With governments around the world looking everywhere and anywhere for places to cut costs, a huge target is often a nation’s healthcare system. Two healthcare areas that excessively drain health budgets budgets are Obesity & Smoking.

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Dez:     Hello everyone, this is Dez Morgan here reporting in from Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Skip:     And I am Skip Montreux coming to you from Tokyo, Japan.

Dez:     Welcome to an all new episode of Down to Business English.

Skip:     So Dez, tell me, how is the healthy living going now that you have given up smoking?

Dez:     Pretty good actually. I feel a lot better and I’m exercising more now that I don’t get out of breath all of the time. So on the whole life is certainly better.

Skip:     Other people I know who have stopped smoking say that when they gave up, they started to eat more, especially chocolate and sweets.

Dez:     Well yes that’s certainly happened to me too and it’s difficult to keep the weight off.

Skip:     Well being a little overweight is probably better than smoking, isn’t it?

Dez:     Well, surprisingly in overall terms, obesity is a much greater problem than smoking. The campaigns to stop smoking have been pretty successful over the last few years so in overall cost terms, in the UK, obesity costs the health service at least double what smoking does.

Skip:     Wow! And that is our story today, so let’s do it. Let’s get D2B…. Down to Business with the real health costs of obesity and smoking and how they are a major drag on the economies of the developed world.

Dez:     All right Skip let me start out with a question. How much do you think obesity costs the US economy on an annual basis?

Skip:     Sorry to answer a question with a question Dez, but, what exactly do you mean by obesity?

Dez:     Well, body weight is measured by Body Mass Index or BMI for short and this is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms, by the square of their height in meters. A measure of 25 and below is considered normal, 25-30 is considered overweight and 30 plus, obese.

Skip:     But is BMI accurate? I have heard that in extreme cases, some sports professionals who are in really good shape could be considered obese using the BMI measure. In fact researchers at the University of North Carolina found that 97% of American Football Players had a BMI in excess of 25 or could in fact be considered overweight or obese.

Dez:     I admit that in extreme cases like this where people have a lot of muscle then the BMI measure is fairly meaningless but for most people it’s fairly useful. So if I could return to my initial question before you so rudely interrupted…

Skip:     Sorry.

Dez:     What does obesity cost the US economy?

Skip:     Now are you talking about the total cost in loss of productivity, healthcare costs, and various other costs to employers and the state?

Dez:     That’s right yes.

Skip:     Well, I have no idea but I’ll take a stab in the dark and say…. $300 billion or thereabouts.

Dez:     That’s amazing. Wow, USA Today reported a figure of $270 billion for 2011, so you were pretty close really.

Skip:     $300 billion. I always find figures that large hard to visualize. Can you give me and our listeners something to compare that with?

Dez:     Yeah, sure can. The entire US budget for defense last year, including overseas wars, was $550 billion or about twice the budget for obesity.

Skip:     What about if we add in the cost to the economy of smoking.

Dez:     Okay let’s do that. In the US the costs look like this. Total cost of health care; private and public:$96 billion. Cost to Medicaid insurance:$58 billion. And the cost of loss of productivity: a further $97 billion. Which adds up to $260 billion or roughly the same cost as the overall cost of obesity to the economy.

Skip:     So if my math is correct the costs of smoking and obesity combined are roughly the same as the entire US defense budget and as everyone knows that really is a colossal expense. I wonder, is that the same in other countries?

Dez:     Hmm. Okay, turning to the UK. In 2009 61.3% of the adult population were judged as being overweight or obese, with 23.0% of that number of adults and 14% of children actually being considered obese.

Skip:     So it is a pretty serious problem in the UK as well.

Dez:     The Government’s Foresight Report put the cost of obesity at £45 billion pounds a year from now until 2050 or fully half of the current budget for the National Health Service. However, this figure has been questioned by The Investigation, a Radio 4 Documentary program, which estimates that this figure could be over inflated by up to 50%.

Skip:     Which all goes to show that figures need to be checked, double checked and then checked again, if we are to do proper due diligence.

Dez:     You speak the truth Mr. Montreux, as you usually do.

Skip:     Thank you.

Dez:     But how do the health care costs of obesity compare to that of smoking?

Skip:     I give up, how do they compare?

Dez:     As that was actually a rhetorical question Skip there was no need for you to answer. The cost of smoking related healthcare is a difficult one to calculate as there are issues such as secondhand smoking which is very

difficult to measure. However the BBC estimates the cost to be around £5 billion a year which is still considerably less than the cost of obesity.

Skip:     Do many people still smoke in the UK?

Dez:     Yes, 21% of adults at the last estimate although that has come down considerably in the past few years. I myself gave up smoking with a government sponsored support group when I was living in the UK.

Skip:     Yes, but you started smoking again.

Dez:     And I also gave up again so although it took two goes the government sponsored scheme was a success eventually.

Skip:     Well that about answers the questions of how much obesity and smoking cost governments today.

Dez:     Could I add some local insight?

Skip:     Of course, go ahead.

Dez:     The UAE is the world leader in one obesity related illness.

Skip:     Diabetes maybe?

Dez:     Wow, again you got it in one. Yes, fully 20% of UAE nationals have been diagnosed with diabetes and this figure is growing rapidly. This compares with a much lower figure in the UK for younger people and about 20% of those 65 and over. Figures for the US are similar with diabetes becoming a major problem among the elderly compared to it being diagnosed in children as young as 10 here in the UAE.

Skip:     Diabetes, another problem connected with being overweight. I definitely think I should consider cutting out the smoking and starting some kind of exercise program.

Dez:     Yes you should. But before that , it’s time for us to get D2V….Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     I will start us off today with the noun productivity, which simply put means the amount of work done per person usually in a year. So a high level of productivity shows that people are working hard and producing goods and services while a low level indicates the opposite.

Dez:     You are of course Mr. Productivity Skip.

Skip:     Thank you very much. In the story I asked whether a loss in productivity was part of the calculation of the costs of smoking and obesity.

Dez:     A further example would be when comparing how many hours staff work in a year, those that work more may not ultimately produce more as their level of productivity may be lower. My first word is the adjective colossal, which means when something or some situation or problem is very big.

Skip:     You mean like the government debts of virtually every country in the developed world.

Dez:     That would be a good example. The one that you gave in the story Skip was when you were talking about the size of the US Defense Budget that you so rightly described as colossal.

Skip:     Next I have two part verb for you that is fairly self explanatory but useful nonetheless and that verb is over inflated. This simply means when a number or the cost of something is too high due to an error or manipulation in some way. In the story Dez says that the figure for the cost of obesity could be too high or over inflated by up to 50%.

Dez:     That was Radio Four’s supposition anyway. A further example would be before the financial crisis the values of some bonds had been over inflated by a huge degree.

Skip:     That is an understatement.

Dez:     True. Now I have the adjective rhetorical which is usually used when describing a question, to state that it’s a question that is just being asked and requires no answer.

Skip:     Common rhetorical questions are when someone asks a question like ‘Now, where did I leave my keys?’ when the only person that knows the answer to that question is the speaker themselves.

Dez:     ‘Why do I lose to you at poker?’ is a rhetorical question I have asked Skip a few times not requiring an answer of course.

Skip:     That’s right. Finally I have the adjective secondhand which is used in the story to indicate when an effect happens indirectly, in this case the effect of another person in the same room smoking.

Dez:     In the UK secondhand also indicates that something is not new, I believe you call that ‘used’ in North America?

Skip:     Yes we do, like your used car that keeps breaking down.

Dez:     Thanks for the reminder. And that about does it for vocabulary today.

Skip:     Well Dez, I don’t know if it is because of today’s topic or not, but I suddenly feel like trying to give up the butts again.

Dez:     Skip, I highly recommend it. The first few days are a little tough but before you know it, it’s smooth sailing.

Skip:     I will give it some thought. Everyone, thanks for listening. I’d like to remind you to visit our website to download your very own free copy of today’s audio script. Our address is downtobusinessenglish.com. Once again, that’s downtobusinessenglish.com .

Dez:     And if you haven’t already, please do sign up for the Down to Business English Newsletter. I believe the next one is coming out very soon. Is that right Skip?

Skip:     Yes Dez, that’s correct. As soon as we finish today, I’m going to start getting it together.

Dez:     And what are you writing about this time?

Skip:     I haven’t completely sketched it out but since Spring is almost here, I thought I would write about the theme of optimism, and how it is important for businesses to remain optimistic in tough times.

Dez:     Interesting.

Skip:     I think so. Okay everyone, bye for now. See you next time.

Dez:     Yes, thanks for listening. Bye.

Since announcing its intention to become a Publicly traded company, Wall Street and the Tech world has been buzzing with speculation. Wall Street investors are focused on how much money is to be made while Tech experts are questioning what changes this will bring to the Social Media giant.

Today on Down to Business English, Skip and Dez take a close look at what an IPO is, how this IPO might change Facebook, and is it a good investment?

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Skip:     This is Skip Montreux in Tokyo Japan

Dez:     And I’m Dez Morgan in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Skip:     And you are listening to an all new episode of Down to Business English.

Skip:     Good to hear your voice Dez. I trust that all is well with you.

Dez:     Thanks Skip. As a matter of fact things are going really well at the moment.

Skip:     Oh? Anything in particular happen to put you in such a perky mood?

Dez:     Well it’s a culmination of things I suppose. I’ve been enjoying the weather recently, I’m working with a nice group of students at the moment, and to top it all off, my stock portfolio is starting to see a glimmer of hope.

Skip:     That is good news indeed. I imagine more people in your position are seeing similar results with stock markets in North America and Asia slowly climbing back to the levels before the crash in 2008.

Dez:     Perhaps, but managing your own stock portfolio is still a very tough slog.

Skip:     Best left to the experts I suppose.

Dez:     I wouldn’t recommend going it alone, unless you have a knack for doing research. It takes a lot of time to evaluate companies, look for trends, and take the pulse of world events.

Skip:     Sounds very demanding. So I guess you are all up to date with what is happening with the recently announced Facebook IPO?

Dez:     Well, embarrassingly enough, no I’m not. To tell the truth, I don’t invest that much in tech stocks or Internet companies, so I don’t follow them as closely as other sectors.

Skip:     Oh, you are more into traditional investments?

Dez:     Yes, I tend to stick with commodities for short term trades and large blue chip companies for the longer term. However I did hear their announcement last month about going public, but I’m not quite up to speed on the details.

Skip:     No problem. If you can help by explaining what an IPO is, I will fill everyone in with the nitty gritty details the Facebook IPO.

Dez:     Yeah, sounds fair.

Skip:     So lets do it. Let’s get D2B…Down to Business with Facebook’s IPO: what is it, how will it change Facebook, and most importantly—is it a good investment?

Skip:     So Dez, let’s start off with that acronym. Could you explain to all of us exactly what is meant when we hear the term IPO?

Dez:     IPO stands for Initial Public Offering and it basically refers to the price of a company’s stock when it is listed on a stock exchange for the first time.

Skip:     So when a private company decides to go public they determine the opening price of one share in that company and that price is their Initial Public Offering or IPO.

