And it may depend if you have a love in your life or not.

But then even if you do, the pressure’s on to keep her happy.

It was amazing that this Valentine’s Day, men continued to flock to florists for those traditional roses.

It’s the day that shows your love and affection to the person you love the most.

One couple that I know of were maybe a familiar couple to you.

The woman said to the man prior to Valentine’s Day that she doesn’t want anything this Valentine’s Day so the man didn’t buy her anything.

But the woman was on about it to him all day because she didn’t get anything; not even a single rose.

This is exactly why I got my beautiful partner something – even though she said she didn’t want anything either.

It’s like an intuition that you have to have when you’re with woman.

For the record, I got my fiance some earrings from Diva and a large bunch of roses mixed in with some white lillies to give it that classic look.

Every girl likes flowers – even though I think they are a waste of money.

They are highly effective on days such as Valentine’s Day.

And girls love it. Even though a lot of men think it’s complete commercialism.

Then of course, there’s the movie Valentines Day.

I saw this on the Friday prior to Valentines Day.

What an amazing movie it is full of young talented stars. Probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in the past year and I’m a guy.

Well it’s got Jessica Alba in it, what can I say?

A lot of that has to do with generation Y not buying newspapers and simply looking up their news online.

Fairfax and News Limited this year will limit its news being put online so that it will be available for subscription based readers only.

Mr Bernard Salt, a KMPG demographer, told The Age that the fall in spending on newspapers and books – down 11.9 per cent in real terms in 2009 – is worrying for these industries. ”Gen Y is simply not buying newspapers. If they want to look at something, they look at it on the net.”

He says e-books and tablet computers will lead this online transition. ”We are about a year off open warfare between new technology and old,” he says.

He predicts that in two to three years’ time this transition will reach a tipping point, ”then everyone will have to have a Kindle or an iPad”.

The new technology with iPhones and the new iPad makes it tougher for these newspapers to survive.

Already advertising is at an all time low and that has meant that newspapers are now on limited staff after many redundancies due to the economic crisis last year.

More and more people are now turning online – so what is the future of our newspapers? Will there always be newspapers around or will technology actually kill it?

I believe there has to be newspapers around for archive and historical reasons. It’s a print publication. You can cut it out and keep it.

Surely that’s a big enough sign to suggest newspapers can still remain viable.

Yet it ended in disaster like a horror movie.

But for the Victorian public, that rollercoaster has turned into a macabre spectacle.

It was a search for a fallen millionaire. First he was spotted alive creating hope for the family and beyond.

Then he was pronounced dead within days.

It’s been nearly eight years since a story like this has gripped Melbourne, and it eerily played out in the same coveted area of Malvern and surrounds.

In April 2002, wealthy Victorian socialite, Margaret Wales-King, and her husband, Paul King, went to a family dinner at her son’s home — close to the Rockefeller family home — and then vanished.

It’s a gripping story that had the media chasing every angle for the past six weeks.

It has created headlines overseas even – but Victoria is a state that loves its gossip.

The Rockefeller story fed them even more. This time it was bad news at the end of it all.

With the effects of the Global Financial Crisis beginning to show, the Lehman Brothers firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year following the massive exodus of most of its clients, drastic losses in its stock, and devaluation of its assets by credit rating agencies.

The bankruptcy was the largest in US history and caused a rippling effect in the country’s economy and is believed to have been a major factor contributing to the current recession.

Obama used the speech, made to 150 Wall Street executives, to push forward his new financial proposal that would give the Federal Reserve new powers to monitor big financial firms. A new consumer protection agency would also be created.

But despite the recent slight signs of recovery form the economic crash caused by the Lehman Brothers, President Obama said Americans had to learn from last years mistake and that reckless financial behaviour would not be tolerated.

“Normalcy cannot lead to complacency,” Obama said.

“Unfortunately, there are some in the financial industry who are misreading this moment. Instead of learning the lessons of Lehman and the crisis from which we’re still recovering, they’re choosing to ignore those lessons.”

“Hear my words: We will not go back to the days of reckless behaviour and unchecked excess at the heart of this crisis, where too many were motivated only by the appetite for quick kills and bloated bonuses.”

While many economic experts believe the worst of the recession has passed, America, and the majority of the world is still in economic trouble and economic supervision by governments seems to be the right step in overcoming the problems.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQn1n0qWOtA

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?

Do you agree with what was said in Obama’s Speech?

How much longer will it be before we overcome the Global Financial Crisis?

General Motors is one of the most significant companies in automotive history, having celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2008.

The industrial giant has recorded four years of financial losses, resulting in a total loss of $88 billion dollars.

