Looking for cheap flights to Europe? Carriers like Germany’s Condor Airlines are launching discount international flights at smaller U.S. airports. Low-cost European carriers are bringing back low fares to European trips. Fares on big-city routes have been particularly high, as big airlines have refrained from adding flights to meet increasing demand. The alternative flights, meanwhile, come at a golden time for travel to Europe; with the value of the euro low, U.S. travelers there enjoy prices much lower than in previous years.
Television – the land of fewer viewers watching more commercials. CMO Today reports that TV networks are packing more commercials into half-hour and hour-long shows, making it even more difficult for advertisers to stand out, according to a new report from AOL. The study found that commercial breaks for 30-minute shows grew from seven minutes and seven seconds in 2011, to seven minutes and 30 seconds last year. Plus, networks are cramming in more 15-second ads than before, meaning that viewers are bombarded with more brand names. The study shows a worrying trend for TV executives and illustrates part of the reason many advertisers have decided to shift dollars away from traditional linear television.
Beijing signaled with its currency devaluation that the domestic economic slowdown it has failed to reverse is no longer a problem confined within China’s borders. It is now the world’s problem, too. Chinese officials have cut interest rates four times in the past 12 months, increased the amount of money banks can lend out and pumped funds into the stock market-measures meant to boost domestic demand in the world’s second-largest economy. By devaluing the yuan, Chinese authorities are turning to a controversial growth-boosting tactic whose effects by their nature reverberate far and wide. A cheaper yuan could help boost Chinese exports. It also might complicate the Federal Reserve’s decision about when to start raising U.S. interest rates.
Much more is highlighted in A Look Around the Nation and the World.