Dez:     Yes, but when you hear someone talking about a company going public, or its IPO filing, they can be referring to the entire process of determining that price. Officially that process is called a prospectus.

Skip:     So it is more involved than just picking a number?

Dez:     Oh yes. It’s quite a detailed procedure that often involves using a 3rd party auditor to look at the company’s financial status and properly report that information. Unlike a private company which isn’t under any obligation to disclose its financial information, a public company has to report every last detail. From their assets, to employee salaries, to revenue. Even the names of current investors need to be transparent.

Skip:     As one would expect if they were considering investing their money in a company.

Dez:     Absolutely. Once a company goes public they have a fiduciary duty to the investor. And that is one of the pitfalls of being a public company. They tend to be more concerned with the results of the next quarter rather than the long term health of the company.

Skip:     It sounds like a huge negative, almost as if a company has to give up its independence. Let me ask you this; what motivates a company to go public? I mean, what is the benefit to losing all that control just for being listed on a stock exchange?

Dez:     The biggest reason is to raise capital. As a private company, your capital, or in other words the money you have available to invest in new projects and expansion, is limited to your profits, private investors, and borrowing money from banks.

Skip:     Investing its hard earned profits, finding private investors which they will have to pay back someday, and borrowing money from a bank incurring interest charges–not exactly great options.

Dez:     Exactly. Now contrast that to going public. When a company lists on a stock exchange, they suddenly have access to a substantial amount of money to use as capital with the added benefit that they don’t have to repay that money.

Skip:     They don’t?

Dez:     No. Since it is a traded stock, investors can liquidate at any time. If they sell when the price is high, they get a high return. If the price is low….well such are the dangers of investing in the markets.

Skip:     So that is the trade off. A private company gives up its independence and control in order to get access to a large amount of capital that they don’t have to repay.

Dez:     That’s right. So those are the nuts and bolts of an IPO.  What can tell us about Facebook’s IPO?

Skip:     Well, as you mentioned earlier, last month Facebook announced that after being a private company since their inception in 2004 they will be going public this Spring.

Dez:     An announcement that I am sure many tech brokers have long awaited.

Skip:     Well if you look at what happened when Google went public in August of 2004, there certainly is the potential for making a lot of money. Google’s IPO was $85.00 per share and within a few short weeks was trading around $200. They were able to raise $2¾ billion dollars and really haven’t looked back since.

Dez:     How much money is Facebook trying to raise with their IPO?

Skip:     When they filed their prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission, they announced that they intended to raise $5 billion dollars.

Dez:     Wow!

Skip:     But most experts agree they will be able to raise even more. Perhaps even as high as $10 billion dollars.

Dez:     I guess the big question would be is Facebook actually worth $10 billion?

Skip:     It is up for debate. But based on what they reported in their IPO filing, Facebook is a very healthy company. Here is what we have learned about them. Facebook has been profitable for the past 3 years. Last year it had revenues totalling $3.7 billion and a profit of $1 billion. Those revenues were up 88% from the year before.

Dez:     For such a young company that’s amazing.

Skip:     Yes, when Google went public its revenues were only about $1 billion.

Dez:     I imagine that most of Facebook’s revenue is coming from advertising?

Skip:     That’s right. Advertising accounted for 85% of their revenue last year, although that was down from 98% the year before. In contrast to revenue, the filing reported that in 2012, Facebook spent $606 million on infrastructure; mainly servers and data centers.

Dez:     That is a significant cost to store all their user’s information.

Skip:     No doubt. Other interesting information that came out in the IPO filing: Mark Zuckerberg owns 28% of the company, and has personal access to the company’s private jet. Currently he takes a base salary of $500,000, but he is expecting his net worth to be around $30 billion after the company goes public. He has announced that as of 2013 he will reduce his CEO salary to just $1 per year.

Dez:     If I had $30 billion with a ‘B’, I don’t think I would worry too much about a salary either.

Skip:     Me, neither. So after hearing all that Dez, what do you think: does buying stock in Facebook sound like a good investment?

Dez:     I’m not convinced. One reason I shy away from the tech sector is that it’s so difficult to price. I mean, do you remember News Corp’s purchase of MySpace?

Skip:     Very good point.

Dez:     Well one thing is for sure, this IPO is going to make a lot of people, not just Zuckerberg, very rich, very quickly. Tell me Skip. Do you think the IPO will change the company?

Skip:     It’s hard to say for certain. Some cynics say that this is a risky move for the company as they will now be more focused on meeting stockholder’s financial expectations instead of focusing on their user’s experience.

Dez:     Well you have to admit that Facebook has never really suffered from upsetting users. They seem to get away with it every time they make changes to their privacy settings.

Skip:     Very true. We will certainly have to follow up on this story after the IPO in April to see what happens.

Dez:     Yes we must. Unless I decide to invest and make enough money to retire. I think in that case I might be on a sunny beach in the South of France.

Skip:     With your favorite co-host I’m sure.

Dez:     Recording D2B live from the beach, but in the meantime, let’s get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     Just before we get going with Vocabulary today, I have an announcement to make. Those of you who have been listening to D2B since the early days may have noticed that we have cut back on the number of words and phrases we deal with in the D2V section of the show.

Dez:     Yeah, I remember those days.

Skip:     We used give examples for 10 or more words but have found that it makes for a very long episode, so we have cut down to only 6 or 7 words. However, if there are any words or phrases in today’s episode that you would like to get an explanation for, I want to invite you to point it out on the wall of our Facebook page. Once you do that, either Dez or myself will reply and everyone can benefit from your question. And, just to give you a little incentive, if you post something on the Facebook wall, we will send you a complimentary copy of the audio script for our recent D2B Unplugged episode.

Dez:     Great idea. Shall I get started?

Skip:     By all means.

Dez:     First up today is the expression a tough slog. This expression communicates that whatever you’re referring to is hard work. It conveys that the process is slow, difficult, and a success at the end of the process is not certain. In the story, I remarked that investing in the stock market without the help of a professional broker can be a tough slog.

Skip:     My day today was a tough slog. A 2 hour class in the morning followed by 5 hours of writing student evaluations, followed by another 2 hour class at night and now I’m online recording with you.

Dez:     Yes, that does sound like a tough slog.

Skip:     The next word pair we are going to look at is very much a financial/legal term; fiduciary duty. I think everyone is familiar with duty which is synonymous with the noun responsibility. The word fiduciary is not as common however. As a noun a fiduciary is a person or party that is legally entrusted to take care of another person’s money or investment.

Dez:     Therefore you mean a fiduciary duty describes the relationship between the fiduciary and the investor?

Skip:     That’s right. In the story Dez says that once a company goes public they have a fiduciary duty to the investor. In other words, they have a responsibility to take care of their investors money. Can you give an example Dez?

Dez:     I’ll try. Michael Jackson’s lawyers have a fiduciary duty to manage his children’s inheritance until they are old enough to manage it themselves.

Skip:     Good example. Okay, what’s next?

Dez:     I would now like to explain the noun pitfall. A pitfall is a hidden problem that you encounter in your attempt to achieve something. It’s synonymous with the words danger or drawback. In the story I said that one pitfall of becoming a public company is you are forced to focus too much on the short term rather than on the distant future.

Skip:     I don’t know about you Dez, but I find that one of the pitfalls of living overseas is that you quickly lose touch with the culture of your home country.

Dez:     Yeah, that’s certainly a drawback. Although it’s not as bad today with the Internet as it used to be before.

Skip:     Moving on, my next word is the verb to liquidate. This too is a financial term. When you liquidate something, you are selling it for its cash value. In the story, Dez explains that Facebook investors can liquidate at any time to get their money back. Simply put, they are free to sell their stock to someone else.

Dez:     Before moving to the UAE from England, I liquidated all my assets; car and furniture basically anything I couldn’t bring with me. I sold everything on an online auction site and used the money to have a really big goodbye party for myself.

Skip:     Exactly, how much furniture did you have?

Dez:     Not so much, but enough to have a good time. Now let’s look at the noun trade off. A trade off is similar to a compromise in that you are giving something of value away in exchange for something of a larger benefit. In the story, Skip observed that when a private company goes public, they trade off their independence in return for a large amount of capital. Can you give us another example Skip?

Skip:     Sure, for years here in Japan, I worked for many different schools and agencies as a freelance corporate language trainer. A few years ago I gave that up to take a full time position. Although my annual salary is now slightly lower, the trade off is that I have more free time and a better quality of life.

Dez:     Really? You seem busier than ever now.

Skip:     Yeah, well welcome to the wonderful world of podcasting. Dez, do you have another word?

Dez:     Yes I do. Our final word for today is the expression to not look back. When you use this idiom, you are communicating that you have been constantly getting better at something and have no regrets for a decision you’ve made in the past. In the story Skip reported that Google has not looked back since becoming a publicly traded company. What he means is that since that point in time, Google’s share price has constantly improved and they have no regrets about going public.

Skip:     For example, ever since deciding to adopt a more open approach to capitalism in the 1990s, there has been no looking back for the Chinese economy. It has gone from having a very modest, even small GDP, to being the second largest economy in just a little over 30 years.

Dez:     And that is our vocabulary for today.

Dez:     Thanks for that report Skip. I’m going to have to take a closer look at Facebook as a possible investment.

Skip:     Well please let me know what you decide. Thanks for listening everyone, we hope you enjoyed today’s episode.

Dez:     Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page to post questions you may have about other phrases or vocabulary we didn’t discuss in the show.

Skip:     See you next time everyone.

Dez:     See you. Bye.

 

We live in an age where Technology and the Internet is changing our lives at an ever quickening pace. How have these changes impacted the way we work? What changes are in store in the future? Today on Down to Business we look at the Future of Work: 10 Ways Work is Changing.

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Dez:     Hello everyone, this is Dez Morgan in Abu Dhabi, the UAE.

Skip:     And I’m Skip Montreux in Tokyo, Japan.

Dez:    Welcome to an all new episode of Down to Business English.

Dez:     So Skip, how’s life treating you at the moment?

Skip:     Nothing particularly special. I’ve been very busy at work as usual but then that is hardly news is it?

Dez:     No I guess not. You always seem to have some project on the go.

Skip:     Yes, it’s never ending. The real problem though, is that with a computer and an Internet connection I can always finish off things from home. These days I really can’t escape the office.

Dez:    Interesting you should say that as the BBC has a special series of interviews running through February on how people’s working lives have changed and how these changes will accelerate into the future.

Skip:     Sounds like an interesting topic for a show. So let’s do it, let’s get D2B…Down to Business with 10 key ways that the world of work is changing and will continue to change in the future.

Dez:     As I just mentioned the BBC have highlighted what they believe to be the 10 greatest changes that will take place in the world of work over the next decade.

Skip:     And what are they are?

Dez:     First off is what they call the *de-routinisation of work.

Skip:     De-routinization?

Dez:     Yes, which means that as the more routine tasks become automated, humans will be able to concentrate on non-routine, uniquely human tasks.

Skip:     Sounds as though it will make work more interesting. I can’t tell you how much I hate doing repetitive tasks.

Dez:     Yeah me too, can you imagine working in an office 30 years ago with no computers or other labour saving devices that we now have around the office.

