McDonald's raises prices 'in poorer suburbs'

McDonald's plans to raise prices on its menu in Australia's poorer suburbs where consumers are more willing to pay more, according to reports.

The fast food restaurant chain has made the biggest changes to menu item prices based on socio-economic factors, News Limited newspaper reports.

What do you think about a fast food chain making low income suburbs pay more? Share your thoughts below.

"In general, the poorer suburbs will pay more," a McDonald's franchisee was quoted as saying.

McDonald's confirmed there was a new pricing strategy, saying the "refinement takes into consideration individual factors that relate to each store".

Under the cost changes, to be rolled out in several stages, Happy Meals will increase by 16 percent from $4.25 to $4.95 at stores across Australia.

Other prices increases will be up to 3.3 per cent, depending on the location of the restaurant.

A document obtained by News Limited said stores would "maximise the potential for a price rise".

Outlets marked for changes in NSW included Campbelltown, Fairfield and Gosford, while Queensland’s Logan Central, Ipswich City and Inala Plaza are also pegged for price hikes.

In Victoria, 52 of the McDonald's 214 stores would be targeted — mainly regional areas including Traralgon and Echuca.

McDonald's corporate communications manager Bronwyn Stubbs said the company worked out prices according to "established research techniques" but denied the changes would be forced upon franchise owners.

ninemsn 26 Feb 2009

Quite simple : Food for Cannon Fodder,

full of carcinogenic chemicals.

The nutritional value of the burger is similar to that of its packaging.

Woman finds $A1.76b in her bank account

A Swedish woman got the shock of her life when she found $US1.13 billion ($A1.76 billion) more than expected in her bank account, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Cornelia Johansson discovered the windfall on Monday, after she logged on to her internet bank to pay some bills, regional daily Goeteborgs-Posten said in its online edition.

"The balance was more than 10 billion kronor. It said the amount had been deposited as a correction for a credit card purchase," Johansson's boyfriend Daniel Hoeglund told the daily.

On Tuesday morning, the money was still credited to her account, but a few hours later it was gone, as mysteriously as it had arrived.

A press spokeswoman for Nordea bank, the largest bank in the Nordic region, later explained the mystery as "a technical mistake made by a company" *.

ninemsn 25 Feb 2009

* - technical mistake -

Another BLATANT lie propagated by the banks.

Banks trade on the overnight on the stock exchange in futures, bonds. commodities and currencies. This exercise brings in HIGH PROFITS for the banks.

What the banks traders do is 'shuffle' the money around from accounts to accounts.

This is usually done without the account holders knowledge.

This is a process WELL KNOWN within the banking industry.

The banking community DELIBERATELY keeps its financial dealings "TOP SECRET"

100,000 Irish march over economic crash

About 100,000 people filled the streets of the Irish capital on Saturday in protest at the government's handling of the country's economic crisis, police said.

The march through the heart of Dublin - organised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions - was meant as a warning shot to the government, which wants to cut public sector pay even as it pumps billions of euros into its troubled banks.

The government has argued that wage reductions are needed to keep Ireland's ballooning deficits under control and reassure international markets that Ireland isn't spiralling toward a default.

But the plan - which effectively docks 7 per cent from the pay cheques of 350,000 Irish workers - comes amid revelations of shady dealings and irresponsible lending at the banks now getting the taxpayers' help.

Anglo Irish Bank, which was nationalised last month after collapsing under the weight of its bad debts, said on Friday it expected to lose about 300 million euros ($A590 million) on loans made to favoured investors.

Anglo's former chairman, Sean FitzPatrick, was forced out last year after it emerged he secretly took out 87 million euros (about $A170 million) in personal loans from the bank.

Organisers originally planned the demonstration as a protest at the wage cutbacks, but later called on all Irish workers to turn out in a show of strength. Uniformed members of the Irish Fire Brigade rubbed shoulders with health workers and red flag-waving activists to vent their anger at the government - and the country's financial elite.

"Our generations yet unborn have been mortgaged in order to keep this banking system together," Congress of Trade Unions general secretary David Begg told cheering crowds at Dublin's Merrion Square.

"Your children and my children and our grandchildren will all have to try to deal with what has been laid upon their shoulders."

Sean Whelan, 45, said he was outraged by the bank bailout.

"You could practically say it's illegal what they are doing," said Whelan, an employee of Dublin's City Council. He said the salary reduction would leave him only a few euros a week to live on.

The trade unions are hoping the turnout will convince the government that organised labour is ready to strike if its demands are ignored.

The Congress, an umbrella group representing about 55 unions in Ireland and Northern Ireland, recently published a wish list which included, among other things, more support for the unemployed, a moratorium on home repossessions and the nationalisation of the country's banking sector.

The Irish government said on Saturday much of the plan was "entirely consistent" with its own agenda, before warning the measures it was taking to salvage the country's economy would necessarily have to be "difficult and, in some cases, painful".

Ireland once had one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe, but boom turned to bust last year as shock waves from the subprime lending crisis in the United States spread across the globe.

ninemsn 22 Feb 2009