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We like to think that when we deposit a dollar at the bank, it goes into a big vault and we can pull out that same dollar at any time. But that¿s not how the U.S. banking system works. Banks take that money and invest it to make money themselves, so cash gets spread around. This, naturally, leads to a big risk: What happens if those investments go sour? Well, you¿d be out of luck. You can¿t get your dollar back.
The Federal Reserve doesn¿t like that scenario, so it prohibits banks from putting all the cash it has on deposit on the line. In fact, the Fed forces banks to keep a portion of their assets at the Federal Reserve itself, to make sure that some of your assets won¿t get squandered if the bank¿s bets go south. These are called ¿reserves,¿ (hence, Federal Reserve. Got it? Good), and usually amount to 10% of the total cash kept in checking accounts.
These reserves are never exactly 10%, and banks like to keep a little extra in reserve ¿ not, as you might think, to make you more comfortable that they¿re in good financial shape, but rather so they can take that excess and lend it to other banks and make money off it. (They¿re banks, they can¿t help themselves.) The rate at which they make these loans is called the Federal Funds rate, which is set by the Federal Reserve¿s Federal Open Market Committee.
When you hear people chattering about how the Fed cut or hiked interest rates, this is what they¿re talking about: the interest rate banks can charge for lending money from their reserves. This begs the question: If these are essentially loans between banks, why is the Fed Funds rate so important for the rest of the economy?
Well, simply put, because loans make the financial world go round. Bank A lends Bank B $10,000 at a Fed Funds rate of 5%. Bank B then lends out $10,000 to a small business at 7%. The small business then takes that money and expands the business and hires new workers. Now someone is employed, Bank B has made interest off the loan, and Bank A is the richer for making it all happen. It¿s perhaps overly simplistic, but you get the idea. When you want the economy to thrive, you make lending cheaper.
Of course, sometimes you don¿t want the economy to thrive. In fact, you might want it to cool down, mostly to avoid money flooding the system and causing inflation. In that case, the Fed raises interest rates, making it difficult to lend or borrow.
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Sunday, August 03, 2008
Brightcove Accelerates Expansion in Japan
Comtex
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug 03, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Brightcove Inc., the leading global Internet video platform, today announced that it has appointed technology industry leader and entrepreneur Hisashige Hashimoto as general manager of Brightcove KK, Brightcove's Japan-based subsidiary. It was also announced that Web TV distribution giant, PRESENTCAST, has selected the Brightcove Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the exclusive online video portal in Japan for coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. gorin.jp is backed by all of Japan's commercial television broadcasters.
As general manager, Mr. Hashimoto will lead Brightcove's operations in Japan and drive overall customer acquisition efforts targeted at Japanese media companies and marketers. Mr. Hashimoto joins Brightcove after two years as president and chief executive officer of Paygent, a mobile auction escrow service he launched in 2006 and grew to 2,000 customers before leaving in 2008. Prior to Paygent, Mr. Hashimoto worked in three different senior management positions for Macromedia KK, helping lead the Education, Channel Marketing, and Platform Product Marketing divisions. Before Macromedia KK, Mr. Hashimoto spent 14 years with Mitsui & Co., Ltd.
"Since the establishment of Brightcove KK, we've seen tremendous interest in the Japanese market for our Internet video platform," said Jeremy Allaire, Brightcove chairman and chief executive officer. "With the addition of Mr. Hoshimoto as general manager and the signing of a highly prestigious first customer, Brightcove KK is poised for accelerated growth in Japan, contributing to our overall international expansion."
PRESENTCAST, a joint venture formed in 2006 by leading television broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan, will tap Brightcove as its Internet video platform for gorin.jp, the official website providing exclusive online video content in Japan from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. PRESENTCAST will program and distribute more than 200 advertising-supported video segments from the Games available online at gorin.jp from August 6 to September 23, 2008.
Financing officially closed for Brightcove's majority-owned subsidiary in Japan (Brightcove KK) on July 18. On that date the entity was formally established in Japan with investments of $4.9 million from Dentsu, Inc., J-Stream, Inc., transcosmos, Inc. (transcosmos), and Cyber Communications, Inc. (CCI).
About gorin.jp
Gorin.jp was established by 132 commercial broadcasters around Japan as the official online video distribution website of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. From August 8 to September 23, 2008, this site will present to the Japanese online audience popular events and high-profile athletes in action and free of charge. The site will allow users who missed their favorite events to catch up, and will also show clips from events not aired in Japan. In addition, the site will offer a constant view of actual Olympic coverage on TV. For more information, visit http://www.gorin.jp (Japanese content only).
About PRESENTCAST
PRESENTCAST INC. is a joint venture formed in April, 2006 by the leading broadcasters and advertising agencies in Japan. They include: Nippon Television Network Corporation., TOKYO BROADCASTING SYSTEM, INCORPORATED, Fuji Television Network, Inc., TV Asahi Corporation, TV TOKYO Corporation, DENTSU INC., Hakuhodo DY Media Partners Incorporated, ASATSU-DK INC. and Tokyu Agency Inc. PRESENTCAST INC. launched the TV DOGATCH service (http://dogatch.jp), in December 2006 to help navigate TV information and promote distribution of TV and TV related content via the Internet.
About Brightcove
Brightcove is the leading online video platform. Media companies, businesses and organizations worldwide use Brightcove to publish and distribute video that reaches more than 135 million unique viewers every month. Founded in 2004, Brightcove is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business with offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.brightcove.com
SOURCE Brightcove Inc.
http://www.brightcove.com
Copyright (C) 2008 PR Newswire. All rights reserved
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