Skip:     Absolutely not. But what is next on your list?

Dez:     The next prediction is that individual work will become more and more a thing of the past and that we will work in swarms. Swarming will work like larger and more varied teams with multiple members being members of multiple swarms simultaneously.

Skip:     With Twitter networks and social networking we can perhaps see the beginning of how this swarming will function.

Dez:     Indeed, and connected to swarming will be the concept of strong and weak links with some individuals in swarms hardly knowing each other at all, with those connections being known as weak links.

Skip:     Again I think we can see the beginnings of this trend among social media with users having contacts and friends that they seldom if ever meet offline.

Dez:     The Gartner Institute for Technological Research terms groups that exist beyond the direct control of  organisations as collectives. They go on to say that smart business leaders will realize that these collectives cannot be directly controlled but can only really be influenced.

Skip:     So they think that those businesses that exert the greater control over collectives will be more successful?

Dez:     That is what they say yes.

Skip:     So that’s 3 Keys: De routanisation, Swarming, and Collectives. What else is on that list?

Dez:     The next two concepts discussed are ‘sketch ups’ and ‘spontaneous work’; with the former describing the simple ad hoc nature of most meetings and processes and the latter describing the way that businesses will need to be proactive to seek out new opportunities.

Skip:     All of this sounds fairly predictable really.

Dez:     Well yes I guess so and the next one has been on the drawing board for some time and hasn’t really happened yet.

Skip:     Okay and what would that be?

Dez:     The idea that representations of data will be navigable at human scale in virtual environments.

Skip:     So a person would be filing data files not using a mouse or a keyboard but rather actually picking up a simulated package by hand?

Dez:     Something like that, indeed. The next area The Gartner Institute discusses is what they term Pattern Sensitivity. This will mean groups that are charged with detecting emerging divergent trends and then developing strategies to combat any disruption that may be caused.

Skip:     You mean groups that will be able to predict what we now believe to be essentially random and unpredictable?

Dez:     As I understand it yes. Hyper-connectedness is the next category which means when networks exist within networks with a great many people connected at greater and greater speeds.

Skip:     And how is that different to what we have today?

Dez:     There will be a blurring between social and work related networks with the boundaries between professional and private communication becoming less clear.

Skip:     Okay, I see.

Dez:     Finally Gartner believe the work place will become more virtual with in many cases coworkers never actually meeting. The idea of a set desk at work will they believe also be a thing of the past with work completed in a variety of locations and and across time zones.

Skip:     So you mean the working day will also become more blurred too.

Dez:     Yes and I am not sure that I like the sound of that.

Skip:     No, me neither. So those are the 10 areas that experts believe work will change in the future. But for now it is time to get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Dez:     I’ll start things off with with the verb to highlight which means to make something stand out or to be more noticeable. In the story I say that the BBC have written a selection of articles highlighting what they believe will be the greatest changes we will face in the workplace into the future.

Skip:     A further example would be if a colleague is reporting to you what he or she had hear in a really, really long meeting. You might say just tell me the highlights or most important points.

Dez:     I guess on this show we try to highlight important stories from the news each week.

Skip:     That we certainly do. My opening word is the adjective unique, which means to be totally original or to be one of a kind. In the story Dez uses the adverbial form when he says that some tasks are uniquely human meaning that only humans can do them.

Dez:     A further example of the adjective would be how no company is exactly the same so has to develop different procedures and policies to answer it’s unique set of problems and challenges.

Skip:     We certainly have some unique issues at my place of work.

Dez:     Oh, me too. Next l’d like discuss the noun and verb swarm which basically means a large number of people working together. Initially swarm was used to describe a large group of insects working together but is used for people in the story.

Skip:     Back in Canada we get big swarms of mosquitoes in the summer.

Dez:     Really? Sounds awful. In the story I talk about large groups of people swarming together as an organizational strategy using the best talents of each person.

Skip:     That idea of swarming seems to make a lot of sense. It would be a good idea if we could get a swarm of people together to work on D2B sometimes.

Dez:     Yes, with editing skills no doubt.

Skip:     You mean as you don’t have any.

Dez:     Yes.

Skip:     Well, I’ll just keep plugging away till that happens. Now I have the adverbial phrase ad hoc, which means when groups are set up as needed for specific tasks and are then disbanded after those tasks have been successfully completed.

Dez:     The advantages of ad hoc groups are that they can be set up generally fairly quickly and with great flexibility.

Skip:     With one disadvantage being that these people might not have the experience of working together and so find relating to each other difficult.

Dez:     Next I have the adjective proactive which means to make changes to prepare for a future event so that it doesn’t come as a surprise. In the story I say that companies will have to be increasingly prepared or proactive as the world of work continues to change so quickly.

Skip:     Another example, related to unemployment, would be how it is important for individuals to be proactive and look for jobs before they have even been advertised.

Dez:     Good advice.

Skip:     Moving on we have a further adjective predictable which means when future actions can be guessed in advance. In the story I say that a lot of the changes that will take place can be guessed so are highly predictable.

Dez:     I can tell you some event that certainly isn’t predictable.

Skip:     The US elections?

Dez::    Well I guess I am just predictable then as that was certainly the topic I was thinking of.

Skip:     And that’s why I always love to play poker with you.

Dez:     Great. A final example then would be when a company has had a great quarter and everyone knows that they will be reporting great earnings figures. Predictably when they do announce the number it is as big everyone expected.

Skip:     And that about rounds off vocabulary for today.

Skip:     Thanks for that report Dez. I hope everyone enjoyed the topic and doesn’t feel too concerned by all of the changes that are coming soon.

Dez:     I see most of them as opportunities or at least I am trying to.

Skip:     That is so predictable of you Dez. Everyone, don’t forget to check us out at downtobusinessenglish.com . One more time, that’s downtobusinessenglish.com.

Dez:     And we can also be found on Facebook at the Down to Business English Facebook page.

Skip:     Thanks for listening everyone and see you soon.

Dez:     Bye everyone.

We live in a free market economy where the prices of goods are decided by market forces. Right? Well not always. Today on Down to Business English Skip & Dez discuss 2 major Japanese companies and 2 Korean companies that have been caught price fixing.

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Skip:     Hello everyone this is Skip Montreux reporting in from Tokyo, Japan.

Dez:     And this is Dez Morgan still in Abu Dhabi.

Skip:     Welcome to a new episode of Down to Business English.

Skip:     So how have you been Dez?

Dez:    Not too bad, an expensive month this month though as I think I need to get a new computer. The DVD player has gone and it has become really slow.

Skip:     A new computer?! I see something that’s all silver metal and shiny with a very, very big…

Dez:     Yeah, I know with a big lit up apple on the case. Apples are too expensive anyway.

Skip:     I suppose it’s because Apple has no real competition whereas in the PC market, competition is cutthroat.

Dez:     Well competition is at the heart of capitalism I guess.

Skip:     That may be true but I know of two Japanese auto parts firms that don’t agree with you Dez.

Dez:     Really?

Skip:     No. And that is our story for today. So let’s do it, let’s get D2B Down to Business with price fixing and why it’s not okay for two competing companies to agree on prices in secret, as well as one other unfair, but fairly common trading practice.

Dez:     What’s this all about?

Skip:     Well, two of the largest auto parts makers in Japan and in fact in the world; Yazaki Corporation and Nippon Denso, have agreed to plead guilty in the US to price fixing charges.

Dez:     And America has pretty strict antitrust laws, don’t they?

Skip:     That they do. And the US Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has really thrown the book at the two companies. Yazaki will pay a fine of $470 million, the second largest in US history while Denso is getting away with a smaller $78 million fine.

Dez:     Why so much?

Skip:     The investigating team believes that this practice could have been going on for up to 10 years. And of course by fixing the prices that US auto makers have to pay for the parts, the overall price of a vehicle rises, which in effect is the same as cheating the consumer.

Dez:     Sounds like someone should go to jail.

Skip:     Oh, but they are Dez. Four Yamazaki executives have been sentenced to 2 years in a US jail.

Dez:     Wow. Well I hope they like the food.

Skip:     No sushi in US prisons. However this problem isn’t limited to just the car parts market though.

Dez:     I’m guessing electronics would be an area where this practice would flourish.

Skip:     Well done, Mr Morgan. The two big Korean electrical and electronics giants; LG and Samsung are being fined by the Korean antitrust authorities for price fixing. But that fine is for a mere $39 million.

Dez:     Oh yes almost nothing.

Skip:     The Korean regulators found that the two firms had held secret meetings in 2008 and 2009 to agree on prices for washing machines, flat screen TVs as well as laptop computers.

Dez:     I have a LG washing machine, I feel cheated.

Skip:     But there is another related unfair trading practice that has been in the news recently.

Dez:     Okay, go ahead.

Skip:     When a government subsidizes an independent company or sector, what they are in fact doing is making that company or industry unfairly competitive for rivals who don’t receive a similar subsidy.

Dez:     Boeing has been accusing Airbus of this practice for years.

Skip:     Maybe because Airbus has been doing it for years.

Dez:     Never proven, though.

Skip:     True, but returning to the auto parts industry, the Alliance for American Manufacturing, or AAM, has accused the Chinese government of providing unfair subsidies to tire makers and auto electrical and electronics suppliers.

Dez:     At the expense of US companies no doubt.

Skip:     Exactly. The AAM claims that this practice has resulted in the loss of 400,000 American jobs since 2000 and is asking the US government to take action and impose tariffs on imported Chinese auto parts.

Dez:     And as we discussed in a show way back in November of 2010 China is already fixing its currency at an artificially low rate, which gives its industries an unfair advantage.

Skip:     US and Chinese relations continue to deteriorate as America tries to level the playing field. Which makes this entire story not only a business topic, but a hot political issue as well.

Dez:     That it does. And now it is time for us to get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     I will start things off today with the adjective cutthroat which is used to describe when a competition or market is really intense. Imagine two people cutting each others throats because the competition between them is so strong. They are literally willing to kill the other to survive.

Dez:     Strong image.

Skip.     Yes, it should help listeners to remember cutthroat. Now, in the story I talked about the cutthroat PC market to show how intense the competition is between manufacturers. Can you give another example Dez?

Dez:     Yes, a further example would be how cutthroat the competition is between drug companies, with all of them trying desperately to come out with the next big drug.

Skip:     Of course. The pharmaceutical industry is intensely cutthroat.

Dez:     Now I have the key adjective to understanding the story antitrust.

Skip:     Which can of course be divided into the prefix anti and the root trust.

Dez:     Yes and it means to maintain free competition by stopping businesses agreeing on product supply or pricing. In the story I say that the US has strong antitrust laws meaning it fights this type of corruption.

Skip:     A good example would be In October 2008, when Dole and Internationale Fruchtimport were fined 60 million Euros for fixing banana prices in several northern European states.

Dez:     Bananas? Really? Is nothing safe?

Skip:     It seems not. Now, I’d like to talk about the phrase to throw the book at someone, which means to give someone the most serious penalty that can be applied to a crime. In the story I say that the Antitrust Division imposed really strict penalties or threw the book at the two Japanese companies.

