In hard economy, it's brutal for the older; Glum forecast for Jap tech giants; Rutted road ahead for Rahul Gandhi; Facebook turns nine

1 In hard economy, it’s brutal for the older (Katherine Rampell in The New York Times) In the current listless economy, every generation has a claim to having been most injured. But the Labor Department’s latest jobs snapshot and other recent data reports present a strong case for crowning baby boomers as the greatest victims of the recession and its grim aftermath.

These Americans in their 50s and early 60s — those near retirement age who do not yet have access to Medicare and Social Security — have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their household incomes 10% below what they made when the recovery began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis company. Their retirement savings and home values fell sharply at the worst possible time: just before they needed to cash out. They are supporting both aged parents and unemployed young-adult children, earning them the inauspicious nickname “Generation Squeeze.”

New research suggests that they may die sooner, because their health, income security and mental well-being were battered by recession at a crucial time in their lives. The job market has been especially unkind to older workers. Unemployment rates for Americans nearing retirement are far lower than those for young people, who are recently out of school, with fewer skills and a shorter work history. But once out of a job, older workers have a much harder time finding another one. 

2 Glum forecasts for Jap tech giants (BBC) Japanese electronic giants Sharp and Panasonic both stuck to their dismal forecasts for massive full-year losses, even as results for the latest quarter were boosted by the weak yen. Panasonic reported a $666m net profit for the October-December period, compared with a 197.6bn yen loss a year ago. Sharp’s net loss shrank to 36.7bn yen, from 173.6bn yen a year earlier. Sharp expects a 450bn-yen annual loss; Panasonic a 765bn-yen full-year loss.

Sharp has announced thousands of job cuts as it seeks to turn around the business, and the company insisted that the corporate overhaul would save it from going under. It said its troubles "will not cast a material uncertainty about Sharp's ability to continue as a going concern". Panasonic, meanwhile, has been hit by strong competition from rivals, including US manufacturer Apple and South Korea's Samsung. Sales in the last quarter fell 8% on the year to 1.8 trillion yen.

3 Rutted road ahead for Rahul Gandhi (Nilofar Suhrawardy in Khaleej Times) India’s regional parties have succeeded in decreasing chances of national parties heading a single party government at the centre. Thus, the prospects of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi forming a government without having to fall back on support from allies may be viewed as non-existent in near future. It may be recalled, during their previous electoral campaigns, both his mother Sonia Gandhi and Rahul have given impression of banking largely on only Congress and not on reaching strategic agreements with regional allies.

Equally noteworthy is the fact that Congress has not succeeded in enhancing the importance of its regional leaders. However hard Sonia and Rahul try, it is practically impossible for them to campaign actively in all parliamentary constituencies by frequently visiting them and addressing rallies there repeatedly. Even if they address a different constituency every day, they will not be able to frequently visit each of the 500-plus parliamentary constituencies in a year’s time.

While Sonia may assure everyone that Rahul has gained a firm foothold in the Congress and the latter has every right to promote Rahul Gandhi on a national level. Yet, his popular appeal may remain confined to overpowering photos on hoardings and larger-than-life posters, till supporters in regional localities are also mobilised to promote his party’s agenda. Rahul’s rise as a national leader won’t be possible till the party sweeps the 2014 elections, and ensures support of its allies. Sonia and Rahul need to plan their electoral strategy if the latter has to lead national politics in the future.

4 Facebook is nine (The Times of India) Social networking website Facebook has turned nine-year-old. Facebook was started on February 4, 2004 in a dorm of Harvard University by Mark Zuckerburg with the help of his four friends Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum and Chris Hughes. The world's biggest social media site called thefacebook.com in its initial days, and was later renamed to just Facebook.

Facebook, which began as Zuckerberg's hobby projects, was initially a college network. Facebook's expansion to other colleges and universities started in March 2004. Within months, the social network became a huge success. In October 2007, software giant Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240 million. Search gaint Google too is said to have offered partnership deal to Facebook. The deal was, however, rejected by Facebook. The latter went public in May 2012 and was valued at over $100 billion after IPO.

Recently, Facebook co-founder and CEO Zuckerburg announced a new feature called Graph Search, a tool that utilises social data to help compile results for users. The company also rolled out features like Facebook Cards and voice calling on iPhone in North America to attract users. Users are steadily becoming more active on the mobile edition of the website than the desktop version.

Despite tremendous growth, Facebook has been mired in controversies over privacy concerns, underage members, hacking attacks etc. Zuckerburg has been dragged into lawsuits over stealing the idea for Facebook from his seniors at Harvard - Cameron Winklewoss, Tyler Winklewoss and Divya Narendra. Co-founder Eduardo Saverin also filed a lawsuit against Zuckerburg for pushing him out of the company. Both the cases were settled out of court.