desarrollo y comercialización de la tecnología de Memjet, incluyendo los servicios proporcionados anteriormente para Memjet a través de Silverbrook Research Pty. Ltd. desde sus instalaciones situadas en North Ryde, Sydney, Australia. Kia Silverbrook, cofundador de Memjet y director general de Silverbrook Research, seguirá apoyando a Memjet como asesor especial del consejo de dirección de Memjet y como consultor actual.

“Estamos encantados de que se haya logrado este acuerdo”, indicó Len Lauer, director general y consejero delegado de Memjet. “Con todos los litigios ya resueltos entre las partes, Memjet está situada en una posición para avanzar y centrarse en proporcionar esta tecnología de interrupción para los mercados mundiales comerciales, industriales y de impresión de oficina”.

Memjet ha forjado asociaciones con algunos de los principales fabricantes y marcas mundiales, incluyendo Lenovo, LG y otras. La expansión de los socios fabricantes de equipamiento original (OEM) de Memjet sigue en drupa, la principal muestra comercial de impresión a nivel mundial que se celebra en Düsseldorf, Alemania, donde Memjet ha anunciado de forma conjunta la noticia junto al fabricante de equipamiento original con líderes industriales, como Oce, a Canon Company, y Toshiba-Tec. Memjet realizará más anuncios durante la feria.

“En drupa, Memjet y nuestros OEMs están mostrando hasta dónde llega la impresión digital, que es una impresión rápida y de coste contenido a color con un bajo coste de propiedad, reduciendo los costes de hardware, con capacidades de impresión bajo demanda y respetuosa con el medio ambiente — una nueva categoría totalmente nueva de impresión digital a color”, añadió Lauer. “drupa es una oportunidad emocionante para que todo el mundo vea la tecnología de Memjet en acción a través de una variedad de soluciones de impresión y conocer nuestras últimas novedades de asociación”.

La revolucionaria tecnología de Memjet ha sido honrada con varios prestigiosos premios industriales, entre los que se incluyen el Popular Science Best of What’s New for 2011, el Printing Industries of America InterTech™ Technology Award, el

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By Rodrigo Campos

NEW YORK |
Fri May 4, 2012 7:12pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – After Wall Street ended its worst week of the year on Friday, U.S. stock investors will look across the Atlantic next week to take their cue from Europe as France and Greece go to the polls.

That could offer some respite from a string of weak U.S. economic data and the earnings season winding down.

Markets worldwide have closely watched developments in Europe for the past several months, with calls for austerity seen as positive for stocks as they seek to prevent a credit crisis in the region that could take down or deeply hurt the global economic recovery.

But an economic slowdown throughout the region has amplified calls for a change of direction.

In France, the prospect of a victory by Francois Hollande over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy, which would instate the country’s first Socialist president since 1995, initially alarmed some investors. Hollande’s win could be a hurdle to the German-led drive for austerity in Europe.

Adding to the markets’ jitters: Anti-bailout parties are expected to perform well in Greece’s vote on Sunday, raising the risk of more opposition to already unpopular reforms.

“There’s potential for uncertainty and instability in Europe,” said John Praveen, managing director of Prudential International Investment Advisors in Newark, New Jersey. “The market is pricing in extremely negative scenarios.”

Praveen said there is still room for a market rebound if Hollande, should he win the presidency, comes out with a more conciliatory tone that would ease investors’ fears about France’s commitment to fiscal stability.

Investors are waiting to see if Hollande, who holds an advantage in polls over Sarkozy, will be able to square France’s need for fiscal reforms with his plans to promote growth.

“I’m not quite sure, regardless of who wins, does it say ‘sell the SP’? … It just continues the uncertainty, no matter who wins,” said Frank Lesh, a futures analyst and broker at FuturePath Trading LLC in Chicago.

TECHNICALS RULE IN A LIGHT WEEK

Technical levels could regain importance next week as the U.S. economic data calendar thins and fewer than 30 of the SP 500 components are expected to report earnings.

“On no news, we all start looking at charts,” said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research in Cincinnati.

“We found support recently on the SP near 1,360. If we violate that, it would be a bad sign,” he said.