Dez:     You hear it a lot in police dramas where the police officer will threaten to throw the book at a criminal unless he or she cooperates.

Skip:     My coworker threw the book at me last week because I didn’t refill the copy machine when it ran out of paper.

Dez:     Well that is a bit of an annoying thing to do.

Skip:     I suppose.

Dez:     Anyway, moving on I have the noun a subsidy, and the verb to subsidize which both mean to make something unnaturally cheaper than it should really be.

Skip:     Which in the case of exports can be considered an unfair practice.

Dez:     In the story Skip talked about how the Chinese government is unfairly subsidizing the Chinese auto parts industry.

Skip:     That’s right. But not all subsidies are unfair. Doesn’t the UAE government subsidize basic foods in the UAE market?

Dez:     It does yes. It subsidizes the basics that people need to live, across all the makers of that product.

Skip:     I see. Now I have the countable noun tariff which is an additional tax that a country applies to an import to limit its supply. In the story I say that the AAM wants the US government to put tariffs on imported Chinese auto parts. In other words, they want to raise the price of Chinese auto parts being imported.

Dez:     We have talked about tariffs before but it’s such a common business word that it’s worth reviewing. In India Part 1 which we released in August last year I talked a lot about how prior to 1991 India had lots of quotas and tariffs on imported goods.

Skip:     I remember that story.

Dez:     My final item is the phrase to have a level playing field or to level the playing field which means when competition is fair or equal. In the story Skip says that the competition between the US and China is unfair so the US is trying to make it fair or to level the playing field.

Skip:     It’s kind of like when we used to play chess together when you lived in Japan. Remember how I used to give you a 2 piece advantage to level the playing field between us?

Dez:     Actually, I remember it exactly the other way around.

Skip:     Well, anyway, that is all the vocabulary for today.

Dez:     Thanks to everyone for downloading Down to Business English today. We hope you enjoyed today’s topic on different antitrust practices.

Skip:     Yes, thanks everyone. Before we sign off I’d like to mention that if you have any additional questions about the words and phrases used in today’s episode, please, feel free to post a question on either the Down to Business English Facebook page or our group.

Dez:     Or you can send us an email at downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com That’s downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com

Skip:     Thanks again everyone. And that you Dez. See you next time

Dez:     Thank you Skip. Take care. Bye.

On today’s special episode of Down to Business English Unplugged, Skip and Dez discuss SOPA, PIPA & Davos.

Audio scripts for ‘Unplugged’ episodes are available for $US 2.99 from the Down to Business English Website.

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Unplugged Audio Script PDF

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Skip:   This is Skip Montreux in Tokyo, Japan.
Dez:    And this is Dez Morgan in Abu Dhabi.
Skip:   And you are listening to Down to Business English Unplugged.

Dez:    So what do you mean by unplugged?
Skip:   Well, unplugged simply means that today, rather than reading from a written story, you and I are just going to talk naturally about our news topics.
Dez:    Okay, you mean like the one we did a year ago on the Japanese earthquake?
Skip:   Exactly. In fact, after that episode which we just improvised, we received a lot of feedback, positive feedback from listeners wanting to hear more of that naturally spoken English, so we thought we would try it again.
Dez:     We did. It wasn’t just because we were too lazy to write a script, really.
Skip:    Well, it was my turn, wasn’t it, and I didn’t get that done, sorry. But anyway, here we go.
Dez:     Okay, well there are two things I need to tell people that are different. Because this is unplugged, we’re just talking, it would take an awful long time to write, to transcribe what we’re saying. So we’re going to use an outside transcription service, so there will be a small charge this time. I hope that’s okay] And the other difference is there’ll be two topics. I’ll have a topic and Skip will have a topic
Skip:    So….
Dez:    My topic
Skip:    Sorry Dez, go ahead.
Dez:    Yes sorry, my topic will be on the Davos Summit.
Skip:    Yes, and I will be speaking about SOPA and PIPA from the United States. So without any more ado, let’s get Down to Business with SOPA, PIPA and Davos.

 

In retaliation to the increasing number of economic sanctions being placed on them, Iran has threatened to close down the Straight of Hormuz. The economic impact of this vital waterway will has far reaching effects. Today on Down to Business English, Skip and Dez look at the economic sanctions against Iran and how they could possibly effect the future of oil prices.

Skip:    Hello everyone this is Skip Montreux coming to you from Tokyo, Japan.

Dez:    And this is Dez Morgan reporting from Abu Dhabi in the UAE.

Skip:   Welcome everyone to an all new episode of Down to Business English.

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Dez:     Yes, Welcome everyone.

Skip:     Dez can I ask you a question?

Dez:     Fire away.

Skip:     I was wondering how close are you to the Straits of Hormuz?

Dez:     Pretty close really. If you went north from Abu Dhabi, past Dubai to the end of the peninsula and looked into the sea then you would be looking at the Straits of Hormuz.

Skip:     Now, I’m sure you know why I asked that question.

Dez:     Something to do with the country on the other side of the Straits?

Skip:     That’s right and that country-Iran- has a big disagreement with the West and especially the US.

Dez:     And that is our topic for today; so let’s do it let’s get D2B…. Down to Business with the economic sanctions against Iran and how they could effect the price of oil in the future.

Dez:     Although I am living right on Iran’s doorstep I have to admit that I am not fully on top of this story.

Skip:     Well lucky for you, I have been following the situation recently so I should be able to shed some light on it for our listeners and you too Dez .

Dez:     Great. So I guess the first question would be, how serious a problem is it?

Skip:     I don’t think it is an understatement to say that this is the most serious US – Iran crisis since the fall of the Shah in 1979?

Dez:     Really that bad? Do you think I should be looking for another job? Should I get out of the Middle East?

Skip:     Oh come on Dez, calm down.

Dez:     I think…I think I can hear fighter jets in the distance.

Skip:     Dez. Relax. Take a breath

Dez:     Oh sorry about that. So why do you say it’s the worst now since 1979?

Skip:     First off let me back up a bit and give some background information on the Straits of Hormuz. Now believe it or not, 35% of the world’s seaborne oil shipments need to travel through the Straights on a daily basis making them the biggest choke point in the world.

Dez:     Wow, pretty significant then.

Skip:     Think about it Dez. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE and Iran itself all need to use the Straits to ship their oil.

Dez:     I can see why it’s important but my questions are what is the fight about and why now?

Skip:     Fundamentally, it comes down to the US and Europe demanding that Iran stop developing nuclear technology. While Iran ardently claims their program is solely for peaceful purposes, the US is equally convinced that they are trying to develop the capability to build nuclear weapons.

Dez:     Wow, that is a bit rich considering the nuclear power industry was started under the Shah and was fully backed by the West. In fact it was the German company Siemens that was building the first power station.

Skip:     Impressive Dez. I didn’t even know that.

Dez:     And I bet you won’t know why the development was halted.

Skip:     No, I don’t. Why was it stopped?

Dez:     Well unbelievably it was the Iranians themselves that halted the building under the Ayatollah Khomeini as he considered it to be the work of the devil.

Skip:     Well that is certainly a bit of interesting background.

Dez:     It is, but getting back to today, from the West’s perspective, Iran with nuclear weapons would not be a positive step in the region. But back to my second question, why now? The US has had sanctions in place against Iran for years. Why is Iran pushing back so hard now?

Skip:     From Iran’s perspective there are 2 main issues motivating them to stand up to the US. Firstly, Iran has significant economic problems at the moment. The Iranian Rial has appreciated 80% against the US dollar over the past 12 months meaning there has been a depreciation in the value of their oil sales. And secondly widespread corruption in the Iranian government.

Dez:     I did read that several of President Ahmadinejad’s closest advisers will soon find themselves in court on corruption charges.

Skip:     Yes, they will be tried for the largest case of banking fraud in the countries history. Furthermore President Ahmadinejad is also involved in an all out political war with Iran’s religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei which is making the country even less stable.

Dez:     Doesn’t look too good.

Skip:     On top of all that is the effect that the sanctions are having on the country. The US, EU and United Nations have effectively cut Iran off from international banking which is essential as oil sales are in US dollars,

Dez:     Of course.

Skip:     Iran was removed from the Asian Clearing Union, or ACU, which covered the clearing and transfer of American dollars into Rials which means that it is increasingly difficult for Iran to get paid.

Dez:     That was part of the sanctions?

Skip:     It was and Iran now has to use more expensive means to transfer money mostly through Dubai or Turkish based intermediary banks. On top of that, Germany under pressure from Washington closed the Hamburg based, but Iranian owned, Europaish-Iranische Handelsbank.

Dez:     That seems a bit harsh.

Skip:     Well American intelligence agencies believe that through this bank the Iranians were funding arms deals, buying nuclear materials and subsidizing Hezbollah and Hamas.

Dez:     Maybe not so harsh then.

Skip:     The EU has stopped importing Iranian oil all together and now Japan has pledged to reduce their imports as much as they possibly can.

Dez:     That must be making it very difficult for the leadership in Tehran.

Skip:     That is the aim of course to destabilize the government and so lead to a regime change which of course the leadership in Tehran is resisting with every asset at their disposal, including the threat of closing the Straights.

Dez:     I see, so what do you think will happen next.

Skip:     It’s hard to say but it seems likely that the crisis will intensify. If Iran does attempt to close The Straits then Saudi Arabia will respond. The terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas both receive funding from Iran so they won’t stand by while their main sponsor is under attack. The US has a base in Bahrain so needs to transit through the the Straits.

Dez:     So whatever happens it is a fair bet that the price of oil will rise

Skip:     Unfortunately for the world economies that does seem likely but that was the gamble the US took when it increased the sanctions.

Dez:     Let’s hope that Iran backs down first.

Skip:     Or at least that cooler heads prevail on both sides.

Dez:     Thanks for that story Skip I certainly understand the issue better now.

Skip      My pleasure, but now it is time for us to get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     I will start things off with a very important word for understanding today’s story, the noun sanction. It is interesting to note that sanction has two opposite meanings. As we used it in today’s story, it means an official penalty. The US and Europe are penalizing Iran for developing nuclear technology. But the second definition of sanction is to give official permission.

Dez:     For example, The PGA, the Professional Golf Association in the US sanctioned a new type of golf ball last year that is designed so that it will always goes straight. They have given players official permission to use it in tournaments.

Skip:     Cool. Now I should point out that sanction is commonly used as both a noun and verb.

Dez:     Our next word is the noun peninsula which is a long usually thin piece of land that sticks out into the sea. In the story I talk about the northern most tip or peninsula that makes up the landmass of the UAE and Oman.

Skip      Another famous peninsula is Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the United States, which is a long curved peninsula and is popular in the summer for vacations. Next I have the idiomatic phrase to be on top of something which means to know about something or be in control of it. In the story Dez said that he wasn’t on top of the information surrounding this situation meaning he didn’t know about it.

Dez:     I do now of course. And did you ever get on top of the web designing software, Dreamweaver?

Skip:     I am slowly getting there.

Dez:     Now I have the noun Shah which is derived from the Persian word for King or ruler. In the story Skip was referring to the leader of Iran before it became an Islamic Republic in 1979.

Skip:     I don’t think I can think of another famous Shah.

