Chinese retail information solutions provider Changyi Technologies has set up a strategic partnership with the retail solutions provider Retalix, to provide more advanced information technology to Chinese retail enterprises. The two parties have announced that over the next year, they will be working together to promote Retalix' chain management software products, including Retalix StoreLine, Retalix [...]

By Aaron Katsman

We are always complaining that prices that we pay for goods and services are always going up. Listen to the news and you will hear that the price of bread is going up, as is the price of gasoline. In addition, in order to escape the economic slowdown that has gripped the world, the US and almost every other country, is printing money 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to meet the trillions in new government spending.

We hear the term “Inflation” thrown around but what is it and how does it impact our investments?

Definition

Inflation is defined as a sustained increase in the general level of prices for goods and services. It is measured as an annual percentage increase. As inflation rises, every dollar you own buys a smaller percentage of a good or service.

The value of a dollar does not stay constant when

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Barclays Capital came out predicting a quick end to the shallow Israeli recession, and a return to decent growth of 2.9%  by next year.  Keep in mind that the Israeli economy was late to the ‘recession game’ and looks to be an early ‘exiter’ from economic turmoil as well.

With all this great news Barclays said that they expect an Israeli Shekel/USD exchange rate of 3.65 buy the end of the year. That’s a big move from the 3.93 area that the currency is trading at now.

According to Globes: “Barclays sees a less severe recession in Israel, and relatively quick growth recovery. The investment house bases its optimism on the fact that about 75% of Israeli exports are high-tech goods, and Barclays says that a rise in the Tech-Pulse Index - showing a US high-tech recovery - points to stronger Israeli exports. The Tech-Pulse Index,

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It’s been a good 22 years since I took French classes, and I was trying to remember the French word that best described the word’ Chutzpah’. Then I heard the news and the word became clear. The word is  Sarkozy.

Who does this guy think he is? According to a Ynet article: “Channel 2 reported Monday that during Netanyahu’s meeting with Sarkozy in Paris the latter said the prime minister should appoint Opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni in Lieberman’s place. “With her and (Defense Minister Ehud) Barak you can make history”, he was quoted as saying. “I have always accepted Israeli foreign ministers, and I loved to have Tzipi Livni here at the Elysee, but with (Lieberman) I can’t,” he was reported as saying with a wave of his hand.”

Pardoner Mois! We don’t tell you how to run your foreign affairs so

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Israelnewsletter.com had the opportunity to sit down with serial entrepreneur, Shai Wininger, about his new startup and hear how he enjoys running a family business.

Please tell us about your background. Shai Wininger, Developer of Kotel Notes: I am a so called “serial entrepreneur” born and raised in Israel, married with two children and living in Haifa.

I have always been drawn to mobile computing and Internet in my work. I started my first business (Ananas Design www.ananasgroup.com) right after high school - around 1991. Ananas Design was among the first few companies to do branding and premium multimedia projects, and later on - websites for companies in Israel at the time (the Internet as we know it was just early days).  Ananas was all self funded, and grew nicely with customers from the Israeli Defense industry, communications and media sectors. Following that, I founded Trimus Inc. which offered ...

Israelnewsletter.com had the opportunity to sit down with serial entrepreneur Yaron Galai, Co-Founder and CEO of Outbrain, who sold his last startup to AOL, to talk about his newest venture.

Can you tell us a bit about your background? Yaron Galai, Co-Founder, Outbrain: I’ve been an entrepreneur since I can remember myself working… Actually realized recently that I have never in my life sent my resume applying for a job. I am now working on my 4th company called Outbrain. My first company, in which I was more or less the only employee…, was called NetWorks. It was one of the first web design shops in Israel. I started doing that around 1995 or 96 when the first Netscape browsers just came out. I ended up developing about

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Israel may very well attack Iran’s nuclear facilities if the hardliner Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is re-elected tomorrow. Israel thinks that if elected, Ahmadinejad will continue to develop nuclear weapons.  And, Israel can’t afford to wait for international efforts to bring Iran’s enrichment to an end.

Detailed military plans to bomb Iran’s nuclear infrastructure have long been on the table in Tel Aviv.

Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that Dennis Blair, the newly-appointed head of US intelligence, said Tel Aviv will eventually declare war on Tehran as a last-ditch effort to curb Iran’s enrichment capabilities.

And, former Israeli UN ambassador Dan Gillerman revealed that Tel Aviv is preparing a military offensive against the country.

War could be avoided if the Persian people elect the moderate political leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in tomorrow’s election.

Moderate ex-premier Mir Hossein Mousavi has emerged as Ahmadinejad’s main rival.  Mousavi believes Iran’s policy regarding its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.  

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Benzi Ronen is currently on a quest for his next start-up. He and his partner Yossi Pik recently launched Buddy Runner (www.buddyrunner.com ), a personal virtual fitness trainer for your mobile phone.  Israel Newsletter recently had the opportunity to sit with Benzi to learn about his newest venture.

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Most recently Benzi was Vice President of Product Management and User Experience at SAP. Prior to SAP, he co-founded and was CEO of Octago Inc. based in San Francisco. He was a product manager at both Microsoft (Redmond) and Netscape (Mountain View) and completed an MBA at the University of Michigan and a BA in Sociology and Anthropology at Tel-Aviv University. He met his business partner, Yossi Pik, at SAP where they had a chance to work together and realize that their skills and passions were complementary.  Yossi was VP of Research and Development where he led a team of 70 people. 

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Okay, so let me get this straight. Not only were certain banks forced by the powers that be to take TARP money, now that they want to pay it back, they have to ‘prove’ to those same powers that be that they can raise money in the public market. So at first the taxpayers got screwed and now the shareholders of these certain banks get diluted and lose 4% overnight as these banks had multi billion dollar stock offerings.

When will all of this nonsense stop? After all why should these banks have to prove that they can raise money? I thought that the results of the ’stress test’ was proof in the pudding as to the financial situation of individual banks?

If this isn’t further proof of the dangers of government intervention, I don’t know what is. Anyone notice a pattern? Government gets involved in an industry, taxpayers have to foot

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In one of the most inane/insane op-ed’s I have ever read, Ynet’s Tani Goldstein sets out to prove why expensive fuel is good. In his first killer point he says, “Making fuel more expensive will prompt some of us to use our cars a little less, and cars (including mine) are, simply put, humanity’s enemy. Cars are an enemy because they kill people: Since World War II, road accidents are the leading cause of unnatural death in the world.”

Last time I looked out at the parking lot behind my office I saw no cars attacking anyone. Alert: People who drive cars kill people! I also wonder how many people have been saved or born because of cars? Millions of pregnant women in labor were brought to hospitals in cars, and delivered babies. A lot more than were killed by unnatural deaths since WWII. I can see

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