The SP 500 slipped below that level twice last month and bounced back, but has

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FREMONT, Calif., May 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — BEEcube, Inc. will be holding a training session on May 10th for CMC Microsystems that will bring together researchers and graduated students from across Canada. Aidan Bauer, Operations Manager, will be leading the sold out session located at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He will include training for all of the BEEcube systems: BEE3, BEE4 and the new generation BEE system the miniBEE. In addition, the BEEcube Platform Studio (BPS) software will be covered.

During the training the BEE4 and miniBEE will run a Software Defined Radio (SDR) in a demonstration of their capabilities. The SDR demo uses FPGA based continuous wideband vector signal generator with carrier frequency tone sweeps ranging from 0 to 2 GHz. The ADC expansion board simultaneously captures analog output with data being displayed directly and integrated with Matlab.  BEE3′s ADC can sample up to 3 GHz, offering a true direct RF sampling capability.

About BEEcube

BEEcube, a leading provider of advanced system-level FPGA prototyping platforms, was founded in 2006. Spinning out of the University of California, Berkeley, BEEcube’s founders include the best academic minds in Silicon Valley and are credited with founding a number of leading companies, including Atheros Communications.

There are nearly 200 BEE systems deployed worldwide in major corporations and top universities. Corporations currently using BEE systems include: Xilinx, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Boeing, Hauwei, Lincoln Labs, Aerospace Corporation, and Thales Group. Leading universities include: University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, Barcelona Super Computing Center, Tokyo University, Tsinghua University, and Peking University.

For more information contact info@beecube.com or visit the website: www.beecube.com. Telephone: (510) 252-1136. Facsimile: (888) 700-8917. BEEcube’s corporate headquarters is based at 39465 Paseo Padre Parkway, Suite 3700, Fremont, CA 94538.

BEEcube, BEE, BEE3, BEE3-W, BEE4, BEE4-W, miniBEE, BEEcube Platform Studio, Honeycomb Architecture, Sting I/O, and Nectar O/S are trademarks of BEEcube Inc. All rights reserved.

BEEcube acknowledges trademarks or registered trademarks of other organizations for their respective products and services.

Contact: Joseph Rothman
BEEcube, Inc.
Phone: (510) 525-1136
Fax: (888) 700-8917

SOURCE BEEcube, Inc.

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By Edward Krudy

NEW YORK |
Thu May 3, 2012 4:31pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks fell on Thursday as economic data sent mixed signals on the recovery a day before the April payrolls report, while shares of Green Mountain (GMCR.O) plunged after poor results.

Slower-than-expected growth in the dominant U.S. services sector drove the day’s trading. The retail sector dragged the market lower after several chains, including Target Corp (TGT.N) and Gap Inc (GPS.N), fell after missing April sales estimates.

Market expectations for Friday’s non-farm payrolls report have fallen this week. Traders now suspect the economy added 125,000 to 150,000 jobs in April, below a Reuters consensus forecast of 170,000. One trader said there had even been some talk of a number below 100,000.

Still, the SP 500 keeps up its flirtation with new four-year highs, although it has struggled to rise above resistance at the 1,400 level.

Ryan Larson, head of equity trading at RBC Capital Management, said muted reactions to recent signs of economic weakness suggest some investors are counting on more monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve if the data gets worse.

“You are going back to ‘bad numbers are good numbers’,” he said, referring to the latest change in Wall Street’s perception of discouraging data. “The market will believe that (Fed Chairman) Bernanke Co will have to step in.”

Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters lost 47.8 percent to $25.87 a day after the company badly missed sales estimates for the second time in three quarters. The stock was the second-biggest drag on the Nasdaq 100 .

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI dropped 61.98 points, or 0.47 percent, to 13,206.59 at the close. The Standard Poor’s 500 Index .SPX fell 10.74 points, or 0.77 percent, to 1,391.57. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC lost 35.55 points, or 1.16 percent, to 3,024.30.

With Thursday’s decline, the SP 500 has fallen close to its 50-day moving average of around 1,386.48. The benchmark index has retraced about 50 percent of its move off its closing low of 1,358.59 on April 10.

The SP 500 slipped in April, the first monthly drop since November, on softening domestic data, coupled with flare-ups in the euro zone’s debt crisis.

In Thursday’s session, retail stocks fell after several large chains missed sales estimates in April. The results were a troubling sign for consumer spending.

Gap Inc (GPS.N) fell 1.6 percent to $28.67 while Target Corp (TGT.N) dropped 2.5 percent to $56.55. The SP retail index .RLX lost 0.9 percent.

Initial jobless claims

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