Dez:     Me neither.

Skip:     Okay, for our next 2 words our regular listeners should be able to quickly recall them as they are a review of vocabulary from our D2B 46, Cybercrime.

Dez:     And to review vocabulary is always a good thing.

Skip:     So the first word is corruption. The noun corruption refers to the activity of profiting in an illegal or immoral way. We can also use the adjective to be corrupt and the verb to corrupt. In the story Dez talks about the corruption charges against several of President Ahmedinejad’s close advisors.

Dez:     In our last episode primarily on unemployment we talked about a BBC survey on what issues people worried about around the world.

Skip:     Yes, I remember that.

Dez:     Well corruption was still the biggest concern especially in the following countries; India, Turkey, Indonesia, Nigeria and Peru.

Skip:     Interesting.

Dez:     The second of those review words is the noun fraud which is the action of gaining money from another party through illegal means.

Skip:     So fraud is a more specific subset of corruption?

Dez:     That sounds about right. In the story Skip talked about the banking fraud that the Iranian government officials were being investigated over.

Skip:     For my further example I will use the adjective fraudulent. There are a lot of fraudulent practices on the Internet where people try to get access to personal details and bank account numbers.

Dez:     Following on I have a verb to destabilize which I will break down for you. The root is the adjective stable so the verb to stabilize would mean to make something more stable and then we add the prefix de and we end up with the opposite to make less stable or balanced. In the story Skip talks about how the aim of the US government is to make the political system in Iran less stable or to destabilize it.

Skip:     Another example would be how the banking crisis in 2007 and 2008 destabilized the world economies and caused markets to crash.

Dez:     The next word today is the noun regime which comes from the same sentence as destabilize. A regime means a government that is in power or a style or method of governing. In the story Skip talks about the regime or government that is in power in Iran at the moment.

Skip:     A further example of that would be the regime of Silvio Berlusconi in Italy which was often described as corrupt and not representing the needs of the people.

Dez:     Very true.

Skip:     Okay, our last word for today is the verb to intensify which means to make greater or to strengthen in some way. In the story I predict that the crisis will likely intensify or become worse over the next few weeks and months.

Dez:     I was watching a technology show the other day and they were saying that competition in the computer tablet market will likely intensify as Toshiba and Sony have some very promising new entries.

Skip:     The iPad will still rule though, that is my prediction.

Dez:     I would be inclined to agree with you.

Skip:     Thank you. And that is about all the time we have for vocabulary today.

Skip:     We hope that you found today’s report interesting and that you will go to our website and download the audio script for the show. The website address is downtobusinessenglish.com, once again downtobusinessenglish.com. And while you are there please sign up for the newsletter.

Dez:     The Newsletter is a great addition to the podcast as it contains background information on stories covered as well as some additional stories that we just couldn’t fit into the podcasts.

Skip:     And by the way Dez Happy Golden Anniversary.

Dez:     What?! How can I have been married for 50 years. I’m still single and proud of it.

Skip:     Oh Dez. Don’t you know? This is the 50th episode of Down to Business English.

Dez:     I totally forgot. So it is. Too bad we couldn’t get together to celebrate.

Skip:     Maybe for the centennial episode. Thanks for listening everyone and I hope you stay safe over there Dez.

Dez:     I can hear those planes again I’m sure they are heading this way from Iran.

Skip:     Okay. Goodbye everyone.

Dez:     Bye everyone it was nice knowing you.

Skip:     Oh dear.

From America to Africa, unemployment rates around the globe continue to climb. Where is it a problem and who is suffering the most? The answers to these two questions and more on today's episode of Down to Business English.

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Dez:     Hello everyone this is Dez Morgan here coming to you from Abu Dhabi.

Skip:     And this is Skip Montreux reporting from Tokyo, Japan. And you are listening to an all new episode of Down to Business English.

Dez:     I’d like to wish all of our listeners a happy and prosperous 2012.

Skip:     Yes, Happy New Year to everyone and of course to you Dez.

Dez:     Thanks Skip and a happy new year to you too. Did you make any new year’s resolutions this year and then break them already?

Skip:     Funny you should ask. I did resolve to cut down on my smoking and I even managed to quit for a little while.

Dez:     Well done.

Skip:     Well I have been worried about my health for some time now. And on top of that, here in Japan cigarette prices have been on the rise, so there is a financial incentive as well to cut down or quit.

Dez:     Did you know that in a recent BBC survey, conducted in 23 different countries on what people worry about, rising inflation was the third most talked about topic.

Skip:     Really? What other topics were people worried about?

Dez:     Well the most talked about was corruption, then poverty, followed by unemployment and rising costs in joint third place. The interesting point though was that unemployment was the fastest growing worry with 18% of people saying they worried about it compared to only 3% when the survey started in 2009.

Skip:     With the world economies the way they are at the moment I can see why people are worried by unemployment.

Dez:     Being unemployed again is certainly something that worries me.

Skip:     You are not alone. And that is our topic for today, so let’s do it lets get D2B...Down to Business with Unemployment: Where is it a problem and who is suffering the most?

Skip:     So Dez let’s tackle the first of those questions. Where is unemployment seen as a particularly large problem?

Dez:     According to the survey, Spain came in the highest with 54% of respondents expressing concern about the employment market.

Skip:     Hardly a surprise I guess as Spain is pretty much at the heart of the European debt crisis with very high youth unemployment.

Dez:     Would you believe the figure of 40% for those under 25?

Skip:     I didn’t realize it was that bad but yes I can believe that figure.

Dez:     And other countries where unemployment was perceived as a problem were Ghana, Nigeria, Mexico and Turkey.

Skip:     Really, I would have expected unemployment to be an issue in Ghana and Nigeria but I am a little surprised by the inclusion of Turkey on that list.

Dez:     I was a bit too but unemployment spiked by almost a third in 2009 to just over 14% recovering a little in 2010 when it fell to just less than 12% which is still higher than any other year in the past 30.

Skip:     Dez, I know that you took a trip home to the UK over the holidays. How is the unemployment situation looking over there?

Dez:     Well it’s not good to be honest. The current rate is 8.3% and that is the manipulated figure published by the government. It’s anybodies guess what the real figure must be.

Skip:     10% plus would seem likely.

Dez:     Even the government admits that this figure is not getting any better and are predicting a figure of 8.8% in 2012.

Skip:     I guess that is part of the reason for the riots that took place last year across British cities.

Dez:     It certainly was a factor. The reported figure for youth unemployment is currently running at over 20% nationally which of course means that it’s far worse in economically depressed areas.

Skip:     Japan compares relatively well to those figures with an overall reported rate of just 4.9% and a youth rate of 10.9% as reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2010.

Dez:     Are those figures reliable?

Skip:     Like all governments, the Japanese try to under report unemployment but things have certainly gotten worse since the downturn in 2009 and the Tsunami of course.

Dez:     As I recall the Japanese labour market has always been less flexible than what we are accustomed to in the West.

Skip:     That is true, Japanese companies prefer to hire new employees as they graduate from university which means that any young person graduating into difficult economic times will find it increasingly difficult to find a full time position as time goes by.

Dez:     The situation in the UK is somewhat different. The online recruiter Totaljobs records the number of applicants for available positions and then analyses the figures by area and by sector.

Skip:     And what did they discover?

Dez:     Well, they report that the situation is the worst in Scotland where the number of applicants for each position has risen by 50% since 2010 and that technically unskilled sectors like retail, secretarial and service jobs had the greatest number of applicants with all scoring somewhere in the 40s.

Skip:     You mean 40 people applied for each job?

Dez:     Yes, that's right. And in London it was even worse with over 60 applicants for each secretarial post advertised.

Skip:     And what about for technical jobs?

Dez:     There is an increase in jobs in the engineering, aerospace and oil and gas industries but these require specialist technical skills which it seems not a lot of applicants currently have.

Skip:     Anyone starting university would probably be better advised to take a geology class rather than drama.

Dez:     That would seem to be the case. Before we close though there is one country where unemployment seems to be improving and that is.........?

Skip:     I know this one, the US. Unemployment fell to a 2½ year low last November according to the Department of Labour, and a few other indicators have trended up as well. Manufacturing activity rose at the end of 2011 as did consumer confidence suggesting the US economy will grow by 2 to 2½% this year.

Dez:     Should make for an interesting election year.

Skip:     It most certainly should. And now it is time for us to get D2V...Down to Vocabulary.

Dez:     I will start things off with the noun resolution and the connected verb to resolve. In the story I asked Skip if he had made any New Year’s resolutions which are bad habits that he has that he would like to change or resolve in some way.

Skip:     So to resolve some problem would be to correct or solve it. A further example would be when I have a computer problem at work I have to contact the IT Department to resolve it for me.

Dez:     That’s been happening a lot to me recently.

Skip:     Me too. Moving on I have a further noun incentive which means a reward or bonus given to someone when they complete an action successfully. In the story I talk about the money I will save or the financial incentive of giving up smoking.

Dez:     Another common example is in the car industry when a new model is released there are a lot of incentives to buy the last stock in the earlier model, like free insurance or some free upgrades.

Skip:     A similar thing happens with computers.

Dez:     Yeah, all technology really. Now next I have a verb for you, to spike which means when something increases rapidly. In the story I talk about how unemployment in Turkey went up rapidly or spiked in 2009.

Skip:     Sales of iPhones spiked last year when Apple introduced the 4s model.

Dez:     Sales of anything Apple spike when you go anywhere near one of their shops.

Skip:     That’s right. Just look what happened in China recently when Apple released the 4s.

Dez:     Yes, that was not pretty.

Skip:     Getting back to vocabulary I have the verb to manipulate which means to adapt or change some figures or events to make the outcome more favorable. In the story Dez talks about how governments manipulate unemployment figures so that they appear to be lower than they really are.

Dez:     You can manipulate people too. A skillful manager is able to manipulate staff into doing whatever it is that he or she wants them to do.

Skip:     Children are pretty good at that too. Now I have the noun recruiter and the connected verb to recruit. A recruiter is the person or company that is employed to find or recruit staff for another company that doesn’t want to do it directly.

Dez:     Also known more casually as a head hunter but a head hunter is usually for pretty senior positions whereas a recruiter refers to any type of employment. The largest recruiter in Japan is unsurprisingly called....?

Skip:     Manpower Japan.

Dez:     No Skip the other one.

Skip:     Oh, you mean Recruit?

Dez:     I do. My last word is the adjective aerospace which is used to describe the industry that designs and builds aeroplanes, missiles, spacecraft in fact anything that flies. In the story I say that the aerospace industry is one of the few that has increased employment opportunities.

Skip:     The aerospace industry is a big money maker in the US with companies like Boeing, Lockheed and McDonald Douglas to name just a few of the companies in this sector.

Dez:     Just a few indeed.

Skip:     And finally I have the noun geology and the associated person geologist. Geology is the study of the ground and the mineral resources that are contained there and a geologist is the person who studies it. In the story I said that young people would be advised to study something technical like geology if they want to get a good job.

Dez:     Did you know that with the mining and oil industries doing so well at the moment there is a world shortage of geologists?

Skip:     Coming from Canada yes, I did know that actually.

