Volvo Cars, the Swedish automaker acquired by Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., plans to invest as much as $11 billion worldwide over the next five years to tap rising demand in markets including China.

Premium marques including Volvo, Audi AG and Daimler AG are expanding in China, the world’s biggest automobile market and second largest economy, as rising incomes and economic growth boost spending. The Swedish brand, whose chief executive presented its China strategy this afternoon in Beijing alongside Geely Chairman Li Shufu, is counting on increasing Chinese demand to help double sales to 800.000 vehicles in 10 years.

Volvo, which Ford Motor Co. sold to Zhejiang Geely in August for $1.5 billion, aims to sell 200.000 cars in China by 2015, up from 30.522 in 2010, Jacoby said today. The carmaker is working to increase sales to the central and local governments in China, Jacoby said.

Shanghai will serve as Volvo’s China headquarters and center for product development, design and sourcing. Volvo’s main rivals boosted their China sales last year. Volkswagen AG’s Audi sold 227.938 cars in China, up 43% from 2009. Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz more than doubled sales to 148.400, while Bayerische Motoren Werke AG sold 168.998 units, an 87% gain.

Sina Weibo took advantage of a social media vacuum to become the top micro blogging service in China

Ye Fangzhao, a 25 year old freelance brochure editor for auto compaies, abandoned Twitter a year ago to start using Sina Weibo, China’s homegrown equivalent. Sina Weibo has become China’s leading site for micro bloggin, The Twitter inspired phenomenon focused on extremely short messages. The ensuing social media vacuum left an opening for Sina Weibo, which appeared in August of that year. Weibo is a division of Sina Corp (SINA), which operates China’s third most visited website. Weibo mimics the format of Silicon Valley’s micro blogging pioneer. Weibo users follow and comment on updates from other members and can post photos and videos.

Celebrities are a big part of Weibo’s appeal. ( “Weibo” means “micro blog” but sounds like Mandarin for scarf.) Like other Internet services in hina, Weibo deletes or limits sensitive posts as required by the government. Although the search term for Egypt was restricted, many Weibo posts mentioned the protests, and at least one acount offered a live webcast from Tahrir Square. Weibo users generally have the freedom to speculate ablut stories censored by the mainstream media.

A two year tax cut extension? You can get a 0% tax rate on many kinds of income. It’s pretty hard to avoid paying taxes on your paycheck.

Remodel. Sweat equity is tax free, if you know what you’re doing. Your company will save on payroll taxes, too.

Eearn Airline Mile. Hustle Rebates. Pay Off Credit Cards. To top it off, this 18% dividend is totally tax free.

Rent Your House Out. If you rent out a house for 14 or fewer days, the income is scot free.

House Sit. The $20.000 you save on rent is like getting a $20.000 raise, except that it’s tax free. It gives you a tax free 2% rabate. While the IRS can assess taxes on people in barter exchanges that involve account books and transactions with strangers, there’s no way to levy a tax on helping out a friend.

If you houl in $490, that sum becomes, in effect, tax free income for your day of labor. This devidend is tax free. You have a tax free dividend even if you pay cash for the home. In combination with a high deductible health insurance policy for your family, you set up a health savings account and put $6.150 a year ($7.150 if you’re over 55) of tax deductible money into it. Then let the $6.150 compound tax free until you are retired.

Hire The Kids. If the pay is reasonable for what they do, you can deduct the payroll, lowering your high bracket net income. On the receiving end a child laborer owes no federal income tax on earned income below the $5.700 standard deduction.

If the kid also has investment income, the exact value of the freebie gets more complicated. But, in round numbers $5.000 of summer job income is going to be free of income tax.

Get Paid In Lodging. If part of your compensation is a free apartment, and if your presence on the premises has abusiness purpose, then you don’t owe tax the benefit. Clergy members get a better deal : Their housing allowance is tax free even if paid in cash.

U.S consumer borrowing rose in December for a third consecutive month, led by the first increase in credit card charges in more than two years as holiday sales improved. Far all of 2010 credit contracted.

Shares Climb.  Stock rose, bolstered by takeover announcements. non revolving debt, including loans for cars and mobile homes, rose $3.78 billion for the month, the fifth consecutive increase. Credit availability following the recession is improving faster for companies than for households, the Fed’s quarterly survey of senior loan officers released Jan 31 showed. The Fed survey showed the outlook for business loans improving the most, with 80 percent of bank expencting improvement for lage and medium businesses and 70 percent expecting gains for small businesses. Banks also expect better quality cunsumer loans in 2011, with 57 percent predicting an improvement in credit card loans. For other types of counsumer loans, 47 banks expect improvement.

MasterCard Inc, the world’s secon biggest bank card network, reported on Feb 3 that fouth quarter profit increased 41 percent on the surge consumer spending as well as a global migration to electronic payment.

Sales Climbing. Comparable store sales at the more than 30 chains tracked by Retail Metrics Inc, rose 4.4 percent in January from a year earlier, surpassing the predicted 2.6 percent increase. Gap, based in San Franscisco, said same store sales rose 1 percent, compared with the 3 percent drop projected from analysts’ estimates compiled by Retail Metrics. GM sales in the month rose 22 percent from the same time last year, topping four analysts’ everage estimate for a 9.2 percent increase.