General Motors filed for bankruptcy on June 1, 2009, making it the fourth-largest company in terms of assets to ever do so.

The company has negotiated a deal with the US government and now has 60 to 90 days to clear its huge debts and reposition itself.

The terms of the deal stipulate that the US government will inject $30 billion into General Motors in return for a 60 per cent stake in the company.

In the washup about 21,000 union workers will lose their jobs, at least nine motor plants will shut and three others will be put on hold.

THE VIEWS

US President Barrack Obama:

“The deal that has been worked out is tough; it is also fair. It will require the United Auto Workers to make further cuts in compensation and retiree health care benefits – painful sacrifices on top of all that they’ve already done. It will require GM’s shareholders to give up the remaining value of their shares, just as they would have had to do in any private restructuring of this kind. And it will also provide unsecured bond holders with an equitable outcome.”

Economist Robert Gottliebsen, writing for Businessspectator.com.au:

“Had General Motors and Chrysler been allowed to go to the wall some three million US jobs would have been lost – the industrial equivalent of the Lehman failure.

The General Motors ‘rescue’ via bankruptcy has been conducted with remarkable surgical precision and out of it will emerge a very strong General Motors without its legacy issues. Significantly it will be able to make money on far lower volumes.”

BREAKING IT DOWN

A) In order to succeed GM will have to steer clear of the gas-guzzling large cars it is renowned for.

Fuel efficiency needs to be at the top of the priority list for GM when it resumes business.

B) The company needs to find a way to significantly boost sales, or else bankruptcy is only going to reoccur.

Sales have been falling for the past few years. Companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler need to market new, attractive, environmentally sound and economical options to consumers.

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?

Are companies that produce large cars doomed to fail because of changing environmental expectations?

GM employs thousands of people. Was it the right move for the US government to step in and bail the company out?

The bankruptcy declaration will allow GM to start anew and not pay the money it owes to its debtors. Is that fair?

Will automotive manufacturers continue to struggle as the global financial crisis continues?

The Global Financial Crisis (GFC) is an ongoing economic problem that began with the collapse of the US housing market in July 2007 and extended to financial markets.

A loss of investor confidence in the value of secured mortgages in the US created a liquidity crisis. The US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank responded by injecting capital into failing institutions in order to prop the system up and prevent further damage.

The crisis has been a driving factor in the subsequent worldwide economic downturn and recession experienced by many countries.

A byproduct of the response to the crisis is increased public debt in several countries, as governments have had to provide huge sums to prop up struggling industries.

In addition, some currencies have experienced serious devaluation. Particularly hard hit have been currencies in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

THE VIEWS

John Micklethwait, editor of the UK-based magazine The Economist:

“For all the costs of a rescue, the cost of failure to the economy would sometimes be higher. As finance shrinks, credit will be sucked out of the economy and without credit, people cannot buy houses, run businesses or as easily invest in the future.”

Martin Wolf of the Financial Times:

“Is the current crisis a watershed, with market-led globalisation, financial capitalism and western domination on the one side and protectionism, regulation and Asian predominance on the other? Or will historians judge it, instead, as an event caused by fools, signifying little? My own guess is that it will end up in between. It is neither a Great Depression, because the policy response has been so determined, nor capitalism’s 1989.”

And:

“Unfortunately, there are at least three big things we cannot know. How far will exceptional levels of indebtedness and falling net worth generate a sustained increase in the desired household savings of erstwhile high-spending consumers? How long can current fiscal deficits continue before markets demand higher compensation for risk? Can central banks engineer a non-inflationary exit from unconventional policies?”

BREAKING IT DOWN

A) The global economic crisis was primarily brought about by irresponsible financial institutions, which rose to prominence during a period of unbridled capitalism.

In order to ensure a repeat situation does not arise in the future, many countries – in particular the USA – need to seriously tighten their regulatory frameworks.

B) Greed was a key cause of the global financial crisis, but the biggest problem was that those who took the risks did not suffer the consequences when things went wrong.

Instead, it was homeowners and everyday people who suffered the most at the hands of the irresponsible and greedy activities of financial heavyweights. Because of a lack of stringent regulation, institutions were able to constantly forward on debt.

WHAT’S YOUR OPINION?

The GFC represents a series of mostly unprecedented, catastrophic financial events. What can be done to prevent them from recurring in the future?

Even countries that were greatly removed from the hubs of the crisis – the USA and the UK – were significantly affected by it. Do we need to introduce measures to insulate economies?

The US and UK governments bailed out massive companies that were at the coalface of the crisis. Was this a wise move?

Does an international body need to be setup to watch over the biggest international financial institutions?