Dez:     And that rounds off the vocabulary for today.

Skip:     Thanks for all that information Dez.

Dez:     You are more than welcome Skip. I hope everyone listening found it interesting. Don’t forget to check out the audio script on the website at downtobusinessenglish.com. Once more, that’s downtobusinessenglish.com .

Skip:     Yes, the audio script is a great study tool. And while you are visiting the website, please consider signing up for the Down to Business English Newsletter. Our main objective here at D2B is to help you improve your Business English skills. Joining the Newsletter, will help us do that even more effectively.

Dez:     The Newsletter not only provides updates to some of the stories we cover here on D2B, but we also answer questions sent in by listeners regarding other vocabulary and phrases we don’t cover in the D2V section. It really is a great compliment to the podcast.

Skip:     I second that. Thanks for listening everyone. See you next time.

Dez:     Bye for now.

 

With all the economic bad news being reported out of Europe and the U.S. this year, it is easy to forget that some economies are actually doing quite well. In today’s episode of Down to Business English, Dez Morgan reports on economies that are bucking the trend and are doing quite well.

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Skip:     Hello everyone this is Skip Montreux reporting in from Tokyo.

Dez:     And this is Dez Morgan here reporting as usual from Abu Dhabi.

Skip:     You are listening to Down to Business English the show that helps you learn useful business words and phrases by looking at business news from around the world.

Dez:     Now to begin Skip, you might remember on the last show I talked about my trip to Beirut, Lebanon and said that the economy there seemed to be bucking the trend and was still growing.

Skip:     Yes I remember, and I commented that it would be a good topic for a future show.

Dez:     To use a popular expression, the future is now. We have really focused on all the bad news coming out of Europe recently and the poor health of the global economy in general, I thought it would be good to report on good news for once.

Skip:     And other than what you saw in Lebanon, is there good news to report on?

Dez:     I’m happy to say, yes there is.

Skip:     Great, so let’s do it. Let’s get D2B Down to Business with Lebanon and some other happy economies that are bucking the trend. Who are they and what are their secrets?

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Dez:     Let’s start off with Europe. Let me ask you this Skip, which countries have the fastest growing economies in the Eurozone?

Skip:     I’m not sure. I can only really think of Germany. I would include France but I know that there are questions surrounding the French government debt.

Dez:     I’m sorry, you are wrong on both counts. The fastest growing economy happens to be Estonia and the second fastest…this might surprise you, is Ireland.

Skip:     Ireland as in one of the ‘I’s of the PIIGS countries.

Dez:     The very same but let us start off with Estonia.

Skip:     Wait a second. Before we go any further, where exactly is Estonia?

Dez:     Oh Skip, how American of you. Estonia is on the Baltic Sea, to the east of Russia and just below Finland.

Skip:     Okay, that sort of helps, thanks. But hey I’m Canadian by the way.

Dez:     Now, similar to Ireland, Estonia had an overheating property market and a building boom that came crashing down in 2008. In response to this Estonia kept corporate taxes low to continue to encourage investment, and the government liberalised labour laws and cut spending.

Skip:     That all sounds good.

Dez:     Good enough for Estonia to grow it’s economy 8.5% in the first quarter of 2011.

Skip:     Wow and what industries are Estonia promoting to manage that sort of growth?

Dez:     Technology is the fastest growing sector. Back in June we did a story on Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype. Skype’s development office is situated just outside of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

Skip:     Of course. Skype was originally created by a Swede, a Dane and four Estonians so I guess that makes sense.

Dez:     But there are some clouds on the horizon for Estonia though. 70% of exports are to the EU which of course has many problems at the moment and Estonia has just been asked to contribute 2 billion Euros to the EU stability fund.

Skip:     2 Billion Euros! How do Estonians feel about that?

Dez:     Some Estonians are not so happy about giving a relatively large sum while others believe that they’ve received a lot of money from the EU in the past so it’s only fair that they step up to help other ailing EU economies.

Skip:     So that’s Estonia. How about Ireland?

Dez:     Just 4 years after being bailed out by the EU, Ireland’s economy is back in growth recording a 1.6% growth rate in the second quarter of 2011 compared to a growth rate in Germany of just 0.2%.

Skip:     And what is their secret?

Dez:     Irish exports have gone up which has helped make up for a depressed domestic demand in Ireland itself. Some analysts have noted that as the Irish economy had fallen so far over the past 4 years, a jump was to be expected but would not continue.

Skip:     As we are so fond of saying here on D2B, only time will tell.

Dez:     It always does. Moving east now to where this whole topic began, Lebanon grew at 7.5% in 2011, which was a very respectable figure even if it was a little slower than the 8.5% in 2010 and 9.3% in 2009.

Skip:     Is that right? None of the developed countries worldwide came anywhere close to that. What has been the secret behind that kind of growth?

Dez:     The main reason is the number of Lebanese that have emigrated from the country have formed a business network all over the world. These same emigrants have remitted money to family members back home to the tune of $8.2 billion dollars in 2009, making up ⅕ of the Lebanese economy.

Skip:     Interesting.

Dez:     The next reason is that Lebanon has a long history of trade in the middle east and so has a very competitive free market with minimal government intervention. Furthermore much like in Switzerland, bank secrecy in Lebanon is strictly enforced which makes Beirut a major banking capital for the region.

Skip:     Those all sound like great reasons.

Dez:     Wait I haven’t finished. Beirut is also a very popular tourist destination for residents in the region. In fact, prior to the troubles in the 80s, it was known as the Paris of the Middle East. All of which has led to a construction boom with a lot of Saudis and people from the other Arab countries buying second homes there.

Skip:     You mentioned the troubles of the 80s. Dez, when you were there on holidays, did you notice any signs of the damage remaining?

Dez:     Most of the city has been rebuilt, the old town has been completely refurbished but they have left one devastated tower block standing in the middle of the city as a symbol for peace.

Skip:     They did a similar thing in Hiroshima where the only building that was left standing after the Atomic bombing has been kept as a symbol of peace.

Dez:     It’s important that we don’t forget the terrible things that have happened in the past so that they never happen again.

Skip:     Very true.

Dez:     Well that certainly isn’t an exhaustive list as there are other countries such as Singapore bucking the trend but that’s about all we have time for today.

Skip:     It is good to hear that even with today’s bleak outlook there is at least some good economic news. Now it is time for us to get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     I will start off today with the verb to overheat. Literally this just means to make something too hot. You might ask; could you turn up the air conditioning up as I am overheating over here. However in the story Dez talks about how the property market in Estonia had overheated, which in this case means it had increased in value too much, too fast.

Dez:     A further example of economic overheating is a few years ago the Chinese economy was overheating or growing too quickly and the government took steps to slow it down which were successful at the time.

Skip:     But now I hear they are worried the economy is slowing down.

Dez:     I have heard the same thing. Next up I have another verb to liberalise which is spelt ‘ise’ in the UK and ‘ize’ in North America and means to make something easier and more open. In the story I say that labour laws were liberalised in Estonia which means they were made more simple and easier to understand.

Skip:     A lot of people think that the U.S. should liberalise its tax code as it is one of the most complicated in the world.

Dez:     Which is what Herman Cain, the Republican Presidential nominee candidate is promoting with his 9-9-9 tax plan.

Skip:     Moving on I have the expression clouds on the horizon which initially would have meant that bad weather was coming but is generally used idiomatically to mean the possibility that something bad might happen in the relatively near future.

Dez:     I think it was sailors that would have first used that expression.

Skip:     Sounds about right. In the story Dez said that there were clouds on the horizon for the Estonian economy indicating that Estonia might face a few problems in the future.

Dez:     With oil again around the $100 mark and 149 years of supply left in the ground I think it is fair to say that there aren’t too many clouds on the horizon for Abu Dhabi.

Skip:     Really? Only 149 years?

Dez:     That’s what they say. Next I have the verb to ail which literally means to be sick or ill in some way. In the story I talk about the ailing economies in the Eurozone that need money to be bailed out.

Skip:     I can see that the economy of Abu Dhabi is certainly not ailing but Dubai’s economy was a few years ago, I believe.

Dez:     It certainly had some problems in 2008 which we covered in an earlier show on September 16th. Now I have the verb to remit which is often used in its noun form remittance and means to send money to another person or place. In the story I say that Lebanese living overseas remit a lot of money home.

Skip:     A further example would be the payment website Paypal that enables people to remit money to other individuals to pay for goods and services online.

Dez:     Yeah, I use it all of the time.

Skip:     So do I. Moving on I would like to talk about the economic expression a free market. A free market is a market where prices of goods and services are driven by demand with little or no interference by the government. In the story Dez states that the free market in Lebanon is one of the reasons for its success.

Dez:     I believe Hong Kong has one of the freest markets in the world.

Skip:     Which is ironic as the ruling party in China is still, in some form, communist.

Dez:     It is rather. I would like to finish off with the verb to refurbish which means to renew or rebuild something old so that it’s returned to its original condition. In the story I talk about how the old town in Beirut has been rebuilt or refurbished.

Skip:     We are having our offices refurbished at the moment, it is a bit noisy but they will look great when they are finished.

Dez:     Sounds like business is good for you.

Skip:     Not really but corporate image is important. Well, that is about all we have for vocabulary today.

Skip:     Thanks so much for that report Dez. I hope our listeners found it as interesting as I did.

Dez:     You’re more than welcome. Everyone please remember that the free pdf audio script is available for download from our website at downtobusinessenglish.com. I’ll say that again that’s downtobusinessenglish.com.

Skip:     And while you are there please sign up for the newsletter. A new one is coming out soon where Dez will be discussing some more countries that are bucking the economic trend.

Dez:     Hope that you all enjoyed the show. Bye for Now

Skip:     Bye everyone.

The battle for top spot in the automotive industry is the focus of today’s show. Currently the title of No.1 automotive maker goes to Volkswagen; the German manufacturer. How did they get to the top? How long will they stay there? These questions and more in this episode of Down to Business English.

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Dez:     This is Dez Morgan here reporting in from Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
Skip:     And I am Skip Montreux coming to you from Tokyo, Japan.
Dez:     And you’re listening to the latest episode of Down to Business English.
Skip:     So Dez you are back in Abu Dhabi again after yet another of your holidays, so good of you to grace us with your company.
Dez:     This was only a 4 day trip and I did it all for our listeners.
Skip:     Oh sure you did, but anyway how was your trip to…Beirut, wasn’t it?
Dez:     That’s right and it was great. Beirut is a beautiful city and interestingly is one of the few places around the world that is bucking the trend and remains in a solid growth pattern.
Skip:     Countries around the world that are bucking the trend. That sounds like a story we should definitely do here on the show.
Dez:     I imagine all of our listeners need a bit of cheering up so that will certainly be something we will discuss in the near future.
Skip:     Returning to Beirut. Did it seem to be prospering?
Dez:     It certainly did. The restaurants and bars were all doing a roaring trade, new cars everywhere and all of the top name boutiques seemingly doing great business.
Skip:     New cars everywhere. Did you see many Volkswagens?
Dez:     Strange that you would ask but no, mostly Mercedes and American cars.
Skip:     That is surprising as VW has just overtaken Toyota in the top spot as the biggest car manufacturer in terms of units sold.
Dez:     Really?
Skip:     Yes indeed and that is our story for today so let’s do it, let’s get D2B with the auto industry; who is on top and why and how long can they expect to stay there?

Dez:     So Skip you’ve already let the cat out of the bag and told us who is on top are you now going to tell us why?
Skip:     I most certainly am. The main reason of course is that VW has been eating Toyota’s lunch for the past six months. Now remember, Toyota ended General Motors’ 77 year reign at the top way back in 2008 and had looked strong ever since. That was until Toyota was hit by the double whammy of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and now the flooding in Thailand.
Dez:     Flooding in Thailand. What does that have to do with Toyota?
Skip:  Well, you are forgetting how global the automakers are today. Toyota has factories in Japan, of course but also in the U.S., Thailand, Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Canada, Indonesia, Poland, South Africa….
Dez:     I think we get the idea.
Skip:     Turkey, Colombia, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Portugal, and more recently…
Dez:     Now you are just being really annoying.
Skip:     …no wait a minute, Argentina, Czech Republic, Mexico, Malaysia, Pakistan, Egypt, China, Vietnam, Venezuela, the Philippines, and Russia.
Dez:    Finished?
Skip:    Yes. I just wanted to show you just how global Toyota has become.
Dez:     Yes, and you certainly managed that.
Skip:     Anyway Toyota’s truck and diesel engine divisions are extensively based in Thailand so the flooding in that country has really hit Toyota’s overall production. The result being analysts expect VWs 2011 sales will climb by 13% and reach 8.1 million units, compared to an 8% increase for GM, at 7.55 million units and a 9% drop for Toyota into 3rd place with only 7.27 million units sold.
Dez:     So that explains Toyota’s drop in sales but why has VW done so well?
Skip:     Well VW is also a global manufacturer with facilities in ….
Dez:     If you’re going to list them all I am leaving.
Skip:     Okay sorry, but VW does indeed have factories in a lot of countries but the key markets for the German manufacturer in 2011 have been India and China.
Dez:     That links in with my India Part 3 story on luxury goods sales in the Indian markets.
Skip:     A good example of our interconnected world in action. Coming back to VW it is important to remember that Volkswagen also owns Bentley, Skoda, the Spanish car maker Seat and Audi. For the Indian market Volkswagen is marketing Skoda to the lower end, VW to the middle and Audi at the luxury end.
Dez:     Yes it’s easy to forget that like GM, Volkswagen has a wide range of makers that satisfy different ends of the market.
Skip:     With 2 factories in India sales are predicted to triple over the next 10 years. But India is small potatoes compared to the Chinese market.
Dez:      Go on.
Skip:     VW is the largest foreign car maker in China with overall sales growing 46% in 2010. That was led by a 64% growth in sales of the luxury Audi brand.
Dez:     So as people move up the wealth scale in China there is always another VW product waiting for them all the way to the super luxury Bentley models.
Skip:     It would seem so.
Dez:     Okay, shall we get to our next question. How long can VW expect its reign at the top to last?
Skip:     Not long I am afraid. Analysts believe that Toyota will be back at full production by the end of this year and will once again take the top spot.
Dez:    So that is that then?
Skip:     The long term fight might still be on. VW has invested a further 62.4 billion Euros in Chinese production so could once again overtake Toyota sometime in the future.
Dez:     Time will tell I guess.
Skip:    And now it’s time for us to get…D2V Down to Vocabulary.

Dez:    This time out we’ve concentrated on expressions or multi-word verbs, so I’ll get things started with the expression to buck the trend which simply means to go against or be opposite to the general trend or movement. In the story I said that the economy in Beirut, Lebanon appeared to be growing when the trend around the world is generally negative.
Skip:    A further example would be Ford bucking the trend to make smaller cars more affordable. Instead they are choosing to make them more fun to drive by including features such as the Ford sync system.
Dez:    I own a Ford but haven’t got one of those. What is a sync system?
Skip:     It is a system that allows you to sync your mobile devices to your car. Basically creating a completely voice activated driving experience with your music and other apps.
Dez:     Sounds cool.
Skip:     Next up I have the phrase to do a roaring trade which means when a company or shop is busy and selling a lot of products. In the story Dez said that the restaurants in Beirut were really busy, or doing a roaring trade.
Dez:    I imagine that the Mac shop does a roaring trade when they introduce a new iPhone or iPad?
Skip:    How would I know?
Dez:    Skip.
Skip:    All right yes they do, at least every time that I have been there they are.
Dez:     Thought so. My next phrase is to let the cat out of the bag, which means to tell something that had previously been a secret or was unknown. In the story I accused Skip of telling you too soon that VW was the number one car maker. I said that he had let the cat out of the bag.
Skip:    Another example would be the results of the Academy Awards for movies are very closely guarded so that no one accidentally lets the cat out of the bag.
Dez:    It would spoil the anticipation.
Skip:    It would. Next I have the expression to eat someone’s lunch which means to take over, or in this case to take market share from another company. In the story I said that VW has been eating Toyota’s lunch over the past 6 months or taking customers away from it as Toyota has been having a lot of problems.
Dez:     Referring back to our October 28th story on Boeing’s Dreamliner I read that the Dubai based airline, Emirates just placed an order for 50 planes so maybe Boeing will be eating Airbus’ lunch for the next few years.
Skip:    And a pretty rich lunch it is, no doubt.
Dez:    Indeed. My next phrase is a double whammy, which means to be hit by two bad events at the same time or shortly after each other. In the story Skip said that Toyota had been hit by the double whammy of the tsunami in Japan and floods in Thailand.
Skip:    I can tell you someone else who was hit by a double whammy.
Dez:     Who would that be?
Skip:    Me! I had to go to Nagoya as a teacher suddenly needed some time off and at the same time was preparing a big contract in the office at the same time. That was a week I hope never gets repeated.
Dez:    My sympathies. But moving on to a somewhat casual phrase small potatoes. When something is described as small potatoes it means that it’s minor or insignificant. In the story Skip said that VW’s sales in India are small potatoes or somewhat insignificant compared to the size of the company sales in China.
Skip:    Returning to another earlier story on RIM the maker of the Blackberry smart phone, Blackberry’s market share is small potatoes at 15% compared to Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone.
Dez:     How the mighty have fallen as we say.
Skip:     Yes that is true. To close vocabulary today I have the expression to reign at the top which can be broken down into reign which means to be in a position of power and at the top meaning in the lead. In the story Dez asks how long will VW reign at the top as the world’s No 1 car maker.
Dez:    Do you remember when Sony’s Walkman reigned at the top of personal music players?
Skip:    I do but of course we now mostly use iPhones and iPods.
Dez:    We do. And that about does it for vocabulary today.

Dez:    Thanks Skip good chatting with you
Skip:    You too Dez. Good to have you back from your travels.
Dez:    Everyone, please go online at the downtobusinessenglish.com website and download the audio script for today’s show.
Skip:     Great idea that’s downtobusinessenglish.com . One more time, that’s downtobusinessenglish.com . And while you are on the site be sure to check out the earlier shows mentioned today, if you haven’t listened to them yet. We also urge you to sign up for the Down to Business English Newsletter. Our next issue is coming out soon.
Dez:     Thanks for listening and see you all again soon.
Skip:    Yes thank you very much everyone. Bye for now.
Dez:     Bye.

Cybercrime & Identity theft are growing threats to corporations and individuals. Who are the victims of Cybercrime? How much is it costing those who are attacked? This and more on today’s episode of Down to Business English.

Download Audio script PDF

Skip:     This is Skip Montreux signing in from Tokyo Japan.

Dez:     And this is Dez Morgan coming to you from Abu Dhabi.

Skip:     And you are listening to Down to Business English.
Skip:     So Dez how is life treating you?

Dez:     No complaints. I have a short holiday coming up in November to Beirut which I am really looking forward to.

Skip:     Sounds really good, maybe you can let our listeners know how that goes.

Dez:     I will certainly do that even if it is not quite a business story.

Skip:     Dez, don’t forget to contact your bank and tell them where you will be traveling to. Last year when I traveled to Canada I forgot to do that and ended up having lots of trouble using my credit and debit cards.

Dez:    Yeah, I guess they do that for security reasons.

Skip:     Well yes, computer hacking and identity theft is a huge problem for banks and institutions around the world.

Dez:     Let me ask you a question. What have the XBox, the Sony Playstation and the International Monetary Fund, or IMF for short, got in common?

Skip:     Well 2 of them are gaming consoles but I can’t imagine what they have in common with the IMF.

Dez:     It is something to do with the Internet.

Skip:     Is it connected with Internet security?

Dez:     Well done. Microsoft the makers of the XBox had their website hacked recently and Sony and the IMF were hacked back at the beginning of the summer.

Skip:     I knew about the Sony and IMF stories but didn’t realize that Microsoft had also been a victim of online security breaches.

Dez:     No one is safe it seems. And that is the topic for our story today.The impact of cybercrime.

Skip:     Great. So lets do it. Let’s get D2B, Down to Business with cybercrime and identity theft. How much does it cost and who have been recent victims?

Dez:     Let’s kick off with the second of those questions. Who have been recent victims of cybercrime?

Skip:     In terms of commercial impact and having a direct effect on consumers and companies, the Sony Playstation Network debacle was very damaging. Listeners not familiar with online gaming might not realize that the Sony Playstation platform has an online component that allows gamers to play in a networked multiplayer environmen
Dez:     I knew about that but it was my understanding that the PSN, or Play Station Network is not particularly popular. Is it?

Skip:     It depends on how you look at it. Was it profitable? No. Did many people use it? Yes. Here is a little background. Sony launched the PS3 console and Play Station Network back in 2006 and by all reports, they got off to a shaky start.

Dez:     In other words they were not finding much success.

Skip:     That’s right. But just last year, in May, the Play Station consoles finally started to turn a profit and by December 2010, Sony was predicting that revenue from the Play Station online Network would increase to as much as ¥300 billion by 2015.

Dez:     So it was fairly popular.

Skip:     Yes, it was an important part of Sony’s marketing strategy and it was definitely gaining ground on its competitors.

Dez:     So what exactly happened?

Skip:     On April 26th this year, Sony announced that the databases which stored all of the user information for PSN accounts, had fallen victim to an online security breach.

Dez:     And how many users did that entail?

Skip:    Well, initially, they reported that the information of about 70 million users had been compromised. However, as the story unfolded, that number grew, and the final figure reported was well over 100 million effected users.

Dez:     Wow, almost half of the population of the United States. And specifically what type of information was stolen?

Skip:     Personal information such as people’s names, ages, dates of birth, but fortunately not credit card details.

Dez:     Not the credit card numbers? I thought the hackers had got people’s credit card information as well.

Skip:     According to Sony, the hackers did acquire files containing credit card numbers, but fortunately those files were encrypted.

Dez:     Encrypted? Can people really trust that their credit card numbers are safe?

Skip:    Good question. There have been a few reports of credit card numbers used for PSN accounts being involved in fraudulent purchases. However those incidents are relatively few, it is likely that they are only coincidences.

Dez:     Even without credit card numbers, just the user’s names, dates of birth and addresses are valuable. Hackers can use this information for identity theft, opening new credit card accounts or even taking out bank loans, leaving the victims responsible for the debt.

Skip:     And that is why many accused Sony of negligence. Many questions were asked as to why only the credit card information was encrypted while other personal information was left vulnerable.

Dez:     And what about the cost of this entire mess? What did it end up costing Sony?

Skip:     First of all, the entire Play Station Network was offline for over a month. And even though it was a free service, the first big hit Sony took was losing customers. Hard core gamers are not the type to go a month without playing their games and many took this event as a reason to switch to Sony’s competitors. Funnily enough many switched to Microsoft’s Xbox. which has now also been compromised.

Dez:     Did Sony offer any incentives for them to stay or any kind of compensation at all?

Skip:     They most certainly did. Compensation included offers of one year free identity theft protection insurance and a free 30 day enrollment in their premium online gaming network, PSN plus.

Dez:     And was it enough?

Skip:     It seems that it wasn’t. In August Sony cut the price of the Playstation by 17% to try and revive sales while at the same time Microsoft announced sales of the XBox 360 had soared to just under $70 million.

Dez:     Sony investors can’t have be too happy about that.

Skip:     Not at all, especially as the strong yen and March 11th earthquake was already making Sony’s financial forecast for the year look very bleak.

Dez:     A triple whammy for Sony.

Skip:     Yes. But as serious as the Sony incident was, the computers at the International Monetary Fund being hacked was far more serious. What can you tell us about that story Dez?

Dez:     On June 12th the FBI in Washington DC was called in to investigate a breach of security at the IMF’s main office. The scale of the breach still remains undisclosed but one expert stated that the intention of the attack was to establish a ‘digital insider presence’ for a nation.

Skip:     So this ‘digital insider presence’ would have been able to spy on all of the information that passed through the IMF computers and then leak it that back to the country controlling it?

Dez:     Exactly, and as you can imagine that information would include some very confidential facts and figures.

Skip:     And which country do you think would be most interested in spying on the IMF?

Dez:     Well, there is no short list of suspects. But according to senior intelligence officials, the objective was to gather intelligence rather than cause disruptions. And the intrusion was very sophisticated and well executed, which suggests that it’s coming from a sponsored state. In other words, it’s not likely to be a terrorist plot.

Skip:    And didn’t all of this happen when Dominic Strauss Kahn, the former head of the IMF was under investigation for sexual harassment?

Dez:     Apparently it started before when he was still the head of the IMF but only came to light in June of this year.

Skip:     I guess organizations like the IMF have to be constantly vigilant. But returning to our our first question; How much does cybercrime cost the world economy?

Dez:     As there are so many different types of cybercrime it’s very difficult to put a price on the impact to economies. One report on the costs to British banks and retailers put the figure at somewhere around 2.7 billion pounds in 2010.

Skip:     If that is just for Britain, the figure for identity theft around the world must be colossal.

Dez:     It must be. Another interesting fact from the report was how the costs and the length of time to resolve an issue differs from country to country.

Skip:    Can you give us some examples?

Dez:     Sure. In terms of cost to the victim, Brazil was the highest with an average amount of $1400, compared to $150 in the UK and $115 in India. Also in terms of how long it takes for the problem to be resolved, Brazil was the longest at 44 days with Sweden being the fastest with an average resolution time of just 9 days.

Skip:     So the message must be to take care of your credit card details, especially if you are shopping online in Brazil.

Dez:     I think the deeper message here is that cybercrime is a very serious issue facing economies around the world today, and as commerce and trade become more connected to server networks and the Internet, more attention is going to have to be paid to the issue.

Skip:     Well said Mr. Morgan.

Dez:     Thank you. And now it is time for us to move on and get D2V…Down to Vocabulary.

Skip:     Let’s start off today with a noun phrase that is very important to understanding today’s story. Security Breach. Everyone probably has a good understanding of the word security, but breach might be an unfamiliar term.

Dez:     So what do we mean by breach?

Skip:     A breach is a break down in a structure that allows something bad into the system, or let’s something good out.

Dez:     Yeah, I think I follow you.

Skip:     Think of the Titanic. When the Titanic hit that iceberg in the North Atlantic, the iceberg breached the hull or body of the ship. Through that breach, water was able to get inside the ship and she sunk very quickly.

Dez:     Wow, that is a very vivid mental image of a breach. So a security breach is….

Skip:     A security breach, like the hole in the Titanic, is a hole in a company’s security system. And that hole makes it easy for thieves to get in, as in today’s story.

Dez:     I see.

Skip:     Can you give another example of breach in action Dez?

Dez:     Yes, I could. When I was traveling through Greece last year, the airport I was at was shut down temporarily because of a security breach. Someone had entered the employees area without proper clearance and the authorities decided to shut the airport down until they could find him.

Skip:     How long did that take?

Dez:     Not very long. Maybe 30 minutes. I think it turned out to be a case of an employee forgetting to sign in properly.

Skip:     I guess that is life post 9.11

Dez:     Unfortunately yes. Moving on, my first word today is debacle. The noun debacle is a great way to describe something that is a complete failure. In the story Skip refers to the entire Play Station security breach incident as a debacle. It was a complete failure on Sony’s part.

Skip:     A good example in a business context might be; Even though the project team got through the planning stage smoothly, when they implemented their ideas in the market the entire campaign ended up being a complete debacle. The project leader might even lose his job over this.

Dez:     Well, I’m glad that is just an example sentence.

Skip:     Well I’m sure it’s true for someone somewhere. Next today let’s take a look at the verb to entail. This word is synonymous with the verb to involve. Dez, what does teaching in Abu Dhabi entail?

Dez:     Teaching here entails many of the same things teaching in Japan does. Preparing classes, teaching 16-20 classes a week, correcting papers. There is one thing about working in Japan that working here doesn’t entail though.

Skip:     Oh, and what’s that?

Dez:     It doesn’t entail a long, busy train ride every morning.

Skip:     I bet you do not miss that.

Dez:     Not at all. Can you give a business example using entail?

Skip:     Sure. Recently I saw a job posting at a competitor’s company. The position entails roughly the same duties as I have at my current job but has a 15% higher annual salary.

Dez:     Just an example?

Skip:     Unfortunately yes, it’s just an example. What’s our next word?

Dez:     The next word is the adjective compromised. Perhaps our listeners are familiar with the transitive verb to compromise which means to reach an agreement with another party where both parties give up a little of their original position.

Skip:     Sure. As in; The union compromised with management and agreed to start work a half hour earlier this summer so that the company could cut down on electrical costs. Originally the company had wanted them to start work an hour earlier.

Dez:     Good example. But as an adjective compromised has a different connotation. When you say that something is compromised, you are saying that it has been put in a weaker or perhaps dangerous position.

Skip:     In the story, I mentioned that the personal information of millions of Playstation users was compromised. In other words, their information had been put in a dangerous or threatening position. How about a business example Dez?

Dez:     Sure here is one of the verb. In order to lower the price of our products, the company is considering compromising on its customer service policies. In the past they were famous for great customer service but they may have to reduce those services in the future.

Skip:     Nice example. Next I have the adjective encrypted which can also be used as a verb-to encrypt. This means when some information has been protected so that only the intended audience is able to read it. In the story I said that Sony’s customer’s credit card details were encrypted so that even if the hackers had the data they would be unable to read it.

Dez:     I remember when I was a child my cousin and I used to write encrypted messages to each other using a code book so we felt like spies.

Skip:     How old were you? 17?

Dez:     Very funny. No, 8 or 9 actually. But let’s keep moving. Next I have the adjective fraudulent which is used to describe a practice that misrepresents a thing or situation in a dishonest way. In the story Skip talks about how some people’s credit cards have been used to make purchases that they didn’t know about so the hackers had used them to make fraudulent purchases.

Skip:     I remember there was a big scandal in the U.S. a few years back when a property developer was selling houses on land when in fact he didn’t actually own the land. It was a clear case of fraud.

Dez:     It wasn’t Donald Trump was it?

Skip:     No, he has been accused of many things but fraud is not one of them. Next I have the noun negligence which also has an adjective negligent. Negligence occurs when a person or company causes damage by making a mistake or hiding an incident. In the story I reported that some people think Sony could have taken more measures to avoid being hacked into. In other words there was negligence on Sony’s part. They were being  negligent.

Dez:     One of the most awful cases of negligence was when the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India allowed chemicals to pollute the ground water killing thousands of people.
Skip:     I remember that happening. What an awful event. It was in the early 80s, is that right?

Dez:     In 1984 to be precise. A classic case of corporate negligence. Next up I have the fixed expression facts and figures which is generally used to mean all of the further details of a case rather than exactly the facts and the numbers. In the story I talk about the important information that is held on the IMF computers and use the expression facts and figures to emphasize the details contained within the reports.

Skip:    Another example would be in a newspaper column that contains information as well as opinion. The part with the information often uses the headline facts and figures.

Dez:     I usually read that bit first to be honest.

Skip:     Really? I tend to read the opinion and then go back and read the facts & figures.

Dez:     To each his own I guess.

Skip:     I suppose. Now I have the multi-word verb to come to light. This expression means to now be able to be seen or to have been discovered. In the story Dez talks about how the attacks on the IMF computers happened a while ago but were only discovered or only came to light in June.

Dez:    An example that everyone has heard of is of course the Enron scandal. Enron had been using fraudulent practices for some years but the share price continued to rise. That was until, the information came to light and it then collapsed completely of course.

Skip:     Did you have any of those shares in your portfolio Dez?

Dez:     I am pleased to say that I didn’t. Finally, I have the noun phrase identity theft which broken down means to steal another persons identity. In the story it means when your details are stolen and another person pretends to be you and borrows money or makes purchases in your name.

Skip:    Didn’t that happen to you once Dez?

Dez:     Yes it did. I noticed that my credit card statement had lots of small purchases on it from all across the United States when I was actually sailing in the Caribbean. I informed my bank and my card was stopped for a time but I was reimbursed or paid back for the amount that I had lost.

Skip:     Well that was lucky.

Dez:     Yes, it certainly was.

Skip:     And that is D2V for today. We highly recommend listening to the story again and focusing on those key words and expressions.

Dez:     Thanks to all of you for listening to Down to Business English. We hope you enjoyed today’s topic.

Skip:     Remember that a free PDF audio script for today’s show, as well as all our past shows, are available on the D2B website. The address is downtobusinessenglish.com . One more time, downtobusinessenglish.com.

Dez:     And while you are there, be sure to sign up for the Down to Business English Newsletter. The Newsletter will have updates to the stories we cover here on the podcast as well as an interesting link or two related to the topic.

Skip:     And if you are a Facebook user, please drop by the Down to Business English Page, click the Like button and leave a comment on the show. It is always good to get feedback.

Dez:     And if Facebook is not your cup of tea you can email us at downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com that’s, downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com

Skip:     Okay Dez, you have yourself a great holiday in Beirut. Be sure to travel safe.

Dez:     Thanks Skip and bye everyone.

Skip:     Thanks again for listening everyone. See you next time.